DanThornton

Tech, Geekery, Pop Culture, Miscellaneous

Capturing audio won’t help personal lives

By 2 Comments

I’ve just been reading about a new wearable called Kapture which is a wearable wristband which will save a 60 second audio clip from within a 5-foot radius on your wrist.

It’s similar to existing smartphone apps but being implemented in a wristband means it’s easier to use and doesn’t flatten your phone battery. It had a successful Kickstarter campaign a couple of years ago and will begin shipping soon.

But I couldn’t help remembering a passage from one of my favourite books, Makers by Cory Doctorow

One of the main characters, Perry, talks about the fact his mum would often change her mind, so he recorded her on a mini tape recorder. Rather than solving the issue

“…she said it didn’t matter what she’d said that morning, she was my mother and I had chores to do and no how was I going anywhere now that I’d started sneaking around the house with a hidden recorder. She took it away and threw it in the trash. And to top it off, she called me ‘J.Edgar’ for a month”

It’s part of a conversation about using RFID tags to remind people about their chores and why it’s not a great idea for a harmonious household.

And having had plenty of disagreements with family members over whether someone said a particular phrase, or how they said it etc, I can testify that the facts don’t matter as much as the perceptions people already have…

Obviously there are useful applications for recorders – business meetings, conferences etc. But I wonder whether it’ll be perceived in the same way as Google Glass if the end result is made public – obviously the big difference is you can record people in secret and they will never know unless you share it somewhere.

Headphones

Incidentally, the pricing on Amazon has long been a subject of debate and discussion when it throws up unusual prices for specific books. And it happened when I was researching the link above: Weird Amazon Pricing for Makers

If you go to the Kindle Edition, the other formats range from 1p for a hardback. But in the search listings, the paperback comes in at £25.25 and the Hardcover is £54.73! And both routes lead to a hardback page with the same October 2009 publication date. Signed and first edition copies are currently less than £20…

The other alternative is to go direct to Cory Doctorow’s site and enjoy the fact his work is usually licensed under Creative Commons. Fortunately, having downloaded a free copy of Makers originally, I bought a few hardcover copies for people as presents, so I just need to retrieve them and apparently cash in!

 

My 5 all-time favourite graphic novels (this week)

By Leave a Comment

I happened to catch a list of ‘5 must-read graphic novels‘ on the Guardian website. As I’ve got older, I’ve finally been able to accept that all lists are essentially subjective, and to not get upset when one of my favourites gets omitted. But this list is more subject to change than most as there are still a huge amount of comics I haven’t got to reading yet…

David Barnett at the Guardian went with:

  • The Wicked + The Divine (Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie)
  • Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi)
  • Sandman (Neil Gaiman)
  • Watchmen (Alan Moore)
  • Captain Marvel (Kelly Sue De Connick)
  • Plus mentions of The Invisibles, and The Dark Knight Returns.

So in terms of the graphic novels which changed my life:

 

V for Vendetta: Amazon

Many years ago my uncle kindly gave me his comic collection, including a number of the British title Warrior. Like 2000AD it contained a number of different storylines, and V for Vendetta was an obvious standout due to the tone and subject. Since then it’s obviously been the subject of a film and an accompanying re-release. The addition of colour in the new editions doesn’t necessarily improve things – the stark beauty of what David Lloyd originally drew possibly worked better in black and white. But before Watchmen, From Hell, or Batman: The Killing Joke, this was my first encounter with the work of Alan Moore, and one of the first times I’d read something which tackled an adult theme.

 

The Death of Captain Marvel: Amazon

This was in the same comic collection donated to me. I’d never really been familiar with Captain Marvel, but that didn’t change the impact of a wonderfully written story and one which broke with the comic tradition of having a big battle and a happy ending.

It’s handled with a reasonably light touch, and the fact that assembled Marvel superheroes are in attendance to only feel the helplessness anyone encounters with the illness of a friend or loved one probably helped me cope with the same emotions when I went through similar circumstances in real life. And it also goes back to a time when I thought death in a comic book was more meaningful, before a wave of reincarnations established it more as a marketing gimmick.

 

Wolverine: Amazon

This graphic novel collects issues #1-4 of the Wolverine series which launched in 1982. What’s interesting to me is how one-dimensional Wolverine had been up to this point – this series really defined him in terms of a ‘failed samurai’ who aims to live as an honourable warrior within a code he’d set himself, but finds himself regularly failing due to circumstances.

It just about edges out The Longbow Hunter in my list, which similarly re-invented Green Arrow and Oliver Queen into my favourite superhero due to the more self-contained nature of the storyline, and the impact it had on me with my ongoing interest in Japanese and samurai culture.

 

Transmetropolitan:  Amazon

I actually got around to reading Transmetropolitan fairly recently, and I wish I’d discovered it earlier. The black humour and love/hate that journalist Spider Jerusalem has for the dystopian future city which fuels his muse is a fine inspiration for any writer. It’s easy to summarise it as ‘Hunter S Thompson meets William Gibson cyberpunk’ or something similar, but that means you’ve missed the fact that Spider doesn’t just blindly hate people and his surroundings – he’s caught between needing them and wanting to do what’s right to help them, and the fact humanity often disappoints him on an individual and group level.

 

Phonogram: Amazon

The most personally subjective choice in the list, but I make no apologies for picking the Kieron Gillen and Jame Mckelvie title which could have been written personally for me. It’s a modern fantasy in which music powers magic, and the music in this particular case is 90’s era Britpop, which fueled my teenage years. If you were caught up in a passion for the likes of Blur, Oasis, The Manics, Kenickie etc, then you’ll feel instantly at home, particularly with the digs at the likes of Shed Seven.

The fact that the magic element also gives it a compelling storyline makes it work as a narrative as well as a reminiscence of the last time I can remember one pop culture dominating my life, and the nation to the point of making national news. Given the way the internet encourages deep interest in niches, it’s probably the last time it’ll happen in the UK for a long while, as there really isn’t a mainstream anymore, and the main media channels are no longer the arbiters of interest they once were.

 

So that’s the list. Others which almost made it include Preacher, Watchmen, a handful of Batman graphic novels (The Dark Knight, The Killed Joke etc), Persepolis, Sandman, and most of the other titles which have widespread awareness and acclaim.

Treasure an age of individual beauty

By 1 Comment

Rather than mourning the loss of the classic canon of literature, music or film, we should be embracing an age where those interested can create and share their own ideals of beauty and art more easily.

Reading an article on the death of the novel by Will Self, followed by a reflection on Britpop and the anniversary of Blur’s Parklife, both seemed fueled by the end of gatekeepers rather than the end of great literature or music. It’s all too easy to mourn the loss of the past when you’re getting older.

The fact is that it’s never been easier or cheaper to immerse yourself in beautiful or thought-provoking art. Or to stumble across something thought provoking. And to find what speaks to you.

Although it’s best to look for yourself or get human recommendations rather than rely on the primitive suggestion attempts that big data is still providing. One day a data scientist will figure out that someone can like and loathe films by the same director or albums by the same band.

BookSnakebyAlanLevineFlickr
Book Snake by Alan Levine (Cogdog) on Flickr – CC License

Pinning Will Self’s term of a ‘serious novel’ down is difficult, but you could probably go by the standards of English teaching throughout the years. And while Jane Austen is justifiable as an example of a writer, I struggle to recall anything except boredom from studying her work.

Whereas George Orwell, Douglass Adams, Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller etc have stayed with me. And they’ve been joined by the likes of William Gibson. Re-reading some of his books recently (Pattern Recognition onwards), I still find myself utterly captivated by the way he weaves his otaku obsession with the detail of inanimate objects into his stories. He can open with the idea that jetlag means your soul isn’t capable of flight and is still traveling to catch up with you, and inspire an interest in researching Curta digital mechanical calculators.

At the same time, I also re-read Cory Doctorow’s Homeland. If the concepts of mass demonstrations, unlawful arrests and technology-based conspiracies doesn’t provoke some interesting thoughts, it also includes afterwords written by the likes of Aaron Swartz, and links to starting a Hackerspace, building 3D printers and more.

Given the current technological issues impacting on the world alongside economics and politics, there’s a ‘serious’ argument to be made. Or for those of a more historical bent, I remain fascinated with Hagakure – Book of the Samurai and Letters from a Stoic.

Not all novels, granted. But the breadth of mediums, formats and styles underlines my point. My serious reading comes from blogs, websites, eBooks, printed books, graphic novels, comics, cartoons and more.

Harp music in the library by Henk Kosters Flickr
Harp music in the library by Henk Kosters Flickr – CC License

But besides the delivery mechanism, what has changed is that it can be a completely individual and multifaceted canon. And one which I can explore and share. And by exploring, I can easily also find people who appreciate even just one of the same choices.

I’m still discovering music today from genres I loved, bought and obsessed about 20 years ago which I didn’t get to hear at the time due to the availability of American alternative music in Kent in the early 90s, or my limited budget to risk on metal bands I’d never get to sample on the radio. As much as friends could provide some recommendations, it’s amazing how much was shaped by watching specialist music shows on at 2am in the morning.

And I could never have had enough teenage friends to cope with my desire to listen to classic 60’s soul, 80’s hiphop, 90’s grunge and thrash metal, and a few folk and country songwriters, often in the space of an afternoon.

The internet hasn’t caused the end of mass youth trends. It’s simply accelerated the process started by television, radio and access to history which meant Britpop and Grunge in the UK largely led to questionable clothing and hairstyle choices rather than attempts to try and change the world. It also means I can create a playlist of songs that make me happy that includes Alphabeat, Jimmy Cliff and The Cure. And not only potentially meet other people that somehow arrived at a similar list, but even use it to find dates or love.

If the loss of mass consensus is the cost, I’m happy to pay it. And it”ll be interesting to see how that applies to politics, for example, as parties finally realise that for every one issue which I might align with, they have several that repel me. In the meantime, I’ll be exploring the history of pirates and vikings to share with my son, the latest marketing and technology news for work, and the most beautiful writing and music for myself.