Check this out! I think it’s amazing! Feargal thinks it is not real. What do you think? Crazeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Via popbitch.
If you’re like me, you’ll use an image editing application quite a lot - from removing red-eye from party photographs to cropping an image, rotating it or putting a border on it for your blog and so on.
It’s sometimes frustrating though, say if you’re at work and need to alter an image quickly or away from home without a laptop or your own computer. No more! Although there are other online imaging editors out there, Photoshop Express which launched last week seems to do a pretty good job, and has a thorough (though basic) feature set. It also looks pretty good.
It’s meant to be currently available in the US only though I had no problems setting up an account. You get 2GB storage free for your images as well.
Erm that’s not him in the pic above.
Anyway, the New York Times has a good article on how to motivate yourself to push further if you’re a keen swimmer.
Long live the mixtape
26Mar08
Remember the mixtape? Hours spent crafting a cassette with tunes from the radio for a mate or girlfriend back in the days? Well new technology means the mixtape ain’t necessarily dead.
There’s the USB version - pictured above - which is pretty neat, and which allows you to hand a cassette-shaped mix over to someone you want to hear that perfect playlist of angst ridden songs (well I guess that last bit depends on who you’re handing it to).
Or there’s the online version - Muxtape.com - which allows you to upload one playlist worth of songs and listen to others’. That’s pretty neat too.
Not sure either of those are as good as the original version, but at least the USB version allows you to scribble notes on the outside.
Here is a list of things which have me peeved of late….
- my iPhone is dead. Whilst in Austin, I left it on the bed beside a bottle of this sweet sickly sugary sh*t they were giving away free, the bottle cap wasn’t on properly, and I turned round 5 minutes later to find my iPhone floating in a puddle of juice. It is costing me £166 to get repaired, and I feel like my arm has been cut off. Or something.
- my tonsilitis is back with a vengeance
- i haven’t been swimming for like three weeks now (pool closed here / no pool in Austin / too busy doing stupid 10 hour days at work) and feel unfit and like I am the size of a house
- i send a text asking someone if they got anything nice on Valentine’s Day - get a response, and then text back confessing… no response back
All these things have me pissed off really….. anyway, in other news….
….we all went out for Leah and Dave’s birthday on Saturday night. Annoyingly, the bars closed at 12 because of Easter Sunday, so there’s something else for me to moan about while I’m in a moaning mood.
Sunday in Austin, and our last day there. South by Southwest had pretty well finished by now - the streets were a lot quieter, the convention center had been completely tidied, and the doors were locked, and that was left was flyers for bands nailed to lampposts. This was a day off for us guys, so after a quick bit of editing, I met up with my Mum and Dad, who had travelled down from Dallas and booked the night in a local hotel. We went to a mall (yay!) where I got some new clothes. Mum and Dad kindly bought me a jacket from Armani Exchange as well to make up for my iPhone disaster which I’ll write about in a seperate post.
It was Dad’s 60th birthday just after I was going back to Dallas, so at night we went out for a meal at a nice and very fancy restaurant. When they overheard me saying it was Dad’s birthday, they presented him with a little surprise (above) - which was nice. I let him eat it all himself, but my Mum couldn’t help tucking in a bit!
After dinner, I waved goodbye to Mum and Dad and went and joined Leah and Gary and Feargal at Emo’s for the South by Southwest official closing party. They had some brilliant acts on. First up was a heavy-metal Bee Gees tribute band called Tragedy. Now you would think that would suck big time, but actually no - they were really, really good - that’s them in the pic above. “How Deep Is Your Love” was my favourite. After that they had live karaoke, with a band who’s name I can’t remember. Leah and I were very nearly tempted to go up and sing, until we heard the quality of the other singers. One guy sang Cheap Trick’s “I Want you to Want Me” which was totally amazing, and then a girl got up and sang Nena’s “99 Red Balloons” and after that Leah and I decided that we weren’t really up to the required standard for singing on stage. Looking back on it I wish I had though! I really, really wanted to get completely wasted that night, but I dunno - maybe it’s because I’d been eating junk for a week, or maybe I was just wrecked from concentrating on editing all day, but I just couldn’t summon the energy, and Feargal had to be up early the next day to catch his flight home.
So that was the end of my South by Southwest trip. To be honest, there’s no denying I enjoyed the chance of working abroad for a week - the weather was brilliant. The only thing was I really feel I didn’t make the most of the week as I was stuck editing all the time. I missed a load of acts that I wanted to see - Robyn, Annie, MGMT and N*E*R*D - and only saw three bands which we weren’t filming. That’s out of over 1800 bands playing there. I also found out when I got home that I’d missed a Rachael Ray music showcase where she was providing seven layer sliders! I’d really love to go back and just enjoy the experience for what it is. Or not have the pressure of having to get it ready to transmit the Monday after we got back. If I hadn’t had to edit, I would have got a lot more out of the week I think.
Still - I was lucky enough to get there - hopefully I’ll get to go back next year as well! We did have a bit of a palava getting back, but that story is way too boring to get in to.
If you’re in the UK, you can watch ATL TV’s South by Southwest special (i.e. the show I was making out there) on the BBC iPlayer until March 31st here.
South by Southwest - day 5!
26Mar08
Ok, Saturday - day 5 at South by Southwest! Again, more editing in the hotel room, and then at night, I went to meet up with the guys. They’d spent the day at a pool and BBQ party in the country which made me insanely jealous, but apparently there weren’t that many good looking girls there in bikinis, so maybe I didn’t miss that much.
At night, we were filming a great band from Northern Ireland called Oppenheimer, as they played the Time Out NY / Virgin Megastores showcase at Emo’s. That was quite a big showcase for them to scoop. They’re already on tour supporting They Might Be Giants, so are doing pretty well Stateside. So we filmed their set, and did a quick interview with them afterwards. They are really cool guys, and very down to earth - I’d met them before when we filmed a session with them for ATL TV back in Belfast (which you can see here).
After we said goodbye to Oppenheimer (who had to jump in a car for a 20 hour drive to L.A.!) we met up with my mate Leah from Belfast and her boyfriend Gary, who was over doing some audio work for BBC Radio 2 / 6 Music. We had a bit of a drink in the Hilton, which is apparently where lots of deals are done during South by Southwest, but I didn’t see anyone famous there. I was completely knackered by this point, so after an hour wait and a walk up to 8th street, I managed to get a taxi back to the hotel.
Emo’s definitely gave us the coolest stamp of the week though - as below - I didn’t want to wash it off ‘cos I though it was pretty cool.
South by Southwest - day 4!
26Mar08
Well I have fallen waaaay behind with this sorry. Obviously I’m writing this after I got back to Belfast, but it’s just been manic since I got back, and I’m just in the middle of my first lot of days off in three weeks (unless you count one day off in Austin). Anyways, I’m now up to Friday in my South by Southwest adventures. To be honest, Friday was pretty quiet for me. Yet again I was stuck in the hotel room editing away like a madman, while the other guys like Feargal (above) were out doing filming at a Northern Irish music party.
In the evening though I got to head out and meet up with the guys, as we were filming at a Music from Ireland showcase at the Soho Lounge on 6th street. We were meant to be filming two bands, Channel One and Fight Like Apes, but in the end we only filmed one, as there were a production team from the US set up there with a four camera Z1 set-up, so we just did a deal to get their footage. We had a hard time finding a FLA song for use in the show which didn’t feature the C or F words in a 45″ clip.
Anyways, we had to hang around until 1.45am to get the last bit of footage, so in the meantime, Jim, Feargal and I went next door to the Mekong River and had a satisfactory vietnamese meal. Annoyingly I had to skip any fish as I still haven’t heard back on my allergy tests.
I think I maybe got a bit tipsy for once in the trip that night - don’t think I was too bad, but I was beginning to get pretty knackered by now. I do remember approaching a girl in the Soho Lounge and getting blanked while her ugly mate started chatting. I made my excuses and left.
I have a video below which stars Feargal and shows you how manic 6th Street was on the Friday night. It doesn’t look that busy, but believe me it was pretty crazy out there!
P.S. See how many girls you can count in that video below. I make 2 - which was typical. Hardly any women!
South by Southwest - Day 3!
16Mar08
Day 3 at South by Southwest baby! I can honestly say the weather has been brilliant this week - it’s been around 95° every day, which is very nice.
Thursday then was to have the same pattern as the next couple of days for me really. Rigsy, our presenter, Feargal and Jim, our cameraman went out filming every day while I was stuck in the hotel room editing away. So I basically felt like I was missing out on everything, but unfortunately because the show we’re filming will go out really soon after we get back, I have no choice but to start cutting interviews and performances as we go. So they got to go off and film with Radio One at a British Music Embassy Barbecue and hang around town while I was stuck in my room. Boo!
I did get some time in the morning though to walk 20 minutes down a highway to get to the nearest McDonald’s and get a sausage McGriddle. Woohoo! Why don’t they do them at home? Actually it’s probably a good thing cos it’s like half your fat intake for the day or something anyway.
So after that, I spent the whole day editing away in my room 
Night-time made up for it though - I went in and met the other guys for some dinner, and then we went to another music showcase, and caught a band that are absolutely brilliant. They’re from Iceland and are called FM Belfast. You can download their single on their Myspace page here, but they’re unsigned at the moment which is both criminal and annoying, as it means you can’t get any of their other tracks.
Rigsy had heard of the band a while back, and become a fan, but I have to say it was not only their music, but their performance that won me over. They were just totally fantastic, and full of energy, and very funny. Their lead singer, Lóa is totally hot as well and I think I fell in love with her a bit that night. We interviewed the guys after the show, and they were just as funny then as they were on stage. Very nice people.
So that was our Thursday at SxSW. You can see our presenter Rigsy’s video diary on the programme’s Bebo page.
South by Southwest - Day 2
16Mar08
Day two at South by Southwest! And I have got a bit behind with this so have some catching up to do!
Wednesday was our first day filming - so we went off to a Belfast / Nashville Sister City party to hear and film some Northern Irish acts performing. The main attraction for a lot of people there seemed to be Foy Vance. He is a one man act but uses clever looping stuff while performing so he can do his own backing vocals and stuff. It’s kind of hard to describe.
Anyway, after filming his performance, we grabbed an interview with him - in the pic above.
That was our first day filming done really - as there was not a lot going on for us on Wednesday. So we headed back to the hotel, I started digitising footage, and then we headed into town again for dinner.
After that we headed to a bar called Antone’s to see the Domino Records showcase. They are home to Franz Ferdinand amongst others. So we managed to catch Sons and Daughters (a Scottish band, above) and The Kills. Feargal and I had massive black Xs put on our hands as we had forgotten our ID and were therefore not allowed to drink. After ten minutes of solid licking and rubbing though, I was able to get the X off my hands. Hoorah!
We were all pretty knackered by this point in the evening, so headed back to the hotel.
