I missed him at the Deaf Institute so I went to go and see Kevin Devine at Welsh Club this week in Cardiff. I was going to write a review, but I will instead use visual and audio means to accurately portray just how good he was. Everyone sat down like it was an assembly and Kevin was the teacher, telling us a fable. Or something like that. Anyway here’s a recording of him playing a cover of the classic Bob Dylan song ‘The Man in Me’ from the film The Big Lebowski and also playing his final song, a christmas track:
And here is a video I took of him playing the single ‘I Could Be With Anyone’ off his new album Brother’s Blood, enjoy;
In one of my favourite television programmes The Thick Of it the minister Hugh Abbott says: “It’s very difficult to be the one who has to put his guns down first, because people usually see it as a reason to jump up and down and your head like it’s a ripe watermelon.” Or something close enough.
This morning Google announced that they are to introduce their First Click Free policy, but is this just the first step on the road to Rupert Murdoch getting what he wants, that all content that his newspapers produce has to be paid for and cannot be accessed through aggregators?
It is certainly dangerous for Google to have made the first move like this. In their words “First Click Free is a great way for publishers to promote their content and for users to check out a news source before deciding whether to pay. Previously, each click from a user would be treated as free. Now, we’ve updated the program so that publishers can limit users to no more than five pages per day without registering or subscribing”, but users have become so used to getting as much content as they want for free how is it possible to put the genie back in the bottle? Surely people will only ever pay for something if they cannot get it somewhere else for free?
This was a question asked of us by Rob Andrews, the UK Editor at Content Next covering the digital media for Paid Content. The site was set up by Rafat Ali in 2002 and its credo is:
The company’s news sites chronicle the economic evolution of digital content that is shaping the future of the media, information and entertainment industries. Our belief is that in the near future, all media will be digital media, and we are helping define sustainable business models and innovation within this sector.
Being a trainee newspaper journalist contained in there is quite a scary thought, that the presses will stop running, and all the hacks will be out of a job. But it’s not like that, its naive to think like that. Newspapers are evolving, reporters are evolving and although right now the future is not clearly mapped out and yes we are still on the downward part of the curve after all the doom and gloom that newspapers are in a moribund state etc etc I think that with people like Rob Andrews its possible for newspapers to live on, even if the genie is out of the bottle for good. By developing online strategies and building on successes like the Financial Times website newspapers may be able to stay alive, maybe.
They may end up being switched off but it's not the end for newspapers
But back to Google and Murdoch; Rory Cellan-Jones said in his blog today this announcement can be seen as Round One to Murdoch, but theres a long way to go in this battle. Where it will end….. well isnt that the fun?
Whoops, been a while since ive done one of these, not really keeping to my schedule, but here goes:
Well, well, well, a very interesting weekend indeed. It started, as it often does, with a wet Friday night Sale Sharks game at Edgely Park, except this time, some southern jessies didnt want to play because it was a bit drizzly and they might get their stilettos caught in the Stockport mud. By the time the players should have been coming out onto the pitch around 7.30pm the Wasps team were back on the coach to Watford. This is the third season in a row that Wasps have been involved in a late postponement to a match, and Premier Rugby is to fully investigate why Wasps refused to play on a pitch that referee David Rose had declared fine for the match to go ahead.
A typical Wasps player unwilling to play in slightly adverse conditions
It shows a complete disregard for the rules and a lack of thought for the 8,000 fans that had braved the inclement weather to watch them. Wasps may point to the fact that Stockport County’s match was called off as well the following day, but with all due respect that is football, and not rugby, and at least the Stockport cancellation was a decision by match officials well in advance of kick-off. I think considering Wasps’ actions they have basically thrown the game and Sale should therefore be given a the full five points.
Moving on to football, Manchester City have now had more draws thrown their way than Tom Jones (oh yes, I went there). Seven in a row is getting faintly ridiculous, and is seeing City fall off the pace in the league after genuine high ambitions earlier on. The problem for me is they are unable to keep a clean sheet when they score themselves. I have issues with their back four, not only the fact that they have been thrown together like a band of mercenaries and expected to get along like Bruce and Pallister, but with their top-level credentials. Kolo Toure is a great athlete but can be positionally weak and Lescott is a natural defender but lacks concentration. Between them they cost City goals, and points. They are not helped by a team that is light on defensively minded players ahead of them but the fact is that if they are to be competing for the highest positions they need to be holding out against teams like Hull, not being pegged back for a draw.
This is of course what happened, with City taking a late first-half lead through a Shaun Wright-Phillips goal. But the best moment of the game came as Jimmy Bullard put away his penalty to make the scores 1-1 and celebrated by imitating his manager’s infamous half-time on-pitch teamtalk in the corresponding fixture last season. It was a hilarious way to excercise the cloud that had been hanging over them since that day, when they began their free fall last season that nearly saw them relegated.
Finally on to Manchester United, who beat a struggling Portsmouth 4-1 in a scoreline that flatters them somewhat. Portsmouth caused United plenty of problems but unfortunately for them they failed to put away the great 1st half chances they carved out, Aruna Dindane being guilty of three bad misses. United went in front with a (slightly dubious) Rooney penalty, only to be pegged back when Portsmouth scored a penalty of their own through Kevin Prince-Boateng. United played better in the second-half, with Giggs putting in another great performance after a few weeks looking a bit off his usual high standards. He set Rooney up for a simple finish to put United back in front then was fouled for the penalty that gave Rooney his hat-trick and then rounded off a performance that Rooney likened to that of a 26 year-old rather than one about to turn 36 with a great free-kick late on. That was his 100th premier-league goal, and confirms what i wrote when i named him my sporting icon of the decade.
The win put United within two points of Chelsea until they thumped Arsenal yesterday, and I think any United fan should start to get worried about the Chelsea juggernaut rumbling forward to the title. They are not only grinding out wins but thumping teams as well, and United are not playing that well, and are doing just enough to hang on to their coat-tails. Fergie says he wants to be within a point of the league leaders by the new year, good luck.
Both Manchester clubs play in the league cup this week so look out for a post about the games on Thursday.
Recently myself and other trainee journalists put together a list of sporting icons, mine was Ryan Giggs (you can still vote here), and now we have moved on to The Album of The Decade. This is my choice:
The Strokes – Is This It
In 2001 I remember everyone was talking about this new band from New York, and how they were set to change indie music forever. I hate hyperbole and reckless praise being showered on the ‘next big thing’ and I didnt really get involved with The Strokes even when I walked into Ourprice aged 13 and ‘Is this It’ had gone straight in at No1. I then got given a copy by my dad with a knowing look and realised that for the most part, it was all true what they said.
I was going to write about The Libertines first album, or Ryan Adams’ Gold, but every time I thought about the music that defined the decade I couldnt get this video out of my head, it is so good it blows everything out of the water. In it, a 23-year old Julian Casablancas manhandled his mic stand, eyed the camera with a hypnotic mix of rage and anxiety, tugged at his jacket as if he was about to burst. At one point, Casablancas swatted his mic down and left the stage in a huff only to return exactly as guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr. wrapped up a brief solo. The chaos, the control. The opening lyric sums it up: “Leave me alone, I’m in control”. The performance showed The Strokes at full tilt, and Casablancas even falls over and still looks cool. They showed what a rock band should look, sound, and feel like in a new millennium.
This album is jaunty, scruffy, carefree and accomplished. All 11 tracks on Is This It are straight-ahead, ebullient, desire-fuelled guitar music. They are typified by the lyrics of Someday:
Oh, My-ex says I’m lacking in depth
Say I will try my best
You say you wanna stay by my side
Darlin’, your head’s not right
See, alone we stand, together we fall apart
Yeah, I think I’ll be alright
I’m working so I won’t have to try so hard
Tables, they turn sometimes
These songs revolve around frustrated relationships and hectic lives fueled by adventure, never coming near to approaching anything that might resemble insight. Yet, with Casablancas’ self-assured, conversational delivery, and the almost primal energy of the four guys backing him, attention shifts from the simply present lyrics to the raging wall of melody these guys bang out like it’s their lifeblood. It isnt just the lyrics, its everything about them, they sound like a collective, who come together and act as one, propelling themselves forward as one. They are not ‘awe-inspiring’, ‘god-like’ or any of the other ridiculous epithets that were poured onto them when they came out. They were not the new Rolling Stones, they were a rock band. And Is This It is just a great rock record, pure and simple. They have no laser sounds, no ethereal reverb, no pre-programmed Aphex beats, just the drawling narratives of singer Julian Casablancas, the clanging of Albert Hammond Jr and Nick Valensi’s guitars, the uncomplicated recording, bassist Nikolai Fraiture and drummer Fabrizio Moretti joyfully getting on with the business of making music.
For me, great music should be about boiling down everything until all you are left with is the essence of music. Yes, of course theres a place for massive overblown, overlayered, overproduced music that exemplifies everything that is possible in music, and thats wonderful. But music, deep down is about the base emotions that it invokes, and The Strokes prove that all you need to do that perfectly is to strip it all back and just play rock music. Give me Chuck Berry or Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs or Robert Johnson anytime. The Strokes kicked real rock music out of its slumber on both sides of the Atlantic and set the blueprint for pretty much every other indie band of this decade, they were that good. Anyone who says they are style over substance or gets put off by the fact that the NME gave them 10/10 and voted it album of the decade does not deserve Is This It anyway.
To sum up, Ryan Schreiber wrote on Pitchfork in 2001 : “Of course, none of this changes the fact that Is This It lacks the creativity and unconventionality inherent in any of the all-time great rock bands they’re so impulsively compared to. Still, the Strokes have struck an incredible balance between the two extremes of rock music: sentimentality and listlessness. Any sentimentality in these songs’ lyrics is countered by Casablancas’ self-reliant indifference, and his listless delivery is offset by the band’s fervid attack. Beyond that, it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly it is about the Strokes that keeps me listening. All I know is that it’s not easy to come by, and I like it. A lot.”
I couldnt have put it better myself. I will leave you with this:
Having written about my sporting icon of the decade Ryan Giggs and my fellow trainee journalist colleagues gave their nominations, here are the final ten for the vote so have your say on your favourite:
Not that I would try and influence your decision but go on, vote for Giggsy, you know you want to!
So it is really happening, Manchester is to get ID cards in two weeks time. Not quite sure why Manchester is the Guinea Pig for this initiative after the failure of the congestion charge, something about an above average amount of young people or something, but anyway heres my podcast on the debate:
Just a quick one this weekend as I’m far too busy (what an arse I sound) so here are 5 top musical based things to do in Manchester this weekend in no particular order:
1) The Chemical Brothers – Sankey’s; Tonight
I dont think I really need to hype this one up, it rather speaks for itself, the Chems are here to celebrate Bugged Out’s 15th year birthday, and all I can say is it is going to be big, very big, morbidly obese big.
2) La Roux and Zane Lowe – Warehouse Project; Saturday Night
Again not exactly a gig I have to hype up a tremendous amount La Roux is huge and Zane, our favourite antipodean Radio 1 DJ is always worth seeing, and I dont think you need a particular excuse to go to a Warehouse night this year, the general consensus id that this year it has been easily the best. Also one of my favourite bands at the moment Ou Est La Swimming Pool are also playing. My friend saw Tiga a few weeks back and he could barely speak for about 3 days. Go and see, please
3) Contort Yourself - The Roadhouse; Saturday Night
One of Manchester’s own, Contort Yourself are DJ’s who provide in their own words, “The best 8-bit-breaks, dance floor classics, punishing house and cosmic pop”. They are truly tremendous if you go to the Roadhouse I can guarantee you will have a good night* so check out their myspace and go along
4) Breakestra – Band On The Wall; Saturday Night
Breakestra are an LA based 8-piece funk and soul band who bring it hard, I’ve heard very good things about them, people have mentioned the names James Brown and Parliament to me, and it doesnt get much more funky than that. If you havent been to the BOTW since it was done up then this would be a good an excuse as any it looks great, and if you want to be funked silly (yes I did just say that) then head along
5) Datarock - Moho; Sunday Night
Datarock are awesome = fact. They may be crazy Norwegians with a list of band members that dwarfs the Polyphonic Spree but theyre blend of electro is right up my street, I cannot think of a better way of spending a Sunday night than absorbing some Datarock magic.
If you need any other listings please see my page on gigs
*obviously that was metaphorically speaking A N Other Manc cannot be responsible for you having a good night.
Chris Morris, he of Brass-Eye fame, has made a film, tentatively called Four Lions, but sometimes referred to as Boilerhouse.
Either way, it’s going to be explosive. Even for a man who starred in a TV show mocking the media’s coverage of pedophilia, this represents new levels of boundary-pushing in comedy.
The film is set to mock suicide bombers, in Morris’s own words, ‘The film will do for suicide bombers that Dad’s Army did for the Nazi’s’. Ouch.
Here is an e-mail describing what the film will have in store:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
In three years of research, Chris Morris has spoken to terrorism experts, imams, police, secret services and hundreds of Muslims. Even those who have trained and fought jihad report the frequency of farce. At training camps young jihadis argue about honey, cry for their mums, shoot each other’s feet off, chase snakes and get thrown out for smoking. A minute into his martyrdom video, a would-be bomber looks puzzled and says “what was the question again?” On millennium eve, five jihadis set out to ram a US warship. They slipped their boat into the water and carefully stacked it with explosives. It sank
Terrorist cells have the same group dynamics as stag parties and five a side football teams. There is conflict, friendship, misunderstanding and rivalry. Terrorism is about ideology, but it’s also about berks.
Four Lions is a funny, thrilling fictional story that illuminates modern British jihad with an insight beyond anything else in our culture. It plunges us beyond seeing these young men as unfathomably alien. It undermines the folly of just wishing them away or alienating the entire culture from which they emerge. It understands how terrorism relates to testosterone. It understands jihadis as human beings. And it understands human beings as innately ridiculous.As Spinal Tap understood heavy metal and Dr Strangelove the Cold War, Four Lions understands modern British jihadis.
~~~~~~~~~~
I think Morris is fantastic, but this time he may face a lynch-mob. The film hasnt exactly gone smoothly, with plans being in place for about 3 years to release it. No television network will touch it, and it looks as though it will have to be released at the cinema, with Film 4 picking it up earlier this year. It was filmed over the summer but the only the only screenshot I can find is this one.
I’ll keep you posted if I find anything more out this intriguing project, but for now I’ll leave you with some classic Chris Morris:
After Tinworth, Meadows, and now Rory Cellan Jones, I have been rather disappointed by my recent lecturers, but Friday marked a watershed moment.
We were spoken to by Mark Brayne, a self-confessed Psychlotherapist, whatever on earth that is, about trauma, in a lecture entitled; Reporting Trauma – Tragedy, Violence and Good Journalism. Now that didnt exactly get me salivating either, but it was extremely interesting, and quite possibly the best lecture we’ve had all term (though the competition sometimes leaves something to be desired).
It was interesting because it came at things from a different angle than others had, not surprising as Mr Brayne is a qualified psychotherapist, and it challenged us an audience much more than anyone had attempted previously. We have had a lecture on safety previously by Rodney Pinder, the Director of the International News Safety Institute, which was very informing (and slightly alarming) but this lecture looked at it from a more internal and personal aspect. He talked about how important ‘you’ are to a news story, you are the most important thing you take into the filed, without ‘you’ there is no news, sod the tape recorder, camera, Blackberry etc, without you the person there isnt news, so you have to think about yourself first.
Dear Diary; 'Still in Baghdad, still getting shot at, still alive, just.....'
But the thing I found most useful was his take on impartiality, one of the hot topics when it comes to traumatic stories. Brayne attacked mainstream media’s neutral stance on a lot of issues, saying; ‘Sometimes impartiality is an abdication of responsibility in reporting the story – just reporting one side and then the other isnt impartial when one side is definitely right – you need to make a stand sometimes.’
How refreshing. Ive had a lot of people talking about keeping the unblemished sanctity of impartiality of news in Britain compared with say Fox News in the US, and I agree it would be bad if News24 sounded like this:
But isnt it sometimes our duty as journalists and as people to write what we see, and if we see something a certain way, shouldnt we should write it as such? I think that is the most salient piece of advice I have been given as a journalism student so far.
Oh for a Mr Brayne lecture every week, even if his views on Climate Change are a wee bit apocalyptic.
So just recently we had a lecture from Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC technology correspondent, that was so riveting that I forgot to blog about it. But here is a copy of the notes that I made for you to see what I got out of it:
So yeah, good good, as I said last time, I’ll keep you posted
Rupert Murdoch has spent the whole of 2009 telling anyone who will listen, and a lot who didnt either, that news should be paid for, and is (against pretty much all the advice that is directed his way) forcing through pay-walls on the websites of his premier publications such as The Times.
His argument is, to precis it down, is that having all the content of newspapers on the internet for free is not making him any money. Murdoch likes making money, and he has been pretty good at making it for the last 50 years, and so he would like people to continue lining his pockets by paying for content.
His criticisms of news aggregators such as Google, and of the BBC’s (free) website has been well documented, but now it seems that one of his own publications, The Times no less, has used content drawn from another source without permission or payment for their own profit.
On Monday the actor Edward Woodward passed away, and the writer/director Edgar Wright, whom he directed recently in the film Hot Fuzz, wrote a tribute to him on his website. It can be viewed here
What then happened is the most blatant piece of article theft I have seen in my short journalistic career, The Times may as well have watched over Edgar’s shoulder as he wrote it and thought, ‘we could use that for tomorrows paper, I’m sure he wont mind’. Bloomberg covered the story by referencing the Edgar Wright article and quoting him as a source, see it here.
Not only did they steal the article for both print and online, they used a photo of Edgar Wright, and cut out large sections of the article changing the meaning and sentiment significantly. Understandably Edgar is not a happy man, as The Guardian reports here.
Edgar is not happy with Mr Murdoch
I dont know about you but doesnt it just strike you as being a rather stupid thing to have done by The Times? Unless this was a genuine mix-up where they thought they had clearance to print it, which seems unlikely, it just seems like arrogant and lazy journalism, and is not going to help convince people its worth paying for ’specialist content’ on The Times website if they just steal it from other people!
Hello, this is my 1st stab at recording a Podcast, you can judge for yourself if it is something I should continue with.
I recorded it on a train on my Iphone so the quality isnt perfect and you can hear the beep of the doors closing at a station at one point, and I have to finish it as the inspector comes round, but it’s not long so give it a listen, I discuss whether these days its possible to take on the important jobs in public office and not have it affect your wellbeing detrimentally. So here goes;
I don’t know why but I just cannot get enthused about digital story-telling as much as our most recent guest lecturer, Daniel Meadows. If my last Lecture just left me confused, then this one left me nonplussed. Mr Meadows was an interesting lecturer, and his stories about his time spent travelling round the country in a double-decker bus taking photos of people were engaging, but I didnt feel like any of it was any use to me.
The basic premise of Digital Story-Telling is that you can give people a platform to tell their own story, through the use of narrative, videos and pictures. The idea was picked up by the BBC and Meadows oversaw Capture Wales, that gave Welsh people a chance to make a short video and have it appear on the BBC’s website. Meadows showed us a couple of them in the lecture, but I just felt that they were pretty amateurish. I know thats the point but I’m trying to learn how to be a professional journalist, someone who doesn’t make films that look like they’ve been made by someone who’s barely computer literate. I think that such a platform for people to express themselves and their stories is fantastic and a worthy project, but its relevance for me? I’m not sure.
Next up is Rory Cellan-Jones of off the Beeb, I’ll keep you posted.
Monday. Oh the drudgery. The reason for malaise crawling all over my usually sunny disposition you might wonder is that we have just had an awful weekend of Manchester sport.
Friday saw Sale lose to an understrengthed Dragons side in the LV= Cup, Saturday saw Manchester City slide to a 5th straight draw against Burnley, and then in the big game on Sunday, United lost (undeservedly) to Chelsea, to Rooney’s obvious displeasure shown above.
Now I’m not going to get into the controversy surrounding the game, otherwise Ill lose a bet with Will Gilgrass, so I think Ill just say this weekend was rubbish, leave it that, not bother with an actual review and get back to other Mancunian matters, such as music:
A Place to Bury Strangers
Theres some really good music as ever should you fancy going to see it this weekend, and where better to start than with A Place to Bury Strangers. I saw them live last night in Cardiff and they were spectacular, Japandroids who were supporting them said prepare to have your faces melted off, and it was a pretty accurate description of how I felt after they finished their blistering set. The set was split into two parts: heavy, and incredibly heavy. The first half of the set was fantastic melody-driven metal, but the second half of the set was bathed in noise, dripping with distortion and pounding drums. They darkly dragged the audience through 20 minutes of strobe lights and scary metal. I absolutely loved it, and would heartily recommend going to see them on Saturday at Moho Live. Another reason to go would be the aforementioned Japandroids, who will be supporting them in Manchester. They are a Canadian two-piece who play brilliant guitar-tinged garage pop-punk-metal. Theyre brilliant live and plenty of people at the gig in Cardiff had come solely to see them, theyre that highly thought of.
Japandroids
I’m trying to give you a bit more of advance warning about gigs this week, whereas I usually wait until the day before to spring things upon you, I think it’s a sign of blogging maturity? Discuss. Anyway, I have been banging on at anybody who will listen about R O M A N C E including on this blog and they are finally playing a gig within a hundred mile radius of Manchester this Saturday (although not technically true they did play The Box in Crewe last weekend but who wants to go to Crewe, honestly) when the East London dark metal band play at The Flapper in Birmingham. Yes I know it takes 1hr40min on the train but you won’t be disappointed.
If not to make a decision any harder, Manchester’s own Vile Vile Creatures are playing at The Masque in Liverpool on Saturday night as well, what is one to do? Well you could see them at Islington Mill in Salford on Friday night, and I would again heartily recommend going to see this girl punk band, and this Artrocker article agrees with me. As an aside, if you ever venture down the Mersey to Liverpool then The Masque has some really good acts on, just this week they have Dananananaykroyd and Ou Est Le Swimming Pool on the same night.
Vile Vile Creatures
Other things to do and see:
The legendary Fall are playing two nights at Moho this week, Alice In Chains are playing at The Academy on Saturday, Faithless and Felix Da Housecat play this weekends Warehouse Project, Empirical, a really interesting Jazz band are playing Band on The Wall on Thursday night, and finally Sex With Robots do their usual thing at The Roadhouse tomorrow night. Phew, absolutely spoilt for choice this week, I love Manchester, and I love music, who needs sport anyway. In fact, I dont think Ive written about a United win yet, maybe if I stop they might start winning again? Discuss.
In my last online journalism lecture we were spoken to by Adam Tinworth, head of blogging at RBI, and the author of One man and his Blog, a man seemingly well qualified to talk to me and my fellow young bloggers, but I found what a lot of what he said went against what I thought I had learned about blogging in the short time I have been writing (and making a pretty ham-fisted attempt at it by all accounts), but I was willing initially to cede to a man who had been doing this a lot longer than me, and an awful lot more successfully I might add.
One of the things I had contention with was his focus on not giving blogs, and especially specialist blogs an opinion, but more to collate pertinent information and links and then distribute it to your readership. I can understand the principle, whereby the author has built up a certain amount of respect for their knowledge on a subject and the readers go to it in order to be informed of things around that topic, and this certainly makes sense for Adam, whose company focuses on B2B information, but for me I just don’t see it.
On my own shoddy blog about Manchester I have tries to simply collate information on where the best places are to go on a weekend such as during the Oxjam takeover, but I felt like writing like this was a little bit cold, detached, and failed to have any of my own imprint on it, which is kind of the whole point. If people wanted to just find out what was going on they could go to somewhere like CityLife (please don’t), but I want my readers to read my blog because I sift through all the listings, find out who is really worth going to see and say why, because I am trying to convey the idea that I know what people would want to see because I go to a lot of events and have built up a certain expertise (oh dear that sounds arrogant). So surely my opinion is central to my blogging?
Maybe I'm just confused
Well, I’m off to this week’s lecture now, hopefully this will clear everything up…………..
United scraped a draw against CSKA Moscow last night with a performance that will not have pleased Fergie before the big game on Sunday at Chelsea. United came back from 3-1 down to draw the game after some woeful defending both sides of half-time. The defence is beginning to become a bit of a problem for United at the moment, with Vidic sidelined, Ferdinand injured/out of form, and their deputies Brown and Evans shipping three goals against an average CSKA side. On the plus side United showed great spirit in coming back and have now qualified for the next round with two games to spare, and kept their unbeaten home record in Europe.
Akinfeev will have again impressed the watching Ferguson
United went behind after 25 minutes when Dzagoev scored from a tight angle when Van Der Sar should have done better. Owen then did well to pounce in the area and poke a tidy finish past Akinfeev four minutes later. Owen did however miss several chances throughout the game and was rather defensive in his post-match interview, again bringing up the England issue, admitting both that he would love to play for England again, whilst simultaneously saying that it doesnt bother him (does that make sense to anyone else?). United the went again behind after sloppy defending when Krasic got in behind United’s defence. They then found themselves 3-1 down after poor marking allowed Berezutski a free header at the back post from a free kick. United came back into the game with the introduction of new-father Rooney but with 6 minutes to go they were still 2 goals behind. A Scholes header from a Neville free-kick brough them back into it but it took a massively deflected Valencia shot to earn United a partly deserved draw. The big talking point was Darren Fletcher’s booking for diving when it was a clear-cut trip and penalty. It wasnt perhaps, as Ferguson said, the worst decision he had ever seen, but it would certainly have more focus on it if United hadnt rescued a point from the game. Ferguson is set to try and appeal, despite the current rules that deny a yellow card to be revoked post-match.
Overall, United have progressed to the knock-outs, they have rested a few players before the big game on Sunday, and they have to think they will only get better defensively from hereon, well I hope so. Liverpool tonight, could be an interesting time for the beleagured Benitez if they dont pull it out of the fire against Lyon.
The first of my weekly reviews of the weekend’s Manchester sport:
Starting with Sale Sharks they managed their first win in the Guiness Premiership since the opening round against a Gloucester team in similar trouble. Now I’m often heard defending the weather in our fair city but Friday nights at Edgeley Park are usually bitterly cold affairs, wet and windy with little chance of a decent game. In fact, they represent everything that people find disagreeable with the climate in Manchester but with the recent Heineken cup win over the Cardiff Blues and now Gloucester, perhaps it might just be worth the frostbitten toes and trip to Stockport.
Going to Edgeley Park? Bring a coat!
As for the game, Charlie Hodgson’s boot was the main difference, scoring 23 points including seven penalties. Sale contrived to let the game slip away in the second half despite only playing against a 14-man Gloucester, with Charlie Sharples being sent off for a dangerous tackle having come on himself for an injured Mike Tindall. Lee Thomas scored a try after neat work from Dwayne Peel but Voyce replied for Gloucester soon after. Hodgson forced Sale ahead with an accurate boot as Nicky Robinson dropped points for Gloucester. Sale were 22-11 ahead when Sharples tackled Marika Vakacegu in the air and got himself a deserved red card. Gloucester finished strongly with a try from James but 2 more penalties from Hodgson meant that Somerville’s late try only earned Bryan Redpath’s side a losing bonus point.
Hodgson once again bailed out Sale
The victory sends Sale up to 6th in the table and will ease some pressure on new head-coach Kingsley Jones but it merely papers over the cracks. The facts are that with 2 wins in 7 premiership games, Sale don’t look like challenging for play-offs, let alone win the league this year. And it’s fairly obvious to see why: in the Summer Sale lost Luke McCallister, Fernandez Lobbe and Sebastian Chabal from the playing staff, and Saint-Andre as coach. And in fairness, the replacements are just not the same calibre, as much as it pains me, Sale will continue to struggle, fortunately they arent as bad as Leeds.
On to the weekend’s football:
Berbatov produced a bit of class to break the deadlock
United didnt exactly produce fireworks but a win is a win in the Premiership these days, with all of the big four dropping points against opposition they would expect to beat this season. It took a lovely strike from Dimitar Berbatov to put united in front in the second half and a late Rooney strike wrapped up the points. But the performance was well below what Fergie would have wanted after the defeat last week against Liverpool. The defence still looks well below last season’s highs but United sit two points of the top with a chance to leapfrog Chelsea by beating them on Sunday, so I guess it’s not too bad a position to be in. Blackburn offered little attacking wise but were difficult to break down and were unlucky to not get a goal right at the end with a truly bad offside decision letting down Allardyce’s men. The strike by Berbatov will have been much appreciated by Fergie as his touch of class to break down stubborn opposition was exactly why he was bought.A win against CSKA Moscow tomorrow night will guarantee passage into the knock-outs of the Champions League, something Fergie always enjoys sorting out as soon as possible. But United still need to improve at both ends of the pitch if they are to be challenging come the end of the season.
Tevez was surprisingly quiet against Birmingham
As for City they could only pick up a goalless draw against a committed Birmingham team that will feel they should have picked up all three points. City relied on Shay Given produced a couple of great saves including from a McFadden penalty after Kompany hand-balled in the second-half. The result makes it four draws in a row now for Mark Hughes’ men which will worry a team with genuine title ambitions. They didnt look their usual fluid attacking selves, with Tevez not providing any impetus, and Santa Cruz not looking match-sharp. Hughes is obviously in a difficult position selection wise with his vastly expanded squad but I dont think the balance of the team he picked on Sunday was quite right, and a committed and well-drilled Birmingham side reduced them to few chances. City looked laboured on the ball and were nearly punished for losing the it in their own half, Barry being particular profligate but the lively Benitez was unable to beat Given. Its been said elsewhere but perhaps out of the millions City have spent those spent on the Irish keeper may be the most astute. Hughes needs to start winning games or risk dropping back into the chasing pack from the frontrunners.
Sale Sharks 28 – 23 Gloucester
Manchester United 2 – 0 Blackburn Rovers
Manchester City 0 – 0 Birmingham City
My next post will be a match review of United’s game against CSKA, or possibly about Online Journalism, who can say?
Not really, I think is the answer to the title’s question, but it’s a good title.
Twitter has really picked up speed in the last few months, and despite the view of some that it its micro-blogging style is of little relevance, with people merely tweeting about when they are going to have lunch, it is fast becoming the premier vehicle for social media.
Recent events such as the Iranian election, the Trafigura super-injuction issue and the Jan Moir debacle have showed the power that Twitter can wield. The important point for me about all of these incidents was the speed of which people moved on Twitter, moving at a quicker pace than anyone, governments, legal firms, even the conventional media could keep up. Now it seems AA Gill is to feel the Twitter wrath as well. There is even a whole section online about the tool’s notable usage.
I’m not really sure that many people could have seen this move coming when twitter was created just last year, but the rate of change in social media moves so quickly that it leaves little time to step back, assess and investigate where things are going, you simply have to keep moving inextricably forward. Evidence of this is that Twitter created a basic application, and without knowing where it would go they allowed other people access to its code to creat their own applications, and now there are dozens of them allowing Twitter to be used as a more powerful tool than could ever have been thought.
I don’t know all of them but here are some of the ones I have learnt to understand: Tools such as Twitter-Fall have been created to watch trending topics on Twitter, lists created on TweepML to follow specific groups of people, and TwitScoop to instantly see the buzz on the social media site. There is also Tweet-Deck, which allows instant updates from both Twitter and Facebook in one place, and helps pull together lots of information.
Tweet-deck is part of an interesting development of programs created to collate information into single places. As the amount of information on the web expands exponentially, to get all of one’s news and information on the web could take hours to pull from different sites, but with the use of RSS and compatible readers (like Google’s) mean that all the information can be easily digested. This is an interesting trend, which shows how the internet creating a problem (too much information spread in too many places), and then developing an innovative solution (sites like Addictomatic) to solve it.
Come to think of it, that does sound slightly sinister doesn’t it, maybe Twitter’s evil after all
I have decided that rather than just posting randomly when I feel like it I should probably have some sort of schedule, lest it be seen as untidy. So this is how I think it will go:
Monday:
I will review the weekends sport focussing on United, City and Sale Sharks.
Wednesday:
I will post about something to do with Journalism, most likely online journalism and hopefully linked in with my course, but we’ll see
Friday:
I will preview the weekend, pointing out what’s on where and whats worth going to see regards music, clubbing, art and events
Sunday:
I’ll probably just blog about whatever I feel like, it could be debating the merits of Lemon Curd vs Jam on toast, it might be discussing how broke I am, which I am, very much so, so much so that I’m another meal of plain noodles in a bowl from asking for donations on this blog.
Tues/Weds/Thurs:
Almost forgot, if it is a Champions League week then I’ll probably blog about that, be it a Tuesday preview or a Wednesday/Thursday math report, who knows? Come to think of it, I’m not really sure this schedule is a very good idea, mainly as I’m an utterly shambolic individual
So far on my blog on the Manchester side I have posted about music (mostly) and politics (slightly) but I havent broached sport as of yet, despite it being a huge part of Mancunian culture, and it also being a huge part of me as well. But I think thats possibly why I havent, as sport in Manchester can be fairly divisive and as you’ll find out I sit squarely on one side of the fence, but also because I could probably fill several blogs just about football let alone anything else. Despite that, here I go…..
Vidic was scared to death again by Torres yesterday
I was hoping my first post about football wouldnt have to be after a defeat at Anfield but unfortunately such is life. Man U didnt deserve to win the game and Liverpool put the effort in that has been lacking in their last few games. They really wanted it yesterday, and although Benayoun aside they didnt produce a lot of quality, they showed the hunger and desire which meant they never let United into the encounter.
The problems for United were all over the park, with only Van Der Sar coming out with reputation intact. He showed why he’s been missed with a great double save in the first half, but those in front of him were not so worthy of praise. Ferdinand still looks worryingly out of sorts, and Vidic seems to have lost the plot when it comes to playing against Liverpool, I would honestly advocate playing Johnny Evans in the return game at Old Trafford because Vidic plays like a drunkard against them. neither full-back really got into the game in an attacking sense and that put more pressure on the midfield.
Speaking of which, they simply did not get into the game, Carrick and Scholes were harangued and harassed all game and just couldnt create anything for the front two, and even when they did, nothing really stuck to Berbatov. Valencia drifted in and out of the game but did produce some quality, but Giggs was unable to influence the game as he has been doing over the past few weeks, hence why Pepe Raina was rarely called into action all afternoon. Liverpool were very good at pressing United in possession, and the much-maligned Lucas was at the forefront of this. I think I have finally worked out the how Liverpool midfield works: you have to think of it of as a an American Football team, with separate Offence and Defence units. Stay with me here – think of Lucas and Mascherano as the Defence unit, whose sole job is to break up opposition play, but are useless with it themselves, as it is in Gridiron, a coach would never ask a Defensive Linesman to play Quarterback. Similarly Benayoun is Liverpool’s offensive player, and he did a great job of it too today, but he is awful defensively, just as a Quarterback in American Football is at tackling.
Awful analogies aside, it was a very important game for Liverpool having lost four in a row, and the win could be a big moment for them, and for Rafa. The atmosphere at Anfield seemed fantastic, and the roar when Torres scored reminded you of just how important this fixture is for the two clubs. Enough of the game though it’s depressing me, so here is the first of my post-match player ratings:
Edwin Van Der Sar Made a great double save from Aurelio’s free-kick and Kuyt’s follow-up and played well from the back, didnt really have a chance with either goal 6
John O’Shea Wasnt really exposed defensively but was ineffectual in attack and contributed little when United were chasing the game 5
Rio Ferdinand Nowhere near his best yet this season, the partnership with Vidic looked a million miles from the one that went 13 games without conceding a goal 4
Nemanja Vidic I’m not really sure what to say about Vid, Torres scares him witless, he cant play him. Three consecutive sendings-off, has anyone checked the betting patterns? 2
Patrice Evra Was perhaps unfortunate to be booked early on but went into his shell after that, defended badly against Torres and Benayoun, offered little down the left 4
Luis Antonio Valencia Is improving with each game and produced a good cross for Rooney’s chance in the first half, but he fails as yet to take charge of games, as his predecessor down the right could 6
Paul Scholes Didnt stamp any authority over the game, and was pressed strongly in midfield, gave the ball away a fair bit of a result. United still look for him to dictate the tempo and he couldnt do it 5
Michael Carrick Largely anonymous, his distribution wasnt good enough and United needed a larger presence in such a big game, would he have played if Fletcher was fit? 4
Ryan Giggs Unable to reproduce recent form, and (dare I say it) looked a little bit his age in the second half as Liverpool began to press harder, still effortless on the ball though 5
Wayne Rooney Put his usual shift in but had scraps only to use, perhaps should have done better with 1st half header, needed more support from Berbatov 6
Dimitar Berbatov Was unable to hold the ball up and his languid style was not appreciated in a game of this nature, when endeavour was more important than craft, how a terrier performance from Tevez would have helped 4
Subs; Nani (for Scholes) , and Owen (for Berbatov) neither did anything of note really, apart from Owen being dragged down by that rather disagreeable chap Jamie Carragher when possibly through on goal
Well there it is, my first post about sport, now a little something to cheer me up…..
Having been challenged by a fellow trainee journalist Josh Pettitt to put forward a Sporting Icon for the Noughties here is mine, the incomparable Ryan Giggs OBE:
I am not a religious man, but Ryan Giggs is a gift from God. I try not to eulogize about people too much but with Giggsy I could genuinely go on all day. He’s my favourite player of all time, and throughout my life watching football and Manchester United he has been ubiquitous, and as with all the best gifts, he is still giving.
In 1999 Giggs, aged 25, had won the lot; 5 league titles, 3 FA Cup’s, a League Cup, and now the Champions League. At club level there was nothing else to prove, he had offers to go abroad, most notably Inter Milan, but he has stayed at Manchester United, and in the last decade he has done so much I think its impossible for me to vote for anyone else.
He used to be the most feared left-winger in the world, but has adapted as he has aged into one of the finest central midfielders in the game, and was honoured for his ability to still control matches with the PFA Player of the Season award last year to go with his 11th league title.
He overtook Bobby Charlton to be United’s most-capped player in the 2008 Champions League Final, he has never been anything but a model professional, a fantastic trainer and an iconic figure in the City of Manchester. As the video above shows he has everything; a great passer, a great touch, he scores goals, he has a brilliant brain and has maintained an incredibly high standard throughout 18 seasons of top flight football, so much so he has scored in every season of the Premiership. He is simply the greatest player to pull on United’s red shirt, and is un-arguably the greatest player of the premiership era.
If you want to join in the debate then write your own blog, and post a link to it on this page or on Josh’s, and your choice of icon can be a part of the poll.
This Sunday Manchester’s Northern Quarter will be taken over by the Oxjam Festival to raise money for Oxfam and give a platform for some of the best new art and music and I heartily recommend you get involved. The event will be spread over the best venues in the Quarter, including: Night and Day, Mint Lounge, Matt and Phred’s, Odd, Common, Apotheca, Nexus, and Bluu. The full line-up can be found here
Peter Hook (New Order/Joy Division) at Mint Lounge (also Hook’s new book ‘How not to run a Nightclub’ about the Hacienda has just come out its well worth a read)
The incomparable Peter Hook
There is also plenty of other events going on in the area, with Urbis teaming up with Oxjam to put on a 60’s magical mystery tour on the Sunday afternoon. There are also other events going on in the region in support of the event, with The Box in Crewe putting an event on next saturday and The New Tavern in Wigan tomorrow. If you live in Glossop then cheer up you can go to the events that are being put on all month in the town.
October has been a pretty good month for things going on in MCR and I’m sorry if I’ve missed anything out and just cherry picked what I like, but a) that’s my prerogative, and b) theres an awful lot going on!
I try not to force feed my own personal music taste on people, mainly because its rude, and because most people have no interest in hearing it, but just this once….
R O M A N C E
The band is called R O M A N C E, which is pretty awful I grant you, but they sound so good you wouldn’t care if they were called “racist homophobic library book burning satanic kitten drowners”. And that’s some recommendation.
If you don’t believe me then there is taster of their new single on their myspace site, which comes out on the 17th November. Unfortunately they have no plans to play in Manchester anytime soon but they are playing at The Flapper in Birmingham on the 14th of November, and that’s not that far really is it? Not for a band this good, and I genuinely mean that.
I’m not sure what is more scary, the Super-Injunction, or the lethal precision with which Twitter and the like destroyed it once it reared its head. I posted yesterday about Libel Laws in this country and the problems they pose for freedom of expression and criticism but this new beast is quite something else.
The power of a super-injunction
By not only denying someone to talk about something but also stopping them from mentioning the fact that they are barred from speaking about is in my opinion a disgraceful abuse of legal powers. It is tantamount to putting a gun to the head of the media and saying, “Don’t you dare even mention this lest we come down on you so hard you won’t have the money to print anything ever again!” I am of course talking about the Trafigura incident, which has been one of the most intriguing incidents in recent months. The story pulls together several strands, with the issues of Press Freedom, the power of UGC and Citizen-Journalism to counter traditional methods, and the thing which most people have missed, the extremely pertinent question that was to be asked in The House of Commons about the dumping of toxic waste offshore. The details of the case are well-documented elsewhere, so will focus on what now, a week on from the breaking of the story, the ramifications are for everyone involved. Firstly, the company, Trafigura have not come out of this well, it was reported a few hours ago that the company has been dropped as the sponsor of an art prize, and one can only think that their company name will become a by-word for trying to stifle intrusion into their business and for a fear of transparency. Carter Ruck, the lawyers that pursued the injunction have been stung by its overturning and have received a large amount of negative publicity with protesters outside their office
Protesters outside Carter-Ruck offices
As for the super-injunction itself, well it remains to be seen if this legal terrorist will rear its gagging head again, with MP’s debating their legitimacy in the Commons, and the Lord Chief Justice saying yesterday that they damaged a ‘precious heritage‘ that allowed for freedom of expression in the Commons.
As for internet journalism, I think that social media has shown its collective might and it is remarkable to think it changed the course of British Law, but I’m not sure it should get ahead of itself and keep patting itself on the back as it is all so new and untested I think a lot is still to be worked our before we can truly know what role social media can play.
P.S. The incident has however allowed for an explosion of comment and discussion all over the varied media including this from my favourite misanthrope Charlie Brooker, any excuse
The succesful writer Simon Singh, author of the fantastic Fermat’s Last Theorem, has been fighting a long legal case against The British Chiropractic Society over an article he wrote in The Guardian over eighteen months ago. He has already spent more than £100,000 defending himself in the case and it is not over yet. He did however overturn a preliminary judgement last week but the case has yet to go to full trial.
Fortunately Mr Singh has the money to fight this case, but for most journalists, especially poor aspiring journalist such as myself, it is a scary case to dip into. Although the article appeared in The Guardian, the BCA are suing Singh personally for what the preliminary hearing adjudged to be an article accusing the BCA of being ‘deliberately dishonest’.
The case is an extremely interesting example of libel law and its uses in this country, with science being a pertinent area for high profile cases. Scientists have rallied round Singh claiming this case puts the freedom of scientific opinion at stake. Singh wrote a column in Sunday’s Times talking about Britain’s libel laws, and he and other bloggers and writers are clearly very intimidated by Britain’s libel laws, which frightens writers into not printing articles that they believe strongly are correct. I admire Simon Singh’s conviction and his stand in not backing down over his article, and not retracting something he believes is true, but he may well bankrupt himself doing it.
In a country which prides itself (supposedly) on having freedom of speech, and a country which strongly believes that a free press is a cornerstone of democracy, are our libel laws suppressing that very core principle?
The case is an extremely interesting example of libel law and its uses in this country, with science being a pertinent area for high profile cases. Scientists have rallied round Singh claiming this case puts the freedom of scientific opinion at stake. Singh wrote a column in 
