Archive for October, 2009
November is nearly upon us now…
Posted by Ben Sullivan in Personal on October 24, 2009
With fresh, crisp leaves gliding gently down. Being laid to rest on damp, mossy grass.
I start to feel the cold as I sit in the tall, eccentric shadow of an oak, standing in between me and the Autumnal sunset.
The cold sunlight is reflecting a crystal clear image of the ground foliage to me, just before a gust of wind invites the branches to dance, sending even more laminar life-givers to their death.
Interview for Navigator today.
Posted by Ben Sullivan in Falmouth Navigator on October 24, 2009
Today I went to meet the Labour candidate for Truro and Falmouth, Charlotte MacKenzie, to talk and question her about Labour’s relations and thoughts about students in Falmouth, and her campaign video including students mid-week.
It was my first real interview type situation, and I did find it pretty hard going. I was very much unprepared. I did have some set questions to ask Charlotte, but it all went front-side up when she actually started talking.
A few things I learnt:
1. Prepare a lot more and don’t expect the interviewee to do all the talking for you,
2. Go to the interview with a set idea of what you want to leave with.
However, I did get most of the stuff I wanted out of her, and will be writing the feature in due course, probably over my next pint in Wetherspoons, seeing as I have no access to the internet at home.
Downfall of humanity…
Posted by Ben Sullivan in Personal on October 24, 2009
BT has cut off our internet. We have the ‘Unlimited’ package, but some we have managed to download, stream, and waste over 110gb in the past month, leading to the deactivation of our broadband until the next billing month. Which is over a week away. Currently writing this in Wetherspoons, surrounded by gawping drunkards puzzled by the sight of a laptop in a pub.
Falmouth Navigator Story
Posted by Ben Sullivan in Falmouth Navigator on October 23, 2009
Tomorrow afternoon I will be interviewing Truro and Falmouth Labour candidate Charlotte Mackenzie on Labour’s relations with students in Falmouth. Earlier this week a campaign video was shot in Falmouth including students, and I want to find out about this as well. I think a little bit of politics will be good for Navigator.
Not too sure though what to write this story as, a feature or a news story. I will probably go for the feature as I can then cover a few topics instead of being limited.
Alexisonfire: -noun, 1. The Only Band Ever.
Posted by Ben Sullivan in Falmouth Navigator on October 17, 2009
So last Sunday I got to see my favourite band in the whole entire world! Alexisonfire. The Canadian post-hardcore rockers provided me with the best gig of my life, and an experience I will never forget.
No Transitory
After the main support band Anti-Flag had finished their set, there was a long, anxious wait as the impressive venue filled to its capacity. The lights went dark, and to a background chorus of feedback and harmonics, George, Dallas, Wade, Chris and Jordan slowly appeared on stage to open up with a well-chosen song from their new album Old Crows Young Cardinals. George dashed into the crowd along everyone’s head. I was awestruck, not the best thing to be in the middle of a growing pit. This was the best thing I had ever seen or heard. This had been a long time coming.
Alexisonfire continued to smash out their hits from this year’s album and 2006’s Crisis. Dallas Green’s jaw-dropping vocals perfectly supported George’s unmistakable growls as the crowd went berserk for every song.
Then George announced that they were going to play a song that they wrote when they were teenagers, back on their debut self-titled album in 2002. It meant a lot to them, it got them to where they are now. And it also meant a lot to the crowd. Alexisonfire have come a long way since their tinny recordings back then, but it’s still the early, emotional, heartfelt, raw sounds of the songs on their debut album and their sophomore follow up Watch Out! that evoke such a strong feeling from the crowd. They were going to play Pulmonary Archery, I couldn’t believe it.
Pulmonary Archery
Powering through the rest of their set with popular anthems and slow ballads, Alexisonfire returned for their encore and brought the crowd to a climax with a hit from their new album, Accept Crime.
They left us wanting more.
We all wanted more.
Alexisonfire have worked so hard to be where they are, and despite being a fairly alternative emo/hardcore band, they are one of the most successful Canadian bands ever. To me, the only band ever.
“Becuase this shit is not about pants
And this shit’s not about shirts
And this shit is definitly not about hair
This shit is having a good fucking time”
Young Cardinals
Story Ideas…
Posted by Ben Sullivan in Falmouth Navigator on October 17, 2009
Local Labour MP Charlotte MacKenzie will be filming in Falmouth next week for a new campaign video, including students from Falmouth. She contacted me wanting me to be in the video too, but I don’t think I’m really up for that. Instead I will be interviewing Charlotte and writing a story on the day’s events. I want to ask what Labour and politics in general can offer students and what students can offer to politics and Labour itself. I plan on getting out some audio recording equipment so I can record Charlotte as well.
Charlotte is also a big climate campaigner, and I hope to ask her about this too. I am looking forward to it.
Kingsnorth Story
Posted by Ben Sullivan in Personal on October 12, 2009
I first saw the story through the Greenpeace website, then further researched it through various news websites such as BBC and Guardian. I rang Wiz Baines who is head of the Cornwall Greenpeace group and a Greenpeace activist to get some quotes and her views on the story. She was on a train returning from London where she was at a meeting about Kingsnorth when E.ON released the news. As you can imagine she was pretty excited. I managed to get some decent quotes from her and I now know that she is a reliable contact for similar stories in the future.
LCROSS Moon Impact…
Posted by Ben Sullivan in Personal on October 9, 2009
Via NASA’s live streaming on their website, today I watched the LCROSS probe smash into the Cabeus crater on the Moon’s South pole, the final acts of a mission sent to find water on the Moon. After 5.6 million miles orbiting the Earth and Moon, the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite was fired into the crater in the hope that the dust slung into the atmosphere from the impact would contain traces of water, and would be analysed by NASA. At 7.31am ET an empty rocket fired by the LCROSS probe hit the crater, with the probe itself impacting four minutes later. IT WAS AWESOME but I was a little late for photography. Totally worth it though. An interesting and exciting day for space exploration.
Kingsnorth Power Station Scrapped
Posted by Ben Sullivan in Personal on October 8, 2009
Energy giants E.ON have made the decision to postpone the new coal-fired power station in Kent, blaming the recession and a fall in demand for electricity.
E.ON announced the news last night and environmental campaigners are claiming a victory in the fight against climate change and carbon emissions.
The site in Kent had become a main hub for environmental protest groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, who were committed to fighting the project as a a new coal power station would seriously hamper the efforts to cut carbon emissions in the near future.
Head of Greenpeace Cornwall Wiz Baines, who was at a meeting about Kingsnorth last night when the news broke, said: “This is spectacular news. We’re over the moon. E.ON claim that the postponement if due to economical reasons, but I think the huge impact of climate protesters helped a lot. Massive tributes go out to all the campaigners that have worked so hard over the past few years.”
However, E.ON say that plans have not been permanently halted, and that construction will still go ahead by 2016 if economic conditions permit.
Kingsnorth would have been the first coal-powered station built in the UK for over 20 years, and climate experts say it would be a massive step backwards in the fight agaisnt carbon emissions. Supporters and developers of the stations defended its construction through new controversial technology called Carbon capture and storage (CCS). This is where the carbon emissions are captured preventing them from polluting the atmsophere. However, this expensive technology has yet to be proven.
Wiz said: “Government leaders now need to step up and take lead on the issue, and prove that they care about climate change.”
Campaigners marching towards Kingsnorth Power Station.
Photo courtesy of Planetfishphotos, Flickr