A quick rundown of what’s to come this week in Oscillations. I’m giving it so much attention ‘cos so many of the events look great, and although my weekend was pretty busy, and cold still lingering, I didn’t manage to get to any I wish I had.

Tuesday 7th October

Play Ping Pong
Black Box Café 7.30pm £3
Games begin with everyone round the table, one hit, move on…one foul and you’re out. Continues until there are only 2 people left, best of 3 to see who wins, then all back in again for a new round.
Music is provided by DJs from local label, cAFF/FLICK Records.

www.caff-flick.com

Wednesday 8th October

You Think You Really Know Me?: The Gary Wilson Story
Black Box Café 6pm Free
You Think You Really Know Me, is widely considered one of the most unique and personal musical statements of the 1970’s. Inspired by the 2002 reissue of the seminal album, director Michael Wolk set out to learn more about the man behind this esoteric record only to find that its creator had all but vanished shortly after its release, making for a story just as interesting and peculiar as the album for which he’s known

Open Jack / Thread Pulls / Guitar Dectet
Black Box 8.30pm £5
Open Jack:
Curated by Belfast’s Sonic Arts Research Centre, Open Jack is an open forum for musicians and audiences interested in electronic music. From known personalities to local electronic music enthusiasts, Open Jack is for all to join, jam, improvise and share music making in real-time. The idea is simple: Electronic Art Music lives outside academia; Open Jack is all about the music.

The Rules:
Up to 4 performers on stage at a time on a first come, first plays basis.
Performers are replaced one by one, whom ever enters the jam must join the music being played at that time. Drop by, plug in your laptop, instrument, theremin, hacked hardware or what ever sound producing electronic device you play and jam along.

If you would like to participate please register your interest at
info@oscillationsfestival.com

Music also by Thread Pulls, who were the first Irish band to perform at ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ festival in 2005 at the request of Vincent Gallo and Guitar Dectet, including members of Tracer AMC, We Are Knives, Panda Kopanda, Three Tales, Julip and friends will perform Guitar Trio in full.

Thursday 9th October

Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell
Visions Studio Cinema (map) 8pm £5
Wild Combination tells the story of musical genius Arthur Russell, a true innovator in everything from modern classical to disco to experimental dance music.

Jeremy Jay / Creeping Nobodies / What What / JL Seagull
Black Box 9pm £5
A mix of experimental, electronic, synth-pop, improv, future, loops, keyboards, oscillators and more.

Somebody shut that bird up!

Russia smiles at us.

It seems to be the adopted way of replying to comments on blogs, using @ before the persons name, similar to Twitter. Here’s a Wordpress plugin which will make this easier to do. Thanks Cormac.

A collection of cool HDRs.

The Village idiot shows why he was kicked out of N.I.

Do you feel like a superhero?

Greatest geek cakes.

Sharedtroubles.net is a website of stories from those affected by the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Due to launch in November.

Favtape is the new Muxtape. No hassle with uploading files, but how long will it last. Here’s my tape.

Porn is good for you, as is smoking, stress, chocolate and cannabis.

Subtlety in advertisements is such a great thing, as previously mentioned.

Sucks when this happens.

This Friday begins the new multi media arts festival by Belfast-based music collective, Ordinary Days and The Black Box; Oscillations.

The inaugural 2008 festival begins on Friday 3rd October at The Black Box and will run until Sunday 12th October. The festival aims to showcase the leading edge of independent music, film, contemporary art, graphic design and technology on a local and international level. The programme will consist of live music performances and film screenings accompanied by a series of exhibitions, installations and educational workshops.

It will be an exciting and jam-packed 9 days, with an eclectic mix of fun, fact and musical remedy. Download the programme here [pdf]. I will try to break it down for ya:

Tiny Little Horse & Scrawled
Black Box 7pm Free
Gig poster exhibition by Dublin-based Design Collective Tiny Little Horse and Belfast-based artist Glyn Smyth a.k.a. Scrawled.

Live Drawing: Lucas Dillon
Black Box 8pm Free
Lucas is an extremely talented artist and illustrator who tonight will take to the Black Box’s corridor, creating a piece which will remain for the duration of the festival.

Program: An Evening of Experimental Music from NI
Black Box 8.30pm £4
Bew, rl/vl, fur, kicks blue & master mercenary, with live visuals from Dodgy Stereo.

The Bird Box & The Snake Sisters
Black Box 8pm Free
A prophetic nest is to take residency inside the black box to provide you with unknown truths about yourself. The Malakarous-Pousti bird also known as ‘The Beak of Promise’ will unlock your personal destiny.

Lovvers & BATS
Lavery’s Bunker 8pm £3
Based nowhere and residing pretty much everywhere, Lovvers is compromised of four ambitious nobodies.
Four out of five BATS hail from Ireland’s alpha-smoke, Dublin, while the other crawled his way on bloody knuckles out of the haunted town of Carbury, Kildare.

Acroplane Mavement #1: Ebola, Herv, Kinnego Flux, T-polar, Iso9
Lavery’s Attic 10pm £5
You may not know that Belfast is now home to one of the world’s leading electronica net-labels in the form of Acroplane. This will be the 1st official Acroplane label show.

Concerning The Animal or The Vegetable
or: A Series of Tedious Questions for Nominal Reward
Black Box 8pm £3
10 rounds of serious questions including Mr Bloomer’s Silhouette Challenge, Know Your Ulster Scots, Guess the Ingredients, The Local Celebrities Photoshop Facefuck, Name That Smell, Live Leotard Film Censorhip, Skiffle Coverband Allstars and much more…

It’s good to see so many famous people getting political; showing how much they care. Not necessarily for one side or the other, but simply to get people to think. And to vote.

“Only 54 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots during the last four decades of presidential elections.” (wikianswers.com)

“…more than a hundred million Americans usually don’t vote, which means about 40% of eligible voters forego their right to elect who’s to become (arguably) the most powerful political leader in the world.” (atlanticreview.org)

“…there are 6.4 million Californians who are eligible but unregistered to vote.” (About.com)

“40% of those eligible did not vote in 2004; 32% did not vote in Ohio, the “must win” state. Less than half of people 18-25 voted.

Even among the highest turnout groups, with the highest income and education 1 in 7 did not vote.

2004 was the highest turnout since 1968 and even that was only 60%.” (Circlevoting.com)

American? Reading this? Do vote. Make the right vote too…

Here’s the track list:

• Mockingbird wish me luck
• Sweet sweet kisses
• Those proverbs we made in the winter must end
• Diggin’ an early grave
• I never thought this day would come
• Why does anybody love?
• Flesh and blood dance
• If I don’t feel is anymore
• Let me go (please please please)
• By the skin of my teeth
• Nothing comes easy
• Nothin’ you could do

The band have also released a video for the new single “Sweet Sweet Kisses”. I can’t wait to hear the album and see him on the forthcoming tour.

Update:
The album cover has been revealed today by Hotpress:

I understand that it must have been tiring to be so consistently, shocking, funny, up-to-date, original and just so damn good, and he says so in a rare glimpse into the mind of the real Twenty on his blog today. He will be missed from the Irish Blogging community where he has reigned as Best Blogger for the last three years running.

Having signed a two-book deal in 2007, the book; “Order of the Pheonix Park“, which was published in Feb 2008 is a great read cover to cover. The second book, “Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder” is to be released around Feb/Mar 2009 will no doubt be just as bold as the last.

It almost reflects Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher who retired from the sport in 2006 and so giving the rest a chance of winning something. Time will only tell what great new blogs will emerge from the sad departure.

I ask you, Mr Major, what will you do now to vent, eh??

Beautiful libraries of the world.

Eyecandy [iTunes store] the first kids comic strip application for iPhone/iPod Touch, now available from the app store, from Infurious Comics. The first iPhone App from Northern Ireland, not bad for 59p/99¢.

We have “the right to create new words as we see fit“. I really like this idea, and will be doing it a lot more often.

A truely heart-warming photo-essay by Philip Toledano.

The cover of Twenty Major’s second book has been revealed, due for release in Feb/Mar 2009.

I’m really getting into typography lately, and enjoy sites like this.

Screw Guitar Hero, I want to play Piano Hero.

C’mon Bill, what’s up with those ads?

Maybe, after my current contract is up in 11 months, I will get the Google Phone.

A photography put through every photoshop filter, in order. I knew it would end up something as obscure and abstract as this.

Yay Muxtape is coming back, but not as we know it.

I wish I could do stuff like this (via Hugh):

Metamorphosis from Glenn Marshall on Vimeo.

Dominoes are cool, this is nuts:

In order to succeed in any industry those involved should meet regularly to discuss moving forward together; collaborating and sharing ideas. This also applies to musicians, does it not?

This Saturday Blick is housing the first in a series of events titled ‘Kick up the Arts‘ hosted by life coach, Tracy Dempsey.

Whatever your beliefs, this music clinic is all about taking control and creating change in your music career and in the music industry in NI and further afield. Life, business and arts coach Tracy Dempsey will help you identify the obstacles stopping you getting from where you want to be, boot them out of the way and charge ahead with the big dream.

You’ll also get to network with other musicians and industry professionals; to talk about whether we should be building a Northern Irish music ‘brand’ to help everyone get noticed; to get advice from local people in the industry and share contacts from further afield.

Let us know:
- your role: musician, manager, music photographer, dj, podcaster, superfan, whatever
- your contact details - including MySpace/band or company website
- a few words on what you believe about the music industry (particularly in Northern Ireland) - positive or negative
- what you want to get out of this event
- if there’s any particular type of industry professional you’d like to see at this event
Please note there is a whole series of music events planned for the autumn/winter with Soul Ambition’s ‘Kick Up the Arts’ - this is your chance to tell us what you want, early on.

This event is completely free thanks to the support of Christine James at Blick and Tracy. To take part - just email your details to tracy@soulambition.co.uk, register on facebook, or just turn up.

Saturday, September 27, 2008
12:40pm - 5:00pm

Blick Shared Studios (map)
51 Malone Road

It acts as the heart of Belfast, reflecting its warm and welcoming nature.

It also shows the city as welcoming, dynamic, vibrant, energetic and inspiring.

We hope that the brand will:

• make it easier to attract visitors and investors to the city
• help us to sell products and services related to Belfast
• provide direction for all marketing activities associated with Belfast
• promote Belfast as the main economic and social hub for Northern Ireland.

Try to excuse the bullshit copy, but that’s how they attempted to sell this overpriced mess.

When I first saw it I thought: “That’s a piece of shit.”
It was later I discovered that on top of being awful, it cost £180,000 of tax-payers’ money and took over a year for London firm Lloyd Northover to produce.

To top it all, this very logo is not unique. In fact it was used by Devon organisation Food & Drink Devon, BabyBoom Records, Swedish-based VoIP service Rebtel and similar to French company Mr Bricolage.

Who gives people like this responsibility!

Here is the new improved logo as seen in Belfast:

Much better, don’t you think?

Although I’ve only been a mac-geek for 5 months, I tend to not do anything by halves, and so I was there bright and early to queue for my t-shirt, along with those who had been there for hours before me. 10 minutes before the doors opened, all the staff ran out cheering and high-fiving those waiting in line. This only helped build the excitement further. The cheers didn’t stop for long before the doors were opened and the first of those who had been waiting overnight ran towards the noising and very enthusiastic staff. Collect t-shirt and high-five as many as possible along the “tunnel of joy”.

Immediately those first in headed straight upstairs, past the array of alluring Macbooks, iMacs, iPods and the like to the kids section, books, software, accessories and the ‘Genius Bar’ complete with new logo, as per iTunes v8.

“Oh but its just a store! A shop. With stuff you buy!.”

Yes, all true indeed. But no, not just a store. A store filled with beautiful things that make our lives sweeter, and customer service to the highest degree. I kid you not, this is Belfast, and as such cynicism is almost required at a time like this, but for a change I am not cynical about the customer service received by Apple.

Everything here revolves around the customer. Few things are off limits and everything is on display; which is exactly where they win people over. I realise I’m being very clichéd right now… I will stop. It’s a pretty shop and I will be back many times.

I didn’t buy anything today, though I will be back soon to purchase a book I spotted on Aperture and too plea with them to allow me to change my current O2 contract to a sweet iPhone contract. And if anything goes wrong, I know just where to go.

More photos on Flickr.