"Way Back Home" - street trials riding short film featuring Danny MacAskill
Labels: bicycle, Danny MacAskill, landscapes, Scotland, trials, video, youtube
Thursday, 18 November 2010
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
a-ha's last live session on the BBC
On 28th September a-ha were back in session at Maida Vale, this time on Ken Bruce's BBC Radio 2 show. a-ha are about to begin their worldwide 'Ending on a High Note' tour, starting and ending in Norway, so this live session would be their last for the BBC.
Just like last year, I've recorded it to share with others worldwide.
Part 1, (6m 53s): Introduction; song The Sun Always Shines On TV; the public's messages.
Part 2, (12m 50s): an acoustic version of Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah); fan questions & messages; Analogue.
Part 3, (13m 53s): cover version of Soft Cell's Say Hello, Wave Goodbye; general chat and then Take On Me.
Just like last year, I've recorded it to share with others worldwide.
Part 1, (6m 53s): Introduction; song The Sun Always Shines On TV; the public's messages.
Part 2, (12m 50s): an acoustic version of Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah); fan questions & messages; Analogue.
Part 3, (13m 53s): cover version of Soft Cell's Say Hello, Wave Goodbye; general chat and then Take On Me.
Labels: a-ha, aha, band, BBC, chat, last hurrah, live, music, session, songs
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
Britain back on the couch
This morning I happened to catch an interesting interview on BBC 5 Live's Up All Night of best-selling psychologist Dr. Oliver James. His book, Britain On The Couch has been re-released this year - it was a hit in the 90's and spawned a two-part Channel 4 documentary.
Presenter Rhod Sharp is asking the questions in this 28 minute recording: (one of the below players should work in your browser)
Labels: 5live, audio, BBC, depression, intervew, Oliver James, psychology, radio, recording, Up All Night
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Slow motion Pedigree
Labels: advert, advertisement, dogs, fun, pedigree, slow motion, video, youtube
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Creative therapy
“Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those, who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear, which is inherent in a human condition.” — Graham Greene
Labels: author, creative, critic, Graham Greene, playright, quotation, quote, writing
Sunday, 9 August 2009
Signs
We should always have a reason to wake up. What's yours?
Labels: film, friendship, love, movie, poignant, short film, signs, story
Sunday, 26 July 2009
a-ha live in session on the BBC
A-ha have been all over the British media recently promoting their new album Foot of the Mountain. On 25th July they were in session on Dermot O'Leary's BBC Radio 2 show, live from Maida Vale* (London), chatting and playing a mixture of old and new songs. The BBC's iPlayer only allows radio shows to be listened to again for a week, so I thought I'd record it to share with others worldwide.
Part 1, (13m 35s): Introduction and general chit-chat; songs The Sun Always Shines On TV and Riding The Crest; the public's questions.
Part 2, (11m 55s): Living in New York and Oslo; songs Foot of the Mountain and Question of Lust (a Depeche Mode cover, their choice for the Great British Songbook).
Part 3, (22m 02s): Sigur Rós; Greg's a-ha tattoos; random facts including Morten's orchid, Stoke FC support, tree climbing, stamp designing; songs Take On Me and Analogue; what they miss from Norway while away; Morten's special power boat; song Hunting High and Low.
__________________
*A photo of the Maida Vale setup, taken by someone and the link posted by @aha_com on Twitter.
Part 1, (13m 35s): Introduction and general chit-chat; songs The Sun Always Shines On TV and Riding The Crest; the public's questions.
Part 2, (11m 55s): Living in New York and Oslo; songs Foot of the Mountain and Question of Lust (a Depeche Mode cover, their choice for the Great British Songbook).
Part 3, (22m 02s): Sigur Rós; Greg's a-ha tattoos; random facts including Morten's orchid, Stoke FC support, tree climbing, stamp designing; songs Take On Me and Analogue; what they miss from Norway while away; Morten's special power boat; song Hunting High and Low.
__________________
*A photo of the Maida Vale setup, taken by someone and the link posted by @aha_com on Twitter.
Labels: a-ha, aha, band, BBC, chat, last hurrah, live, music, session, songs
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Amazing products made from recycled materials
The Tech News blog has collated thirty-three products made from recycled materials. It's great to see people's innovative and creative thinking to make new things from old materials.
Labels: innovative, inventive, products, recycle, recycling, reuse
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Fire Flower
Previously, ice + piano; now fire + piano. But done a thousand-times better than my efforts!
Pierre Michel’s latest film , “Fire Flower”, is an abstract vision of sensuality with hints of alchemical mysticism. Like Pierre’s other films, this project derives its power from an intense focus on texture and color backed by a dramatic soundtrack." (motionographer)
The making of Fire Flower.
Labels: awesome, fire, impressive, piano, Pierre Michel, short film, video, Vimeo, visual poetry
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Visual poetry
Late last Thursday evening I went into the kitchen to fix a snack, turned the light on and immediately paused as the un-curtained front window revealed typical wet Lewis snow (or sleet) hitting the glass, sliding down and stacking at the bottom. I knew I had to record it.
Lighting it was tricky - I tried some torches and they gave an atmospheric sense but weren't really bright or wide enough to highlight the full extent of the ice crystals. I then re-arranged the kitchen anglepoise lamp just so to avoid reflections and flare, and used a black bin liner behind the camera to cover the kitchen's and my reflection in the window.
Twenty minutes later I'd recorded enough footage, my cup of tea was cold and the icy window display was fast disappearing, not to be replaced for the rest of the evening.
Knowing if I didn't keep the momentum going and do something with the footage, I'd lose interest or forget, and it would remain unused on my hard disk. The choice of music often sets the mood of a film, so I immediately went through my (fairly small) MP3 collection looking for inspiration and on not being satisfied went scouring the web, whereupon I found some excellent CC tracks. There are thousands and thousands of royalty-free tracks online but even with some websites allowing searches by genre and mood, it can take hours previewing them to find just the right ones. I don't know about you but reading descriptions of musical pieces just doesn't work for me - I have to use my ears to get a feel and then try to visualise it behind my video clips.
I used Adobe Premier Elements to edit this time instead of Windows Movie Maker, as it has more control of levels, colour grading, sound fades and sharpening. Why Movie Maker doesn't have a basic sharpening filter is strange. I'm still learning Premiere and find it a bit clumsy and slow to use. Things that are simple to achieve with Movie Maker, like a fade-in from white as on the first video below, take many more steps with Premiere and usually involve setting keyframes which can quickly become fiddly and tedious.
Speaking of tedious, I've written enough! The Flickr staff call their 90 second videos “long photos”. For these couple of films I prefer the term “visual poetry” and I hope you enjoy them.
Lighting it was tricky - I tried some torches and they gave an atmospheric sense but weren't really bright or wide enough to highlight the full extent of the ice crystals. I then re-arranged the kitchen anglepoise lamp just so to avoid reflections and flare, and used a black bin liner behind the camera to cover the kitchen's and my reflection in the window.
Twenty minutes later I'd recorded enough footage, my cup of tea was cold and the icy window display was fast disappearing, not to be replaced for the rest of the evening.
Knowing if I didn't keep the momentum going and do something with the footage, I'd lose interest or forget, and it would remain unused on my hard disk. The choice of music often sets the mood of a film, so I immediately went through my (fairly small) MP3 collection looking for inspiration and on not being satisfied went scouring the web, whereupon I found some excellent CC tracks. There are thousands and thousands of royalty-free tracks online but even with some websites allowing searches by genre and mood, it can take hours previewing them to find just the right ones. I don't know about you but reading descriptions of musical pieces just doesn't work for me - I have to use my ears to get a feel and then try to visualise it behind my video clips.
I used Adobe Premier Elements to edit this time instead of Windows Movie Maker, as it has more control of levels, colour grading, sound fades and sharpening. Why Movie Maker doesn't have a basic sharpening filter is strange. I'm still learning Premiere and find it a bit clumsy and slow to use. Things that are simple to achieve with Movie Maker, like a fade-in from white as on the first video below, take many more steps with Premiere and usually involve setting keyframes which can quickly become fiddly and tedious.
Speaking of tedious, I've written enough! The Flickr staff call their 90 second videos “long photos”. For these couple of films I prefer the term “visual poetry” and I hope you enjoy them.
Labels: calming, ice, short films, sleet, snow, video, visual poetry, weather
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Pixels of wax
Christian Faur is an American artist who makes pictures from wax crayons. He scans a picture, reduces it to blocks of colour and then uses this as a template to pack together lots of crayons that upon viewing from a distance resemble the picture. It's like making pixels of wax - simple but clever. He even makes his own crayons by hand-casting each one in a mould.
More examples on his website.
Labels: art, artist, Christian Faur, crayons, wax
Thursday, 26 February 2009
The making of 3D street art
Edgar Müller is a well-known 3D street artist and at the Festival of World Cultures in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland, he transformed a huge slice of the East Pier into a dramatic ice age scene.
If you have a fast PC and connection, be sure to click on HQ (bottom right) once the video starts for the best quality HD viewing (clicking on the video will take you to the YouTube page where the HD video can be viewed on large screens).
If you have a fast PC and connection, be sure to click on HQ (bottom right) once the video starts for the best quality HD viewing (clicking on the video will take you to the YouTube page where the HD video can be viewed on large screens).
Labels: 3D, artist, Edgar Mueller, Edgar Müller, painting, street, The Crevasse, time lapse, time-lapse, video, Vivaldi, youtube
Saturday, 14 February 2009
The Valentine's Day seesaw
Why I Love Valentine’s Day — o — Why I Hate Valentine’s Day
I offer nothing but a balanced viewpoint.
Labels: 14 February, articles, balanced, love, MSN, occasion, opinions, seesaw, Valentine's Day, viewpoints
Friday, 13 February 2009
Photographic art, Chinese style
Li Wei, who lives in Beijing, creates images using mirrors, carefully hidden thin wires and his own acrobatic skills, honed from years of martial arts training. The pictures feature Wei suspended in a string of impossible situations at locations across Hong Kong and China.
Supposedly no computer trickery is used, although after watching a few of his works videos I think the wires are electronically cloned out of the final photos.
“I am fascinated by the unstable and dangerous sides of art and I hope my works reflect these aspects," he says. "Sometimes I am in real danger - I have to hang myself high with steel wires and people do get a little worried for me - but I am fine.”
Check out his website which shows his many fantastical works over the years.
Labels: art, Chinese, Li Wie, liwie, photography
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Simmered gammon with watercress dumplings
This is a Gordon Ramsay recipe published in the Telegraph Magazine. Serves 4, or 1 for a few days if you can eat lots like me. :-)
Pleasingly green and peppery, watercress lightens the dumplings in this braised gammon dish, scented with star anise. Soak the gammon in cold water as soon as you unpack the shopping; it helps remove excess salt.
1kg (2¼lb) raw gammon
2 shallots, peeled and halved
2 large carrots, sliced diagonally
1-2 stick celery, very thinly sliced
2 star anise
about 1½ltr (3pt) fresh beef or chicken stock
For the dumplings:
60g (2oz) suet
120g (4oz) self-raising flour
leaves from 1 bunch of watercress, chopped
½ tsp of salt
Watercress oil to serve:
leaves from a second bunch of watercress, chopped
4 tbsp olive oil
pinch of salt
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Put the gammon in a pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, then throw the water away. Add the vegetables to the pan with the star anise, and cover with the stock. Bring to the boil again, removing any foamy scum that rises to the surface. Turn down the heat — the liquid should simmer slowly, barely moving — and cook for one and half to two hours until the gammon is tender. Add a few twists of black pepper; you are unlikely to need salt.
Meanwhile make the dumplings. Mix together the suet, flour, watercress and half a teaspoon of salt. Add cold water, a tablespoon at a time, until you have a dryish dough that just holds together. With the help of extra flour, lightly shape the dumplings into walnut-sized rounds.
To make the watercress oil, pound together the watercress and olive oil with a pinch of salt until it’s a smooth green emulsion and put in a separate bowl to serve at the table.
Pour half the broth from the gammon into a separate pan, bring it to the boil and drop the dumplings in one by one. Cook them in the simmering stock until they float to the surface and small bubbles erupt on their surface.
Slice the gammon, and serve with the dumplings and vegetable, the broth spooned over the top. Zig-zag a little watercress oil over each plate.
Labels: cooking, delicious, dumplings, food, gammon, Gordon Ramsay, recipe, tasty
