What are you doing on Wednesday night at 6:30? No, you can do that on Thursday. The correct answer is: listening to Party.
Last Wednesday night I went to see a recording of episode three and four of series three of Party, by Tom Basden for Radio 4. Now obviously I haven't heard the first episode, so I can't absolutely guarantee you that it's going to be as fantastic, funny and sharp as the second two episodes but I would put money on it. Quite a bit of money.
As I mentioned before, I have somehow managed to miss Party on Radio 4 so I bought series 2 from iTunes before going to the recording. I knew it was funny but I really wasn't expecting to be laughing almost constantly throughout the entire recording. Tom Basden is a really good writer. Not only are the episodes very funny but they're also just a single thirty-minute scene. And that's not only clever but also very impressive.
Earlier in the year I went to see Old Harry's Game and it was funny. I laughed. But Party is funny and I couldn't stop laughing. I know that I've highly recommended a lot of stuff in the past but Party is well worth listening to.
Oh, and you should know: when the third episode is aired, Jonny Sweet is actually eating Jacob's Cream Crackers. And he didn't even sneak a drink. Plus, Tim Key attempted the splits (though I'll be honest, the crackers were more impressive).
And, if you really are busy at 6:30 on Wednesday, then Party is going to be the Comedy of the Week Podcast. So you really have no excuse not to listen.
Monday 17 September 2012
Thursday 13 September 2012
Radio: 1, Knitting: 1
Last night radio won a decisive victory over knitting when my wool and needles were confiscated by BBC security guards. Fortunately I remembered to retrieve them at the end of the night. I joined women who had brought a pair of scissors and two forks in the oddest ever walk of shame.
I had confidently insisted to my friend that we should aim to get to Portland Place for 6 and that we should expect a queue. We got there at 6 and there was no queue. In fact, we were let in immediately and took full advantage of the quite bar and our choice of seats in the cafe.
I'm not going to say anything on the subject of what the recording of Party was like because it really does deserve its own post.
So instead I shall end with this proof that the early bird both catches the worm and gets a latte too:
I had confidently insisted to my friend that we should aim to get to Portland Place for 6 and that we should expect a queue. We got there at 6 and there was no queue. In fact, we were let in immediately and took full advantage of the quite bar and our choice of seats in the cafe.
I'm not going to say anything on the subject of what the recording of Party was like because it really does deserve its own post.
So instead I shall end with this proof that the early bird both catches the worm and gets a latte too:
Wednesday 5 September 2012
Button
I am in love with this button. I think all hats shall have this button from now on.
This Big Button Hat is destined for the Wateraid sale at Christmas.
This Big Button Hat is destined for the Wateraid sale at Christmas.
Tuesday 4 September 2012
Radio 404: Not Found
I'm not sure how this keeps happening but it's time for another trip to London, this time it's thanks to a conference that should be both interesting and informative. It also happens to start at 9am which is far too early for me to travel up in the morning. One of my friends is in the same position so we'll be going up the night before because the alternative is a 04:30 start and still missing the first half hour of the conference, which is something that no one wants to see.
As you'd expect of me, I checked the BBC ticket site for recordings that evening. Most of September is already fully booked but there was one recording on the night that we'll be there: Party.
My brain did something a little unexpected and I got the mental equivalent of a radio 404 error. I've never heard of Party, that's odd. Is it new? Nope, it's the third series being recorded. Have I just got confused and is it actually The Party Line, The Party Party or one of the other political comedies with the word 'party' in their titles? Nope.
Now I don't claim to be an expert and I don't imagine that I've heard every radio comedy broadcast in the last few years. But I was a little surprised. I was even more surprised when I mentioned it to my friend and he said "The one where they're students? That's really funny! Well, I think it is. It's quite funny. I think."
I know I've written before about the difficulty of recommending comedies to other people but this is the first time I've been on the receiving end. The more we talked about going to the recording, the less certain my friend was about how funny Party really was. I've done exactly the same thing. There are a couple of things that I'm absolutely certain are funny and would insist that everyone should hear but there are all too many programmes that are obviously hilarious to me but are completely lost on others.
Fortunately, I have faith in my friend's taste (even though he doesn't get Bleak Expectations for some reason). So we've applied for tickets, received tickets and now we're taking a half day so we can travel up to London and get in the queue at a reasonable time. After complaining at the start of the year that I couldn't get to see the Now Show this will be my third recording of 2012. I feel more than a little greedy.
As I'm going to a recording, I thought it was only sensible to have some idea of what the plot is, so I've bought series two of Party from iTunes (Why not series 1? Ask iTunes). Fortunately, it turns out that my friend is right and it is funny. Really very funny.
As you'd expect of me, I checked the BBC ticket site for recordings that evening. Most of September is already fully booked but there was one recording on the night that we'll be there: Party.
My brain did something a little unexpected and I got the mental equivalent of a radio 404 error. I've never heard of Party, that's odd. Is it new? Nope, it's the third series being recorded. Have I just got confused and is it actually The Party Line, The Party Party or one of the other political comedies with the word 'party' in their titles? Nope.
Now I don't claim to be an expert and I don't imagine that I've heard every radio comedy broadcast in the last few years. But I was a little surprised. I was even more surprised when I mentioned it to my friend and he said "The one where they're students? That's really funny! Well, I think it is. It's quite funny. I think."
I know I've written before about the difficulty of recommending comedies to other people but this is the first time I've been on the receiving end. The more we talked about going to the recording, the less certain my friend was about how funny Party really was. I've done exactly the same thing. There are a couple of things that I'm absolutely certain are funny and would insist that everyone should hear but there are all too many programmes that are obviously hilarious to me but are completely lost on others.
Fortunately, I have faith in my friend's taste (even though he doesn't get Bleak Expectations for some reason). So we've applied for tickets, received tickets and now we're taking a half day so we can travel up to London and get in the queue at a reasonable time. After complaining at the start of the year that I couldn't get to see the Now Show this will be my third recording of 2012. I feel more than a little greedy.
As I'm going to a recording, I thought it was only sensible to have some idea of what the plot is, so I've bought series two of Party from iTunes (Why not series 1? Ask iTunes). Fortunately, it turns out that my friend is right and it is funny. Really very funny.
Monday 3 September 2012
Do You Know Who Wrote This?
Well, of course you do. I have an entire page explaining who I am.
Even if Do You Know Who Wrote This? hadn't been trailed in every spare minute of Radio 4's broadcasting last week, I think I'd have made an effort to catch it. The play looks at online identities and the anonymity that people hide behind when they use forums, chat sites and social networking. Ten years ago I think that would have been a fairly niche audience but the explosion of social networking in the last decade has brought to the fore a lot of issues that were previously the territory of small, cliquey groups of geeks. I mean, I've even heard the word "trolling" used on Today. Not used correctly but it's a start.
I know a little about this subject because, for several years, I worked as an online moderator for a reasonably large American company. I spent my evenings patrolling discussion forums in search of the sorts of comments that no one wants their children exposed to. I've seen my share of spam attacks, "inappropriate content", flame wars and trolling. More trolling than you could possibly imagine.
The number of people who used their real names on the forum was probably close to a dozen, out of many thousands. It just wasn't done. Not by the members and not by the moderators either. Even when I left I didn't reveal my real name, all the users ever knew about me was that I was female and European. Anonymity was an essential tool to how we worked and an essential component to the discussions that went on, not so much because people wanted to hide their personality but because those real life names had no relevance to the world we were in.
It may sound like a lot of people hiding behind aliases but it was anything but. When people post under a name that has no gender, age, race or nationality attached to it then the responses are based on the content of that post, not the preconceptions that might go along with that name.
Using an alias to shield bad behaviour is a short term thing. If you're in a true community, with active members and an expectation of reasonable discussion then the reputation of your username is as important as the reputation of your real name. Strong communities are self-policing because they have a social code that's equivalent to those we have in real life. If you flame others then people won't take you seriously. It's irrelevant whether that name can be connected back to a real identity because your online presence will be discredited among your peers.
We should aspire to communicate in communities where content is key. A person's opinions, self-expression and online behaviour is what matters. The actual identity of the person typing the keys should be the least relevant of all things. If what you're saying is worth saying then people will respect you for it, regardless of the name that you use.
The play did a good (and funny) job of exploring the reach of our online interactions and the chaos that absolute truth might bring about. But I think it's worth pointing out that, in a strong community with clearly defined ground rules, flaming and trolling isn't an inevitable consequence of anonymity.
Which brings me back to my original point: do you know who wrote this?
Yes, because I made a concerted decision to write this blog under my own name and not an alias. I believe that if I'm going to post my opinions about things, especially if those things are creative works by people who might not agree with my opinions, that I should do that under my own name. I realise it may sound hypocritical when I've just defended anonymity but, for as long as the patterns and programmes I post about have a real name behind them, I think they deserve a real name in return.
Even if Do You Know Who Wrote This? hadn't been trailed in every spare minute of Radio 4's broadcasting last week, I think I'd have made an effort to catch it. The play looks at online identities and the anonymity that people hide behind when they use forums, chat sites and social networking. Ten years ago I think that would have been a fairly niche audience but the explosion of social networking in the last decade has brought to the fore a lot of issues that were previously the territory of small, cliquey groups of geeks. I mean, I've even heard the word "trolling" used on Today. Not used correctly but it's a start.
I know a little about this subject because, for several years, I worked as an online moderator for a reasonably large American company. I spent my evenings patrolling discussion forums in search of the sorts of comments that no one wants their children exposed to. I've seen my share of spam attacks, "inappropriate content", flame wars and trolling. More trolling than you could possibly imagine.
The number of people who used their real names on the forum was probably close to a dozen, out of many thousands. It just wasn't done. Not by the members and not by the moderators either. Even when I left I didn't reveal my real name, all the users ever knew about me was that I was female and European. Anonymity was an essential tool to how we worked and an essential component to the discussions that went on, not so much because people wanted to hide their personality but because those real life names had no relevance to the world we were in.
It may sound like a lot of people hiding behind aliases but it was anything but. When people post under a name that has no gender, age, race or nationality attached to it then the responses are based on the content of that post, not the preconceptions that might go along with that name.
Using an alias to shield bad behaviour is a short term thing. If you're in a true community, with active members and an expectation of reasonable discussion then the reputation of your username is as important as the reputation of your real name. Strong communities are self-policing because they have a social code that's equivalent to those we have in real life. If you flame others then people won't take you seriously. It's irrelevant whether that name can be connected back to a real identity because your online presence will be discredited among your peers.
We should aspire to communicate in communities where content is key. A person's opinions, self-expression and online behaviour is what matters. The actual identity of the person typing the keys should be the least relevant of all things. If what you're saying is worth saying then people will respect you for it, regardless of the name that you use.
The play did a good (and funny) job of exploring the reach of our online interactions and the chaos that absolute truth might bring about. But I think it's worth pointing out that, in a strong community with clearly defined ground rules, flaming and trolling isn't an inevitable consequence of anonymity.
Which brings me back to my original point: do you know who wrote this?
Yes, because I made a concerted decision to write this blog under my own name and not an alias. I believe that if I'm going to post my opinions about things, especially if those things are creative works by people who might not agree with my opinions, that I should do that under my own name. I realise it may sound hypocritical when I've just defended anonymity but, for as long as the patterns and programmes I post about have a real name behind them, I think they deserve a real name in return.
Sunday 2 September 2012
One Hundred and Thirteen Days
Although I love Christmas, I don't normally start planning and preparing for it quite this early on but, thanks to a major project in work, I'm already planning for December. So it only seems natural to start planning my knitting for December too.
Last year our work knitting group raised over £600 for Wateraid in our Christmas sale and the time has come to stop doing selfish knitting and to start on scarves, hats, gloves and tiny little stockings. Okay, so I actually started the stockings in February but that's beside the point.
I'm not the only one, we already have a dinosaur and several Christmas decorations in the Knitting Cupboard. I'm not sure I'll manage to contribute quite as much as last year but my bus knitting time is going to be turned over to the sale shortly.
So far I've only started one scarf, its another Loopy & Luscious because, I'm ashamed to say, the wool is fairly cheap. I don't begrudge donating my time and yarn to the sale but it's a lot easier to see the total as profit when things are sold for more than the cost of the wool alone.
The balls on the right will be hats, gloves and perhaps a Maluka, as they are very much the rage in knitting group right now.
Last year our work knitting group raised over £600 for Wateraid in our Christmas sale and the time has come to stop doing selfish knitting and to start on scarves, hats, gloves and tiny little stockings. Okay, so I actually started the stockings in February but that's beside the point.
I'm not the only one, we already have a dinosaur and several Christmas decorations in the Knitting Cupboard. I'm not sure I'll manage to contribute quite as much as last year but my bus knitting time is going to be turned over to the sale shortly.
So far I've only started one scarf, its another Loopy & Luscious because, I'm ashamed to say, the wool is fairly cheap. I don't begrudge donating my time and yarn to the sale but it's a lot easier to see the total as profit when things are sold for more than the cost of the wool alone.
The balls on the right will be hats, gloves and perhaps a Maluka, as they are very much the rage in knitting group right now.
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