Jan 31 2012
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Journalism

Introducing a new version of The Musical Chairs

Firstly, a little bit of background. Before I became a contributor to a lot of music webzines/magazines I was a journalism student and, in that time, I set up my own music blog, which was called The Musical Chairs. It was always intended to be a platform to showcase my writing and it also gave me some nifty perks – I went to the Great Escape festival in Brighton for three years through it.

But now I don’t need to use it for that. I write for music webzines like MusicOMH and For Folk’s Sake and publications like Artrocker and Clash. Over the last year Musical Chairs has been struggling to find a new sense of purpose.

Then last year the idea of a new angle for the site was floated about by me in my own head. I then got this idea out of my head and talked it over with a few people. This was in September. It’s now January and I’ve only just put it into action. Why? I do not know.

There isn’t really a website that exists to showcase what is happening in Guildford with regards to music. This is also the time where such a website would be useful. G Live opened last September, the Boileroom is getting more and more popular, artists of national recognition like Slow Club and Summer Camp are actually seeing the town as a place to go on their tour itinerary. In short, we’re going through a good period.

So in terms of what The Musical Chairs would be it is now this: a source of news about the Guildford music scene, showing a spotlight on local bands who are quite good and other things besides. It’s not a finished product but it is something that I hope to spend some time on throughout the year. It’s also re-kindled my love for WordPress, which was much needed.

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Jan 30 2012
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Journalism

MusicOMH: The Dø at Bush Hall

The first thing you notice about the stage setup for Finnish/French duo The Dø’s show at Bush Hall is just how much stuff there is. A megaphone, saxophones, bells… it’s quite an achievement that they’ve got enough room to move about. Even the set of cymbals and percussion instruments placed towards the back curtain resemble something you’d find at a branch of Lakeland. But that is what’s needed if they want to do a good job of replicating all the different sounds and dynamics of their recorded output, including last year’s enjoyable sophomore effort, Both Ways Open Jaws.

Read the rest of this at MusicOMH.

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Jan 25 2012
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News, Media & Sport

Julian Assange to host his own talk show

The tale of Julian Assange, which will undoubtedly be made into an Oscar-nomiated movie at some point in the next decade, continues to take another intriguing twist. It was announced this week (24th January) that the founder of Wikileaks will host a talk show on an English-language television channel controlled by the Kremlin, Russia Today.

The programme, rather grandiosely titled The World Tomorrow, will start in mid-March and feature half-an-hour long interviews with ten “key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries” according to the Russian broadcaster. A separate statement from Wikileaks says “the show is intended to draw together controversial voices from across the political spectrum – iconoclasts, visionaries and power insiders – each to offer a window on the world tomorrow.” A replacement for Oprah Winfrey, this clearly ain’t. Both organisations seem as if they’re hoping for headline-grabbing conversations.

Anything that Assange does is steeped in controversy and he’s still facing battles of his own. In 2010 his website was condemned by US authorities for releasing classified information and shortly afterwards he was arrested of sexual assault allegations in Sweden. He is currently appealing against extradition to the Scandinavian country and the UK Supreme Court will consider his appeal next month. It’s been revealed that The World Tomorrow will be filmed a week before this hearing.

The success of this is entirely dependant on who are the interviewees. Is it going to be people we’ve not heard of or well-known figures? Or a mixture of the two? No one really knows yet but if he gets the right people it could be quite fascinating. It also depends on Assange’s own skills as an interviewer and that could be a downfall since Assange isn’t necessarily someone who has bags of charisma.

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Jan 23 2012
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Life

Tax return

I now have to do one and last Friday I did one. Because of the nature of my current work situation it’s been fairly easy to calculate how much I owe in tax for a while but I still hate doing it. Why do I hate doing it? Because the form that HMRC set up is full of questions that require me to do a double-take.

For example, I know that I am really a self-employed worker. I do my own invoices and such so there’s no other bracket I could fall under. Despite the fact that deep down inside I know all this to be true, the wording of the questions regarding this fact had me doubting my own mind because they were so hard to understand. It should be pointed out that I am not someone who is an expert on financial matters and I don’t keep up with financial news that much. I imagine someone who was the polar opposite of me might have a better understanding of the questions.

This got me thinking…how many others out there are in my position? How many other people who recently graduated from university and went down the freelance road are having to do this for the first time? If you are one of those people please leave a comment about how you found the whole experience and whether or not you found it daunting or otherwise.

I guess what I’m asking is this: am I really that thick?

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Jan 20 2012
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News, Media & Sport

This war between government and online anarchists must stop

As I mentioned in my last blog post (I’ve got to stop beginning posts like this, it’s just getting annoying now) the hacking collective Anonymous went after a series of major websites last night. This has happened because US authorities have chosen to close down Megaupload in order to clamp down on piracy.

The scale of the arrest is quite huge: each person arrested have been charged with five counts of copyright infringement and conspiracy. This includes the founders who were arrested by local police in Auckland, New Zealand. The maximum jail sentence for copyright infringement? Five years. The maximum jail sentence for conspiracy to commit racketeering and money laundering? Twenty years. This is also all rather timely following the SOPA/PIPA outrage and goes to show that perhaps SOPA/PIPA isn’t needed to go after people who are hosting copyrighted material.

The one major problem of this whole battle between the authorities and online anarchists is that it weakens the prospect of proper dialogue between people who have the power to make laws and citizens. If you thought that the idea of a compromise was a stretch before all this kicked off then it seems like a near-impossibility at this moment in time. The longer that this ‘war’goes on the less likely we are to make major process on an issue that has polarised politicians, the entertainment industry and internet users for at least a decade.

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