Ross Mayfield attempts to explain the features benefits and disadvantages of the asymmetric sharing model used by the new Google+ network. Visual Guide to Circles in Google+ by @ross View more presentations from Ross MayfieldView more presentations from Ross MayfieldI’m beginning to feel that Google+ is going to become a step up for those who prefer networks, but a further departure for those who prefer groups. It all depends what features they bring in later.My own profile is at http://gplus.to/andyroberts using the vanity url creator at http://gplus.to/Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogGoogle+ Asymmetric SharingRelated posts:Google+ for MobileGoogle cheat sheet – embedded pdf viewer from edocrSearchWiki from Google is LIVE

Bob Dylan on his own websites claims the authorities did not censor his setlist for the recent China concerts.

This article titled “Bob Dylan posts web message about China shows” was written by Caspar Llewellyn Smith, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 13th May 2011 18.12 UTC Confounding seasoned Bob Dylan fans, the 69-year old song and dance man has posted a message on his official website addressing the controversy surrounding his concerts in China in April. Dylan has never previously communicated with his followers in this way, but he has now refuted the suggestion that he allowed the Chinese government to censor his setlist.   Several critics – if not all – questioned his motivation, including New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who wrote that Dylan “sang his censored set, took his pile of Communist cash and left.”   In response to such accusations, Dylan wrote on bobdylan.com that the Chinese authorities had not refused him permission to play there, and while “according to Mojo magazine the concerts were attended mostly by ex-pats”, there were not many empty seats and this was not true. “If anybody wants to check with any of the concert-goers they will see that it was mostly Chinese young people that came,” he continued.   Dylan added: “The Chinese press did tout me as a 60s icon, however, and posted my picture all over the place with Joan Baez, Che Guevara, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. The concert attendees probably wouldn’t have known about any of those people. Regardless, they responded enthusiastically to the songs on my last four or five records. Ask anyone who was there. They were young and my feeling was that they wouldn’t have known my early songs anyway.”   In respect to the idea that the Chinese government vetted the setlist, Dylan wrote: “We played all the songs that we intended to play”.   The singer turns 70 on 24 May, and with an oblique reference to the happy occasion, the sometime author and radio show host concluded this novel missive: “Everybody knows by now that there’s a gazillion books on me either out or coming out in the near future. So I’m encouraging anybody who’s ever met me, heard me or even seen me, to get in on the action and scribble their own book. You never know, somebody might have a great book in them.”

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Has Bob Dylan actually stood for anything for the last 40 years or so?

This article titled “MoDo on Bob Dylan and protest” was written by Michael Tomasky, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 11th April 2011 16.43 UTC Maureen Dowd took a widely noted whack at Bob Dylan yesterday, for allegedly agreeing to submit his set list to censors in the People’s Republic of China before he played his first-ever gig there. She seemed upset that he didn’t play “Blowin’ in the Wind.” In return, she’s getting whacked herself left and right today. Jim Fallows had a go yesterday, noting that Dylan did in fact perform a few of his more subversive songs and that his contacts in China didn’t see the matter through Dowd’s lens at all. Here’s something from the Examiner: There is no evidence that Dylan was censored at all in China. Where is the investigative journalism ? Someone speculated in the press, and it is now reported as “fact”. Where is the original document or announcement? There is not even a clear consensus as to why last year’s concert didn’t take place. It certainly wasn’t canceled, since it was never confirmed. Dylan’s “censored” set list was actually pretty standard. Dozen’s of articles – published before Dowd’s – used “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times, They Are-Changin’” as examples of “censored” songs that Dylan did not perform, while Dowd suggested another “protest” song that Dylan “should” have sung. Here are the facts: *”Blowin’ In The Wind” was performed only ten times last year. *”Times” was performed only once in 2010 – at a special White House performance. *”Hurricane” has not been performed since 1976 (35 years ago!)! That’s amazing about “Hurricane.” I guess that would have been the Rolling Thunder Revue tour, is that right? In any case, a) Dylan hasn’t been a “protest figure” for about 40 years, even 45, really, and b) even if he did sing “Blowin’ in the Wind,” and even putting the language barrier aside, no one could understand a single word the guy says these days, so what difference would it make? I think I’ve seen Dylan four times, maybe five. The first was 1978, the Street Legal tour, his “Vegas” era. But it was still a good show, and I remember “Tangled Up in Blue” as a highlight. But he has long had this penchant of course for rearranging his songs to such an extent that you had to listen for a minute or even two before you even knew what it was. When he toured with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, I went to see him at Madison Square Garden, with a good friend of mine (who might be reading this very post), and another buddy of his, a guy I didn’t know. As we were on the subway heading home, I said: “I really liked hearing ‘Masters of War.’” A confused and sad look crossed the face of the third guy, my friend’s friend: “He played ‘Masters of War’?” That was the thing. You couldn’t tell. I caught a snippet of lyric in about the third verse that I knew. So even if he’d played “Masters of War” in China, he’d likely have done it in such a way that people wouldn’t have heard its message anyhow. Which brings us to a central point about Dylan that I think Dowd missed. He’s intentionally enigmatic, and it’s precisely when someone wants him to do X that he will go out of his way to do Not X. Not that it even really matters that much anymore in his case, but just for the record. And, just for the record, my most beloved Dylan music is The Basement Tapes. Not a political word on it. Could listen to it forever.

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For Andy Roberts Podcast #32 we have the full set of songs performed live in front of an audience at the Four Seasons Folk Club, in West London on Saturday February 5th, 2011. This was ...

Last Tuesday I rushed out from finishing my podcast Episode 15 and caught the train to Romford, just like so many times on Wednesdays, except this was to visit Romford Folk Club. It’s a ...

Andy Roberts podcast on UK Podcasts

Andy Roberts podcast on podomatic

Following on from the Podcast idea a few weeks back I promised to post again telling you how to subscribe in iTunes or get the podcast automatically delivered to the podcast player of your choice. We’ve had four podcast prototypes broadcast and published already and the show is ready to go live on Tuesday July 6th, at 7.00pm UK time so this is quite short notice for anybody who didn’t manage to keep up over at ustream

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RSVP on Facebook at facebook.com/event.php?eid=131126593587441 The website hosting the podcasts is over at andyroberts.me and there’s a post about the official opening night which says:

After 4 weeks of prototyping, the music podcast goes LIVE in July and we’re celebrating with an official opening night on Tuesday July 6th. So come along to the ustream page promptly for 7.00pm UK time to get your requests in, hang out with other podcast listeners and be part of my opening night recorded for posterity here at http://andyroberts.me/

Podcast Launch

Building the Opening Night It would be nice to have a bit of a crowd along for the opening night just to get the regular weekly podcasting off to a good start so I’ve created a facebook Event for this particular show which you can invite people to. I’ll also be making a post over on my long established blog site at DARnet Andy Roberts and one or two other places if I can think of them. The podcast opening night will also be part of the Cafe Noodle July Ustream Festival, a great music community organised by Matt Stevens Loop. I think it should be possible to embed the ustream show here on this site – so that’s something I’ll be having a go at too.

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Following on from the Podcast idea a few weeks back I promised to post again telling you how to subscribe in iTunes or get the podcast automatically delivered to the podcast player of your choice. We’ve had four podcast prototypes broadcast and published already and the show is ready to go live on Tuesday July 6th, at 7.00pm UK time so this is quite short notice for anybody who didn’t manage to keep up over at ustream

subscribe in iTunes

RSVP on Facebook at facebook.com/event.php?eid=131126593587441 The website hosting the podcasts is over at andyroberts.me and there’s a post about the official opening night which says:

After 4 weeks of prototyping, the music podcast goes LIVE in July and we’re celebrating with an official opening night on Tuesday July 6th. So come along to the ustream page promptly for 7.00pm UK time to get your requests in, hang out with other podcast listeners and be part of my opening night recorded for posterity here at http://andyroberts.me/

Podcast Launch

Building the Opening Night It would be nice to have a bit of a crowd along for the opening night just to get the regular weekly podcasting off to a good start so I’ve created a facebook Event for this particular show which you can invite people to. I’ll also be making a post over on my long established blog site at DARnet Andy Roberts and one or two other places if I can think of them. The podcast opening night will also be part of the Cafe Noodle July Ustream Festival, a great music community organised by Matt Stevens Loop. I think it should be possible to embed the ustream show here on this site – so that’s something I’ll be having a go at too.

Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogPodcast Live

Related posts:Podcast Ustream.tv Tuesday Nights Andy Roberts Music 7.00pm Gordon Brown Never a Frown

Andy Roberts - Highway Blues - Havering Folk Club