Category: Voice
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Forever Young: The Curtailed Prospects of the iPad Generation
As the population grows and the job market becomes more competitive, new technology also allows employers to do more with less staff. Those young people who don’t possess either a certain techie skill set or relevant work experience in that field are quite simply surplus to requirement.
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Spruced Up Soul – Sit Back, Stand Up
Here’s just a handful of edits & remixes sampling old-school soul, r&b and motown sounds with gloriously groovy results … from uplifting, bouncy house music inspired by Dusty Springfield & Marvin Gaye to disco-tinged Aloe Blacc and funky jungle sampling James Brown. It’s all superbad.
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Musical Histories: Data For Your Dinner Conversations
Buzzfeed recently featured some rather disappointing facts relating to music sales. We felt inspired to showcase some more gossip-worthy tattle, so here goes. The histories of Rock and Dance, at your fingertips.
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Fortnight Journal: ‘Honoring The Past, Archiving The Future’
Fortnight Journal is a fantastic project that’s picked up steam this year and looks set to keep impressing with its array of talented contributors. Taking precocious ‘millennial generation’ individuals and showcasing their work and funneling them through 14 different discipline areas, Fortnight is a verifiable attempt to skip the top-down patronage of specialist hierarchy and invest instead in provocative, cross-germinated ideas from the first generation to not know what life is like without internet: ‘as social media helps topple autocracies around the world, our millennial contributors collaborate across borders. Only on Fortnight will a young Venetian video artist be set aside a young Vietnamese-American tribunal lawyer–the original work of both informed by ancient Rome. Staying multi-disciplinary allows Fortnight to nurture new networks around timeless affinities’.
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Does Every Publisher Need a Don Draper?
One of the greatest consequences of the digital revolution, and the triumph of the internet specifically, is that content publishers who would never before have had the opportunity to distribute their product now have a viable medium through which to reach readers and consumers on a global scale. The previous barriers of bringing the contributors together, printing the information, and getting it into stores and news outlets have been circumvented – this has undoubtedly led to an upsurge in variety, creativity and individuality within the sector. However, one age-old and ubiquitous barrier to true freedom of content remains: money, cash, the almight dollar, whicher guise you prefer. Unless the producers wish to forever stay limited to writing as a hobby around work, they must bring in revenue to support themselves and the venture to render it sustainable.
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All Eyes on Nicole Palmquist’s Latest Mural
We’re excited to feature Nicole Palmquist’s latest ‘booleep’ commission: a splendid mural on Hyperion (and Scotland) in Silverlake. We’re due to catch up with the prolific artist next year and talk shop about what 2012 has in store for her growing number of followers, many of whom would like to see more of Palmquist’s patrons share her work directly with the public this way. See how cool that is?
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December at The Movies
Well folks, this is it. The last month of 2011. In which we are bombarded with dozens of movies and told each one is the best of the year. So which of the vast variety of films being released in December should make it on to your radar and which should you leave behind? Take a look at our preview below.
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“War on Terror is in Our Hands, Now. Literally”
British troops have taken to playing ‘War on Terror’ – the controversial multi-player quest to dominate the globe – in the field. Pete W, a Task Force MED in Afghanistan, shows off the morale-boosting package that’s had a mixed reception from those who have a sense of humour and those who don’t.
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Interview: a Guide For Visiting Palestine
Every day, Fred Schlomka’s Green Olive tour company picks up a car full of Jerusalem tourists and guides them through the Separation Wall into the Palestinian West Bank, visiting refugee camps, social enterprises and – in what’s been seen by some as a controversial move – settler communities. “Most tour companies offer a ‘Disneyland’ view of the country, from a Jewish or Christian perspective, often excluding information, experiences, and sites that conflict with their worldview” says Fred. “Green Olive Tours tries to offer a more comprehensive experience while gently advocating for a more humanistic and democratic perspective. The tours serve as a bridge between my political and professional work. Through traveling the West Bank almost every day I am able to monitor the situation and stay in touch with my contacts. Through offering tourists the opportunity to benefit from my experienced guides’ knowledge, and witness the impact of the Occupation, they often are motivated to become politically active when they return home. Some return as volunteers in the organizations we introduce them to”.
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News Corporation Ignominy: Some Scope For Celebration
It’s not enjoyable to see established, profitable publishers shut-down, context notwithstanding. But I’m delighted that the baying crowd has given itself a yardstick by which to measure its own ethical performance. Let me qualify: it’s not the appalling details of the hacking scandals so much as the general extent to which News Corporation employees were prepared to put their reputation on the line, which merits such extended analysis. Those decisions, taken in order to stay ahead of their competition, are what have exposed the ethical cost of prioritizing cash revenue so defiantly. Organizations like ProPublica and Spot.Us are leading the way for non-profit Journalism by putting their content first and developing communities around what they produce. But are there quality and impact benefits to feeling ‘coroporate’ as a publisher, that we’re in danger of leaving to algorithm-run social media sites and bloggers that mostly operate without any legally refined code of conduct?