On The Record »

• Pop Life: Una rocks (again)

  May 10, 2012 @ 12:41 pm | by Jim Carroll

  Say hello to the newbie on The Irish Times’ blogging block. Una Mullally has joined the team and you’ll find her blogging at Pop Life.

• Omphaloskepsis for the nation

  January 12, 2010 @ 10:53 am | by Jim Carroll

  As happens every couple of months, there has been yet another outbreak of introspective navel-gazing amongst the blogging classes. You know how it goes, don’t you? In this case, it was prompted by a piece in the Sunday Times which screamed from the rooftops that Irish blogging was, like, so over. This was followed by predictable huffing and puffing amongst those who blog or used to blog which always happens when The Sunday Times in particular decides to poke those who blog or tweet. Then, there was Una Mullally’s guest post on Twenty Major’s blog about the subject. That received a couple of hundred comments which sort of nixes the the notion that no-one really reads blogs any more. Naturally, there were other pieces about this too.

  All of which means that it may be high time for me to have a look at my own belly fluff. It could get ugly. Hey, at least you have been warned.
  (more…)

• Will the last blogger to leave the building please remember to unplug the dishwasher?

  February 26, 2009 @ 8:01 pm | by Jim Carroll

  First, it was UnaRocks saying that she had enough. Now, it’s The Chancer hitting the road. I mean, who the hell will be next to sling their hook? On The Record?

  Luckily, there is no need to write an obituary because our former colleague on The Irish Times blogging blog Shane Hegarty wrote one 11 months ago, long before El Chancero decided he prefered the lure of sheep-farming.

  But seriously….. Best of luck to Del Boy and friends with whatever they decide to do next. We shall never see their likes again (if we’re lucky).

• Fiona McCann! Raptureponies! Nialler9! FTW!

  February 23, 2009 @ 8:29 am | by Jim Carroll

  Congrats to my fellow blogger on the Irish Times block Fiona McCann (Arts & Culture), the lovely Raptureponies (Popculture) and the, uhm, beardy Nialler9 (Music), all of whom won some gongware at the Irish Blog Awards on Saturday night. Others won too, but a special round of applause for those three. Let’s hope it doesn’t go to their heads.

• On The Record in Brazil

  August 18, 2008 @ 3:04 am | by Jim Carroll

  Greetings from Brazil. I’m here with the Brasil Música & Artes, the Brazilian music export group, taking part in their Comprador & Imagem Project. This involves a group of international music industry folks representing all aspects of the business travelling around the country to meet Brazilian music makers and labels, attend music fairs and give seminars and workshops.

  Since Friday, we have been in São Paulo and Porto Alegre, with Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza and Belém to come by the end of the week. Five cities in a week? No bother. Note to self: this is what touring with a band is like. Second note to self: no wonder touring bands are usually grumpy. Third note to self: that’s a lot of freaking airports.

  As a result of all this activity, blogging will be more bantamweight than heavyweight during the week, though I will be moderating comments, making smart remarks where I see fit and throwing out sporadic updates from the road. Please feel free to talk amongst yourselves until normal service resumes. Topics for conversation? Anything but the weather. What happened yesterday is also off bounds (I may be a couple of thousand miles away but I’m still hurting, OK?)

  There will be random Brazilian videos for the week that’s in it, starting with this one.

  

• Great discussions of our time

  August 7, 2008 @ 12:37 pm | by Jim Carroll

  It never fails to amaze me how some threads on this here blog keep on going and going and going long after we’ve moved onto a new page.

  For instance, even though many of us have completely forgotten about it, there are still folks praising and slating the line-up for the forthcoming Lovebox festival.

  Then, there’s Crazy Ol’ Tom. I have a feeling this is now going to turn into a conversation about festival tourism and what people expect from a live show here. We’ve already done ticket prices so it’s now time for the discussion on customer service.

  The best discussion in recent times? That is the one on the future of the record industry. It kicked off last Friday and is still coming up with better ideas and more positive solutions than the record industry is capable of producing at present. Maybe it is time for On The Record’s record label?

  Sadly, the MT-USA conversation appears to have ran out of juice.