my manic and I

Talented singer songwriter Laura Marling has just released a first album and I thought it would be good to feature a little piece here. She's been around since maybe early 2007 and popped up on a few radio shows on XFM and even Radio 1 but I suspect is still largely unknown.

The album comes in a proper collectable box with some intriguing puzzles and artifacts, including a ticket to an upcoming gig. Those that know me know I usually throw the album cases away unless they are really good (I do keep the little pamphlets though). I will certainly keep this one. And the music is something of Suzanne Vega blended with Sandy Denny, with some ghostly, intriguing and sometimes deceptively steely lyrics. About time alt.folk had some new names.

Birds are singing to calm us down.

underground thrills

Thanks, Annie Mole at the excellent Going Underground for drawing my attention to this amusing video, filmed on the Tube.

Micheal Jackson's 'Thriller' is 25 years old and a group of dancers decided to do a commuter recreation of the video on the London Underground. With typical London commuter stalwartness, the passengers around the action stay seated and firmly looking forward at the small adverts over the seats.

unit of one marketing

A sort of marketeers holy grail is to get the right information to land at the right time, so I was slightly suspicious today when I opened a couple of emails to be greeted with pictures of refrigerators. You see, the thing is, yesterday I was out for part of the day at a kitchen appliance showroom, as part of the slow march of redecoration through rashbre central.

Admittedly, it was a first visit, so I was going through the 'education phase' which is when I have explained to me why all of the cooking and general kitchen technologies I am familiar with are no longer applicable because of induction cookers and steam ovens and so forth. Actually, the demonstration of the induction hob was somewhat flawed because it has a pin number before it could be fired up and then the light sensitive controls didn't respond after the turbo setting had been engaged. The fridge had some kind of rain-forest parrot certification and as for the steam oven they wanted to send me to get a demonstration appointment at a manufacturer's showroom. Why am I thinking this sounds expensive?

So today's mails are something of a mystery. I didn't give the showroom my email (not this one anyway) and I haven't been looking things up on the internet. So are these just random mail-shots that now seem more of interest than they would usually, or has some kind of demographic tracking system figured that I might be up for a new cooker because I bought some graphite coloured match-pot paint samples recently?

London Bloggers Meetup Blogroll

Are you a London Blogger who has attended the Meetup? The kind folk at Qype even made a movie!

Wanna add the London Blogger Blogroll? Here's the code below - just copy and paste to your sidebar. If you don't want the scroll bars leave out everything up to <script language=javascript

<br><div style="border: 3px solid orange; width:180px; height:180px; text-align:left; overflow:auto; font-size:10px;"><script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://rpc.blogrolling.com/display.php?r=a3a892fc5669e3ea463ba474d7f44058"></script></div>

Have you attended the Meetup but are not in the list? Just leave a comment and I'll fix.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, london, bloggers, meetup, camel, artichoke, londonist, ,

primetime tv review

this sock puppet is scarier and better constructed than the latest television series of "Primeval".

E

That E award from bobkat a few days ago gave me a panic attack.

I worked out that if everyone on the internet that receives the award then awards it to ten people, after about ten iterations everyone on the internet would have been covered. 100,000,000,000 awards is quite a lot.

So, with an average latency of 5 days per recipient, and me at least fourth in the chain, I'd only have a maximum of about twenty days to make the awards or else everyone would be saying, "thanks but I've got one". And I can only do these complicated posts with lots of links when I have more time (like watching television at the weekend).

Yikes.

Then, phew, I realized it doesn't work like that. Quite a few people graciously decline, and others accept and maybe don't quite pass it forward. Others get more than one award.

Anyway, I thought I'd have a go, and I've picked some from my eclectic reading and lurking that I've probably not 'memed' before in rashbre central. All are excellent in their varied ways, Click their icons to visit.

So in no particular order...

First up, Private Secret Diary, which I often read, but I sort of lurk on this site, which also has its own bouyant readership, who seem to be currently mainly at the builders merchants buying chicken wire.

Next, a drab lie, sir, where elby is currently feeling weak and would no doubt enjoy a few visitors.

Captain Picard is part of my weekend reading, with all manner of space-age stories, competitions and even some stellar parties.

Dance, whilst no-one is watching, creates interesting musical posts and moody photography on the accompanying flickr site.

Chez la laquet, a site with entertaining word associations in amongst the varied topics against backdrop of school.

I love the smoke covers always lively, sometimes multi chapter to-ings and fro-ings in London.

Keyhole surgery; a new london poet's muse.

Fabulous Keda and the lets, in Istanbul.

Nats the name's musical selections, including much psychedelia.

Past Imperfect, by Pat. Entertaining stories from now, and then.

Philobiblon, by Nathalie, green London arts feminist guardian.

Panthergirl's varied and interesting writings, although I do get attacked a bit over on Facebook. Last time it was Mah Jong.

Carmi's place, writing, technology and plenty of photography.

What can I say,? I have to include Christina in this list, even if the site is still a bit of a copy of rashbre central!

So, my thanks to this gang, for publishing and sharing, in all manner of wonderful ways.

sarky heart bruni and president blair

I see Europe-1 is carrying a story about French President Nikolas Sarkozy and pop star model Carla Bruni getting married - another story amongst the last 2 months of guesses. "Nicolas Sarkozy et Carla Bruni se sont mariés ce samedi matin au premier étage de l'Elysée. Ils ont été mariés par le maire du VIIIe arrondissement de Paris, François Leben". It doesn't seem to be in the google news yet, though, so remember, if finally its true, you heard it here first. And the bruni sarkozy tv blog-fest is here.

But just as interesting was another Europe-1 story, a Jean-Pierre Elkabbach French language interview with Tony Blair. In addition to continuing the 'peace in our time' initiatives to the Middle East, it appears that Tony Blair has been taking lessons in the French language reaching a credible fluency enough to sustain a 20 minute political interview. Not content with appearances on Al Ayyam about middle eastern partitions, he's been interviewed about the European Presidency, which will need a new leader next January.

So I'm assuming that Tone's new found lingua-franca is all about the job. A tide-me-over couple of half million quid advisorships until the new year and then a new way to boss Gordon, or whoever it may be, around.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, bruni, sarkozy, blair, married, l'Elysee, Paris, France, Europe, President, Brown, sarky, sarki, carla

Soft, Ya?

The Microsoft Yahoo story has been around for many months, so when I saw it pop up again today, I wondered if it was a re-hash of the last loop and therefore not really news. Then I heard Steve Ballmer on the radio talking about it, so I assume its a real bid again. I recollect the going rate was about $50 billion when the last speculation occurred, so now the 10% reduction is interesting but not exactly a snip.

Although, I suppose if Google is worth around $150 billion (I haven't checked these numbers) and Microsoft itself is probably worth $300 billion, then Yahoo for $44bn may be quite a quick way for Microsoft to catch up on the advertising and search engine revenue model.

Its interesting that Microsoft has generally stayed in the technology space up until now and let others drive the other business models. This situation would give Microsoft a different revenue stream derived from advertising and search manipulation, as well as the more conventional technological aspect to be able to support a cloud based application interface.

Maybe some of the revenue models from Google and Apple start to offer another re-invention strategy for Microsoft?

location location

I'll be honest. Sometimes when I'm working from home I don't actually wear my work clothes. Sometimes at the weekends I get up late. Sometimes in the week I'm out until late in the evening and arrive back after staring in wonder at the stars. I don't always think this is predictable, but the scientists have derived profiles for just about every living area and the way that people carry on.

So I decided to have a tinker with one of these UK systems for doing demographic profiling, to see what it said about a couple of neighbourhoods. I typed in a postcode and it produced a complete vignette of a particular lifestyle.

These people enjoy a good lifestyle. Employment is largely in professional occupations, and many of the households in this type have both adults working. Car ownership is high, with two or more cars common. Models are likely to be large, new, company owned and relatively expensive. The home computer is a key item. They use it for careers and job planning, education and reference (for example, researching cars and holidays), home finance, buying gifts and making leisure bookings online. They lead an active lifestyle, enjoying walking, playing golf and going to the gym. These consumers enjoying drinking wine which they often buy by the case through mail order. They also enjoy eating out in restaurants on a regular basis.

So then I thought I'd try another one...And this is what I got.

These people live in urban areas, where large attractive houses have often been converted into flats. Whilst many do own their home, the proportion of rented accommodation is relatively high.

People in this type are very highly qualified; one in four have postgraduate and professional qualifications. They work in professional and senior managerial occupations, with many spending very long hours at work. As one of the highest earning types, they have relatively high disposable incomes.

In the winter, this type is the most likely to go skiing. They will then take at least one other holiday which is usually foreign and often far flung. When at home they take advantage of the range of theatre and arts available to them from living in the city. They also enjoy good food and wine, both at home and in restaurants.

They are interested in current affairs and are very likely to buy a daily paper, which they probably read as they commute to work. They usually choose from The Guardian, Independent, The Times and Financial Times. At the weekend they like The Sunday Times and Observer.

Wanna Play for your area?

pint

Three of us drifted into the Masque Haunt for a wrap up conversation. We'd been busy all day and it was good to sip a drink and take stock for a few minutes. It was still early enough for the place to be fairly empty, but we still stood by the bar, each aware we'd other calls on our time in the rest of the evening.

Earlier in the day I'd been in the spicily aromatic Nin Com Soup, also in the same area around Old Street, for a latte whilst I waited for our early morning prep meeting. So, I'd really only seen a single street, except when we were lost at the confusing roundabout for a couple of minutes and had to retrace steps.

As we left, I found a passing bus heading my way and left the others walking to Barbican to catch trains to outer London and to the airport.

arti

An interesting evening at the Camel and Artichoke yesterday, for the London Bloggers Meetup, arranged by Andy Bargery and with the support of Qype.

Close to Waterloo, near to The Cut, in Lower Marsh was an upstairs room in the pub, set aside for the meeting. Qype had kindly supplied drinks although there was no need to prime the conversations which started and ran freely throughout the event.

I'd guess there were around 35-40 people in the room and I'm hopeful that Peter's photos will show up somewhere as a record. I took one early snapshot in the evening as people were settling into the very animated and diverse conversations.

Inevitable questions about blog names and who does one read, but then discussions whizzing in all manner of directions, based upon a group whose common interest is simply blogging. I found it an entertaining event and am now wondering how on earth I capture the names and blog addresses of the great group of people I met during the evening?

Technorati Tags: rashbre, london, bloggers, meetup, camel, artichoke, lower, marsh, waterloo

Camel and Artichoke

Well, I've had the banner up about this for a couple of weeks now, the least I can do is to show up at the pub in the evening. I'm not sure why they changed its name from the Reluctant Camel to the Camel and Artichoke, but I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

It reminds me of that rude joke about bricking the camel, but I'd better stop now before I dig myself an oasis.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, london, blogger, meetup, waterloo, camel+and+artichoke