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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Norwegian Music

Sitting in the hotel (right next to Herr Nielsen's Jazz Club) last night in Oslo I realised that the music I was listening to on my laptop was just track after track of Norwegian music. There was Beady Belle, then Thomas Dybdahl (try Damn Heart or Half Of Me, both free B-sides, and my absolute favourite single Love Story), then Ane Brun - and that's ignoring nearby Scandinavians like Teitur and Tina Dico (try this. Wonder how I'd missed the connection for so long?

Update: As Walter points out, I forgot the most obvious musician (and the one who features largest in my collection), Jan Garbarek.

Labels: Music, travel

posted at 1:12 AM (UK) | Comment? (2 so far) | links to this post | |

Coming of Age in Wireless Britain

Last week I decided to give mobile broadband a try while I was away from home in London for a few days. After looking at the various plans, I decided to pick the one that Hutchison's 3 subsidiary offers, and went to a Carphone Warehouse to buy it. The experience was very enlightening - clearly this is a part of UK culture I've overlooked for too long. Just in case you are as naive as me, I'll document the experience - apologies for all you hardened warriors who consider this trivial.

First came the purchase process. It's not like buying anything else I have ever purchased. After "yes please" came several huge bureaucratic forms, a demand for photo ID, an address check, a credit check and finally the wait for the transaction to complete online. It was probably the most invasive process I have undergone in the UK, including applying for a passport. All for a modem and a £15 service.

Then came the first use experience. I had carefully checked the literature and the package to make sure the Mac was supported, as well as asking the assistant to confirm. I got the modem out of the box, read the instructions and followed them. "Plug the modem in to a USB port and follow the on-screen instructions". I plugged it in (after insterting the SIM) - apparently it was a memory stick as well as a modem. Its little blue light flashed happily. Hardware Growler told me it was working. But there were no instructions and no broadband.

I rang the support number on the package. After following some menus, it told me to dial another number for support. I dialed that and followed more menus. I finally got to a place that told me support was only available in the daytime. I read more and more of the paperwork in the box and finally found some small-print telling me that use on a Mac involved drivers that were available for download from 3's web site. Except I couldn't get online because ... well, my mobile broadband wasn't working yet.

Since I was traveling, and since the three-day return period was ticking, I decided to take it back next day. I clearly wasn't the first person to go through all this. "Oh yes, all the other companies include a CD with Mac drivers, but 3 don't". I decided there was a high risk of not getting it working within the short three-day return period so I went through the "termination" process, another bureaucratic fascination, and made sure I had all the magic numbers needed to prove I had done it.

The third step was today, when the invoice turned up. An invoice not for £15 but for £18, since they added a £3 "billing fee" without telling me. I called the number printed on the invoice to check the account was indeed canceled and found it asked me to dial a different number for broadband. I then spent maybe 20 minutes on hold to another national-rate number and was finally able to confirm with a charming Indian lady that it was cancelled.

I am obviously sheltered and naive becuase I found several aspects of this experience to be customer-hostile. First, the amazingly intrusive purchase experience; second, the fact that 3 lied about the package including Mac support; third, the fact they didn't provide phone numbers for technical or billing support even though the documents I was using were only about broadband; fourth, the fact the price advertised was not the price charged. I'll not be trying this stuff again for a while.

posted at 1:14 PM (UK) | Comment? (1 so far) | links to this post | |

Boxwood Incense

Hey, lazyweb: I bought a tube of boxwood japanese-style (non-dipped) incense from Banana Republic back in 1999. It is my absolute favourite incense but it has almost run out, I only have fragments of broken sticks left. Google doesn't give me any strong hints where I might get some more - does anyone have any ideas please?

posted at 12:41 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Flickr Stats

I'm not sure how I missed it, but Flickr has implemented a statistics tracking for all photos. I noticed in the metadata smallprint for today's upload that there was a link that said "Photo stats". I clicked it and turned them on and a few minutes later had full stats on all photos going back as far as I wanted, referrers and all. Way cool.

Labels: Photography

posted at 4:16 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Amazing Grace

Another free taster has done its work and I've now got Grace Potter and the Nocturnals on rotation, specifically their album This Is Somewhere [UK]. The free track that hooked me is only free until tomorrow so you'd better pounce - Apologies, a lost-love ballad that is among the quietest tracks.

Despite the samples Amazon has chosen, the rest of the album is much more rocky, with the sort of hard edge that the sparse historic line of female rockers would be proud of. If you do buy the album, you might also want to pop over to iTunes and buy the bonus track they have over there, despite the DRM grief they want to give you.

[Also On Rotation: The Guggenheim Grotto; Kosheen; Fink; Juana Molina; Moncef Genoud]

Labels: Music

posted at 12:28 PM (UK) | Comment? (2 so far) | links to this post | |

In Praise of Freeloaders

I think I'll be going along to listen to Bryn Haworth tonight locally, a guitarist I've not heard live since the early 80s. The friend I was talking with wanted to know what he sounded like, so I went to his web site to look for a sampler. Nothing there. Bryn is clearly only interested in people who already know what he sounds like. No free sample track. Not even any track previews.

So conversation turned to the paradox of the new web-mediated market and how some musicians don't seem to get it. I assume the thinking goes "I make my money by selling music, so why should I give any away to freeloaders". But that's so superficial. By giving me a few tracks to listen to, you're much more likely to recruit me to the ranks of admiring fans, since without them all I have to go on is your photograph (or maybe if you're a bit more avant garde some stuff I can awkwardly stream while at my desk).

Giving away samples is very effective. I follow a couple of web sites (3Hive, Lost at E Minor) that review and point to free tracks and the main way I have found new artists of late has been through those sites and the free tracks on iTMS and Amazon MP3. In the shake-down that's coming, I suspect it will be the artists who treat music lovers looking for music as "freeloaders" who will join the RIAA whining about how no-one loves them, while the enlightened part of the industry moves into the new mainstream.

Labels: Music

posted at 4:42 PM (UK) | Comment? (1 so far) | links to this post | |

The Guggenheim Grotto

I'm not sure what drew my attention back to them, but I bought an album (for the benefit of those who have been asking that's a useful archaic term for "a collection of related MP3s grouped under a fanciful name") by The Guggenheim Grotto, an Irish acoustic/folk band with a talent for both lyrics and melodies. I'd first picked up their track Told You So off the 2006 SXSW sampler and then Philosophia showed up as a free song on iTMS US. That second track finally got to me and I decided to get the whole album, Waltzing Alone (that's Amazon MP3 and US-only, but Amazon UK has the CD).

There's a lot of Oasis sound in there, but it's generally more accessible and laid back (and, yes, I suppose, OK, I admit it, melancholic) as well as heading deep into folk sounds (try Rosanna). 'Philosophia' is still a stand-out, but several others are already sticking including the thoughtful Koan and the fascinating close harmonies of Ozymandias which is indeed derived from the Shelley poem. On continuous play and recommended - the free EP on their download page is great and they have even got ready-to-use free ringtones there.

Labels: Music

posted at 10:55 AM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Wax Poetic

I ran into Wax Poetic the first time when I found they were the band that Norah Jones started with before she was famous, but this newer stuff is much more international - like a raw Les Nubians with a jazz break. Give the Last.FM embed above a try.

By the way, if you'd looked at their 2003 album Nublu Sessions on iTMS and wondered what the missing track 1 was, it's there on Amazon with no DRM. Turns out it's a fantastic pre-fame Norah Jones track called Tell Me.

[Fixed the post time on this one, it was set in the past for some reason]

Labels: Music

posted at 10:00 AM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

You are what you eat

I've been meaning to mention that I finished reading The Omnivore's Dilemma [UK] during December and really loved it. It had been jumping into view each time I went to a bookshop and I finally gave in during October.

It was a deliciously smooth read - even with my usual ADD I found it compelling. Michael Pollen digs into the American food system and finds that the mass-market food system has been ridiculously skewed by a policy decision made under the Nixon administration. Attempting to prevent the recurrence of a catastrophic price slump in the food system, the agriculture minister of the time created a price intervention system which controlled price without controlling supply. The result was the creation of eternally cheap corn, which has driven all American food production (and more) to artificially obsess on the stuff.

Pollen goes further though. He finds that the organic production sector has caught the same obsession and is mass-producing organic food in a manner increasingly resonant of the mass-market. Just as proprietary software companies want to steal the term "open source" because of its market power, so the food industry has already gamed the term "organic" and made sure they can use the term without adopting the lifestyle. I find Whole Foods Market a great place to shop, but this book was a real eye-opener to the consumer manipulation at work there.

Overall I'd say this was my book-of-the-year for 2007 and a must-read book. It has a strong US focus and speaks of a food system that doesn't yet exist in Europe (where EU intervention controls supply as well as price and has avoided the destructive corn system that's ruining American health). But it still explores the motivations and dynamics of our food and gives an important perspective as we sail into the future. It's already changed my health, not by being prescriptive but by helping me think.

Labels: Books, Food

posted at 11:57 PM (UK) | Comment? (1 so far) | links to this post | |

Illy Decaf

I'm on decaf at the moment for reasons I'll write about some other time, and the only decaf that's bearable is Illy. My coffee machine grinds beans, so I have been trying hard to find a place that sells Illy decaf beans at a reasonable price. Seems I'm the only person in the UK that wants them, however, so all the UK suppliers treat them as a premium item (£7 per tin for something that ought to retail well under £5) and the only place I can buy from at anything like a reasonable price is Germany I won't be using.

The reason? Well, the german supplier took forever to ship and then sent the wrong stuff (I am selling it on eBay because I can't get a returns address) and I don't want to use them again. Anyone know of other sources I could use?

Labels: Coffee, eBay

posted at 10:39 PM (UK) | Comment? (3 so far) | links to this post | |

Kosheen

I expect I am the last person in Britain to find Kosheen, but I saw a replay of the "Later..." appearance they made in 2001 and immediately had to go hunting for their music. Fortunately their latest album Damage is there on Amazon MP3 so I'm already luxuriating to stuff like Overkill (that's the embedded Last.FM video above) as well as working my way through their large channel on YouTube. It's the best of Massive Attack with a pinch of Evanescence and a healthy dose of Depeche Mode. Tasty, it's keeping the windows rattling.

Labels: Music

posted at 8:24 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Amazon at Christmas

Well, after our biggest Amazon Christmas yet (there's been a delivery every day for the last week thanks to Amazon Prime) the time is finally up and the last package has arrived - we can't get anything else delivered before Christmas now. While the rest of the retailers in the UK are whining about how much people are spending, I have a hunch Amazon will be quietly smiling. Especially since gift vouchers remain instantly available for forgotten gifts...

Labels: Amazon

posted at 12:32 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

All Songs Considered

I just subscribed to a new podcast series on iTMS US. Turns out that NPR is pushing a podcast series of full, live concerts. Well worth sampling - I just listened to one of the Neko Case concets.

Labels: iTunes, Music

posted at 12:08 AM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Collateral Damage

Collateral Damage

While there's been speculation about how Apple will discourage customers elsewhere in Europe using the single market to overcome the differential feature availability they intend to impose on the iPhone, it was clear what one of the mechanisms will be.

The sign in Regent Street yesterday says (among other things) "Your iPhone can only be serviced in the country in which it was purchased". Now, that may seem fair enough if you are a Sony-minded consumer who never travels, but one of the big benefits of being an Apple customer is that their warranty works everywhere in the world (usually). This sign says that doesn't apply to iPhones.

In an attempt to stop customers working around their anti-customer lock-in policy they are adopting another anti-customer policy that will make global travellers find the iPhone less attractive. They are already in a pitched battle with eager enthusiasts who want to make their device more useful. How far will Apple go down the path that led Sony to ruin in their music player business?

Labels: Apple

posted at 11:48 AM (UK) | Comment? (2 so far) | links to this post | |