This is the topic of conversation...

Here's a tip for you kids: Next time you're meant to be adding people to your 'band' myspace page, triple check that you're actually signed into the band account, NOT your personal one. Way to waste 2 hours and confuse a lot of people Owen.

Holiday is happening soon. Just over two weeks and I leave! Woo!

Last two days was JMC Showcase stuff. I was meant to be doing FOH sound, but instead I was shoved on Monitors for the night (sound on stage, the stuff that the performers hear for the uninitiated). The upside of doing Monitors is that because you're tucked away on the side of stage out of sight to the public, you can easily curl up on the floor for a sleep when you've got nothing to do. Downside is that you've got to deal with performers being whingy and doing things they shouldn't: for example, pointing the microphone directly at a speaker then wondering why it keeps feeding back.
In the end, it wasn't too bad because we had 6 practices to get everything right, but it was bad because we had 6 practices (going through everything so much is very boring for sound guys) and I'd gotten all the levels fine after the first band had done their song for the first time.
It was good to work with fellow JMC types to see what skills each group of people had, to see what skills people lacked, how I could improve my game a bit, and to see Trainers in their prime (i.e. in the bar after the show).
It was also good for me to have something 'responsible' to do. Because I was doing monitors, it was my job to direct a couple of 2nd year students in helping me out (I don't need help, so most of the time I was telling them to chill out) and to also keep the performers happy by making each one of them feel like they're the centre of the show. It was good in that it gave me something to do.

Back onto the topic of this sweet holiday I'm going on and that you're not (unless your name is Esther), flights around Europe have been booked, tickets to see The Slackers have been booked, tickets to see The Pogues & Billy Bragg have been booked, tickets to see Arsenal have been booked (!!!), tickets to go on the Eurostar have been booked (!!!), and the only things left are accomodation in continental europe and our Eurail train pass. Oh, and I need to pay for this all. I owe someone a lot of money right now. They'll get it soon.

Next week I can finally get my full licence! Yay! This means I can drive at 110km/h legally and also not be patronised by other drivers for driving better than them while carrying a 'P' plate. This week after I get that, I'm going to go and get an International Drivers Licence (only $50 from the NRMA, you can even get one on your L's), and then get an International Student Card. Pretty exciting stuff from my end, its okay to he jealous, I know you are.

Ok, now on to the annual blog entry rant:
Why are bands that I like releasing albums that I don't like?
This week I have two prime examples: The Hives and Hot Hot Heat (both of whom Esther is seeing live this week, so darn jealous).
I got The Hives album in my CD player, hit play, and this weird noise came out. It sounded like a rock band, but was it The Hives? There was a rock n roll sound, but apart from the distinctive vocals, it really didn't sound like a Hives album. After a couple of tracks, what's this? Pianos? RnB? What? Turns out Pharrell Williams (one of my most loathed musicians) co-wrote and produced two songs on the album. Really not cool guys.
And Hot Hot Heat? What happened to their fun indie rock n roll? They've turned into a Stadium Rock band. You know what I mean, minimalist guitars and drums with whiney vocals sung over the top that only sounds good mixed in a stadium. The only song I can really say I like is '5 times out of 100', which is a re-recording of an old song!

Annoyance aside, hooray for holidays and all that. Also, I just noticed I really like brackets.

- Owen

sick of it all

so i'm sick today. hooray! its one of those "i feel like i'm going to be sick everywhere but i'm not so i'll just curl up and try to sleep" type things. it's really annoying.

this past month has been mega busy with college. i've handed in all but two assessments (inc the major ones) so i'm almost finished up for the year. i've got a restoration project due on monday, where we need to restore a wax cylinder recording and try and remove as much of the crackling as possible, and my final soundscape recordings for the semester on friday. i can't wait to hand all of these in as they're weighing on my mind quite heavily.

i'll be arriving overseas in 1 months time. i'm very excited by that prospect, but 1 month is a really long time when you're excited about something. esther and i trying to work out where we will be and when, so its really fun just going through and doing that. it also looks like we'll make it to germany too.

hometown throwdown is coming back! we're going to start it off as a smaller event and try and build them up again. its on the 30th nov and features three bands: Dr Buff, Airship Colour Majestic, The Understatement. it'll be pretty cheap, i think $8 or something, so it'll be a good night. i'm going to try and record the entire thing multitrack into protools and set up some video cameras to film it. in the end we'll have a sweet dvd. i might even be able to mix it for 5.1 surround sound at college, but we'll have to see. i'm pretty excited by throwdown being back, and all the recording process that'll get done too. it won't get done until i get back from my holiday (i leave 36 hours after its on), but once its done it'll be great.

royal crown revue are touring in 3 weeks. because they're touring at the gaelic club i not only get in for free, but i might even get to do monitors for them. fingers crossed is me!

oh yeah, once i work out how to compress the doco i made for college, i'll upload it to youtube for you all to look at and tell me how good i am at things.

if you're doing things in the next month, please invite me along. the lack of not going anywhere with anyone to anything is making me feel kinda lonely to be honest.

thats enough for one day, speak to you next time.