Chatting to people queueing for the gig, we all agreed that explaining to friends what we were doing over the weekend was an impossible task. To those unfamiliar with Amanda Palmer it is difficult to convey how much more than the average gig her concerts tend to be. Event is a more appropriate word, as evidenced by the large number of elaborately garbed fans that made many of us feel horribly underdressed. On Saturday evening I saw amorous puppet replicas of Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman, a mobile piano mounted upon a bizarre pedal-cycle contraption, and upon Amanda's arrival, the top being set alight as she proceeded to play a flaming piano. Bear in mind this was all before we had even entered the venue. The photo gallery will give you some idea.

Musically her solo work is a logical progression post-Dresden Dolls. Her former band was already a stripped down two-piece affair (most arrangements were for piano, drums and vocals), describing their genre as "Brechtian Punk Cabaret". Her solo work is arguably less Brechtian, but the punk cabaret and bare-bones sound remains in full force. It really lets the colourful wit of her sometimes playful, sometimes intense lyrics shine. Although the content of her songs may seem at odds with a church, the interior of the Union Chapel, with its gothic Victorian architecture, stunningly lit in blues and purples, was the perfect venue.

Polly Scattergood offered a good supporting set despite the limited material she has released so far. Most interesting to me was actually a stunningly honest unreleased song which suggests she has plenty more ground to cover in future albums. Amanda began both her main set and encore with a capella renditions that showcased how tightly impressive her voice can be, particularly in the emotionally charged cover of Tori Amos' Me and a Gun. The rest of the set covered her solo album and several classic Dresden Dolls songs, as well as requests from the audience and even dipping into classical piano (mostly as a challenge to herself). All the while an artist was painting a large canvas at the back of the stage, the resulting artwork auctioned off at the end of the gig. Such was my enthralment with the entire night that I very nearly ended up spending £350 on it (it went for £450 in the end).

It was broken up by "Ask Amanda" segments, a Q&A via written questions dropped in a box before the gig. Her genial responses covered her experiences of the English and the unfairness of dating Neil Gaiman — catching up on each other's careers meant she handed him 3 CDs to listen to, while he passed her two large boxes of his collected works. Speaking of Neil, he was travelling with her too and took on singing duties for a tongue-in-cheek "hymn" that contrasted comically with our surroundings as the entire audience broke into (slightly nervous) laughter. Her gigs inevitably feel like "Amanda and friends", drawing in all the interesting creative people she has recently met. It is a testament to her generous spirit that her immediate desire is to share these talented individuals with her fans, and that is what makes her a beautiful person and her performances a joy to attend.

For those interested in the music, here are Spotify links to full albums by Amanda Palmer and Polly Scattergood.

Coraline the book is a magical, creepy children’s story from Neil Gaiman about a girl who finds a hidden doorway in her house that leads to another world. Coraline the film is both a wonderful translation to the screen, a work of art, and another proud testament to the fact that stop-motion animation, while dying out, is far from gone yet. I’m going to start out with a request: please do yourselves a favour and go see it soon while it’s still in 3D screens. This will be quite unlike the gimmicky effects to which you are used, with “this is the 3D bit” moments. Instead the entire thing was shot with stereoscopic cameras so it’s all just… 3D. As if that were totally normal. The difference is that it generally adds depth by moving into the screen rather than trying to burst out of it, which is when the illusion tends to break.

Given the couple of 3D trailers preceding the film, this is a tipping point. Ice Age certainly seems to have embraced it just as fully and naturally. In fact the 3D view confused me at first, my eyes straining as I struggled to take everything in at once as I normally would with a film. Instead you should look around the scene unfolding before you, focusing on one layer at a time, just as in real life. However I'm not about to start saying that this is the future for all films, because you're losing something too: the vibrant colours do appear washed out through the polarised glasses and I suppose you lose that big screen spectacle where you can take in everything at once in a detailed 2D shot. Not to mention the unnecessary surcharge for the privilege of 3D, a bit steep for glasses they're collecting up afterwards (okay, and a digital two-level projector, but that's an investment).

There is far more to the film than this effect, of course, and more than enough to make a 2D viewing worthwhile. Stop-motion always offers something tantalisingly different from the now-standard digitally animated fare, though it is often hard to put one's finger on. And the calibre here is the very highest, directed by the legendary Henry Sellick who also helmed The Nightmare Before Christmas (despite the fact it tends to be Tim Burton of whom people first think since his writing and design permeates much of it). The painstaking process of shooting and adjusting in individual frames is almost impossible to imagine, but the result is somehow more grounded, with more precise movements and a sense of weight. It is truer here than in Corpse Bride where, arguably, the pursuit of smooth visual perfection resulted in something that looked digital. The love and care from the team at Laika often permeate the world on display before you which is a joy to behold. As their marketing revealed, these guys are artisans. And so it is that what really sticks with you from the film are the stunning environments even moreso than the characters and story which meander through them.

I won't bother dealing with the "controversy" of scaring kids, since you know my thoughts. Young kids will undoubtedly be frightened from time to time by the strangely dislocated other world which Coraline discovers. The Other Mother is suitably creepy incarnation and a perfect realisation of Coraline's adversary. Bottom line is: it'll probably scare kids and they'll love it. I must admit I was perplexed, however, by the Sellick's choice in the corpulant geriatric mild nudity of Spink and Forcible's act in the other world. While there is much for adults to enjoy, Coraline is still clearly a kids' film so it feels awkwardly out of place. On the other hand kids may not even notice.

Tomine's genius is to strip his medium of every possible type of grandiosity or indulgence, and the result is that life itself floods in.

-Jonathan Lethem

Last week I was browsing Forbidden Planet's signed books and came across Adrian Tomine, a graphic novelist with whom I was not familiar. His real world stories revolve around relationships and immediately evoke Daniel Clowes' Ghost World, in both visual style and socially awkward characters, although the subject matter is slightly less offbeat. I picked up signed copies of Shortcomings and Summer Blonde and devoured them in quick succession. Particularly interesting is Tomine's often cinematic style in which the reader feels they are watching a scene through a camera, lingering with identical panels. Scene changes are often abrupt, occuring in the middle of a line, and many conversations are joined mid-flow. From context it is always easy to extract what has been discussed previously, but the precise words are left to the reader. As contemporary fiction that just happens to use a different medium, Tomine is subtle, intelligent, easy to read and highly recommended.

While I still love my current camera lens (a Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS) there are certain things it can't do. The main issue is low-light shooting since I detest flashes. If the subject is stationary there is little problem, particularly with the lens' image stablisation, but those of the organic variety do have a tendancy to move. The trade off is then blurry shots or dark images. In short: time for a secondary lens. It didn't take much research to stumble upon Canon's EF 50mm f/1.4, a prime lens (non-zoom) that is by all accounts beautifully crafted, letting in a huge amount of light and producing incredibly sharp images. Unfortunately I wouldn't know. Nowhere in London has been able to sell me one. Because they don't have any. If any photographers out there have a secret supplier please let me know.

A few days ago I mentioned the sudden expansion of Twitter as celebrity bloggers brought it into the mainstream. It becoming mainstream, while it may be less of a "club", is no bad thing. The celebrities, however, might be. Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross both have extraordinary numbers of followers but, while both being intelligent and witty people, neither really seems to have that much to say. Rather their feeds are filled with drivel, mostly pandering to people who want to receive that one personal message from their célébrité du jour. I am not saying I have found the perfect balance for my own Twitter feed, but I also know that there is enough background noise in my life without needing to add these kinds of celebrity microblogs.

I do have one on my list though: Neil Gaiman. It's not that unnecessary minutiae do not appear in his, but the majority are interesting links related to his work and that of his acquaintances. If you must include celebrities, I strongly recommend TweetDeck which lets you organise the feeds of those you are following into multiple columns so you can separate out friends for example. By default it also keeps replies and direct messages separate so you can easily identify and respond to them. TweetDeck requires the Adobe Air platform to be installed.

Several people have asked me whether I plan to see Twilight. Because it "has vampires". The truth is that Twilight is a vampire film in much the same way that Titanic was a sailing film. Its purpose lies elsewhere. In fact the inclusion of vampires in the Twilight story can be viewed in only two ways: incidental or else an exploitation of a profitable subgenre. I do not intend to indulge its creators, though I am fascinated by the success of its marketing. In the States the books are undeniably popular in a Potter-esque way (by which I mean Harry, not Beatrix), though at least the boy wizard's adventures were reasonably well written. Here, to my knowledge, they never really took off in the same way. And yet somehow the film's marketing has convinced the public at large that this film is an event, part of a hugely popular franchise. So successfully, in fact, that it could be self-fulfilling.

Interestingly there is a vampire film I am highly anticipating, and while it too features young protagonists, it could not really be more different. Let The Right One In seems at once chilling and warm, a Swedish film about a fragile, bullied 12-year-old boy named Oskar who meets a pale, peculiar girl named Eli. By the time he discovers she is a vampire, a subtle romance has already blossomed between the pair. The image of an adult trapped within the body of an eternal child has fascinated me ever since Interview with the Vampire's Claudia, and here both the film's brooding palette and young actors seem able to convey the disconnection beautifully.

The release of the film adaptation of Neil Gaiman's delightful children's story Coraline, directed by stop-motion master Henry Sellick, is now imminent. So to celebrate you can read the entire book online for free. Neil is certainly one of the folk who understand that giving things away for free actually serves to make more money as well as generally making everyone happier, and I suppose Harper Collins make enough out of him that they're willing to give it a go.

On a related note, the Open Rights Group have put together a short informative video on the suggested European copyright duration extension and exactly why this won't help artists or consumers. It's an issue worth considering, discussing, spreading and generally opposing. Particularly in that all the major independent IP bodies who have conducted studies oppose it, and yet the European Commission has mysteriously ignored them.

While the photos are being sorted out, here are some miscellaneous musings from my trip…

I had always assumed one of the drawbacks to city living in somewhere like London was the background noise — an incessant din which prevails throughout the night. Imagine my surprise to find that the comparably insignificant town of Natchez (and even Baton Rouge on some nights) was far louder outside, with a near deafening roar from cicadas in particular, as well as creatures of that ilk. Cicadas are particularly loud insects since their "singing" is not produced by rubbing parts of their body, but rather through clicking "timbals" in their exoskeleton, the sound being amplified by using their body as a resonance chamber.

The Coca Cola issue has become more severe now that I drink it more regularly in the UK, to the point where I actually have to avoid it in the States. Most Americans are sadly (blissfully?) unaware that they are given worse Coke than anywhere else in the world. In fairness, regular travellers aside, the rest of the world is largely unaware that US Coke is so bad either. The reason is that proper Coca Cola is sugar based, but the US variety is made with cheaper corn syrup instead. This actually spans to most soft drinks there, but the flavour is particularly noticeable in cola. You have been warned. And Americans, come try the good stuff!

Jenna and I share similar views when it comes to children's books, both disliking the majority of modern drivel which is thrown at kids on the basis that so long as they are reading it's a good thing. In fact bad books can even stifle their imaginations. For example Karleigh produces all sorts of stories when playing with her toy ponies but in the bookstore, were one to cave to her whims and buy the branded tie-in pony books, she tends towards reproducing the basic stories within rather than inventing her own adventures for them.

Personally there are two things I expect from a good children's book: inventive originality to develop imagination and avoiding talking down to children. The latter means a decent vocabulary in order to expand the child's, as well as content with some sort of depth, which sort of ties into the first part. There is a strange idea that children's stories need to be obvious when in fact children are often more open to parallel imagery than adults. Neil Gaiman's books for children have always appealed to me since, as an author of adult fiction too, he does not sit down with the goal of just producing a children's book. Rather he has various ideas some of which suit novels or comics while others work best as children's books. I was glad to be able to buy a copy of The Wolves in the Walls, a personal favourite, for Karleigh.

On a related note, all parents should carry around notebooks to jot down those wonderful things their child comes out with (and an adult never could). I heard several Karleighisms during my trip that I've already forgotten and wish I had written here or elsewhere. The alternative is to attach a dictaphone to your child but that might be considered expensive, time consuming and also slightly creepy.

I mentioned the idea a while back but never mentioned that the chosen Neil Gaiman book, American Gods, is now available for free though publisher Harper Collins. For those unfamiliar with Neil's work it's a fantastic piece of fiction that follows Shadow's journey across America meeting the old gods brought over to the this melting pot country and then forgotten. It's slightly heavy but the fact it reached the top of the New York Times' best seller list is testament to its popularity. If you haven't read it I thoroughly recommend it.

Nearly as free at the negligable price of £1 is Neil's new children's book Odd and the Frost Giants. The story was written for World Book Day where children can trade £1 book vouchers for various titles written by authors who wish to promote reading without making a profit. Of course there is nothing to prevent the rest of us from enjoying this generosity and his children's fiction tends to be a light, fun read. I'm sure there are several children you can "buy it for"…

On the theme of free media is Trent Reznor's release model for the music he's produced collaborating with a wide range of artists in the latest Nine Inch Nails album. Titled Ghosts I-IV, it is available in no fewer than 5 different packages through his website. Following in the steps of Radiohead there is a completely free offering allowing anyone to download 9 tracks. For the ridiculously low price of $5 one can purchase the full 36-track collection to download. Equally cheap is the $10 2CD release (providing the digipack is as stylish as one expects from NIN) and it also offers immediate access to digital downloads. More expensive is the $75 package with a fabric slipcase and a DVD and blu-ray disc as well as the standard CD album and an art book. Finally the insane signed $300 ultimate package has already sold out (a testament to the fanaticism of the hardcore Nine Inch Nails crowd). Trent has already shown his willingness to embrace new forms of media in releasing and promoting his music but this presents an ideal model for music releases, fully empowering the consumer to choose how they wish to enjoy the product. Naturally it is bigger artists with an established fanbase who can afford to take risks like this, but if he can show it turns a real profit, hopefully we can expect to see more offerings in this style as the music industry struggles to find a new working model.

The whole social networking lark throws up quirky moments from time to time, such as Last.fm now informing me that apparently I have a high musical compatibility with Neil Gaiman. Quite how this has any bearing on the real world I am unsure, but it's still nice to know. Since I now stream a lot of media to my living room via the Xbox 360, Last.fm no longer really provides an accurate picture of what I'm listening to. Mind you, music played on portable devices while travelling was never recorded either, so it was hardly angling for a high degree of accuracy to begin with. The inherent advantage of an open platform for console development is that it would allow for such small applications to be ported over, but this is totally contrary to the current business model so for now that's a pipe dream.

When it comes to technology, and in particular mobile phones, it is no secret that I like big swanky screens. However I also really like the tactile feedback of buttons which has made me reluctant to buy into any of the first generation touchscreen devices which shun any form of old-fashioned clicking. Now Sony Ericsson's fusion in the new XPERIA X1 (which in fairness is rumoured to have been designed by the folks at HTC) looks like it might just steal my heart.

There has been a flood of mobile announcements with the Mobile World Congress kicking off in Barcelona. If full keyboards aren't your cup of tea SE's new G series "touchscreen organisers" are worth a look, while Nokia's high-end flagship model gets an upgrade in the N96.

No, he's not been incarcerated, but he is giving away some of his writing for free. To celebrate the 7th birthday of his blog the big plan is to release one of his books online gratis, for one month to start with. Interestingly which book is being left up to his readers who are encouraged to pick what they believe is the best book for new readers to be introduced to his work. Clear frontrunners are currently American Gods and Neverwhere. American Gods is undoubtedly an incredible piece of work, though arguably too heavy for an initial introduction. My personal vote goes to Smoke & Mirrors, a less well read collection of short stories, in part because they are just magical and in part because shorter chunks seems better suited than a full length novel for electronic distribution, unless one is lucky enough to own a Kindle.

This brings to mind that the fifth birthday of this very blog occurs later this year, 4th September for those paying particularly close attention. I aim to transfer over more of the old posts, having stopped a few months after the site redesign in 2005. However I'm also looking for something big to celebrate five years, but since my writing is basically made available for free I cannot really follow suit. Ideas on a postcard. Or possibly the comments if you don't want to pay for postage.

Market sellers in Camden are in trouble after a serious fire raged through over the weekend. It is now known where it started but not exactly how. Most of Camden is still open for business but this will undoubtedly affect business and the high street will remain closed for several days. I have recently been visiting Camden a lot more regularly and on my last visit was dismayed to see that the Black Rose, from where most of my youthful "accessories" came, has closed down. This is what happens when I stop paying attention…

Sort of a follow-up to yesterday's post, this features the various bits and pieces I've come across in the last couple of weeks that are worth sharing. First up is an ingeniously innovative new use of the Nintendo Wii hardware for head tracking, with a great demonstration that ought to impress even those who are not gaming-inclined. Tycho over at Penny Arcade postponed his regular blog post to show off this video, and those who know the site also know he is never one to shut up!

The American cover for The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman's next book, has been revealed. Of course following the standard trend this means we can expect something completely different here in the UK. His entire back catalogue was re-released in a single style with Anansi Boys a few years ago, with the Fragile Things collection continuing that design. It will be interesting to see if they follow suit with the new book or produce something divergent.

With a lot of buzz hovering around the imminent release of Cloverfield produced by Lost creator JJ Abrams, supposedly reinvigorating the monster film genre, people have apparently forgotten the film he is actually directing. The film in question is Star Trek, a prequel that looks at the roots of Kirk and Spock, and one that will make or break the future of the franchise. The cast list is impressive, including Heroes villain Zachary Quinto (Sylar) as Spock in an inspired piece of casting. Somewhat stranger are comedy actors Simon Pegg and John Cho as Scotty and Sulu respectively. A teaser trailer has now been released which, as is now expected, reveals virtually nothing beyond the exterior of the Enterprise. Hopefully some real footage will emerge before long.

Here at the flat we've upgraded our entire wireless network, replacing the old Netgear router with a Belkin wireless N setup. Far more robust and with massively increased bandwidth, this actually allows for smooth wireless streaming of video via the Xbox even in high definition. So yes, that means HD trailers displayed on the Bravia in the living room which looks stunning. Wall-E has actually been the most oft-played for its sheer level of detail in the junkyard sequences. Its left me very keen to get more HD content to play with and with the Blu-ray camp delivering a decisive blow at the beginning of this month at CES, seemingly ending the format war earlier than expected, it's becoming very difficult to hold back. That is, until one looks at the prices. My wallet whimpers and I go back to looking at DVDs.

Second Life is a virtual world that falls well outside the "game" descriptor. It is better viewed as a platform for communication and expression, very much symbolising the virtues of the web itself. With a working economy, some have taken things further and the virtual real estate market has proved highly lucrative. I created a Second Life for myself a few years ago but was not particularly impressed by my first foray. Control felt clunky and unresponsive and the whole experience was plagued by lag rendering it almost unusable. When Neil Gaiman mentioned that an interview promoting Beowulf would be his first time in Second Life, it seemed like an ideal opportunity to give it another go. The whole idea is rather fitting, after all, for a film that seeks to take the concept of digital actors to a whole a new level.

So last Thursday I hopped back in, quickly spruced up my avatar and found my way to the Hollywood Bowl where on Saturday the interview would be broadcast live (from the private Beowulf Island before a few VIP guests). Today I was able to experience one of the truest attempts at fusion of the real and virtual: a virtual interview of a real writer and director (Roger Avery) discussing their real film, broadcast to a virtual auditorium of virtual avatars being controlled real people. Confused yet? While fun, this was very much a novelty. Far from seamless, this was very much inferior to the alternative of a direct webcast interview which would have offered much better video quality without continuous drops. On the other hand, had that been the case, I probably wouldn't have bothered to watch it.

Second Life definitely feels more impressive now than on my last visit, but there are clearly still a lot of issues to be resolved. It is perhaps unfair to judge it since the client does not yet officially support Vista, and some bugs (including crashing to the desktop on occasion) may be due to this incompatibility. Moving to a virtual art gallery, for example, the sluggishness and low visual quality seems markedly inferior to a web gallery, yet the ability to have a "live" musician playing at the event does add a certain charm. I certainly won't become a regular user at the moment, but I have a feeling I will be frequently popping in for short trips to check things out.