Category: 10 Things

Not getting greedy or anything but here’s a few things that I would like in 2007…

1. To get back to Toronto
2. Buy that Telecaster that I keep looking at on Thomann
3. Buy an XBOX 360
4. Organise some serious funding for KilkennyMusic.com and watch that little baby grow 🙂 – either through sponsorship or by actually putting my head down and developing a strong business plan and revenue stream for it.
5. Celebrate 2 years in business with style and watch THAT little baby grow even more.
6. Go skiing again (seen as my trip in February is off)
7. Develop some kind of timetable for blogging outside of kenmc.com – Liverpool Access, Mobileblogr and The Football Times take a little hit every now and again.
8. Finish recording the Happy Medium EP which was started before the summer this year.
9. Get through Cannibal! The Musical with The Devious Theatre Company and start touring Heart Shaped Vinyl.
10. Get to spend a little more time up in Sligo. Have van, will travel and all that. Christmas was a good start.

Here’s ten songs that should definitely be on your iPod. If you picked one up for Christmas or decided to treat yourself then throw these ten songs on it. Track purchase links point to GoMusic.ru (cheaper alternative to iTunes), just for those of you who like to download. Full album links point to Play.com, cheaper alternative to shopping in your local high street store, for those of you who like to shop for the real thing.

1. The Guggenheim Grotto – A Lifetime In Heat (Free Download)
   This version taken from the ‘A Lifetime In Heat’ EP.
2. Cary Brothers – Blue Eyes (Purchase)
   Taken from the ‘All The Rage EP’, also available on the Garden State soundtrack.
3. A Perfect Circle – Fiddle And The Drum (Purchase)
   Fantastic vocal duet taken from the Emotive album, released 2004.
4. New York Fashion Week – Dear Spartacus (MySpace)
   I got to know Dylan, Rob and Neil through work with KilkennyMusic.com and have to mark them as one to watch in 2007. We featured them on the Sound System Podcast and on KCLR, their track “Dear Spartacus’ is still available to download on MySpace, give it a listen and a download.
5. Alanis Morissette – No Pressure Over Cappuccino (purchase)
   Taken from the ‘MTV Unplugged‘ album, which should be part of anyone’s collection.
6. Death Cab For Cutie – The New Year (purchase)
   Introduced to them about a year ago, spent a bottle of wine or two listening to them in Toronto, taken from the album Transatlanticism which is well worth having.
7. Deftones – Passenger (purchase)
   Taken from the ‘White Pony‘ album, its fantastic track with an appearance by Maynard James Keenan (Tool) on vocals alongside Chino Moreno
8. Matisyahu – Youth (purchase)
   I was introduced to this deadly blend of Jewish reggae (can you class it like that?). This is the title track from the album of the same name, ‘Youth‘.
9. Silverchair – Emotion Sickness (purchase)
   Taken from the Neon Ballroom album, this is the first track and one of the real standout tracks from the album. Ah those glorius summers…. and old one but a good one!
10. Weezer – Buddy Holly (purchase)
    Buddy Holly was used as the track played during the curtain call for ‘Heart Shaped Vinyl’ that I was involved in over the summer. Given the nature of the play, I don’t think we could have asked for a better track to be used. Taken from the Weezer Blue album.

*Songs are ordered for appearance (10 things) and not by order of preference

Here’s another one, this time it is 10 great moments for me in 2006… Again, lists are ordered for appearance as opposed to preference.

1. Celebrating one full year in business with Event Ireland
2. A few months later, celebrating one full year on the go with KilkennyMusic.com.
3. Launching the One Take Sessions in November, seen as I had been planning them since January of this year. Nothing like 11 months of planning to pull off a series of gigs!
4. Getting to see Tool in The Point – that kind of show doesn’t come along every day of the week!
5. Hearing Fairground Attraction getting played on the radio for the first time. Nothing like having your own music on the radio – and it wasn’t the last time either.
6. Steel Pulse in Belfast – 15 of us on a minibus that we hired to take us from Kilkenny to Belfast and back again in the one night – roadtrip of a lifetime.
7. The day I opened the Kilkenny People and saw that KilkennyMusic.com had been awarded the largest grant in Kilkenny through the Arts Office, something I’m ever thankful for, knowing that the funding received has enabled us to make it a full year and beyond.
8. Christmas with the family – always something I look forward to
9. Completing the trifecta of Mark Knopfler (2005), Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen (both 2006) live. Growing up listening to some of your musical idols, its great to be able to see them live before they give up on the touring side of life.
10. Getting to Toronto, definitely the highlight of the year, no doubt about it.

Here’s a list of some of the books that I’ve managed to get through this year. Seen as I read them I’d recommend them – links from either Play.com or Amazon UK (both are non-affiliate links).

1. Mary Mary by James Patterson
2. Start An Independant Record Label by J S Rudsenske
3. Jennifer Government by Max Barry (which I must return to its rightful owner!)
4. Foul! by Andrew Jennings
5. Make Money With Your Studio by Tom Volinchak
6. May Day by Nelson DeMille & Thomas Block
7. Football For Dummies by Howie Long
8. Producing Successful Magazines, Newsletters & Ezines by Carol Harris
9. Cross by James Patterson
10. Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose

Some of you know and regularly read this blog (kenmc.com / Creative Imagination) but did you know about the full family?

1. KENMC.COM – Ken McGuire, on the web. My primary blog, no doubt about that. Looks at technology and the web along with little asides that catch my eye.
2. LiverpoolAccess.com – Follows Liverpool football club, my own match reviews throughout the season, club news, transfer updates and the likes. Stemmed out of World Cup Access which is no longer updated.
3. Mobileblogr – Started late in the year as a way of me keeping track of mobile developments, something I’ve held an interest in since college and wish, looking back, that we could have spent a little more time looking at developing for a mobile environment.
4. Ken McGuire Photography – This one will definitely be getting attention and an update over the Christmas, its been a good six weeks since I’ve uploaded some work to it. The photoblog was restarted when I gave up on DeviantART earlier this year and continues to house my most recent work.
5. One Take Sessions – Video clips, mentions of bands and a way to keep track of whats going on at the One Take Sessions, held every third Thursday in Kilkenny with KilkennyMusic.com
6. Sound System – Blog for the Sound System Podcast, show guides, links to bands mentioned and covered, downloads for each podcast (also available on iTunes).
7. Battle Of The Bands – Coverage of the 2006 Battle Of The Bands as well as coverage on the development of the 2007 event.
8. The Medium Site – Blog kept for the band, not updated too frequently but its there all the same (last updated mid December)
9. The KilkennyMusic.com Blog – Currently available as a member only feature but going public in January, I’ve just added some extra writers so I’m expecting a major push on the blog side of KilkennyMusic.com for 2007, you can already put aside that 2008 Best Music Blog award for me Damien 🙂
10. Event Ireland Blog – I’m currently working on the theme, it will be sorted out, with the content back live, at the end of the holidays.

Another list of 10 things from myself, this time its ten non-Irish blogs that I read on a daily (or almost daily) basis. A good bunch of tech/web blogs, a nice music blog, and one for Lost fans.

1. Micropersuasion – Steve Rubel
2. Techcrunch – Mike Arrington
3. Engadget
4. VentureBeat (formerly SiliconBeat)
5. Business Opportunities – Dane Carlson
6. Cyber Journalist
7. The Lost Blog by Andreas Climent
8. The Unofficial Apple Weblog
9. Regnyouth (great for music)
10. Successful Blog – Liz Strauss

Here we go, 10 things about me…

1. I hold a First Class Honours Degree in Information Technology (with a Diploma in Multimedia Applications Development), courtesy of Waterford Institute of Technology
2. I’m a massive fan of 24.
3. I would love to release a solo album. Just have to get the material together. And maybe a small orchestra as well.
4. If there’s a microwave curry going, I’ll throw a bag of cheese and onion crisps into it, its brilliant!
5. I love Indian food, Lamb Madras being my favourite dish.
6. I spend way too much time on the internet.
7. I’ve a serious dislike for dentists.
8. Needles freak the shit out of me – having blood drawn is a laugh, especially the coeliac tests last year. Six needles straight – ha!
9. I registered as an organ doner years ago and carry a card with me (quite faded now that its been through several wallets). I’d gladly give up everything – but my eyes.
10. I once had 34 email accounts. Now I try and keep it to around 10 or so.

So we’re finishing work this afternoon for the holidays and seen as I’m going away tomorrow for a week or so I’m organising a little series called ’10 things’ which will take from tomorrow and over the following ten days right up to New Years Eve (I should be back in Kilkenny the day before). Sneaking off to the family home in Sligo (we bought a place up there a few years ago, last year it became more a ‘home’ than a ‘house’ if you get me) so it’ll give a nice break away for a week or so from this coming Saturday.

I won’t be answering any mail from Saturday onwards until the 29th at the very earliest.

As for ’10 things’ I be going for ten different lists including my top ten albums of the years, gigs of the year, software, blogs, songs, something handy and a bit different for the festive season. Now, just gotta write all these posts…. If you’re thinking on doing something the same, I’m tagging (for technorati) everything with “10+things”, you know yourself.