James Thornett

Provide the next Satchel Blue album cover

2010-01-01T16:58:00.003Z

How would you like to provide the design or photograph for the next Satchel Blue album cover?

Our fifth album, Another Fine Day, is due for release in February and we'd like your ideas for the front cover.

There's no prize as such, but if you've got the perfect cover then we'll credit you in the album sleeve and your work will be available via iTunes for all to see.

The back cover (in the non-iTunes, old skool CD packaging world) might look something like this. Then again, it might not.

Our last album, February, is available to download from iTunes.

Photographs/designs to me by the end of January please.

Get in touch via Twitter, Flickr or Facebook.

My First Book: Canada by James Thornett

2009-11-06T15:27:00.004Z

Anyone who keeps a watchful eye on my Flickr photostream will have noticed that I recently found the time to trawl through the photographs that made it back from my Canada trip earlier this year and upload over 100 of the best.

I've been wanting to create my own photo book for ages and, with a stack of images at the ready, I looked at the different photobook tools available and settled on using Blurb.

A few long nights later - this book editing game is both time consuming and addictive - I'd sent off my first book to the printers, and just over a week later it arrived through the letterbox.

The final product is really impressive... and I'm not just talking about my photos, honest!

The quality of the printing, paper and binding of the book is far more than I expected to get when paying around £25 for a 65 page 10x8" book of my own work.

You can view every single page of the book on the Blurb website using their excellent full preview functionality... and you can even order your own copy.

Hey, why not, it is Christmas soon after all!

Polaroid coming back in 2010

2009-10-19T17:51:00.002+01:00

Following my recent post about my late entry into Polaroid I'm very excited to read that The Impossible Project looks to have succeeded in it's aim to bring instant film technology back to production.

As reported in The Independent, the project will be producing 1 million new films in 2010, with more to follow in later years.

Adventures in Polaroid Photography

2009-09-14T22:19:00.004+01:00

Polaroid stopped making their particular brand of instant camera film in June 2008, approximately one year after they halted production of the instant cameras that made the company it's name.

Much has been made of the attempts by The Impossible Project to bring the technology back to life - an attempt to capitalise on that "analogue appeal in a digital age".

To my shame and disappointment I only took my first Polaroid photograph this weekend, after finding Elaine's old Polaroid camera and purchasing some expired Polaroid film on eBay.

Here it is:

The picture taking part wasn't anything overly exciting. A clunky, funny shaped camera with a really awkward hand grip and shutter release.

However, I was completely knocked for six by the resulting photograph.

Maybe it was the very tactile and hands-on appeal of being able to hold the developing print just a few seconds after pressing the shutter, maybe it was watching the image slowly develop in front of my eyes, or maybe it was just the sheer novelty factor of never having taken one before.

Well, yes, all of those are true. But there is also something very special about this brand of instant film photography that cannot be beaten.

I could have taken the same photo using my Nikon D80 but I would have undoubtedly framed, shot, re-framed, shot again, and taken about 20 different photos, before downloading to the PC, analysing, cropping, tweaking and maybe, finally, printing... although in all probability I wouldn't have bothered with the print.

The Polaroid has captured the same scene in a way that truly feels like it captures the moment, it feels more intimate and personal than probably any photo I've taken on my DSLR.

So now I have a host of ideas for Polaroid photography and an increasingly depleted, and therefore expensive, stock of film available to buy on eBay.

At least one of these projects is going to happen next year, I promise...

James Thornett Photography To Buy

2009-06-29T16:26:00.002+01:00

Finally got around to setting up a Photobox gallery to sell some of my own prints.

Only a couple up at the moment but will try and work through the back catalogue over the coming weeks.

All the random stuff is still making it onto Flickr of course.

Cake Orchestra

2009-06-26T14:15:00.001+01:00

Ever doubted the power of the cake?
Here is, to quote, "A prototype of a musical interface, driven by cakes."

cake orchestra (test) from mook studios on Vimeo.

Birmingham Photospace - Flash Swap Exhibtion

2009-02-24T20:36:00.004Z

Gutted! I'm away when this is on but I suggest anyone in the Birmingham area on Saturday 21st March should go along and take part.

Basically, take along some of your own prints to be included in the exhibition and, for every one of your own that you are willing to give away, you can take away someone else's print.

Here is the full press release with all the info.

Lego Brick Stick

2009-02-04T17:35:00.002Z

Isn't this soooo cool?

£17.50 for your 1GB lego stick, and four colours to choose from, green, red, yellow and blue.

Finally... Twitter has 'got' me

2009-01-30T18:19:00.003Z

It was really only a matter of time and two days ago, on Wednesday 28th January 2009, it happened. I finally 'got' Twitter.

Or Twitter finally 'got' me, I'm not sure which is more correct.

I signed up with a Twitter account some time ago but have never really understood why it was deserving of my time, never feeling that I was getting back anything worth the effort I was putting in.

After further prompting from Cybersoc I pushed myself to explore the world of suitable PC and mobile applications that might change the balance, pushing me over the edge and into the group of regular twitterers.

A couple of less successful attempts later and it was finally the combination of TwitterFox on the PC and Twibble on my N95 that did the trick.

These apps allow me to use twitter, to post tweets and read other people's updates, without having to constantly visit the website on my computer or mobile phone.

They bring Twitter to me, rather than me having to keep going to Twitter and check for updates.

It has only been 48 hours since the revolution but I'm fairly sure that the job is done. I've been converted and this, I think, is why.

Twitter fulfills a number of different conversational requirements that other methods of communication don't do very well.

The Conversation
I know many people that I would like to speak to quite frequently but I generally don't have the time, or am not in a suitable place, for a proper phone conversation, let alone a face to face chat.

Twitter allows a one-to-one conversation to take place over a period of hours, days or longer, with each small piece of the conversation fitting into the small, convenient gaps I have in my day.

Yes, it's true that these 'conversations' can generally be followed by anyone else paying attention to my twitter stream - but if I'm chatting over coffee or talking on the phone in the office or the street then there are just as many random strangers listening in anyway.

There are other tools for this kind of interaction, Facebook and email to name just two, but the 140 character limit on Twitter really keeps each segment short, simple and, above all, convenient.

The Announcement
The Twitter mechanism is equally useful for asking a question, soliciting feedback or making an announcement to multiple people at the same time.

I've long been a fan of Facebook for it's ability to communicate in this way with a large group of 'friends' in the same moment.

Twitter isn't necessarily any better then Facebook for this purpose but, here's the key, by installing the twitter application on my Facebook profile, my Facebook status now updates automatically with my Twitter updates.

So I'm still using Facebook as much as before, but now I'm using Twitter as well, with no extra effort. Two birds, one stone, etc.

The Gossip
This is for those in the "I'd really like to know what everyone else/that person is doing" category. And let's face it, there's a bit of that in all of us.

With Facebook, and other similar social networking sites, you need to obtain a reciprocated 'friend' link with somebody before you can start seeing each others status updates.

With Twitter, if you can find them, you can 'follow' them, and keep an eye on whatever they wish to share with the world.

Along with 90,000+ other Twitter users I am following the well known comic, TV personality and general genius Stephen Fry.

He doesn't know me, we've never met, he doesn't need to accept my friend request or agree to share any web-relationship-status with me.

But I can still tell you that he had a "Lunch of oysters and sole at Quo Vadis" today and obtained a visa for travelling to Mexico yesterday afternoon and, for the small part of me that likes to share gossip and see what other people get up to, this is both interesting and enjoyable.

I can still see why people don't 'get' it, why it seems unnecessary or without obvious benefit.

I, however, now have a different problem to solve.

There are only so many hours in the day.

Take away life's essentials such as sleeping, eating and going to the pub and what's left is an unsatisfactory number of 'web hours' available.

I am already struggling to keep up with my overflowing RSS reader, my neglected blogs in need of a new post, and my Facebook friends waiting for overdue replies to messages. How is Twitter going to help with any of that?

Turning the web into print

2009-01-16T10:48:00.005Z

Thanks to Matt Locke for pointing me in the direction of this lovely newspaper, created by the Really Interesting Group and featuring web content from 23 friends that they thought would work well in print.

Mine only arrived yesterday (#163 from a print run of 1000) and they are now sold out according to the website so I consider myself doubly fortunate to have a copy.

Three things caught my attention on my first browse through the pages, from back to front of course.

1) I've never really understood why so many people on Flickr take photographs of their food. Turning the page to see a full double page spread of 'food' tagged photos from Flickr user Antimega and it suddenly seemed to make sense. Very cool, and very possibly of some practical use as well.

2) Twitter. I'm a user, occasionally, and I can understand why some people find it useful, particularly when covering live events/conferences and so on. But I still don't quite get it. I've yet to find a killer reason why twitter is a necessary tool in my life. But somehow the four pages taken up entirely with tweets from @marsphoenix makes complete sense... and fascinating reading.

3) Russell and Ben's epilogue on the back page, titled "There May Well Be Mistakes", explains their reasons for collating this work in newspaper form, apologises for any errors that might be present, and ends with my favourite sentence of the year so far. "2009 feels like a year for printing and making real stuff in the real world. It's going to be exciting"

Now I'm going to start from the front page and read every single word.

(image taken from Matt's Flickr photostream)

ByeBush

2009-01-12T15:20:00.002Z

The idea is simple, as are all good ideas.
At the moment President Elect Barak Obama takes the presidential oath and becomes President Obama we all do the following:-

Take a photo (of anything around us at that moment)
Upload it to the web
Post a twitter with a link to the image and the tag #byebush

And if you really need to be told:-

"Byebush" is what you want it to be - it doesn't have to be anti-bush or pro-bush, it's just #byebush.

Sometimes the web is fun, and that's a good thing.

My 2008

2008-12-31T12:25:00.013Z

The last 12 months may not have been the best year ever, but it certainly was not the worst either.

I managed to walk the Great Glen Way from coast to coast in the Scottish Highlands, re-vamped the garden (before -> after), finally printed some photos onto canvas frames for the lounge, and raised £405 for charity by running two half marathons in 7 days.

Some musical highlights...

Top 5 favourite albums released in 2008
1. Jack McNeill & Charlie Hays - Light Up All The Beacons
2. Frank Turner - Love Ire & Song
3. Jim Moray - Low Culture
4. Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
5. Ben Marwood - This Is Not What You Had Planned

Top 5 most listened to albums of 2008
1. Bright Eyes - Cassadega
2. Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
3. Brad Paisley - 5th Gear
4. Newton Faulkner - Hand Built by Robots
5. Mike West - New South

And let us not forget Satchel Blue's (are you one of our Facebook Fans?) thoroughly enjoyable journey to the regional semi-finals of the Surface Unsigned 2008 competition.

Roll on 2009...

Photo Travel Diary - 2004/05

2008-12-20T14:58:00.003Z

I've finally finished scanning in my photo-a-day travel experience from 2004/05 - and it only took just under 5 months. I wasn't exactly working around the clock to achieve this but it certainly illustrates the effort required to digitise old media.

In total, 336 photographs covering 11 months spent in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the US.

View the slideshow:

Guitar for sale

2008-12-03T12:37:00.003Z

I own four guitars. I want to buy another one. This seems slightly extravagant so I've decided to sell my largely un-played classical guitar to raise funds for the new purchase.

Details on eBay of course, but if you can't be bothered to click then here they are:

RRP: £185

Details below from the UK Admira website.

The Admira 1907 Sevilla is a 4/4 size solid top guitar. A solid cedar top complemented by attractive sapelli grained back and sides enhanced by binding.

Specifications:

Top: Solid Cedar
Back: Sapelli
Sides: Sapelli
Neck: African Mahogany
Fingerboard: Mongoy
Machine Heads: Nickel

Help end hunger and learn something useful at the same time

2008-11-18T21:34:00.005Z

Just spotted FreeRice for the first time and thought it was both simple and fantastic... choose a subject area to focus on such as learning a language, improving your grammar, or knowledge of the world, and help donate rice to the United Nations World Food Program.

FreeRice began on October 7, 2007 and over 50 billion grains of rice have been donated so far.

An open source approach to tackling climate change

2008-11-17T19:55:00.002Z

Cquestrate have an idea for reducing the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and are hoping to turn theory into reality by using an open source approach to tackling climate change.

Watch this brief introduction and head over to the Cquestrate site if you want to know more or get involved.

Animation created by Eight Eyed Sea Bass.

Found via Nick.

Me and my running, 2008

2008-11-02T12:40:00.003Z

Judging by my training record for 2008 so far (and I doubt there will be significant improvement in the remaining 7 weeks of the year) I've got some way to go before I'll be writing my own version of Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

Mileage on the vertical axis, this year day-by-day on the horizontal. The blue bars are organised events that I've entered.
(Click on image for larger version)

Still, on the positive side, I'm quite pleased with my increased effort in preparing for the Cardiff and Birmingham half marathons. Obviously not an ideal training schedule but a lot better than some of my previous efforts.

A massive THANK YOU to everyone that sponsored me for those events. I raised over £400 which far exceeded my expectations - you are all very generous.

Show me where I can go on holiday, please.

2008-09-25T14:24:00.004+01:00

Surely I am not the only person that, once in a while, thinks "I'd like to go somewhere next week, I wonder what my options are?".

Yet all of the holiday/travel websites I have ever used are based around you knowing which airport you are departing from and where you want to go.

I'm generally flexible on both of these options but I do realise that a travel service which shows me every possible flight from every UK airport to all destinations is not very practical.

However, is it not possible for me to ask for some holiday suggestions departing from Airport X on date Y, returning on date Z, and to view a list of destination options?

Maybe this service exists and I haven't found it yet?

Either way, can somebody please either send me a link for a website that does this or go and build one that does. I shall be eternally grateful.

Getting 'On The Wagon' to run two half marathons

2008-08-13T18:40:00.005+01:00

You may have noticed the justgiving.com widget that's appeared on the right hand side of this page. What's it all about?

Well, despite common sense suggesting otherwise, I decided it would be a good idea to attempt two half marathons just one week apart and, given my usual pathetic attempt at training for these things, have also commited myself to 6 weeks without alcohol in the build up.

More specifically:

I will be running the Cardiff Half Marathon on Sunday 19th October 2008.
Seven days later I will be running the Birmingham Half Marathon, on Sunday 26th October 2008.
I will be giving up alcohol for 6 weeks, from Sunday 14th September until after the Birmingham run on Sunday 26th October.

To make the most of my stupidity I have decided to raise money for the British Heart Foundation in the process... so please sponsor me now.

More information on on my justgiving page.

My 2004/05 Travel Photo Diary

2008-07-27T17:36:00.002+01:00

In October 2004 I left the UK with a rucksack, a one way ticket to Sydney, Australia, and no idea what I was going to do for the next 12 months.

Each day I took one photo on my 35mm Fuji compact camera with the date function turned on.

I have now, nearly four years later, decided to re-live the experience by scanning these daily photos into the computer and gathering together in a set on Flickr.

With a bit of luck it won't take me as long to scan them in as it did to take them in the first place.

Planning the next Satchel Blue Album

2008-06-22T12:34:00.002+01:00

My new website

2008-06-18T10:47:00.004+01:00

Inspired by the Where2.0 conference in May this year, and attempting to solve my personal dilemma of trying to avoid anything vaguely work related on this website, I've now set up a new blog (Straight To The Point) at www.straighttothepoint.net.

As with any new plan I'm sure the reality will be end up differing from the initial idea over time but as a starting point I've set the theme to be "Location based technology, local content services, and new developments in local media and journalism."

Through to the semi-final!

2008-05-29T15:33:00.004+01:00

Last night we (Satchel Blue) qualified as one of the bands to go through to the next round of Surface Unsigned 2008.

Thanks to everyone who turned up on the night and to everyone who voted for us by text.

We do have an audio copy of our performance taken from the sound desk so watch this space for mp3's coming soon.

In the meantime, here's the official review:

"Next up were Birmingham based five-piece Satchel Blue. Delivering another fine performance of their melodic Nu-Folk soundings, they went down very well with the Wednesday evening crowd. On the surface it’s a refreshingly simple, infectious noise that’s instantly likeable and wholly accessible, however don’t be fooled, there’s some real depth (and a nice touch of heartfelt whimsy) in their lyrical content and in the careful arrangement that goes into each track. Excellent material, an engaging and endearing manner, and tight technical ability onstage made for a convincing and impressive set from a band who do things their own way and sound all the better for it."

Read the full review of the night and check out the scoring.

Surface Unsigned - Round 2

2008-05-27T23:37:00.005+01:00

Tomorrow night we (Satchel Blue) are playing in Round 2 of the Surface Unsigned competition for 2008 - although noticing that my favourite band in our Round 1 heat, Olly Dabblers, haven't made it past Round 2 then I'm not holding out much hope.

If you fancy supporting us, or just coming along to see what's going on, then pop down to The Factory Bar, Custard Factory in Digbeth.

First band on at 7.30pm and we're hitting the stage at 9pm.

(check out our MySpace or Facebook page for more band details and music.)

where2.0 links

2008-05-27T14:17:00.002+01:00

After taking some holiday last week and walking the Great Glen Way in Scotland I'm now back in civilization and enjoying the comfort of sitting down once more.

I'll post an overall review of thoughts from the where2.0 conference in the next day or so but, in the meantime, check out the following information on the O'Reilly website: