Words Designed by Ian. A blog by Ian Hart about Web Design & Development, as well as Music, Art, living in Paris and other... stuff.

Since this was probably my last gig of 2008 (from one of my bestest ever bands), I feel I should give it a super-quick mini-review.

It was ace.

That’s all I can say.

I could elaborate. I could moan about Le Trabendo’s “wait outside in the freezing cold” policy before the gig (not very French). I could mention how impressed I was with the support band - the energetic 4-piece multi-instrumentalists, Nelson*. I could talk about how endearing I found Wolf Parade’s constant appreciation of the crowd’s applause & cheers. I could even mention the super-enthusiastic American stood next to me who was coincidently visiting his Parisian girlfriend when his favourite band were playing in Paris.

But I won’t bother.

Instead, I’ll just point you to these ace photos of the gig.

* Surprisingly a French band. (It isn’t my intention to offend the French here; it’s just a matter of fact they don’t produce a lot of great indie music).

A slightly belated post but I thought I should write a few words about (last-)last week’s Future of Web Apps. Since there are plenty of thoughts and opinions out there already, I’ll try to keep this brief.

The good:

1. Blaine “Twitter” Cook and Joe “Digg” Stump (for the “comedy duo uber tech jargon” thing)
2. Ron “Revision3″ Richards (his enthusiasm for online TV was infectious)
3. Ben “I Can Has Cheezburger” Huh (for his passion, humour and many LOLcats references)
4. Jason “Mahalo” Calacanis (for being the Simon Cowell of web startups)

The bad:

1. The venue’s wifi (couldn’t connect or was super-super slow)
2. The AIR dragons thing (too rushed and the ideas were pretty poor)
3. The Digg-Facebook-Myspace Meetup after-party VIP area (are Kevin and Alex celebrities now?)
4. Jason Calacanis (for being the Simon Cowell of web startups)

Special mention goes to: Tim Bray, whose talk I found pretty interesting for directly addressing the current financial climate; Live Diggnation, which I didn’t think I’d enjoy but I really did and Ryan Carson for keeping his hat on - all the time.

So, was it good? Was it worth it? I’m not sure.

Some of the talks were interesting - but not all. I could probably get the same from setting a day aside and watching them online. Some attendees love meeting new people, networking and swapping business cards. That’s not really my thing. I soon get tired of the whole “What do you do? This is what I do.” conversation. That’s my own fault though, not anybody else’s.

As a conference, I would recommend Future of Web Apps to other web developers - the pace is pretty chilled, the venue is big so it’s easy to get a decent seat and it’s a good place to meet new people. Since I live in Paris and I’m not interested in collecting business cards, I’m not sure I’ll attend another one.

Well, maybe as an excuse to visit NYC or Miami…

For a different take on the conference, check out the post at BigRedCircle.com by my friend/conference chaperon/sidekick, David McGeorge.

So, Muxtape (as we knew it) is no more.

“Giving up any kind of editorial or creative control was something I had a much harder time swallowing…

And so I made one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever faced: I walked away from the licensing deals.”

 This is such a shame. Muxtape was great. It was such a cool-old-new-simple way of discovering music. One of the reasons I loved it was that the whole experience was natural and organic. There were no “if you like this then try this” automated recommendations. There were no band biographies. There was no rating system.

It was about listening to songs that somebody thought worked well together. Or suited a particular occasion. Or just wanted you to hear. And on the flip side, it was about making your own mixtape. Deciding which song should follow the last. It encouraged you to think about the tape as a whole as well as each individual track.

(Don’t get me wrong, I love and use automated recommendations like Last.fm, iTunes Genius etc. But Muxtape was different and it was nice to have both methods.)

Muxtape will now be “relaunching as a service exclusively for bands”, which sounds like Myspace but (I’ve no doubt) will be much better. Justin Ouellette (the creator of Muxtape) did such an amazing job with the simplicity and usability of Muxtape, I can only presume this next iteration will be just as good. Even though I’ll miss what Muxtape once was, I look forward to seeing what it will become.

Had Muxtape continued as it was, I think it could have taken the music industry in a interesting direction - the popularity of music within the community was determined by the people listening & sharing, not by marketing. Hopefuly, one day, the major labels will realise their mistake and sing this to Justin:

I’ve always had this vague feeling that Paris was like a holiday and that I would eventually move back to London. However, after my last trip there, I realised… I just don’t like it anymore!

“There are too many people. It’s too noisy. It’s too dirty.”

People either love it or hate it; and if they hate it, these are the typical complaints they make. I am now one of those people.

I’ve lived in Paris for eight months and, although there are still aspects which frustrate me, I have become accustomed to the pace and way of life. Strolling down the streets lined with cafés, boulangeries and beautiful architecture; idly cycling along the peaceful roads on a vélib. A stereotypical and romantic perception, maybe; but for the moment, that’s what I have.

London is the complete opposite. There’s a constant rush to get from A to B to C etc. Everybody is racing with everybody else; on the crowded streets, down the Tube tunnels, in the shops. The roads are busy with crazy bus drivers, screaming taxis and cyclists who, apparently, are obliged to ride anywhere. The noise and visual pollution is overstimulating. The streets are dirty. People are rude. There’s no escape.

Don’t get me wrong, my opinion of London isn’t actually this negative - but I don’t look forward to visiting as much as I once did. The one thing I do enjoy is seeing my friends (who live there despite agreeing that London can drain the life from you).

I still need to cross off some of my “Places to Live in the World”. I’m at the wrong end of my twenties now and I guess I’ll have to settle down somewhere soon(ish). But it won’t be in London.

I probably see this film at least twice a week. Gem has a tendency to put it (or its sequel) on while she’s doing her hair, making dinner or going to sleep. At first I thought this would dilute its awesomeness and I would become sick of it. However, it’s quite the opposite. It’s like having a pet around the house. Say, a hamster or a cat rather than a dog. There isn’t much effort required and you get used to its constant presence.

Anyway, it struck me recently that if Ghostbusters was made today, it would be awful. I’m not talking about a remake or Murray, Aykroyd and Ramis teaming up to make another movie.

I’m talking about the fact that Ghostbusters is the perfect blend of comedy, action, sci-fi and the supernatural. It’s perfect*. I love that the jokes aren’t forced - they’re hinted at. I love that the action isn’t bullet-time - it’s wonderfully lame. I love that the protagonists are accidental heroes and don’t even pretend to be the best of the best - they’re just the first.

If it were made today, Egon would have blown up a car with his proton pack in a “hilarious” slapstick comedy moment, Ray would be doing backflips in slow-motion to dodge ghosts and Dana Barrett would have been a ridiculously hot 21-year-old who took off her top every ten minutes.

This realisation promoted the movie’s status from pet to offspring. Rather than merely being used to its presence, I now look forward to certain moments and pay it more attention when it’s making noise. I’m not familiar with fatherhood - but I imagine it’s something like that.

Plus, Murray’s line, “Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!” is ace.

* Except for the “token black guy” thing.

This place is amazing. Built in 1900, it was a railway station until 1939 where it went through a bit of a rough patch and was then converted to a museum in 1986. It holds mainly French art (ha, where else?) and has a nice collection of Impressionist work by Monet, Degas and Van Gogh.

You walk in and light pours through the huge atrium. Walk down a few steps and you see sculptures posing throughout the gallery which runs in between the separate Movement rooms. If you’ve had the  foresight to grab a museum plan, you can jump straight to your favourite artists or movements. Otherwise, you’re stuck plodding along with the tourists who constantly take pictures of anything and everything.

I realise I’m being cynical toward tourists there but I can’t help but wish unpleasantness on anyone who, whilst I’m looking at a piece of art, stands directly in front of me to take a picture. I just don’t like it. This is the only problem I have with museums and galleries - other people.

They have an annual event here in Paris called Nuit Blanche where the museums and galleries stay open all night. I wish they had something similar called Sans Personnes where they basically let one person in at a time. That would be so ace.

So. This is supposed to be a blog. Let’s start again.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve made a list of topics to blog about. However, I’ve been pretty slack. So, I’m going to post every day until I run out. Some will be short and concise. Some will be long and drawn out.

First up: Biarritz.

My girlfriend and I took a little break in Biarritz the other weekend. It’s a nice little town with great scenery, amazing food and narley waves (not that we did any surfing - the water was absolutely freezing). Here are some photos.

I’ve just updated my Flickr.

A friend visited at the weekend. After a few drinks one night we realised it was almost sunrise, so we grabbed our cameras and headed up to the roof.

So. I decided to start a blog. I decided to do a very minimalist design. I decided I would write whenever I found my opinion opposed the popular one (which is often the case, especially with web-related subjects).

Then I found this site:

Big Contrarian

Maybe I should just write about cheese instead…