Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Published on October 6, 2011 in Misc. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Steve Jobs has died, he was my hero. Without pretence Steve wanted to change the world. He made computers personal, believed in everything he did and lived his life.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. #

Who is #osama anyway?

Published on May 25, 2011 in Misc. 0 Comments

Where was I when Kennedy was shot? Well, I hadn’t been born. But on Tuesday the 11th of September 2001 I was 15 years old and along with a dozen other action-adventure minded Air Cadets was packed into a rickety – somewhat rusting – minibus for the journey back to a remote RAF base through the apparently ever-sodden Welsh countryside. It seemed to rain every day of that ‘adventure training camp’. Below the sound of low branches slapping on the bus windows, rain thundering on the wafer thin roof we heard the first terrifying news bulletins– America was under attack. Rushing into the mess hall somebody unearthed a TV and we joined millions around the world in terrible wide-eyed silence.

With disbelief I read the other day what appeared to be fashionably ironic message on Twitter “who is #osama anyway?”. Maybe not so ironic. Glancing at their profile I reckoned this kid was pretty young, 14 maybe, is it so unfathomable that someone of that age would have no idea who the alleged director of the worst attacks on American soil since Pearl Harbour was? It felt like the end of an era to me, that kid needs some serious education.

Where were you when Osama bin Laden was shot? Online apparently. Google searches for “Osama bin Laden” were up one million percent Sunday May 2nd. Yahoo! reported a similar spike in statistics, sixty-six percent of Osama queries came from 13 to 17-year-olds that night. This isn’t to be equated with a poll, these kids are doing research, getting their facts straight. More than can be said for the Daily Mail hacks who’s headline of May 4th read “Clueless teenagers flood search engines”. Continue reading ‘Who is #osama anyway?’

Gang of Four (at The Picturehouse)

Published on September 20, 2009 in Misc. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

More Gang of Four

Its true that Gang of Four had been and gone before I was around… now that’s not much of statement because so had The Beatles, the Clash and Elvis… but for a band who’s sound so defines the end of a decade, my decade, these guys totally past me by. I’ll try a little comparison by way of introduction to anyone else in the dark: Gang of Four are a post-punk group that sound somewhere between DEVO and The Specials, their material is political and somewhat dated but they sound great on the albums I’ve found online. The only track I recognised was ‘Natural’s Not It’ as used in the film (I think it was actually the trailer) “Marie Antoinette”- brilliant song, go find it!

On Friday Editor of The Leither (check out the fancy new website at leithermagazine.com) and myself trundled up to the Picture House on Lothian Road. Continue reading ‘Gang of Four (at The Picturehouse)’

Emperor Palpatine… a Hibbie?

Published on September 18, 2009 in Misc. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Ian McDiarmid (who played darth sidious / Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars) lives around the corner from me in Leith. My boss and I were discussing him the other day after she’d watched New Hope; had recognised him previously from Morse and thought nothing of seeing him hanging about Leith Walk… but the man is an utter (and I don’t normally use such slack-phrases) utter legend. “great disturbance in the force” and all that. If I see him in the street I will gush.

Ads

Published on September 10, 2009 in Misc. 0 Comments

Leith Print & Copy - Advertising

I don’t have a clue how to explain my 9-5 life. Recently I’ve noticed, when trying, I either play-down the creativity (and freedom) I have in my job or fail to mention it at all. I think I’m a graphic designer, but I’m not really sure… the deal is I work for a small family-run (not my family) print/design place in Edinburgh (Leith to be exact). We’re a busy, happy bunch, the company is very much established and our customers are all sorts- from nice nobodies looking for a one-off poster print for someone’s birthday, to the ‘clients’ who are mainly architects or local businesses who don’t have in-house designers (a flyer here, a brochure there- mainly business cards) then there’s the advertising agencies or PR firms who need rush print jobs or print finishing and then we have the nobodies who think there somebodies who don’t want to spend any money, but want it now – miserable rich bastards, This place is full of ‘em.
Continue reading ‘Ads’

Twittering

Published on May 10, 2009 in Misc. 0 Comments

Although about as technologically gifted as a gorilla’s bum, The Leither (a local magazine I occasionally contribute to- if only in loud hand gestures and stilted opinions) has signed up to Twitter this month. This is a piece I wrote to celebrate this move. Although technologically akin to turning up late to a student party with three empty bottles of blue nun in a ragged paper bag we’re tweeting…

twitter is the latest online service to be hyped to such a lofty a lofty degree, in a rash of himalayic superlatives, that you could be forgiven for thinking it offers a cure to swine flu, a solution to toxic debt, or the answer to life’s persistent questions. it does not.

twitter (once you’ve signed up at twitter.com) lets you share a few choice words with friends. think: “anyone fancy a film tonight?” don’t think:
“anyone fancy a beer with the editor?” your message is limited to no more than 140 characters known as a ‘tweet’.
tweets can be trivial “i’m at the beach, mmh Seafeild”, or it could be a link to an article you’re reading, a photo of your new puppy. simple stuff you’d like to share. once logged in you can find and add friends near and far (you can choose to ‘follow’ bands, there’s a few celebrities on there… @BarackObama) their tweets will appear on your homepage where you can reply to messages or just keep an eye on what’s happening. friends can choose to follow you by searching your name or through invitation. by connecting with these other twitter users you create a global conversation, accessed easily through your phone, IM, mobile browser, or old- fashioned web. at home at work at play.
Continue reading ‘Twittering’

Slower Photos

Published on May 3, 2009 in Misc. 0 Comments

Eliot Shepard’s photos on Slower.net were always an inspiration for my early party photography, his back catalogue begins (or, rather ends) here. Well worth a peek if you’re into oddly beautiful street photography with a dash of genius in his messy (and fairly spontaneous, you’d imagine?) compositions.

(c) Callum Alden / The Leither

I snapped, this [above] slower.net-esque photo on Friday at the Leith Festival programme launch (that’s right there’s a launch for a glossy booklet). The photo is not my style, anymore, but it’s fun. Don’t-cha-think, and hey that tray is 4 years older than me!

Skinny Mag

Published on July 24, 2007 in Misc. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

The folks who run The Skinny are game. A young crowd turned up to one of the most miserable Saturday’s I’ve spent outside– and to the Skinny’s “Boat Party” on Cruz (Leith’s nice but not homely floating restaurant, nightclub-bar combo) and it was barry. Yes, ‘barry’ is Leith for ‘pretty fekkin’ nice’. An all-day DJ set moving through hip-hop, jazz, soul and a little latin inspired thingy in the middle sums up most of the stuff i nodded along to… an ambitious idea i suppose; keep 400 (I’d say 150 max turned out) punters bouncing along all day and night- but it was a good laugh, and the free drink helped (it lasted… a short time) free BBQ too.

I had a kind of press-pass (involved saying to the door-men “yeah, i’m with the Leither… look there’s the editor across the road- ‘ave a word with him” –the editor promptly disappeared leaving me to wrangle myself in on the basis that I had a big camera and knew the owner of the boat) the orginisers were a pretty good laugh and the uncomfortable early moments of turning up sober to a gig where you know no-one passed quickly. met and had a laugh with the lee, photo editor for the skinny, and some fella named ian who’s an event manager and has an incredibly optimistic take on most things manufactured a waterproof ceiling for the promo girls from Kopparberg who stood in the pouring rain handing out free pear-cider.

There were pirates. Dead of course, and they did some stuff with fire which was nice, made for an interesting photo set; dj’s, rain and fire. On a boat, in Leith. Went home early after a great campari-esque cocktail which I helped invent. Doug showed up and we had a few drinks in the old man pub across the street where I complained about the mad-house we’d just left with the locals “aye, i said calm down ya loon– t’won of these pirate lads”. bloody pirates, eh.

So. this is my new attempt at keeping you a’breast. I’m no William Rennie but i really should start drafting these or taking this psudo-journalistic spree seriously, just a little. First stop: English for beginners. Stay with me! Photos are with The Leither- if you’ve found yourself here via my scribbled notes whoever you may be.

Ich Bin Ein Leither

Published on July 8, 2007 in Misc. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

recently i helped out on the photography side of things for the Leither magazine. in this month’s issue you can see my snaps from the Leith Festival, a traditional / eclectic week of music, dance, arts and culture with its heart and soul in the east of edinburgh. photos here. felt like a successful event– the free food and drink resulting in what felt like longest hangover of my life was very much worth while. incredible group of passionate well-meaning folk running the festival which can only grow and grow. and i’m sticking around to see what happens, that week and the characters i encountered confirmed that leith is the place where i want to be, i’m staying-put in my current flat even planning a trip to ikea too. how sad.

So, the photos from Leith Festival are here and there’s a leither magazine website at: theleither.biz

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