Shiny & Panorama and TechCrunch & the BBC

It seems to have been a week of good and bad moves by the BBC in terms of their relations with the UK’s online community. A schoolboy error with Shiny Media, and hopefully a conversation-opening exercise via TechCrunch. A few thoughts of my own below – and, you’ll be pleased to hear, links to much more thorough posts too…

Shiny Media & Panorama

Finally got round to having a read of Ashley Norris from Shiny Media‘s righteous rant about the uncredited use of Catwalk Queen interviews on the Primark-Panorama expose. I didn’t catch the show but it’s been talked about TV amongst friends and colleagues so I’m so annoyed for the girls at CQ, and Shiny in general, that they didn’t get credited for their input in a major UK fashion story. They were rightly asked to be involved as one of the biggest online voices in UK fashion, but not given the status they deserve. Especially as CQ gave the show some good on-site promotion, going right to the sort of Primark-buying audience who probably wouldn’t normally have had Panorama on their radar.

I often hear stories about and from bloggers, about the weird ways they get treated in comparison to journalists and this is just another example. It’s good to see the open BBC apology on Ash’s post, but it still as he says, leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth.

TechCrunch & the BBC

I made it the really interesting BBC-TechCrunch UK debate on Wednesday. The BBC picked up on Mike Butcher’s challenge about why they’re not doing more to open up and work with the UK’s talented and exciting web businesses. A very good question.

So, with TechCrunch they invited other broadcast reps (C4, BBC and Of Com), TechCrunch and UK start-ups to come down and openly discuss what should be done. An encouraging and interesting event, which drew lots of passionate opinions and was generally positive.

What other people have been saying:

Both stories have collided and overlapped a bit this week – see posts below

TechCrunch UK: Live Blog: The TechCrunch BBC debate – MIke’s live blog of the debate

Neil McIntosh: The BBC goes a’trampling – interesting resonses form the BBC and Jeff Jarvis

Charles Arthur: Bad form, BBC, re: the bloggers

Arthur Guy: BBC TechCrunch debate – covers the all-important right issue in a bit more detail

Grapevine Consulting: Where have all the women gone? – Points out the rather blokey panel

Virtual Economics: Screwing the Shinies

(Disclosure: I work for Shiny Red, who are connected to the Shiny Media network)

Glastonblogging

I have friends and family at Glastonbury this year, so I’m taking a keener interest in usual in the festival. Just checked out my friend James Whatley’s Glastonblog, looks like he’s having lots of fun, and my 18 year old sister is working at the festival so I’m hoping she’s behaving!

I’m also looking forward to the verdicts from Popjunkie, but in the meantime, there’s not enough video about for my liking! There’s some good stuff on the BBC and a few interviews on YouTube – but I really want to see the sets!

I heard some of Kings of Leon on the radio this morning which sounded ace, you can see it here. I saw KOL at the fabulous Pukkelpop last year and was very pleasantly surprised, they’re a really great festival band – Caleb’s voice sounds epic and they look the part.

I love digging around on YouTube for live gig clips, so it’s annoying that there’s not many up yet – we’ll have to wait until the fans get home! As I couldn’t embed the BBC one – here’s Pulp with the awesome Pink Glove from 1995 – now that’s the Glasto I wish I’d been at…

Levi’s virals – backflipping, helium and super-chilled monkeys

Just posted about these Levi’s virals over on Shiny Red – not sure about the other two, but backflip is ace!

4 million views in less than a month for the three for Levi’s – so job done there.

Shoreditch Shuffle blog

I’m helping out the lovely people at Who’s Jack magazine with their fab Shoreditch Shuffle festival blog, and posted up some new sign ups today – see below…

• Time for Tea - ‘The last stop for burlesque vintage and everything johnny’
• Village Underground – “Village Underground is socially driven, a charitable organisation and environmentally conscious. Commercial uses directly support the production of new creative work and emerging cultural practitioners. This essential balance allows us to act as a stage – facilitating a vibrant and diverse cross section of creative endeavour, cultural hybrid and artistic collaboration.”
• Black Rat Press – “Quality street art screenprints from some of the world’s leading guerilla artists. And Matt Small, who paints on abandoned fridge doors and stuff.”

And the new bands…

• Akira The Don – “Hip hop maverick from Anglesey”
• Kids love lies – “Hot to trot post-punktastica buzz pop darlings”
• Sexual Hot Bitches - “…not the most demure of bands, lo-fi drum and bass partners Helen and Anna (no joke) are responsible for such scintillating bursts of elector-funk as the charmingly named “Face Rape”" (Joxley MOG)
• Depot - ” We’re a young band from west london, looking for gigs pretty much anywhere.”
• Public Service Announcers – “Public Service Announcers are a young 4 piece band from London…set to bring a refreshing multi-coloured imagination back to pop music.”
• Royal Treatment Plant – “a bit like the cardigans with some throwing muses, pixies and yyy’s thrown in. and a bit like metallica. sometimes. well on one track anyway. that’s cause Tom is a metallica fan. anyways why we should we tell you what we sound like. come to our free gig this week, then you can tell us what we sound like. don’t mean to be rude, mind.”
• Ist - “Reviews compared the band to Syd Barrett fronting the Beatles, and the record built up a steady following of ´istians´ around the world”
• Minus IQ - Their sound is an enthralling mix of Rock and Electro, Dance and Indie. Their look is 80s with thin ties and glittery stuff and their songs explore the eternal appeal of sex, girls, partying and drama.
• Fighting Cocks – Essex’s premier Gypsy Hardcore band
• 5 minute pop promo ( accou ) – “Harmony drenched english countryside prog-folk’ used to be a dirty meta-word, but FMPP have sure cleaned up the house. Type it into the wonderful world of web these days and you’ll come across Five Minute Pop Promo.

Looks like it’s gonna be fun

The two types of shoes

This is going to be my girliest, least-ranty feminist post ever, (I’ve um’d and ah’d about posting it) but here we go…

Having done some shoe shopping last week at the AMAZING Office sale shop that’s just opened dangerously close to my office. And then having finally seen Sex and The City at the weekend with Lottie – also AMAZING. “I got to thinking” in a Carrie stylee, that at women’s worst moments there are two types of shoes (and most fashion for that matter):

Ones that we think will make other girls think we’re cool

Ones that we think will makes boys fancy us

Terrible I know. But sometimes, especially in Carrie Brashaw’s world fashion is bought for those two reasons. That’s the explanation for those items girls buy that their boyfriends never get anyway.
That’s out of my system now, I can go back to being a geek girl.

(As a girl I can’t find the shop on a map – it’s a bit magic and secret, it might disappear soon. But it’s just up Tottenham Court Road about a minutes walk from the tube)

Jarv glasses for Perry

Spotted this on i like totally love it today and felt just that. And obv it’s from the uber-fab Tatty Devine who I’ve loved long time. Just had to post this for me and Perry to emphasise the love for Jarv.

Why albums used to matter

Just saw this video over on Andrew Dubber’s blog. Mostly I just like it because the presenter is cool – Hip Hop guy Jay Smooth and it’s a great three minute online video. But having watched the music biz for the last year for We7, he’s also talking some sense. I remember back in the day how exciting it was getting the latest Pulp cassette – but it’s not really like that anymore is it! The ‘event’ moment – or ‘party if you’re Jay – has moved from the music shop release date, to the online leak.

(Total pain to embed from Current TV though!)

more about “Cool music vid“, posted with vodpod

Geek out

Just some geekery…

1. This is cool, via Vice, Tuborg are auditioning for a festival blogger to report back on their behalf with from some of the big UK festivals. You get a complete festival kit and some nice ‘blogger/press backstage perks. This is a great idea and fab bit of online PR, I’m sure it’s going to do well, and the partnership with Vice is perfect – Vice is still pretty much the only junk mail I ever open and it’s always worth it.

2. For those of you who don’t realise I am an uber-geek these days you can check out my post on Shiny Red, where I wrote up my attendance at the PR Newswire Director of Emerging Media event. Catchy title huh! I normally do better than that!

3. And even if you don’t get twitter – it’s like bouncing Facebook statuses back at people – mine’s here, and normally about Redbull and toast and things. But anyway, I saw twistori  on 77, and it’s just pretty, you can pick an emotion and just watch it scroll up – ahh. It’s all the people over the world telling you wht they love right now…

Champagne at the Hilton – a step up from the bins!

I went to the Windows Bar at the Park Lane Hilton last night after The Marketing Society Annual Awards – all a little bit too party for a Monday eve! The night time views over London were fab and it reminded me of two very different bars we used to go to In Shanghai when I was travelling in China in 2001 (eek I’m old!).

The first was Windows Too, a super cheap and cheerful pre-club, or mid-week bar that was totally our local – I’m pleased to see it still getting some love. It was massively student like really, but the pre-uni me didn’t spot that!

I’m pleased to say the Park Lane Hilton, was a lot more reminiscent of the truly-fabulous Cloud 9 bar in the Grand Hyatt Shanghai. We went there on one of our last nights in the city and it was unbelieveable – the 87th floor of a gorgeous hotel. After three months travelling, even glammed up, we didn’t quite look right but it was ace. I just remember the free magician who came to the table, the amazing view and the general sense of having a Pretty Woman moment!

Good fun last night though, even if it does feel wrong to be suffering this much on a Tuesday – and without a door key at present, my housemates LOVED me at 2am when I got back to glamorous Hackney…

View from the Cloud 9 bar, Shanghai Grand Hyatt

Eating out of the bins in Hackney!

Ok, not really, but I did have a freeganism experience at the weekend that proved too much for me! My (slightly eco-warriory) flatmates took a break from our housemoving day to have lunch, and they got out a load of lovely EAT sandwiches. But I just couldn’t bring myself to eat mine – and it wasnt just the hangover – but because they got them out of the bins the night before!

Now I hate waste and love recycling. My family always have, me and my friend Jess are superfans (she has a T-shirt and everything!), and I also love the freecycle movement and have mates very into that too. I do like the idea of freeganism, but I just couldn’t eat the chicken sandwich when I knew it was from the bin. Is that weird? Would other people be up for eating that – not because you were desperate for food, but out of a choice to avoid waste? It ended up going in the bin anyway, and I went to big-bad Tesco!

Anyway, I’m now moved to Hackney today for three weeks, right by the Empire, before back to my new flat on lovely Brick Lane!