the bemused blog

Tea

Just heard on BBC Radio 4:

“We all know that tea is one of lifes essentials, and I for one can’t help having a deep suspicion of anyone that doesn’t like tea”

Well I’d agree with that!

Sonar 2008 Roundup

I’m back from Sonar, and the first thing on my mind is reserving for next year. Unfurtunately I didn’t get to see as much as I would have liked, due to other commitments. In fact, I only made it to the friday night, but that alone was worth it. Madness were excellent, Richie Hawtin was incredible, Justice were amazing. And arriving back in Barcelona on the bus as the sun was rising over the port was unforgettable.

Next year I’ll be there again, and I’ll definitely be going to more of the daytime concerts.

Sonar 2008 – Saturday

Sonar by Day – Saturday 21st June

CaboSanRoque (ES)
Camping (PuPilo Records/ES) – Alternative / Indie / Expérimentale
COH plays Cosey (Raster Noton/DE)
DJ Birdy (ManzanasTraigo!/ES)
DJ Key (Funky Noise/MA)
Doozer (BrokenLoop/ES)
Electrotoylets (ES) – Electrique / Folk / Nu-Jazz
Grobas (Thrasher Home-981Sessions/ES) – Electronique / House / Techno
Kid Acne (Lex/UK) – Hip Hop / Punk / Rap
Matmos (Matador/US) – Electronique / Expérimentale / Autre
Northern State (Ipecac/US)
Señor Rosa (ES) Can’t find link
Skymark (Soulsociedad/CH) – Soul / Hip Hop / Jazz
The Black Dog (Soma/UK) – IDM / Ambiance / Electronique
The Duloks (UK) – Indie / New Wave / Comédie
The Field (Kompakt/SE)

DIRTY presents
Dirty Sound System (FR)
Discodeine (FR) – Club / Emotronic / Religieux
Pilooski (FR) – Electrique / Expérimentale / Psychédélique

FLOGSTA DANSHALL & HARMÖNIA present SKWEEE
Rigas Den Andre, Pavan, Joxaren & Daniel Savio (Flogsta Danshall/SE)
Randy Barracuda, Mesak, Sla & Eero Johannes (Harmönia/FI)

OSAKA INVASION presents
Bogulta (JP) – Punk / Electrique / Trance
DJ Scotch Egg (Load/JP) – Happy Hardcre / Comédie / Punk
Maruosa (Renda/JP) – Breakcore
Ove Naxx (Accelmuzhik/JP) – Alternative / Expérimentale / Comédie

Sonar by Night – Saturday 21st June

Angel Molina (SonarMusic/ES)
Antipop Consortium (US)
Buraka Som Sistema DJ’s (PT) – Breakbeat / Club
Check One (ES) – Dub / Electronique / Breakbeat
Chloé (Kill the DJ/FR) – Electronique / Chansons populaires mélodramatiques
Clark (Warp/UK) – Electronique / Alternative
DJ Mehdi (FR) vs A-Trak feat. Kid Sister (US)
DJ Yoda Magic Cinema Show (Antidote/UK)
Dubfire (Sci+Tec/US)
M.I.A. (XL/UK)
Miss Kittin (Nobody’s Bizzness/FR) – Electrique / Techno / Pop
Neon Neon (Lex/UK-US) – Electrique / Pop
Oscar Mulero (Warm Up-Zero Oscillator/ES) – Techno / Electronique
Ricardo Villalobos (Sei Es Drum/CL)
Sharon Schael (Female Pressure/VE) – Techno / Club / Electronique
Soulwax (Modular/BE)
X-102 discovers The Rings of Saturn (Underground Resistance/US)
Yazoo (Mute/UK) – Pop / Electrique

DIAL presents
Efdemin (DE) – Techno / House / Expérimentale
Pantha Du Prince (DE) – Techno / Expérimentale / House

ED BANGER RECORDS presents
Busy P. (FR) – Electrique / Screamo
Krazy Baldhead (FR) – Breakbeat / Electrique / Hip Hop
Nil (FR) – Electronique / Funk / Shoegaze
SebastiAn (FR)

FREERANGE presents
Jimpster (UK) – House / Electronique / Down-tempo
Milton Jackson (UK) – IDM

that’s all – hopefully now you should be able to decide which days/nights you want to buy tickets for (assuming you’re not going for the general pass).

There’s also links to many of the artists on the Last.fm event page

See you there!

Sonar 2008 – Friday

Continuing the list of links to bands performing at Sonar this year, here’s the list for friday.

Sonar by Day – friday 20th June
Aixònoéspànic
Blackjoy
Deepchord Presents Echospace
El Guincho
First Aid Kit – Electronica / Pop / Emo
F-on – Can’t find link
Shape of Broad Minds (SBM) – Hip Hop / Rock / Rap
Kalabrese pres. The Rumpelorchestra
Konono Nº1 – Folk / Alternative / Electronica
Le Rok – Electronica / Indie / House
Nisei vs Za
QA’A
Quiet Village – Jazz / Psychedelic / Surf
Tara de Long – Hip Hop / Country / Turntablism
Tender Forever – Soul / Pop / Folk
Vasco Ispirián – can’t find link
Virginie – Soul / Hip Hop / Down-tempo
Yellow Swans – Experimental / Industrial / Psychedelic
Yo Mayesty – Alternative / Club / Rap

NINJA TUNE & COUNTER RECORDS present
Daedelus – Experimental / Experimental / Experimental
J.Mountain
The Heavy
The Long Lost – Rock / Pop / Pop Punk

Sonar by Night – friday 20th June
BC vs JC feat. Darren Emerson
Boys Noize (Boysnoize Records/DE) – Electronica / Indie / Techno
Diplo (Mad Decent/US) – Psychedelic / Electronica / Reggae
Dj Soak (Coffy Records/ES) – Hip Hop / Electronica / Big Beat
Erol Alkan (UK) – Alternative / Club / Psychedelic
Ewan Pearson (Misericord/UK)
Frankie Knuckles (Def Mix/US) – House
Hercules and Love Affair (DFA-EMI/US) – Experimental
Justice (Ed Banger Records/FR) – Christian / Club
Madness (Lucky Seven/UK) – Ska
Pulshar (PhonoBox/ES) – Dub / Electronica / Soul
Rob Da Bank (Sunday Best/UK)
Róisín Murphy (EMI/IE) – Electronica / Disco House / Pop
Suite on Clouds (ES) – Electronica / Lounge / Down-tempo
The Pinker Tones (Pinkerland/ES) – Electronica / Lounge / Alternative
Yelle (Source Etc./FR) – Pop/Club

BBC Radio 1 presents
Flying Lotus (Warp/US) – Hip Hop / Experimental / Indie
Mala (Digital Mystikz/UK)
Mary Anne Hobbs (BBC Radio 1/UK)
Shackleton (Skull Disco/UK)
Selected by Mary Anne Hobbs

MINUS presents CONTAKT
Gaiser (US)
Heartthrob
Magda
Marc Houle
Richie Hawtin – Techno
Troy Pierce – Techno

RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY RADIO presents
Buraka Som Sistema – Breakbeat / Club / Ghettotech
Theo Parrish

Basquiat Strings

I can’t find URLs for all artists, so if you know of any I’ve missed (or if I’ve made a mistake anywhere), please let me know.

Sonar 2008 in Barcelona

I’m heading to Barcelona in June for Sonar, and I’ve been trying to find a list of artists with links to their myspace page or other pages where I can sample their music before-hand. I’m sure this exists already, but I couldn’t find anything, so here is my version, in case it’s useful for anyone. The original list is from the Sonar website

Sonar by Day – thursday 19th June
Asstrio – u-Jazz / Funk / Rock
bass clef – Dub / 2-step / Electronique
Chacho Brodas – Hip Hop
Christopher D Ashley – Electrique / Disco House / Electronique
Díscolo
DJ Lui ?
DJ2D2 Hip Hop / Dub / Soul
Galis115 – Electronique / Nu-Jazz / Expérimentale
Internet 2 – Comédie / Classique / Emo
jahbitat – Healing & EasyListening
Little Dragon
Lucius Works Here Electronique / Indie / Psychédélique
Manu González & Vidal Romero
Pan Sonic – Expérimentale / Industrielle
Santiago Latorre – Electronique / Expérimentale / Électroacoustique
Take – Hip Hop / Expérimentale / Acousmatique / Musique pour bande
Two PIAS DJs – ?
Uke – Experimental / Minimalist / Melodramatic Popular Song
XX Teens – Rock / Pop / Indie

Pram – Alternative / Experimental / Progressive
ZX Spectrum Orchestra
Arbol – Electronica / Ambient / Experimental
Deefried – Electronica / Alternative / Emotronic

Sonar by Night – thursday 19th June
Ben watt – House / Electronica / Indie
Goldfrapp – Electronica / Pop
Leila

I’ve discovered some great music but this is taking longer than I thought – I’ll update the rest tonight. Does anyone have any suggestions for bands I shouldn’t miss?

Symfony and i18n – site interface translation

UPDATE: I’ve packaged up the files into a plugin, which can be found here.

I’ve been playing around with Symfony recently, with some interesting results.
One frustrations for me was the lack of documentation explaining how to store translations in a database. While symfony provides a way to localise records in the DB, the default method of using XLIFF files for site translation seemed more complicated than necessary.
As I couldnt find any information about implementing a admin interface to manage site translations, I’ve implemented this myself, what follows is a description of the steps to do this. If there are better ways to do this, I’d love to know, I’m new to symfony, so still learning.

Here are the steps to add a admin interface to manage site interface translations.
Read the rest of this entry »

Why Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness

Great quote at the end of this article: “…because individuals will strive only for their own happiness, it is essential that they mistakenly believe that producing and consuming are routes to personal well-being.” writes Harvard University psychologist Daniel Gilbert. Looks like he’s written a book: “Stumbling on Happiness“

My Desert Island Disks

Which ten records would I take to my desert island ? According to my iPod, it would be (in no particular order) :

• Nauwe Mitjer – De Kift
• Emerge – Fischerspooner
• Drane – Autechre
• Sink, Florida, Sink (Electric) – Against Me!
• Flim – Aphex Twin
• Give the anarchist a cigarette – Chumbawamba
• A Lover Sings – Billy Bragg
• The Saturday Boy – Billy Bragg[1]
• Uitpuilende Ogen – De Kift
• Hayling and Brixton – Cathode
• She’s Losing It – Belle & Sebastian
• Ringing in my Ear – Adem
• Little Time Bomb – Billy Bragg

Hmmm looks like there’s more than ten there, I’ll have to work on this list….

[1] In the end it took me a dictionary,
To find out the meaning of unrequited,
While she was giving herself for free,
At a party to which I was never invited

With lyrics like that, Billy bragg should have even more places in the top ten….

The Israel Lobby

One of the things about living in France is being somewhat cut off from the english media, and having to resort to BBC world for english news in the television. Its a good channel with lots of interesting programmes, but like any 24 hour news channel, things can get a bit repetitive after a while.

Despite this, I periodically find myself drawn back to it, and last week I happened to see the programme ‘Hard Talk‘. Stephen Wait was talking about his book, the Israel Lobby, and the information he came up with was fascinating. The book is based on an essay he wrote last year for the London review of Books, called The Israel Lobby. Its a bit long, but I reccomend you read it if you have a few spare minutes.

is this page in france?

This is of no interest for anyone except me, check out this HanhonZendcomlane