On Friday, someone at my new job asked me whether I had a blog. Well, I replied, I have a few but I don’t update them often enough. When I came on to this one I realised how true that was so I really REALLY am going to make more of an effort to do blogging. Honest I will.

So, what have I been up to and what’s been good?

I went to see Submarine, written and directed by Richard Ayoade who I’m a bit of a fan of. What a refreshingly lovely, very ‘British’ film full of poignant humour and sweet surreal moments. I even liked Alex Turner’s soundtracking. Here’s a trailer:

I went to the Pick Me Up exhibition at Somerset House, a veritable visual feast from graphic artists around the globe with a bias towards the UK (and especially London-based artists). It was an inspiring and thought-provoking afternoon and I especially loved Anthony Burrill’s workshop room, complete with a DJ spinning some Jean Michel Jarre, and I even purchased a print from the Conrete Hermit shop. I’ll take a photo of it once it’s framed and up on my wall.

I went to see Interpol, naturally, last week at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. They played The Specialist, my favourite ever song which I’ve never seen them play live before. Some clever person filmed it and popped it on YouTube:

Whilst I don’t generally agree with people doing this at gigs (mainly as they out their cameras in my way so I can’t see), I’ll let them off just this once. They also dropped The New and NYC. No Stella or Roland though… but I still love them.

I’ve also recently had a little trip to NYC. We stayed in the lovely West Village, spent our time eating incredible food, wandering round lovely neighbourhoods and found some time to explore MoMA which I’d recommend to anyone who won’t find tourists exploring the museum via the art of taking iPhone photographs of EVERYTHING. Sometimes, technology really does irritate me. There was a cool little Andy Warhol video exhibition hidden away at the top – go see it if you’re there and it’s still on.

Next on my little list of ‘to dos’ is the next Secret Cinema – I’ve been to three now and they just get better and better each time. I also quite fancy checking out the Designs of the Year exhibition over at the Design Museum and Gabriel Orozco at Tate Modern.

That is all for now. Tally ho!

It seems like I have been neglecting Stella Was A Diver for so long now that almost a year has passed since my last post.

Bad me.

That’s what a new job will do to you. But, seeing as I am still getting traffic, I shall endeavour to get back into blogging. Poke me if I don’t do a very good job please.

Back to the old style of things, here’s a few interesting things I’ve been doing in the last few weeks…

I went to see the fab little French stop motion animation film called A Town Called Panic a couple of weeks back at my all-time favourite cinema Screen on the Green (it has sofas and they bring you wine to your seat, what’s not to love?). Trailer below:

Essentially a feature-length Cravendale advert written by someone with an over-active imagination and short attention span, this is a fab little oddball of a film.

When I was invited to go to Museum of Everything two weekends ago I was super excited. Tucked away on a back street near Primrose Hill, this place is a veritable rabbit warren of interesting things curated by Sir Peter Blake. Think Victorian fairground paraphernalia and freak show memorabilia, and a hodge-podge of children’s toys rubbing shoulders with an incredible taxidermy collection from Walter Potter’s Museum of Curiosity. Go see whilst it’s still there, if only for the boxing rats.

If you ever has the pleasure of visiting La Clique during their London residency then you’re pretty much there with La Soiree. In a temporary, wooden, saloon-styled big top on the South Bank I enjoyed a night of comedy and cabaret from the weird and the wonderful – think contortionists, hula hooping and leftfield comedy with a sprinkle of vaudeville, a touch of naughtiness and a generous helping of humour. Check it out here.

On a musical tip, it’s been a bit quiet on the gig-going front of late, though I did manage to catch Crystal Castles at the Roundhouse. On a Friday night and with a relatively late start, the shouty electro-tinged duo got the entire venue dancing. An awesome start to the weekend. Tons of exciting gigs coming up in the next month or so including The National, Fujiya & Miyagi, Soulwax and my beloved Interpol. Oh, and my first ever ATP too.

I’ve also been eating some delicious food recently (note my ever-increasing stomach) at the likes of Hix Oyster & Chop House, Giant Robot, Moro and best-steak-ever at Gaucho. My tummy’s starting to rumble even as I type.

Finally, I feel I should mention The Social Network, given my line of work. When I heard that they were making “The Facebook film” I decided it would be terrible. When I saw the trailers and (albeit rather nicely designed) website I still wasn’t convinced. Even the through-the-roof Rotten Tomatoes ratings and raving reviews would not move my scepticism. Then one evening, my friend who works for an unnamed popular film magazine told me that it was actually really rather good and suprisingly quite funny. So I went to see it and I must eat my words as I actually quite enjoyed it. I am now mostly looking forward to the next social network themed film, Catfish – trailer below:

Anywho, I think I’ve rambled quite enough for one day now. There’s plenty I have forgotten and plenty more to come.

Methinks this blog could do with a design refresh. Any thoughts/assistance welcome…

Awesome bit of stop motion animation with Lego.

Simple as.

Life is starting to settle down a bit so (hopefully) regular posting shall recommence shortly…

If you hop on over to my new photo blog one photo each day you will see that, in an attempt to get back into doing photography, I am documenting my entire life by taking one photo each day.

I am now also writing all about social media goodness and creativeness on a new collaborative project. That link will follow when there’s a bit more content and stylings sorted.

On the weekend, I “did some culture” and visited the National Portrait Gallery to see, as I do every year, the Photographic Portrait Prize. There’s some amazing photography there, go see it while you can. Some of my favourites below…

(note that the colours and prints are much more incredible “in real life”)

I also made it to The Photographers Gallery, happily settled in its new backstreet Soho home. What a lovely venue. Slightly depressing exhibition subject matter at the moment, however.

Tomorrow, I am very much looking forward to going to see Shutter Island (hooray for having film clients!), there’s some trailerlove for you below. Looks good, no? AND I intend to check out Damien Hirst’s new exhibition at White Cube Hoxton soon. Seeing as I can see it from my desk I think “why not?!”

I wrote a (what I consider rather good) little review of the film and was about to hit ‘publish’ when I realised that there is probably an embargo on it and I just didn’t read the sign that said so at the screening. Damnnit.

SO… expect desperation, desolate landscapes of a seemingly dead world, a gun-toting cannibalistic underclass striving for survival in the cruelest ways imaginable and little hope or happiness (if you’ve read the book, you’ll understand).

Out on 8th January 2010 in the UK, whet your appetite with the HD trailer below:

Thanks to a small amount of pleading with an ex-colleague, my geekery dreams came true this morning when I opened up my inbox and discovered an invite to Google Wave.

YAY!

For those not familiar, in short, Google Wave is a new service which combines the techy goodness of email, IM and wiki. It allows users to create collaborative documents online which can be added to and amended, in real time, by others. All participants in each Wave (think of it like a group of people on an email list) can collaborate, edit, change and add to the Wave, and they can see exactly what other people are doing on the Wave, as they do it.  A playback feature allows participants to view the changes in the exact order that they occurred over the course of the Wave to view how it has changed over time. All very handy. On top of this, Google is also integrating tons of useful gadgets that will add new mechanics, services and magic to the Wave, such as a real time translation service, excellent for communicating with people who may not speak the same first language as you.

The downside? Hardly anyone I know has a Google Wave invite just now. Access is still by invite only, presumably as Google is still fine tuning (it does seem a tiny bit buggy and there appears to be a small and vaguely irksome time lapse on typing/displaying of text) so trying it out and testing its full potential is, at the moment, somewhat limited. However, I can see how it can become quickly addictive, waiting and watching as other participants in your Wave type, as well as incredibly useful for both business and personal uses. Need to be able to work on something with people in different locations (at home, different offices, clients, contractors and so on)? google Wave is perfect. Arranging a get together with a group of friends scattered across the country (or even world)? Google Wave is perfect. I could go on…

Surely Microsoft is quaking in its shiny little boots at the launch of Google Wave – I see it as a far superior and advanced successor to Outlook – though I would imagine that Microsoft (and any other key email platform for that matter) will either be launching their own collaborative email mechanic in the not-too-distant future, or else planning to integrate with Google Wave in one way or another. Only time will tell.

For now, beg, borrow or steal yourself a Google Wave invite and have a play!

And here ends my slight rant/love affair with Google Wave.

I haven’t been posting on here for a few weeks now, naughty naughty me. This is mainly because I have been busy at work, in the process of purchasing a flat AND working on some other little projects in the background…

Here are some things I have found, liked, done and thought about during my blogging absence…

• Spending far too long creating a Halloween-themed Spotify playlist (which now seems to have disappeared?)
• The (quite disappointing) Turner Prize exhibition at Tate Britain
• Desperately wanting a Google Wave invite
• Amazing brunch in Roast
• Getting slightly obsessed with True Blood (but only until Heroes comes back on)
• Re-living my obsession with Metronomy (again), The XX and Prince
• I want to go to the Digital Design exhibition at the V&A next month

Why?

When the talk of bringing back 3D films started, I was sceptical. Gimmick. Total gimmick. Leave it back in the past, with those funny little cardboard glasses with different coloured lenses.

Then I saw Coraline in 3D and I fell in love.

Today I went to see Disney’s crack at 3D animation. After incredible reviews from across the pond, albeit 5 months ago (why oh why has it taken so long to release over here?) today I braved the cinema full of kids and irritating couples and went to see UP.

The story is original, the script is funny, the characters are cute and the 3D effects are blended seamlessly, not distracting and merely enhancing the plot. It’s genuinely a brilliant, feel-good film.

Sooooo yes, whilst 3D is still a little gimmicky, I think it is here to stay. Just imagine if something like The Ring had been made in 3D? What about using 3D tech for epic nature documentaries, a la the BBC’s Planet Earth series? The potential for 3D films is certainly more than just family-friendly animation and could be the catalyst to make serious changes to both the film production industry, and also to how we consume films.

Filmic rant over. For now…

See more UP [starts 32 seconds in...damn Disney and their privacy policies]:

This is, quite possibly, the best use of new technology I have seen in AGES for a music marketing campaign…

For the release of their new album, In This Light and On This Morning, Editors have launched an online experience using Google Maps, specifically Street View. Users must navigate their way around Google’s virtual London to find the (naturally music themed) hot spots. Upon arriving at each they are treated to a song from the album.

So very very clever.

Damn, I wish I’d thought of that.

Play and listen and feel jealous here…