Put your seat belt on, I want to try something. I’ve seen it in a cartoon, I think I can do it!

Posted on January 15, 2012 by simon1a

This is a post about driving safely.  I’m a well trained driver but I still drive badly sometimes so, if you read this, prepare for a bumpy ride!

“Put your seat belt on, I want to try something. I’ve seen it in a cartoon, I think I can do it!”

A few months ago I was driving down a dual carriageway when I came across a car sitting in the overtaking lane.  There were no other cars nearby so I flashed my lights for them to move over but they ignored me. For the next mile or so, the road was quite windy as it went down a steep hill so I thought I’d wait till we got past this area before pressurising them to pull over. Once we got to the bottom of the hill and we got to a three lane section of the road, they still didn’t move over. I started to consider undertaking when the car finally moved out of the way. I kicked down my accelerator, partly to get around them quickly and partly to let them know I was annoyed.  As I did so, I noticed a police speed check van on the bridge about 400 metres away, I checked my speedometer which read about 87 mph so I hammered the brakes to get me down to around 77 mph.  As I sailed closer, I looked up at the policeman who continued aiming his radar camera towards where I’d come from.

Sure enough, a week or so later, a letter from the police arrived saying my car had been recorded doing 83 mph in as 70 mph zone and they wanted to know who the driver was. I wrote back saying it was me and, after a few days passed, another brown envelope arrived offering me an option to take part in a driver safety course rather than get points on my licence. I decided to take up the invitation. I went on the course today so I thought some people might find it interesting to hear about some of what happened on it.

I  probably sped a bit to get to the course; not much, just a little but, a few days ago, I’d been  in a situation where I’d pulled off from a set of traffic lights and the driver in the lane to my left started to race me. I was sure my car was faster so, rather than just let it go, I raced him. Ahead of us was a car parked in my lane so I checked my mirror.  I could see I was ahead of him so I pulled into his lane.  I knew he wouldn’t like it but I thought “tough luck mate; you wanted to race and you lost”. As I pulled into his lane, the car that had been previously parked in my lane pulled into the left lane too, revealing another car parked ahead of him, so that both lanes of the road ahead were blocked. I had to slam down hard on my brakes; I felt my anti-lock system kick in and the car’s automatic braking system took over, bringing me to a very harsh stop. The car behind sounded his horn and drove close up behind me. As we passed the parked car, I pulled back into the right hand lane to continue on my route.  Of course, the driver who’d raced me, passed me so I slowed down ready to confront him. He gestured at me and I stared at him; he looked around at me but, as he did so, the car in front of him came to a stop, which meant he only just managed to avoid going into the back of them.

*             *             *

“How do we learn?” David, the Driving Safety Instructor asked us. “We learn from bad experiences.  However, sometimes bad experiences can kill you.” These words resonated with me as I remembered the “racing” incident.

A few minutes beforehand, I’d arrived at the council buildings where the course was to take place.  About 30 people were sitting in silence in the foyer.  I signed myself in, made a joke to one of my co-attendees which made us “course buddies”, and then we were directed to a room full of tables at angles to each other.

As the course progressed, I wondered if what we were touching on could get to the root of what makes people speed. This is some of what we covered.

There is a problem, we all know it, even if, thankfully, most of us haven’t experienced it, and it’s this. Every 6 seconds, someone is killed in the world in a road traffic accident and around 60 people are seriously injured. ( www.makeroadsafe.org ). Speed is logically a major factor in accidents that cause serious injury and death.  I mean, if someone is hit in a modern car at 20 mph, they’re likely to survive without getting seriously injured. Most occupants of vehicles are well protected in modern cars so it’s not surprising to find out that a large proportion of those who die or get injured in accidents are bikers or pedestrians who get hit by cars. It was at this point that we homed in on the issue of community; that, by speeding, we are putting at risk people who we may care about.

Something happens when we get in a car; it’s almost as if we inhabit a slightly make-believe world.  We feel like we can take risks, we become knights of the road, where we challenge others, become abusive to others and generally take our feet off of the ground and lose contact with reality. There weren’t any graphic photos or videos from real life crashes but we were shown a few. Here’s one that touched on the sense of community.

As you can see, when a crash happens, it affects many people, especially those we love. Maybe we become stigmatised, or lose our job and, consequently, our family home or, worse still, our family. Maybe we find the reality of damaging someone else’s life, or even killing them, kills a part of us that we’ll find unbearable to live with.

 

 

There are many consequences of crashing at speed, however, even though many of us are aware of the risks,  we still do it. We listed the reasons and of, course, none of them tended to be justifiable. Even those “noble reasons”, such as taking someone to hospital in an emergency, were deemed unlikely to save that much time. So, in my mind, I was thinking that many of us speed because we kind of like it and think we’re going to get away with it.

Over the next 10 years, the world will focus on making it much harder to get away with speeding, with the introduction of satellite spy cams, cats eye cameras, digital speed cameras and many other detection devices. Many people believe that speed detection is about raising revenue for the government.  However, whether that’s true or not, the reduction in deaths on the roads has been close to 30% (from around 3000 to 1800) over the last 10 years and much of that has been attributed to slowing people’s driving down. I’m not sure if that’s true but that’s what we were told.

A great deal of emphasis of the course was put on reducing speeds in urban areas; the obvious reason being that there are more pedestrians at risk here. Many of the course members felt it was OK to speed slightly at night time, however, but we were informed that a great proportion of accidents occurred between 11pm and 7 am as, of course, the chances of people either drink driving or drunk people falling into roads was far more likely during these hours.

Another factor that was focused on was the difference that driving at 40 mph would have compared to 30 mph in terms of stopping distances and damage to a human. In many incidents, the impact occurs before any braking takes place.  This means that the chances of someone surviving being hit at 40 mph are almost zero whereas, at 30 mph, it is much higher. “The thing is, 30 mph seems so slow” cried the group (well it was more of a swelling murmur). I pointed out that, generally, most police forces allowed a 10% plus 2mph leeway and, given speedometers have to legally show higher speeds than are actually being driven at, that most of us could really drive at 35 mph on the clock (and not get prosecuted) which actually doesn’t feel too slow.

 

 

At higher speeds, the effect of speeding becomes more dramatic. Let’s say you’re going 70 mph and have to do an emergency stop. The distance you need to do that in, we’ll say is around 315 ft. (96 m). Well, if you were to try stopping from the same point at 80 mph, you’d hit the same spot where the 70mph vehicle would have stopped at 38 mph and, had you been doing 100 mph, you’d hit the same spot at 71 mph.

 

So if you want to curb your speed what can you do?

The first trick is to use cruise control, if you have it, the second thing to do is use a lower gear, e.g in town, use 3rd gear (it’ll have a negligible effect on fuel but it will make you keep your revs and speed down.) Another thing to do is drive with your window down so you can get a sense of your speed from the outside noise.

There were quite a few things that came up on this course that I didn’t know. Here are a few of them:

  1. A dual carriage way is not defined by having two lanes on a road but by the fact that there are two roads separated by either a barrier or a verge. So, if you’re driving on a two lane road  in a car at 70 mph, you can be done for speeding because the national speed limit may actually be 60 mph there as, technically, it’s a single carriageway.
  2. That, if you drive for your job, your employer must provide you with a policy in terms of your driving, possibly some training and most, likely, a contract relating to your driving for them, otherwise they may also be liable to prosecution under the Corporate Manslaughter Act.
  3. Want to save on fuel? Then drive smoothly, only fill your tank halfway, keep your tyres at the correct level and you will probably do 10-20% more miles per gallon (annually saving someone who drives 12000 miles per year between £250-£500)
  4. Most of us know to keep a gap of around 2 seconds between our vehicle and the one in front but, “when there’s wet on the floor, make it 4”.
  5. Look properly when pulling out onto a main road.  Recent experiments have shown that the third look we do (especially to our right in the UK) is done so fast, and not far enough to the right, that we don’t really see any fast approaching threats, especially small object such as cyclists, motorbikes and drunk skateboarders.

So you think you’re good at paying attention? Well check out this video.

Finally, this wasn’t mentioned on the course, but many of us are really tempted to deal with our mobile phones as we drive.  I’m not talking about taking a call on  a hands-free device but dealing with a text or looking up a number. I’m not sure why we can’t wait but we often feel compulsed not to.  However we are 23 times more likely to crash when texting. One option for those of you with smart phones, is to get an app that will read out your texts to you and let you dictate a reply (sadly that bit often doesn’t work very well) but if you don’t have an app that works and you get that urge to deal with a text etc… then try to force yourself to wait until you can pull up somewhere as so many people are swerving when they do this and many accidents are occurring due to this kind of distraction. Really, the phone makers and car companies should be working together to make communication in cars much more integrated, given the seriousness of this problem

I had spent a year after passing my test practicing driving, including being taken out for lessons by a police driver and, at the end of the year, I passed my advanced driving test.  Even so, I know there’s a lot I don’t know about driving and this course reminded me of that. At the beginning of the course, one of the instructors asked us what we hoped to get out of it and I had facetiously said: “I’d like to get out of here!” but actually, by the end of it, I wanted more and felt sad it was over. For those of you in the UK who’d like to do further driving training, here are a couple of useful links.

I hope you found this interesting.

 

Be careful out there!

 

www.iam.org.uk

http://www.rospa.com/roadsafety/default.aspx

This video was also shown on the course

This one is very graphic but a warning for those who think the risks of texting while driving are low

Text related

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Working On A Dream, (Tell them it’s Bruce Springsteen on the phone) ~ My experience of Promotion 2011

Posted on October 17, 2011 by simon1a

September 1st 2011

I’d been trying to get through to this journalist for weeks, he never took my calls. So one day I phoned, put on an American accent and told them it was Bruce Springsteen. The guy took the call immediately. I burst out laughing and said it wasn’t really Bruce Springsteen, and whilst he was a bit pissed off or relieved he laughed too and we had a chat.

If you take a journey the way everyone else goes you’ll sit in masses of traffic, take an alternative side road route and even if it takes longer you get to see things no one else normally sees. The journey becomes an adventure. With this in mind I’m going to spend the next few months promoting our music. We have no record company behind us and hardly any money, so I thought some of you might find it interesting to see how it goes.

I’ve tried to keep my objectives slightly limited, try and get some articles written and a bit of radio play then ask a few record companies as to whether they’re interested in dealing with us.

Please join me for the ride.

Simon Smith
http://www.facebook.com/Simonmarksmith?sk=app_2405167945

http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F14874587 Facebook192kb-Simon Mark Smith by simonmarksmith

Day 1

Before going ahead with anything I decided to try to create a strategy with limited objectives, this would allow me to have end points in view and measurable outcomes… not because I’m particularly organised but just so I’d know when to pause.

So here are my main objectives:

Objectives

Get coverage in the media: Get interest from local and national media, maybe get some interviews and hopefully get noticed by bloggers.. so I’d better research a list ASAP.

Try to get tracks on the radio: Send out CDs to all the appropriate DJs / So get a list, contact people, send out packages and follow up.

Create a bit of a buzz and contact Record Labels

Work towards 2 release dates: Album release date:  10th October 2011 and Single Release Date 10th December

So with all this in mind I started by getting a 4 week free trial to Music Weekly and buying a cheap copy of the music directory from Amazon for £16 compared to £40

I also looked up a load of CD printing services and came across one which seemed quite reasonable. However when I got a quote it was for more than their own special offer, a quick phone call remedied that though… I felt like saying “Don’t try that old Jedi shit on me”.

So the next job is the design, however as this is for radio stations and the press it’s a whole different approach, it’s not about looking good but about looking like what the industry normally submits. More about that later though.

Tonight I’ll design the CD print, re-master the album so the tracks I want radio stations to consider are first, and work out the blurb for the labels on the CD envelope and any accompanying paperwork.

I’ll hopefully have something to show you tomorrow.

Day 3 ~ If you want to make God laugh show God your plans ~

I’m in to “next week” and still designing the CD cover. I already had one set up, but it needed a bit of colour correction. I’ve printed out quite a few trials and I’m not getting the strength of colour I need so sometime this week I’ll have to visit a print house and get some help… Ker-ching!

The other development has been a decision to create another CD, this one will have the same tracks on but in a different order (basically the more immediately impacting songs first) and an 8 page booklet, this CD will be available for those who want a more luxurious product and for use as a promotional disk. The other CD’s tracks are ordered as I’d originally wanted but as it’s an on demand service (as in the company manufactures and sends out the CDs when an order is placed) there was a limit on the book size, which is 4 pages. Getting 19 songs to fit over 3 pages has been quite a challenge for both me as a designer and no doubt anyone trying to read the bloody thing. Anyway the upshot is, 2 CDs, one is cheaper because it has a smaller booklet and the other is slightly more expensive but is more luxurious. Plus I can also send out signed copies of the 8 page one. Phew, did you get all of that… the mess I get myself into sometimes. So this week is about getting the new Master CD and graphics out to the UK manufacturers and getting a corrected set of graphics out to the US ones.

Meanwhile I’ve just done 2 email interviews, I’ll post the links on here once they’re published, and I am trying to produce a new song too.

As the saying goes: “If it was easy, everybody would be doing it” Hold on! Everybody is doing it!!!

Be back soon~ish.

Two Weeks Later

The designs all got sent off, but both the US and UK companies made mistakes, fortunately it hasn’t affected my schedule. However the main problem has been in terms of printing. The UK company printed the tray card even though I’d informed them the proof showed the file was corrupted, I mean it had big pink and green stripes running across it. Plus the print out of the cover is too dark. The US version has come out pretty close to my mock ups, but the UK one is way off. If there’s any more runs I’ll be making sure they get it right  next time.

Whilst I was waiting for the CDs to be manufactured I created a database to collate information about radio, magazines and other media that might help run articles or add my music to their playlists. Just going through Radio and magazines created a shortlist of over 600 entries. I still have to add newspapers and music blogs to the list, but one thing at a time. I’ve spent this week contacting college radio stations and specialised medium readership magazines. This has helped me get into a workflow and become more focused when it comes to phone calls. Next week I’ll move on to higher profile organisations. So far the response has been minor, a couple of companies have got back to me, but given how many of my messages were written directly and relevantly to those concerned I’m surprised by how little feedback I’ve had. Next week I’ll try to establish more contact via the phone than just by email and send promo disks out to the majority of contacts, hopefully that’ll establish more engagement.

So far one highlight has been chatting to DJs using their studio chat module whilst I listened to them talking back to me on the show. Also two articles have been published so far. I shall leave them with you for now, and will report back soon.

http://www.bn1magazine.co.uk/frontpage-featured-articles/37-articles/382-simon-smith-interview

And

http://audiorokit.wordpress.com/2011/09/10/simon-mark-smith-interview/

October 17 2011

It’s been a few weeks since I last reported back on what’s been happening promotion-wise. I’d say sorry about the delay but I think it’s probably been for the best.

It’s really hard not to come over as sounding a bit bitter, but that’s how I feel. I have emailed around 200 radio stations, I mean these are college, community, hospital and local commercial stations and I’ve only had 6 replies. I’ve also sent out disks to about 20 stations and once again only had one reply. I’m annoyed, not because they’re probably inundated with disks and can’t cope, but because it’d be good if they just had written on their webpages, “Please don’t bother sending emails or disks”. Of course it may be that our music isn’t up to scratch, but we now have over 85,000 followers on the Internet so I don’t think it’s that, but of course I can’t be sure. Now tell me if I’m wrong please but is this not the situation when it comes to getting music on playlists and radio stations?

Commercial radio stations need to play music people want to hear in order to bring in audiences to listen to the adverts that keep the station going. Most people want to hear music that’s in the charts because that’s what’s deemed as good. What gets into the charts is music that is played a lot on radio and TV, and what gets played a lot on radio and TV is music that’s been placed on playlists. Music that gets on playlists gets onto those lists through a few main ways. Firstly panels or programme managers on some stations choose the list, sometimes DJs get to choose what gets played, but in the background are pluggers, record companies and companies interlinked in some ways to the radio stations. In the UK Global Radio owns most of the major radio stations, what they play becomes the chart music and consequently that gets played on the BBC.

I recently went to an AIM (Association of Independent Musicians) meeting with the top brass of Radio One and their take on it was that their playlists were formed by a multitude of influences. Submissions, pluggers, chance hearings and so on but at the end of the day how different is what we hear on Radio One to any of the other major commercial stations? Not much, so the proof is in the pudding.

Now BBC Radio has made a gesture to opening up opportunities to new artists via their BBC Introductions scheme which is also expanding to its other stations e.g Radio 2, as well as making a proportion of air time available for the scheme in every program. However it has already received 55000 applications so it’ll be interesting to see how well it filters through such a massive submission.

Meanwhile I’m sitting here re-assessing the situation. I’m aiming to contact the major radio stations and record companies over the next few weeks whilst at the same time approaching more prominent publications, but I’m already beginning to get an idea as to what I’ll be saying to you at the end of this process and that’s this. The Internet is going to be the place for me, the mainstream is tied up. MTM (An Internet radio station that promotes new artists) has already featured me and my music and wants to do a second interview about the album, GMH Café Radio and Stray FM have also featured us, so some things are happening but there’s definitely a feeling of impasse in the mainstream if you don’t get picked up by a record company. In fact the BBC guys said the same thing when they told us that they would avoid non-label artists, mainly because of the worry that they would not be organised enough.

So as you can see it’s a funny time, I don’t really know if I’m coming or going. The CD is ready to sell and is available on line at www.simonmarksmith.com/store even though its “Impact Day” is scheduled for November 28th 2011. I’ll announce its availability to my followers sometime over the next fortnight.

One thing that has sunk in is that promotion isn’t something that one stops and starts around albums but is continual so if anything this project has given me that realisation. I’ll let you know how this next stage goes and I’ll post links to the radio appearances as and when they become available. I’ll post them here: http://simonmarksmith.com/epk/articles1.html

Here’s an interview I’ve just done for a magazine:

I imagine many of our readers won’t have heard of you, yet. Can you sum up what you’re all about?

I’m a multi-media artist, which means I work in a number of disciplines namely as: A recording artist / singer song writer, painter, photographer, writer, and video maker. I tend to use the processes I’ve learned in each discipline in the other disciplines and I approach my work from an artistic point of view. What I mean is I’m looking to try to find my own voice and have a dialogue with the process of creativity which may lead to unexpected destinations rather than aiming towards a specific outcome. By the way I don’t see that as an excuse for the creation of a load of artistic drivel that will bore everyone’s socks off, but it’s a kind of balancing act between what the process creates and what it will mean to my audience. I think that touching one’s audience is an important part of the creative process.
In terms of what my music sounds like it’s somewhere between Mark Knopfler, Bruce Springsteen, and Leonard Cohen.

When did you first start using social media? How did your using of it evolve?

I’ve been using the Internet to promote my work since 1998, I’ve made my writing, pictures and music available for free and even before social networking took off had a small following. When Myspace took off I didn’t really know how to use it and because Myspace became about the number of fans rather than relationships it kind of inhibited any real social networking compared to what’s going on now with Facebook, Twitter and You Tube.
About a Year ago I noticed a friend had set up a music Like page on Facebook so I thought I’d set one up too, since then I’ve picked up well over 100,000 likers. But remember it’s not about numbers, not ultimately.

How important is social media to you? If you’re an independent artist, what is the best way to get your music promoted?

There’s always myths and hype, so I don’t want to encourage that, I’d like to try to keep this as real as we can. So let’s start with the normal ideas around promotion, essentially most acts would benefit from being on major radio station playlists and TV, but realistically the chances for most of us to get that exposure are really, really low. You’d have to become part of the industry to get in on all of that and whether it’s unfair or not there’s a simple but obvious fact to keep in mind, there are only so many songs that can be played, only so many acts that can be promoted in the mainstream and there are many tens of thousands of artists vying for those places. So the experience for most of us is one of frustration, rejection and humiliation. BUT the industry which we know and love (hehe) is relatively new compared to music’s place in our culture. Go back to before radio and TV and you’ll find that music was part of our daily lives. People sang together communally in pubs and churches, in the streets and in social gatherings. Musicians were part of the community, and most people could sing, it wasn’t seen as exceptional.

What social networking is doing is bringing back a sense of community that has been lacking in society for many decades. What this means for musicians and singers etc… is that a platform through which they can develop an audience has become available. Sometimes it might be just a small number of people, but if they, the audience and artist, are really engaged and interested in each other then something magical for both parties comes about. If you use sales of albums or numbers of Likers to measure your success then you’re missing the point. Ask yourself this: if you are only willing to make your music available to sell and you only sell a few dozen, then is it not better to give away some of your best music and build up a following. That way your music gets heard, you get to have a dialogue with your followers and who knows maybe they’ll evangelize your work to others.

Do you have a particular social media ethos? A guide to social media success if you like?

What this means is that you put yourself out there, genuinely, (but politely), you show real interest in your audience and develop meaningful relationships with them. The kind of thing I mean in practical terms is to ask your audience about their experiences, possibly related to the subject matter of one of your songs, or tell a story behind a song, show them you are human and allow them to show you their humanity too.
There’s a book called Unmarketing which I’d strongly recommend and no I’m not on commission.

Why are more and more people using social media to promote their music?

There aren’t alternatives in the mainstream. The process for those who do it well is extremely rewarding.

Is there a failing in the music industry? What are the problems with it at the moment?

It’s quite simple really. The music industry fails because like many businesses it’s been run by money makers, of course they don’t see they’re failing but they are and in time the Internet is going to make their profits slump massively and this is why: They have become like a supermarket that only sells its own brand, not only does it not offer other brands but it only offers a limited range of products. As far as it’s concerned it’s doing ok, however there’s now another market, it’s on the web and not only does it offer more variety but it’s at a fraction of the cost. “Ah but we’ve got the market cornered because we have the strongest marketing tools” they’ll say. And I’d say “Take a look at how Facebook allows people to see what others are listening to, have a listen to the choice of Internet radio stations with no annoying adverts, have a listen to the quality of music made in people’s home studios. Have a look at the breadth of variety on offer. So punk you’re probably wondering whether I shot 5 bullets or six, well make my day”

You give away your music for free? How do you plan to make money from your work?

Firstly is making money from one’s work the main objective? I go to work plus I make money from my music, I would make music whether I made money or not. But if money is important to you then surely building up a following means you’re more likely to make money from your following through merchandise, membership schemes, advertising, sponsorship, product recommendation / endorsement, being seen as an expert in your niche and paid for your expertise, working for other artists, gigging, teaching, CDs, premium downloads, premium products and loads of other areas if you use your imagination.
Some people believe that having 1000 true fans who are willing to buy everything you sell could bring you in an income of around £20,000 per year, and that’s a low estimate.

How many recordings do you have and how much of that has had the support of any major labels / deals? With that in mind, what do record deals mean to you? If you were offered a deal from a major company would you take it?

I’ve recorded over 300 songs but only about 40 to what I’d call album standard. I’ve never had any major label interest, but I haven’t courted it either, not for any anti record industry reasons, I just never felt I’d be of interest to them. Even with 100000 followers I’ve had no interest at all. As things seem to have changed for me in the last year or so I’ve come to feel that I’d have to be offered a pretty good deal to make it worthwhile, I mean I’ve recorded the songs, done the videos, promoted the work, sorted out the PPL and PRS stuff, so unless they’re going to get my songs on major radio station playlists what would be the point. I’m sticking with the Internet for now, and I’d seriously advise most of you to focus on it too.

You’ve nearly got over 100,000 fans on Facebook, a lot more than some bands in the charts. What does this mean to you?

It’s deeply touching and makes my work feel more meaningful to me, however this is just the beginning and developing deeper relationships with those fans over the coming years is paramount. Clicking Like on an artist’s page takes no effort and doesn’t mean much more than “I quite like your stuff” so let’s not get too carried away, however it does mean something, it means there’s a chance of more contact between us and I really do love that engagement.

What’s the key to your internet success? How have you managed to achieve all you have without the backing of major record companies and PR agencies?

By continually offering new songs for free, chatting with my followers, not just pushing information about me down their throats but instead having a two way relationship. I don’t have to ask people to share my work, if they like what I do they will, if they don’t then there’s no point asking them to. We also spend a lot of time on our work and don’t give out rubbish, or album fillers. We’re currently working on 5 new songs, I have a small group of followers who get to hear these songs and their honest opinion is taken in to consideration, if it’s not up to scratch I’d rather not put it out there, but then knowing if something is any good is hard when you’re so close to it.

Using social media may seem quite daunting to some, what advice would you offer someone who’s just starting out?

Well check out http://www.unmarketing.com/
Also make sure all your things on the internet have links to your major social media places, your you tube channel, you Twitter one, your Facebook Like page (not your personal one as it has a limit of 5000 friends), maybe a blog too. Choose one platform to focus on and try to draw your audience to that one so you can be more focused.

Is there ever a point when using social media so much becomes a block to being a great artist? Too much concentration of wondering whether or not this is a great tweet, as opposed to whether or not this is good music that you’re writing?

Spend the same amount of time promoting yourself as you do being creative, that’s what most artists in the mainstream have to do. If you want a following you’ll have to work for it, if you don’t want to work for it then don’t complain about not having a following. If you decide not to promote yourself or even to look at how to do it then you’ve made that choice. I’m a bit hard on this one because I feel it’s illogical not to promote your work if you want an audience, if you don’t then it doesn’t matter.
In my own experience I work to pay my mortgage, I don’t go out a lot, I am involved with being creative for most of the time that I’m not earning a crust but I interject my work with social networking and traditional promotion. If you think social networking may take up time that could be used for being creative then maybe just go down the pub less or don’t watch TV, there’s often somewhere that time can be borrowed from. The situation is unfair but social networking does offer some people opportunities that weren’t there beforehand, it’s good for some and for others it’s not.

Talk soon

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The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 An Ongoing Review

Posted on August 9, 2011 by simon1a

Just got a Samsung 10.1 Tablet and will spend the next few weeks reflecting on it on this page, not so much the techno stuff you’ll read in other reviews but more like what it feels like to have one. Some of you may have read my review of the 7 inch Tab so you’ll know my approach.

Although I still use the 7 inch Tab, once I got a Galaxy S2 phone I ended up leaving the Tab at home, mainly because the S2 is so good for doing net stuff on the move.

I quite fancied getting an i-Pad but I have a feeling that once you’ve gone towards either camp (Apple or Android) you tend to become loyal to it. For me what really swayed me towards Android was things like easier connectivity, ability to use Flash, multi-tasking, and less restrictive in terms of Bluetooth, video calling, and file uploading to name a few, however I accept that in many ways the i-Pad is still the king of Tablets, so I wanted to see for myself what the Galaxy Tab 10.1 would be like in a day to day scenario.

So here goes.

Initial impressions: It looks a lot like an i-Pad and is more pleasing on the eye than most of the other non-Apple tabs on the market. I set it up within minutes (you’ll need an Internet connection and to set up a Google account if you haven’t already got one). Once up and running I set up the Samsung Social hub, adding all my various email accounts, Facebook, Twitter etc… This is a great App if you have loads of different accounts and want to keep an eye on them. Then I searched for the Android Facebook App but couldn’t find it, maybe it doesn’t work on this version of Android, anyone out there know why it’s not there? So instead I installed the “Full Facebook” app which so far has worked better than on my previous devices… why aren’t we given the option to use the full versions in the first place? Tweetdeck next, then a few photo aps (Photo Tools and Little Photo), ES File Explorer (allows me to access the network hard drives at home), Firefox (sometimes it works faster than the built in browser, though this one seems to be just as fast this time.) So with the system set up it was time to try it out.

I have an ultra-portable laptop which I tend to use a lot in the house, with Facebook working on the Tab I wondered if the bigger format would allow a comparative typing experience and I wasn’t disappointed, however little glitchy things like having to scroll down through my messages (more of a fault of the Full Facebook App) were a bit annoying. But for fast access email and web browsing it was working very well.

I then downloaded an ebook and tried out the voice reader, which while inappropriate in terms of intonation and emphasis will still allow me to have a book read to me whilst doing other things, such as pretending to listen to someone else.

Speaker sound quality was actually really very good, I mean for a small device it is excellent and this time the speakers are set to the sides when held in landscape mode so it’s very good for movies. As for picture quality, it’s excellent

 

One let down area is the rear camera, it’s only 3 megapixels when it should have been at least 8, it’s not a deal breaker. I mean in a group of people it might be good fun to take a photo, but at this quality I think I’d just get my pocket camera out and use eye-fi to transfer the photos, if I could be bothered… either way it would have been better for Samsung to have benefited from the marketing opportunities arising from such situations. Yes I know it’s still better than the i-pad blab bla.

So all in all the initial impression is great, but over the next few weeks I’ll post other things on this page that come to mind. Feel free to comment either with corrections to my ill-advised point of view or with question and answers.

Thursday, 11 August 2011

I normally get up, check my emails and social networks, reply to messages that can be done quickly then get on with my day. This first session has, up till getting this Tablet, been done using my ultra-portable laptop but I noticed today that I haven’t touched it for quite a few days. I’m not saying this Tab could replace my laptop but for this part of my daily routine it’s been fine. There are little annoyances, for instance when going to a message on Facebook it sometimes lands midway through all the messages from that person, however pressing Ctrl+right arrow takes me to the latest message. Also when typing in certain Facebook fields it can be a little unpredictable, for instance you can press the right arrow to get to the end of the text and when you continue typing the letters appear at the beginning of the field. Overall though it’s been a faster process, namely because I get to see all my emails from different accounts in one go. Once again there are some limitations in this area but for reading, viewing attachments, replying and forwarding it’s all pretty smooth.

I purchased the separate keyboard and do prefer typing on that however the on screen one is good too. The instruction manual for the keyboard says you can remove the bit that holds the tab in place and use other “cradles” for other devices, however the effort and risk of damage seems so great I doubt many people would want to try that. The guy in the shop said the external keyboard had its own internal battery, but I think he was confusing this with another one, there is no internal battery.

If you’ve got any questions please post them. I’ll try to put it through some more rigorous tests over the next week or so.

 

Friday 12th August 2011

I read through a few articles about Apps for Android, it was a kind of mixed adventure, I found a couple I hadn’t even thought about and didn’t find ones I’d have liked to, well not for free anyway.

Here’s what I went for and briefly what I thought:

Skype, haven’t tested the video calling but will write something here if it doesn’t work ~ Google Voice might be worth having a look at too.

WordPress ~ Not sure if I’d just prefer to use the browser

Sky News ~ Liked this, quite neat and simple

Translate ~ Pretty close to the browser version, is there much point using an APP then?

Twitter ~ prefer Tweet Deck… I think

Colour notes ~ a little more functionality than the built in Memo program

Reverbnation Control Room ~ would prefer to use the browser

Fruit Ninja ~ One of my kids insisted on me installing it. It was fun for five minutes but probably best not done in front of strangers.

Flight Control ~ Close to the Apple Version, good fun.

Chrome to Phone ~ used to pass links, numbers, or text to your Tab or phone from your PC. Simple and useful

Angry Birds ~ Always good for a spare 5 hours or so.

MyPlayer ~ Stream TV using Wifi… or just put the TV on if you’re at home… away from home it might be good. It will use lots of your download quota so help your neighbours get their money’s worth if at ball possible. *Evil laugh*

Olive Office Premium ~ only worked in portrait mode, caps lock wouldn’t switch off, gave up… shame because it’s free

Just as an aside… I downloaded SMS reader for my Galaxy S2. It simply reads out texts. Very useful if you’re driving… not useful if you’re walking around a shop like I was when it went off. Anyway back to the records…

One thing to note is that the browsing experience is so good that many Apps will be redundant on here. I would quite like a basic word processor, have you got any experience of any on Android? If you can think of any Apps worth suggesting please do.

I’m going to look at the following next:

ReQall

Evernote

Springpad

Think Free Office

Documents To Go

18/08/2011

Just a quickie today, however here’s a link to another blog about the Tab

http://livingwithatab.blogspot.com/

Will be back soon

Thanks for reading.

 

Videos about the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

 

A useful article

http://androidcommunity.com/samsung-touchwiz-ux-review-galaxy-tab-10-1-20110805/

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Is Facebook Ending?

Posted on June 15, 2011 by simon1a

I’m sure that many of you would have noticed a few stories in the media yesterday that were eager to point out that Facebook has, “seemingly”, lost some of its users. Now I’m not sure how accurate the figures really are, but the fact that these articles appeared signifies that some parts of the media have already got their daggers out when it comes to Facebook.

Of course things do come and go. We’ve already watched several different Internet eras come to pass, so it’s possible that Facebook may well either have to change dramatically as time goes on, or fall at the feet of another up and coming social network.

One thing I’ve noticed is that when Friends Re-united, and later Myspace, got taken over by non-Internet based companies, that they applied values that may well have helped lead to their own demise, especially when it came to being able to adapt fast enough. Even now one gets the feeling that executives have taken over the running of Facebook and instead of a “User Centred” ethos, a money-making one has become the main priority (e.g. space for adverts has become greater over the last year).

There’s also a sense of not being cared for, so now when Facebook makes a change it forces the change on its users, but a client centred company would notify users clearly of any changes then allow them to opt in when they felt ready (as Yahoo have done with their email services). They would also listen to users concerns about things like being added to other people’s groups without giving permission, or allowing users to choose who tags them. Even businesses have complained about Facebook making changes to how their community pages work without giving them a choice. For many, the Honeymoon is over, but that doesn’t mean the marriage is. Like any relationship it takes two to Tango, so will Facebook start to listen and react accordingly because now days people tend to live by the rule of, “For better or forget it”?

There is still something very touching about Facebook and it’s this, it has given back a sense of community to many people who, for a long time, have lived in societies that no longer had one. I don’t think Facebook is going to come crashing down just yet, but, and I get asked this a lot, what of the future? In my opinion it’s possible that another company might blow Facebook out of the water, but because it’s such a rich company it could either use its financial clout to buy out any threats and incorporate them in to its own framework, or just make them disappear.

I wonder if, in time, a system might develop that leaves users with more control. For instance at the moment if you use, or “misuse”, Facebook or You Tube, you can find your account no longer exists, and outside of starting over, there’s nothing you can do about it. So in time a more modular system may develop. For instance you could have your own “Home” on the internet which can’t easily be closed down, is free and includes at least your own wall, an info page, a list of friends and likes. Now this home would be able to connect with other people’s ones by using third party linking systems. This would offer security to users in that your profile was protected from the demise of a particular social network, and a choice as to which company you wanted to use to link to other people.

As a precursor to this I have developed something similar to this where people can link up with me so in the event of Facebook kicking me off for writing articles such as this, people can keep in contact. If you want to link up with me then click here and register. Meanwhile enjoy Facebook if you do, and remember plenty of people out there don’t like Facebook, but what do they know?

Posted in Facebook, Rants, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

It’s A Wonderful Life

Posted on June 7, 2011 by simon1a

Hi,

I’m releasing my latest song today, Gold Members can download it right now by clicking here (see the Gold Membership menu above for more info), but Free members and non members can still listen to it on my Reverbnation and Myspace pages.

I wrote this song about a moment when someone pulls up to their house one evening and realises things have changed between their partner and themselves. Faced with an inevitable separation there’s a part of them that realises even though there’ll be some tough times ahead, life still has a lot to offer. I wanted to remind people who feel that all is lost when a powerful relationship comes to an end that life is very likely to feel wonderful once they’ve healed, anyway I hope you find it interesting.

Here are the lyrics:

Wonderful Life ~ Written and Produced by Simon Smith and Steve Dumelo
June 2011 UK

Pulled up in my driveway, sat in my car
Night sky was coming down hard
Listened to the radio
Skipped a couple of tunes
Looked in my mirror at you

Didn’t know why
Didn’t want to come in
Feeling dead inside
Someone told a story
Somebody lied
So take a ride
Enjoy the trip of my life
It’s a wonderful life
It’s a wonderful life

Have you got a feeling
Got to get away
Do you get to feeling
That you can no longer stay
Have you got a feeling
Got to get away
Got to get away

Moon it goes around
Life it flies
Gonna say hello
Sometimes goodbye
Take the phone right off the hook
Gonna sit down and write your book
Gonna take the lies we once said
Write across your bed

Well I’d come to you
But you’d go
And all the things I’d have to say
You’d know

So take a ride
Enjoy the trip of your life
It’s a wonderful life
It’s a wonderful life
Have you got a feeling
Got to get away
Do you get to feeling
That you can no longer stay
Have you got a feeling
Got to get away
Got to get away
Got to get away

Times are here, times are gone
No matter what, it moves on

I don’t remember me pointing a gun
I don’t remember us not having fun
I don’t remember us wanting more
But I guess I don’t know us anymore

So take a ride
Enjoy the trip of our life
It’s a wonderful life
It’s a wonderful life
Have you got a feeling
Got to get away
Do you get to feeling
You can no longer stay
Have you got a feeling
Got to get away
Got to get away
Got to get away

Lyrics Simon Smith 2011
Music Simon Smith and Steve Dumelo

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The Straits at The Albert Hall May 22 2011

Posted on May 23, 2011 by simon1a

 

I knew this wouldn’t be a simple affair, there was baggage, isn’t there always when you get to a certain age? We’d normally met with such a bang, but that was some time ago, maybe 20 years or something like that. This time the approach was far more ambulatory. A couple of mutual friends to reintroduce us, in their own right they were entertaining… but really it was you I wanted to see.

The lights went down, and we got straight in to some Private Investigations. But within seconds, what I’d been warned about hit me, you weren’t all there. And whilst it was you, (it looked like you, and sounded like you), it didn’t completely feel like you. As your words vibrated in to me, I felt a sadness, like a friend had died, had come to haunt me, and would be going away again soon… but you didn’t fade away, instead you wound yourself around me, lifted me from my seat and straightened me up again. I realised that my sadness was partially self-inflicted … I had grown older and your very presence served as a constant reminder for a while.

As you danced with me to songs the old you had sung to me and the new you had once played with the very same hands, movements neither of us could never forget, those same hands guided me still, and I let go. Your new look had its own appeal, something of you belonged to the old you, enough to keep me attached.

Now I am home, looking at the photos, uploading the videos, and rewinding my memory, I can feel it was a bitter sweet meeting. Oh you truly had me dancing, you made my spine tingle, and  your touch just blew me away, but the bit of you that wasn’t there, was always there, conspicuous by its absence. You were always good at being magical and this was definitely your latest trick.

*      *     *

If you’re a Dire Straits fan go see “The Straits” and take a trip down memory lane, it’s well worth it, but don’t expect it to be a particularly straight and narrow route, it’ll be rocky too… but we both know you like that.

For more info go to http://www.thestraits.com

Here’s a video I made:

The Straits performing Private Investigations May 22 2011 at The Royal Albert Hall

 

 

 

Simon Smith

http://www.simonmarksmith.com

http://www.simonsdiary.com

http://www.facebook.com/Simonmarksmith

Posted in Celebrity, Music, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

I Want To Hear Leonard Cohen In The Tower of Song

Posted on November 12, 2010 by simon1a

I Want To  Hear Leonard Cohen In The Tower of Song

Someone once said to me that when the tram lines were taken up from our roads it was as if the tram lines that guided us in society also disappeared. There is a general consensus in the UK that we should try to be as free as possible in how we choose to live our lives without infringing on others’ right to be free, and I reckon most of us feel comfortable with that. But…

A couple of years ago I went to see Roger Waters perform at the O2 arena near London, which is a big venue. Throughout the whole performance people wandered in and out, pushing past me, falling on me, mostly in order to get to the drinks kiosk. Perhaps the size of the venue meant that people felt they weren’t really at a concert, but after that experience I felt I wouldn’t want to return to that venue and consequently missed the now legendary Leonard Cohen concerts held there.

Steve, my co-song-writer, told me that he’d once gone to see Daniel Beddingfield play and the audience was so loud during the warm up act that Daniel came out and sang with her because he was so disturbed by their rudeness. The audience wouldn’t have been able to know if she was worth listening to as they hadn’t given her the chance to be heard in the first place.

I have a video of one of my first live performances and during it I rather unprofessionally looked at a group of people who were talking so loudly I could hear them over the PA system and said “Yeah and see how you feel when I speak over your band”… a slightly embarrassing moment for all concerned. But in a way I was right, if you’re in a music venue it’s not like being somewhere where someone starts performing whether you asked for it or not.

So my point is have we got to a time when we need to re-define some social decorum again or is too restricting to do so? Is this just a phenomenon in the UK or are there other places that have it too?

I’d be interested to hear what you think?

Best wishes

Simon

www.simonsdiary.com

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Fame, Money, Success and Connection

Posted on October 19, 2010 by simon1a

I want to talk about a paradox, it’s one that most of us have experienced and it relates to money and success.

If you asked me if I thought commercial success was a true measurement of achievement, I’m pretty sure that, philosophically speaking, I’d say it wasn’t. In reality though, when I meet people who have done well in their fields, (commercially I mean), then I can’t help but feel more impressed than those who have not done so. I can do that because I’m a hypocrite. We all know that loads of people who get rich and famous are probably there more by luck than by measure. Often people who seem to be far better at what they do than other, more well known, people often go unrecognised. It’s just a fact of life. So what is it about commercial success and fame that a lot of us are so impressed by?

Perhaps one thing it particularly relates to is the “Pursuer, Distance Dynamic”, again this is one of those things that most of us have experienced. It’s basically the more someone wants us, the less we want them, and of course the more they don’t want us, the more we desire them. It’d kind of the first rule of love as well. The second rule of love is: When you’re single no one wants you and when you’re with someone people won’t leave you alone, but I digress.

So when it comes to fame there’s a connection between these principles. People who are desired by others may trigger our own desires for them, because a subconscious message tells us, “Well they must have something, if everyone else thinks so”. I mean if you were to see two restaurants next to each other and one was full and the other was empty, which one would you be most likely to enter? So in a way fame feeds on itself and that’s partly why it doesn’t always relate to ability.

One of the other ways we measure success is by how much others will pay for their services. I would happily pay £40 to see Leonard Cohen, it would be an experience well worth every penny for me. There may be other artists who are “almost” as good, (not likely), but they haven’t been in my head for as many years, and to me, seeing Leonard Cohen in real life would be like bringing my inner and external worlds together. Again my willingness to pay to see Leonard Cohen isn’t just about his ability it’s about our relationship. So what’s my point?

The thoughts that motivated me to write this article came about because I saw a video in which, Chris Cox , a marketing consultant, suggests that artists give their music away for free. His main argument is, that in a world of pirating and media companies that dominate our world, he believes, artists who want to sell their work without, or sometimes even with, corporate help are going to have a hard time doing so. Therefore he suggests that one option, is to give the music away, at least that way it’ll get heard and connections with people all around the world can be made.

The only thing is, in the past when I’ve paid for albums, if I didn’t like the music at first I would still struggle on because I had made a financial commitment to it. I wanted to see if by digging a little deeper there would be anything worthy of my hard earned cash, and more often than not there was. BUT if I was given a disk for free and didn’t like the first track I’d probably just put it aside and never come back to it. So by giving one’s music away there are two possible side-effects. The first is that people may feel you can’t be any good because you’re unable to sell your work and secondly they probably won’t even listen to it because they haven’t made any commitment to it. There is a third effect which is music that needs to be struggled with may be abandoned too early so both the artist and audience end up losing in the long run.

When Leonard Cohen is in concert and says to his audience: “I want to thank you friends, I know some of you have had to undergo financial and geographical struggles to be here tonight” the audience cheer. He touches them because both he and they realise there is a connection, a deep emotional one between them. Plato said that we recognise something inside others that is inside ourselves too and that’s what contributes to us becoming true friends with certain people. It’s also true that our closest friends are often very different from us, that it’s something in their essence that connects us.

When I write songs my music comes from a deep part of me, so as it moves around the world it touches some people and they then link up with me, for instance via my Facebook music page.  What ensues between us is a two way dynamic, well more so than the traditional musician and audience relationship. Perhaps as the Internet changes the nature of how music is distributed, the type of relationships between artists and audience may well change too,  becoming much more intimate. Ironically that’s probably quite like relationships that existed between many musicians and singers when society was more of a community. People would often gather to make music and sing together. Also the isolation caused by the relationship, or lack of it, between artist and stars, might be why so many stars have collapsed emotionally after they found their “dream”.  When TV and radio took over, the “stars” sang to an audience that didn’t really exist in any real way to them, and though the audiences might have waved and thrown their under garments at the TV, the person singing to them would have been blind and deaf to their antics. But now, now there’s the Internet and it’s becoming a two way process, so it’s going to be interesting to see what happens next!

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If Not Now Then When?

Posted on October 19, 2010 by simon1a

Apart from being a memorable saying “If Not Now Then When” was also the title of one of Tracey Chapman’s hits in 1988. These words have been echoing in my mind (lots of echoes there!). I watched my father die in front of me a few months ago and maybe it was that which reminded me that I too ought to get on, but get on with what? I have been doing my thing, you know all that creative stuff I do, for decades now, and still much of what I do remains insulated, so I thought it was time to put some of my work out there more. It’s not that what I do is particularly great, but it is something and some people get something from it.

I thought I’d put some adverts out on Facebook to see what would happen and so far I’ve been quite moved by the response. It’s not so much that people like my music that’s so touching but more a case that multiple connections with people all around the world are starting to take place. As each person links in to my page I normally have a look at what can be seen of their profile, and many of them have interesting links about themselves there. So in a way it’s been a two way process and I’m hoping this is the beginning of some interesting adventures.

Even today I was feeling quite angry with someone who had betrayed a deal we’d made. In fact I was having a bit of a Sopranos meets Tarrantino moment when I read one of my “new connections” poems page and was quite touched and calmed by the lines:

“This life taught me to forgive and forget,
Each of its trivial and unpaid debt.”
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=26827942&postID=2848330677811264562

It’s been an interesting ride this last week, and I hope to tell you more of my travels, and if not now, then when I can.

Simon Smith

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You're My First

Posted on October 19, 2010 by simon1a

Apparently the first time is normally filled with anxiety, I’ve practised a bit before hand, by myself and with others, so I’m hoping it won’t be so bad, but then I can feel a slight tingling sensation. I’m certainly worried about my “performance”, just one wrong word, one wrong action and that could be the last we share together. Then there’s the size of my words, too long, too short, will they fit with your expectations. I’m not even sure how long I should, or am even able to, go on for. I could do with a sign, but it’s hard to see in the dark and the noise from the commotion in the rooms next door is almost deafening.

I can feel our excitement, our expectation and it’s driving me to distraction. I know it’s about flowing, about connection about reading the writing on the wall, between the lines and in your eyes.

Are we flowing together?

Are we there yet?

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