I know that lots of people think its a bit arsey and it probably is but truth be told thats one of the reasons I love it and where else would you be just walking along a side street and find yourself coming across an art exhibition of Psychedelic Acid House Art by none other than Dave Little, one of the most prominent graphic designers of the era. The same guy that I have been showing copies of his flyers of in Culture, Society and Creative Media class for years. I was pretty stoked…its a group exhibition in a small gallery in shoreditch called idea generation you can see an article on RA here: http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=13992
I also came across an exhibition sponsored by adobe called Youth Voices it give young people all over the world the opportunity to get involved in Digital Art.
All this was as I walked from Old Street station to Brick Lane so I could go to one of my favourite places ever..Rough Trade east I spent a lovely hour and a half browsing and listening to records picking out plenty only to have my conscious kick in and remind me that I am not meant to be making non essential purposes. Good job I came via Ryanair and would not be able to fit them in my bag anyway.
I have now retreated to Cafe 1001 across the road and am sprawled across a large couch blogging for the first time with my ipad ( which is working out very well thanks for asking, especially since the keyboard/case arrived.), eating a very large danish and perusing the bag of goodies that “don’t panic” have left out this month. For those of you who are not familiar with don’t panic they are a flyer company in the uk only instead of picking up one flyer you pick up a whole large brown envelope full. They are great because you do not know what design delights are going to be inside, you should keep an eye out for them the next time you are over this way.
Whats really interesting is the fact that flyers are still an integral part of the scene in london they are everywhere. This is such a contrast to Dublin.

So thats it four hours in…I imagine this will be my one and only blog as in an hour I am meeting my best pal and old djing partner Lucy and we are going to try to see if we can avoid all talk of a certain event taking place tomorrow…the only real reference i’ve seen so far is a club night called off with their heads that is on tonight. Seems like a full on techno affair which might be a bit out of order for a Thursday night but then again. I think its safe to say that most people actually don’t give a shit!
An old man just stopped me a few minutes ago and said to me “you have such a brilliant sense of style you look amazing” If only he had been about half his current age this would have been a perfect afternoon..in fairness though its not far off…London town I love u!

http://www.thejournal.ie/woman-died-of-hypothermia-in-flat-after-council-refused-to-fix-heating-2011-1/

The first thing that struck me was that this had happened weeks ago and without the inquest being reported on twitter her death could and probably would have passed me by, that this young women could have died in such tragic circumstances and we as a nation did not notice. She died on the same day as Michaela Harte was murdered so that obviously was grabbing the headlines but this young women’s death deserved to be marked too.

The second thing that horrified and really shocked me that anyone could have died from hypothermia whilst living in the flats in Ballymun, now that might seem like a weird statement people can die of hypothermia anywhere particularly after the cold weather we have recently experienced but allow me to elaborate.

You see I grew up in the flats in Ballymun. The above is a picture of my old road. Where Rachel Peavoy lived with her young children was about a five minute walk from my old flat which has been demolished like so many of the 4 storeys, 7 storeys and the tower blocks around Ballymun but contrary to popular belief not all. One thing that people living in the flats when I was there never did was go cold. Back when the only tiger we knew about was up in the zoo we had something that most people didn’t even know what it was to dream about. Underfloor heating! We had no fires, no immersion, no radiators just a magical all year round under floor heating system that meant rain or hail, snow or shine as soon as you walked in the door of your flat you could often strip down to your T-shirt. Now it wasn’t really magical it was powered by a large boiler house which many of you will have driven by on the way to the airport or more recently on the way to ikea.

But it did mean that no matter how tough things were for people they had a warm house and hot water, lots and lots of hot water. In fact it was often joked by my mother that one of the reasons I became such a good swimmer was that we had so much hot water I could practice my swimming in the bath everyday.
This heating system was taken out of commission in January 2010 and it seems that the new system broke down in Rachel Peavoys flat and the council refused to fix it. I’m not sure if this was just negligence or it there was some sort of dispute over payment of rent or moving out of the flat, that is something we may never know but we may be given some indication when the inquest in reconvened
next month. The fact is it doesn’t matter. This young women and her family were let down by the council, by the government and by society at large.

Like so many of the people of disadvantaged areas in the country that were subject to so-called “Regeneration”, Limerick, St Micheal’s Estate, Dolphins Barn they have been left to rot in half finished estates. In Ballymun private housing has been built on the parks and the playgrounds most of which are far more unsightly than the high rises ever were. These are lying empty or being leased back to the government via the rent allowance schemes. Yes there is a fantastic theatre and of course IKEA but there is little or no shopping facilities or amenities.

In the next few weeks when you encounter politician’s, when they knock on your door asking for your vote ask them what they and their parties are going to do for the people in these areas. What are they going to do to prevent something like this happening again. What is their policy on social housing and on continuing to line the pockets of landlords with rent allowance? I know we are all feeling it in our pockets after the budget and are angry after the bailout but please don’t let us lose our humanity. We need a society not just an economy

Friday:

Hurts: My second time seeing Hurts and yet again they didn’t disappoint. There album is out today you should get it by whatever way you access music these days.

I had dashed over from Janelle Monae on the main stage to make sure I caught all of Hurts but I was not really feeling it on the main stage, she looked a bit lost, this was not the case later on that same night on the Body and Soul Stage it was fantastic and definitely up there with my highlights of the weekend

I was in a three way dilemma with the Friday night headliners I really wanted to see Roxy Music, PiL and The Eels I decided to head for a bit of Roxy but like my earlier experience at the main stage I just felt it wasn’t really working out. I decided to go and rock out to PiL you couldn’t get near the tent for the eels.

I decided to spend my late night party at the This is Pop Baby tent great fun as always, the tent was a little bit smaller this year and I think it suited the vibe. One of the best things about there being a smaller crowd this picnic was the fact that I bumped into someone I knew no matter where I went, unlike Glastonbury (which the picnic does not quite measure up to) where you could be wandering around on your own for hours on end.

Saturday:
There was one objective on Saturday get to the Mighty Stef dressing room as early as possible and make sure that anything that needed to be sorted was. Luckily the lads were up and about early and everyone was in great form. There was a slight hiccup as the keys player Dan was in hospital due to an infection in his leg, but the show must go on! As I could make use of the dressing room, for the very first time I took a shower at an Irish music festival, even when I was playing them I have never used the showers, I must be getting old but I did feel like I was cheating!
Before they took to the stage I had half an hour to nip over to see Spilly Walker David and Robbie Kitts band…really enjoyed it but it was way too early in the day..
Turn out at the Mighty was great and it went off without a hitch…a late evening slot would have been superb but theres always next year.

There was an Irish flavour to the rest of the afternoon with the Rednecks and Villagers top of my agenda. Then it was on to Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem.
It was about my eighth time to see Hot Chip I really do love them, the atmosphere was brilliant for both bands and I boy did I dance.
I’m not quite sure if my view of LCD is slightly rose tinted as James Murphy the legend allowed me and my mates raid the entire contents of their dressing room as they were getting on the tour bus back to Dublin, but they are really hard to top as always. It was a really nice experience to introduce a few people to the live LCD experience. They are making up for the gigs they missed due to Eyjafjallajokull sometime over the winter and they are not to be missed. It will be an awful shame if there is not another album but i am not convinced that he is done!

After collecting our bounty from dressing room number 3 and a bit of a creepy encounter with a member of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble we made a dash for Leftfield and Caribou, both excellent raging they were overlapping but thats festivals for you.

Sunday for me was all about Friendly Fires once I got to them I did not really care what else I saw…would have loved even more if it they were on the electric arena as yet again something was lacking on the main.

They said it was their last gig until the release the new album, I’m not sure when thats due out though probably early next year.

Popped along then to the Horrors they really are miserable feckers but I cant help but like them. Had hoped they would play Count in Five for old times sake but not a chance.

Other highlights of the weekend included:
Anya’s birthday cake baked by her mum
Raving with Daddy Doyle
Sitting beside Stef’s wife Leyla while he embarrassed her in the Hot Press signing tent by singing a cover of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air
Kittser and Dineen playing great tunes until the wee hours at the gramophone disco on Saturday night
Meeting nearly everyone who I have been conducting my PhD research with. Killing two birds with one stone is always useful.
The guy who had raised the shopping trolley he was pushing around since it was a basket
The Sunny Sunday morning
The sneaky disco in campsite that went on till god knows when.

Regrets
Not getting in on time to see Cloud Castle Lake perform
Sitting about thirty feet away from Twin Kranes and not realising they were on stage.
Eating pavlova and missing Todd Terje as a result.
Not taking enough photo’s
Not being able to stand the rain for Stef’s third gig of the weekend
Missing Paddy Scahill playing the This is Pop Baby tent
Not bringing Guinness with me as there was none on site.
Having to miss Laurent Garnier
Weather being too bad to check out Synth Eastwood in the body and soul on Sunday night..did it even happen?

All in all though it was a great weekend its just a shame that its a whole year before it happens again. I really hope that the attendance does not put the festival at risk.
It is only a couple of weeks until Glasto tickets go on sale so at least that’s something to look forward to.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jun/10/local-music-scenes-internet

The main premise of this article is unlike previous generations sounds are no longer attached to places. She gives high profile examples of local scenes and such as Merseybeat, Paisley underground, Grunge and Madchester and says that these scenes are unlikely to ever emerge again. She says that now scenes are being established online by “bloggers and internet communities drawing parallels in sound, though their bedrooms are hundreds of miles apart.”
She cites the internet and advances in how we access music digitally as destroying the physical importance of music. This is something that I have thought about and questioned people about in my interviews and it does seem to be the case certainly with the younger interviewees that they are no longer in purchasing or collecting music, She also gives examples of how bands are making it big before they leave their bedroom rather than cutting their teeth in local clubs. While I think this was a much hyped anecdote a couple of years ago when a number of people such as Lily Allen and Sandy Thom were reportedly signed to a record label on the back of songs they had uploaded onto their myspace profiles. These stories have been told and retold on regular occasions but I think that things have moved on from this. Very few record companies are actually signing bands and they recognise that the majority of the money a band will make will be through touring and playing live. If a band has not proven themselves on the live scene then they are unlikely to be signed.

Her argument raises some similar points to ones I have been grappling with: particularly the democratising effect of the internet and the speed at which connections and global conversations occur, she wonders if local scenes have the opportunity to develop and I think that is something I could examine in more detail.
She also refers to the “atomisation of local scenes” which is a bit fatalistic in my opinion, some of the people she has interviewed do not seem to agree with this premise and she does identify some local scenes, which she says tend to be more short lived and diverse, this is probably the case but I think this is the same with most things in society it is just a by product of the twenty first century. One of the main things I feel she is missing from this article is the reason why people become involved in local scenes and how so much more emerges from a scene such as the collective experience or the buzz that my respondents often refer to, I think it is this that will continue to sustain scenes. We do still want to go to gigs and we do want people to be our filters.
The notion that the internet has made the death of local scenes possible but not inevitable is also interesting to me. I am exploring scenes as a field flow rather than a field site. This is recognition that a scene does not have to exist around a particular venue as might have previously been the case.

Anyway I went to an amazing Summer School today in the School of Nursing in DCU. I took the course entitled an invitation to Grounded Theory it was given by Prof Agnes Higgins from TCD.
It really was inspirational, I have been grappling with grounded theory for quite a while now and I should have known it would take a good practical women like a nurse to help me see the light.

Prof Higgins background is a mental health practitioner and she reminds me of my aunt who is the same. She gave a very good overview of Glaser and Strauss’s theories which originates in the sixties and then explained the differences in between their later work.

For those of you who have not come across Grounded Theory before it is when you do not have a theoretical framework but instead you let your theory emerge from your data.

When conducting a Grounded Theory study the two key questions you need to consider are
Whats the participants main concern?
How do they resolve their main concern?

A proper study will be rooted in behaviours, words and actions and pragmatically links diverse facts.
The goal is to find a latent pattern of behaviour and give it words.
What I found so reassuring was the fact that in a grounded theory study nothing is complete data collection, analysis or even the literature review until the entire thing is complete. So control freaks (which as you all know I am not one of) are told to avoid this approach.

Prof Higgins does not recommend grounded theory to anyone unless they are doing a PhD as its just too complicated for Masters students and you need a good bit of experience to trust that your theory will actually emerge. So it may be a while before some of you go down this route.

The final bit of advice that we got today was that a PhD is not a research study and its not just about data and findings it is instead an exercise in intellectual engagement.

I like that!

In my downtime this week myself and Anya went to see a brilliant film called No one knows about Persian Cats (Trailer below) it’s on in the IFI at the minute if you are looking for something to do over the Easter you should check it out. I really need Leyla to get her Persian ass home so we can start planning when we are going to take a trip to Iran.

I have also now finally accumulated all of the materials I need for my costume for the Super Ball, I’ll be getting busy with my Gran’s sewing kit over the weekend!
I think I might go to see Kick Ass later for some more inspiration. That will be after I go to the Innovation Interface lecture in the Science Gallery at 6.30. I have to admit I have had mixed feelings about some of these talks as they have been hit and miss so far. But I have high hopes for this one its entitled: User-less Design: Multidisciplinary Design, Boundary Objects and the Possibilities of Practice
If any of you are around say hello!

My final leisure pursuit of the week has been listening to a whole lot of music mainly because the weather has been too rotten to leave the house and there are builders in next door so I needed to drown out the drilling. But its been good and I even managed to put together a little mix tape which is something I have not done in a very long time. Here are some tunes chosen so that you will at least think its sunny outside. It’s not for everyone in but its easy listening enough and it has two songs with animals in the title what more could you want?!

EDIT: Something very weird happened between me recording this as an Aiff and exporting it as an MP3 a phantom le tigre song found its way into the mix now I’m very baffled as to how that happened but I should have checked it all before I posted it up. I really didn’t think to as I recorded it live but there you go there are some gremlins in my mac obviously..luckily its not on the original aiff so hopefully if I export it again it will be free of gremlins!
Easter Mix Tape
Track listing
Groove Armada feat. Brian Ferry – Shameless
Thieves Like Us – Drugs in My Body
Miike Snow – Animals (Peter, Bjorn and John Remix)
Sparks – Beat the Clock
Phoenix – 1901 (Immuzikation Remix)
The Shepard Sisters – Don’t Mention My Name
Crookers Featuring Soulwax – We Love Animals
Chromeo – Needy Girl (Lifelike Remix)
Roisín Murphy – Overpowered
Talking Heads -This Must be the Place
Amadou & Mariam – Sabali (Theophilus London Remix)
Paul Simon – Graceland

Happy Easter!

I am finding it much more difficult to arrange this round of interviews I think It is because they are all with people I have never met in person. We have so far only had discussions over the Interweb. I don’t know if that makes it easier for them and for me to cancel on each other but I have never experienced things dragging out like this before.

I suppose I have been spoiled thus far because I was always so immersed in the scene that everyone knew me and therefore I had very easy total access to everyone I needed. I now am in a kind of a bind. Since I began my PhD and was made head I do not have time to DJ. But not being a DJ anymore and also not being out and about has meant that it has become harder for me to gain access to people. I still do not have the same difficulties that some might face negotiating access but all the same it has become a bit more of a challenge. I have to explain myself much more and I can feel that my social capital is starting to slide somewhat. My only saving grace is that I have some friends who are clinging on the dream for a bit longer than I was prepared to and they have remained a way in.

Contrary to what traditional media outlets would have us believe young people do not have their social networking sites public for all the world to see nor do they just randomly accept friend requests from strangers. And rightly so, they are pretty open to allowing you to be their friend providing they have some sort of an introduction. There needs to be some sort of link no matter how tenuous. So I will plough on and hopefully by the weekend I will be able to shed some light on the activities of the yoof that will be worth sharing.

In the meantime check out the new Hot Chip video I so wish I could shoot lasers out of my mouth!

BTW well done to all of my third years who actually dragged themselves out of bed to give presentations this morning, everyone showed up in body anyway and gave a pretty good account of themselves.

I really should be blogging more often in general but I am going to make a concerted effort in the next few weeks to blog about my research. As a little reminder I am doing my PhD in the Sociology dept. of Trinity College Dublin and my PhD is an ethnographic study looking at how technology had impacted on the Dublin Music Scene.

So I have been trying to get back into my field work which is always a challenge more so than ever this semester. Unfortunately due to the move to Carroll’s which is looming ever closer I seem to have double the amount of meetings to attend that I usually have. Between sorting out the tenders for equipment and all the other planning things have been a bit mad. The second part of the semester always seems to give me a little more space for my research as i have all my teaching planning for the semester finished and exam papers written. I am also looking forward to the Easter break so I can get a run at things.

But here I go again three whole paragraphs and I am making excuses and talking about what I am going to do but not a mention of what I have actually been doing. It’s like being in a meeting with my supervisor, who I had a full and frank exchange with when we met on Friday. She “put a bomb” under me and told me to stop making excuses and living in the future and just get on with it. Sound advice and she is most definitely right.

So a quick summary of where I am at. I have completed all of the interviews with those who have been involved in the Dublin Music Scene for ten years or more. When I say completed I mean they have taken place, they are transcribed and I have also coded them some by hand and some using Nvivo. This was all completed in December.

From these interviews a number of themes have emerged that I wanted to explore with younger members of the Scene. The younger members of the scene are the one that are really important to me because they are the one who are living it. They are also digital natives and have grown up using technology. The old fogeys (as I am sure most of the younger cohort imagine anyone in their late twenties early thirties to be) were only really a test group. If I am going to talk about how technology has impacted on the scene I need to know what it was like before technology was ubiquitous.
So the second batch has begun I have conducted and transcribed two interviews and have three more scheduled for this week. I am really hoping to get them out of the way asap.

What has really struck me though was the unwillingness of all concerned to conduct interviews online. When arranging the interviews I offered all of them the option of meeting me in town or arranging a time online. All went for an in-person meeting. I am very disappointed to be honest, for no other reason than it would have been good to reflect on the interviews from a methodological standpoint. But I have to do whatever people feel comfortable.

I also intend to conduct some participant observation in Facebook before I conduct my interviews, time permitting!
The real challenge I find when I am conducting ethnography online is the sheer volume of activity that is taking place, and I am always conscious that most of the time people are doing exactly as I am lurking. All of my field work so far has backed up what I thought to be the case, that lurking can be an important part of people involvement in the scene just as going to a nightclub or a gig. But how do I capture this? I am considering asking people to keep a diary but I wonder will they? Or maybe I could just go and sit in their bedrooms and watch them on the Internet. I am only half joking with that last comment.

I am finding some interesting contrast in views and habits between the young cohort and the older ones. Some which surprise me and some that don’t. As I have only coded two I am not going to comment on them just yet as they could well be exceptions rather than the norm but hopefully later in the week I will be able to go into things in a bit more detail. It does at last give me something to go with.

In other news I just sent circa2000 words to my supervisor only about another 8000 to go before I meet with her again but its start.

Also Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there, I know my mammy does not read my blog but just in case she stumbles across Love you Mam!

Don’t have time to go into it now but some very interesting debate around a few things this week of International womens day. The Irish times published a special on Women to mark the occasion Friday week last. It seems to have upset a lot of people both men and women in fact there was a whole page of the comments published in this weeks edition of the Ticket. Una Mulally in the Tribune today mentioned it in her column and as usual had a quite astute assessment of the whole thing.

Probably the most watched clip on youtube over the weekend was the video for the Lady Gaga and Beyonce collaboration Telephone. 13m views since Friday morning! I have to say it was not the murder, the semi nakedness or the fact that it implied the two ladies were lovers that got my attention but all of the product placement. It actually made me think I was watching some remixed version because it was so blatent. But seemingly no. Seeing as I am pretty fond of both the Gaga and Beyonce I was a little disappointed if the truth be told.

I’m sure you’ve all seen it already but just in case

While we may have had the women’s movement for our entire lives and longer a few very disturbing news stories have struck me over the last few weeks that makes me worry about the reality of being a girl in 2010.

The first story is one about the murder of a young 16-year-old women in Turkey by her Family in a so-called honour killing because she had male friends. http://www.montrealgazette.com/Girl+buried+alive+honour+killing+Turkey+Report/2521342/story.html
While unfortunately stories like these are not rare the face that this young women was buried alive is beyond comprehension

It can be easy for us to compartmentalise these news stories, become shocked say that’s terrible, put it down to religion and swiftly move For instance how many of you heard of this story two weeks ago
in Malaysia
But these are examples of just two stories in the last month where women continue to be second class citizens throughout the world.

We are not always faced with these facts in such an overt manner. For instance this article on the how older women are the most at risk demographic in the US

Or what about all of the tabloid coverage of the so called Wives and Girlfriends of famous sport stars that this could somehow be a viable career aspiration for young women who would have thought 40 years on that young women would want a career being someones wife. Its frightening but then when Cheryl Cole is being portrayed as the ultimate role model its not surprising.

Or the fact that Denise Van Outen and Danni Minogue both have been sacked from their TV presenting jobs because they are pregnant and no one has batted an eyelid!

I could go on and on but I think I’ve made my point..

I don’t think this is however only a female issue, Society that has been dominated by men has been proven to be not so successful so maybe its in everyones best interest to think about the way that women are treated and the messages that are sent out to young women.

Maybe this TED talk by Eve Ensler which was recommended to me by Anya will set us off in the right direction maybe we all need to embrace our inner girl..I think it would be a start!

It’s was quite a startling development especially seeing as lots of blogs are now posting mp3s with the express permission of the Artists and or Record Companies, and even if they are not most at least recognise the influence that blogs can have and are therefore happy to allow them to be posted.

The most upsetting thing to me about this whole thing is that someones entire blog could be wiped without prior warning, surely they could just remove the offending mp3s or at least warn the bloggers what they were planing on doing. I know I have not been blogging again for very long and I have hardly been prolific in my posting but for some people who have been posting religiously for years this must be devastating.

If you do a twitter search for musicblogicide there are some more interesting takes on this debate.

I was kind of hoping that Matt Mason might have had something to say on the matter but there is no sign of any thing yet on his Blog

I wonder did it turn a few people off buzz or have people actually been turned on by buzz at all yet?

Another thing I meant to post earlier in the week was Puma’s ahem heart warming Valentine Viral