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Archive for Arts / Culture
Video Statistics, Comfort Nudists, Wild Heather, Clare Beale, and the Power of Recommendation
Yesterday (21st July) in the Independent Media Section, Claire Beale was very enthusiastic about a video advert designed by Ogilvy for Comfort the fabric conditioner, involving a Nudist who becomes infatuated with clothing.
In the Best in Show section of her Advertising Page, she included:
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The standard presentation of four screenshots in the printed Media Section of the paper.
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Instructions on how to find it, including details of the exact search to use on Youtube.
The article does not include a clickable link within the web page on the Independent website.
I’m taking an interest because the video has had a relatively small number of views, so it is an opportunity to examine the statistics in a bit more detail than we usually see.
The Comfort Advert with Nudists
Here’s the video. It is quite amusing, and worth a look - and only 90 seconds long. The plot is that a man finds his wife on sofa with another man, fully clothed and sniffing like dogs..
I’ve also added a copy to the Wardman Wire video feed on the front page of the blog.
Let’s now have a look at the number of people who have viewed the Comfort Nudist video.
Welsh Blog Round Up on the Radio - any takers?
Sanddef made this comment on Liberal Conspiracy yesterday, in a conversation about blogs getting - or not getting - media attention in Wales:
At least news that spring from blogs get a mention in the English press; in the Welsh media this is not the case, despite the fact that political news and comment is pretty much run by and dependent on the blogosphere here.
A “Welsh Blog Roundup Radio Spot” would help fill that gap.
I do the Britblog Roundup from time to time, and it is not hard to do. It is possible to set these things up in several ways. The Britblog spot on Radio 5 was done over the phone with a ten minute call for the best part of a year. Now it is now sometimes done using “simulcast” - separate high-quality microphones at either end combined afterwards - which gives a higher quality.
In Wales it could be:
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Done informally by the presenter of a talk show once a week.
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Done by an arrangement with one of the BBC Bloggers.
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Done in Welsh or English (or both).
There are a couple of national or regional Radio Stations in Wales, which could pick-up the project.
I can’t drive this, but is there anybody out there who can? I’ve pinged a couple of contacts at the BBC, to see if I can find any interest.
If you are interested, get in touch with Sanddef, who is going to run a flag up the flagpole. It is an excellent way to get some “semi-mainstream” media experience and raise your profile.
[Update 29/6/2008: Welsh Blog Round Up on the Radio - any takers? Apparently not at this time!]
Tags: welsh blog round up, bbc wales, bbc, ordovicius, radio, britblog roundup, bbru
[tags]welsh blog round up, bbc wales, bbc, ordovicius, radio, britblog roundup, bbru[/tags]
Architectural Rhubarb! Rhubarb! Rhubarb!: Time for some Architecture
One of the minor interests for the Wardman Wire is architecture. I haven’t written about it very much recently, so I’m be doing a three or four articles over the next few days inspired by articles I have seen in the last few weeks.
Architecture Today is “the monthly magazine presenting the most important projects in the UK and the rest of Europe.” I’ll be looking at three articles Today, I have an example to show that architects are just as capable of writing rhubarb as sociologists, radical feminists or Parliamentary “draftspersons” (when guided by Ministers in a hurry).
From an article in Architecture Today by Irina Davidovici:
You will need some resolve to get to the end of this. And you don’t need to know what “City, Type and Place” are - actually they are terms used in the debate about how urban architecture can create cities that are good for people to live in.
They don’t put the whole thing on the web, so I’ve excerpted the first few paragraphs.
We start off (in the contents list) quite well:
“Three house projects by Steven Taylor Associates - in Bethnal Green, Shoreditch and Rainham - investigate the nature of familiar urban type while retaining individuality and character…”
But the subhead in the article starts a slippery slope…
“Typology: Steven Taylor’s work on the house type and urban intensification suggests a timely and important alternative to empty formalism”.
Er. Fair enough.
“The continued growth of cities and the demand for densification (ed:a Bushism?) force architects to deal, still, with issues one might have believed were long exhausted. The discourse around city, type and place, ongoing since the theoretical revisions of a commercial and dehumanised modernism in the 1960s, maintains its relevance in spite of countless misinterpretations, of which postmodern historicism is one of the least favourable.
Interpreting … “as cities become more and more dense, how they can be designed well as places for humans to live and work in is a continuing debate that started in the 1960s; ‘postmodern historicism’ was not a good answer to this dilemma.”
Eurovision Song Contest Live Blog update: Photos, sound, video
I have updated my Eurovision Song Contest live blog to include audio, video and pictures - including a long-dead of photo of Anthea “giving Brucie a twirl”, and this photo of the Greek entry doing the Birdie Song. The updated version is here.
History Reversed: Scots rescue the French over Eurovision
Earlier this week I reported that some of the French are in a tizzy because their entry for the Eurovision song contest is in English. We have a new development.
Reversing the great dramatic acts of British history, where the French helped the Scots against the English - a Glasgow band The Ex-men have translated their song into French and are offering it as an entry for Eurovision.
Here’s the performance. It will be on the WW front page later on.
I wish them every success.
On this one occasion, I am not putting this down to a stunt by the Great Pretender.
Their website is at www.myspace.com/theexmen , but be warned that it eats web browsers for breakfast at present (I had to use Opera to read it). You are better off reading the blurb on Youtube.
Endangered British species of insects on new Royal Mail stamps
The Royal Mail have launched a new set of stamps illustrated with endangered British species of insects, by Richard Lewington, a leading wildlfe artist.
There are 10 stamps in the series, and the Royal Mail have them for sale in their online shop.
The Red-Barbed ant
The Hazel Pot beetle
French Eurovision Entry to be sung in English
The French 2008 Eurovision Song Contest entry by Sébastien Tellier - “Divine” - will be sung in English. Gorgeous. Here is the official clip.
The BBC report it thus:
A French MP has said he is outraged that the song chosen to represent the nation in the Eurovision song contest has English lyrics.
Jacques Myard, of the UMP party, has urged the company that runs most of France’s TV networks to reconsider.
Sebastien Tellier’s entry, entitled Divine, combines both English and French lyrics with electro music.
France’s culture minister has defended the song, saying the country should fully support his bid for victory.
(In passing I love the idea of a Party who exist to have the ‘UMP - they have beaten all sorts of people to the draw on that one: Yorkshire, Roy Hattersley, Mr Gordon himself … it goes on). Perhaps someone will start the ‘arrumph party.
Musical Luddite of the Day: Rebecca Armstrong the Games Mistress
Every so often a sequence of as few as 3 words grates like a screwdriver on a blackboard.
From the Independent’s “computer games” column this week, by Rebecca Armstrong the “Games Mistress” in a review of “Patapon“:
…you’re the ruler of a bunch of winsome little warriors who can be manoeuvred through the beat of a tribal drum - but if you don’t have pitch perfect rhythm…
Pitch perfect rhythm !!!!
Aaaaarrrrgggghhh !
Presumably her lingerie is perfectly aerodynamic, her cold tap is perfectly articulate, the cornflakes she had for breakfast are an excellent building material, and the tyres on her car are ideally flavoured to the correct degree of orangey tastiness.
This Games Mistress needs to be gently taught not to make category errors by the Belles of St Trinians (old and new versions below), if necessary by torture on the wallbars of the gym (sorry - I couldn’t find a picture of that scene).
