Ewan Spence's All New Musings.

Sometimes A Tweet Holds A Huge Truth

Ewan Spence — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:52:30 +0000

It’s interesting what tweets catch the re-tweet (RT) wave and start a snowball effect of people passing it around. I’m watching one of mine go through that just now, and it covers so much ground in a tweet that is admittedly much shorter than the 140 character limit.

It covers sports reporting, politics, nationalism, cynicism, humour and truth in just six words…

Andy Murray is suddenly Scottish again.
@ewanspence

This Weeks Almost Instrumental TPN Rock Show

Ewan Spence — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:17:50 +0000

It may only be two instrumentals, but that’s two more than the average show. But still when I find a good track, I’ve never let the conventions get in the way. So settle back for this week’s slice of the unsigned, unknown but unforgettable TPN Rock Show.

Download audio file (tpn_rock_friday_20090703_146.mp3)

MP3 File – Show Notes – RSS Feed

The Best Of The Fringe Podcast: Four Poofs and a Piano

Ewan Spence — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:25:15 +0000

As mentioned yesterday, I’m going to be repackaging some of the older interview from the Edinburgh Fringe podcasts in the run up to the 2009 Fringe starting on August 7th. The first interview from the archives are three singers who, with a fourth member who was lost around Leith Docks on the day, make up the house band on Friday night with Jonathan Ross… it’s Four Poofs and a Piano.

It goes without saying that you won’t be able to buy any tickets for their 2006 show and still see them, but consider this and the rest of the “Best of” shows airing each Friday in July as a limbering up exercise before all the fun of the Fringe festival starting Friday August 7th.

The Best of the Fringe Podcast, 2009 Edition #1

Four Poofs and a Piano
Strictly Neurotic
www.4poofsandapiano.com

First broadcast August 16th 2006.

Download audio file (tpn_eff09_20090701_archive_01.mp3)

MP3 File – Show Notes - RSS File

If you want to make sure you always get the latest Edinburgh Fringe podcasts, you can subscribe to the Fringe Podcast in iTunes, or copy the RSS File into your favourite RSS application. Comments are welcome either here or over on The Edinburgh Fringe Show at The Podcast Network.

Rock Band Unplugged Makes Its Way to the Sony PSP

Ewan Spence — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:55:58 +0000

More podcasting fun, but this time with well-established bands as The PSP Show takes a look at Rock Band Unplugged.

Harmonix, the developers, actually have form not just in the ‘pretending to play along with big instruments’ games, but also in the rhythm games. Their PS2 games Amplitude and Frequency used the same principles as they’ve used in Unplugged, and in short this is a great portable version of the modern music game.

As well as a full review, the latest news and my views of the PSP scene are in the latest show

Download audio file (tpn_psp_20090703_98.mp3)

MP3 File - Show Notes – RSS Feed

Showcasing The Best Of The Fringe Podcasts During July

Ewan Spence — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:13:13 +0000

With just over a month to go until the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe starts (official dates this year are 7th August to the 31st August), and I’ll be helming the BAFTA nominated Edinburgh Fringe Podcast for the fifth year, bringing you the daily show from the Arts Capital of the world.

During July in the run up to the Fringe, the Fringe Podcast is going to look back at some of the many classic interviews from the archives. Every Friday for the next five weeks, I’ll introduce one of the many guests we’ve had on the show as an appetiser for the marathon that is the Fringe!

The first Best of the Fringe Podcasts will be posted tomorrow lunchtime (Friday 3rd July). To make sure you never miss a podcast, you can subscribe to the Fringe Podcast in iTunes, or copy the RSS File into your favourite RSS application.

And if you have a favourite interview from the past you want to hear, let me know!

Just Call Me the Renegade Eurovision Host

Ewan Spence — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:44:13 +0000

Thanks to Lisa Devaney for a quote that, if I were looking for an advertising strap-line, would be right up there on the top of the poster. This Renegade Eurovision Host was interviewed by Devaney last month about my adventures at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, and my use of Web 2.0 technologies. Specifically the live coverage of the contest on Twitter and my audio commentary podcast.

Twitter got noisy surrounding Eurovision, as it sparked hundreds of amusing tweets about the song contest, and gave rise to an alternative tweeting voice when journalist Ewan Spence used Twitter to cover the event from the show’s frontline in Moscow, sending tweets, blogging and podcasting from the event.

This ‘new way to watch’ has been picked up by many people; Adam Tinworth wrote about it just before the contest had started, giving his readers a heads-up, many people on Twitter pointed out my @ewanspence account when asked who they should follow to stay in touch with Eurovision, and the Media140 Conference in London the week after Eurovision featured a number of discussions about the coverage and how it helped get many people through the night.

One final thought from Devaney:

He [Spence] out-tweeted much of the official BBC correspondents by speed of updates and depth of information, winning rave reviews from followers. Several said they preferred the commentary of the renegade Eurovision tweet host to the banter of Graham Norton’s debut year as Eurovision host.

You can read the full article over at the Digital Journal.

The Scottish Summer… Foggy

Ewan Spence — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:53:53 +0000

Kevin called me yesterday, from the backing hot sun of France, and the heat-wave in the south of England. “What’s the weather like up there, mate?”

Still foggy.

But at least it’s a summer fog and there is sun on top of it. In the winter it’s just a rain cloud descending to sea level!

The Old Grey TPN Rock Whistle Test

Ewan Spence — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:21:28 +0000

I know it says rock in the title, but you all know that this is actually music I like that you all need to hear so sometimes the genres go out the window and I just play stuff that’s cool.

So welcome to TPN Cool #145!

I’ve previous mentioned some of the influences and heroes that drive the show, with both Tommy Vance and John Peel being the two most obvious, but the show tonight feels more like Bob Harris and The Old Grey Whistle Test. No matter who it is categorised, it still holds true to the TPN Rock promise… Unknown… Unsigned… Unforgettable…

TPN Rock: The Friday Rock Show #145

New Rose by Zombie Met Girl (www.zombiemetgirl.com)
Stop and Stay, by The Colorfield Theory (The Colorfield Theory on MySpace)
Black Cat White Cat, by Fanattica (Fanattica on MySpace)
Barrio Chino, by White Room (White Room on MySpace)
Flowers on a Tuesday, by The Morrisons (www.freewebs.com/themorrisonsband).
The Light in her Hair, by The Last People On Earth (The Last People on Earth on MySpace).

Download audio file (tpn_rock_friday_20090626_145.mp3)

MP3 File – Show Notes – RSS Feed

Buzz Brainbender on the latest PSP Show

Ewan Spence — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:08:06 +0000

More bite sized chunks of info, news and reviews from The Podcast Network’s PSP Show, as I talk about two Buzz titles on the Playstation Portable: Buzz Brainbender and Buzz Brain of the UK.

Download audio file (tpn_psp_20090625_97.mp3)

MP3 File - Show Notes – RSS File

We Want Our Boxes (For Our Games, That Is)

Ewan Spence — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:36:08 +0000

Over on Ovi Gaming I’ve posted an editorial on the importance of game boxes and physical media for the collector and the console gaming ecosystems.

This may seem a strange issue to bring up, and even though there is a niche that regards game boxes as collectibles, there are many, many more that would be quite happy to sell on a game, be it to a second hand shop, as a trade in at EB Games, or on Amazon or eBay. And the games publishers are fighting to stop this second sale happening – after all, these are sold on at almost full price.

Nowadays, with electronic stores, you have to struggle just to re-download an application you’ve already purchased, and in the case of the Ovi Store you get one chance at downloading a purchase. Need to grab it again because of a hard reset, corruption or you’ve bought a new phone, then you’re out of luck.

More on Ovi Gaming, which is the new name for All About N-Gage, in case you have forgotten!

Stephen Fry, Vax and the All About Symbian Insight Podcast

Ewan Spence — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:46:50 +0000

Popping up every week (although I don’t always point it out here) is the All About Symbian podcast, where Rafe Blandford, Steve Litchfield and I chat about the latest happenings in the smartphone world – mostly Symbian but we talk about the wider reach as well.

Of course you can’t talk about modern phones without discussing VAX systems from the late 80s and the occasional Prog-Rock number (Aqualung by Jethro Tull this week). We’re more than just a dry news show. I managed to sneak in some Shakespeare last week!

And if all that doesn’t float your boat, you can sit back and enjoy my rant on Stephen Fry’s review of the Nokia N97…

I love what Nokia has given to the market – I was devoted to the Communicator for years – but no one who has used an iPhone would do anything other than laugh, weep or bray with contempt at the N97.

StephenFry.com

Download audio file (aas_podcast_20090622_136.mp3)

MP3 File - Show Notes – RSS Feed

Ed McMahon: The Master’s Master. RIP

Ewan Spence — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:50:26 +0000

Ed McMahon died today.

Both of them will be missed, but wherever they are it’s going to be a fantastic show tonight.

Nokia’s Comes with Music if you like mainstream, don’t mind DRM, can live with restrictions….

Ewan Spence — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:22:12 +0000

Nice big article over on All About Symbian looking at Nokia’s Comes with Music service, where you receive two years of as much Digital Restricted Music as you can download from the Nokia Music Store. Admittedly you need to have a taste for mainstream music, and there are some gotchas, as I found it:

Let’s start with Eurovision ("must we?" - every AAS reader). It’s the biggest live TV show on the planet (112 million viewers this year), it releases a worldwide compilation album of all the songs, and after my previous article, I knew it was in the store. But there’s a problem…

Although there are 42 tracks, and they are all listed, I’m only allowed to download 25 of the tracks individually. The other 17 are only available if I decide to download the whole album.

What is the point of that? Okay, it’s not costing me anything extra to do that on the PC, but it eats bandwidth, it’s awkward, and it’s a pain in the neck for the end user.

The full article goes into a lot more depth, over on All About Symbian.

Charts Could Seal the Fate of UK’s 2010 Entry

Ewan Spence — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:36:54 +0000

I think that this week’s UK Charts pretty much answers the question of what happens to Jade Ewen post Eurovision. Around Europe, her Eurovision song “It’s My Time” charted at #75 (Germany), #34 (Sweden) and #75 (Switzerland).

Becoming a success in Europe was one option after her appearance in the song Contest with the Lloyd Webber/Warren penned song. The other was to become a big name in the UK. Unfortunately the bottom line, chart success and single sales, hasn’t happened. She entered the Top 50 last week at #27, and this week has dropped out of the Top 75. Not good.

One of the reasons for the relatively good showing of the UK in this year’s Eurovision was the promotional efforts around the continent, and this was primarily driven by her record company. Alongside the involvement of a top song-writing team and the credible media reports in the UK, Colin Barlow and the support of Polydor was key.

And if you think that’s par for the course, glance over at Alexander Rybak – probably one of the most commercially successful Eurovision songs across Europe since Katrina and the Waves. Top 10 in the UK (through digital downloads, not even an official release), number one in Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Norway and Sweden, and still going strong (plus the album is flying off the shelves where it has seen a release).

Without the record companies involved, the strong foundation built by the UK this year may crumble – but will they get involved again after potentially having quite a bad return on their investment with the parachuted into the selection Jade Ewen?

Or is this going to be a repeat of Jessica Garlic (3rd in 2002) to Jemini (nul points 2003) at next year’s Eurovision?

The Tonight Show with Ewan Spence… Leith Tonight that is

Ewan Spence — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:36:03 +0000

Next week sees the start of the Leith Festival, which runs from Thursday 4th June to Sunday 14th June. As part of the local community effort, I will be returning to the airwaves on our local radio station Leith FM, to host a late evening chat show.

The team did try to think up some great names (especially as the show is likely to go on after the Festival finishes and become a flagship Arts and Culture show on the station), but the best we can come up with is Leith Tonight.

Starting this Monday (1st June) and then running nightly for the next 14 nights, I’ll be joined by other Leith FM presenters doing their best Ed McMahon impressions, along with studio guests, live bands, the occasional outside broadcast, and whatever feels right when we sit down for our production meetings.

Those of you in range of the transmitter can tune in to 98.8FM. If you’re further away the station has an internet stream available and a podcast of each show will be made available the day afterwards (I’ll point to that from here once it goes live)

It should be great fun, and of course I’ll have my Twitterstream open during the whole show, alongside @leithfmradio.

Now, I’m away to learn from the Master…