So, it's been an abnormally slow day in the Soundsphere magazine office, but I've had some very good news. See, it turns out that I've been nominated for an award... a rather cool one at that... it's an award for Entrepreneurial Excellence of the Year (within the category of disability) at the National Diversity Awards to be held in Manchester at the end of the year - September 2012. 

If you see this, and you know about my work with Soundsphere magazine, The Creative Condition and Disabled Entrepreneurs (oh, and there's a few more things coming up that I can't tell you about yet... shhh), then please do vote for me - the link is as follows: http://www.nationaldiversityawards.co.uk/#/excellence-disability/4554539883. Obviously, you've got a while, but yeah, I am just happy to be nominated. To win tough, would be a dream! 

Anyway, so I wanted to share that with you. My day has been interesting, and I am excited. Be excited with me, if you want!

Here's a tune for you to enjoy, by an awesome band that I have just discovered called Diagrams - we just had their PR through, and it's some fantastic work by a bloke called Sam Genders who used to be in Tuung. Nice and chilled. Yeah!

What about the video below that one? Well, that's just Bad For Lazarus. I'm putting them on at a show in York this March! 

Thanks, as always, for reading my ramblings. All the best, and much love to all. Yo! 

Listen. Enjoy. Have a giggle. This was the first thing I ever really did related to journalism. 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/northyorkshire/content/articles/2006/05/12/beyond_all_reason_feature.shtml 

I've also attached below that, a version of my gig guide for BBC North Yorkshire, completed earlier this week - Tuesday, January 17, 2012 (on behalf of Soundsphere magazine), and you can hear just how far I have come in the world of broadcasting... ha. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-14532949 

Here are my thoughts on the film! 

I hope that you enjoy it. 

A very Happy New Year to you all. 

Dom 

---

Borrowing slightly from the James Bond film franchise and its artsy introductions, the opening sequence to David Fincher's take on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo features wires made up of an oily substance moving about wildly, meshing with one-another and reforming. This is fittingly soundtracked by experimental rock music's finest Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Karen O with their excellent cover of Led Zeppelin's 'Immigrant Song'. This opening is worth mentioning because it provides some insight into the dark world of violence, sex and cyber-crime that Fincher has created as a much sleeker, yet equally as evocative answer to his other mentally stimulating and musically-driven work on Fight Club and The Social Network.

Many fans of the record-breaking 2009 movie adaption (directed by Niels Arden Oplev) will note the various similarities within Fincher’s version to the Swedish film in terms of mood and tone, but lovers of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy (featuring The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) and that last film will doubtless be relieved by how true this new version is to its roots, with various parts of the production being shot in Sweden. Larsson's book also heavily examines the effects of sexual violence, particularly upon anti-hero Lisbeth Salander, and as one might expect (you've seen Se7en right?), Fincher does not shy away from this uncomfortable, yet completely essential aspect.

Daniel Craig gives a convincing performance as disgraced journo Mikael Blomkvist who has been enlisted to uncover the secrets of a wealthy and misogynistic old family (the Vangers) with a questionable past of lies, debauchery and Nazism. While Craig's performance in this certainly deserves special mention, (this cool and collected demeanour does rival the impact of his Bond persona), Rooney Mara steals it as the punky computer hacking powerhouse Salander. Mara is more suited for this role than Noomi Rapace who played Salander in 2009 – there's an aggressive and damaged quality to the former's character that gifts this film its heart and soul. Through this, Mara effortlessly crafts a personality that will impress many, simply because of her strength and “cheeky” intelligence.

For Fincher, it's business as usual. A plot centring around the search for a unapologetic serial killer is his well-established comfort zone, and it allows him to go to great lengths to grab at, and hook attention (see the brutal encounters between Salander and her corrupt legal guardian Nils Bjurman [played expertly by Yorick van Wageningen], or the high-speed chase scene between Salander and Martin Vanger). Indeed, this is helped in no small part by Reznor and Ross' insidious score which is used by the director (much like in The Social Network) to indicate key points of discovery and enhance the ever-present element of tension.

This adaption is worth viewing in celebration of its non-stereotypical take on the whodunit-style mystery that keeps those new to the story intrigued through over two-and-a-half hours of viewing time. Now, it will be interesting to see how the other two books in this series will be interpreted.

I recently took part in a video case study for the European Year of Volunteering 2011. 

For this, I talked about how volunteering (for organisations like Khaoz Media) and getting work experience, placements and internships (with T3, Stuff, Metal Hammer, BBC, Rock Sound, Hull Daily Mail and more...) helped me to form my professional life as a journalist and get consistent paid work. 

I hope that it is useful for people!

Cheers. 

Dom

Hi guys, 

Thanks so much for the support this year. I really appreciate it. 

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year 2012!

Check out the new video interview (ABOVE) that our magazine did with iconic black metal act Dimmu Borgir! Enjoy!

Also, I am really enjoying new Gary Numan stuff at the moment. Here's 'The Fall' (BELOW). 'av it! 

All the very best! See you in '12. 

Dom

Taken from Yorktalk – The news magazine for York St John University (December 2011)

ACES (Aluminate Career Enhancement Scheme Scheme), a joint initiative between the Alumni Development Office and the Career Development Team, will be launched in January 2012.

Over 25 alumni will be paired up with students to offer mentoring and advice on their career paths. Brett Arnall, Alumni Development Manager, said: “We are sure the success of this scheme will harness further mentors from our supportive and engaged alumni community. Dom Smith, a 2007 graduate in Film and TV Production, has already signed up to be a mentor. He runs his own magazine, Soundsphere (www.soundspheremag.com), and is currently involved in a new creative business venture (The Creative Condition) housed in the incubation units in the Phoenix Centre.”

Student Services are also launching a Buddy Up Scheme (BUS) early in the New Year: international students will be allocated a student to support them when they arrive at York St John.

I've just had the opportunity to be interviewed by the wonderful people at the Wildfirehub.com about starting out in journalism and with the magazine. In it, I talk about the print and online versions of Soundspheremag, Disabled Entrepreneurs and more...

The link is here: http://www.wildfirehub.com/blog/dom-smith-of-soundspheremag-com

Thanks, as ever, for reading. 

I am currently listening to a band called Stateless and their track 'Bloodstream' - awesome chilled out electronic stuff. 

It has been a great week for me so far...

Myself and Mike Cooper of The Creative Condition were recently invited to take part in Global Entrepreneurship Week and represent (with others) the city of York. 

We'll be going into the Manor School to share our experiences of working in the media as freelancers (Dom in journalism, and Mike in film), and trying to offer up decent advice to students who are aspiring entrepreneurs, or simply, interested in what they want to do for the future. It's always fun for us to do these things, and we are really proud to be able to support such an event. 

Also, we've recently done our third ever video interview for Soundspheremag.com (the first ones being Skindred and then The Automatic). This one we did with US metal act SOiL. Check it out and let me know what you think. 

Thanks for reading. 

Dom

So, I created this online portfolio for articles, reviews and interviews that I've done before. The site I used is called cuttings.me, and it's a very cool and useful online tool for journalists and bloggers to make use of. Check that out here...
 
http://www.cuttings.me/users/domsmith

On a completely unrelated note, I found ti=his today while "researching" - it's a band comprised completely of robots covering Marilyn Manson's 'The Beautiful People' - pretty awesome stuff. Amazing, I think!

Thanks, 

Dom 

Yep. I'm on Mo'York's team and will be attempting to raise money via the official Movember website - you can find out more and donate here: https://www.movember.com/uk/donate/your-details/team_id/297012.

Here's a first day photo for you to giggle at. The 'tache awaits. 

Please help out where you can. 

Cheers. 

Dom