Tom de Grunwald

I’m sitting in Spitalfields drinking coffee and getting used to writing on the iPhone’s touch interface. I’m keeping it short as there’s no copy and paste, and there’s little that’s not been written already about this particular toy, sorry, piece of high consumer technology.

Suffice to say I’m loving the cocktail of connectivity and syncronisation, ease of use and rich media experience. I like the way it has got software developers excited and brought a unity to the mobile platform which has been sadly lacking in all my previous smart phones.

It is not without its flaws - again, well documented elsewhere, but perhaps most significantly the charge that it is a closed and tethered device that could threaten creativity and/ or go towards creating a new Market monopoly. But I sincerely hope that it acts as a catalyst to other makers of mobile devices creating truly usable interface. The iPhone has moved the goalposts, now it just needs worthy opponents on the field.

On a more personal note, this is actually my first iPod and I haven’t enjoyed listening to music so much since I stopped buying vinyl. I think this is because it brings a sense of intimacy with the record back into the experience, where other players have made a music collection feel like a set of data files - still possible to enjoy as music, but despite the interface rather than because of it.

Last year one of the first films I worked on from start to finish at Isis was our Classic Albums film on Jay-Z’s 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt.

I’m pleased to say that the long awaited UK Premiere is tomorrow, on BBC Two, Friday 4th July at 23.35hrs.

As far as I’m aware I’m credited as Production Assistant, which entailed helping to get all the parties together. This year my work has started to develop - I’ve been developing my own ideas for shows, starting to pitch them to broadcasters and developing partnerships with other organisations.

And of course one of the exciting areas I’m working in is where collaboration and the culture of the web can meet and cross-fertilise with some of the qualities that long-form film and broadcast bring to the table. Qualities which I hope are evident in our film on Jay-Z.. Let me know in the comments box!

I’ll update this post when I know its URL Sorry to say, this won’t be on BBC’s iPlayer but is available on DVD if you would like to see it.

Tags: Jay-Z, Hip-Hop, Lyrics, Beats, TV, Classic Albums

Tonight London was sparkling as we walked back from Euston to Charing Cross. A friend had invited me to Robin Dingemans‘ latest dance piece, “Me + You = 5″ at The Place, and earlier, as I took my seat, the lights had fallen to an empty stage. A single balloon wandered on, dancing to it’s own breeze-inspired rhythm. The seconds passed and another balloon joined it. Then there were three, four and so on until thirty dancing balloons filled the stage. I seriously wondered if people would figure in this piece at all, so well did they assert their presence. The screen read “We are here - Because - We are here - Because..”

As the lights came up, what seemed to be a single person with two heads was revealed, lying, in the centre of the stage. Slowly the figure shifted about, and the two performers comprising it moved themselves around each other in incredible intimacy and understanding, like living clay being moulded. This was the beginning of an epic, uninterrupted hour long and hugely energetic piece which very beautifully and humanely described the cycle of relationships; from an initial touch of magic (the balloons) through a honeymoon period (inseparability), and later stages of strife, deeper understanding - to the very end of human lives.

It was intensely moving to see these two performers and choreographers, Joanne Fong and Robin himself, mine their personal experience for the benefit of the audience in such a visceral, accomplished and, above all, inventive way. Woman and Man were represented here in their strength and weakness, vitality and insecurity, against one of the great human narratives. This was dance assimilating theatre, using set, props, music and live sound, text, lyrics, video, and voice to great effect, entwining physical metaphors in a multimedia collaboration which went beyond my previous experience of the potential of the medium of dance. This was Dance as Opera, an immersive and complete work which moved me deeply.

Had I spoken for longer with the director, I would love to have asked if he had a position on the potential for humans to know each other or to love. To my mind, the latter half of the piece portrayed a vision of a compromised domesticity, in which the protagonists fail to move beyond their fractious problems into true, mature relationship; where individuality is nurtured and where human weakness can be acknowledged and accepted - but not allowed to define togetherness as somehow alienated.

Did you see the piece? What did you make of it? And which were your favorite moments?

Photo courtesy of AdelaideAsleep

Tags: Dance, Dingemans, Fong, Contemporary

I had a conversation about the whys and why-bothers of blogging with my dad and step-mum (they don’t get it) - so this post’s for them.

Amusingly, he related an anecdote of when he tried to explain to my grandmother what an email was..

“It’s like a telegram” he said.
“Where does it go?”
“Down the telephone wire”
“How does it fit” (tricky one)
“The same way you fit your head down the line when you have a conversation” I suggested.
“How do you finish it?”

OK, you got me there.

Anyway, I was asked to recommend a couple of favourite blogs.. so here goes:
PostSecret for its often incredibly moving anonymous confessions on a postcard. BoingBoing, just because I so enjoy the way it entertains, but deals with significant issues at the same time - a great combination, if an acquired taste.

I mentioned the idea that blogging can be like the comment section of the newspaper (my favourite bit incidentally) - you simply read the journalists you like or find stimulating, and ignore or give short shrift to those you don’t.

The rule is simple - if you aren’t interested in what a blog has to say, move on. Life is too short. But as with anything in life, if a friend has recommended it to you, give it a go!

Part II
So then you get into a really interesting area.. whose recommendations do you trust, and whose do you jettison?

The answer is simple, you go with those people with whom you share tastes. And here we are in luck, because recently a whole raft of ‘recommendation engines’ have been created. My fave is del.icio.us which allows you to save your favourite web pages, along with tags to describe them. From there it’s easy to browse your, or anyone else’s favourites; by tags, or in their collection’s entirety.

(Favourites are are also sometimes known as bookmarks, in a nod to their analogue, well, analogue.) Del.icio.us, digg, and reddit are three of the most well known such sites.

Search engines (such as Google) often rank sites on the number of links that point to them, giving the top spots in a search result to those that have the most. Each time someone creates a favourite, by doing so they create a link.

And that is how the users of the web are helping to map and chart it, as we surf.

Lastly, and going with the wisdom of the crowd for a moment, there is a great site to see what is most popular over the entire web at any one moment: popurls, which aggregates and presents the top ten pages from a variety of sites, including many of those mentioned in this article. Have a quick look there and you’re sure to find some fascinating, wierd or informative web pages.

So you found a great site.. all you need to do now is recommend it to others

photo courtesy of Telstar Logistics on Flickr (which happens to be the best photo-sharing site)