iTunes and Spotify . . .EAR heaven . . .

Life is good . . . there's more on SPOTIFY at

http://www.spotify.com/en/

After a year and a half of MacBook Pro ownership I'm doing two wonderful things for the first time . . . listening to FREE Spotify streaming '60's rock tracks (Cream, Doors, Brian Auger and more . . .) as I dump sixty CD's of music into iTunes. Whoosh, it is fast, about three minutes an album . . . I can't imagine why I never thought of doing it before . . . I did put 100 albums as mp3 onto my PC laptop, but without iTunes, it was a whole lot more difficult to arrange the music and listen to it . . . have you discovered Spotify . . . ?? Find out about iTunes at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes_Store

Do you use iTunes ?? Tell all.

Broadband fixing

It worked fine for six days. then it slowed to nothing. Re-booting didn't fix it. It took forty-five minutes to find a telephone number for bt (it's the phone company, but they've not got a help number on the bill ! ). SIX telephone connections later I found out that I had ADSL2+, not old-fashioned broadband. And, that means it broadcasts wirelessly on different channels. Eleven of them. And, the nice lady on the phone helpline in India told me how to access the innards of the router from the laptop (Yes, I had it plugged in with an RJ45 lead at this moment. It was 'ip address' stuff, change the password, and change the preferred broadcast channel). Channel 6 was not good, but Channel 11 works real good. Pull the RJ45 lead out and 'hey presto !!' wireless super-fast loading again !!

Find out more at

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/guide/howitworks/

It's that easy. Anyone can do it. It's just that I had to speak to five dummies at bt before I got the one who knew what she was doing. Ask for Anjulie when you call.

That darn RANKIN man . . .

I almost forgot . . . Rankin starts tomorrow from 10am to 8pm and runs until 18th Sept

RANKIN's doing his shoot of 1,000 people in The Old Truman Brewery. Find out more online at

http://www.ephotozine.com/exhibition/shoot-me--rankin--2567

7 - 7 memorial in Hyde Park . . .

We went for a look at it, as it's just been unveiled. There's a link at The Telegraph about the ceremony, see

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/architecture/5767512/77-Memorial-in-Londons-Hyde-Park.html

Very moving, but there's not a lot to say about the outrage on that day. I could only manage a few minutes hanging around and strangely it took me five minutes to actually get close enough to walk in and read the columns and the plaque. There were a couple of sprays of summer flowers, and of course a few new London Plane trees added to the existing groves around the monument. It's near the 'Queen Mum' gates at Hyde Park corner. Worth a visit, as it made me stop everything and contemplate . . .

FABULOUS ART DECO de la Warr Pavilion

You can read all about it at

http://www.dlwp.com/building/

I went with the Islington Art Society on Saturday, and yes, it's lovely. I used to be a builder, and knew a bit about Art Deco. Last year, when our class went to the Brighton Biennale, I think the de la Warr was a venue for one of the exhibitions, but I never went as it's about six miles from Brighton. I should have gone then, shouldn't I have . . .

I used the Canon EOS 350 DSLR with the 24-105 constant f4 lens. Exposures were from 1/30th to 1/800th second. The weather was the best, and the light was crisp. A swift warm breeze capped it all. These images are, of course, shrunk for the blog, but are also panoramae made in 'photomerge' in Adobe; the 24 mm lens was incapable of capturing the width of the building shapes and contours, up close . . . I was only there for an hour, but I'll find a reason to go back . . . yes, there was also a Joseph Beuys exhibition, pretty interactive and wonderful in its own way . . .

PHOTOGRAPHY at the V and A

I've loved it since I first saw it in a book a couple of years ago. And there it was, big as you please and stuck on the wall in Gallery 38a at the V & A. And not just Mr Robert Frank, there also Lorca diCorcia, McCullin, Sarah Pickering (she came to college two years ago and gave a talk), Thomas Ruff (Deutsch Neue Perspective and German School of Objectivity, isn't it ?), Tony Ray Jones, and more about whom I know less.

I've just remembered there's a tiny print by Dorothea Lange, 'White Angel Bread Line', of which it is said that on the day she took this shot, she shut up her fashionable studio and went out to work for the FSA, shooting the American Depression. Do you buy that ?

However, there's also Mr Gustav le Gray, from the 1860's. He did two photo negatives for his landscapes, one for the sea or the ground, and another for the sky. His skies all look good, when no-one else's did, because he could expose differently for each component. Too nerdy, eh, and it's at the V & A for a while. Check it out at

http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/photography/index.html

If you get tired of only fifty images to see in 38a, there's always the Photography archive way up on the top floor. Bring your cotton gloves . . .

SERPENTINE - What a place . . .

Yes, I know, I'm supposed to be checking out photographic exhibitions in London, but there I was next to the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park, and I discovered Jeff Koons. He uses aluminium cast and made to look like inflatable beach toys, and his paintings are in oil, but look EXACTLY like a screen print having JUST THE CORRECT DEFINITION to be an inkjet print. it's on until September, but don't sneeze in there; it's tiny and you're about two inches from each exhibit . . .














It's a pavilion at The Serpentine Gallery, and its been designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, of SANAA. I saw it through the gallery window, and fell in love. Reflective undersides, and a varying ceiling height make it a whole lot of fun for kids and everyone wanting a wild photo standing next to themselves. See what you think . . .

http://www.serpentinegallery.org/

EXCITING Vigeland sculpture park -

Who would have guessed that Oslo has one of the loveliest sculpture parks in the whole wide world. It's at

http://members.cox.net/c.kau/Vigeland/

on the 'Net, and I think I must see it myself. it's just been described in a book I'm reading, called 'Enthusiams' (ISBN 051755352X )

What do you think ?

Democracy is fragile . . .

My MP Jeremy Corbyn, Labour, for Islington North at

http://www.jeremycorbyn.org.uk/

came to speak at our local ward meeting last evening. It was just a low-key reponse after the Euro-elections last Thursday. You know, the one where less than 10 % of the electorate voted Labour, the BNP got their first European MEP's and the Tories swept the board with new Conservative councillors and councils all over the UK.
There was scope for anguish and despair there. We took a different tack at the meeting. Yes, of course Parliament and the legislative process must address the MP's allowances row which has overshadowed all other political debate ever since the Telegraph broke the scandal weeks ago.
Jeremy spoke for a half hour, about the parliamentary Labour party meeting with Gordon Brown on Monday, and about the various activities in the two houses in the past week or two, and about the way that the party has lost its core philosophy under New Labour.
Orders-in-Council were mentioned as undermining the democratic process, in the same way that the Prime Minister's ability to appoint non-elected advisors and ministers to suit him or her took away the elected representatives' voice in Parliament. There were questions and commentaries from the fifty stalwart comrades, and we wound up after another hour of debate.
Jeremy said that we're looking ahead to a very interesting year in poitics. The chair mentioned a new book just out
The Life and death of Democracy by John Keane
I asked where we could find a forum to follow the arguments for and against the various new proposals for the reform of Parliament. Jeremy suggested

http://www.fabians.org.uk/

http://www.compassonline.org.uk/

democracy 88, which might be at http://www.rebound88.net/

the Tribune group, some info about which is at http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2009/02/12/labour-runs-in-city-of-london-poll-against-‘get-rich’-bankers/ and at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-mps-revive-tribune-group-as-challenge-to-blair-605792.html

Jeremy said that Labour offered the voters HOPE, whilst the rise of the extreme right (the BNP, and other extreme-right groups which benefitted from voter support right across Europe last week) would offer the electorate only FEAR. We have a valuable local constituency link between our local MP and the way he or she can deal with local issues which affect voters locally, as well as their ability to contribute to national legislation and debate.
This was compared and contrasted with the way the European MEP's are elected; that is, you vote for the party, not the candidate; proportional vote counting allows the selection of an MEP who may have no links with you or your ideas, which is what happens in the Netherlands and elsewhere. Of course, democracy works there as well, but here in England we know who we are voting for; if they win the election, we can talk to them about our problems in their weekly surgery. They will listen to our concerns and act on our behalf.
To overcome the current state of voter apathy and disgust, the Parliamentary process must address local issues. An early debate on these issues is needed, so that when the election finally rolls up in a year's time, local people have been involved in the discussions about how to reform our democratic process.
Better than watching telly.

How a nasty man got away with it the first time . . .

Often, a heinous crime is too horrible to repeat the details of . . . it's that convicted serial sex attacker Reid, the one who got away with assault and sexual assault 100 times . . .
Kathy Lette was on a jury about fifteen years ago, which acquitted Reid, on the basis of the evidence and the judge's directions. Court procedure was mystifying to the jurors, which may have aided the defendant. The victim's life fell apart. Read more at
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/tax/article6446607.ece

You can find out more about Ms Lette at
http://www.kathylette.com/