One of these days...

As you may have noticed I've been bigging my little sister up a lot lately on this blog but I've also been talking to her on and off about the ways she can use social media to market her business which is, of course, making and sharing music. I really believe canny use of new media will increase her audience and inevitably her sales. We've been planning a proper sit-down to discuss strategy and it occurred to me that if I got the two brothers on Skype (and other musos too - let me know if you're interested) and talked to them about what they're doing, what's working, what's not etc. it might make for a more interesting session. I also hope to record and therefore share it. I'll keep you posted.

Labels: ceol/music, clann, family, idirlíon/ internet, na nua meáin/ new media

Abigail is playing at the King Kong Club on October the 16th at 9pm with her band. Come along and support her - I'm hoping to be there too. It's a free and fun night. Tasters of lots of great bands. 5 Acts play three songs each. Then you clap loudest for your favourite band....it better be Abigailsong!! Abigail says "Ah no, everyone who gets up and shares their music is a winner. I’m looking forward to it. Bring your Granny." You can let her know about your imminent attendance on Facebook or listen to her on MySpace. Check out the King Kong page for more details on http://www.myspace.com/kingkongclub

Image from Abigail's Facebook Event

Labels: abigail smith, abigailsong, ceol/music, clann, Facebook, family, going out/ gabháil amach, music

Bígí ag éisteacht le Republic of Loose agus iad ag seinm beo ar Raidió na Life maidin Dé hAoine 18 Iúil seo idir a 10 agus a 11 ar maidin ar Aoine A.M.

Listen in to Republic of Loose as they play live on Raidió na Life this coming Friday 18 July morning between 10 and 11 a.m. on Aoine A.M.

Labels: BÁC/Dublin, ceol/music, cool, radio/ raidió

English below

Bhí deireadh seachtaine den chéad scoth agam i measc mo dhlúthchairde le déanaí. Bhí grúpa de haonar déag taghtha le chéile chun seanchara linn a seoladh i dtreo a pósadh a bheidh ar siúl i mí Lúnasa. D'eagraigh a péire bridesmaids agus na mná ar fad craic, ceoil, bia agus deoch do chách agus bhain na circ ar fad an-taitneamh go deo as an deireadh seachtaine ar fad. Bhí bia úr, blasta agus galánta againn déanta don chuid is mó ag Bittersweet Food Company: Seafood Bouillabaisse followed by Cress, Pear and Pecan salad and finished off with Karen's signature chocolate fondant with creme fraiche and mixed berries. I hate to admit it but her chocolate fondant is better than my chocolate fudge cake. Agus neart cocktails déanta ag na Cocktail Queens!

Tá gach seans ann go mbeadh muid tar éis taitnimh a bhaint as an deireadh seachtaine cuma cá háit a rabhamar ach níl aon ceist faoin rud gur chuir an teach a roghnaigh na bridesmaids go mór mór leis an deireadh seachtaine. Croc an Óir i Mullinahone, Tiobráid Árainn a bhí ann agus má tá slua ban ann a bhfuil taithí acu ar "self-catering accomodation" (Bear with me I've an Irish Language spell checker that i not as bilingual as I am) is muidinne iad. Is dócha go bhfuil saoire caite againn in iostais féinfhreastail ar a laghad i ngach cúige in Éireann agus gach seans i ngach contae chósta in iarthair na tíre agus níl ann amhras go b'é seo an áit is deise. B'fhéidir nach bhfuil sé díreach chomh pictiúrtha ach cinnte tá siad níos saoire ná títhe Landmark ach leis an áiseanna céanna. Miasniteoir (great word!), meaisín níocháin agus triomadóir. Bhí sciana géara ann (annamh go leor in iostais féinfhreastail), bhí seomra codlata le en suite a bhí oiriúnach do chathaoir rotha agus dhá seomra folctha eile. Bhí spás a dhóthain do aonar déag agus bhí a teaichín beag féin ag bean amháin. Agus do na ceoltóirí atá ag léamh: tá seomra ceoil ann freisin. Chuamar ar siúlóid álainn ar an Sathairn agus lean roinnt dúinn ar aghaidh chomh fada le barr Carraig mo chliar. Bhí an radharc anseo gleoite ar fad.

Is léir go ndeachaigh muidinne i bhfeidhm ar úinéir an tí freisin mar dúirt sé an méad seo i r-phost le ceann de na bridesmaids:

"Many thanks for your kind words in the guest book. My Mother met the bus driver's wife yesterday and she told her how impressed he was by you all. His previous experiences with hen parties had not been so positive. Tell the girls they left a good impression in Tipperary."

Makes us sound kinda boring... he did call us girls though. Hooya! And I didn't need his invitation to know I'll be going back to Croc an Óir.

Had the best weekend last weekend when 11 of my friends got together to send off one of our best friends before she gets married in August. Her two bridesmaids organised with a little help from her friends a great weekend of music, fun, food and cocktails. Amazing, tasty, fresh and elegant food from the Bittersweet Food Company: Seafood Bouillabaisse followed by Cress, Pear and Pecan salad and finished off with Karen's signature chocolate fondant with creme fraiche and mixed berries. I hate to admit it but her chocolate fondant is better than my chocolate fudge cake. And plentiful cocktails from the Cocktail Queens!

Chances are we would have enjoyed ourselves no matter where we were but there's no question that the accommodation that the bridesmaids chose definitely added to the weekend. We stayed in Croc an Óir in Mullinahone, Tipperary and if there was ever a group of women who know their self-catering accommodation we are them. We must have stayed in holiday homes in certainly every province of Ireland and quite probably every coastal county in the West. Maybe not as picturesque as Landmark houses but definitely cheaper and with all the same facilities: a dishwasher, a washing machine AND tumble dryer. One bedroom had an ensuite that was wheelchair accessible. (Actually the only negative thing I'd say is that this room also had an unneccesary skylight with no shade so we were woken at the crack of dawn. Definitely not good after all those cocktails.) There were two other bathrooms and one of the ladies had a little house all to herself. And for the musicians reading this: there's even a music room. We went for a fun walk on Saturday and some of us carried on right to the very top of Carrigmaclear where we were awarded with stunning views and history.

As the quote above testifies we obviously made an impression on the owner as well!

Labels: allamuigh/ outdoors, cairde, ceol/music, friends, fun, gaeilge/ irish language, griangrafadóireacht/ photography, mná/women, Tiobráid Árainn/ Tipperary, Éire/ Ireland

Well I'm disgusted! As you know I don't get out much but I was all set for a big (well for a Monday) night out with Himself, Abs,, and the Hack Cuz at the Prince concert and the midget went and cancelled. Such money-grabbing I never did see. So upon what will we spend our refund? There is much to choose from.

And shortly after I heard that, my work laptop decided to chew up and regurgitate the contents of my USB drive. I am currently trying to recover the one file that I desperately need that I didn't back up. I found a handy little app from www.erichelps.com that is doing the heavy lifing. I'm at 6% of 10,000 and up to 8% while I was re-reading that.

Then I discovered that I was being followed by a bunch of unsavoury characters on Twitter . The slight silver lining on the cloud was that I tried out Twhirl which is as they say in the States, neat. And also FoxyTunes and TwittyTunes which are just the kinda thing a total exhibitionist like me enjoys.
Up to 47% while I was writing all that. Oh I hope it recovers my file or else I'll be rewriting my script for Giotaí. Aon ní idir sinn is an anachain!

Labels: ceol/music, cool, cool apps/ feidhmchlár iontach, teicneolaíocht/ technology, Web 2.0/ Gréasán 2.0

Via Johnny from Downloadmusic.ie

Labels: ceol/music, craic, fís/video

I think the title above says it all. I met the owner of DownloadMusic.ie the other day and he pointed me towards his Independent Irish Music Chart - Legal Music Download Website contributing to Ireland's Official Music Chart I must tell the siblings. Cool.

Labels: ceol/music, cool, idirlíon/ internet

Found this YouTube video on the blog of a new twitter follow(er)(ee) (see comment in previous post.)Classic!

Labels: blogging/ blagadóireacht, ceol/music, fun, páistí/ children, twitter, YouTube

Further to my previous post about payment for creative works INDISTR have developed their own model for purchasing music.

Artists can continue to upload music and bundle into albums as they have in the past on INDISTR, but now they'll have a new option when setting the price they want to charge for the album: letting the public decide. Their fans and supporters can name the price they'd like to pay for the album right on the artist's page and then checkout as they normally would. Fans and supporters are even shown the exact amount the artist will make from their purchase.

I wonder can the artists set a base price? Is the presence of the pittance the artist will receive from your measly EUR1.50 supposed to shame you into upping your price. Maybe bloggers etc. should start publicising how much they paid for creative content. Somebody should create a widget for it. Look at my bargains or Look how much lolly I can afford to spend on ephemera.

Labels: ceol/music, ealaíon/art, teicneolaíocht/ technology

We7: Getting Closer to a Workable Model for Free Music Downloads - ReadWriteWeb: "The music industry is in desperate need of new models and an interesting one got some financial support today. We7 announced today that it's raised $6 million from Peter Gabriel and Spark Ventures.

The UK site offers DRM-free MP3 downloads with super-short ads preceding each song - for the first 4 weeks after download. Once a month you can select 20 tracks to remove the ad clips from, any additional ad removal will cost 20 pence (about 39 cents) per song."

It's very complicated isn't it? That seems to be the main issue with We7 in articles that I have read on and off. Personally I love LastFM but they are not getting the support that We7 seems to be enjoying. I get new music from Amie St. as well so my ears are being broadened, sometimes painfully!

(I started writing this a little while ago, lost my train of thought...)

Bheadh spéis agam cloisteáil céard a cheapann na ceoltóirí faoin gceann seo. Ó mo thaithí féin ag plé podchraoladh leis na ceoltóirí i mo chlann féin, ní miste leo má labhrann tú thar roinnt den amhrán, ag an mbun nó an mbarr mar shampla, mar bhealach éifeachtach chun é a chosaint. Cé nach ionann é dar liom taispeánann sé go bhfuil ceoltóirí oscailte a fhad is a bhfuil muinín acu ionat.

I recently read Nicholas Carr's new book "The Big Switch" as I was participating as a panellist on Soiscéal Pháraic. At least a chapter of that book is concerned with how technologists and technology companies are making big bucks out of creatives who are using their platforms to share their ouevres (MySpace, Blogger (Google), YouTube etc.). In a way musicians are lucky that they have the likes of Paul McGuinness to fight their corner albeit in an entirely wrongheaded fashion. Writers, animators, artists, basically all other artists whose work can be digitised haven't been able to make the switch to digital with the kind of support that music is getting, partly because there was never the same level of "hangers on" :D to support with their art. Brilliant to have that freedom in some ways but unless something is done to change the current model for delivery and consumption of creative digital work there will be a lot of poor AND lonely artists and writers out there. Well they can always make friends on Twitter, Facebook etc. Now I must ask my family to contribte their thoughts, them being neither poor nor lonely artists although I would say none of them would turn down a lotto win.

Labels: ceol/music, ealaíon/art, Facebook, family, scríbhneoireacht/ writing, StarLittleThing, teicneolaíocht/ technology, teilifís/ television

Mo chéad lá mar dhuine "ar scith" agus seo mar a thosnaigh mé: ag breathnú amach ar radharc álainn Bhinn Eadair ó shléibhte Áth Cliath. Thug mé síob do Lilbro who is recording the soundtrack for Lance Daly's latest feature "Kisses" in this amazing gaff up past Kiltiernan. I met two other members of the post-production crew. Lovely people who are enjoying the seasonal splendour in an amazing location and getting paid for it - lucky suckers!

Coming back from An tOireachtas in Westport at the weekend(roinnt grianghraf ag Oireachtas 07) I realised that Autumn is past her best and the winter is on her way. Autumn is my favourite season and it was great being driven across the country because as a passenger I was really able to drink in the golds, reds, yellows, oranges and browns. The last dance before the long sleep.

Today is the beginning of a new era for me. The first time I have ever been unemployed since I had half an hour to get from my last Drama Studies exam to my first job in RTÉ. That is not to say that I am going to spending loads of time blogging. Small matter of a large thesis due at the end of January. This change in circumstance couldn't have happened at a better time.

So obviously I have been doing a lot of thinking about my strengths and my ambitions and while chatting at dinner the other day I had a terrible realisation. When I arrived home at last from An tOireachtas, the boys were all watching "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" which was quickly followed by some very creative Lego work, resulting in three spaceships. At some point Himself pointed out to G that there is no up or down in space which is the reason why many astronauts get spacesick and the bottom fell out of my world. I suddenly realised that all my plans to be the first Gaelgeoir in outer space would come to naught as I wouldn't even be able to make it on the bus to the spaceship without puking on my colleagues shoes. So now what am I going to do? I suppose I can still work on that "extra in Star Trek" plan... Are they still making Star Trek. Maybe I should aim for Dr. Who or that other one they're making in Wales which wouldn't involve too much travelling. Although the ferry OH GOD. It's never going to happen, is it?

Back to reality. A few people have been asking me where to get StarLittleThing's new album "It's Easy to be Alive You Just Are". Apparently Tower Records off Grafton Street have been restocked or you could try Road Records on Drury St (or is it Fade St. It is.) in Dublin. And for the virtual among you it can be bought at www.myspace.com/starlittlething or on ITunes. Now I don't mean to be rude but would ya ever stop reading and go and buy your copy now!

Oh no just one more thing: like a total sheep I've given into peer pressure and joined Facebook. You're the experts you find me.

Labels: blogging/ blagadóireacht, ceol/music, clann, dífhostaithe/unemployed, Facebook, family, gaeilge/ irish language, obair/ work, StarLittleThing, Éire/ Ireland

We had a great weekend at our friends' wedding in Gronigen. We went to an amazing exhibition of Peter Struycken's work. He is a digital artist who has been working since the 60s. I was going to link to his work online but very surprisingly he doesn't seem to have a website! Kudos to anyone who can find it. Here's something to keep you going in the meantime. I saw the name Carel Struycken mentioned in the exhibition and being a bit anglocentric presumed sister/ wife/ daughter. He's actually his brother and is none other than Lurch from the Addams Family and Mr. Homm from Star Trek. It's all about synchronicity isn't it.

We picked up Tiger costumes for the boys. Too cute. Okay it's late. Good night.

Oh forgot to mention StarLittleThing launched their album last Friday. We missed it as we were in Gronigen and if you missed it give yourself a big kick.

Labels: cairde, ceol/music, craic, ealaíon/art, friends, fun, holidays/laethanta saoire, páistí/ children, StarLittleThing, teicneolaíocht/ technology

I'm sitting here listening to some music on my ITunes and on my Last.FM, doing a little research. I glance at my Last.FM widget (the big red thing on the left) and I'm thinking that is not what I am listening to at all: what's going on? Then I think hmm there's Masqualeuro, and there's The Prodigy but I definitely didn't listen to any Justin Trousersnake. And then I realise I must have left my ITunes in work running. Poor Last.FM is getting terribly confused... And I don't really like to know that my computer is listening to my Bjork album behind my back.

Labels: ceol/music, radio/ raidió, teicneolaíocht/ technology

Nílim i bhfad ar ais ó Albain, tír draoíchtúil ár ngaolta Ceilteacha. Bhí am spreagúil agam ann agus maireann an áit speisialta i mo chroí don tír sin.
On a lighter note I can confirm that the Tenori-on is for real because I tried one out in Edinburgh last Saturday. Oh yes say it loud and say it proud I am a nerd. Sadly I was a very unmusical and slightly hungover nerd with only a short time to pass before going for a flight so I didn't get a really good shot of it as we say here in Crumlin.
I am definitely back at college so expect a lot less or a lot less of interest to be posted here. You can keep track of what I am listening to thanks to my fab new Last.fm on the left or you can try and distract me using the meebo chat wizard on the right. (Go on give it a go - you'll probably be the first!)

Labels: Alba/ Scotland, blogging/ blagadóireacht, ceol/music, gaeilge/ irish language, holidays/laethanta saoire, ollscoil/ university

This is what G still calls Music. Since I discovered Last FM all of 2 hours ago you my dear readers should be able to hear more about what I am listening to. G'night.

Labels: ceol/music, teicneolaíocht/ technology

Ooh check out the rock stahs! starlittlething Looking forward to a night of E-list celeberry at starlittlething's single launch on 14th. Actually just looking forward to a night out. And then another one the following night for a hen.
And I'll be working on my thesis when exactly...?

Labels: ceol/music, craic, family, StarLittleThing