| (no subject) |
[Aug. 3rd, 2006|12:18 pm] |
Chickened out of sending this email at the last minute. Sometimes it's worth keeping quiet just to make sure no one is offended and things get done. I woke up in a shitty mood this morning, and it's not worth ruining everything I worked for by getting all self-righteous and fucking up someone elses day. Plus the girl in question is new to her role, halfway through the email I realised shge's trying to help and that it's no fault of her own.
Bah! I'm being nice. Someone give me drugs.
Hi Emily,
Do you need Carol, HMV Head of Marketing to sign the form? That might be difficult as oviously she's very busy as Head of Marketing for HMV. While we were discussing the practicalities of organising the sposnorship she gave me quick overview of her work schedule. Would it be possible to get a store manager just to sign it?
Also, I remember approaching Nick about this, who then sent me to see Richard Silcock who just said it would be fine. Er, and that was it really. Verbal approval, HMV have a student discount which means they're affiliated with NUS go and get on with it. I asked if I needed anything and he said no, that it was fine for me just to get along with it. I don't mean to come across as beligerant, but I'm slightly annoyed by this because I've told Carol already I've had approval from RUSU about this and I don't want to muck around someone who is obviously a busy working professional, particularly when I'm trying to make a good impression on someone working in an industry I want to work in myself.
I'm sorry to rant, but if the Union were actually organised we could have done this during term time when people were actually around in Reading, and not over the Summer when most of it is finalised already. Martin and myself have worked hard towards acquiring this, as has Carol who has been very supportive and friendly throughout the whole thing. It looks bad on us as a station after establishing this working relationship if we suddenly turn round and say we still need approval when we were already under the impression we had it.
This isn't a personal criticism, and I'm glad you've emailed us now rather than later about this so we can sort it, but understand I am a bit fed up with the union and their organisational skills. I had to jump through hoops in a meeting with Ian McDonald about Live11 at the last minute because of things like this, the union making something potentially simple and straightforward to organise very difficult for the hardworking student volunteers the union is supposed to support and cater for. There were many times when I felt Live11 wouldn't happen due to communication problems and difficulties with the Union. I feel if I don't exress these frustrations now nothing can be done to work towards creating a better and more productive relationship between the union and Junction11, which at the end of the day is all I want caring as much as I do for Junction11 and the potential volunteer oppurtunities the station offers to students.
Again I'm sorry about this, and as an ex-student I want to make it clear these are purely my views and do not represent Junciton11's or any of Junction11's volunteers. Things like this are just frustrating when you're under the impression you've sorted and cleared them already. I hope you can understand the difficulty of sorting these things at late notice once the majority of it is finalised already. I'm more than confident that a member of the exec will happily sign the approval form, and hopefully we can get signed approval from one (or both) of the Reading store managers. I'm just concerned about Junction11's image with people we're trying to establish a professional working relationship with so Junction11 can provide more for it's listeners but more importantly more for it's volunteers. I'm sure you'll be happy to know as VP Development that my time at Junction11 has completely transformed my job prospects for the better and in many ways has had a very positive effect on my life, and I'm sure it will continue to do so for my succesor Rebecca and the many future Heads of Marketing to come.
After having a rant I'd like to say best of luck with your new position on the Union Exec and I hope that Junction11 can continue to work well with you towards continually improving RUSU and student life on campus. I'm sorry abut this email but I feel these issues need to be tackled now so Junction11 can continue to enjoy developing a fruitful and positive relationship with the union.
Cheers,
- Brendan |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 31st, 2006|03:11 pm] |
Finally got round to collating notes from the past two years and finishing up my CV.
(Yes, collating notes from the past two years. Somtimes you forget you've done things. Well, I do anyway.)
Er... the short version is about four pages long.
Yes. So far I've managed to bring myself to delete "liasing with an artist friend planning a self published comic book that I'm currently writing."
I mean jeez I can't exactly write down "managed to get half way through Quake4 in two sittings this weekend" can I?
Someone should just let me sit at home in my boxers and give me money for being clever. Seriously. It'd be easier for everyone.
Sigh. Back to my computer then. |
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| I Win |
[Jul. 29th, 2006|02:23 pm] |
Funny how life can change dramatically so suddenly sometimes.
I had a really bizzare dream last night. I was in this weird commercial complex and I hads this strange abiulity to change my size from that of an average human being to something really tiny. Somehow this ability was useful and constructive. Considerng I was dreaming about applying for jobs.
Yes. Bizzare. Shut up, sit down, and read.
So I applied for jobs from this man who owned a Wool shop (quiet at the back there), who looked exactly like Mario whom myself Matt and Igor witnessed in Reading in the pub or something. Then Mario got angry about something and started throwing Wool at me, so I shrank in size and did something to save the day and make Mario employ me.
Then I woke up with a fully formed idea for a multi-part superhero comic. I've written it down into the "Comic Ideas" file I keep on my computer desktop, and I'm going to let it sit in the back of my mind for a while and grow. The idea came complete with a bare bones structure, I've just got to think about the narrative devices that would best carry the story.
Last week was highly productive. Found a very nice potential place to live, as well as got the SRA entries finished and sent off on time, which turned out to be another mini miracle. I remember staying up to five am typesetting the Best Station entry and proof reading it countless times to make sure it was perfect. Next day I was up early to do the same with the best branding entry and then get it all into Reading to be posted the next day. I got half my lifre sorted in a week after sitting around miserable in Luton.
Funny how life can change dramatically so suddenly sometimes.
I checked me inbox this morning, and I had the usual emails advertising jobs. There's two marketing jobs and the perfect design job being advertised at the moment. All three jobs are something I could realistically apply myself too. Frankly these three are the best jobs I've seen advertised so far, and I'm applying to all three of them. We'll see what happens but it's another highly positive start which does wonders for my confidence if anything else.
I also recieved an email from the HMV Head of Marketing about something to do with Junction11.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I've been waiting on that email for a while, and it's wonderful now that things are in motion again, it means a lot to the stations future. If anything it means a lot to me, I need a direction and I need something to be actively working towards to keep myself from getting depressed. This way I feel like I'm doing something positive and constructive that's going to affect more than just myself, but successive generations of Junction11 volunteers as well. That does a lot of good for my own sense of personal well being.
It's better than sitting and watching endless DVD's all day.
Moral of todays story then? I win. Again. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 18th, 2006|12:54 pm] |
Going to be hideously busy today. SRA Award entries are due in tomorrow, I'm horribly behind on work for that, despite setting aiside every evening for it. Going to set the day aside instead.
Doesn't help that a day before the deadline the southeast SRA representative sent us an email asking us to write more for Junction11 (she's an ex Reading Student). 150 words extra. Doesn't sound like much, but I could have done with much sooner notice on that. Makes me laug in the context of the first line of the email, which reads "set the record straight" in regards to complaints about the organisational skills of the SRA. Gotta laugh really. She's a lovely young woman, just this whole thing is starting to piss me off now.
Had strage dreams last night, I was in some kind of camp inside a big facility of some kind. Low level lighting, and lots of rooms that resembled caves more than rooms. A few people from Uni were there, particulary one girl I know. We were getting attacked by the creatures out of Doom3, and I was preparing to go find a computer core of some kind and smash it. This girl insisted on coming with me, so we got guns and went off. Last time I sit up for a night with a spliff and play Quake4 into the early hours, mark my words.
Still, it's better than dreaming about being trapped in Uni. I had nightmares about that for two weeks after coming home.
The genius that is my brother replaced some parts in my computer with spare parts he had lying around (hence being able to play Quake4), and it' working much more smoothly now. Wimamp no longer takes 5 minutes to repond once I've finally managed to load it, and I imagine my art packages are going to be a lot smoother. He even stuck a new soundcard in and the sound quality has vastly improved. He picked the right time to do all that as well, I'm going to be punishing the computer today trying to edit my mp3 logs of my radio shows.
Hotmail has been refusing to submit to the will of the modem recently. Apologies if I don't reply to any comments. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 17th, 2006|10:19 am] |
Been thinking about The Future recently for this comic. When I have money I'm going to start reading New Scientist again.
Talking to Steve last night about cloning and how it should be legal to fight a duel. Now have this odd but strangely satisfying fantasy of cloning an army of brainwashed women who all have neural programming telling them I am the most handsome man on the planet and making them jealous of all competition. The fantasy involves me sat in a deckchair out on the street wearing my boxers, smoking a spliff and watching hundreds of horny women piloting giant death robots, killing each other while screaming my name over their comms systems.
I need to get out more don't I. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 16th, 2006|12:35 pm] |
Wrote this into MySpace, and then put it into CLEVERTALK because I liked it. Pretty much captured my feelings last night as I edited my old radio logs. Flooded with memories of happier times before everything just fell apart for me.
Listening to my shows from before Christmas was, erm, an experiance. Life was a lot differant back then. Funny how things can change so quickly. I used to have a lot of the fun in the studio back then, I'd walk down sometimes knowing exactly what I would play, maybe bump into Louise sorting her Music Department stuff and exchange drinking stories while I'm trying to cue songs. Sometrimes I'd have no idea what to play on the show at all, so I'd go down with Bren both of us with CD's of random tunes, have a bit of a deep and meaningful chat along the way and then get into the studio and see what happens. Bren insisted once I played a track from the Flight of the Navigator soundtrack (look it up on IMDB) and I'm so glad I listened and played it, fitted right into the attitude towards music I was trying to generate with the show. There were the times Igor would come down for his five day weekend which always turned into a bender, and that would be wonderful because Igor would have the best small selection of CD's which he carried around with him everywhere he went.
Happy times.
Here's some more highlights from editing my logs.
Training DJ Vibes in the studio. He asked if he could play a few tracks. Cue fifteen minutes of really average RnB, including "girl you're in the kitchen standing by the stove" (I shit you not), exclusive to "Wet Panties Volume2" (!) which he left behind in the stuio for me and Bren to examine.
(must use some of that for a podcast, what do you reckon Matt?)
Igor's excited confession for his love of "Charlie", but only after excitedly finding the Fightstar single malignantly festering in a box in the darker corner of the studio. Bren asks if he can describe the front cover. "It's got a soldier hanging on it. What's that? Eh? It's all black and grey and stuff."
In other news I'm smoking a lot less. I'm starting to get bored by it at home, plus my tolerance is just ridiculous. I just don't feel like I need it right now to enjoy sitting down and watching endless Star Trek episodes (hush!). Probably because I'm making a start with work. I've not got much left so I might save it for a week and see what happens.
Steve did you get my email address? |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 15th, 2006|10:43 am] |
Saturday morning. Had awful weirdo dreams about being on campus, some kind of strange demonic alien creature started attacking a few of my friends on the radio station. It was harmless, but we were trying to figure out what it was.
Of course, waking up, I have a pretty good idea of exactly what it was.
I need to get out of Luton, desperately. The place is driving me nuts, the way it drove me nuts before I went to University. I was much more relaxed living in Reading than I am here. I end up sat on my arse achieving nothing all day, whereas in Reading I was often very mobile and busy. I just loose all motivation to do anything here in Luton. The environment is having a big effect on my mental state, and considering I'm staying in the room I grew up in at the moment, I don't think that's a particularly good thing.
Need to get out. Heard that one of my better mates was having a barbecue today. Having lost my phone I have no way of contacting him. Today could turn into a mission. On my MSN buddy list at the moment all I have is friends from Uni online. There's a live band thing going on down at the local Students Union tonight, but it's all very cliquey with people who never really accepted me into their clique. I hate the whole clique thing, it sickens me. Plus Luton bands are barely inspiring, although this is a collective of musicians from same said clique, which means that it's going to be lots of intellectual injokes I just won't get because I've not read the same books or watched the same films and smehow that makes me a lesser person. I was tempted to email a very down to earth mate of mine about going, but I'm not sure if I can be bothered. I'm just going to feel alienated from a lot of people I've barely seen in the past three years and no doubt end up feeling intellectually inadequate in front of them all and their indie prejudices.
Being someone who actually likes music and listens to a wide range of differant styles of music, I hate indie. In other words I hate what indie has become, and what indie is about for a lot of people. I listen to some great bands on independaqnt record labels, but I don't go for that counter culture anti-coorporate bollocks that looks like a 14 year old grunge fan scrawled it on the toilet wall. If you think you're miserable because you dress differantly and no one likes you (and your army of friends) put yourself in my shoes for a moment. I WAS miserable because apparently I was differant and had no friends and got bullied horribly for it. That's a part of my life I've moved on from. Take your false pretensions elsewhere. If less people listen to the music you like then it'll never have a chance to really get anywhere, and for the music that I love I can't wish anything but more people listening to it. Creativity should be accessible for all, you prejudiced indie facist scum.
We all know that the best music in existence is made by Cut Chemist right now anyway. Don't argue with me, just buy a record.
No it doesn't have guitars and wailing in it.
So, er, fuck you Luton. Or something. Lots of anger from college kids not talking to me because I wasn't "alternative" enough.
I might end up staying in and working on some ideas for this mad comic thing which will probably turn my hair grey. I need some stories I can work with before I feel comfortable with the project. There's no point in doing it unless I have stories to tell. I've got my SRA Award to work on as well, the Station Imaging as well as finishing editing my own radio show. It's weird editing my radio show, I stick on my headphones and end up listening to muy links over and over again and it brings up memories of doing those shows and all the wonderful (to me) music I used to play. I heard a Rock of Travolta track while editing my demo the other day, which just moved me. I forgot how good The Roseberries were as well.
If I get REALLY bored today, I can start working on my expanding my portfolio as well. I've got a few Junction11 designs I want to try out. Obviously because I am no longer involved with Junction11, these will never see public display. That responsibility is Rebecca's now, and I don't want to do anything to infringe on that unless she asks me to. This is purely for me to expand my portfolio. Well, alright, it's kinda nostalgia as well in a strange way. I developed that identity and visually it's in my head all the time. In many ways it feels like the Junction11 idneity is mine, like it's a part of me somehow. I get potential Junction11 ideas from my surrounding area a lot, and I need to purge them.
Then I can start working on ideas for this comic. Hell I might have to buy a bottle of whiskey later, just to give me that extra spark with generating ideas. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 14th, 2006|01:10 pm] |
Wrote this earlier into Clevertalk, which I now use just as a general thinking blog. Being on dial up at home hinders my web surfing, and frankly I've got better things to do then waiting fifteen minutes for a news page to load. I'm using blogger rather than Livejournal becauyse Livejournal just seems a bit personal and cliquey to me really. Plus I give public access to Clevertalk, and I know friends of mine in Reading and beyond actually read it.
Stream of consciousness thought on an idea I had a couple of days back. It'll be interesting to see if I actually come up with something and follow it through. Might email an artist mate about it as well.
I've finally found this summers insane creative project. It occured to me while I was on the train up to Reading the other day, working on my notes for my SRA Award entry. In my bag I had this little magazine/pamphlet thing, a little comic printed in black and white in standard leaflet size. Big enough to fit into a pocket or a handbag or something like that. Forget your Nintendo DS or WAP enabled camera phone, this is real portable culture.
That's what I've always liked about second hand pulp paper backs, especially science fiction short story anthologies from the sixties. They're the right size to fit into a pocket or a small bag. Easily portable, you have a collection of ideas and interesting thoughts presented through narrative with you in your pocket where ever you go.
I think that's why this occured to me on the train. The train from Luton to Reading and vice versa isn't direct, I have to trawl through the London Underground to get from Kings Cross to Paddington, something that is like a bad drug trip these days what with the refurbishment work making it all look like something from an ultra sterile sci-fi nightmare and armed police patrolling it all. Public transport basically isn't fun. It's a lot of sitting down around freaks and weirdo's, business men, bible fanatics, insane nuclear families, bible fanatics, etc. That kind of environment requires an escape. That's where portable culture comes in, so I read the little comic I had in my bag.
The comic is called Telegraph Magazine, I have no idea whether or not it is a one off. I seem to remember picking it up drunk off the leaflet stand in PoNaNa convincing myself I recognised the art style as one of my favourite 2000ad illustrators. Turns out it was produced and is even creator owned by Frazer Irving, my favourite 2000ad illustrator.
So this got me thinking. Printing a small 16 page comic book in the a6 size format wouldn't be expensive, particularly if it's printed in black and white. Printing, as I understand it, would work like this. You'd print your pages onto both sides of an a3 piece of paper. Divide the pages up into 4 a5 size sheets, then staple them down the middle and bang, you have your 16 page comic book. Simple, and low cost. I've even thought as far as trying to gain sponsorship through advertising to pay for the printing costs, a trick I learnt from my mate Martin during my time working for Junction11. I've got an idea of who to ask for sponsorship, and asking for sponsorship is one of the easiest things in the world so long as you have a good product and you're realistic about reaching your audience. No audience equals no sponsorship.
The comic itself then. Obviously it'd be black and white to save money, and this suits me fine as black and white to me is essentially the grass roots comic book style. Most of my favourite comic book art is black and white. Duriing my teenage years 2000ad went for a period of yearsd printing everything in computer enhanced colour, and I remember making my weekly trip to Luton Market to pick up a box of old issues of 2000ad for a fiver, just so I could look at some black and white artwork.
Black and white artwork can be very effective, it can be very evocative of mood. So in terms of a narrative I need something that would suit the black and white artstyle, and can fit into 16 pages.
This again got me thinking about what kind of narrative would be suitable. I had a think about how television works, having wached a lot of television recently.
When I write television I don't mean sittin the living room in front of the tele. I mean watching series that were made for tele on DVD. Recently I've been watching a lot of NYPD Blue, The Outer Limits, Star Trek (both sixties and nineties versions), hell even those old badly dubbed episodes of Monkey. What I find interesting about all these things is that nearly every episode is a complete narrative told within a 45 minute time frame. Most of them have a secondary narrative, which can be appreciated by watching the entire series and ties all the episodes together into a unified whole, obviously designed to keep viewers watching. I thought on this for a while, and wondered whether it would be worth creating a long running narrative with this comic book idea I have.
This presents problems though. For a first time comic book from an unknown illustrator who doesn't even know if he can pull this off yet, a long running narrative would be impractical. There's no guarantee it would conclude, and seeing long running narratives suddenly stop because they ran out of money was always dissapointing as a kid (Reboot for example), plus I have no idea how a release schedule would work. I'm young and inexperianced, I think a quarterly comic would be better. That way costs are kept down to a minimum and I have time to actualy work on the project. A long running narrative wouldn't work over such a long period of time.
So I thought about presenting just single stories as a 16 page comic book, all unrelated, differant characters each week. Something like Tharg's Future Shocks, or even Vector13 which I thought didn't deserve all the horrible fanboy comments it got. Something similar to The Outer Limits essentially. Speculative morality tales told in 16 pages. Maybe draw the inspiration from all those pulp sci-fi anthologies I love but update for a mobile and constantly moving 21st Century. That way I don't have to stick to a single idea, I leave myself open for experimentation. It also means anyone can pick up a copy at any point and instantly get into the story without having to worry about missing anything.
Then I just stick a URL to my personal website on it, which will include other things I'll be working on, most likely the podcast, and leave a space for relevant advertising with a URL on it. The comic not only becomes a tool for visual storytelling, but also a tool for marketing. Hopefully no one feels exploited by this because they're picking up a free comic with a (hopefully) good quality story.
That's the idea I have at the moment. It means I break into comics and also learn how to draw properly again. It means I have something interesting for my portfolio, and that I can put "self-published" on my CV. More importantly it means I get to tell the stories I want to tell, and draw the comics I want to draw. From what I've read most comics professionals broke into comics through self-publishing.
I can't believe I've given myself this to work on before I've even got a job. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 9th, 2006|12:52 pm] |
I'm back in Luton, used a week and a half to recover from University. After everyone finished all thier exams I carried on working on Junction11, particularly the organisational nightmare that was Live11, our live music event. In the meantime I probably partied just as hard as the best and rest of them. I seriously needed a rest.
I've started to apply for jobs, Ranbdom House are looking for a Juniour Designer and the position seems to fit me pretty well. I'm not a design graduate, and I don't have my english degree because of debts I have to the university, but I do have a design national diploma which is equivalent to four a levels and a years experiance. I've taken the plunge and gone for the job. Here's hoping.
Being at home means getting used to a lot of things. At first living back at my Dad's house was driving me insane, but we seem to have fallen into a natural compromise and it's working. I also have to get used to having a dial up connection, which severely limits my use of the internet. Despite the fact I no longer broadcast a radio show I still seem to generate a lot of interest from bands on MySpace, half of which seems to be automated friends requests and half of which seem to be genuine, about the same amount when I did the show. Not sure what that means, but beng on dial up means I can't listen to their music. That takes some real getting used to, having new music find it's my way into my life was one of the best things about being at Uni. I think my radio show is the thing I've missed most about University.
Actually, the home computer (mine is upstairs and isn't connected to anything) takes a bit of getting used to. Viewing profiles on myspace seems to crash firefox, so I havew to use Internet Explorer which seems to piss all over the firewall which keeps telling me Internet Explorer is trying to act as a server. I understand about half of that myself, so you can see the petty frustrations of trying to surf the internet at home. I seem to be coping well withuot it though, I've used my time to catch up on comic books, DVD's, and my XBox.
I've seen a few mates in the meantime as well. Nights out with friends at home always turn out to be more insane than anything I've experianced at Uni. Uni was meant to be this one big mad experiance of fun, sex, and substance abuse, and for a lot of kids it is. For me it was always a case of been there done that and picked up the pieces when it all went wrong. In many ways for me Uni could never really expect to live up to my expectations, especially since most of the kids who go to Reading have been horribly sheltered all their lives and get three years to discover the world before becoming model citizens or whatever it is they do. Reading was full of funny attitudes, at least the University was much more than the town. It'll be nice to go back there and no longer be a student, to be completely out of that system and getting on with my life like a normal human being, without any elitist prejudice.
So I took a couple of weeks off to catch up with myself, and being at home with family was the best place for that. Seeing an old mate was nice as well. Being back proved my theory that Uni was never the beginning and the end that it seems to be while you're there. I come back to Luton and it's still there, and mates are still here, if just a little older and in a minority of cases wiser. In the meantime I get regular text messages and emails from people in Reading. Life goes on, I just have the freedom to do what I want with it now.
Starting to think about getting back into working now. I'm entering my design work into the Student Radio Awards for best Station Imaging, combined with my mate Matt's productionw ork I think we have a real cvhance of winning. If I get the time as well I'm going to put together a demo of my radio show as the category for Best Specialist Show is back and I reckon after the feedback I recieved from a few regular listeners to the show it's worth me entering. Plus if I win the real winners are the bands who don't get the attention they deserve, not me. Winning would hopefully allow me to do what I did for my show but on a larger scale.
Once that's done I want to expand my portfolio, write a technical manual for the student newspaper, think about a couple of comics projects I have on the backburner, and start putting together this summers Insane Creative Project, which I start and fail every summer. I've got things I could be getting on with, which feels nice. It means I'm not going to stay in bed smoking too much and watching crap while I wait for job applications to be answered. If I do that for too long I get depressed, and then I don't work at all. I have to keep myself busy, it's a question of my personal well being and mental health.
It's going to be slow, but eventually I'm going to set myself up where I want to be in life. In the meantime I have debts to sort out. Putting my degree in that context the whole thing seems pointless now. I met a woman who did an accredited journalism degree with high hopes for getting into the industry. She works as a receptionist now, paying those debvts. "Waste of three years" she said to me. I'm glad I had all those good times and did all that volunteering, otherwise it might seem like that to me as well. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 17th, 2006|12:37 pm] |
How the fuck am I supposed to promote and market a Live Music event if I don't have a confirmed band line up?
The last week has been very stressful, I've had some great poster prniting deals from people, but trying to be professional abbout this, I can't waste money on printing something if we don't have a confirmed line up.
Approach me with caution. I'm not a happy man. The (well paid) events manager at my students union hasn't bothered to lift a finger to do his job, and it's all coming back down on me. I'm a student volunteer. I DON'T get paid, and I'm also horribly poor.
The sooner I leave Uni the better. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 29th, 2006|01:23 pm] |
Today I am bitter and angry at the amount of people in my life who suffer severe personality damage. All kinds of parental mistakes have walked in and out of my life, and today I am fed up with it.
I hold all parents directly responsible. It's got nothing to do with the moral decay of society or some other kind of media bollocks. It's a lack of personal responsibility, and that's the big thing that really annoys me about most human beings I've met.
There's a rant brewing in me but it'll have to wait as yet again I have a huge amount of things to do today. I'm off to campus for a photo shoot when I should be staying in and designing the Live11 campaign. I imagine it's going to be a late one tonight. Might buy a bottle of whiskey to help flush all the THC and shit like that from my system. Actually I think I WILL buy a bottle of whiskey. I tried working on Live11 on Saturday and it just didn't happen. I need the crazy insane edge that whiskey gives me. Alcohol opens me up to insane ideas that shouldn't work, and then I make them work and everything gets done properly.
Yesterdays radio show was certainly interesting. I'm going to have to do some shows on my own again, as much as I enjoy working with Luke he's contradicted me in the studio too many times, particularly with regards to my mission for new music and unsigned artists. Trying to get passionate about something new and challenging and someone mouthing off in the studio about how it's going to be rubbish because I downloaded it just doesn't work and doesn't give the right image I'm trying to portray. Radio is the one area whwere I don't want to be angry and arrogant like everything else I do, I want to be nice and welcoming and encouraging.
You can listen to me and Luke argue about music you won't like anyway here.
I'm not saying anything bad about Luke, he's still one of the nicest and most genuine blokes I've met in Uni. His nightclub DJ dance floor mentality just doesn't suit my chilled out Sunday show. It's a shame really, because I enjoy having him in the studio.
Gotta go. Expect a rant of some kind later, I'm in that kind of mood today. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 27th, 2006|11:46 am] |
Quote of the day comes from Steve.
I will leave stacks of books and paper and pens and pencils and DVD cases and empty glasses and loose wires and cables because they're not messy or untidy, they're a reminder that you're living there.
Thems be good wisdom words.
I'm catching up on design work all day. I'll be hanging around MySpace and on email the whole time though, not that any of you will contact me for anything. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 18th, 2006|10:33 am] |
Realised this morning that I was idiot enough to post the following as a bulletin on MySpace. My bulletins potentially get read by 150 people, it's not like the private forum I have here where I can write as I like and not really care whether the small amount of readers I have get the joke or not. The bulletin was titled "Eurovision".
Obviously despite seeing That Which We Do Not Speak Of For It Is WRONG in the subject of this bulletin you all clicked on it anyway, because you have since learned that I am The Ultimate Speaker of Truth. Send me psychic love waves for I have an exam tomorrow morning.
Finnish band Lordi should win Eurovision, and you all need to vote for them. Lordi wear silly masks and make silly metal music. Obviously in the name of the PROPER music most of you make and let monkeys like me play on the radio, we should all vote for Lordi regardless of whether we are watching Eurovision or not.
I probably won't watch it myself, and get mightily drunk instead.
I speak truth. And I walked on water once.
Turns out the exam is this afternoon, and I had an hour and a half walk there and back again for no reason. Felt like a right bellend phoning up my mate asking why our paper wasn't on display with our candidate numbers and all of that. I swear I've been completely absent minded because of these exams, the sooner they're over the better. |
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[May. 17th, 2006|10:01 am] |
Sometimes, despite my busy lifestyle and the wide variety of friends I have through differant social groups, I think I'm the loneliest man in the world.
Lost all of last nights revision to an intense migrain attack. My eyeballs felt like they were going to burst. Ended up taking painkillers and rolling a joint so I could fall asleep in my darkened noiseless room. Didn't help that I'm often a first point of contact for bored students and I had people banging on my door on three differant occaisions. Ended up letting a few mates down because of it, but y'know when I'm crippled for hours alone in my room there's not a lot I can actually do about it.
Got an exam this afternoon, then Thursday morning, and then my last one Friday morning. The end of Fridays exam just happens to coincide with pub opening hours. At least I have something to look forward to. |
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[May. 16th, 2006|01:09 am] |
Got an email from my Mum today, turns out I am half senile after all and that I'd missed the American Mothers Day, so you can stop feeling guilty. As can I. Apparently I phoned my Mum on actual (sorry, US holidays just ain't real to me) Mothers Day after all, like the nice lovely son I must be.
Or something.
Normal service resumed soon. I'm getting wrecked this Friday so I'll probably have a few stories to entertain you all with. |
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[May. 15th, 2006|10:46 am] |
Forgot it was Mothers Day yesterday. Mum left a voicemail on my phone asking how I was and I didn't have the credit to phone back.
Balls. |
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[May. 12th, 2006|11:57 am] |
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I can get nice things for letting webmonkeys stick their adverts on my page. Frankly, I use a variety of internet services which pretty much cater to every multimedia need I have right now, but it is nice to have verything in one place. You guys read this, so I'll let you decide. Is it worth it? |
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| "'Blessed are the meek.' You bet! I love 'em, too. I tell 'em to kiss my ass, and they'll kiss it." |
[May. 6th, 2006|01:41 pm] |
I'm going to share a secret with you all today. Despite my horrible exterior I am actually a deeply moral man.
Here's something I posted on MySpace earlier this morning.
I don't care if the internet miraculously told you how gay you are because somehow you couldn't figure it out yourself. Plus I couldn't give a crap who in particular is stalking me through myspace and regularly masturbating furtively in front of the family computer over the photo of me smoking a cigar. Such knowledge does not appeal to me, especially after having been ACTUALLY stalked through the internet and in real life on more than one occaision (I attract the weird ones for some reason. Understandably, some of them see me as some kind of prophet).
Not that I'm actually angry about MySpace Bulletins. I'm not even going to ask you to stop posting. I just ignore the posts that look like they've been written by someone procastinating aimlessly at work. Keep filling your little lives with the information that you're personality is in fact a purple space kitten because an internet quiz told you so. If that's what you need to fulfill you're life that's fine. I'll be sat in my room reading about the occult and philosophy and pondering the deeper secrets of the universe and consciousness and the tragic subjectivity of the totallity of our human experiance. Or something like that. Maybe even trying to manifest a purple space kitten through use of the proper sigils.
No this doesn't make me better than you.
I'm procastinating right now by writing this blog entry. You can stop reading now if you like. I just woke up and felt the irresistable urge to write so I'm fulfilling it by typing whatever comes into my head and freestyling it into some kind of structure as I go along. In between revision (that's not a lie, honest) I've been reading short stories by Kurt Vonnegut, who is utterly accesible and enlightening and full of wisdom andfrankly there's no reason for people not to be reading Vonnegut. Vonnegut is an inspiration, reading his material is fun and makes me want to write something myself. Vonnegut has fun with text on a page, he makes love with typewritten words. Frankly that's a more constructive waste of time than stalking someone over MySpace and having a wank over a picture of them smoking.
Or posting bulletins about what kind of mental disorder the internet has diagnosed you with on a Tuesday afternoon.
Last year I took my favourite Vonnegut book on, er, "permanent" loan from the Hall library. Frankly it was sat on the shelf in the TV room and no one was reading it, quite likely that no one ever would read it and the book would just lie discarded forever in the Hall. So I gave it a home, read it from cover to cover, ranted and raved about how good it was to my ever suffering housemates who understandably ignored me, and generally took on board it's little pearls of wisdom and tried to make myself into a better person. I think that's what books should do, even fictional books. They should instruct and inform and suggest and try to make people ito better people.
The book I "borrowed" was called Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons. It was a battered and ancient second hand copy with an awful yellow typographic design on it typical of sixties pulp publishing. I've got a real thing when it comes to second hand books, I have a book shelf full of pulp sci-fi and other weird things which I've picked up for less than a quid in various charity shops. I like the idea that a book I'm reading has some kind of unknown history to it, that someone else at some time was compelled to buy it and take in the ideas lying within it's pages, and then perhaps pass those ideas on to a whole new generation by giving it to a charity shop or second hand book store. Maybe they just got bred with it or had toomany books so got rid of it for les honourable reasons. Either way I like the idea of the information in books being handed down randomly across the generations.
To give you an idea of what Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons is like as a book, it was a major influence on me when I was a part of the hall JCR Committee. It shaped my moral view of the world and the people that populate it. Last years freshers loved me and thought I was the great because I was always there to talk and more importantly listen to them with an open mind. I was encouraging when someone needed the encouragement to do something, I believed (and still believe) that everyone has the potential to be and do whatever they want to do despite their appearance or background, gender, age, sexuality, all those silly definitions we aply to other people to seperate ourselves from each other as human beings. It's amazing how many people fail to do that, something that became evident to me from the general response I had from people throughout the year. I've never thought myself to be something special, in fact I'm pretty much convinced that I'm not something special. For a start that would imply that I've put no effort into being where I am today and believe me, I put a lot of effort into being where I am today. Yet this typically average human being was regarded as something special just because he was open and nice to people.
That's the kind of book Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons is.
Someone has my copy of Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons. I let one of the freshers in the hall borrow it when I found out he was a Vonnegut fan. He hadn't read it and I told him he absolutely had to read it. It's full of all kinds of practical and ethical wisdom that I feel is so imporatnat needs to be passed on. A lot of human cultures pass on their wisdom through the generations orally, through song or poem or allegorical story. Having handed him a piece of human wisdom in printed form this guy told me he'd hand the book back to me when he finished with it, which I thought is a nice and honourable gesture. That was back in October. It's now May and I still don't have the book back, but frankly if I really wanted it back I could get it. I've taken what I need from the book and passed it on to someone else, who in turn may pass it on to someone else. I have become a part of that books long and mysterious past, and who knows what kind of future it may have and where it may end up?
I find that much more interesting than a MySpace bulletin, a piece of vitrual information or meme conjured up out of the boredom and mind numbing pressures of the daily grind that only exists for 14 days or whatever. Throwaway disposable information. Not to say there's anything wrong with that, I think as a mass communiaction system bulletins are a great idea, and I use them myself. I'll most likely be using them today to advertise my radio show. I present a weekly radio show every Sunday, between the hours of 5 and 6 pm, on Junction11, Reading Universities Student Radio Station. It's as basic as that, but when I write my bulletin I'm going to make out that my radio show is much more important and special than that. Technically I don't think that's lying, but I'm willing to decieve you so you'll listen to me on the radio. Not because I want you to listen to me, but because I want you to listen to the wonderful music I play, much of which has been released for free for download on the internet by struggling musicians who deserve recognition for what they do.
The radio show is another part of my life that's been influenced by Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons. I kinda hold this vain and idealistic silly hope that by passing that book on, it can have the same affect on a few other lives as well.
You may now leave comments telling me that I am your prophet. Requests for more photos of me smoking will be taken into consideration. |
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[May. 3rd, 2006|10:26 am] |
I'm listening to the Asian Dub Foundation album I've been meaning to buy for the past year, I think me and my mate Igor picked up the only two copies left in Reading yesterday. Stoned and playing Burnout Revenge earlier in the week, Igor played me a tune called "Flyover" that he said I absolutely had to hear. I was surprised to find that it was an Asian Dub Foundation track, and both being fans we agreed one of us had to get the album.
The next day I go out browsing records, something I haven't actually done in months. Along with the usual heartbreak of finding various gems I couldn't afford I got the Asian Dub Foundation album and the new AFX (or Aphex Twin, who I assume just about everyone has heard of without ever listening to) album and I used the oppurtunity to chat to my mate Jamie who recently acquired himself a very nice job in a local record store.
I did look longingly at the new Tool album before thinking better of it. It has weird goggle things on it to magnify some of the artwork or something. Maybe sixth formers will start holding it to their faces and start spouting bollocks about drugs and perception. It's what would have happened in my day (before everyone got obsessed wth emo). It falls right into that rock "art statement" that used to get me so excited about bands when I was around 15 to 18 years old. Apparently it's a good album, and I really want it. It'll have to wait until after the exams though, after I've finally sorted my life out and pushed myself in the direction I want to be going in.
These days I get new music exclusively through legal downloads from the artist, whether that be artist homepages or whatever comes my way on MySpace. I can't use torrents or peer to peer file sharing in halls, and being a student with fuck all money I can't really go out and buy records all the time. It was nice to actually browse record stores from that perspective, it's dramatically changed the way I look at CDs and judge an artist. I'm more inclined to spend hours in the Electronica and Dance, Jazz, Reggae and Dub sections than I am the rock and pop section. Being able to download whatever I please has massively diversified my taste in music and mademe much more open to experimentation. The AFX album was a bit of a risk, eventhough I'm familiar with both Aphex Twin and AFX material. The album turned out to be absolutely wonderful and very listenable. I'll be playing a track this Sunday.
I signed into MySpace this morning and checked my bulletins, bulletins are like posting a message up on a virtual pin board so everyone can see, I quite like the idea. Obviously I sift through a lot of crap, but occaisionally a record label or promotions company might point me towards a band. I found an entirely free sampler album from the Captains of Industry label the other day, the label who until recently were home to Peace Burial at Sea. Most of it's crap, but it's still free music. I got a complete surprise today when I saw that four people on the Junction11 exec had circulated my Spark advert along with details on their own show at the bottom of the post. Not bad for something I knocked up very quickly over the period of a night and a very stressed out hazy morning. To be honest it was a bit of a shock, I thought the design was crap and wasn't happy with it, but I'm willing to live with it because of the time pressure I was under. It's nice to see people take the initiative with your work and post it everywhere for everyone to see. Little bit daunting, but then the design is going to be in Spark for the next three weeks circulated to 15,000 students.
Here's something I wrote in MSNSpaces last night, forcefed updates to everyone on my messenger list so they know what I'm up to. 'Cos I'm lazy and need to be getting on with work...
Well the printers cocked up the colour seperations on page 33, my full page advert which was hastily put together in a night and a morning, and the paper wasn't distributed until today AFTER the bank holiday which kinda ruins my advertising, but otherwise it all seems ok.
I'm talking about new tech things in the studio on page 34, which includes a drunk and horribly geeky photo of my good self taken at the SRA conferance. Must have been on a caffeine high when I decided to put that in. I also write about music in context of my show, hopefully rousing some interest in new music released as a freely available download by the artist, THE medium for music which I utterly believe in right now. Bollocks to the show, I'm fed up of trying to get people to listen to that, I'm more interested in people discovering good music and giving it the appreciation and support it deserves. Going to be interesting to see if audience figures for my show actually increase this week, but frankly I'm doubtful. Not many people actually care about what I do untill I physically kidnap them and play them something I think is cool. The column was more of an excuse to point people in the right direction and get them listening to something differant and interesting and free and legal that they might like. ALternatively I suppose I could gaffa tape ghetto blasters with the volume control maxed out and removed and stuck to 1287am to everyone's ears, but it's not really practical and as much as I love promoting new music, I don't want to get arrested.
(Although I can imagine it making for a very interesting if not slightly disturbed Sunday morning. Yeah I think I need to go bed too.)
The biggest thing was a list of flagship shows on my full page advert, the one they cocked up the printing on. I've had mates point shows out already they weren't aware existed, expressing an interest. I've been criticised for not creating enough of an awareness of those shows, so this is a step to correct that. Be interesting to see if people actually respond to it at this late stage.
Just get a copy of Spark and do me a favour and check out pages 33 and 34, along with the rest of the paper because I know Manuela and Pete struggled to get this issue finished to deadline, and from what I can see they've done a good job. Spark seems to be of a higher standard than usual although I don't understand what all those lines ruining the music page headlines are about. I can kinda see what they're tried to do, it's similar to the wavy lines in my designs I use to suggest a musical score/radio waves, but it really doesn't work with the type and just makes the whole page look ugly. It's nice however to see students starting to experiment with breaking the mold in terms of design and try something differant, take a risk. My first leaflets for the station were awful, but in this line of work there's a lot of trial and error and as a student volunteer it's the only oppurtunity you're going to get to learn before going out into the professional world. I appreciate the idea and the willingness to experiment with it.
It'd be a shame if the effort and stress us volunteers go through at exam time went to waste, so do make an effort to have a look otherwise it all goes to waste. And yeah I am just a whore and this is a cheap shot and I want you to look at my work like the arrogant egoist I truly am. I don't feel dirty about it at all, and I did it for free.
For those of you brave enough to have read this far, here's the Spark advert. I don't think I've posted it on here yet, although it has been on Clevertalk since last week now. |
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