Month: January 2011

  • National Portrait Gallery Workshop

    Back in November I visited the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. The museum had also put on a number of talks and events surrounding the prize, and on Saturday I was part of a small workshop group there to learn a little more about what makes a good photographic portrait.…

  • John Barry

    It’ll be for others to write proper obituaries, but I wanted to acknowledge the wonderful John Barry, who’s death was announced this morning at 77. From James Bond to The Persuaders, Born Free to Dances With Wolves, and The Ipcress File to the Midnight Cowboy, Barry’s music was exceptional, and reached hundreds of millions. He’ll…

  • True Grit

    In 1985, I won two tickets in a local newspaper comeptition to see the new Clint Eastwood western, Pale Rider, at the ABC Enfield (now Tesco). It was the first time I’d been in a cinema to see a western. That was partly because westerns didn’t appeal to a 15 year old boy, and partly…

  • The BBC and Marketing Speak

    Yesterday a BBC blog entry from Daniel Danker, the Programme and On Demand General Manager at the BBC, caused something of a stir. It referred to a new “product” and there was much gnashing of teeth and concern as a result. I’ve got to say that I think that this probably isn’t the clearest communication…

  • Sexism and Sky Sports

    Tonight Richard Keys has resigned from Sky Sports following a last ditch attempt to apologise in the form of an interview on Talksport this afternoon (Kudos to Talksport for getting that interview). He joins Andy Gray who’s already gone. There are lots of interesting question raised in this affair. How sexist is the regime at…

  • 10 O’Clock Live

    So what to make of Channel 4’s new “it’s not The Daily Show that we just cancelled” comedy current affairs series? Well it’s not all bad, and it’s not all good. There seemed to be quite a few first night nerves and a generally quite disjointed feel to the programme, but that’s something that will…

  • Groupon’s Having a Laugh!

    A report in the New York Times recently revealed that Groupon, the social buying site, is looking at generating $15bn in a prospective IPO. We’re surely back in internet bubble days with valuations like that! If Facebook’s valuation of $50bn is questionable, then it’s surely not even remotely credible that a business built around coupons…

  • Local TV

    Today, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt gave his backing to a new network of local TV stations built around the hub of a national spine. In other words, it’ll be a national service with local opt-outs at various times of the day. Hunt has been talking about this for ages, often with hackneyed references to Birmingham…

  • World Cup 2018 Redux

    Broadcast magazine has a really interesting story relating to England’s failed bid for the 2018 World Cup. The story is here (behind a paywall). In summary, it seems that in its bid proposal, England agreed to remove the 2018 World Cup tournament from the Listed Events which would have effectively let companies like Sky and…

  • Ed Reardon’s Week: Series 7

    Photo: BBC Radio 4 Have I mentioned that Ed Reardon’s Week is back for a new series? I have? Oh well, there’s no harm in mentioning it again. Every Monday at 11:30 and then on the iPlayer. In The Current Climate is available until Monday. And a single episode will be available in Radio 4’s…

  • More On Cars (And Mobile Data)

    CES has been taking place recently and one of the themes seems to have been the increased amount of sophistication in the in-car audio market. In particular Pandora is getting a lot of support from major manufacturers like Toyota and Ford. But there are plenty more besides. Last month I wrote a piece about in-car…

  • Musicality

    I must admit that I enjoyed taking the new BBC Radio 3 Musicality Test. In a series of questions both written and based around audio, your musical knowledge is tested. Not in the sense of who composed what, or who was in which band, but whether you can determine melodies or tempo, as well as…