Awe inspiring geniuses prove too much for pretty fan who backs away through the crowd, eyes wide and mouth open, overwhelming with purple pills.

Radiohead. 8.15pm. Its comforting to know your tickets are waiting for you but regardless there is still the quiet buzz of excited anticipation as you get off the tube at Mile End and don't have to ask which way to the gig, because the hoards of zombie fans are all streaming in one direction. Even as a "very important person" there are still another 3 phases of queueing before we've penetrated the fortified compound thats been erected in Victoria Park. Now we're in the main hub, slowly filtering our way through the masses until we find the VIP area. But its not all about that. No. Its about the brilliant gig Radiohead put on. And oh, did they put on a good gig, yes they did.

From 8.15 to 10.30 they had me and the other 40000 fans in their thrall, completely under their surreal spell. And so they should have, there was enough of them up there. Beyond the usual suspects of Thom, Johnny, Colin, Ed and Phil there seemed to be another couple of stand in musicians but it was hard to tell. They moved around a lot changing roles and instruments almost every song. It was refreshing to see this sort of flexibility and movement in a performance giving the session as a whole a transient feel. It was never static, it continually transformed, always evolving bringing the crowd in and pushing them out again like a child with a yacht in the wake of a wave. 

Thom's lucid dreamlike vocals capture your concentration without force and effortlessly demand your undivided attention for the entire duration of their 2 hour set. They lulled the audience into a trancelike unassuming state that provokes a sense of well being and quiet euphoria - the nearest to enlightenment a front man will ever inspire without falling off and feigning Buddhism.

The whole set took me on a journey of temporal atmospheres as i stood in my spot and let the band guide me through what can only be described as different levels of consciousness. From the reflective Pyramid Song to the seminal Everything in its right place, a strange ebb and flow took over the scene as we all hung on every word. Whichever woman said men can't multitask hadn't met Thom Yorke. The guys a music machine bouncing from guitar, to piano and finally climaxing on the drums - all while singing his pitch perfect heart out. Truly extraordinary.

After the second encore and drum kit crescendo we flock into the VIP marquee and stock up on free drinks, brushing shoulders with avid fans and the guy from Green Wing who looks like a horse and did the Barclay card adverts. I shake Phil's hand, congratulate him on the performance and thank him for sorting out the freebies. I can't help but feel a little dwarfed by the scale of talent im looking at but focus on not thinking about it too much. These guys aren't just gifted musically but their in-tune with the current trends and know how to release a seventh album - digitally and for free. This group is in-touch, online and still making waves. Roll with it or get wet.

Television Caters. Religion and fate create debate. Who watches the Watchmen? You are what you link.

Big Brother seriously scares me. Its gone beyond a joke to a sick experiment involving a group of misfits that almost defy stereotypes. Beyond the realms of Heat and Hello magazine, the extremes in that human aquarium are like particles colliding in a nuclear reactor. So i suppose you could call it good television. Religion came up again, which is always a controversial venus flytrap, between a male and female muslim. One was let down by the others practice of the faith. This sounds like situations everywhere but live on Channel 4 with the nation and Ofcom watching, im sure we'll see it in the newspapers, on the websites and all around the blogs tomorrow.

"Big Brother, broadcast on Channel 4. Ofcom is aware of viewer concerns and the issues raised by complainants. Ofcom is currently monitoring the situation and will decide on whether to launch an investigation."

Tue 23:39 Ofcom.org.uk 

The BBC iPlayer; initially i was very excited by this prospect but once i was presented with the options of what to watch i was dumfounded. What have the BBC broadcast in the last week that i actually want to step back in time and catch up on? Well, there is the news. And maybe the Apprentice? No, not at all, old news. Ok so what are my options? "Have i got news for you?" or "Top Gear" - yes, ok. Touche BBC, there is always Top Gear. As well as Kidulthood on BBC Three, which is about an hour and a half of brutal brilliance. The iPlayer's ok, the res on full screen is pretty weak and the viewing variety isn't really there. But for its regularity of video updates it proves some purpose.

The new Sky+ promotion. The fact that you can record a whole series, as it is broadcast over a period of a few months, with the simple press of a single button, is supposed to be some sort of incentive. This is why Americans are fat, because everything is too easy. But we are all to blame in the lethargy of binary reality When i consider this precognitive digital media that does everything for us, like externalising our thought processes with hyperlinks and directing what we watch via recommendation, i feel very chlostrophic. I want my associations to be my own but with the ubiquity of information entertainment i wonder if they ever were.

Broadband TV 2.0

Use8 put on this sci-fi shindig at the Jury's Inn discussing the future of television. Unfortunately it does't involve Minority Report interfaces yet but im typing with crossed-fingers. No, less radical and more as expected, the integration of the internet, or at least web qualities regarding multiple screens and smooth navigating through liquid web 2.0 looking operating systems.

I particularly enjoyed Matthew Huntington's name, and presentation on Open TV's new media interface with its margin menu and visual previews which encourage a seamless transition from simply watching content to discovering content. It's not an easy thing - to make scrolling through endless programs an exciting experience but Huntington nearly had me convinced. The navigation through the content could even be described as enjoyable, everything moves with an organic motion, fluidly sliding, fading and highlighting in and out of text and vibrant video. Open TV employs a user-created content approach to program recommendation, in the same vein as social music site Lastfm, so users can link one program to others of similar and dissimilar genres, depending on what mental connection they've made. In the arena of television this potentially builds communities around programs, actors, locations etc which could be an awful thought for some, but also a wondrous possibility for other screen lovers.

Now that usability is established (the general public know how to use social networking sites) usagility takes precedence and we see more complex networks of information opened for individuals to edit and contribute to. Hopefully we will see an increase in the potential for creation our own paths and hyperlinks through the data and ability to categorise the content personally rather than following externalised associations.

The familiar ideas of sharing, participation and all those popular buzz words associated with the Web 2.0 phenomenon were circulating around the room, lots of talk about "multi-disciplines" and "the end users interaction with the company and its services and products." A good question was raised about the nature of the metadata included in the service. Where does the stock data originate from and more importantly how safe is the information the users input themselves? These privacy issues are at the heart of the peering debate and so it would seem that the future of television inevitably faces the same problems the internet suffers presently.