Le Cochon Bleu. BLUE PIG CHANNEL

1. Trying, however (very) slowly and (so far very) modestly, to grapple with HOME FILM PRODUCTION. In 5 yrs time will this be a world of people with the know-how & skills, the easy ability, to go & produce any fully 'professional' quality video on request within days? A music video accompaniment, a product commercial ad, an artistic short film, a community society presentation? (More likely 25 yrs time before I'd count myself having such skills!) Camcorder & home editing culture surely means, because of persons' interest & hobby, the world has many who could easily replace those who make film we see on TV. An easy availability of technology & the new age in communications mean the world is changing beyond recognition. 25 years ago, a 'western' country called United Kingdom had 4 channels and, for nearly everyone, film media choice was the same. In all aspects of what was / can be broadcast, from social + political comment to cultural activity to comedy, news, movies. A bygone era. While those 4 channels keep a significant stranglehold (still typical in many countries) it's strange for me to find that quality & choice of their programmes has declined substantially within those 25 years, the very time when the channels' monopoly of film media viewing began to disappear. Many hope that broader choice in film media can lead to better quality & greater integrity in professional broadcasting. While yesterday (June '10) I find Stephen Fry's admirable comments that The BBC years ago ceased producing nearly any decent drama for adults + often screens nothing adult at all in the evenings.

2. SHARING RARE / OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE RECORDINGS that mean a lot to me where possible. And PROMOTING CERTAIN SPECIAL INTEREST RECORDINGS that are available.

PARTICULAR INTERESTS:
House / Club dance music, & what people call Classical Music but which I prefer to call Art Music. Also independent & artistic film making. And using film to communicate in social, political and cultural ways (as the black print of magazines and papers did, does & of course always will do even with great new media).

Blue Pig Channel laments the fact that modern, serious art music is so little heard, while is so extremely hard to promote or share. I guess much of this music will still be in copyright by when I die. This area of contemporary sound arts has so few people making listening to it a part of their lives It's a vicious circle: Music makers need copyright laws to be respected so they will be paid in their music being heard through the proper channels. But this means it is very hard to share or promote that kind of new music and music of recent decades. Then few people hear it, & the musicians must be worse off financially than they would be if more people were to come across their music & follow it. (What this means affects everyone as the vicious circle is part of a very wide thing. Most people end up only having experienced what's called "commercial" & "popular" music. What is "commercial" music? That word means that a defining element is trade & monetary profit, rather than what the sounds are & could be. So for most people, what they hear is music someone has set out particularly to make "popular" in the first place & make money from. What is "popular" is what is popular - what sells. In the thoughtful press, big music industry decision makers have often been called "cynical" about life on earth, but I guess that word doesn't even come close. Basically, however poor the stuff, they decide what much of the world will listen to.

Blue Pig Channel supports copyright laws. Most musicians need the beans they get. Income may only be "just beans" (very small), and also very unreliable. While many people want to make music not thinking about a financial return, in the end a reasonable financial return is something necessary for most people. SO WHAT TO DO? Please share advice, suggestions, whatever on this channel. (I don't know much.)

3. YouTube with YOUTUBE FAVOURTIES makes AN EXCELLENT WAY TO MAKE A RECORD of many great pieces of craft from all spheres: from home made films & clips to rare dance remix records you can't find elsewhere, to the most popular music, & to video comment about all aspects of life, culture, art, + "how to" instructional films. THIS IS THE PERSONALISED COMBINATION OF "RADIO PLAY" & TV BROADCAST FOR, OF TODAY. It's also a personalised communication context. It's possible thanks to today's popular, legal social media and promotional sharing. It means people like me can get joy in, for example, finding & experiencing brilliant recordings which I'd rarely or never hear on radio channels in a lifetime of tuning in. With my YouTube Favourites and other persons', I can, as anyone, get around to buying what's available to buy after enough listens or watches. For what isn't available to buy (for whatever reason), it's here, free + for you. The way it should be. THANK YOU 'YOUTUBE'.