I need some recommendations of good upbeat music! Most of my collection is chillout stuff, which is great for curling up on the sofa and reading a good book, but doesn’t help much when I need energy to be productive!
I’ve tried using “similar style” recommendations on iTunes, Amazon, etc… but nothing beats a music tip-off from a friend!
So what’s on your favourite playlists?
I have to smile and stop to watch for a minute every time that show is on. It’s such a feel-good show! They build amazing houses in so little time and with the help of so many people, it’s crazy!
Can they build me a house that size please?
The BBC Magazine brings up an issue that has been bobbing around quite a bit recently…
Advertising has creeped into every part of our life. We don’t even blink anymore when a movie’s plot is centered around a commercial product. (Think Cast Away and FedEx?) But now, this has become a regular occurence on TV in the US, through blatant placements like Coca Cola drinks in American Idol, and the taboo in Britain seems to be melting away.
The new series of 24 is sponsored heavily by Ford. There was discussion as to whether this would affect the British screening of the show . The key reasoning to let it slide was that it did not affect the plot.
The argument to allow more and more flexibility in product placement now goes beyond the original attempt at “creating realism” in tv shows. (Picture a show where every pub is full of bottles of beer says “BEER” and kitchens full of boxes saying “CEREAL”. You’re laughing? That’s how it used to be!)
The argument is this: TV advertisers believe the advent of personal video recorders (PVRs) such as Sky+, which are also increasingly available on other platforms like Freeview, spell doom for their trade because they make fast-forwarding through commercial breaks a doddle.
The power money can have over the plot of a story or the integrity of a show mixing entertainment and facts is going to prove dangerous. We’ve already seen how easily American TV decisions can be swayed by cold hard cash. Now, it’ll be a test of whether TV producers in Britain choose morals and genuine story lines over easy money through Corrie’s big bad guy popping by McDoodoo’s for a yummy lunch. (Hey gimme a break, I don’t watch soaps and don’t know what the characters are called!)
Check out Brand Channel to find out which brands are shown in which recent movies. Did you actually spot that many when you watched the movie? Probably not, yet the placement was working its magic on you!
Following Jamie’s School Dinners tv series, the British government is finally reacting to the needs for better food in school cafeterias.
Chef Jamie Oliver has welcomed the government’s extra £280m to tackle the school meals “crisis” in England. At least 50p will be spent on each primary school lunch and 60p in secondaries. Some primaries currently spend as little as 37p on ingredients.
Cynics will say the money will go to the private caterers and never really reach the plates of the students or that Jamie is doing it for personal publicity. Yeah, sure! Both of those comments have truth to them, but how many parents and children will look for chicken breasts rather than re-formed chicken next time they shop for chicken nuggets after seeing Jamie’s presentation on what’s in those nuggets? A good few will at least have the memory looming about when choosing!
Awareness of health and eating habits is a start. Now, it’s up to the parents to teach their kids what good food is, both at school and at home!
Today feels like the most amazing day. I’ve taken it as holiday so I could relax at home a bit and do some much needed clearing up.
My song of the day is the Super Preachers’ I Feel Happy. Yes, it’s the one used in the Ambrosia Custard “Happy Tummies” advert. It just makes me smile. You can download it for free from the Super Preachers’ website if you’re interested.
I posted a link to the fantastic Golf GTI ad the other day, and now the BBC goes behind the scenes.
Finally, an explanation on how they created the ad!
It’s the beginning of the campfest!
Tonight, it’s time for Britain to decide who’s going to represent the country at the Eurovision contest in May. It’ll be interesting if Jordan… no sorry, Katie makes it through and performs for Britain. She’s got a perfectly camp song that Europe will love (even though I can’t stand it).
Looking forward to seeing what kind of rubbish the other countries can come up with this year!
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Update:
So Javine Hilton, also known as “The girl who didn’t make it into Girls Aloud in Pop Stars: The Rivals because she looked like she’d been signed by someone else but turns out she hadn’t and was just unlucky”, will be representing Britain in May with her Touch My Fire song. It’s terribly reminescent of last year’s winners from Ukraine, yet it seems to be the right mix of campness and skimpyness to win. Hopefully next time, she won’t be showing her nipples when hugging Terry Wogan!
Jamie’s School Dinners shows the junk food culture in schools and the unbelievable lack of education kids have towards food and health. Most of them didn’t manage to recognize rhubarb, a leek or an asparagus. They ate Turkey Twizzlers and stayed away from anything that wasn’t processed, with added fat and/or full of sugar.
Dear ol’ Jamie Oliver (aka Mr. Salad Man) decided to attack the bad habits and teach the kids all about good food. It took a long time to convince them to even taste a piece of organic chicken or a bite of asparagus, but in the long run, kids not only enjoyed eating healthier, they even got involved in a bit of cooking!
It’s frightening to think children are surviving on reformed chicken nuggets and smiley-face-shaped chips (french fries for the north americans). I’m not planning on having children aaaaaanytime soon, but the idea of my child eating such junk all day long is very worrying! Kids seem to be growing in width faster than they’re growing in height!
The fact that Jamie cooked the school dinners in question on the same 37p per head budget that is used in schools across the area proved that eating well doesn’t have to be more expensive.
Damn, I love my food too much to want to subsist on Turkey Twizzlers and Dr. Pepper! Bring on the Maple & Mustard Basted Pork Roast!
We left Friday night and made it down to Brighton in record time, considering everyone expected the snow to cause traveling to grind to a halt. It was a nice chilled out evening in with Lisa, Stu and the cats… oh and the bottles of wine, boys? 😉
Saturday, we lazed all morning, enjoying Stu’s fantastic (almost) full English breakfast. Later on, with an uncertain sky and the occasional snow flurry that appeared very out of place in the Brighton landscape, we headed into town for some shopping. My attempt at finding a new coat was just as fruitless as Andrew’s attempt to find new shoes, but it was a good afternoon nonetheless.
As the afternoon was coming to an end, the other Andrew (aka Hodgson) joined us for a prospective evening of fun, food and music. We booked a table at Moshi Moshi and headed into town for a few drinks before dinner. Since Hodgson was feeling adventurous, I encouraged him to have the same “Gourmet Selection” of sushi I was having, even though he admitted never trying sushi before. As the pictures in the gallery tell, I thoroughly enjoyed my meal. It was the biggest plate of sushi I’d ever had and must say neither me or Mr. H managed to finish it all up, but it was DELICIOUS! The salmon was sooo fresh!
So once the meal was over, we rolled out of there on our big bellies and Lisa decided to go home. I was a bit bummed she’d miss out on LAL, but turns out, being home in bed might have been the better option. As LAL wasn’t on until past midnight at Enigma, we went for a drink at the most bizarre pub/club I’ve ever seen below the club. The atmosphere wasn’t great for anyone still in the realm of sobriety so we headed upstairs to see the gig I’d been looking forward to for a few months.
When Rose, the singer from LAL, arrived, I went to say hi and let her know the Canadian support was in town. She confessed the tour had been rather tiring and she wasn’t in best singing health, so she wouldn’t be doing many songs. What a shame, but fair enough, I understood how a month-long tour across Canada and Europe could take its toll on her. But even with warning, I was sorely disappointed by the show LAL put on. Moonstarr had set the mood with the crowd and people seemed to be enjoying the tunes, but LAL didn’t manage to keep it going. The small stage-cum-dancing-platform emptied and people just stood around bobbing their heads, unsure of what to do. Rose stayed behind the DJ booth, and the sound was so badly balanced, if I hadn’t paid attention, I wouldn’t have noticed there was anyone singing live in there! To add insult to injury, the DJ, who I assume was Murr, seemed to have difficulties beatmatching, a painful reminder of Ottawa’s amateur open-decks nights.
I can’t lie, the show wasn’t up to scratch. No one in the club last night will have thought “wow, LAL is great, I’m going to buy their album and see them live again!”, and it pains me to say that. I love both albums to death, that hasn’t changed. And I thought Rose was a real sweetheart when we got to chat, but someone has to tell them they owe music lovers a good show, however much effort it takes. She did say that in June, she would be back to London with the full band, rather than only herself and Murr. I can imagine it’ll be a good show, but whether I’ll be willing to make the trip to London and risk being disappointed a second time, that’ll remain to be seen.
Overall, a lovely weekend of food, drinks and friends. Just a shame about the music, really… Now that we’re home, snuggling up on the sofa with a good book sounds like the best way to end the weekend!
GenieLab‘s music recommendation system is the answer to my constant whining that I don’t have enough music, and don’t know what new material to add to my collection.
You rate your favourite artists and get recommendations through the system’s predictions of what else you might like, based on other people’s ratings. Tons of interesting names come up, accompanied by descriptions from Amazon and iTunes. At the moment, there isn’t quite a wide enough range of ratings to get accurate recommendations beyond the top pop music, but the more the system is used, the better it will get.
I’ve already found a few artists of interest on there, so I may add new names to my iPod’s regular playlist soon!
Great deal for the owner who must get a small commission for every music purchase people make on Amazon, iTunes and MSN Music (never heard of that one!) but as, for the first time in ages, this is run by an individual rather than by a mega-corp, I say thumbs up, why not support it!
that canadian girl 