Picture-postcard views, coastal architecture like time capsules from the recent and further past, semi-secret coves, unexpected views into the quiet Sunday recreations of others. All these things afforded by a day lazily walking and driving north along the Antrim Coast.
There is little better than sitting on the rocks in a barely accessible inlet beside a derelict smuggling/mining harbour, cut off from phone signal and GPS, the spring sun heating the rock pools, the waves plunking into gullies, the sky a blue straight from the primal past.
It's a perfect time and place to sink into your own memory, your own self, to let the stuff of subconscious come forward and live in the light for a while.
The Night of Broken Glass: Eyewitness Accounts of Kristallnacht
 This riveting book prints a collection of 21 eyewitness accounts by German Jews of the terrible night of 9 November 1938, when, on the orders of Adolf Hitler and his propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, bands of stormtroopers all over Germany and Austria burned down more than 1,000 synagogues and smashed up some 7,500 Jewish-owned shops. The shards of shop windows that littered the streets on the morning of 10 November led Berliners, with typically bitter humour, to dub the events of the previous hours the "Reich Night of Broken Glass", satirically imitating such Nazi events as the "Reich Day of Labour"
I love this documentary-style show. Such fascinating ideas about production, overdubs, sound effects. And really good subject matter too.
Sunday was a pleasant day to spend around the mostly deserted Thompson dry dock.
Here's some photos of the dry dock and the pump house.
Maybe not worth the tenner the bus tour company are charging, but an unavoidable expense now that the area is all fenced off.
Mr Byrne has previous experience of this and his recent tweet struck a chord with me.
Producing music and video on a smartphone has been bothering me for a fair while now. There are some quality pieces of work produced either partly or mainly on phone handsets, but the video below reinforces for me that the medium is most definitely the message in work like this. The extra attachments, processing time, additional apps, compromises, etc., all seem say that making the art on a smartphone is as important as the art itself.
What this says about the artist I don't know. What I do know is that less technical effort and expense is required while using slightly more dedicated equipment.
Are there boundaries, limitations imposed by the phone that inspires truly satisfying envelope-pushing? Can the fixed-focus lens lead to breakthroughs in storytelling, scripting or directing?
Or is it part of the techie trend, reinventing a wheel simply to be seen to have a wheel?
From filming through to special effects, smartphone technology offers all the elements required to make a movie. But will the finished product really be good enough for your local cinema?
Here, we show you how the film was made, give you tips on how to make your own masterpiece and tell you what apps and accessories you might need.
It's another sunny day and I feel suitably letharigic so I have decided to briefly document the doings and attitudes of my co-habitants this afternoon.
Here we see Hector who believes that shade and comfort must be found beneath the table.
On the other hand Monty wants toys. All the toys. For himself.
Otherwise, it's a dog's life, folks. Current areas of mild annoyance include the word innovate (example context "continue to innovate"), the Gregorian calendar and my continuing inability to process my own 35mm film.
It's been a funny aul month what with rehearsals ramping up for two very different shows inside the next fortnight, extra shifts being required in work 'cos of holidays and training kicking off for the new year.
Imagine my satisfaction at not only making my first special (it sold out) but starting proper shifts as a chef. This wasn't only making a selection of desserts but also assembling dishes for the busiest weekday lunchtime in the last six weeks. Not quite in-at-the-deep-end but certainly not toes-in-the-paddling-pool.
My previous career was very much focused on performing a single task at a time, moving stepwise through things, and similarly my life as a musican is very linear - learn, rehearse, perform. The practice of commercial cookery is a very different animal. Even the creative sections, as opposed to the service sections, are a very fine exercise in compartmentalisation wherein each minute spent waiting for eggs to whip is a minute that must be spent reading recipes or assembling ingredients or slicing limes, arranging your bread in date order or taking the clingfilm off your salt bowl.
It's a fascinating and incredibly concentrated microworld.
So after pulling out of a rehearsal last night thanks to a chronic and uncharacteristic all-day headache, this was a most efficacious remedy, and I owe a debt of gratitude to Damien and Paul for their patience, assistance and instruction. Payable in beer.
Spirits = lifted.
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