Tandem Stunt Blogging
Well Lee has been blogging since 11 am and for reasons born mostly of boredom and late night MSN I was meant to be blogging in tandem with him. I have failed to blog at the same time as him mostly due to my thoughts about ice cream. Read his brains here - Nice But Wrong. His site is far prettier than mine and he eats sushi.
I was most amazed at the talents of my wife this evening. She came back from a visit to town with some material. Within about 1 hr, with many strange lights and buzzing noises (apparantly its some kind of Sew-O-Tronic Machine), she had a brand new skirt! It looked all real and proper and everything! Even had a zip and a little slit at the back! Oh and you can read her brains here - Alana Blog
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Awfull recordings....
Quality is bad, recording is very dodgy.
Accoustic quick riff in DADGAD Music
Accoustic fingerpicking that I would like to turn into a song (recording terrible!)
Music
And the above tune ruined by cheesey elctric guitar!
Music
I promise I will try harder next time! Someone help me with my home recording!
Edit: Just re-listened to these in the cold light of morning. The last one, well the electric guitar part doesn't.... errrrr.... fit? Not sure what I was thinking. I'd also like to add to the warning about awfull recordings. The playing aint too hot either. Oh well.
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A few things...
Mostly a collection of thoughts I had on the bus this morning, nothing terribly exciting.
Films
I watched Lost Highway last night. I didn't really enjoy it. I think part of it was to do with having studied David Lynch at college. I find having a background in media studies sometimes enhances viewing pleasure but quite often takes all the pleasure away! I can't decide whether I'm simply not clever enough or not enough of a film buff to 'get' Lost Highway. I'm not saying it was a bad film, it had some great camera work and composition (I love pretty pictures). I think the lack of a clear narative is what put me off. I think when I sit down to watch a film I like to be told a story from start to finish. If it can tell a story in an intersting way ,with nice visuals then all the better. I much prefer Amélie. Pretty pictures, has a story and is pleasantly quirky.
Music
My iPod threw my an amusing curveball this morning. I couldn't decide what to listen to so I risked shuffle mode. The first song that came up claimed to be Bjork. This was a surprise in itself as I don't own any Bjork! My first reaction was to suspect the wife of uploading stuff to the iPod. It became instantly clear that the song wasn't by Bjork. It was "The Last Song I'll Ever Write About a Girl" by the Ataris. This amused me as I used to listen to this song a great deal a few years ago during a particulary messy break up with a girl. Can you smell the angst!
"Why do I never seem to learn?
That love is wrong and girls are fucking evil.
I guess I'll never figure out
What womankind is all about."
I sat there on the bus chuckling at the me of two years ago. "Man, they wrote this song for me! It's my song!" I was able to look back and laugh now and enjoy the angst with a kind of nostalgia. I like angsty emo/post hardcore/pop punk! There you go I've said it. No more hiding the music I enjoy!
The Ataris come up solved my what to listen to this morning dilema for me so I put on "So Long Astoria".
Music 2: My Music
I've been playing the accoustic guitar as much as I can and have come up with a few more bits and pieces in DADGAD. Playing the accoustic is a nice change from playing bass in the band. I can't decide whether I want to work on this accoustic stuff with other musicians. I almost want to selfishly keep it to myself. Perhaps it's just other guitarists I'm worried about. Working with a percusionist could really add to the tunes.
I've also finally put some strings on my Les Paul and have been playing some electric guitar again. First thing I noticed is how light the strings feel compared to bass! I use .11's anyway, which is fairly heavey for electric. I enjoyed having a thrash around with some powerchords and some over indulgent lead riffs. I think the electric guitar will always be a bit of fun for me. Accoustic is my 'serious' instrument and bass is what I do in a band.
Work
Well I guess this was bound to come up seeing as I was on the way to work on the bus. I've been here since 7.30 this morning. I've started coming in early just to make sure I get everything done!
I expect I have all the usuall frustrations about my working life that everybody has. Well not professional pirates, they can remain enternally smug in the knowledge that they are far cooler than cowboys.
I have plenty to do, and thankfully my workload is hugely varied from day to day. I think it is the lack of real responsibility that is getting me down. I left a management postition at a musical instrument retailer to come and do something to do with my degree. I was in charge of the guitar,bass amps and FX department. This meant I did all the ordering and managed the staff. I had access to the budget and could make my own purchasing decisions. I took a £2k a year pay cut from a postition 3rd from the top in the shop hierachy (Owner>Store Manager>Me)to a position bottom of the hierachy (Everyone Else> Me).
I've tried to carve myself a position in the department by making myself usefull and coming up with new ideas. It's been strange going from making important decisions and managing staff to being managed and having decions made for me.
I really want to get more involved in teaching. The best part of my job is demostrating non-linear editing and doing tutorials with video students. I would love to teach a module dedicated to the techniques and art of video editing. I would also like to get involved with some research, something I can do if I can come up with an idea for an MPhil.
I think I just have an almost childlike need for recognition, a pat on the back occasionaly, and to feel 'important' or usefull.
Well thats this mornings ponderings unloaded and I still have time to get a ton of work done before anyone else gets here!
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Plans for Sunday
Today has been a day of building computers and cleaning the house. I'm in the process of building my sister, Alyson, a PC as a birthday present. I think it is vitally important for people to be IT literate. I also think having her PC (rather than using the museum piece my parents own) will really help her with her A-Levels and after that university.
So yes today was/is a technical day but hopefully tommorow will be a more creative day. I plan on taking some portrait shots of Alana with 1940's style clothing/make up/hair. I have borrowed a Nikon D70 digital SLR from work for the job and I will also shot a couple of rolls of b&w film with my SLR. I plan to compare the quality of the the two formats. Hopefully by tommorow evening the digital photos will be finshed and will post them here.
If I get the time I would also like to record another short accoustic guitar instrumental. Anyone who reads this comments on the first piece would be most apprieciated!
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The Start
I shall start as I mean to go on and provide both a photograph:
and a short piece of music. More of an instrumental sketch than a finished piece as such:
Music (right click and save as to download)
The guitar featured in both the photo and the music is my Simon & Patrick Sp6 Spruce, a lovely Canadian made instrument. I quite like feeling inspired to do something and approaching it from two angles. I got home thinking about how much I like my guitar and felt the desire to both photograph and play it. Neither the photograph or the music are particularly good, but both were fun to make and passed the evening nicely. I would really like to work on the instrumental piece and record it with proper equipment.
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