Wow, what can I say. “Blown away” would be a could place to start in attempting to describe the experience of a Dan Deacon gig.
I had heard some of his music a few months back and couldn’t get enough of it. I missed the show he piut on last time he was in town but was sure to get myself on down to Whelans on Wexford St to witness one of these spectacular shows. Your Only Massive did a great warm up for Dan and got the crowd to shake their cool away in reference to people who are “too cool” to dance. Luckily I had located mysself on the balcony so was kinda excused! It’s not that I don’t dance, it just well, you know… I’ve gotta be really into it or someone on the dancefloor! Anyway I wished I was down there in the thick of it for this gig. It was fantastic. It was great to see a level of crowd interaction with and artist like this, it is certainly something new and unique. Dan inspires you to get on down, have a laugh and be part of a crowd. He sets up on the floor as opposed to the stage and gets people to get in close. He controls all the lighting for his set-up and the lighting is about as basic as it gets. A glow in the dark skull and a spotlight that are synced with the music provide all the light needed and also create the atmosphere to keep the crowd engaged.
So here I present to you a little video clip of the night. It is ten minute quick cut of Dan Deacon’s amazing show in Dublin on December 2nd 2007. The audio quality is awful from the digital camera i was using so please don’t take that as an indication of the sound quality. The camera just doesn’t like the bass! The sound was fantastic (spot on Gerry!)… the atmosphere was electric. Dan is the Man.
There was lots more good footage but it’s best to keep it short here as the sound quality does not do it justice. A good idea maybe would be to turn down the video sound and listen to a better audio recording by Dan over it. I also took a small number of photos, the best of which is above, check out the rest on my flickr.
Nialler9 has posted about both shows, so head on over there and check out his reviews and some courtesy mp3s.
There is a great interview / podcast over at The Sound Of Young America that you should check out too
I took this photo back at the beginning of September on the Naas Road. I had seen these strange clothing printed onto walls hanging out to dry, albeit without the Persil ‘tag’, on a number of occasions, in a number of locations around the city. Being an admirer of street art, grafitti and the like, I was curious about the wet clothes plastered to the walls. It was a letdown to discover this was an ad campaign by Unilever when I spotted this ‘piece’ on the Naas Road, near enough to the Bluebell Luas stop. I made myself a note to go back and take a photo and this is it.
So, Lever Bros are getting down with the street vibes now then I see! I wonder though is this not ‘posting bills’ or advertising without permission? Contrast this with the sight further on up the road with the Anti Graffiti Van Man erasing some much better tags off a far less obvious wall.
Picnic Network is a creative media festival which takes place in Amsterdam. I was fortunate to be an invited guest of DivX / Stage6 at the festival last week. On Wednesday I was on a panel entitled “Digital Video - The New Creative Process” as part of a day long session regarding “Transforming Media”. I got to meet lots of very interesting people with like minds starting with the good folks from DivX / Stage 6 ; Genevieve, Ben, Jim, Melissa, James and Jordan. The panel discussions were very stimulating as it represented a good cross section of people with new ideas for the creation and distribution of quality digital media. The following people participated alongside myself:
> M dot Strange - We Are The Strange - fantastic animator of a strange and extraordinary piece of work.
> Gabriel McIntyre - Xolo.tv - founding member of a forward thinking organisation of vloggers and a whole lot more.
> Jamie King - Steal This Film - director of the film about piracy online featuring The Pirate Bay as a case study.
> Henrik Moltke - Good Copy / Bad Copy - director of this excellent film, see my review of this from a while back
> Wendy Bernfeld - Rights Stuff - founder of advisory group for media companies
> Steven Lee - Star Wreck Studios - CEO of groundbreaking Finnish film company which explores space and beyond on a shoestring.
> Ton Roosendaal - Blender - Founder of groundbreaking animation solution, Blender.
And this was just the first day! - a great way to kick off an exciting week of new discoveries.
This is a great video showcasing the touch screen technology of Perceptive Pixel, Inc. Jeff Han is the main man at the company and he shows you here the future of computers, akin to PK Dick’s inspired Minority Report’s hands on computer experience sequence. Oh, and Tom Cruise was in it too!
Han’s hands navigate huge multi-touch screens controlling all aspects of various software by very clever means. This is bigger than the iPhone! Available now for those who can afford a six figure sum.
