YourPlace.TV

First Class Memorials

As darkness falls, the train pulls heavily through the greasy mechanics of the railway cuttings, her resigned travellers gazing mesmerized by lumps of iron and the occasional piece of garish graffiti, desert flowers by comparison.

Up at the front, there is no time for gazing, high backed couches like headstones support still working bodies, executive remains in pinstripe shrouds form their own first class memorials.

Here in the less refined quarters, pungent plastic meals are pulled from branded bags and consumed to a background of nokia, sony and hello moto.

Now away from the brown and rust, and in the fading light, incandescent platforms flash like TV channels surfed by remote control, their meagre charms not sufficiently enticing for a moment's pause.

Wakefield, Sheffield and Doncaster pass without acknowledgment, other than for the lottery of seating arrangements, newly boarded passengers, bags hoisted and bums squeezed into scarcely adequate spaces.

Wrong could be the new right

Current TV has just been launched here in the UK and so I decided to have a look this afternoon.

The argument goes that the big media organisations monopolise our view of the world by filtering content. This filtering is often based on the need to gain advertising through attracting large audiences in the highest spending groups. Then, of course, there are well known political affiliations. 

I have no doubt that we will get a distorted view of the world if we only ever rely on a narrow range of publishers for that view.  In effect, Current is not one channel but many different voices and by relinquishing tight commissioning and editorial control the challenges now are of navigation, interpretation and authentication.

Transparency and availability of information is an interesting area. We may have access to huge volumes of content, but the question remains of how we can interpret what we are seeing and be sure of its quality - more fundamentaly, how we find it. The traditional way of interpreting content and judging its accuracy has been to build up a relationship of trust with the content provider. The BBC offers itself not only as a content distributor but as an organisation that is able to help you make sense of what you are seeing by putting the media in context. But how far would you trust the BBC?

The democratisation of media is something Current is aiming to facilitate. The service is made up of  a large amount of Viewer Created Content known as VC2.  Some of the pods, (as the films are called), are promoted on the site as being available on sky 155 and Virgin Media - neither of which I have.  You will also find a very interesting training section which has advice on production, story telling and journalism which is worth a look (if a little shallow). There is also an invitation for viewers to create the commercials which are shown on Current with the promise of a potential $50,000 for creative that gets adopted!

Creatively, Current is able to take you into the lives of people that the mainstream media often overlooks. This has to be a good thing.

As Current TV says in one of the tutorials,  "Keep making mistakes. Who knows, your wrong way may be the next right way" 

Body

Liturgical Duck
Originally uploaded by markwaddington.

A bathroom in church, rubber ducks to help meditation and volleyball with bread were among the offerings at last nights Grace service, Body, at St Mary's. How do we use our bodies to relate to God?  I found the service moving (literally and emotionally). The strong structure, elements of surprise, physicality and a very dignified communion led by Dean made a rewarding experience. more pics by steve

70 Most Beautiful Words

A few years ago the British Council ran a survey to find the 70 most beautiful words.

1. Mother
2. Passion
3. Smile
4. Love
5. Eternity
6. Fantastic
7. Destiny
8. Freedom
9. Liberty
10. Tranquillity

The full set here

Grace: Body

Great Photos: 4

Lots of looking

My driving instructor years ago used to chant at every junction and manoeuvre "lots of looking, lots of looking". It seems to me that "lots of looking" is a good strategy for traversing any piece of terrain, whether it be just a road or a whole pathway in life.

Looking at, reflecting on and collecting work by other people is, I suppose, one way of absorbing good practice. We may not know why we like something but our gut response tells us there's something we should emulate. Of course the temptation is to imitate, which is what we do when we haven't quite absorbed the deeper essence of what we are looking at.

My parents hauled me and my brothers round art galleries at an age when we thought galleries were the most boring places on earth. Their hope was that we would subliminally develop a taste for good things. It has taken me years to recover but now, in middle age, I quite like art galleries. I also like churches full of visual richness  - though the church thing is more a response to having been brought up in Methodism where there really isn't anything to look at at all.

Now my suggestion is that you take a look at these links to photographers. I think their work is quite good.  Then perhaps you could comment and offer other links with RSS feeds.

Mute

Joe's nyc

Daily Dose

Phase Drift

Blue Jake

Andrew Kime