Book and Album Reviews: Weeks 13 and 14

Posted on by Alasdair

I’m going to get back on top of this, honest – here’s the ultra-high-speed version of the last two weeks, and I’ll try and get this week’s up on Friday. The books this time are from Budgie, and Marysia, and thank you both very much.

Book: Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins

Convergence Culture is broadly, about the impact new media is having on old – the fight to keep details of shows secret, the way corporations cope with fan-fiction (or indeed, fan film), the challenges of storytelling across multiple media. Each capter of the book takes a single media property as a leading example – Survior, American Idol, Star Wars, The Matrix, and so on. Jenkins is one of my favourite media thinkers, because he unashamedly comes at things from a background that is both academic and fan, and his work is very accessible because of it. If you’ve got the slightest interest in the future of the creative economy, he is one of the thinkers you ought to be reading.

Album: Acoustica by Alarm Will Sound

This is an album of classical music covers of the music of The Aphex Twin. It’s actually very good indeed, if a little hard to describe. The general result is a slightly softened version of Richard James’ stuff – it reminds me slightly of Squarepusher’s ep “Budakhan Mindphone”.

Book: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter

Modern era retelling of classic fairytales, with particular emphasis on subverting the traditional role of women within those tales. Lovely, lovely prose, with a sly wit. Recommended.

Album: Weapons of Grass Destruction by Hayseed Dixie

Well, they started out doing bluegrass/rock covers of classic heavy rock. They’ve since started combining that with original material. I like ’em, but I’ve got a terrible finger-in-the-ear too-rah-lay streak that I can’t seem to do anything about, and this plays into it nicely. Anyway, this is more the same from them, with some particularly fine covers on this one: “Mein Teil” (originally by Rammstein) stands out in particular…

White Mischief – Brigid At Play

Posted on by Alasdair

Brigid At Play

(Obviously, this is Mademoiselle Fifi again,)

I’ve noticed that the happier I am with a shot, the harder I find it to talk about it. And I’m pretty bloody happy with this one. I would perhaps have liked to bring the details on her face out a bit more, bit it’s go all the essential things I wanted from the shot. I hope you like it.

White Mischief – Harder Than You

Posted on by Alasdair

White Mischief - Harder Than You

More from White Mischief. Yes, she is driving a spike through her tongue. There’s more impressive stuff to come, but I thought I’d get the most obviously bloody one out of the way before people forgot that I said there was one coming up…

Attention Car Thieves!

Posted on by Alasdair

When stealing cars at 6am, please have the decency to get the job done and drive off as fast as humanly possible, rather than waking the entire fucking neighbourhood with the alarm. This is especially important with an alarm that sounds for a while, then cuts out for a couple of seconds, then sounds again, because repeatedly tormenting those in nearby houses with that “aaah, finally, I can go back to sleep” feeling is the very definition of “cruel and unusual”.

Oh For Fuck’s Sake!

Posted on by Alasdair

We are already at the point of the year where it is sufficiently hot that my main PC shuts down through overheating if it’s asked to do much graphics work. Last year, it managed OK unless it was doing 3D stuff, like playing games. I could bear that. This year, it now packs up when trying work with Photoshop.

Fuck.

I’ve got Photoshop for the Mac now, so I can work with that, but what I don’t seem to have is any good software for browsing RAW files. iPhoto seems to believe that I don’t need another RAW editor, despite the fact that it’s own RAW tools are pitifully bloody inadequate. Anything I instruct it to open in Photoshop, it converts to a jpeg, first. As if I was done working with the RAW. Which I fucking wasn’t.

a) can anyone tell me if there’s a setting I’m missing?
b) if I’m not, can anyone recommend me a free RAW browser for the Mac?

Oh For Fuck’s Sake!

Posted on by Alasdair

We are already at the point of the year where it is sufficiently hot that my main PC shuts down through overheating if it’s asked to do much graphics work. Last year, it managed OK unless it was doing 3D stuff, like playing games. I could bear that. This year, it now packs up when trying work with Photoshop.

Fuck.

I’ve got Photoshop for the Mac now, so I can work with that, but what I don’t seem to have is any good software for browsing RAW files. iPhoto seems to believe that I don’t need another RAW editor, despite the fact that it’s own RAW tools are pitifully bloody inadequate. Anything I instruct it to open in Photoshop, it converts to a jpeg, first. As if I was done working with the RAW. Which I fucking wasn’t.

a) can anyone tell me if there’s a setting I’m missing?
b) if I’m not, can anyone recommend me a free RAW browser for the Mac?

Gjallarbru

Posted on by Alasdair

Gjallarbru

More from that late night London walk. The title is taken from the name of the bridge to Hell in Norse myth – this is, of course, Blackfriars bridge, where God’s banker, Roberto Calvi was murdered by a Black Lodge of secretive Masons.

(More from White Mischief to come when time permits, but I had this one ready….)

About Last Night

Posted on by Alasdair

If you were not at White Mischief, then believe me squire, you were in the wrong place.

Music: Not a band on the line up I would not happily see again. Repeatedly.

Cabaret: Strange and terrifying. Which is what you want. Sadly, I was not allowed to take pictures of the woman setting things alight with the electrical power of her nipple.

Crowd: glamorous and charming.

Photos taken: 1123. I’m halfway through processing them, and even I can’t hate all of that number. So far (not quite halfway through a first pass), about one in ten is good, although by the time I eliminate virtually identical shots, and winnow down to just the very best, that number drops quite a bit more. Still, should get a good number up.

So, pats on the back and drinks for alexdecampi, and back to wading through photos for me…

White Mischief – Just The Beginnning

Posted on by Alasdair

White Mischief - Just The Beginnning

The first of well, I don’t know how many (until I think you lot will probably be bored) shots from White Mischief, a club night put on by a friend of mine where I took many, many pictures.

This is Mademoiselle Fifi, one of the burlesque performers that was on. You’ll see more of her. (While I think of it, can I just check: is there anyone reading this that’s going to be freaked out at the sight of a little (and really, it is just a little) blood? I’m not willing to place pictures under a cut in this blog, so if I get objections, I’ll have to think about skipping one of my planned pics.)

This short has not been altered for colour except as part of the general process of adjusting the RAW file – the blue is what I got from the available light and the natural adjustments I made. I have a black and white version of the same shot on Flickr – I genuinely can’t pick between the two, so I’ve gone with blogging this one, just because I think it’s more my usual style, but I’d love to know which other people prefer.

Bling Bling

Posted on by Alasdair

Bling Bling

One from the archives – I clearly meant to blog this, as it’s been sitting public on my flickr account for months, but I just never got around to it. So, here’s a huge lump of some crystal or other, from the Natural History Museum. Not perfect – the crystal isn’t quite pin-sharp – but it’ll do for on-line, even if it wouldn’t hold up in print.

I was so close to titling this “OMG Racecar!” but I suspect that the shelf life of a daft lj meme is even shorter than a normal pop culture reference.