Month: March 2011

  • Radioplayer

    Radioplayer is finally here! Indeed, if you listen via the internet, you may have already spotted it, since it has been live for a few hours now. I’ve got to say that this is a really exciting development for the UK radio industry, and I don’t just say that because my employer is one of…

  • Sony Radio Academy Award Nominations 2011

    Well the Sony Radio Academy Award nominations were announced earlier this evening (in a much nicer venue than previously) by Classic FM’s Margherita Taylor and BBC 6 Music’s Huey Morgan. They fairly rattled through the categories, with Morgan in particular entertaining us even if he mispronounced the odd nominee. Once again, Absolute Radio (my employer!)…

  • How I Ended This Summer

    I’ll be honest and admit that I’m not too up on Russian cinema. Although to be fair, there’s not a great deal that makes it to the UK. What we do get tend to be the more commercial films like Nightwatch and Daywatch alongside the odd fantasy title like Wolfhound. Then there’s the odd breakthrough…

  • The Killing

    Like many people, I’ve been obsessively watching The Killing for the last ten weeks, and Saturday saw the denouement. Fear not – no spoilers here. Because if my friends and colleagues are to be believed, there’s going to a be a significant demand for the DVDs which are released a week today. I first learnt…

  • Where’s The Gambling Commission When You Need It?

    We learn that Swoopo has filed for bankruptcy. Good riddance. In case you’re unaware, Swoopo and similar “penny auction” websites work on the basis of selling so-called “bids” to their “auctions.” Say there’s a laptop on offer worth £1000. Bidding might start at £0.01, but prospective bidders must first buy their bids for – say…

  • Queuing

    We’re told that queuing is a very British thing, although as much as anything, that might be because other countries use their own words like “line” in the US. But what’s clear to me is that it’s not something I enjoy doing. I do it only when I need to. That might be paying for…

  • Frankenstein

    I had plenty of opportunity to book theatre tickets for Frankenstein, even going so far as to look at seats. But for whatever foolish reason, I decided against it. The production was a hit, and all the tickets sold out. So last night it was off to the Odeon Kensington – the only cinema carrying…

  • The Most Incredible Thing

    There seems to be a lot of ballet around at the moment. We’ve just had the awesome Black Swan, and on BBC Four at the moment, we’re two thirds of the way into a great behind the scenes documentary about English National Ballet (“Unprecedented access” and all). Sky Arts has been showing a series of…

  • 1000 Cranes

    My brother teaches ethics, and he also spent a year teaching in Japan some years ago. If you’re involved in education, you might want to read a great suggestion he has for how school children might respond to the Japanese tsunami. It is linked with the story of Sadako Sasaki, the girl who wanted to…

  • Ten O’Clock Live

    This week’s Broadcast magazine has an article entitled “C4 leaps to defence of Ten O’Clock Live as ratings plummet.” The audience has fallen from what they probably thought was a disappointing 1.4m at launch to 691,000 last week. C4 point out that this increases significantly once repeats and playbacks are added. But to be honest,…

  • “Super” Moon

    Taken from the top of Primrose Hill. Good fun and a lovely evening. More here (Do click through, as most of the photos benefit from being viewed large).

  • Silhouettes

    More here.