[COLUMN/KOLUMNA] Mind the Gap by Sara Al Hamad: Gebeurtenissen/Događaji

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Gebeurtenissen

Christmas is coming, winter is not. People are running wild on Oxford Street, there are more and more events as December approaches and I am having trouble keeping track of everything I want to see and do, but at least I am still able to run around without my winter jacket and have a pint in the open without losing a finger, so all is well!

This week I decided to check out an interesting project between Abbey Road Studios and Ralph Lauren hosted by Selfridges that led to the creation of a pop-up recording studio. Thanks to the Beatles, Pink Floyd and many others, Abbey Road Studios is probably the most famous recording studio in the world so it did seem strange they were offering their Song Shack to record a track completely free of charge, but I went anyway. When I got there, I expected to see a queue of musicians waiting to record, but it was only 2 people recording inside. I started chatting to a girl who worked there and she explained you can only record existing songs from their offered catalogue made of 30 songs in total, so it was not really what I expected to find. Nevertheless, it was all very nice and fancy, and if I cared for fashion I would probably have much more fun.

Even though my plan A didn’t really go as I thought it would, it inspired me to google for online recording studios, and this is where my main discovery of the week happened. They are called Pirate Studios and they just secured an investment of $20 million. This UK-based company operates as a self-service music studio. Sounds unbelievable, I know, but it’s real and it’s all happening in the glorious world of music tech. If their plans work out the way they imagined, these type of studios could really do a solid to a bunch of musicians out there. Distribution controlled by record labels is slowly going into history and I am quite excited to see how it all turns out after these artists of the modern age shake up the market.

Source: piratestudios.co.uk

In order to celebrate this new discovery and the fact I decided to join the tech world which is providing me with so many new skills on a daily basis, I went to one of London’s favorite venues for clubbing – Oval Space. Located in the hipster hills of Bethnal Green, this enormous hangar-style place oversees a disused gasworks off Hackney Road, which is always praised by everyone as “such a beautiful sight”. I imagine if they saw Sisak or Karlovac, they would probably start crying how “beautiful” everything is.

There are some strange standards for beauty in this city, honestly. I also went to a famous queer place before going to the club, and I could touch the ceiling with my hand, there were no windows and the projector was projecting some really cool stuff – on a wall niche. Really strange things are considered gorg here, so that just might be a good sign I found a place I could fit in. Happy days!

Until next Monday, I am leaving you with an artist I have been listening for the past 2 days, non stop – haters, let me be, and you magnificent pop beauties – enjoy! (meanwhile the song was removed from the YouTube)

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Događaji

Božić dolazi, ali ne i zima. Ljudi kao sumanuti lutaju Oxford Streetom, sve je više događanja u nadolazećem prosincu, a ja imam problema s hvatanjem svega onoga što želim vidjeti i učiniti. Ali makar i dalje uspijevam hodati okolo bez zimske jakne i nastojim ne uhvatiti neku prehladu ili virozu, tako da je za sada sve u redu.

Ovog tjedna sam odlučila provjeriti zanimljivi projekt između Abbey Road Studios i Ralpha Laurena organiziranog od strane Selfridgesa, a koji je doveo do pop-up studija za snimanje. Zahvaljujući Beatlesima, Pink Floydima i mnogima drugima, Abbey Road Studios je vjerojatno najpoznatiji glazbeni studio na svijetu, tako da se činilo čudnim što nude svoju glazbenu baraku za potpuno besplatno snimanje pjesme, ali sam ipak otišla tamo. Kad sam stigla očekivala sam brdo glazbenika koji čekaju u redu za snimanje, ali samo je dvoje ljudi snimalo unutra. Krenula sam razgovarati s djevojkom koja radi tamo i objasnila mi je da možeš snimiti samo postojeću pjesmu iz njihovog kataloga koji se sastoji od ukupno 30 pjesama. Tako da ipak nije bilo onako kako sam očekivala. U konačnici je sve bilo vrlo lijepo i elegantno, a da imalo vodim računa o modi vjerojatno bih se još više zabavila.

Iako moj plan A nije išao onim tijekom kojim sam mislila da će ići, inspirirao me da proguglam o online glazbenim studijima i to je bilo moje otkriće tjedna. Zovu se Pirate Studios i upravo su osigurali investiciju od 20 milijuna dolara. Ova kompanija koja je smještena u Velikoj Britaniji vodi samouslužni glazbeni studio. Zvuči nevjerojatno, znam, ali je stvarno i sve se odvija u slavnom svijetu glazbene tehnologije. Ako sve bude išlo prema njihovom planu, ovakva vrsta studija bi mogla stvarno koristiti velikom broju glazbenika. Distribucija glazbe koju kontroliraju izdavačke kuće polako odlazi u povijest i zaista sam uzbuđena što ću svjedočiti kako će se stvari odvijati nakon što ovi umjetnici modernog doba uzdrmaju tržište.

Izvor: piratestudios.co.uk

Kako bih proslavila ovo novo otkriće i činjenicu što sam se odlučila pridružiti svijetu tehnologije koji mi pruža puno novih vještina na dnevnoj bazi, otišla sam u najdraže londonsko klupsko odredište – Oval Space. Smješten na brežuljcima Bethnal Greena, ovo ogromno mjesto u stilu hangara nalazi se iznad neiskorištenih plinara Hackney Roada, a svi tvrde kako je ovo mjesto koje uvijek „pruža najljepši pogled“. Zamišljam kako bi bilo da tek vide Sisak ili Karlovac, vjerojatno bi počeli plakati kako je sve oko njih „prelijepo“.

Postoje neki čudni standardi za ljepotu u ovom gradu, iskreno. Prije nego što sam otišla u klub posjetila sam slavno mjesto queerovaca i tamo sam mogla dodirnuti strop svojim rukama. Ujedno nije bilo niti jednog prozora, a projektor je prikazivao neke stvarno cool stvari – na zidnoj niši. Vrlo čudne stvari se ovdje smatraju predivnima, tako da bi to mogao biti dobar znak kako sam pronašla mjesto u koje bih se mogla uklopiti. Sretni dani!

Do sljedećeg ponedjeljka, ostavljam vas uz glazbenicu koju slušam zadnja dva dana konstantno – hejteri, ostavite me na miru, a vi veličanstvene pop ljepotice – uživajte! (u međuvremenu je pjesma uklonjena s YouTube-a).

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