I always thought I was a fairly adventurous chap. I’ve lived abroad, run marathons, climbed mountains, abseiled buildings, dragged up etc. However, an event I attended last night made me feel positively dull.

The event was called ‘Night of Adventure’ and it was hosted by the charity ‘Hopes & Homes.’ It was a fast paced night with each speaker limited to just 20 slides, each lasting 20 seconds to tell their story. And there were some amazing stories.

Mitch Stokes quit his job and normal life and travelled the globe with his wife and 8 month old baby. He’s now planning to cycle around Iceland.

Andy Campbell is an ex-soldier who was paralysed in an accident and has adapted his wheelchair for skiing, paragliding and scuba diving. He’s now planning a 30,000 mile circumnavigation of the planet, by wheelchair.

Ben Keene used social media to create a group that rented a Fijian island and set up a tribe there, and then did the same on a beach in Sierra Leone.

And the sickeningly young Parker Liautaud was just 17 when he reached the North Pole. When I was 17 I hadn’t ventured further than Great Yarmouth.

There were many more speakers, all of whom had done amazing things. And Hope for Homes is a great charity, improving the lives of children in some of the most miserable situations imaginable.

The night was hosted by world record breaking skateboarder Dave Cornthwaite. His site is well worth checking out for some great stories of sometimes ill-planned adventure and perhaps the bravest challenge I’ve ever heard of – attempting 100 dates in 100 days. I think I’d prefer jumping out of a plane – without a parachute.

Kraken Black Spiced Rum is a 94 proof alcoholic drink distilled in Trinidad and Tobago by Proximo Spirits Inc. The packaging design for the spirits label is really eye-catching and stands out from the crowd with its quirky black and white etched antique look. The whole theme surrounds pirates and nautical adventure with the Kraken (mythical sea creature) taking centre stage.

Proximo have also created a bespoke iphone/ipad/android mobile game called “The Simulation Application for Nautical Maneuvering”. The game involves navigating your ship through hazardous waters being careful not to get devoured by the mighty Kraken. The app has taken centre stage in the marketing push for their campaign which also includes a really nicely designed site and a store in which you can buy Kraken wallpaper, signs, posters, bags, lamps and shower curtains amongst other things.

Overall I love the quirky style of this brand and it is a testament to how good branding can be when it looks so good that you immediately want to buy it! Similarly its kracking example how even the ancient trade of flogging grog can be updated with some nifty new-fangled technology.

Enter the Kraken at your own risk from the link below!

http://www.krakenrum.com/

With a title like this you could have expected a Valentine blog. But after a weekend full of musical surprises around the globe, it’s been impossible  for me not to fall in love with music again.

By Saturday lunch-time it was already my pleasure to discover Un-Convention: voices at the Roundhouse. The organisers refer to Un-Convention as a community that revolves around discussions on music with a political and activist tone.  Un-Convention has done 30 events around the globe and this last one had panels happening simultaneously with an event in Medellin, Colombia. I watched discussions about Latin American music and the rise of African music; both of them were an enriching experience with great networking and opinion sharing.

As part of the Roundhouse Rising events focused on young people, Un-Convention has a very attractive website open to discussion on all current evolutions, ideas and movements around the margins of music, because in this case, that’s what really matters. This is a community worth getting involved with. http://unconventionhub.org/

Not long after that day, on the complete opposite side of the music scene, we lost Whitney Houston. One more stunning voice, another pop icon that left us too soon. Her hits are part of a whole generation that she inspired during golden period of her career, especially the 80’s and 90’s, as well as the many young singers who followed her path. We hope that her talent remembered. Its not everyday we have a pop diva who’s actually an amazing singer.

But as is the pop world; one star falls and another rises.  So the weekend saw strange re-arrangement of constellations at the Grammy’s, with a Don Cornelius tribute that could have been better as an open mic. And while Minaj levitated, Gaga was hidden behind mesh. But the fashion highlight of the night was Deadmau5’s t-shirt with Skrillex’s phone number on it. Odd? Who cares if the 2012 Grammy Awards was mainly nonsense – it was at least entertaining.

Back to the music: we at ditto are really proud of Adele and her six Grammy awards. Having had to stop singing and undergo surgery last year on of her vocal cords, has saved her singing for the spotlight and the Grammy’s audience. The young singer’s wonderful voice has captured the world’s hearts, and all off the back of a rubbish relationship.

And the soundtrack for Valentines?

Listen to our exclusive remix of Adele’s Rolling in the Deep.

Or download free from Soundcloud

In the late 1970s, artists like the Human League, Daniel Miller and Cabaret Voltaire created electronic sounds never before heard on the Pop music stage. They drew inspiration from revolutionary Kraut-Rock pioneers Kraftwerk and the science fiction novels of JG Ballard. The bleak new grey concrete landscape in Britain that surrounded them yearned for a new soundscape.

Daniel Miller, under the pseudonym The Normal, released his first record, “TVOD/ Warm Leatherette” on the 1st May 1978.

In his North London bedroom, he created the tracks using a second-hand Korg 700s synthesiser he had bought from Macari’s music shop in London for £150. The BBC4 documentary, Synth Britannia, explains “Miller was disillusioned by the fact you needed to learn three chords to be in a punk band, so he decided to purchase a synthesiser. His thinking was that you only needed to learn to press one key on a synthesiser.”

“TVOD” is a ground-breaking piece of work, with its mesmerising electronic beat and lyrics of “I don’t need a TV screen, I just stick the aerial under my skin/, and let the signal flow through my veins,” telling of the 70’s changing relationship with technology.

Although the A-side was TVOD, it was the B-side, “Warm Leatherette” which became popular and bought The Normal to wider recognition. If “TVOD” sounded ground-breaking, it was almost conventional in comparison to “Warm Leatherette.”

The theme of the lyrics is the eroticism is car crashes, directly influenced by JG Ballard’s novel “Crash.” The lyrics are visual and dark:

See the breaking glass

In the underpass

See the breaking glass

In the underpass

Warm leatherette

Hear the crushing steel

Feel the steering wheel

Hear the crushing steel

Feel the steering wheel

Warm leatherette

Warm leatherette

Warm leatherette

Melts on your burning flesh

You can see your reflection

In the luminescent dash

Warm leatherette

A tear of petrol

Is in your eye

The hand brake

Penetrates your thigh

Quick – Let’s make love

Before you die

On warm leatherette

Warm leatherette

Join the car crash set

In 2010 he told the BBC4 documentary “Synth Britannia” that, “There’s humour in it, I hadn’t intended to make anything disturbing.”

Miller had researched how to make a single so he got some test pressings. Not knowing anything about retail or distribution he approached Rough Trade Records in Portobello Road, London.

From the 2006 Depeche Mode biography by Steve Mallins, “Originally a record outlet, Rough Trade had expanded into a label and distribution network. Miller took a test pressing into the shop to see if they would be interested in buying a box of them. Rough Trade Records boss Geoff Travis went to the back of the shop with Miller and played Warm Leatherette. They loved the recording and helped him press 2000 copies of the single under Miller’s own label, Mute Records. He told the NME in 1981 that “I’d never thought of approaching a major label. I didn’t like them because they’d ruined quite a few of my favourite bands – like Virgin had with Faust, Can, and Klaus Schultze.”

The record was a surprise hit, selling 30,000 copies, and Miller was now accidently the CEO of his own record label, Mute which still runs to this day. Artists on the label include Fever Ray, Jose Gonzalez, Goldfrapp and Moby.

In tribute to Daniel Miller, one of the founding fathers of electronic music, ditto’s very own Really O’Reilly has created this masterful tribute to Warm Leatherette. Using one of our fantastic interns, Georgie for the vocals, and accompanied by a skilful video from ditto’s Phillip Long, we are proud to present the ditto.tv mix of The Normal – Warm Leatherette:

It’s a standard joke at ditto that my knowledge and taste in music is well below par. Actually, it’s anything I say about music that is really frowned upon. In all honesty, I have not really had a problem with this before – until it was clearly pointed out by the ditto crew. I have always enjoyed a wide range of music from a variety of artists and genres. I just don’t happen to know when or where the artist was born, who they collaborated with on their first album or why the album cover was red and not blue. Who sang backing vocals on whose début single and what clothing fashion the song sparked off.

After working with the ditto team for the last 14 months, it has become apparent that I am not only expected to know all the finer details of each and every artist but I should also be an accomplished DJ. Possessing the skills to be able to pull together a top 10 playlist, on any given subject, at the drop of a hat. An activity that has been known to become a blood sport, on some occasions.

As I am sure you are aware, we run our very own radio station called “Radio ditto” which provides a sonic tonic to sooth the soul. We play music for the likeminded, with hand crafted shows of quality and distinction, No news, no weather, no ads and definitely no rubbish. Now this is where I keep falling short.

Each week the entire office is responsible for pulling together a playlist based on a chosen theme. Each individual has to pull together their top 10 selection and submit it, by the end of each week, to be vetted and curated.

Last week I decided to attempt my own version on crowdsourcing and posted a request on Facebook for all my mates to help me out by suggesting a song and artist they would like to hear on Radio ditto. And it worked; though granted not as well as I would have liked it to. I was actually really hoping that all my friends would rise to the occasion and effectively compile the list for me. However, I did get some really great suggestions and these did make it onto the week’s playlist.

Here’s my 60s playlist – a peach I’m sure you agree.

So I shall continue this little experiment in crowdsourcing, by posting my requests, each week and hopeful through a collaborative approach, I may earn some street cred back. Where would I have been without Facebook and my mates.

Rock on

PS. We’re working through the decades, so feel free to suggest tracks from the 70/80/90/00s.

This weekend sees the release of ‘The Woman in Black’ in UK cinemas. Most people will be interested to see how a post-Potter Daniel Radcliffe copes with a role beyond his magical franchise. However, horror aficionados will be keen to see the first major production from Hammer Studios since the mid seventies.

Hammer has recently tested the waters by co-producing a couple of American films – the efficient but unnecessary remake of ‘Let the Right One In’ and the frankly awful ‘The Resident’. “The Woman in Black’ is Hammer’s first fully fledged return to producing British horror films in the gothic tradition and it will be interesting to see how a gap of almost 40 years has affected the studios legendary style.

During the intervening years horror has gone through some major changes. In the late seventies we saw the advent of the modern slasher movie with low budget classics such as ‘Halloween’, ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ and ‘Friday the 13^th’.  Zombies proliferated too – mindless shuffling flesh eaters, a far cry from the suave, aristocratic undead of Hammer stalwart’s Christopher Lee’s Dracula.

Then horror took a self-referential turn in the 90s with ‘Wes Craven’s ‘Scream’ franchise. Laden with irony, genre parodying clichés, sexy teenagers and clever dialogue it all became rather smug and dull.

Mind you, at least ‘Scream’ was better than the recent trend in ‘torture porn’ horror such as the ‘Saw’ and ‘Hostel’ series which has seen filmmakers resorting to increasingly labored and graphic death scenes for a string of one-dimensional characters.

So, will Hammer pander to recent trends, or will it bring back the classic horror of its heyday. Will there be gloriously over saturated depictions of the English countryside, the intelligent and steadfast heroism of Peter Cushing, passionate and charismatic villains, and of course, heaving bosoms.

 I hope so.

..cos there’s just never enough time to get everything done!

Once you’ve done the dull stuff – cleaning, supermarket-shop, VAT returns – before you know it it’s midday Sunday and time to go to the pub for your roast! We’re at the beginning of February and I still haven’t yet managed to find the time to go see my favourite exhibition of the year, the 2011 Viola Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition.

Sinuousness by Marco Colombo

Hosted at the eternally beautiful Natural History Museum and running from mid-October to mid-March this awe-inspiring exhibition never fails to delight. With seventeen different categories covering all forms of life and landscapes, in the skies, on land and in the oceans (and streams!) there are works of beauty and genius to appeal to all tastes. Just see for yourself!

Polar power by Joe Bunni

Touching romance by Dmitry Monastyrskiy

Cold embrace by Cyril Ruoso

Patagonian woodscape by Daniel Jara

Lion amongst the shoal by Alex Tattersall

Now please don’t think that because there’s a handful of wonderful images here, or that because you can click the link you can see all you could need to see from the comfort of your abode, because (deep breath) viewing this body of work in this manner is to do it a massive injustice, and is a huge snub to the many extremely talented and tenacious men and women of all ages and from all corners of our wonderful planet who have sat (or swam!) in the right spot for hours or days on end (sometimes in extreme conditions), having had the eye to see the potential, and then the patience and persistence to persevere until the “shot” arrived, whether it be the right light or the magical moment.

These works of art aren’t just snaps captured by someone who was in “the right place at the right time”. Some, like Valter Binotto with his beautifully delicate shot of an Apollo butterfly, return to the same location month after month, or year after year to pursue the “buzz” of getting “that” great picture.

Apollo at rest by Valter Binotto

Trust me, make the effort to see it in the flesh, if not for those incredibly dedicated photographers then for yourself, because every image in the exhibition is displayed as a “duratran”, an exhibition-print-sized backlit transparency which results in a vividness and vibrancy that your screen cannot capture. The results are fantastic, making the brilliant even better. I promise you that the rich blues of Robert Cave’s “Curious whale”,

 Curious whale by Robert Cave

 the ephemeral greens of Stephane Vetter’s “Heavenly light show”

Heavenly light show by Stephane Vetter

or the surge of gold amidst the pastels of Sandra Bartocha’s beautifully crafted “Harbinger of spring”

Harbinger of spring by Sandra Bartocha

are going to come alive like you won’t believe and will leave a lasting impression in your old grey matter. As stunning a collection you will be hard pushed to find matched elsewhere.

It is always pure genius!

I’m going at the weekend. Sod the cleaning!

The Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition

Entry fee £9.00 for adults, child & concessions £4.50, family ticket £24.00

The Natural History Museum

Cromwell Road

London SW7 5BD

South Kensington tube

p.s. Go in by the Exhibition Road entrance as the queues for the security bag-search are shorter. Try to go early because it gets busy.

iPaw is a life-size sculpture of a dog capable of activating an iPhone only if the viewer strokes the dog. The piece greets visitors at the of Electroboutique pop-up, a project of the artist Alexei Shulgin and Chernyshev Aristarkh, which is displayed at the Science Museum until the 14^th of February.

This exhibition is a good example of how sometimes, instead of causing deep anguish, crisis can help to sharpen the wits. Convinced long ago that there was no clear separation between art and design, Shulgin and Chernyshev are not afraid to call their works “products”.

Among the star pieces, of course, there are several televisions. One catches the viewer’s image and inserts it into the news stream of the main chains, the other half destroyed, enjoys the aesthetics of a technical glitch, not as an error, but as a feature.

However, the most successful works are a set of soft televisions, called Final Adjustment, that change channels by being hit, even violently. Also attracting a lot of attention some enormous pop glasses, which work as an MP3 player, and if the visitor dances, capture his image, distorting and inserting it into the projection of the music video the viewer has chosen. There is also the Media mirror; which rather than reflecting viewer’s image, captures it and returns it converted into an artistic portrait.

Obviously, Shulgin and Chernyshev do not mind that people have fun, but the goal is different: “Behind every game there is a critical perspective that goes from the meaning of artistic creation and mass production to climate change, the activism, consumerism, and especially digital technologies. “

                             Final Adjustment

                             The way I see it!

                            Media mirror

                             Synthetic Times

Electroboutique pop up

Science Museum London

Exhibition Rd
 South Kensington
 SW7 2DD

Until 14.02.2012

Mark Zuckerburg and fellow students from Harvard University started Facebook in 2004. It is currently privately owned by Facebook Inc. and most of its revenue comes from advertising.

However it has been announced this week that Facebook is going public, which is said to be the biggest Internet IPO ever. According to the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal the company plans to file papers as soon as Wednesday.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Sheryl Sandberg told CNBC  “job growth and social change will be the most important aspect of Facebook going Public. Facebook is just 7 years old and has created more that 450,000 jobs in Europe and the US,” many of these jobs are creating apps for the social network.  However the latest study actually shows that only 53,000 jobs have been created for building apps for Facebook, and 182,000 jobs in the supported app economy.

The Initial public offering could raise as much as $10billiion, which would make Facebook’s value between $75 and $100billion. Mark Zuckerburg is likely to be worth $24 billion when Facebook starts selling shares to the public.

Facebook has often come under fire for invading our privacy, and with the new launch of the timeline on Facebook even more people are less than happy with the latest setting of sharing all our information being the default. However surely the billion users that Facebook is set to have by the summer of 2012 are on Facebook to share their information anyway. There is nothing stopping anyone from deactivating his or her account or simply customising the setting. Lately it has emerged that the FBI is looking to develop a web app that will monitor social networks like Facebook. Has it all got a bit 1984? Is everyone being watched? Perhaps it just mass paranoia – but remember, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.

Kim Schmitz. Billionaire, Computer Programmer, Businessman, Call of Duty Champion, Racing Driver and now prisoner.

Schmitz is the founder of the now FBI seized, Megaupload website. The website started in 2005 and quickly became the 13th most popular site on the internet. It hosted and payed uploaders for film and television material. This was free to watch by whole world, the only caveat being if you wanted to watch more than 72 minutes, a premium payed for account was required. It was estimated that at the height of his success, Schmitz made on average $118,000 per day from Megaupload alone.

Users who uploaded content to the site were paid well too. A Vietnamese man was paid $55,000 for uploading a Italian television series and some Vietnamese films. The site had over 150 employees, working to keep the 50 million daily users happy. It is estimated that at it’s peak, Megaupload accounted for 4% of all internet traffic globally.

Known for his decadent lifestyle, which included a lavish collection of sports cars, yachts, and mansions, there’s a virtual prize Schmitz also greatly treasured, of which most are unaware. And which he also recently lost. Schmitz was, up until a few days ago, the top ranked player of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3″  in the world, at least among Xbox 360 players; As MEGARACER, yet another alias of his, on Xbox Live.

As much hard work, skill, and dedication as it takes to claim such a coveted spot, it requires just as much to keep it secure. Which, unfortunately for Schmitz, is not quite possible when you’re spending time in a New Zealand prison cell. During the week in which he wasn’t been able to log into Live (and he may not again for a very long time), MEGARACER was overtaken by another player who goes by the handle Arazos.

Schmitz and the site’s founders have been charged with violating piracy laws. Federal prosecutors have accused it of costing copyright holders more than $500m (£320m) in lost revenue. The firm says it was diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material. Almost immediately after Megaupload was shut down, the hacker group Anonymous responded by crashing the websites of the FBI, MPAA, RIAA and Universal Music Group.

Schmitz is certainly an interesting character both in business and privately. His case is one that will be watched with interest, and will set a precedent for all internet piracy.

Is he a James Bondesque villain? Well Schmitz owned a Rolls Royce Phantom with a license plate that read “GOD”. Some of the plates on his other cars included: GUILTY, STONED, GOOD, CEO, MAFIA and HACKER. So, yes, possibly the closest thing to a real life one…