Cuttlefish - both a commercial side and arts site - has been working hard over the past few months on a number of new initiatives. These are now starting to see the light of day with the announcement of Leicester.TV and Pineapster 2.0. We will be releasing full information about these shortly - but take it from us, they're going to be good!

Resonance was an early digital arts group involving Geoff Broadway, Noel Douglas and Sean Clark. Geoff maintains an archive of some of our work on his Web site.

I went to see Chumbawamba play an acoustic set as part of the 'Big Session' festival at De Montfort Hall in Leicester on Sunday.

I've been something of a fan of the band for many years (in fact, I was amazed to realise that I bought my first Chumba album in 1988) and have seen them play as an 'electric' band many times. This, however, was the first time I'd seen them in this stripped-down formation.

While I still think nothing beats the full-on live electric Chumbawamba experience, the show was excellent. They mostly played stuff from the older 'Rebel Songs' and two most recent albums, and reminded me - if I needed reminding - just how good they are at mixing pop/folk with an uncompromising political message.

'Flow' was and installation by Geoff Groadway and Sean Clark which took place at the Q Gallery in Derby in 2000. It explored elements of personal change and transformation through a continued interest in the creative possibilities of the oral-history document and experimental moving image and sound techniques. A record of the installation is now available.

Cuttlefish has been involved in two shows at the National Space Centre in Leicester (UK) this year.

The first was the SofaLofa show in the 360 degree 'Space Theatre' in March, and the second was the Moving Science project which culminated in a live show at various locations around the Centre in May.

In both cases the Space Centre was excellent and the support we had from staff was first rate. If you are interested in knowing more about the venue then visit their Web site at www.spacecentre.co.uk.

Readers of my blog may know that I've developed a bit of a liking for the Balkans. In fact, I've just come back from my latest trip to north-west Bulgaria (up near the Romanian border).

During my travels I took this picture of some local transport. Despite on-going 'modernisation' and being on the verge of EU membership, donkeys and carts are a common site on roads outside of (and sometimes in) Bulgarian and Romanian cities.

Amongst the highlights of this latest journey was a visit to the Danube town of Sillistra - very unspoilt by tourisim, yet friendly to visitors.

I'm already looking forward to my next trip.

I've uploaded an archive of pictures taken at the Solar Eclipse festival near Lusaka in Zambia in 2001. I took them while touring with Zion Train.

Due to the large number of 'spam' comments (74 on one recent post!) I'm switching off the comments feature on the Cuttlefish Blog. Thanks to all those who have posted genuine messages in the past, but until I find a technical way of preventing spammers posting their obscenities I'm afraid my blog will only be 'one way'.

I went to see Calexico and Iron and Wine at the Manchester Academy last night.

For the uninitiated, Calexico have an eclectic sound that spans Ennio Morricone-esc soundscapes and cowboy ballads, through jazzy Mexicana and Californian post-rockness. Iron and Wine are focussed around the massively-bearded Samuel Beam and are more rooted in the lo-fi sound.

The night started with Iron and Wine setting the atmosphere in style. They were then joined on stage by Calexico and the two bands played numbers from their recent collaborative EP 'In the Reins'. Then both bands left the stage and after a short, 5 minute, break Calexico returned for a full set of their own.

Starting with some great Mexican-style tunes, with lots of brass and guitars, they went through a good mix of songs from their back-catalogue as well as from their new album 'Garden Ruin'. Finally, for the encore, they were joined by Iron and Wine again for a bit of a jam.

It was a great night and I can't wait to see one or both bands again. Coincidently, Calexico are playing at this year's Summer Sundae in Leicester, so it looks like I won't have to wait too long.

I've found a copy of the Web site that I did to support the 'Birmingham Frequencies' CD-ROM that came with the Higher Intelligence Agency / Biosphere album of the same name. To quote the introduction text:

"Birmingham frequencies is a record of an event which took place in Oct '97, within the sublime circular rhythms of Birmingham's modern architectural classic - The Rotunda. the second best loved structure in Birmingham after King Kong."

It was a great event to be involved in and I still think the music and multimedia work stands up to this day.