by DanMTerm is over and so is my course for the year. Part one of the MIDI assignment is over. The tale of Rommel and his desert rats in two minutes of synthesized aural garbage is more likely to baffle the examiner than get me a distinction, but then again I’ve never really been into drum and bass. Part two has me remixing the theme tune to the Peanuts cartoon but I can’t find samples of Charlie Brown’s arrrrrghhh as he flies through the air having missed the football or Lucy shouting ’You Blockhead’. Need to sample my DVDs at Xmas therefore.
Xmas spirit here and so is the season for giving smaller presents than usual thanks to the advance from MS. Register.com tried to renew an old domain name I didn’t want for $90, my Christmas shopping is done, and I’ve been invited to a friends on Xmas afternoon handily located in the centre of, and I quote, ‘the one way system from the seventh level of hell.’ Should be interesting. Wonder if I’ll pass hell’s server room on the way.
Almost finished Chapter 1, which is nice. Actually, there have been quite a lot of unique things so far this week. I recorded my first demo session on Tuesday with a local band, 22 Over 7, I’m happy with the way the book is going is general, and yesterday, I watched the darkest, strangest movie of the year so far,
Donnie Darko, came home and then had to try and prove I don’t have an eating disorder to my housemates by going to the supermarket and having some pizza for my tea. As Ozzy might say, I love them to bits, but they’re all a bit mad. Finally, had the pleasure of picking up the new
Jean Michel Jarre album,
Sessions 2000
. A departure from the norm and no quarrel about it. More an exploration into jazz than electronica, but a good one nevertheless.
Found self troubleshooting patch bays and noise gates in the studio today. Not because I was supposed to, mind. Surprisingly, ended up mixing a 20-track catholic sing along because I had nothing else to do while it rained for the first time in a month and the police closed half the city down for a suspicious-looking-package(tm). That’ll be someone’s shopping safe-detonated by the bomb squad then.
Brum is turning into a right place for the headlines, good, bad or laughable. Not content with this bombscare (which I missed from two minutes walk away) , in the last fortnight we’ve had a full fledged earthquake (which I slept through), city fisticuffs for the first premier league Brum derby game for sixteen years (football - hmm) and now police have broken up a people trafficking ring at addresses around here. And of course, Brum is also putting itself in the running for European City of Culture in 2008 Ah, the folly. Forget web services - I should go into social commentary, invade Aston with some dettol and cockroach shock and see if anyone has a go at me for making the place a bit cleaner.