Month: July 2007

  • Copyright Extensions Rejected – The Music Industry Response

    The coverage of the Government’s rejection of extending performance copyright in Music Week (the industry trade magazine – all behind a paywall) is surprisingly muted. There’s just a piece on page 6 indicating that the fight must now be taken to Europe, and an editorial that somehow saw this singular decision as a failure to…

  • Digital TV Switchover

    As many now know, digital television switchover begins in the UK this autumn with Whitehaven being the first town to go fully digital. Then, starting next year, a rollout across the rest of the country begins, starting in the Borders TV regions and ending in London, the southeast, the northeast and Ulster in 2012. Regular…

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  • Transformers

    I had a bit of a hangover, and despite being one of the few sunny days, I thought I’d go and see one of this week’s big movies. I don’t normally talk about films as movies, but I think these two count. So it was either The Simpsons Movie or Transformers. My local multiplex was…

  • Electricity

    Another book recommended by Scott Pack via his blog. Electricity is a novel about Lily who’s a teenage epileptic. She lives in a seaside town somewhere in Yorkshire, and the only real family she has is her brother Barry. There was another brother, but he was sent away when she was little, and she’s not…

  • Tour de France and Cheats

    So what are we meant to think about the proceedings at The Tour de France this year? To re-cap, we first had T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone from a test during the beginning of June. He was immediately kicked out of the Tour, but in Germany things went a…

  • Copyright Extension Rejected

    The government has come out and rejected calls to extend copyright on music performances from 50 years as it currently stands. As I’ve said on a number of occasions, this is suddenly a hot potato because Elvis and Beatles tracks are suddenly falling out of copyright in this country, and a cash cow is finally…

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  • Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

    Off to the Barbican to see Wynton Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra perform pieces under the heading Full Steam Ahead. I saw him perform here a few years back and once again it’s a sold out crowd with just a couple more performances happening in the UK as part of the JLCO…

  • Shock! Horror! Bear Grylls Series Not Quite As Advertised

    Regular readers of this blog – and there are one or two – may be aware that, although enjoyable, I thought that the recent Channel 4 series Born Survivor featuring Bear Grylls (and know in the US as Man vs. Wild) was probably a little misleading in the way that it was shot. An example…

  • Imperium

    Imperium is the latest Robert Harris novel, and following on from Pompeii, he’s again set it in a Roman setting. This time, we effectively have the political life of Cicero – the lawyer and politician. The book is told by Tiro, Cicero’s slave and personal secretary, who, we’re told, essentially invented shorthand to record conversations…

  • Thirteen

    I got hold of Sebastian Beaumont’s novel Thirteen on the basis of Scott Pack’s recommendation on his very good blog. The book revolves around the life of a Brighton taxi driver who pulls the night shift, and the strange things he begins to see and experience. What’s going on? He picks up passengers from a…