So I went to Hard Rock Calling last week. Was so good going to a festival again. Its been a long time.
A long sunny day, great atmosphere and amazing music! Jamiroquai was great. I am a big fan of the original album, Emergency in Planet Earth, and they played a load of it. Great stuff.
Stevie Wonder was unbelievable. Totally relaxed. Cracking jokes the whole time. Getting the crowd singing every song. I couldn't believe how good he was. Totally amazing band as well.
Unbelievable....
We arrived in Poland as the last rays of light disappeared into the clouds. We had just got off the incredible flying advertisement that is Ryanair after a scramble across London to Stansted. The sun disappeared behind the clouds, not to be seen for days as I met Magda's relatives.
The plan was to visit Magda's family and travel around the South West of Poland to see some of the nearby sights. The problem was that the continual rain over the first couple of days flooded the area we were staying in. We were actually lucky just to be stranded; many peoples houses were destroyed and some lost their lives.
Being stuck in Tychy actually turned out well. Magda got to see her family for a lot longer than we planned and I enjoyed some Polish hospitality! We were given so much food and drink it was incredible. It seemed that as we finished one meal, another was laid before us! Everyone I met offered me a warm smile and we spoke through the masterful translation skills of Magda! We also got through a few bottles of Polish vodka, drinking from shot glasses after a traditional toast. I was made to feel so welcome by everyone I met.
Once the waters subsided a bit we managed to get to Krakov for a couple of days. The place was beautiful and with a relaxed air. We went to see the many sights and visited the Jewish quarter for a night out. Amazing bars with masses of personality! Incredible.
I look forward to seeing Poland again. Initially, I thought that the weather was a problem but it turned out to be a blessing since it allowed us to meet so much people. I hope to greet them next time with a few more words of Polish.
Here are a selection of the photos I managed to get in the brief spells between the rain:
'You are not a Gadget - A Manifesto' by Jaron Lanier is a series of ideas about how the internet affects our world.
Jaron Lanier is an interesting guy. He worked with the guys that started the internet. He coined the term 'Virtual Reality'. He is mainly self taught and has established himself as a modern philosopher, as well as a critic of the modern web.
There are a few main ideas that are covered in the book that I find interesting.
He claims that due to internet ideologies we have created a model that allows no creative people to make money on the web. This is interesting idea that is so obvious but yet no-one really mentions it since it is so ingrained into our psyches. Its a shame though because it means that culture is assumed to be free and anything that anyone creates should be given away. Both the music industry and journalism has been badly affected by this attitude. So, now spotify is the norm and artists will need to tour like mad to make a decent wage. Check out this graphic showing revenues from different online music stores:
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/how-much-do-music-artists-earn-online/comment-page-1/
also this is an interesting read from a musician:
http://thecynicalmusician.com/2010/01/the-paradise-that-should-have-been/
Jaron also claims that Facebook other social websites are sorely lacking and are mainly set up as a database for personal data rather than a real social interaction facility. I think that this is a good assessment. The fact that you are pretty much building your own wall rather than opening meaningful discussions with groups of people is relevant. Also, reducing peoples personalities down to a series of sound-bites on a board creates quite a limiting view of people.
There were many interesting ideas in the book and its well worth having a look, especially to give a different perspective to the consensus on the internet at the moment.
I also thought I'd mention, hes a pretty strange dude.