Month: September 2009

The Art of Community

I’ve written about this before, but after reading the whole book this weekend I thought it was worth another mention.

It’s a book about communities, written by Jono Bacon (Ubuntu’s Community Manager). What I like about it is that it gives a great insight on what it is like to be part of a community where creative people work together to make something great, but where the reward is not financial. I think anyone who is involved in any sort of voluntary activity would get something out of it, and I’m certainly looking at my own community involvement in a new light as a result of reading it.

The Art of Community is available to buy (or to download for free) from http://www.artofcommunityonline.org/.

A brief history of love

I’m really taken with the debut album by The Big Pink. It reminds me of all sorts of other things, but above all it sounds like a record that really belongs on 4AD records. I’m partly reminded of The Wolfgang Press and Dif Juz, but also a lot of 90’s shoegazing bands.

It’s certainly well worth 11 emusic credits, and probably worth a lot more than that.

Listening habits and Mercury disappointment

I’ve been back at work a week now, and it really does change the way I listen to music. Over the past week or so I’ve actually only really listened to things whilst travelling to and from work, so at least half of my listening time is taking place quite early in the morning (where I prefer to listen to quieter and slower music). This has lead to me spending a lot of time with the new Yo La Tengo album (which I’d recommend as a good starting point), and also with the (still) brilliant Wilco album, which gets better with every listen, and which might even be my favourite album of theirs now.

I didn’t watch the Mercury Music ceremony in the end (Dollhouse was more pressing this week), but I’m slightly disappointed with the result. I’ve heard bits of the winning album, and I don’t think it offers anything I’ve not heard before. I’d like to have seen Florence winning, but it doesn’t change the fact that “Lungs” is a great album that would appeal to most people who can appreciate music made by someone who gives a damn.