more gadgets?

The #FANS show got me thinking about some aspects of the get-ins and the get-outs. All the venues were different sizes and with different house kit, so there was a roadie-like aspect to the shifting of the varied flight-cases of equipment around. Also that moment where the local engineers and the show compared cables at the end to ensure that the right ones left the building.

The wicked flight cases were also part of the staging and so had to be specially sprayed with that Dirty Down spray paint, along with the copious addition of tour stickers. Notice the one case that we borrowed that hasn't been given the treatment?

As well as the live band set-up the show had many lighting and sound cues. It raises all kinds of questions about technology, because only one of the venues had fully moved over to LED lighting, with the rest using conventional bulbs and miles of heavy snake cable.

I'm thinking that the way to go with all of this, technologically speaking, is to move to AES50 digital cabling and pre-programmed DMX lighting control. The lights used were already DMX'd but they still had to be set up at each venue. A better option is to get a DMX Master controller and pre-program the majority of what is needed, to save time during set-up.

We shall see, but it does create the possibility for a whole new range of gadget investigations.

an orange camera?

We're into the new gadget season now, and there's a few stalking the area like so many undiscovered Pokémon. One that I should logically like is the Orange Leica Sofort camera, which doesn't officially appear until around November.

Reasons I should theoretically like it:

1) It's orange, which, unlike Madonna, is a colour I do like.
2) It's Leica, but priced (for them) inexpensively.
3) It's a camera, with a Leica Lens.
4) Did I mention it's a Leica?

But.

The original promo shots show the camera in its various colours and looking about the size of a GoPro/pack of playing cards.

Then Hannah picks up the camera in the VW camper van and oops, it all looks out of scale.

Of course it's so that the 10-shot instant film pack can be put inside it. The f12.7 aperture means there's no real focusing required and the example shot shows the limited dynamic/tonal range. I'm sure there's a place for it in the world of whimsical fashion shots and location tryouts, but I struggle to see how it earns its 'packing space'? Except when in a camper van, of course. Hannah doesn't mind though, she even goes surfing around the Costa Mesa without a wet suit.

For this type of camera the limits are all part of the fun, but I'll be sticking with the rather more digital Hipstamatic and Instagram. Even if it is all a bit more yellow.

I'm with the band (II)

Time to fire up the blog again after a few days away. It's been tricky because I've been using some of the other social media channels (in the name of promotion) and somewhere something has to give.

So the whole #FANS thing has gone brilliantly well. Just about everyone who has seen it has been complimentary, to the extent in one venue I was stopped several times in the street after the show, and in another place someone actually got out of their car to say how much they'd enjoyed it.

And I'm only, as they say, "with the band".

I'll probably back-post a couple of items as well, but for the moment, the picture at the top of this post is, well, the band.

soundcheck for the #FANS

1, 2, 3 1, 2, 3 drink
1, 2, 3 1, 2, 3 drink
1, 2, 3 1, 2, 3 drink

Throw 'em back, till I lose count

I'm gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier
I'm gonna live like tomorrow doesn't exist
Like it doesn't exist
I'm gonna fly like a bird through the night, feel my tears as they dry
I'm gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier

Sia

Band night

We'd better publish a few pictures of the band as well. We were asked for more by some of the audience and PR shots have already been put up on reviews.

So here's Chris - the Green Day fan who has already seen them eleven times. He's counting sheep but running out, as time ticks by
and still he tries. No rest for crosstops in his mind.

Then Charlie, pop princess who has been through Girl Power, Emo, Indie and always always comes back to the One. Cue "Life is a mystery".

Meghan knows everything there is to know about every genre of music and can quote album statistics and Morrissey lyrics at the drop of a patterned bowler hat.

Andrew the drumming peacemaker can shake the whole building whilst having a penchant for Manchester Orchestra. Doing the Simpole Math, he Copes with the Hope that can Mean Everything to Nothing.

Oh yes, and they all rock. Find a way to see them and feel the love.

go large with the guitar and mic

A great and only slightly surprising aspect was just how many audience were prepared to participate in the pictures.

There was also a high number of then that would pick up the guitar or microphone and immediately 'go large'.

They'd pose in the middle of bars, in corridors, outside the doors, even outside the venues.

Most of them living in that rock band moment.

Although, its fair to say, we had a few proper guitarists and singers along as well, but this was all about the pose.

Singer, Singer songwriter, Ultimate-guitar Legend, Emo, Indie, We didn't care. As long as it was fun.

A few of the fans of #FANS

The visitors to the show were terrific. They fully entered into the spirit of it, right from the moment they entered the various theatres.

It was amazing how many were very prepared to pick up a guitar, and/or a microphone, even form bands with complete strangers, and all before they'd even reached the bar.

Heres a few from the collection. There's plenty more on flickr. Click any picture to take a dip into the world of #FANS.

I'm with the band (I)

#FANS dates and booking FAQ @thesixtwenty

Time for that last minute splurge of tweets and other general advertising for the FANS show, which starts next week in the North East.

The above picture, as shown, would be unsuitable for twitter, because there a particular format that displays better. Kind of 16:9-ish seems to work best.

Although I often use 500x333 as the base.

The Six Twenty is dedicated to creating playful and immersive work that is bold, ambitious and fun. The Six Twenty make theatre that excites, engages and provokes.

FANS on tour

Theatre meets gig. An eclectic and hilarious mix of stories told through raucous live music and verbatim theatre interwoven with fictionalised scripted drama. Based on people’s love affair with music FANS fuses together true stories (and some not so true stories) with real music fan confessions.

TOUR DATES

Tues 6 & Wed 7 Sept
ARC Stockton @ 7.30PM
Box Office: 01642 525199

Fri 9 Sept
Alnwick Playhouse @ 2PM & 7.30PM
Box Office: 01665 510785 


Tues 13 & Wed 14 Sept
Northern Stage @ 8pm (doors 7.30PM)
Box Office: 0191 230 5151

Thur 15 & Fri 16 Sept
Arts Centre Washington @ 7.30PM
Box Office: 0191 561 3455


Sat 1 Oct
Pop Recs (Sunderland Stages) @ 7.30PM
Box Office: 0191 561 3455

FANS has been awarded this year’s Bridging the Gap (an initiative designed to aid the creation of new theatre work within the North East region). FANS is supported using public funding by Arts Council England and has received support from The Sunday for Sammy Trust, which supports creative talent on Tyneside.

shake it

A couple of weeks ago I had one of those notifications about a possible hack from Morocco into one of my accounts. Annoying, but stopped at source. It's a recurrent problem for long term userids where we tend to flit around both virtually and geographically.

Asking myself, "What would Taylor Swift do?", I decided to re-run the have i been pwned test to see whether there were any new hacks to report.

All the ones listed were the ones I had previously dealt with, although nowadays there's probably a couple of hundred sites and over a billion accounts listed in their site.

Actually, as well as this list of my compromised accounts, I've also been compromised on LinkedIn.com, but that's via one of my professional userids, rather then my play ones.

Many years ago I used to keep a hotmail account especially for browsing, because that way it could attract all the spam and so on "set shields high" etc. Then all the social media sites wanted to monetise everything, and inevitably the account got linked to something else.

Actually it's one account I don't use at all now, along with a BT account that gets stupid amounts of spam considering I don't even log on to it.

I suppose it indicates that there's still an awful lot of frontier behaviour around the networks.

And yes, I do follow @swiftonsecurity.

another black chain imprint on right leg

Time to mix it up with the bikes.

Mainly so that I can make an early test of the bike I'll probably use during the colder months. It's a lot easier to work out what needs to be fixed whilst the weather is still good.

And there's a list of things to fix. Some oil, pumping up the tyres and the search for the various lighting systems. I know it seems early to be thinking about those things, but I'd better start the process.

Meanwhile, I'm still on track for my annual mileage target, even with a few gaps. Strava says I'm 265 miles ahead of pace, although being away for the next couple of weeks will soon erode that.

another miaow from the Celtic tiger?

I doubt Apple will be bringing out an operating system codenamed Green Tiger anytime soon?

With the backdrop of that EU ruling it's still hardly a secret that Ireland is a good place for US European headquarters.

The difference in definitions of domicile allow lightly taxed US corporate money to be parked on the edge of the EU. As Father Ted said, "Just resting in our account."

Who wouldn't mind a sub 1% tax bill? But wait, if we believe the EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, Apple's Irish tax is only 0.05%, dropping to only 0.005%. That's maybe until they could shift the money back to America. Many American companies plan to repatriate money to the US after favourable taxation changes (which haven't happened).

The quip about US folk popping over to Ireland to look at some horses, have a round of golf, drink a Guinness and run a quick HQ meeting is so old that it could probably be used in a new BBC sitcom.

As well as Apple, there's plenty more companies with this kind of EU HQ arrangement. They are often based around Silicon Docks, which is an area specially built to help these companies get established.

Around the Grand Canal area there's Google, Facebook, Accenture, Airbnb, TripAdvisor, to name a few. The city centre has a few more well-known ones including Amazon.com, Linkedin and Dropbox.

Some companies have been in Ireland since the start of the light taxation business practices. Oracle, Microsoft, Intel and Salesforce spring to mind, with Microsoft outgrowing its original site (which it sold on to Blackstone) before building some
new campuses. Some, like Dell, Intel, Apple and Microsoft have also been notably big employers in the country.

So I'm wondering whether there's any more of these companies enjoying taxation advantages by being based in what was once called the Celtic Tiger?

It seems to be a curious win-win for Ireland anyway. They get everyone over for the cheap taxation and then apparently reluctantly get to take a further lump of it later. Maybe these windfalls will help the kitty have more lives?

Miaow.