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The start of a New Year is always a time for resolutions, even though any day of the year can be a new beginning if we choose it to be! One resolution which lends itself to January 1 is reading the Bible in a year. This sounds like a simple enough task, but in reality it’s very difficult. One reason is that you reach a difficult part of the Bible in February/March time, another reason is that some of the material is duplicated (and told from different perspectives), and the arrangement of the Bible is not chronological. These three difficulties conspire to confound even the most dedicated reader, as I know from experience!

An answer to this problem is to read the Bible in chronological order, and there are a number of Bibles which set out the material in this way. One year I read the Bible through in the New International Version, although I didn’t find the associated commentary helpful as it was written by a very conservative scholar. This year I am using the Bible pictured above, which has minimal notes as you progress through. The translation is the inclusive language New Living Translation. And so to Genesis chapter 1…

Pink Floyd fans will immediately recognise the title of this post as a lyric from The Wall. Writing poetry can sometimes be thought of as rather a dark art, even by those who regularly write prose. Although I enjoy writing, it’s not an area I’ve moved into – even though I’ve wanted to. I love reading poetry, appreciating the well-chosen turn of phrase that paints a picture that sends the mind into the wonderful world of the imagination. Come to think of it, isn’t that what all art seeks to do? The creators of music, paintings, sculptures (and the like) all seek to evoke responses in the mind and of the imagination!

Twitter (with its limit of 140 characters) lends itself to a genre of poetry identified by the hashtag #micropoetry – and today I was inspired by someone I follow on Twitter (whose poetry I find fascinating) to have a go. They are written quickly and can be composed anywhere – my first attempt was in the shower this morning:

The warm embrace of the water/the tingle of the shower gel/ready to face the day.

The others were composed while I was out and about, and posted online from my BlackBerry. Here they are (slight changes have been made so they scan better), do let me know what you think. You can use or reproduce them in the terms of my Creative Commons licence. Thanks.

Music blaring/lights flashing/shoppers rushing/tills ringing/people shouting/Jesus hiding.

Reindeer in a straw-filled pen/Skaters in an open rink/Salvation brass in a ring/…it must be Christmas!

Flowerbed of rubbish/discarded cardboard coffee cup/cigarette end in compost/acutely-angled ale can/symptomatic

Frozen penguins/hog roast/gourmet liquorice/mulled wine/Gregg’s pasty/random verse

xfactor/strictly/celebrity/bigbrother/ephemeral

There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray you, love,
remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.
William Shakespeare – Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 5

Last week my daughter Sarah and I bought some herbs from Bardill’s Garden Centre and planted them in the front garden. Hopefully they will grow well and give me plenty of herbs for cooking. We bought six different herbs, click on each one for more information: Chives, Coriander, Garden Mint, Oregano, Rosemary and Sage.

This is my account of the Turkish GP written in real-time as the race unfolded, the first time I’ve tried this. World Champion Sebastian Vettel started on pole position, having qualified 0.4 of a second faster than his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber. This might not seem very much, but a F1 car travels a very long way in 0.4 of a second! A side-by-side display of their qualifying laps on the BBC coverage showed how Vettel was slightly better than Webber in many of the corners, and this made the difference. Vettel is clearly the man to beat!

At the start, Rosberg made a great start from third on the grid to overtake Webber, who then had to defend his position. Schumacher had to come in for an early pit-stop to change his front wing after a coming together with Petrov. Schumacher had done very well in practice, but was disappointed with his qualifying position. Webber made a good move on Rosberg on lap 5, made it stick and moved into second place. There was some great duelling between team-mates Hamilton and Button, but Button retained ahead of Hamilton – maintaining the advantage he gained early on in the race.

Around lap 10 there were a whole raft of pit-stops, during which Hamilton made the jump on Massa, who may have been released dangerously into the path of the McLaren and may get penalised. One of the unwritten rules of F1 is don’t take your team-mate out of the race, but Petrov had a good go at knocking his Renault team-mate Heidfeld into the pit lane – prompting much hand gesticulating! Schumacher’s problems continued with another coming together in the midfield on about lap 16. There was still no sign of a penalty for Massa on lap 20 when he made a classic move on Rosberg, followed by a little later by Button taking Rosberg on the outside of the last corner in an exciting overtake. Massa soon had to make an unplanned pit-stop after locking-up a wheel and flat-spotting the tyre – F1 cars are so finely balanced that a simple mistake like this can mess up race strategy!

Top six after 26 laps: Vettel, Webber, Alonso, Button, Hamilton and Petrov, with Alonso (fastest on the track at that point) closing in on Webber. Indeed, Alonso took Webber on about lap 30 (just over half-distance).

There was a slight lull in the racing, but after a few laps Button passed Alonso. Hamilton had an awful pit-stop when a wheel gun stuck, and they had to hold him back a few seconds for an incoming Massa. Massa later went wide on the awesome turn 8, picked up a lot of tyre debris and it cost him quite a few places. There’s a lot of tyre debris (known as marbles) off the racing line this year, this is because the Pirelli tyres are designed to degrade fairly quickly.

On about lap 46 Paul di Resta came to a halt, but it didn’t require the safety car. Scot Paul di Resta is the third British driver in F1 this year, driving for Force India. As the race moved into the final 10 laps, Webber had the run on Alonso and overtook him. Schumacher has had what the BBC website described as an another ‘underwhelming’ race, languishing in the mid-field. For all his experience, he really should be doing better, as he is continually being out-performed by team-mate Rosberg.

After 58 laps the clear winner is Vettel, followed by team-mate Webber for a 1-2 Red Bull victory, with Alonso third. Hamilton was fourth, Rosberg fifth and Button sixth. A great race, with Vettel supreme again.

I posted this morning about the Walk to Emmaus that’s often recalled by Christians on the Sunday after Easter. The Risen Jesus comes alongside two followers and walks with them, and when they arrived home they invited him in. The painting (showing the moment of realisation) is, like the sketch this morning, by Rembrandt and you can read the story here!

The story of the Walk to Emmaus is often recalled by Christians on the Sunday after Easter. Two followers of Jesus are walking home, and the Risen Jesus comes alongside and walks with them – a reminder that he walks with us on life’s journey. The sketch is by Rembrandt and you can read the story here! A painting by Rembrandt is featured in my next post, Supper at Emmaus.

The BBC have published a high-definition, 1.15-gigapixel picture, which is a composite of 189 images. The full picture measures 81,471 pixels by 14,154 pixels. The field of view covers 200 degrees. Click on the picture to go to the BBC page, then you can move in any direction and zoom in and out to see individual faces in the crowd! You can see the official Royal Wedding photos by clicking here!

…this is Part 2 of a post by Thomas Mathie. Click here for Part 1.

There are, however, times when a Label helps. Labels used to stand for something… they used to represent a stamp of quality… and for some… they still do. Consider Sub Pop, XL or Ghostly International, for example.

This is where netlabels come into play for me. A netlabel is a label that represents a stable of artists where the majority of interaction is done via the Internet. Most netlabels tend to give their music away for free… and some offer physical releases to compliment their digital downloads. Again… netlabels tend to deal in obscure and niche sub-genres… areas with minimal commercial appeal but in doing so… act as a stamp of quality.

Take Sutemos.net for example… they have released some of the best electronica that I’ve heard in a long, long time. I think I have all their releases on my iPods (yes… I have 2 iPod classics on the go for all the music I listen to… in addition to my iPhone) and reference them often. There are too many great netlabels for me to point to… so I won’t… but I would encourage you to check them out. Search by genre of music you like and you will find something to your taste. Are netlabels fairtrade? Yes… because, once again, you are dealing with the artist… albeit not directly but through an artistic cooperative, so to speak.

You could argue this point with traditional labels… that they are artistic cooperatives… but their overarching infrastructure isn’t conducive to giving their artists the best deal, imho. Traditional labels are in it for the money… that’s why its called the “music business”. They have to pay for their investment and fairplay to that… I’m not against capitalism, in this regard.

However, there is an alternative way… and this is where my issue comes… when the need for profit comes before the pushing of niche artists. I don’t like the majority of music deemed “popular” these days… and probably have the majority of “the classics” and don’t want to buy them again in whatever format-shifted package that they want to pimp us.

Let’s face it… and it’s a shame to say this… but the music of Ambienteer will never sell in the bucketloads. I really want it to… but it won’t. But the best thing about the music of truly independent artists such as Ambienteer is that they are working within their means… they only have their own costs to cover and don’t have to cover extensive marketing machines. They may be niche… but they have the realistic ability to breakeven or make a profit… unlike artists on the Traditional labels.

I guess they could be considered sustainable concerns, in this regards… and for me that’s a big deal. So the next time you are looking for some new music… turn to the Internet and take a stroll down Bandcamp lane or Netlabel street… and look for the truly cutting edge. They are where it’s happening nowadays.

This guest post comes from my good friend Thomas Mathie, aka @headphonaught on Twitter and elsewhere.

When John asked me to write about Independent Music… I automatically thought of all the indie bands that make up the (capital “I”… capital “M”) Independent Music scene: Oasis… Stone Roses… etc. Independent Music aka Indie is a genre… a style of music worthy of capitalisation… and not necessarily what I intend to talk about.

When I talk of independent music… I talk of the roots of what became Indie (genre)… when folks made music that was released independently of the major music labels. I also think of one of my favourite bands… Fugazi… who are renowned, at least to me, for their frugal DIY tours and fair price policies in the late 80s through the 90s to the present. It was their stance towards their fans that got me thinking about what I wanted to talk about: fairtrade DIY music.

The whole concept of fairtrade is knowing the producers of the product you are buying have been given a fair price for their product. When it comes to music… this is vitally important for me. For the most part… we are moving from the physical to a digital environment, when it comes to the distribution of music. I still buy Records and CDs… and hope HMV doesn’t close because they own FOPP and FOPP is my favourite recordshop chain.

But things are changing… and with this change… the barriers of entry have been lowered considerably for independent musicians. Sites like SoundCloud, Last.fm and Bandcamp give the opportunity for musicians to be heard. My personal favourite is Bandcamp… because you can stream the whole recording before you download it… the formats they offer are excellent (320kpbs as default – higher than iTunes) and their tagging allows for efficient exploration of music deemed similar to that which you are listening to. It’s ideal for the one-man-or-woman-band… low cost to enter… the ability to set a price or suggest to the buyer that they can “pay what you want”… the opportunity to get heard and, hopefully, make some money.

Thing is… however… Bandcamp isn’t enough to get the message out there. I find the majority of my music through recommendations from friends… predominately on Twitter. Folks like guitarist Matt Stevens or ambient soundscape creator James Fahy aka Ambienteer have built up a real community of people (of which I am proud to be part) using tools like Bandcamp and Twitter. I love their work, found out about it on Twitter and happily paid for it once I had had a good listen to it.

Matt and James are truly independent. They don’t have a record label. They aren’t backed by one of the Majors. They aren’t backed by one of the Indies either. They are one-man-bands. Take Matt, for example… to have no one inbetween works in his favour… Matt can deal directly with his fans… react quickly and genuinely promote himself as a truly authentic independent artist. He can sell his physical CDs via his Bandcamp page (or bigcartel, if he wanted to) at very reasonable prices… because he simply doesn’t have the overheads that the labels do. What’s more… he streams concerts via his Cafe Noodle site… and brings others in. He opens the door for others to participate.

The thing is… if you are like me… you do not object to paying £5 for one of his albums… because you have a real relationship with him. This is what the labels so desperately need but can’t get their heads around… the desire for a real relationship. Dealing direct with the artists, in this manner, removes the need for a label. In essence, Matt or James are their own labels… Matt through his solo work or his work with his band… the fierce and the dead… and James through his Ambienteer work.

What is important to note, however… is that both Matt and James’ music is niche. Matt make wonderfully upbeat futuristic flamenco guitar sounds that he loops and tweaks to make a wall-of-sound. James makes droning ambient electronic soundscapes. When I say niche… I mean that the majority of X-Factor-loving drones won’t get it… but then Sigur Rós are “technically” niche and yet they’ve received mainstream acceptance… mostly for their appearance, at one time, on nearly every piece of incidental music on the BBC (see note below).

I guess it is fair to say all music is niche… with some niches bigger than others. What artists like Matt and James have done is to find their niche… and build a relationship with it… and that is extremely important to acknowledge and understand.

To be continued…

Note: Nearly every other piece not by Sigur Rós is likely to be by Brian Eno! (John)

Here is one of my favourite pictures taken from inside The Deep in Hull. I love buildings, both old and modern, and I feel this shot captures an aspect of this iconic building designed by Sir Terry Farrell.