Gordon O'Neill

I had the privilege of meeting Terry O’Neill a couple of weeks ago and filmed him talking about some of the pictures that are on display at this new exhibition of his work in Beaconsfield.

It really is worth getting along to. The pictures are stunning and you have the opportunity to win a signed Terry O’Neill book of his Frank Sinatra pictures. I have this book and it is just great. great pictures with really concise, witty and informative comments from Terry himself.

Saturday 14th November, 2009, 11am – 4pm

TERRY O’NEILL EXHIBITION – ‘THE PIONEER OF CELEBRITY REPORTAGE’
360 Living Gallery
Beacon House
Warwick Road
Beaconsfield
HP9 2PE
01494 674996
info@360living.eu
www.360living.eu

Saturday 14th November, 2009, 11am – 4pm

Legende Celebrity Art have collaborated with 360 Living Gallery in their first photographic exhibition in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire show casing the inspirational work of acclaimed photographer Terry O’Neill. With a career spanning over 50 years, O’Neill has built an unparralled reputation as the foremost chronicler of the famous from movie stars and rock n roll icons to presidents, prime ministers and royalty.

It is impossible to overstate the impact Terry has had, both within the world of photography but also the indelible mark he has made through the images pioneering rock n roll backstage reportage, discovering The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elton John all of whom he catapulted onto the front page of newspapers and magazines. He became the photographer of choice for the biggest names in Hollywood.

TO ENTER THE FREE PRIZE DRAW for your chance to win Terry O’Neills photographic book (published by Evans Mitchell Books) of Frank Sinatra ‘Frank and Friendly’ signed by Terry O’Neill simply email deborah@360living.eu, you must pre-register and then actually attend the event to participate in this special offer and your chance to win a valuable collectors item!

www.legendecelebrityart.com

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This video was taken for a client Legende Celebrity Art

They say never meet your heroes. What a load of rubbish. Whilst Terry O’Neill was not exactly a hero of mine we share the same surname and his work is so well known, how could you not admire the man.

Justin Lee Collins was apparently less than impressed when he met his hero Bruce Forsyth, meeting Terry O’Neill could not have been more different.

He was not only charming and down to earth but when he talked about his work his enthusiasm was so evident.

This is a man who has taken photographs of just about all of the iconic legends of popular culture over the past fifty years.

I remember as a child watching Saturday afternoon movies on the telly featuring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Paul Newman, Raquel Welch, especially Raquel Welch! Terry not only photographed them, he counted many of them as friends. I am sure he would not thank for saying it but he is a piece of living history.

If you move on to music it is probably easier to list who he hasn’t taken. At the exhibition I attended at Gallery Rouge in St Albans there were pictures of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Amy Winehouse and Elton John

Even Terry admits that it’s hard to get these kind of pictures these days, times have changed, and access to “stars” is often tightly controlled. It strikes me yet again, these photos really do have a place in history.

Terry O’Neill’s work has had an enormous impact both on photography and popular culture. He took pictures of up and coming stars and catapulted them onto the front page. With our wall to wall celebrity culture it is easy to forget that newspapers didn’t cover “pop” stars. Terry O’Neill changed that, he became the photographer of choice for Hollywood’s biggest names.

Terry O’Neill’s work can now be bought from Legende Celebrity Art. The limited editions of the photographs Terry talks about in the video, Elton John, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Amy Winehouse, and Paul Newman can all be bought direct from the site. www.legendecelebrityart.com

The exhibition is on until Saturday at Gallery Rouge, 27 Chequer Street, St Albans, (01727 860401)

Terry O’Neill ‘The Man Who Put Fame On The Front Cover’ Exhibition Gallery Rouge, St Albans.

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Many years ago I started using Serif products.

They were well priced and easy to use. They may have lacked the sophistication of some products but then again they lacked the price.

Sadly I was seduced into using other higher priced products however when the opportunity came to have a good look at the latest incarnation from Serif, PagePlus X4, I welcomed the opportunity.

PagePlus X4, seems to represents a significant upgrade to previous versions and has significant productivity and creation tools.

The advent of online media has perhaps obscured the need for a software package that it easy to use and enables you to create designs destined for hard copy. Thankfully PagePlus X4 meets the needs of those producing print media whether for home, school or business use.

Aimed at the small business and home user Serif PagePlus X4 is easy to use and comes packaged with a good range of templates for newletters, business cards, postcards, websites, greeting cards etc.

The recourse CD takes almost as long as the programme to instal.

Having skipped more than a few upgrades I found X4 packed with features, particulalry the integrated photo editing and drawing capabilities. No need to launch a seperate programme to edit images. The logo creator is a fun application and has some advanced features which should please the more graphically minded.

The key to a good looking document is the seamless integration of a host of different elements, tables, images, text and so. Making sure these are all aligned properly and consistently can take an age. The “Dynamic Magnetic Snapping” means when you move the various elements around the programme automaticaly snaps and aligns them relative to each others position,

Just about every feature is easy to use but at the same time has advanced features the more experienced user will welcome.

PagePlus x4 is not without it’s quirks, but then again what programme isn’t.

Even though I left Serif products for another I am happy to return and use it for a host of applications. It is an easy to use, relatively powerful design priogramme that will sit as happily with a novice as with a more experienced designer. For most home and small business users it does just about everything you would want it to do and at price that won’t break the bank.

Serif PagePlus X4 is available from http://www.serif.com/pageplus/

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As the anniversary of the tragic and world changing events of 9/11 draws near unsurprisingly we are faced with a plethora of programmes on television and radio recounting the events of that day. The unfolding events at the World Trade Centre and at the Pentagon are etched on our collective consciousness.

As I watched “102 minutes that changed America” last night I was struck about the amount of coverage that was new to me, much of the footage of that day took many months to appear. Most documentaries of 9/11 are heavily dependent on the voicemails, the emergency recordings and amateur footage to tell the story.

Like most people I can tell you exactly where I was as I watched the events unfold. My own recollections are of long distance shots from the major news channels and telephone conversations with correspondents who happened to be in the area. It took some hours, and in some cases months, before “eye witness” coverage emerged.

The world changed that day.

Eight years on the way we record and report our world has also changed. Today we have Twitter, Facebook, Twitpic, Ustream, AudioBoo etc etc. Social may be accused of peddling banal drivel most of the time but it also brings us an immediacy to our world that is measured in seconds not minutes and hours.

As I watched the events of 9/11, recorded mainly by amateurs, and listened to phone recordings subsequently released, I was forced to ponder how a similar event would be reported today.

I came to the conclusion that much of it would come direct to our PCs and phones, bypassing the traditional news mediums. Indeed the traditional news mediums would be pretty dependent on social media for much of its information.

If your heart was torn by hearing the voicemails of those inside the Twin Towers, which were in the main, released after the event, imagine how you would feel when those directly involved and affected are able to communicate their situation directly to your desktop or phone.

Two thoughts occur to me.

Firstly would the technology be able to cope with a seismic event such as 9/11 or the South Asian Tsunami? It’s a question others are better placed to answer. Indeed should existing and future technology have the capacity to cope with a truly global cataclysmic event?

Secondly, could we cope?

I can still connect with the feelings I had that day in September 2001. I find it disturbing to think of how I would react to being constantly bombarded through social media of eye witness reports. In fact I was tempted to pen some scenarios of how it might happen but stopped as I personally found it too disturbing to contemplate.

Social media and the immediacy it brings, the so called “citizen journalism”, is here to stay but it may bring the world and the events in it a little too close for comfort.

Gordon O’Neill

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For the past five years iotaMEDIA has run an education programme. We have worked in schools and colleges delivering curriculum and enrichment activities, we have also worked in youth training, excluded pupils young offenders and young asylum seekers and in the corporate sector teaching video skills.We endeavour to teach them basic creative video skills and in the process transferable skills such as creative problem solving and team work.Anyway that is all a preamble to the main point here. During August I have been working with Swipe music in Slough with a group of around 25 young people. Most of them are musicians and we have been working together to produce three music videos. All being well we will finish them this week.

One song in particular has really got into my head, “The Slough Song”. This song had it’s beginnings in a music writing workshop several months ago. Eventually the lyrics were written and the song recorded in Swipe’s studio. The song is a real collaborative effort with may young people singing and playing on it. I bring it to your attention because I think it’s great and that it should have a wider audience, have a listen, see what you think, and share it as widely as you can. Just a warning it takes a couple of seconds to start

On a final note I should also say what a pleasure it is has been to work with the young people. Given the amount of flack young people cop these days I think it is worth highlighting a group of young people who put their talent and energy towards something positive.

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Do you find taking surveys about how stressed you fell stressful?

If the answer is No then go to the BBC’s Headroom page and enjoy finding out how much of a stress junkie you are.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/stress

If the answer is YES then make a cup of tea, sit down and watch something amusing on TV, I suggest Family Guy. If that is not your taste, don’t stress about it, watch something else. If listening whale song is you thing then go for it.

Whatever you do don’t stress it, tomorrow is another day as is the next day as this one was until you stressed about it and completely ruined it for yourself and others.

Remember happiness comes in bite sized chunks, you are not really poor you (and your bank manger) only think you are.

Happiness is an attitude so get an attitude.

Be an evangelist for something, it makes you sound sincere and enthusiastic.

Go to a conference, there’s plenty to choose from but try not to stress about the £587 it will cost to attend, just think of the unlimited supply of free coffee until it runs out of course.

Stress is what you make it and nobody has found anything to make from it apart from misery.

They say alcohol is not the answer, so don’t ask it any questions just drink it and realise that tomorrow is the beginning of the rest of your life.

Much like today was until you screwed it up by expecting everyone on Twitter to notice you’d posted a new blog and then berated them for not noticing it.

You even posted a funny picture of someone having a coffee but not in Starbucks. @icanmakeyouhappymoneyeasily found it really amusing and bombarded you with loads of DM’s to tell you so and to get you to check out his website. He was even kind enough to show you a copy of his bank statement. Good job you didn’t show him yours, yours has lots of noughts in it as well.

Take the stress out of living, for once ignore Twitter, Facebook and me.

Time for another cuppa

If you would like to buy my “I can make you happy and rich easily” it is available from all leading bookstores sell it, which may not be too many at the moment, well none actually, but the system works!

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Casually glancing through my copy of Third Way magazine I came across two news snippets that brought a smile to my face and I am not entirely sure why.

The first was the wife who decided a suitable present for her husband would be sex every night for a year.

Lucky man, some may say but then she decided to write about the whole experience.  Charla Muller’s book, 365 nights, a diary on intimacy is apparently a guide to staying married.

You can check out it out at Amazon or at her own website

http://www.charlamuller.com/blog/

The other story is about Passion for Christ’s new T-shirt range where you can gleefully proclaim yourself to be an ex something or other.

The shirts have the slogans, ex-offender, ex-drug addict, ex-atheist, ex-hyporcrite.  However the one t-shirt that made me laugh is ex-masturbator. Why in the world would you want to proclaim this to the world?

Well maybe the man married to Charla Muller!

You can check out the full range of the t-shirts at

http://p4cmtshirts.bigcartel.com/

May the ex-masturbator t-shirt would make a great post modern ironic gift for that idiot friend of yours.

Happy Shopping

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As another two MP’s bite the dust I have come to the strange realisation. I think this whole MP’s expenses row might just re-invigorate British politics.

Well maybe not the process as a whole but people might just decide to engage with the process more actively.

I consider myself to be politically aware. What that actually meant was that I would engage with any politicians who came to the door (a rare event in these parts), I would read their literature and I would have views on the political stories of the day. Most importantly I would vote.

However, at the back of my mind would be the nagging thought, I’m a dinosaur, none of this matters. Voting was becoming more out of duty than any real engagement with the political process.

Recent events have changed my mind and, if my casual chats with people on and offline are anything to go by, so have others.

I now want to know what other parties really stand for, beyond the “I wont claim on expenses” mandate all of the parties seem to be parading.

I cannot vote for someone for what they will not do or don’t stand for. Nor will I vote to keep someone out. Nor will I vote for a celebrity.

It seems to me the vote and all it stands for has been left to gather dust on a shelf for too long by too many. If you really want to show politicians what you think of them, get and vote and show them who holds the real power!

Apathy in the electorate has bred indifference and apathy in those elected to represent us. They used and abused a system because they thought we didn’t care. Well I do and I hope you do too. Care enough to tell them through the ballot box.

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Royal British Legion Fire in Chesam, Buckinghamshire.

A sad for Chesham when the Legion Club in Broad Street was burnt down.

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