Carlow Arts Centre

Although the aesthetics of Carlow’s new art centre – the Visual Centre for Contemporary Art- are hotly debated, with some people saying it looks like a glorified warehouse and others admiring the stark beauty, it has been mentioned in the October issue of Wallpaper magazine.

I paid a visit last Saturday and had a look around some of the galleries. The Studio Gallery is bright and airy with some magnificently imposing pieces by Sean Scully. I was genuinely taken aback and was as absorbed as I have been looking at Klee or Pollack in MOMA.

The Digital Gallery is also a recommended destination. Currently Zidane, a 21st Century Portrait is running (until March 20th) and although I don’t have any interest in soccer this was fascinating. You soon get lost in a wall of sound and vision where the roar of the crowd ebbs and flows.

Although the other galleries will certainly do well I think the Digital one has plenty of potential and is becoming more and more relevant to us 21st Irish.

Calling Irish Google Wavers

I’m trying to see if I can get a list of the Irish Google Wavers out there. I was talking to Bernie Goldbach on Wave yesterday and being full of great ideas he suggested that I try write a collaborative article through Wave.

Right now the amount of Irish Wavers on my contacts list is pretty limited so if you would like to add yourself here on the blog, maybe we can compile a list of Wavers (if you want to be listed that is!) and more interestingly we can attempt to write the biggest collaborative article ever via Google Wave! Any suggestions for topics would also be welcome.

What web journalists want

Image via Flickr taken by the delightful Fred Caballero of Channelship

Usually when I arrive at a product launch event, after being cordially greeted by the company’s PR people, I know that there will be between four and ten technology/business/lifestyle journalists in the main room, depending on how big/exciting/epic the product or service is. The majority of these mainly write for print publications, or at least an online version of a major print publication.

It struck me that for all the purely online sites/blogs dedicated to technology in the UK (Cnet, Pocket Lint, TechCrunch, TechRadar etc), in Ireland this is still extremely rare.

I think SiliconRepublic and GadgetRepublic may be the only tech news publications born of the web, later adding print channels to supplement online rather than the other way around.

… and we have a print channel!

Even so I nervously find myself adding that my website ‘has a print channel’ as if I don’t fully believe that online alone works. And I do believe that online alone works as a publication model, I’ve just been slightly brainwashed by the status quo and disappointed by the fact that most people seem at least 50pc more excited if they see their name in print. I have been guilty of this myself, and this is something Darragh Doyle and I both mentioned at a recent social media training day ran by Simply Zesty.

Let the right ones in

This brings me full circle to my initial point of product launches, and how last Thursday’s Irish launch of Vodafone’s new 360 phone was different than previous experiences.

Instead of just the usual tech journalists, I entered the room to find Pat Phelan, Joe Scanlon, Liz Lyons, Darragh Doyle, Peter Donegan and a host of other bloggers that I know well and love to read.

Fair play to Simply Zesty; although a relatively new company, Lauren and Niall managed to convince Vodafone to engage with the online community – you know, the people who buy their phones, use their data packages, talk about their experiences and then some.

Photo teese

While it was obvious that this was a new experience (photobloggers weren’t allowed to take any pictures of the beautiful Ms Dita Von Teese even though this was one of the main reasons they had come along!) I say fair play to Vodafone for being one of the first big companies here in Ireland to realise that we’re all getting our information/gossip/entertainment online, and we don’t want to see it only on the online versions of the main newspapers, or even just on SiliconRepublic because at the end of the day we’re not a blog and people can’t comment on stories we write.

Having said that, while my website was not developed to include comments, GadgetRepublic is a small site, more or less entirely written by me, so I do see it mostly as my blog, and when Vodafone sat down with bloggers and Thursday and asked what kind of online presence and interaction they would like to see, I was as eager as the rest to get my suggestions in.

What web journos/bloggers want

If you’re a company like Vodafone, in the business of getting people to buy your product or service, then consumers/potential consumers will want certain things from an online perspective. Here are a few things I would like to see:

1. A tiered Twitter presence
   • You don’t simply create one account and throw everything into it. There should be one main news account that simply publishes all importsnt Vodafone news and announcements for customers.
   • There should be a customer service account, with a personal name or identity attached, so people with queries on tariffs, roaming, handset release dates, whatever, have a person to go and ask.
   • Space to allow developers within your company to tweet about various elements of products/services they are working on. Gadget freaks like me would love this.
2. News release blogs for online journalists/bloggers:
   • I want to RSS to a blog/several blogs with great tidbits of information on the gadget or service in question, plenty of high resolution images can I can re-blog, and some personal insight from the blogger in question, who should have a name e.g. Mary from the Vodafone/Microsoft/Sony Team or something.

Penumbral Eclipse of the moon. The main moon.

We’re going to witness a penumbral eclipse of the moon tomorrow night here in Ireland. The moon will pass through the penumbra of the earth, which is the not-quite-so-dark part of earth’s shadow cast onto the moon. This means that instead of a total eclipse of the moon, we will see a subtle darkening of its surface.

As the moon might say: “When you are the moon, there is a person people say is the earth. I saw the earth and he came past me, really fast. And it was an … it was called a penumbrals eclipse. And he came fast! But as he came past, I … I licked his back. And he doesn’t know I licked his back! All in his blue suit!… I’m the moon.”

– .- .-. .. . -… — .-. .- -.

Tired. But I loved Let The Right One In. Beautiful film.

– .- .-. .. . -… — .-. .- -.

The Joy of Cheap Wine

Don’t you wish this book really existed? Via the Black Books Livejournal community.

Oh, and Roman Dirge has a new Lenore comic out as announced as on his official Livejournal page. Yay and *squeeee*!

Getting ready for Electric Picnic

Underworld at Electric Picnic 2008 from David Donoghue via Flickr

I want to learn the lyrics for Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight but there’s quite a mouthful to remember:

i said a hip hop
the hippie the hippie
to the hip hip hop, a you dont stop the rock it

to the bang bang boogie, say up jumped the boogie
to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat

now what you hear is not a test–i’m rappin to the beat
and me, the groove, and my friends are gonna try to move your feet
see i am wonder mike and i like to say hello
to the black, to the white, the red, and the brown, the purple and yellow
but first i gotta bang bang the boogie to the boogie
say up jump the boogie to the bang bang boogie
let’s rock, you dont stop
rock the riddle that will make your body rock
well so far you’ve heard my voice but i brought two friends along

and next on the mike is my man hank
come on, hank, sing that song

check it out, i’m the c-a-s-an-the-o-v-a
and the rest is f-l-y
ya see i go by the code of the doctor of the mix
and these reasons i’ll tell ya why
ya see i’m six foot one and i’m tons of fun
and i dress to a T
ya see i got more clothes than muhammad ali and i dress so viciously
i got bodyguards, i got two big cars
that definitely ain’t the wack
i got a lincoln continental and a sunroof cadillac
so after school, i take a dip in the pool…

It goes on considerably but I’m not going to cut and paste the entire thing in, doesn’t exactly make for the most dynamic blog posting.

Selling my MacBook

I have an Intel Core Duo MacBook (white) for sale. I ordered it on 28.09.2006 so it is a few months shy of three years old.

Here are the specs:

• Processor: 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo
• Memory: 1GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM- 2×512
• Hard Drive: 80GB Serial ATA drive
• Optical Drive: SuperDrive (DVD+/-RW/CD-RW)

I will take pics later to detail this but it is important to note that:

1. The battery is kaput and they range in price from €50 to €70 on ebay.ie
2. The chassis is fine but the plastic surrounding the keyboard has a crack (dang luggage handlers)
3. I can leave software including Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash on it if you like.

Jessy

Jessy, originally uploaded by pixie*von*dust.

Dem Apples

Dem Apples, originally uploaded by pixie*von*dust.