The routes by which I find music have changed dramatically in the last 35 years. It used to be occasional things on the radio and rummaging around in record shops (when you used to have to base an album on its cover). Word of mouth is still important. But there are now entirely new ways. … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 2017
Category: Projects
Sometimes I find that a tiny element of a song can transfix me. A riff. A lyric. A voice. Here, for example, are my all-time top three snare drums in pop music: 3 - Swing Out Sister - Breakout Apparently not about the hit computer game, SOS provided a top notch bit of smooth 80s … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 2016
This week I have learned: to not be judgemental about using Excel. Well, not as judgemental.once again the power of Working Out Loud.that the new supplier seems to be ace.online events can work...... but sometimes they really don't.that we are in this for the long term.Presenting to a big group is a great way to … Continue reading Weeknote 505 – sampled beats
I think I first came across Belle and Sebastian when hearing their song The State I'm In whilst in The Fox Reformed wine bar in Stoke Newington in the late 1990s. The first album that really got me hooked was Dear Catastrophe Waitress, particularly after the song If You Find Yourself Caught in Love shuffled … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 2015
This week I have learned: it's been a long time since a derby-day victory.that it's surprising to see more suggestions that it's made up than there are directly wishing ill will.we have completed our first major procurement and have found the end-to-end digital business that I've been looking for for years.even UI look and feel … Continue reading Weeknote 504: Schadenfreude
With the exception of opera, I have had a number of fascinations with songs sung in other languages. There are vast swathes of Brazilian music I adore where the musicians could be singing about the price of frozen peas for all that I know of Portuguese. I have absolutely no idea what Sigur Ros are … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 2014
Pharrell Williams, Nile Rodgers, silly hats and Giorgio Moroder. What's not to like?Random Access Memories is a cracking album. https://open.spotify.com/album/4m2880jivSbbyEGAKfITCa?si=0qoVAqvARHSNCy3xWS1ToA You can see the #51for50 project to date here: https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/category/projects/51-for-50/
This week I have learned: only when you really start to get under the covers of how your customers live their lives, you really can get to think about how to provide them with better services.And you also need to understand what those services actually are.Going through a really formal procurement process has been at … Continue reading Weeknote 503: levelling
Orginally published on CIO.co.uk, April 2015. People skills in technology leaders are as important as ever. The abiding memory that I’ll have about this year’s CIO100 judging is how solid people skills were a differentiator for so many of the eventual top 10. What is worrying is how this should still be seen as exceptional … Continue reading CIO Archive: It’s a people thing
Orginally published on CIO.co.uk, April 2015. It's hard to believe that live streaming for the masses was still a novelty as recently as 2015. How quickly things change. I'm part of the disenfranchised majority. But hey, that's enough about the UK's political system. I'm also an Android user, so that's two disenfranchised majorities of which … Continue reading CIO Archive: Up Meerkat
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