Royaltech by Benn Glazier

In London

Benn — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:51:33 +0000

Inside Guildhall in the City of London

It’s been an action packed, almost frantic 4 days as we’ve been whizzing around London. Great to see the sights - you name it: St. Pauls, Westminster Abbey, Tate Modern, British Museum, Guildhall, Hampton Court Palace and so on. Also was good to catch up with a few old friends last night at The Westbourne.

I’ve been too busy to worry about photos and such! Dribs and drabs will come through as time allows - anyway, time to roll as we’re off to visit the family in Bromley today.

Sailing on Sydney Harbour

Benn — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:37:07 +0000

Last Saturday, Sydney gave us a sunny winters day for sailing on the harbour, even if it was a bit icy on the water with the wind chill. We ate. We drank, not too much mind you. There was a bit of work to be done, but not a great deal - of course.

Captain Tom and crew

Postcards from Sydney

View the photos from the day on Flickr.

Warm Leatherette

Benn — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:16:03 +0000

Not Grace Jones, not Chicks on Speed, it’s Trent Reznor, Jeordie White and Peter Murphy.

Apple Opens in Sydney

Benn — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:21:14 +0000

An amazing amount of hype and fanboyism surrounded the opening of the new Apple store in Sydney this week. About three hours before the opening, with my new camera in hand I went down to take some photos, and to get a taste of the buzz.

The Apple store occupies the lower three floors of a new office tower at 77 King Street (however, Apple note the store as being on George Street as the entrance is there). The façade consists of sheets of plate glass — which according to Ron Johnson, Senior VP of Retail for Apple, are made in Munich and are the largest sheets of plate glass in the world at more than 15 meters in height. There’s no question, it’s an impressive building, and it’s great to see new development bringing some interest to George Street, a street quite bereft of any thing of interest — after all, isn’t World Square a fantastic destination!

I was also curious about the hype — I could understand the fuss, but not get “into it” I’ve never been a huge fan of Apple products themselves, in fact I’ve only owned an Apple iPod shuffle which was a gift, and I don’t use it - the main reason being that I loathe iTunes (oh… and I recently purchased Quicktime Pro - does that count?). However, I am a fan of everything Apple does from a marketing perspective, from advertising, the experience, the website (for its excellent usability).

View the photos on Flickr.

In the Listening Booth This Week

Benn — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:09:07 +0000

Spank Rock at Sydney Festival - January 2008

I gave FabricLive33 an absolute thrashing this week, so you’ll see a favouring of the tracks from the CD below in my chart of most listened to for the week. If you’ve seen them live, or even if you haven’t, and are just familiar with their playful Baltimore sound, then this CD might surprise, not for it’s lack of playfulness - far from it, but it’s a fusion of many styles, a genre-smash of techno, old school breaks, guitars, electro (not electro-house) and even some progressive rock!

Mr. Oizo – Nazis (Justice Mix)
Dominatrix – The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight
KW Griff – Good Man
Metro Area – Orange Alert (DFA remix)
The Romantics – Talking In Your Sleep
Uffie – Hot Chick (Feadz edit)
CSS – Let’s Make Love And Listen To Death From Above (Spank Rock Remix)
Kurtis Blow – The Breaks
Simian Mobile Disco – Hustler
Rick Ross – Hustlin’
Matthew Dear – Fleece On Brain