A blog post of mine for the National Film and Television School:  https://www.nfts.co.uk/news/steam-powered-why-arts-key-engaging-students-engineering-technology National Film and Television School Head of Technology, John Maxwell Hobbs considers why the UK is facing a skills gap in broadcast engineering and how an increased focus on the arts could be the key: “There’s a lot of focus on what’s called the “STEM” approach to education these days. STEM stands for Science, Tech

An interview I did for the National Film and Television School https://www.nfts.co.uk/news/why-industry-needs-more-broadcast-engineers Top technologist and former BBC Scotland Head of Technology John Maxwell Hobbs has been appointed to lead the National Film and Television School Production Technology MA. The Masters has been introduced to tackle a shortage of broadcast engineers and fill a looming skills gap in the industry. We asked John about the reasons for the skills g

A very thoughtful piece that's worth a read. via Why We Can't Solve Big Problems | MIT Technology Review.

I'm really excited to be giving one of the keynotes for this year's conference of the International Associates of Broadcast Manufacturers on the 4th of December in London. I'm talking about how traditional broadcasters can adapt to a radically changing world. http://www.theiabm.org/events/iabm-2015-annual-conference/schedule.html

Continuing the thread of non-linear, non-Euclidian, non-Newtonian thinking here.  It looks like chaos theory is making a comeback after 20 years.  And about time too.  It's time to put an end to the concept of data-driven certainty. via Chaos Theory in Ecology Predicts Future Populations | Quanta Magazine.

We live in a messy, non-Euclidian, non-Newtonian world, and all attempts to pretend we don't have extremely negative unintended consequences: via The problem with our data-driven world | Fusion.

Published earlier today on MediumThere are a lot of articles analysing Apple’s new music service. (James Cridland’s got a good list of them here.) The majority of them are coming from tech journalists, and unfortunately, they suffer from a major lack of knowledge of how the music business actually works. They are worth reading, but prepare yourself for a lot of confusing the tray for the meal. Where most of the current analysis falls down is by treating the three elements of

I've always been interested in the way that serialised storytelling has allowed more complex stories and themes to be explored and how they have afforded a more intimate relationship with the characters. This article provides an interesting look into the way this approach has come to dominate TV these days.

More news on the Apple music front - Radio 1 DJ, Zane Lowe is leaving the corporation to work for Apple. Jimmy Iovine, and now Zane. Apple's lining up some heavyweight A&R talent.

Rumours floating around that Apple is going to move into the label business, as I predicted a few months ago:  http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/08/exclusive-streaming/ Although the TechCrunch article shows a remarkable lack of understanding of how the music industry works and what exactly a record label does, the information at its heart leads to some interesting possibilities. More info here: http://hitsdailydouble.com/news&id=294560

I'll be performing live at Redmond's in Dennistoun to celebrate the launch of the album, "Live in Glasgow," recorded last autumn at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Glasgow. I'll be improvising on the same themes, but with a new guitar this time.  But don't worry, the sparkly suit will still make an appearance.  The performance will also be streamed live.  You can watch it on YouTube below:

Solo Ambient Guitar Performance at CCA Glasgow Tuesday the 21st of October , 7pm - 11pm £4 + £1 booking fee All ages Centre for Contemporary Arts 350 Sauchiehall Street Glasgow G2 3JD United Kingdom Tickets available through the CCA box office: http://www.cca-glasgow.com/programme/542058977932e9a37600002d And Flights of Angels Sing Thee To Thy Rest  is an extended duration performance of four ambient solo guitar pieces. They are very simple pieces, each in an open tuning, a

The full multi-camera shoot of Rhys Chatham's "A Secret Rose" for 100 electric guitars from the Frontiers Festival in Birmingham is now up on YouTube.  I'm in the back row, stage right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HC9o0DaNow#t=1043

It seems clear now that the headphones and the streaming music service are secondary acquisitions for Apple - with the Beats deal, they've just acquired the head of Interscope records. I would expect an announcement of an Apple record label fairly soon.

I just got the score and the details for the Rhys Chatham piece I'm playing in this June in Birmingham. Now, time to get practicing! http://www.rhyschatham.net/news/2014-feb-19-secret-rose%C2%A0-100-guitars-birmingham-uk-june-7  

I'm really excited! I've been selected as part of the 100 guitar orchestra that's playing the UK premier of Rhys Chatham's "A Secret Rose," at the Frontiers Festival in Birmingham on the 7th of June.

Back in the 80's and 90's in NYC, I had a funk band called, "Your Monkey's Not Funny." (And sometimes called, Calamity Jane, Spiny Norman, but never Vicious Fishes.) There were a lot of members who went through the band - at one point it was 10 members and I wanted to add a horn section to that.  We had a stable line up for a few years and that's the group that's playing on the video here. This is a rough video of a rehearsal for a gig at CBGB from around 1990. The lineup

Lights Out by Chris Leslie My friend, the documentary photographer and filmmaker, Chris Leslie has been working on and off for three years on a film project called "Lights Out," about the closing of the Bluevale/Whitevale public housing complex in Glasgow and I'll be providing the soundtrack. From Wikipedia: "Faced with crippling housing shortages in the immediate post-war period, the city undertook the building of multi-storey housing in tower blocks in the 1960s and early

An article from Digg on audio vs. video on the internet.  Worth a read. Why Audio Never Goes Viral.

An interesting take on the nature of radio promo in the brave new world of the music business.  Is this a new version of payola or the only way to stay in business? Music acts fear they wont make waves if they dont play radio events for free | Helienne Lindvall | Media | theguardian.com.