Tuesday 29 September 2009

When pigs fly.

Sometimes I wonder about the boss. All he seems to think about is work. In fact I am beginning to worry about him, I think he may be overdoing it.

It occurred to me as I drove home the other night that what the boss needed was some light relief, something to take his mind off the business. Just then, my attention was drawn to the radio where a man with a wonderful thick country accent was extolling the virtue of motorway sculptures. It was close to the end of the piece, but the gist of the story was that people were objecting to a flying black pig which was to be suspended over a Co. Monaghan motorway.
The pig was to be created by a local artist as part of a scheme in which a certain amount of money is alloted to provide art on new motorways. The man was fully in favour of the pig but it seemed local politicians thought it was a dreadful waste of money, especially in the current hair-shirt climate.
Unfortunately I didn't catch the man's name but I instantly liked his voice which most definitely conveyed a sense of fun. His main arguments were, if the money wasn't spent on the pig it would most certainly be spent outside the county. More importantly, in these trying times, people needed flying pigs over the motorway more than ever, and after all, the flying pig in question was based on local folklore. I knew instantly that this man was right. If the boss were to see a flying pig on a daily basis as he drove to and from work, he would be a much happier man. What the boss needed was an intrusion of art, a distraction of fun, a flight of fantasy.

Friday 25 September 2009

Lily Allen, Dan Bull and the great piracy debate.

Thanks to my mate Morgan who took the time out from playing with his new baby daughter to tweet and make me aware of the following beauty. Seems Lily Allen, has been throwing out some less than informed comments on her website about the ongoing music piracy debate of late. In short Miss Allen comes out rather surprisingly on the side of the ailing music industry which for the most part has failed to grasp the dramatic changes that have taken place in the music marketplace. The debate has divided musicians across the world and it is most interesting to see which side of the fence certain big name musicians and some so called indie artists have set out their stalls.


Anyway a certain Dan Bull, a 21 year old English musician has come out with a brilliant musical retort to Allen's remarks in which he reminds her of her beginnings and quite politely, but very eloquently, verbally raps her knuckles (pardon the pun).

Like it or not downloading and sharing music is here to stay and musicians all over the world are being listened to by huge numbers of music fans who would never before have even managed to hear them. The debate will no doubt continue but the boss summed it up when I told him the story in the canteen the other day. "Who the hell is Lily Allen, Mr. Crab" he said, "never heard of her" he spluttered, as his ginger nut went down the wrong way.

Dan Bull's latest CD meanwhile is available as a free mp3 download from his myspace site. Of course you can also buy it too, if you so wish. I am willing to bet that thousands will download for free and many thousands more will buy the CD as well and young Dan will reap all the benefits of having produced some great music despite having offered it for free download.

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