1. The Seldom Seen Kid - Elbow
Some of the most beautiful melodies I’ve ever heard, coupled with witty, clever and narrative lyrics make this one of my favourite albums of all time, never mind the 00’s.
Favourite track: Mirrorball

2. The Last Resort - Trentemoller
Trentemoller ruled clubland in the mid naughties, his cool, glitchy productions spawning a legion of imitators. His album tones things down somewhat for headphone rather than Funktion 1 listening, creating a cohesive journey that’s epic, haunting and ethereal.
Favourite track: Miss You

3. Whatever people say I am that’s what I’m not - Arctic Monkeys
I’m a sucker for smart, funny lyrics and this delivers via a raw, energetic and powerful sound perfect for lounge room pogo-ing.
Favourite track: When the sun goes down

4. Only by the night - Kings of Leon
Just great rock songs, I’d moved away from guitar driven music until this drew me right back into the mosh pit.
Favourite track: Use somebody

5. Chromophobia - Gui Boratto
Gui Boratto is my favourite electronic music producer of the minute, pioneering the way for what I’d call a kind of ’symphonic techno’, melodic and beautiful with a 808 driving its heartbeat.
Favourite track: Beautiful life

6. Ringleader of the tormentors - Morrissey
I was never really into the Smiths at school, the scene’s depressing culture and high hair never really appealed. Which is shit really, because I’d missed out on some enjoying some truly brilliant songwriting. So, late to the party, I started my Morrissey man-crush with this album.
Favourite track: Life is a pigsty

7. Morning Sci-fi - Hybrid
Hybrid are the masters of infusing dance music with the drama of orchestral movie scores, and this album follows on from the genre-creating Wide Angle with more of the same. They were performing this album live just after my first ever mainroom gig at Turnmills too which gives it an extra special place in my heart.
Favourite track: True to form

8. White Pony - Deftones

Balls-out thrash metal tempered with some really quite beautiful melodies, I listened to this album on repeat every snowboarding trip for years.

Favourite track: Feiticeira

9. Come with us - The Chemical Brothers

Despite not quite living up to the glorious auditory journey that was Surrender, this was still a bloody good Chems album with a few sublime tracks.
Favourite track: Star Guitar

10. Back to black - Amy Winehouse
I love soul music, and with Amy’s cheeky lyrics and stunning voice, this is a treat. What a voice.
Favourite track: Tears dry on their own

Listen to them all on Spotify

Track is “Del Pago” - Gustavo Santaolalla (he did the soundtrack for The Motorcycle Diaries and 21 Grams.

Menorca, Spain 2009 from Mark Sun on Vimeo.

My fishtank - trying out my Xacti HD1000 and iMovie from Mark Sun on Vimeo.

Track: “Window” by The Album Leaf

I don’t think an online movement has ever attracted the kind of naked contempt and sometimes actual anger that Twitter does, from those who don’t understand it.

So when I have a friend who is asking incredulously why I waste my precious time on Tweetie or Tweetdeck, this is how I try to explain it.

It’s not a glorified Facebook status

I think much of the confusion comes about as a result of people viewing it as a social networking tool. I don’t believe that Twitter is about conversation, like Facebook or discussion forums or even instant messenger. As the term ‘microblogging’ suggests, the focus is much more about broadcasting.

It’s is about sharing valuable stuff; news, opinion, ideas, entertainment (for some of us hearing somebody rant about their tube journey constitutes entertainment).

No, I’m not interested in what Britney had for breakfast either

So if Twitter is a multi-million-channel broadcast network, then you simply need to choose which channels you find most valuable. If you don’t want to know celebrity gossip or the latest football transfer rumours or the finer points of fluid dynamics, then choose accordingly. After all, one man’s tube rant is another’s comedic gold.

There are no lead times to sharing

Not even the time it takes to write a blog post like this. That valuable stuff I mentioned earlier can be sharing instantaneously, in some cases making that valuable stuff even more useful.

It allows valuable stuff to travel across our natural spheres of connectedness

You don’t have to create valuable stuff in order to create value - the Retweet allows this valuable stuff to quickly jump the usual barriers to word-of-mouth, utilising a myriad number of people who overlap into different circles of influence. This is why an idea can spread so quickly across the Twitterverse.

It feels good to share

Whether it’s the cynic’s opinion that everybody wants their 15 seconds of internet fame, or a more humanist one, that everyone wants to feel that they’re contributing to the greater good; there’s no denying the personal satisfaction when something you have found or created begins to spread through the community. It’s kind of addictive. But that’s ok, because it means more people will share more valuable stuff more often.

So that’s what I reckon Twitter is for - probably the only slightly controversial thing I’ve said is that Twitter isn’t about conversation. However, as with this blog post, there’s always an opportunity to discuss something that’s been shared - so it’d be great to hear what you think.

Classical marketing has always been fond of useful mnemonics. Acronymic devices from our AIDAs to our SWOTs to our PESTs have given us a way of structuring strategic considerations, variables and ideas. Of course, probably the most famous and ubiquitous of all is the 4Ps of marketing.

At Saint, we wanted something just as simple that applied to engaging an audience in the age of digital. We wanted a way to distil the inherently complex and fast-moving landscape of human and corporate relationships in a million-channel environment into a topline playbook that reminds us of the key components for any engagement strategy. We wanted to create a structure that looked to the enduring truths of human interaction rather than the specific technologies that might be in vogue at any point in time, so that corporations have the strategic confidence to invest in a rapidly evolving space.

So without further ado, please let us introduce you to the 4Cs of brand engagement; Conversation, Culture, Collaboration and Compensation.

Conversation:

This has been the most seismic shift for ad men and brands to adapt to – understanding that brands are most powerful not when they exist in beautifully produced TVCs and pithy advertising slogans, but when they form part of the stories their consumers are telling.

This first, most vital C is about the need for brands to listen to, participate in, stimulate and in some cases facilitate conversations. We believe the iconic brands of the future will act more like a person than a corporation, empowering their own employees to engage in micro-conversations with consumers wherever these may be taking place.

Culture:

So brands must, more than ever, exist in conversation. This means that simply having a ‘positioning’, a set of key messages and an endline is not enough to get consumers to understand and buy in to your brand (arguably this has always been the case, it’s just more visible now that conversations are stored online).

Instead, branding must be viewed within the context of multichannel touchpoints, some of which are ‘owned’ by a us, many that are not. The only way to create the kind of consistency of meaning for a brand in this environment is by defining and continually demonstrating what a brand stands for. Understanding how you translate what your brand stands for for a variety of situations is absolutely key, because people don’t form their opinion of brands via the advertising they see.

Of course, to get this right is not just a marketing endeavour but will have organisation-wide ramifications, but starting with a communications strategy is a great first step.

Collaboration:

However brand culture isn’t something that can solely be defined by marketing departments and ad agencies. The strongest brands allow their consumers to co-own and co-create this culture, and this C is about the need to try to drive not just attention but also participation in order to really connect. The meaning of a brand means much more when framed through personal experiences - and the best way facilitate this is by getting our audience to join in.

Giving consumers a sense of ownership over the brand and its assets not just deepens engagement but is also more likely to breed advocates and evangelists.

Compensation:

Last but certainly not least is the need to make sure we reward our audience for their time and attention. With the decreasing focus on interruptive styles of communication it becomes foundational to think about the “what’s in it for them” question – and base any tactical execution on real consumer value.

Whether this value comes in the form of entertainment, utility, a platform for self-expression, information or monetary, brands really do have an obligation to ensure their marketing has a reason for being in the eyes of the consumer.

So there are Saint’s 4Cs of brand engagement – hardly prescriptive but we hope helpful at highlighting the key areas to address in order to encourage users to love your brand.

1. Timing - Guy Gerber // Cocoon

2. Emergency (Rafael Noronha & Re Dupre remix) - Anderson Noise // Lo Kik

3. Klin - Dusty Kid // Boxer

4. Chair Ethics (Dale Anderson mix) - Anil Chawla // CD-R

5. Schizophonic - Audiojack // 2020 Vision

6. Qwerty Poema - Jurek Przezdziecki // Cocoon

7. Ghost Song (Prompt remix) - Slam // Soma

8. El diamante (reix mix) - Jesus Balza // Reix

9. Bomoh - D Dub // Takt

10. Violente - Anthony Collins / Tolga Fidan // Vakant

So I thought I’d share a selection of the interesting people I’ve started following, please feel free to leave more in the comments

UPDATED 16.01.09

@Wossy / jonathan ross

@russellbrand / Russell Brand

@EddieIzzard / Eddie Izzard

@JohnCleese / John Cleese

@neilhimself / Neil Gaiman

@stephenfry / Stephen Fry

@darthvader / Darth Vader

@NotHenryRollins / Fake Henry Rollins

@HolyGod / God

@SteveJobs / Steve Jobs

@technorati / Technorati

@paulocoelho/ Paulo Coelho

@JoshuaDavis/ Joshua Davis

@wired/ Wired News

and:

Planners, digital marketeers and social media types;

@jasonlonsdale / Jason Lonsdale

@simonsilvester / simon silvester

@paulisakson / Paul Isakson

@chrisbrogan / Chris Brogan

@Samosaone / Raj Samuel

@meat99 / Tom Ajello

@PSFK / Piers Fawkes

@iaintait / Iain Tait

@mashable/ Pete Cashmore

@faris/ TIGS

@joshspear/ Josh Spear™

@Floheiss/ Flo Heiss

@bigspaceship/ Michael Lebowitz

@dandad/ D&AD

@agencyspy / Industry Gossip

Twitter helpers and services:

@MrTweet/ Mr Tweet

@Twitter_Tips/ Tips, Tools, Status

Ok perhaps I’m exaggerating a tad, but this is a pretty exciting little application, allowing you to create actors and sets in order to make your own animated movie. Some of the efforts from the community are reasonably alright, considering they were made with a free desktop application.

So with technology like Emily becoming a reality, how long until consumers will be able to create their own photo-realistic computer animations? Increasingly creativity and talent will become the only barrier to entry for yet another creative medium..

Wikipedia is completely run by volunteers, but there are costs associated
with running such a big site. They are looking to raise some money to help
keep them going for another year, so if you love wikipedia (and who
doesn’t), then you can donate here:

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate/Now/en

Go on, you’ll feel all warm and gooey inside.