I was up before dawn, determined to have a lovely walk to Nobby’s Beach at Newcastle, and to take some photographs along the way. The weather and beach didn’t disappoint, and it was pretty good to see a large cruise ship in the harbour, Rhapsody Of The Seas, attract attention.
“Feel like a beer?”, I said to my mate, Martin at work late in the afternoon.
The look on his face was as if I’d given him this week’s winning Lotto numbers.
We’d both had a pretty stupid and shitful day at work.
And over a couple of beers at the nearby Central Hotel, we de-stressed and had a good chat about life, the universe and everything. Well, it was mostly work we chatted about, but still…
That said, there were some bright spots in the day.
1. I went out for my favourite lunch at my favourite nearby cafe, which is always a good thing.
2. Seeing the sign outside the “Flu Vaccination Room” at work which some wag had attached some graffiti to.
Unfortunately, by the time I’d arrived (on time) for my flu shot there was already a considerable backlog of people waiting, and they’d actually ran out of the vaccine, anyway.
I had one of these shots for the first time last year, and it stood me well, so I figured there was nothing to lose from going back for another jab.
Mind you, I did spend most of winter last year in the Northern Hemisphere, so perhaps I was just in the right place in the right time?
My democratic duty is done. I pre-voted today, as I am working tomorrow. (Why I’m working tomorrow is a good story which I’ll share later).
The people working at the booth were fantastic.
As I’m still hobbling around (post surgery) with a crutch, they showed me to the lifts, escorted me to the front of the queue, and directed me to the sit down booth.
My tip for those voting tomorrow.
Do some research. There are sooooo many parties I had never heard of before, and it was quite a challenge to work out which was the least desirable!!!!
Take a closer look, both literally and metaphorically.
The movie which haunted me throughout Europe will soon be available at my local video shop. The same video shop I haven’t been to for years because I was so embarassed at the $27 overdue fine I had to pay eight years ago (or thereabouts).
I was on my way to Sydney University for a “Media Industry Night” put on by one of the student groups. In comparison with the main drawcard – Ray Martin – I was a minor player, though quite a few of them were interested in what I had to say, even if a couple of them confused me with James O’Loghlin. “We’re both bald”, I reassured one of them, when he realised the mistake he’d made.
It was a really interesting reminder of my own university days a thousand years ago. Most of the students seemed to have no clear idea of what they want to do when they finish their courses, echoing the experience of most of my peers back in the 1980s.
In common with these kids I lived through a reasonably difficult economic period. “Everyone goes on about how we are gonna cope, as such a materialistic generation”, one of them said to me at one point. He was reassured, I think, when I mentioned similar comments were made about my generation.
Despite what’s often said about the generation gap, I think we all go through similar experiences from generation to generation. I think it’s too simple (simplistic) to make generalisations about Gen X, Gen Y and whatever comes after that.
There was only one occasion when I had to turn my head and smile at what I thought was one of the naïve thoughts/ideas of youth when we discussing some issue or such. One of the guys picked up on it, I know, though he didn’t draw attention to it.
Later though, he asked why I’d bothered to come in a genuinely inquiring way. It was then I pointed towards Ray Martin and said “Ray didn’t have to come, either but he did” alluding towards a genuine sense of altruism.
I could have been at home watching television, or playing on the internet, but I really enjoyed my experience visiting Sydney University tonight. Despite what you often read about the cynicism of this generation of kids going through university today, they seemed like a genuinely nice bunch, with a genuine sense of optimism towards the future. I hope they do well.
I was definitely back in “work mode” today, as I attended “Radio Days Europe”. It’s the first ever meeting of commercial and public sector broadcasters in Europe. By a show of hands, it was 30/70 today.
It’s a conference I read about a few months ago, wrote to one of the organisers asking if they accepted registrations from outside Europe, and then after a few more emails was asked if I would like to participate in one of the forums. I’m speaking tomorrow at 12 noon.
Today I got to meet some of the people I’ve been corresponding with online, got to meet a lovely woman who runs local radio in Copenhagen, met some cool guys from Switzerland, and also to chat with a couple of people I’ve met previously.
And along the way, I tweeted and took far too many photographs to share here tonight. I’ll be revealing more to my colleagues back in Australia when I return. In the meantime, this is what I learned along the way through my various tweets.
85% of all uk listening inc mp3 is radio #radiodayseurope
One of today’s early speeches came from Tim Davie, Director Radio (despite his title) for the BBC, who explained there was room for optimism in radio, depsite concerns young people aren’t listening as much as they used to. He explained research showed that 85% of all listening time, which incuded mp3, CD, etc, was actually to radio.
Bbc radio emphasises content partnerships with tv museums #radiodayseurope
Tim Davie spoke about some of the content partnerships the BBC had entered into, including a terrific series about objects in the British Museum.
Uk radio player featuring both com and public radio #radiodayseurope
He also anticipated the common radio player, due to be released in Beta in the European summer, which allows for the BBC and the commercial sector to compete in an online environment.
Radio is no longer medium for new music trends (worry) #radiodayseurope
There was some worrying research, though, that radio was no longer the place where people went for new music.
New swedish radio website integrates player in site. Player is site is player.#radiodayseurope
The next presentation was from a woman involved in the re-design of the website for Swedish radio. She explained how they couldn’t see a reason for separating the website from the audio player, as often occurs with radio websites, so they have integrated the two in the design for their new site.
Love the idea of music hack day at swedish radio #radiodayseurope
One of the many things she spoke about was a day when they invited ordinary developers and hackers to come in to play with their music station websites. I think this sounds like such a great idea, a bit like they do with Google, WordPress and other companies I admire.
New uk player based on mp3 and aac to deliver flash#radiodayseurope
And then Nick Piggott spoke about the new common radio player for the web in the UK.
New uk radio player seeks to be google for radio #radiodayseurope
He explained they wanted it to be like google for radio, and that when you went looking for a song or an event, you would – thanks to the metadata – be able to find it straight away. He explained that if you went looking for Janet Jackson (goodness knows why) you should be able to find the radio station that would player her next.
Sat with group of danish local radio managers for lunch. World too small. #radiodayseurope
Over lunch I sat with a group of people doing a similar job to my own. The woman from Copenhagen described her station which sounded not unlike 702 ABC Sydney.
Teens blur the line between production and consumption of media #radiodayseurope
We then heard some further research about how young Swedes, in particular, use radio. The research, done mostly through participant observation, revealed that young people “produce” all of their lives.
Love the concert of creating faceradio as in facebook #radiodayseurope
And the researcher offered that we should be creating a Facebook of radio, not putting ourselves on Facebook. We need something as revolutionary as Facebook to create radio as a space where young people want to be.
Love idea of italian radio show with teen reporters around the world and only indie music. #radiodayseurope
We then heard from a bloke from Italian radio who spoke about the listener involvement of his audience. Even though he is 37 and his co-host 51, they have an active audience or 15-24 year olds who act as “citizen journalists” reporting for the program from around the world.
Danish youth station p5000 operates with three hosts on two hour loop. Lots of club sounds. #radiodayseurope
And from there, it was a speaker who talked about a new Danish radio station that employs just three hosts, one of whom he described as Denmark’s answer to Paris Hilton, but with larger breasts.
Radio needs to be confident and aggressive with government about digital radio standards says bbc bloke #radiodayseurope
The next segment had me really confused, as a group of people spoke about the digital roadmap for Europe. At the moment, in something straight of “Yes Minister”, the panel described the different competing platforms in different countries. The bloke from BBC said they needed to agree on a common standard, a hybrid of DAB and IP (he said the UK has missed the boat on DAB+), and actively promote it domestically. While it would be good to have the EU behind it, he argued, there was more to be gained from having the political debate locally.
Head spinning after digital radio for europe discussion. Lot to be said for island nation continent. #radiodayseurope
Ditto
Digital ghetto speaker says he is going to make people angry with his views. #radiodayseurope
The next speaker from Finland told the organiser just before he started he would challenge a lot of people’s views and make them angry, as he described the lost opportunities with digital radio. He said, they should have pursued the path of CD technology, where Phillips and Sony (on two continents) worked together. Did he make them angry?
He didnt #radiodayseurope
And finally, there was panel of how music radio could compete with Spotify. Unfortunately, there was no one from Spotify on the panel, and no one on the panel actually appeared to be from a country where Spotify operates.
Unlike spotify etc music radio remains human says danish p3 head. #radiodayseurope
And finally, a comment about why music radio remains important when people have ipods.
Mass radio important because people want things to talk about says ken benson #radiodayseurope
Wow. What a day. I enjoyed it immensely.
Great day. Now for a beer. #radiodayseurope
And there was a official reception tonight at the Town Hall which was a very nice vanue.
Exhausted.
In my office sweep for the World Cup I drew Paraguay. Or maybe it was Uruguay. I’m sorry, I can’t remember. My interest in the World Cup is purely tokenistic and probably relates more to an interest in the world in general, more than in interest in sport.
My interest in the Eurovision Song Contest, of course, is much greater. And so generally speaking, I use that as a guide to which country I should support.
Sweden, of course, failed to make the final of either contest this year, which is a source of national shame, I am sure.
And so when a Swede asked me which country he/she thought they should support, I suggested they support Australia, because, generally speaking, Australia (well, me), supports Sweden in Eurovision.
It would have been too much for Germany to have won both Eurovision and the World Cup, and so I’m glad they failed to make the final. Also, because they whipped our arses.
As to whether I should support Spain or Netherlands in the final, I’ve been a little confused. I had a great time in Amsterdam a couple of years ago, but I’ve never been to Spain so I’ve been struggling to choose a team without a point of comparison.
Where would I like to be if either team wins? I think the party in Madrid would be lots of fun. Lots of sex and dancing in the streets I’d imagine. But it would also be fun in Amsterdam. With sly reference to both the strength of Dutch beer and the legalisation/decriminalisation (I can never recall which) of marijuana in Holland, a listener on 702 ABC Sydney joked yesterday morning, “can you imagine the party in Amsterdam if they win…?”.
Unable to choose, I’ve come back to Eurovision and asked when was the last time either country came first in the more important international competition.
Spain is a little tough. In 1969, “Vivo cantando” (“I Live Singing”) was one of four songs which tied for first place in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Unfortunately, it’s a crap song, especially compared with the song they previously won with.
Though of course, Spain gets a special mention for their song which failed to make the top position in 1973, Eres tú by Mocedades. Great song!
The more recent winner from the two countries was the Netherlands in 1975 with “Ding-A-Dong” (Dutch: “Dinge-Dong”), sung by Teach-In.
It’s always been a favourite of mine, and so on the basis of preferring the Dutch Eurovision winner over the Spanish Eurovision winners, I’m going for Holland this time around.
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