Check out the Digital Circle Podcast #2 to hear me chatting with Davy Sims in the aftermath of my talk on 'A Manifesto for a Sustainable NI Music Industry'. After consuming way too much coffee I was worried that my presentation would have turned to gibberish, but it went well and, as hoped, triggered some healthy debate... to be continued soon I hope at an upcoming 'Open Music' event that Andy, Tracey, Nick and others are talking about. All-in-all CreativeCamp was a great success, i particularly enjoyed the thought-provoking presentations by David Braziel, Jamie Neely and Damien Mulley, not to mention the chat in the pub afterwards, and i'll look forward to the next instalment.

what the hell, i'll give it a go. this experiment aims to understand the spreads of ideas and code on t'internet

Kele Okereke from Bloc Party was on the wireless last week chatting with Steve Lamacq about their terribly exciting release of their new album 'Intimacy'. The band had fans fooled with the release of a supposed 'one-off' single 'Mercury' but then announced that an album would come out on the following Thursday. This was all an apparent 'reaction' to the current state of the music industry and an attempt to foil the pirates by pre-empting any leakages that normally occur in the long post-production period. Anyway, at one point the guy stated that he just didn't 'understand' the youth of today and their desire to rip him off. What an idiot. Does he not realise that the kids don't need him any more? They're bombarded with information and choice all of the time and they don't have limitless funds. 'Stealing' music is now the only way these 'kids' can decide to commit to a band. Its quite simple... I steal the music, I decide I like it (or not), i commit to the band, and THEN i give them my money. Why risk that £10 on an album that might be utter rubbish? Why make that commitment of time and attention when I have a dozen other things screaming for my attention? People like Kele Okereke should be thankful. At least musicians and bands have the chance to build on the attention their pirated music gives them. Look at the movies and games industries, for the majority of users, once they've downloaded the game or movie, there is no other payback for the creator. There is one problem bands can't get away from however. Quality. They can't peddle a 10 or 12 track disc full of filler any more, because people will make their mind up before they part with any cash... and maybe that's their problem, the bar just got raised a few pegs higher.

eeeeek! i can't believe i last posted in February. well as i munch on some 30-second mackeral pate on toast, here are three paragraphs on recent eating experiences... Glen Pub, Glen, Co. Donegal, Ireland My family have dined here on and off over the years. We've come to expect a friendly atmosphere and excellent food, but our visit last weekend involved neither. Although we'd turned up early to get a table (you can't reserve in advance) we waited an hour to be seated whilst smaller groups were called into the restaurant. There were plenty of other problems, but the enduring memory of the evening will be the pepper. Apart from the scampi, every other dish was so heavily laced with pepper, they were rendered almost inedible! WHY?! Great if you have a cold, not so great for the fresh fish. Oodles, Botanic Avenue, Belfast The first experience of this new noodle bar concept, a superior version of which you can try out in Barcelona at the 'Wok to Walk' chain. I had the pork with udon/veg and curry coconut sauce. Suzanne had egg noodle, veg, chicken and satay. As you might have guessed it wasn't up to the high 'Wok to Walk' flavour-explosion standard. The coconut sauce wasn't aromatic, the pork was a bit solid and unseasoned, the veg could have fried a few seconds more. Suz's was slightly better in flavour but nothing to jump up and down about. Byblos, Amelia Street, Belfast This was second choice for dinner with my pal Gillian on Saturday, as 'La Boca' (the Argentinian joint) was oversubscribed with hen parties. Byblos doesn't have a license, which is great, cos you can nip across the street for a couple of beers from the offy. We had baba ganoush and stuffed fig leaves to start - both very tasty. My marinated beef main was melt-in-the-mouth gorgeous too. Definitely worth a repeat visit.

this ornamental cabbage is growing in our garden. it looks pretty cool so i'm not going to eat it.

My Dad was showing me various old photos of Portadown that he has been asked to annotate. One of the pictures was of a Mr Bob Heathwood and his family. Along with the photo, was a tribute published in the local paper that my Dad wrote in 1974, following Mr. Heathwood's death. It's a totally from the heart, but beautifully written, and it is very pleasing to experience a little of my Dad's past life as he tends to hide his light under a bushel these days.

Click to read the full tribute More interesting stuff can be found in the growing archive at www.edenderry.co.uk

not my usual healthy lunch i can assure you, but i took some slices of this lovely 'rib' roast beef home from the folks' yesterday, and what better thing to make a quick tasty lunch?! crap pic, but there you go

a happy fluke on monday evening as I combined two dishes from Eat Yourself Thin and Neris and India's Cookbook (two books recently acquired) to make something wholesome and tasty. India and Neris wanted me to use tandoori paste and mayo to marinate some salmon, grill it, then serve with mange tout and a vinaigrette. I didn't have any tandoori paste, so i made a version of some, and fancying some carbs i decided to borrow the simple aromatic rice recipe from Eat Yourself Thin and throw in a quick salsa. The result was an extremely tasty meal. Firstly marinate the salmon fillets: Mix a teaspoon of garam masala, half tsp of ground coriander and half tsp of ground chilli and half tsp of smoked paprika with 2 tablespoons of yogurt, juice of half a lime, teaspoon of grated ginger, a clove of garlic crushed, salt, and marinade the salmon fillets for an hour or so, then (after you've put the rice on) throw in the grill pan for 4mins either side. then the mangetout and rice... meanwhile put some basmati rice in a pot, with a pinch of salt, some cardamom pods, curry leaves and saffron and just cover with recently boiled water. next stick your steamer over this and place the mangetout in it. put the lid on and cook for about 8 mins. take off the heat and leave to steam out. maybe stir a little knob of butter through the rice before serving ;-) meanwhile throw together a salsa with 1 tbsp white wine vinegar, 3 tbsp olive oil, 6 or so cherry toms, sliced, 2 spring onions sliced, squeeze of lime, salt and pepper. serve this drizzled over the salmon and mangetout the marinade and subsequent grilling gives the salmon a great barbecue flavour, which is miss during the summer months. mind you, with the persistent deluge last summer i only used the barbecue twice!!

Greetings 2008 Since i subscribed to the Helen's Bay Organic Garden weekly veggie supply, i've built up quite a stock pile of cauliflower. Grated and steamed it makes a great sub for mashed spud topping on a cottage pie, and also, bizarrely, as rice-equivalent in a low-carb paella! it works too. however man can't live on cottage pie and paella alone so i whipped up a version of this cauliflower soup yesterday. My esteemed vegetable facilitators only gave me one onion in this week's goodie bag, so i topped it up with the single leek that appeared on my doorstep. Damn good stuff and good for the man boobs since the fat content is nadda. (well, until i sprinkled some Roquefort over the top!)

NIMIC's seminar on Monday was reasonably interesting. It set out to cover 'Sync' aspects of music publishing, or getting your music on the telly and movies. In a music world gone mad, Sync deals and other publishing income are becoming increasingly more important both to the sustainability of your music career, but also to the profit margins of labels. Savvy acts are keeping their publishing rights close and managing them carefully, not only to gain extra income but also to place their music in front of more listeners. Some may say its a sell-out, and certainly there are cases of people taking it too far (Moby, anyone?) however in today's world, anyone who wants to make a career in music needs to see Sync opportunities and the like for what they really are. Seminar panelist Rocky from Oppenheimer made the point clearly: they simply couldn't afford to stay on the road and record their next album if it wasn't for money earned from syncs on Ugly Betty and the like. The world too is becoming a smaller place, making it much easier to place music and track usage (and get paid) without giving up the farm in the process. In fact most record labels are increasingly turning to Sync as a significant part of their revenue stream. The dinosaurs will attempt to take as much as they can to the detriment of the artist, and the long term, however this could be the dawning of a golden age for the indies and a new breed of label to exploit recorded music, not just sell 'records'. Now that basically anyone can go and record a professional sounding piece of music, trusted 'labels' will become more and more important to cut out the clutter. The Vodafones and Fords all want that unsigned gem for their ad campaign, but will they really have time to visit 2000000+ myspace pages to find it? For a while I was trying to see how labels could have a future post-P2P, but for those who have a plan based on a multi-disciplinary, long-term attitude the future is bright. The rest have been digging their grave for a while now, and very soon the hole will be big enough... Rock on.