It’s not only MotoGP’s main classes that are in action this weekend, following the volcano induced long break since the season opener at Qatar… I’m also kind of excited because Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup kicks off its 2010 season in Jerez this weekend as part of the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez. With practice on Friday and a race both on Saturday May 1st and on Sunday May 2nd it is a crucial double header for all 25 of the sport’s fastest racing teenagers. Read the rest of this entry »
Lots of people slag off Twitter.
They’re idiots of course.
But they do.
And sometimes you can accept that there’s differing levels of usefulness, triviality and purposelessness to the phenomenon in an already crowded world of communications and technology.
Nonetheless, any MotoGP fan should find themselves very grateful that Twitter exists this coming weekend, when the world’s first genuinely virtual sporting event takes place on the service – a completely virtual MotoGP weekend played out in the absence of the *real* Japanese GP (which has been postponed until October due to the travel chaos caused by the Icelandic volcano eruption).
It’s not a real race of course – but it’s definitely going to be a great exercise in fun and entertainment, and a genuinely sweet and fun way to lift everyone’s spirits.
Already attracting the notice and apparent cooperation of high profile MotoGP media figures, the event is spearheaded by a Twitterer/Tweeter called @twitgp – who is promising a weekend of full sessions, celebrities and typically MotoGP fun.
If you’re not already on Twitter, then you should be – so get signed up and get following (there are plenty of MotoGP riders and personalities already on there that you can follow) and search for and follow @twitgp – who you can also find on this URL: www.twitter.com/twitgp
You can also search for news about the event using the hashtag #twitgp
It sounds like a big load of fun: A great idea and a great cure for the blues that the race postponement has caused. So join up and join me in following this sporting and technological first!
Great news from the good folk over at REV’IT! – an amazing prize draw to win an unforgettable VIP MotoGP weekend at the race in your country.
This is too good not to enter!
REV’IT! is raffling off a MotoGP VIP package for two. The winner will not only be their VIP guest for the weekend to the MotoGP in his or her own country, but can bring a friend too. The two of you will get to see the races from a very good position, take a walk through the paddock and meet the REV’IT! riders (that’s Alvaro Bautista and Randy de Puniet for a start!) in person. And you will also receive a complimentary stay in a quality hotel, compliments of REV’IT!.
What are you waiting for? To enter the contest, you only need to sign up for the REV’IT! digital newsletter before April 30th. So visit www.revit.eu/en/win and sign up now!
(*Correspondence about the result of the contest is not possible. The winner will be notified through an e-mail.)
I think I’m generally known now as a bit of an El Canto Del Loco nut, happily raving about them to whoever will listen, and running www.elcantodelloco.co.uk to spread news about the band around the English-speaking globe.
One thing that’s frustrated me hugely – particularly now I’ve managed to see them in concert in Madrid – is their absence from any concert venues in Britain.
There’s clearly fans here, witness the Facebook “UK Fans” group for instance, and it’s clear from films/clips such as “De Cerca” that they’re as comfortable in smaller venus as they are in large ones. So why not try and encourage the band to come over and play some kind of mid-size venue? – Although the lighting rig for the “Personas” and “Hasta Luego” tours was superb, they don’t actually need it to put on a kicking show….
So I’ve set up a petition over at www.elcantodelloco.co.uk to try and get as many names online as possible to back a UK show (or shows…) Please show your support and add your signature; it would be really good to get enough momentum going for Sony BMG and the boys themselves to take the plunge and give us a treat. CLICK HERE FOR THE PETITION…
Oh, and please spread the word and share the link too.
Thank you!
Here’s a fairly random clip it’s high time I posted.
It’s something I filmed years ago on 8mm. The long story is that I was writing “Rivercity” at the time, which puts it mid to late nineties – and I wanted to grab as much visual reference and inspiration as possible; ways to describe colours, textures, movement etc – that communicated the atmosphere of the Old Town as evocatively as possible.
I had a certain aesthetic in mind and along with Polaroids, standard snaps and scribbles, I took a load of 8mm footage as well – I just love something about the fuzziness, the saturation of colours, the depth of contrast and the strange sense of movement. The plan was to use all this material to look at and to help get my head around how to articulate Hull’s very particular ‘down but beautiful’ vibe from the time.
So here’s some of the bits I rather liked in conveying the ambience of the place – I filmed some of the ripple shots upside down as I thought they’d look just a tiny bit odd (as if there’s something wrong but you can’t quote figure out what). And now I’ve ifnally cobbled it together into a clip, I avoided any kind of special edits whatsoever, left it completely linear, and added “Sketchpad With Trumpet And Voice” from Peter Gabriel’s soundtrack to the Alan Parker film “Birdy” over the top (for no better reason than it’s fab).
In short, my name's Gareth and I'm the Director of VROOM MEDIA Ltd. I'm a designer, writer, musician and MotoGP nut. I'm a shameless fanboy for Alvaro Bautista & Apple. I go moist over Spanish band El Canto Del Loco, and I'm a total Mac geek. This blog is an ongoing journal of random notes, thoughts and bits of stuff...
...And things.
The latest recordings by my solo music project, The Rain Dogs. These are tracks I'm pulling together over a period of time - some old and some new - and just putting out online for sharing.
My 'formerly industrial' band with my mate Rob.
We grew out of wanting to be another NIN some time back and have developed into a far more interesting, singular, challenging and fun.
With Rob's emigration to the USA, our way of working and creating was fundamentally altered, but we continued to push the boundaries of possible musics as we always have.
Rob's return holds promise to pick things up some more - to develop more ideas, sketchpads, rhythms and approaches to keep us on the cutting edge - and maybe a refreshed approach which might even see us revisit and complete our unfinished masterpiece "BACKLASH".
Yeah, right...
Fifteen minutes into the future, a hot, dry summer in Hull: Coates, a researcher and investigator, is hired to trace the whereabouts of missing adolescent Dominic Russell.
Is he the latest in a number of gruesome blood-letting murders attributed to the city’s “Marginals” that exist somewhere in the underbelly of the population?
That’s what the Police say, but it’s not what the boy’s mother believes - and as Coates digs deeper into that underbelly he discovers that Dominic’s disappearance is just a tiny part of a much bigger story: one that will bring his world crashing down and endanger all those around him...
Rivercity is a book that can be read at many levels, weaving a main plot - a clear homage to the “noir” detective genre - with a vampire story and a myriad of strands about perception and reality, human nature, signs, superstitions, the histroy of Hull, aesthetics, the occult and political expediency. Above all it's a novel about philosophy and the nature of truth and knowledge in the electronic age.
