Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Recording



Lee popped round to our flat on Sunday to do some recording. He needed to record his parts for Christening, Pale Blue Dot and we had a stab at the vocals for Ghost Written - but we'd left our popscreen at Andy's so we had to do a make-shift one out of a wire coat hanger and a t-shirt. Wasn't too happy with the recording though - Lee's voice was a bit shakey and the popscreen made his sound a bit muffled. We'll try it again another time. Other than that the other recordings were successfull and we had a laugh to boot!

Bill Bailey

Me and Lisa went to see Bill Bailey at the BIC on Saturday. It was amazing. I'd completely forgot that we'd bought tickets until about 2 weeks ago. We ordered the tickets in May after we saw him on the Jonathon Ross show and he was talking about his up-coming tour.

The German Market is in town again for Christmas. We had a steak burger and 2 glasses of Glühwein before we went to the concert. Glühwein is mulled wine and is great when you mix it with a pint of strong German lager - get's ya pissed quicker!

I'll upload a clip of Bill Bailey later on.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Radiohead - Videotape (mojib remix)

Looks like someone's already remixed a track from Radiohead's latest album, In Rainbows. It's the last track on the album, Videotape, and it features a sample from DJ Shadow. I quite like it but it has to be said that it's not so much a remix as a mash-up. The original track, due to it's minimalistic nature, is probably one of the easiest to remix. Coulda done it myself!! But you have to give him credit for getting there first.

Check out mojib.net for other remixes including Ian Brown and The Go! Team

Videotape (Mojib Remix)

Friday, November 09, 2007

24: The Unaired 1994 Pilot

Just seen this on digg.com and had to show it to you. This is probably the first time the technobabble on 24 is accurate!! Enjoy.

Since Fox will not be airing a new season of "24" due to the writers' strike, they plan to air this version, originally filmed in 1994.

digg story

Lots of exciting stuff...

There's a lot of stuff I'm excited about at the moment. Just stuff that's either coming up or stuff that's just happened. Obviously my main excited thing was moving in with Lisa. The rest are as follows...

Star Trek XI
They're currently in pre-production stages of the new Star Trek movie. In case you didn't know, this movie goes back BEFORE the ORIGINAL Star Trek and will likely covers things like Spock and Kirk at the Space Academy. Recently they've done a casting call for extras. Would love to be in America right now!!
Click here for more Extras info

iPhone
I'm sure that most of you would've heard about the iPhone and that it's just come out over here in the UK. I want one sooo bad - can't wait for January 19th.. that's when I can upgrade my phone!

Super Mario Galaxy
Coming out on the 19th!! Check this clip...

...say no more.

Wanted trailer
Next up, a trailer has been going round on the internet for a film called Wanted. It stars James McAvoy (from Channel 4's Shameless), Angelina Jolie (in over-the-top clack eye make-up!), Morgan Freeman and Terence Stamp. The trailer looks good... a bit Matrix-esque but I've got a feeling it's gonna be a bit tame. Hope not. There's some amzing thought out visuals such as climbing up and falling train carriage and the bit where Jolie pulls a skid in that red car and bumps McAvoy's character into the car. It's also another in a long line of comicbook-to-screen adaptions that seem to be the in thing at the moment.


Blade Runner Final Cut
Ridley Scott wanted to re-shoot a few scene's for his classic film Blade Runner. I'm sure everyone's heard about this film so I'll skip the synopsis. Basically, in view of all the latest High Def TVs being the way forward and that older films are being converted to HDDVD and BluRay, Ridley became increasingly aware of some scenes that are 'passable' on VHS but become blindingly obvious on High-Def ultra realism... namely the scene with the stripper replicant crashing through shop glass. It was obviously a stuntman in a bad wig! There are also some originally unused footage that has been restored. It should be available to buy soon and I can't wait to see one of my favourite films of all time in the way it was originally intended.

Aliens vs Predator - Requiem
A trailer has been out for a while on this one - but recently a whole 3 minutes of one of the key scene's has been released just in time for Halloween. You can see them HERE. They are pretty graphic and with strong language so a short age verification will need to be done. Fingers crossed it will be a million times better that the first Aliens vs Predator mess of a film.


I've also been getting into podcasts recently. Namely Totally Rad Show, Smodcast and Web Drifter. The Totally Rad Show podcast is a video podcast featuring Diggnation's Alex Albrecht and is basically about films, video games and comics. Smodcast is an audio podcast with Kevin Smith and some friends. It's totally addictive listening. Web Drifter is kinda like a Louis Theroux type video podcast in that the shows host, Martin Sargent, will be traveling across America taking you behind some of the most fascinating, shocking, and groundbreaking sites on Internet.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

No posts for a week...

Yep, I've sent no posts for a week! So what the hell's been happening since my last nerdy tech post?!? Well, it's a mixture of 'not a lot' and 'too much to mention'. My main thing has been preparing for moving out of mine and Scott's flat to move into Lisa's flat. Lottie will be taking my place.

Friday 2nd Nov, 2007
Went to work - it sucked. Scott and Lottie were off to London to see Carter USM supported by Sultans of Ping. Lisa came round to help me pack some stuff. We also managed to get wasted and stay up til 4am!! Not good as I've got a gig the next day!!

Saturday 3rd Nov, 2007
This was the day of the all-dayer at The Gander (oh and Rob's birthday!).



For those that don't know (shame on you) this was a day to celebrate the re-opening of The Gander as a premium local venue for unsigned bands, and to give Imogen and Chris a good send off as they're moving to Japan. Their departure will essentially be removing a leg from the Betika and Dutch Husband table. Luckily Betika have found some fitting 2 by 4 to prop up the table while they're away. Dutch, on the other hand will attempt to stand up as a three legged table. What the fuck am I talking about!??! I dunno... I think I've lost it.

Anyway, we got there at about 2ish to set up. I was starving and a bit shaky on my legs after only getting abut 4 hours kip and being hungover like a bastard. I got myself a Subway and bottle of water. We did sound check with Dave Purse on drums - Scott was still on his way back from London and apparently there were railworks on the track so his train was delayed. After all sounded good I got my frist drink of the day and enjoyed the first two bands.

I'd seen Slate Caverns before. To the untrained ear it sounds like he's making shit up on the spot. But I've seen him several times before and I know that what he's playing is pre-planned, written and sharper than a surgeon's blade. He's also the only act I've ever seen use his foot to play guitar, his knee to control a wah-wah and both hands controlling two separate pedels simultaneously. Amazing! If I ever write a film, I want a Slate Caverns "tune" in the soundtrack.

Creepythinguy was great too. Reminded me of a Graham Coxon solo acoustic gig - if he ever did solo acoustic gigs that is. It was interesting to see him using a nylon stringed classical guitar though.

We were up next. The crowd was getting big by the time we got on stage. I thought we played like shit. My bass was slightly out of tune near the beginning, even though I'd tunes up. Both the guitar amps were WAYYY too loud and I fucked up loads on the keys during Pale Blue Dot. There were more but can't remember them. Anyway, we played and entertained. And what did me in the most was that people were coming up to us and say we were awesome. One comment was "You guys should be fuckin' headlining Glastonbury, or sommat!" I'm like, "Glad you liked it!" But I wasn't gonna start putting ourselves down. If he enjoyed it then that's cool. My job was done. I just took it.



We had to get all our stuff off stage and get it home before we could relax and enjoy the rest of the day. I've played at an all-dayer before and when it came to taking my stuff home at the end of the night I was drunk and left half of my shit there never to see it again so I wasn't gonna make the same mistake twice. We dropped our stuff at James' and Emma gave us a lift back.

By the time I got back Dead!Dead!Dead! were on stage - man, I didn't think we were gone that long! But that's ok, cos I love D!x3. Such a good band. They were giving out free CD's too - which I wish we'd done. Actually, that reminds me. I spent three hours the previous night making an "Album Preview/Exclusive Demos" Blind Voyeurs CD for the raffle and I don't remember hearing it being mentioned. I think Tone might've forgot to put it in with the rest of the prizes. Oh well.

As the night went on my memory of what went on get's hazy - not that I felt drunk at the time. I remember getting my nursery rhymes mixed up with Simone at one stage and Nikki was being my clapping buddy (we were both holding drinks so we used our spare hands to clap - she was my left hand, I was her right hand)

Potts was on a mission to find the most disgusting combination for a drink - and came up with Tequila & tobasco shots! He made me his guinea pig and force fed me the prototype (the git told me it was a normal tequila) and although it was really hot it was bearable. It ended up being like an endurance test as we were challenging each other and other people to down one, too - I think I had 3 or 4 of them!!!!!



Me, Summa, Kai, Potts, Mark and JB went to iBar after for more drinks. Were were in there for a couple. Kai didn't believe me that the owner of iBar wrote the original Worms game. I had to call Andy over to prove to him that he did. Even then Kai said "I dunno.. I think you set that up!" After a drink too many it was time for us to all head home. I think I completely passed out as soon as I hit the pillow.

Sunday 4th Nov, 2007
This was a null-day. Too hungover to do anything!!!!!!!!!!! Stayed in bed - even that was an effort!

This week so far
Lottie and Scotty went to Wales on Monday for a dirty week in a log cabin with hot-tub and jacuzzi. Which was good for me cos that meant they were out of the way for me and Lisa to start doing some proper packing and shifting. My bedroom is all echoey now - all that's left in there is a matress and a check of drawers - both of which are to go to the tip.

And that concludes the summary of my week!