mistrustmusic's posterous

mistrust music has moved

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I've now moved my "mistrust music" blog to www.mistrustmusic.co.uk/blog so please go over there to read my blog posts. If you don't want to go there yet, why not read my previous posts on here first.... Go to the new mistrust music blog>>>>

Filed under  //   audio   bands   blog   blogging   family   mistrust   mp3   music   unsigned  

Why Facebook and kids

Well, I'm certainly getting a lot of hits on here about kids using Facebook. Why's that then? Dunno, really. Maybe a lot of kids go on it, and a lot of parents either want to monitor what they're doing on it or don't want them on it all. I like all this social networking thing. Don't get me wrong. Think it's great. Very useful, very now. Can't see the world going back to a Facebook-less era. However, why are parents still letting their kids as young as six or seven going on Facebook? Why? What reason? Have they forgotten how to talk? Fine - if your relatives are halfway round the world. What about Skype. What about setting up your own family social network on blog thing. Anyway. The debate still goes on and it rankles with me that I still see all my kids' friends on there. So what are the schools doing about it? Not a lot at the moment, but maybe it's finally getting through to the schools that something should be done about it. Take this for example.  Internet Safety for children.  Maybe things will start changing. So, why am I on Facebook if I'm not happy about young  kids being on it? Well, I've been in touch with a few people from school, and I'm using it to plug my music. That's it. That's all. If you're on Facebook and want to become a fan of my music, click here and "Become a Fan". I'm also on Twitter. The gratuitous plug. I did a remix for dub band International Observer a while ago. The track is called "Popcorn Slavery (mistrust remix)" and is out on the band's EP on Monday 22nd February. You can hear previews of it on my Soundcloud and Myspace pages, and it's available to download from Monday on all major music sites, and the band's own Bandcamp page. Spread the word. Here's the soundcloud player for it.... [soundcloud url=http://soundcloud.com/mistrust/international-observer-popcorn-slavery-mistrust-remix]

Filed under  //   artists   band   childhood   download   education   facebook   family   mistrust   music   remix   school   soundcloud  

Up Peel Monument

[caption id="attachment_302" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="View of Peel Monument"]

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[/caption] Hello, it's been a long time since I posted a new missive on this blog! All of you who subscribe via feed readers etc must be shocked to see me posting again. Well, what have I been doing over the last few months? It seems like not a lot! Actually, I've been trying to keep fairly fit and healthy, doing a lot of walking - mainly taking Paul up to Peel Monument (see the photo - it's near Ramsbottom, Greater Manchester). It's an old folly on top of a hill, 1100 feet above sea level, and a very steep climb. I've also been taking the dog for a walk, about 2.5 miles, three or four times a week in the evenings. It feels like I've lost some weight around my middle, so it's doing something! I've also been trying to get some new tunes written, but severely lacking some inspiration. I've got some ideas in my head, proper ideas, rather than just fiddling with loops from a cover disc. I've been using a vst host called Minihost, which loads a vst plugin and lets you use your computer keyboard to place the vst instrument. It's got a built in chord maker, arpeggiator, and sequencer, which is great for fiddling around with. My 5 y.o. also likes playing with it - saying he's playing Kraftwerk's Man Machine, and the Dr Who theme tune! Expect some new tunes soon...from him, not me! Only kidding.... The Rude Mechanicals remix I did for NZ band Pitch Black is still around on the web and on the band's remix CD, Rhythm, Sound and Movement. The remix is also going to be used to promote a big music and arts festival in New Zealand, called Splore. More news to follow soon. I'm also going to meet Paddy and Mike from Pitch Black at the end of October when they play their only UK gig in London. I'm also supposed to be getting the stems to remix a track by International Observer. Other stuff....been doing a lot of Moodle stuff at work - very busy these days. I've also made a website for Paul's dad and his painting and decorating business, D and S Decorators.  Oh, and I'm now on Facebook, and Twitter, so follow me on there if you're on there....

Filed under  //   audio   blogging   e-learning   facebook   family   moodle   music   myspace   news   pitch black   social networking   twitter   walking  

Young kids and Facebook #2 - Parents strike back

More on from my recent post about Young kids and Facebook, where I read on my local school's newsletter that some of the 7-11 year olds were going on Facebook. I decided to take matters into my own hands and send an email to the headteacher, asking if they knew there was information readily available on the internet about the pros and cons of children using Facebooks and other social networking sites. I also suggested that they look at sites like Thinkyouknow and maybe list them in one of the newsletters. To my surprise, I got an email back the next day, thanking me for pointing out what I did, and then got a mention in the next newsletter, in a paragraph telling parents about the Thinkyouknow website. So, a big tick for Parent Power! It's probably the first time I've written to the school about anything - probably because it bothers me so much. We'll probably never know if any of the parents take notice of it, but it's a start. However, I'm now waiting for the backlash from parents saying "how dare you tell me how to bring up my child!" It actually makes you wonder why the Local Education Authority haven't issued guidelines to school about things like using Facebook etc. Surely they're the people who have more influence. I think I'm going to have to suggest going in and talking to the staff and kids about all this.... As you may know if you're following my ramblings regularly, I am a Twitterer as well as a Wordpress blogger. As such, I'm interested to read that Wordpress have finally got round to adding a Twitter widget to the list available to those of us with Wordpress.com accounts. I won't go into details about what the widget will do as there's more information about in Wordpress.com's blog post here - "Bring Twitter to Your Blog". However, I'm still not convinced about having all my eggs in one basket - in other words, will people prefer to follow my tweets in Twitter, and my blogs in Wordpress? And finally - for those people who don't know me, or are just interested in the ramblings about Facebook etc., you might like to know that I also make music in my spare time. In fact, I've been quite busy recently with the music-making. I''ve been making my own tunes for a few years, but a chance meeting with a DJ from the Big Chill organisation put me in touch with New Zealand band Pitch Black. I asked if I could do a remix for them, just because 1. I like their music, and 2. for a bit of experience of doing a remix. I sent it in, and they liked it so much they released it on their EP of the title track of their last album, and it's on their new remix CD out in May. Because of that, I was asked to do a remix for Big Chill band Animat for their next single - that's out early May too. Not bad eh? I'm on the lookout for some more remixes to do, but so far, so good! If you'd like to hear the remixes, please go to www.myspace.com/mistrust The tracks on Myspace are: Pitch Black - Rude Mechanicals (mistrust - ambiotik remix) Animat - Deep Space Lament (mistrust remix)

Filed under  //   childhood   children   education   facebook   family   kids   legal   music   safety   school   social networking   thinkyouknow   twitter   wordpress  

Three-legged cats

It's been a funny (as in, "strange") few weeks. I've been on a trip "down south", ended up with a three-legged cat, and been to Silverstone Racing Circuit! To explain more......I took my 4 y.o. son to visit his grandparents at the end of October. They live about 30 miles north of London, so it was a long way to travel from up here (Bolton), so we went on the train. My 4 y.o. loved most of the trip down and we had a good time when we were there. His grandad took us up to Silverstone - the motor racing circuit - where he works part-time, and we saw the McLaren team trying out a couple of new drivers. I've seen and heard the Formula 1 cars on TV and thought they were loud, but when you hear one in real life, shooting round the track at 150 mph, it's just like a really loud, high-pitched scream. I'll put some photos and videos of the trip up as soon as I can. It was really strange being at Silverstone with all the grandstands empty and seeing just one or two cars going round the track. Now for the three-legged cat! Skye, our 1 year-old cat, was hit by a car outside our house the other week. We couldn't find her until the next day, and then took her to see the vet. It was obvious her front-right leg was broken, and her shoulder was dislocated. The vet kept her in overnight, and the next day said the cat would need an operation to either pin the bone or to amputate her leg. There'd be some potential problems if the bone was pinned, like she'd have a short-leg and the bone may not set properly, so we told them to go ahead and remove her leg. When she came back from the vet - the RSPCA Animal Hospital (the one featured on BBC TV, with Rolf Harris) - the kids were really upset to see a three-legged cat, and Paul just didn't want her around. It's taken the cat (and Paul) about 10 days to come round to her having only three legs, and she's somehow managing to hop around ok inside the house. So, we've now got a three-legged cat. The kids seem to be getting used to her being like that, especially as she looked like something from cruel experiment that had gone horribly wrong...

Filed under  //   animal hospital   cat   cats   family   formula 1   kitten   racing   rspca   silverstone   vet  

Talacre Sands and other tales

[caption id="attachment_133" align="alignleft" width="246" caption="Talacre Beach at Sunset by Tim Blackburn"]

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[/caption] Should have posted this a few weeks ago, but seem to have had very little time these days. Anyway, the "mistrust" clan went away on holiday (vacation) at the end of July for some much needed rest and recuperation. Nowhere really special - just a Haven Holidays caravan park near Prestatyn, in North Wales. The best thing about it was the scenery, including the wonderful Talacre Sands and rabbit warren. Very inspirational for some ideas for new tunes (yes, I DO actually make music!), very calming. The kids loved it apart from the first night when no-one could settle (well, Paul couldn't settle and disturbed the rest of us. We managed to get some great footage on video and some great still photos of the surrounding area. I'll put them up on Youtube and Flickr when I get time. I took one of those small handheld video cameras that uses a memory card - an Aiptek. I was a bit doubtful about what the quality would be like, but in the end I got some great results. Have a look at the header image of my blog site (the one you're on now!) to see what I mean. That was taken on the 3MP setting at sunset on Talacre Beach. I actually submitted the full size version of that photo to BBC North Wales' "Your Pictures" feature a few weeks ago, and it's been added to the "Sunrise/Sunset" section. You can see the picture in full-size on the BBC North Wales site here. In contrast, I nearly ended up in hospital at the end of the holiday.....but that's another story that will appear in a couple of days' time.....

Filed under  //   blogging   family   holiday   mistrust   music   photographs   photography   sunrise   sunset   talacre   vacation   wales  

A is for Amazon

Not exactly music-related, but some news anyway. I've recently had an article published in a popular e-learning magazine in the USA. I wrote about how young kids are growing up learning the language of the World Wide Web and how we should encourage them to become proficient in using the internet at an early age. The article was reproduced from my own e-learning blog that someone from the magazine found a while ago, and asked if they could publish it. I'm quite chuffed, as you can imagine, and it just adds to the the list of other articles/letters I've had published in the last year or two (eg in Future Music magazine). You can read the whole thing (and the rest of the magazine) online in a virtual magazine reader here at E-Learning Magazine's website (go to page 50 of the NextBook edition.) or see it in its original form on my e-learning blog. Also.... I'm seriously considering moving all my other blogs into one place (here!) as it's easier for me to keep tabs on what I'm writing and who's reading them.

Filed under  //   b2bmediaco   blog   blogging   children   e-learning   family   kids   mistrust   music   web2.0  
Posted June 17, 2008

Everything's gone mobile

I've just launched a new add-on to my blog/website. It's a mobile website, built on something called Winksite. I came across this through my elearning daytime job when I was looking into podcasting. Winksite lets you make webpages that can be viewed on mobile phone, and it's something I've wanted to do for a while, but never got around to it. I've only added a few things to it at the moment, some things are copied directly from this blog, but I'd like to have some mobile-only content. At the moment, it's in it's infancy and I haven't tried it out on many phones, so I'm hoping that a few of you who read this blog and who have mobile phones will browse the mobile pages and let me know if there are any problems with it, or if it works ok. The address for the mobile site is: http://winksite.mobi/mistrust/music or just click the Winksite logo...

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Other news: I'm still plodding along with my remix of Pitch Black's Rude Mechanicals. Should have it finished soon, but it feels like it's missing a melody or pad line, so it's that which is holding me up - plus I only get about 10 or 15 minutes a night to do something with the remix because I've started taking Paul for a drive a lot earlier than usual. I got a message posted on my blog the other day from the editor of an e-learning magazine in the USA, asking if he could use one of my posts in the forthcoming edition of his mag. It's something I wrote a few months ago on my e-learning blog about getting young children used to the language of the Web as soon as possible. I said yes to them using the article, so it should appear in ELearning! Magazine in a few weeks, in a section entitled "The Last Word". More fame!

Filed under  //   e-learning   family   pitch black   remix   rude mechanicals   social networking  

I'm in Music Tech Magazine

Just to let you know I'm finally in Music Tech Magazine for winning the Motif XS6 synthesizer! The article is in February's edition - but in case you don't want to buy it, the editor sent me a copy of the page, and I've attached it here as pdf (the whole page) and a jpeg (click to see the whole pic).

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Other news... the manager of a band from New Zealand called "Pitch Black" has said I can have a go at doing a remix of a track from their new CD, "Rude Mechanicals". If it's good enough, it'll appear on the band's remix CD and as a download on music sites like iTunes and Beatport. More on that soon when I decide which track I want to have a go at.... Non-music stuff: we took Paul to see a residential school in Shrewsbury today. Absolutely amazing place. Part of a 16th century hall and estate. Class sizes are usually 2 students and one teacher - it's for kids with autism. He sounds relatively keen on it, but we'll have a job on convincing the education authority to pay for him. It's around £30,000 per year! Page from MTM magazine reproduced by kind permission of Music Tech Magazine/Anthem Publishing/Yamaha UK (c)

Filed under  //   band   blogging   creative   family   label   mistrust   mp3   music   pitch black   rude mechanicals   xs6   yamaha  

Youtube and other video sites driving web traffic

I'd guess that a lot of people have a video or two on Youtube, Google Video, and some of the many other video hosting sites. Out of those people, how many of them use the videos to drive web traffic to their own, or someone else's website? I've got a couple of the O'Neill surfing clips on Youtube. These are two of the sections that are used in the "Deep Blue Open 2005" promo film, featuring three of my tracks.  Since I uploaded them, I've have quite a lot of hits, but it doesn't seem to be driving a lot of traffic to my this blog or the mistrust music website. The videos are amongst quite a lot of other surfing videos so you'd think that people who watch those would follow the links to my music. Maybe not. There doesn't seem to be a lot written on the web about how to improve your traffic using Youtube etc. Maybe someone could suggest something. Following on from the last post - "The Colour Purple" - I can now report that I was featured artist of the week on a show on Purple Radio, which is the official radio station of the Big Chill organistion. The DJ, Ketsbaia, played three tracks, "Dubcrazy", "Painless Light" and "Distant Shores". I got a few nice comments from the DJ, and some support on the Big Chill Forum. My tracks were played alongside a lot of "A-list" bands, and seemed to hold up ok. He ran out of time to play a fourth track "Never Alone", but said that he liked it that much that he'd play it in a couple of weeks. As for other things... The "mistrust clan" went to Borth near Aberystwyth for a week in a caravan at the end of July. It's an old fishing village, which is very quiet and suited Paul (my stepson, who has PDD-NOS, and a massive social phobia, amongst other things). It started off as a complete disaster - pouring rain, burst car tyre, everyone worn out - but in the end we didn't want to come home. Lots of nice scenery and fresh air to inspire me to write some new tunes. I'll put some of the photos on Flickr soon. I'm in the middle of applying for a new job, and contemplating a move from the Manchester area to Yorkshire. Things are happening at work which mean I could be out of a job or at least being downgraded in the next two years, so the time is write to put my skills to better use. Besides that, the holiday proved how much Paul, and the other children, need to be nearer the countryside and aware from where we're currently living. If anyone reading this lives in the more scenic areas of West Yorkshire, please can you leave a comment saying if it's a nice place to live?

Filed under  //   ABer   Aberystwyth   Borth   artists   autism   autism and music   big chill   download   exposure   family   google   ketsbaia   mistrust   purple radio   youtube