It isn't like Christmas at all

It's Christmas Time everyone. I was feeling in the mood so:
From Stockholme to Oslo, A Christmas compilation - One Christmas Fits All

But we all know that Christmas seems to be a time for listening to the kind of music that we don't like, so here is one more...

From Aliens to Peregrine Falcons, A Christmas compilation - Holy Crap, it's Xmas again

ATP - Nightmare Before Christmas - Curated by "Godspeed You! Black Emperor"

Butins bungalow weirdness held host to ATP's "Nightmare Before Christmas" as curated by "Godspeed You! Black Emperor" from the 3-5th December 2010.

My ATP looked something like this:

Friday:

• Josephine Foster
• The Berg Sans Nipple
• Black Dice
• Phil Jeck

Saturday:

• Flower/Corsano Duo
• Bardo Pond
• The Dead C
• Mike Watt & The Missing Men
• Oneida (with Mike Watt)
• Shitmat
• The Ex

Sunday:

• Godspeed you! Black Emperor
• Cluster
• Sick Llama
• Neurosis
• Weird Al Yankovic
• Boban i Marko Markovic Orchestra
• Daniel Menche
• Awesome Tapes from Africa
• Deerhoof

Photos are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/alecjcook/20101002GodspeedATP#

and there is a video of Phil Jeck and some reviews to follow:

Downtown Disney

Departure Day-2 - "Superimposter" - Oceansize

Wow, just been to Downtown Disney, that was an experience and a half. I was there for nearly three hours. After about half an hour, I lost the ability to think. I wandered round in a capitalist haze, gawking at some of the awesome stuff they had. The Lego shop was wicked, they had a huge bank full of every piece of Lego imaginable. There was a little 'build your own Lego man' station and even an impressively built Lego Space Shuttle. I went into the sweet shop, and when trying to buy a 1/4 of jelly beans, bout about 1 1/2 pounds! The House at Pooh Corner shop actually smelt of honey. There was a Disney Art shop that sold pictures, even had people sat in it drawing and painting pictures. I was a Disney Model Castle that was encrusted with jewels and cost $37500! Yes that's right, 37K!!!!

There was a club there, and a rock show playing, but tickets were $33 and that too much to be spending on a gig of bands I have never heard of.

There was also a huge building dedicated to 'make your own remote control car'! Which was pretty cool. These things could cost thousands, little shock absorbers, spoilers, body kits, engines (motors) the lot. Was pretty sweet. But all a bit much. A friend of mine described it as "Having Mickey Mouse rammed down your throat at every opportunity" and he was not exaggerating in any way!

Now I need some ear bleeding Techno as an antidote :)

Ruskin Seafood Festival

Day 8 - "Good Morning Sun" - Ben Folds

Today (the clocks went on so I got an extra hour in bed) had a great big lie in, and by ten set off to Downtown Orlando for the "Fall Mela" and "Farmers Market" (Although what these people think they are farming I have no idea) :)

There was lots of home made jewellery and other curiosities. Lake Eola is lovely, reflecting the sky scrapers looks beautiful. After another spate of prezzie buying, I set off to Ruskin for the seafood festival. It was nice having gone from the east coast to the west coast of the state. I dipped my toe in the sea and was amazed by the white sand beaches. At the seafood festival I was un-lucky that all the "Alligator Bites" had sold out, so had Scampi, Gumbo and Crawfish (well, thats what I ordered, I'm sure I actually got Cod, Prawns and Soul, but it was still very nice).

On the way back, my sat nav thought every intersection of a road and the interstate was and entry onto the motorway... It was not so took me a long time to get back!

Now to get all my stuff ready for an exciting week with the good people at Sonitrol!

Space Coast to Orlando

Day 7 - "Heaven Alive" - Oceansize

So, most American cash machines won't accept my card, which caused me mayhem today. Also, most petrol pumps are self service, so they want your card, and then your 5-digit zip code, which caused me mayhem today.

I went to Kim Lee's Tastee Donuts for breakfast, and learned that "Boston Cream" is custard (and I'm about to find out what "Canadian Cream" is).

After packing up my tent, I cruised on over towards Orlando.

On the road I saw a sign post to the "Enchanted Forest" who were having a one day festival, so I though I'd stop by. They had a lot of trails, and people showing off local treasures they had found: Fossils; old tools; arrow heads, etc. I walked down the "Tortoise Trail" but didn't see one. It was lovely all the same.

After about an hour there I drove to my hotel and checked in. It's lovely, I have a sofa in my room, and I'm overlooking the pool which I can use for free!! :)

I drove back to the space coast for the state fair which was pretty fun. Like a fair in the UK, but not dirty and full of skallys. I watched some fan-boat drag races and tried some of the local delicacies.

So "Natchos and Cheese", are like un-flavoured Doritos, with a warm yellow gloopy substance that is nearly but not completely un-like cheese :S

And a "Corn Dog" is like the cheapest hot dog you can buy, that has been dipped repeatedly in thick doughnut batter and deep fried! Not exactly as disgusting as it sounds, but definitely not "food".

After that I drove back to the hotel, Just before my turn off I turned one too early and took me 45 min to get back to where I was! Time for a cold beer and some telly tonight, (there is an American football match on, gonna see if I can figure out the rules) :)

So, I have learned a whole bunch more about driving over here. Here goes.

1. If you see a sign that says "Constant green signal ahead", it means "Just in case you decide to slam your breaks on for no real reason, we have provided you with a green traffic light, that will always stay green, just for you" ! :)
2. You dashboard has no indication to whether your headlights are on or not, which can lead to exciting situations.
3. People can and will under take you on the wrong side, which can lead to exciting situations.
4. A sign depicting a 'forward arrow' followed by a 'red blob' means you are about to hit a cross roads where no-one/everyone has right of way, which can lead to exciting situations.
5. Your blind spot is on the wrong side of you, which can lead to terribly exciting situations.
6. Americans don't know what a yellow box is, which can lead to boring situations.

Sebastian Clambake

Day 6 "I will buy you" - Everclear
What a day! - we awoke to clear weather, so expectantly people started staking their spots out on the river front for the launch (I now realise it isn't the sea, but the "Indian River Lagoon" - as nice as it sounds). About 10am I went on the NASA website to see how we were looking, but again there was a problem. When they began to fuel the rocket they found there was a leak, so they are going to have to drain the tank, wait a day for it to warm up, and then check it out... The next launch window in on Monday (it's Friday, and I'm not going to be here then). Didn't leave me in the happiest mood, but I soon remembered where I was and that I had much better things to do than mope about, so I headed over to Merritt Island to got for a bit of a walk to clear my head.

I went on a 1 mile train around some scrub land and saw a Red Bellied Woodpecker (I know this because it has a white belly and a red head *doh*) then drove over to the Manatee Viewing Platform one last time to see if I could catch a glimpse of them. After half an hour, disappointed I went just round the corner to the boat platform, and hey presto, a whole family of manatees playing in the dock! Accompanied by a school of dolphins! I was about an hour watching and taking photos, it was so tranquil, warm and lovely.

When I left I saw a little thing scuttling about in the car park. It was an armadillo! Soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside ARMADILLOS! - I think he was real old and deaf and blind. Either that or just plain stupid, he let me get within 5 foot of him to take his photo!

Quite chuffed, I drove over to another trail on this island (took about 3 hours) and walked through the woods. I have discovered that "Interpretive Trail in the Hammock" really means "Footpath in the woods". It was awesome to see, this forest was half palm (palmetto also, I think they are the same things) and oak, but all the oak trees have all this Spanish Moss hanging from them, all fluffy and like clouds. Saw a few little lizards and some proper dock-off spiders.

My feet were killing by the time I got back to the car, but my next destination was an hour and a half drive a way, so no time for dordling I set off.

My lovely sat-nav took me on the interstate, which was an experience., all the way down to a place called "Sebastian" where they were having a "Clam Bake". This was like a nice little town faire, only all the food was clam-related. The entertainment was a little more suspicious. They had a "Sweet-pea beauty pageant" and then a lot of little girls appears and did some gymnastics!?

So the food: I had Clam Chowder, which is all creamy and really nice, and then I had linguini with red clam sauce (tasted a lot like spaghetti bolognese to me, but still very nice).

I sat and watched the band play old blues standards as the sun set, then I drove back home.

There was a sign at the clambake saying "No Smoking In The Park". I asked a nearby police man "If I can't smoke in the park, where can I smoke" to which he answered "You want me to tell you where you can smoke Pot!?" - I think he hadn't got get accent quite figured out for the word "Park" :)

While cruising down Easy Street (because I literally did have my cruise control on while driving down "Easy St." :) ) I figured out that I have learned quite a few things about driving in america:

1. American roads are that wide because they have to be because everyone's cars are mahoosive!
2. The speed limit is there for... Oh, whatever!
3. A school bus is allowed to stop all the traffic in all lanes whenever it wants, whether it is appropriate or not.
4. Your lane may end at any time, without warning, and plonk you on cross hatchings so be on edge.
5. A constant flashing orange traffic light means "Everything is OK" (got knows what happens when it isn't)
6. And if anyone can tell me what a single blue cats eye in the middle of a lane means, I might just be a better driver.

Merritt Island

Day 4 - "Forrest" - System of a Down
What a busy day I have had today!! I was woken up by the sound of Cicada - The loudest insect going. It sounds like electricity (AC) these insects live underground and feed on the nutrients in the roots of a tree, then one day a year they hatch, crawl up the tree, make this horrendous buzzing sound, mate, and then die! Poor things.

Anyway, they woke me and I got up and drove to Merritt Island National Refuge (the same island as the Kennedy Space Center is on), It's voting day today in America, and on my way, they way a guy holding up a billboard at the side of the road telling me who to vote for and waving (there are a lot of these) but this guy was stood by a pedestrian crossing, repeatedly pressing the button so the traffic had to stop and look at him!!! Pain in the proverbial! (I heard on the radio that Trent Reznor is going to remaster and re-release "Pretty Hate Machine" and release it on November 21st!)

I went into the visitors center and had a walk across their "Boardwalk" into the forest and got some lovely photos. It's so strange being in a different eco system, with all the different plants and creatures and sounds! They had a butterfly garden, their butterflies over here, some of them are the size of bats!

In the Visitors Center I talked to a nice lady who gave me a map and looked up Cicada for me. Randomly, half way through a conversation she said to me "Hey, D' you wanna have you're photo taken with this gaitor head?" ! - Not the kind of question one gets asked every day, so of course I did.

My next stop was the Black Point Wildlife Drive, which I was informed was an "Auto Route" (means you drive through it) So I drove down this track for about an hour, real slow, looking at all the wading birds, saw an eagle, and stopped at one of the trails. I was going to walk a trail, but had forgotten my water and just eaten half a pack of beef jerky (Salty) walked about 300m and decided I might die, so turned back to my lovely air conditioned car.

Another stop I got out and saw a wild alligator sunning it's self in a swamp with it's mouth side open, showing off all it's  teeth! - I saw another 3 "gaitors" at the next stop too! - I drove down to the manatee viewing platform, but couldn't see anything, and at about mid day, headed over to Titusville to try and find some thing to drink.

I checked out some of the Fast Food joints at lunch. I went into a Taco Bell and got me a Taco and a 16oz lemonade (I asked for fanta and the girl looked at me like I was from the moon and told me all they sold were "Pepsi" products... I didn't really know what that mean, but apparently it meant un-carbonated lemonade too, which was lovely) - A Taco is a fajita that they haven't folded for you, this thing cost me $2 and I finished in 2 bites. Word to the wise, Stay Away!

Still a bit peckish I thought it'd try a "Wendy's", which as far as I can tell is just the same as Mc Donalds or Burger King. I got myself a burger called a "Baconator" which I guarantee you, cannot be said sensibly without putting on an American accent. When I sold the lady I wanted "One, Un-stacked, Single, Sandwich Baconator" she didn't believe me (I think people usually order more than just that!) And I have no idea what Stacked means, as appose to single or double :S. I gotta say, it was pretty nice. Like Mc Donalds, but sweeter (more sugar I presume), and despite it's nice taste, it did nearly kill me.

Now they have drive through everything here. A drive through Pharmacy (no less!) and I also believe they have drive through Liquor Stores (a recipe for disaster if you ask me). But a good idea, Drive Thru Cash Machine! Nice, I like it.

Next I went down to the "Astronaut Hall of Fame" (the civilised bit of the Kennedy Space Centre) which is more like a museum and has all the knickknacks they didn't have space for at Kennedy. The had this huge globe that they projected images on all the planets on which was pretty cool. There was a Gemini capsule that you could have a sit in (and I did) :) - There was also a few simulators where you got to dock the space shuttle, and then land the lunar module. I know it's software that you can download and play at home, but it's so much cooler playing with all the joysticks and buttons :)

 After that I went back to the Space Centre (the tickets are valid for 2 days) and watched the "Hubble 3D" on and IMAX screen, which was Phenomenal. They had lots of footage of them on the last repair mission. The best bit was a fly through of the M38 galaxy, incredible on that screen. (Got my photo taken with a guy in a space suite too - super excited) :)

I had a little guided tour around the rocket garden and got to walk down the gangway that the Apollo 11 astronauts walked down (I was as excited as a school kid) :) Then I went over to the "Mission Briefing" centre to find out how we are doing with this launch due tomorrow. I found out the reason that they had put it back was because the payload was not ready, but now they have found another problem with the circuitry with the backup systems for the main engine (It is a triple redundant system, but they still want it to work before they take off) and this sounds like a big problem. So we might be lucky to see the launch :( - The Delta IV that is taking off on Thursday will not have it's launch time published, so I might be lucky to see that too :/ - Even if I see no launch though, I have still had a fantastic time, and it's only Tuesday!

Kennedy Space Center

Day 3 - "Cold Sunrise" - Low

This morning I got up at half six (the stars were still out) and walked down to the water. Sat and read a book for two and a half hours as my camera took a timelapse of the sunrise.

There are lots of little fish in the water that like jumping out in the funniest looking way. I saw the heron catch a fish and eat it too. There were lots of americans doing early morning fishing, I didn't see one of them catch anything.

Also, at about the moment when the sun first touched the water, a school of dolphins went past, their fins and tails gently popping out of the water, an incredible site!

Now I'm sat in the campsite having some buffalo chicken tenders and fresh orange for breakfast. Someone else on the site is cooking bacon, the bastards, and it smells lovely. These flipflops are killing my feet so I'm off to Titusville later to get some propper shoes!

The launch has been put of from Monday till Wednesday now (and if it doesn't happen then it will be delayed till December) so might go to the Kennedy Space Center today!

-- The squirrels here are Tiny! They are gray, but half the size of our british ones, they seem really playfull too :)

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Spent all day at the Space centre. Had a go on a shuttle simulator, which was really quite scary! Wobbled me all over the place (Hmmm, maybe need to loose some weight). And the Saturn V rocket they have there (real and full size) is SO big you would not beleive. Finally got myself a hat (flippin necessary in this weather!). The launch has been put back till Wednesday because of the weather, although I don't know why, cause it's still clear blue skys and too hot. - Got to see the shuttle (or at least the main engine of it) waiting on the launch pad, next to a huge "Liquid Oxygen" container with the words "No Smoking" in mile high letters :) - The ladys next door want me to try some kind of "Bean" meal tonight!

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The Bean meal last night was nice. It turns out in Louisiana (where they are all from) it is tradition that housewives who have lots of laundry to do on a Monday morning (washing everyone's church clothes) will put some beans into soak in the morning, and by the afternoon they are ready. So a nice simple meal. Was still nice!

Cocoa Beach Airshow

Day 2 - "We Used To Wait" - Arcade Fire

Awoke to see the sun rising over the sea 100m away from my tent. Beautiful. Having not quite landed yet I set off a 9am and drove to Cocoa beach (for the air show starting at 12). Had to pay $25 for a car park!! But then spent a good few hours strolling up and down the beach getting my bearings.

Bought a pretzel, some suntan cream (good grief it's hot in this part of the world) and now I'm heading off back to the beach with my beachtowel to get burned and watch the air show :)

So, spent all day at the beach for the air show (which was truly awesome, americans do big, overblown and spectacular in a good way). I arrived 2 hours before the airshow to "get a good spot" (I was on a flippin beach, like it mattered!). The airshow hadn't finished by half past 2 but after four and a half hours in the sun, I definitley had. I had no hat, and had to buy another tub of suntan cream, and I was still getting burned. When I stood up and tried to leave I found that all the glue on my trainers had completely melted, leaving them shreadded! Drove bare foot to a "Beachware" shop and got my self a $10 pair of flipflops. Dropping by at a supermarket I went back to the campsite, feeding myself up on florida grown baby tomatos, little peppers, beef and cheese, all washed down with fresh florida "OJ", which was unbelevabally good.

Nature around here doesn't half have some weird things to say for it's self. Some of the noises going on on this campsite are so weird! There are always squirrls chucking nuts (or somthing) down from the plam trees, there are some crickets, and then god knows what these other sounds are!

It is haloween tonight, and I have carved myself a little tiny pumpkin to celebrate. A lady called Janice from the next tent along has invited me over for soup and beef later, which was very lovely of her. Now for a beer, and to watch the sunset over the palms! :)

Spent last night talking to the 3 lovely ladys from the tent opposite. I learned that "Candy Corn" is actually fudge, and I got my first american trick'or'treat candy. Everyone liked my little pumpkin. Spent a bit of time on the peir with one of my new friends, looking at stars and trying to work out what constellations we could see. Saw two shooting stars, it was lovely!

Manchester to Florida

Day 1 - "This Is America" - Spacehog

So! Virging Atlantic is alright! They came round and offered me a free drink (saying it was a full bar service!) So got me a brandy. Then they gave me a dinner and a glass of wine and I settled down to watch the flim on the back of the headrest infront of me! Toystory 3! Just what you need when you're heading towards disney land :) Later on I even got a buttie and a cookie! Nice.

They give you a little bag full of things, I got a pillow, a blanket and some socks (not quite figured out why socks come free with a plane flight, but oh well. I got a window seat, but also there was no-one next to me. 3 seats all to myself!

Landed in Florida just as the sun was setting and got my rental car just as it went dark. A real trial by fire saw me drining in the wrong side of the road, in  a country with strange laws in a left hand drive automatic in the dark to a strange location. Scared the Crap out of myself, but got the hang of it fast (like I had an option).

Found my campsite and cause a but of a panic cause I had arrived a day early (oops, my bad!)

But the time I arrived (about 9) was like 2am for me. Knackered I put my tent up and passed out in it.

Free Garmin maps for all!

Anyone with a Garmin out there, never pay for another map ever again!
Free Routable maps of the world
and
Free Topographic maps of the world!

Jónsi

So, I'm sure you don't remember, but try and think back to when you were in primary school. And I' sure you didn't notice him,  but every playground has a coy kid stood on the edge. He didn't speak to anyone and stood alone with one finger in his mouth looking sad, and distant. Well, imagine that this kid grows up, learns to climb how to fight and climb mountains. Then imagine that all the schools in the country have one kid like this. If you wait till there all 25, then put them in a room together, this kid come back out of them, and the innocence of youth is exposed by the epic, earth moving experience of Jónsi.

At the Academy, Three quarters of the venue stood motionless for an hour and half in awestruck silence, while the other quarter of the venue sat at home, oblivious, after forgetting to buy their tickets.

A subtley generated yet epically presented, backlit, causally draped screen framed Jónsi (and support) as they swamped the venue with delicate sounds, fragile guitar and stupendously storming drumming. Never before have I seen the Manchester Academy silenced for song after song.Truly a fantastic experience.

 

(Massive thanks to Shan who got me and Alan guest list and onto the VIP Balcony in the venue, not only allowing me to see, but get the best view in the house) :)

Gaping Gill '10

We drove up to Ingelton on Saturday late afternoon and found ourselves a campsite. This wasn't as easy as you might have expected. We had banked on going to the "Goat Gap Inn", a little website I found told us about it, said they had a campsite round the back you could camp in for £3. Things that sound too good to be true usually are, as the pub turned out to be residential accommodation, (the next campsite down the road told us it hadn't been a pub for nearly fifteen years! - Damn Internet!)

After pitching we went to a nice little pub up the road for our tea. (we is Al, Emma, Leah and myself) I wasn't massively hungry so I just got a starter. I got Black pudding, which was 3 rounds of pudding (each about an inch and a half thick). Covered with pepper cream sauce and leeks, and garnished with a fruit salad! Of all the crazy things! But it was very nice. We got Drunk and listened to the Arcade Fire headlining the main stage of Reading Festival.

Met this crazy scouse guy who ended up handing with us and playing pool. Traveling on his own he wanted nothing more than to camp in a cave! I pointed him in the direction of Gordale Scar, and he said he's write my name in the cave if he got there... So there is a trip waiting to happen :)

At 6:30 we got woke up by a cockerel who took it upon himself to visit each tent in turn and "Cock-a-doodle-doo". (When I say half six, I actually heard him coming for about 20 min, until he sat right next to my head and crowed me away... little bugger). Not the nicest thing to happen with a hangover! We had to pack the tents down the the rain/drizzle. The cloud was so low you couldn't even tell where Ingelbroug was, but we packed up anyway, got or lunch from a garage and headed off to Clapham.

We arrived just in time for the cafe to open at 9am. So a quick bacon butty to sort us out, then off up the trail. Almost as soon as we set of up the trail, the weather cleared, the sun came out, and it stayed like that for pretty much most of the day! It always nice walking up the trail from Clapham. Emma and Al found the penny try and hammered some penny's in.

The number of walkers up there wearing jeans and trainers was really surprising. We had taken Al to decathlon the day before and he'd shelled out £25 for a pair of walking boots and walking trouser, it doesn't take much! So we reached Gaping Gill at half ten. Half an hours queue, and we got our numbers "160-163" and there were currently on "73". A three minute turnaround we were told. So for four and a half hours we napped, chatted and played the word association game (difficult when all you all staring at is rocks) :). Also met some of the people who we saw last time we saw up there, which is we figured 4 years ago (which I must say is an incredibly bizarre time scale to get to know people on!)

So we had a nice little tour around Gaping Gill, tourist caving of course. That winch is so much fun, being lowered down into the bowels of the earth like that. Awesome :) Got some good photos of the main chamber, and did a little scramble up one side, just to show Leah what was in store for her if we went and did some proper caving (I don't think I convinced her that is was a bad idea either, so there is another trip waiting to happen!)

We didn't hang about much afterwards, although for the walk down Ingelbrough we were treated to such still, calm and sunny weather you wouldn't believe.

Getting changed in a National Trust car park, from wet, muddy clothes into the "Suited and Booted" look for a night out is quite an experience too :) - that done, we belted it over to Ulverston to go and see LORN. We arrived just in time for Alex' DJ Set (Unfortunately missed Fern's but sure we'll catch her next time). Alex and LORN both played unbelievable sets. It was very odd seeing something in the Lanternhouse that had been on the night previous in the Roadhouse in Manchester, but I think we got the better end of the deal somehow. Had a little chat with LORN after, and he said waking up in the morning and seeing the "Lantern" outside of his window was proper top.

After it had all finished we belted back down the M6 to the new Chemical Brothers album and 2:30am was straight to bed for me thank you very much! (And all of this set to the soundtrack of "Olympians" by F**k Buttons - oh yes) :)

Scafell Pike

• Driving Distance: 292.2 miles

• Walking Distance: 5.74 miles

• Walking Accent: 922 meters

• Average Speed: 1.0mph

• Total Walk Time 5:43

• Pint at End: Black Sheep Cask

What a walk. We took the most direct route. it was massively steep from the beginning till the end! The last quarter mile was a proper scramble (which was a welcome break from everything being on the legs!). 10 minutes at the top and then straight back down again. Legs like tree trunks! Not going to drive over Hardknotts pass again in a hurry though :)

Edale

Went for a walk in Edale yesterday, on my own, with a 12kg pack (all my bivouac kit). I didn't actually bivouac up there, just wanted to see if I could handle all the kit up a hill. Did 6 miles in 3 hours 22 minutes. Ended up doing half of the walk with this dude from Sheffield called Mark, he was walking on his own too. Here is a link to my pictures and data:
http://picasaweb.google.com/alecjcook/20100807Edale#

Konono Number 1.

Every event has it's ups and downs. The beginning of Thursday night felt to me more like "FutureNothing" but by the end of the night, I can assure you it had proved its self as "FutureEveything".
Eight hours at my day job was quickly followed by a dash into town to Club Academy. The next three hours, me and another three volunteers shifted one table from the back of the venue to the stage. I'm sure there is a joke in there about how many engineers does it take to move a table, but I couldn't find the punchline :P

Bass Clef's sound check broke up the day. The dirty, triplet driven grind of dub step filed the venue. When the lad produced a trombone I felt very suspicious, but as the squeaks and rumbles came from the brass I realised that my fears were unfounded. The dull hours before doors dragged somewhat but I was soon rewarded for my patience. He played a storming set. His chilled, easy going style gave an atmosphere of fun and relaxation (and did I mention was absolutely storming).
Following this excellency were Konono No. One. The played a fun filled set, that would not have been out of place at the world music stage in the afternoon at summer music festival . Essentially an acoustic 'african drum' band, they played and enormous two hour set, each song lasting in the order of twenty minutes! The only electronic element was that in of the marimba (thumb piano) that had been passed through the oldest 70's overdrive pedal I had ever seen, causing it to 'stick out' in a peculiar but satisfying was. The whole lot was initially miked through a couple of old aluminium speaker 'megaphone type's that wouldn't have seemed out of place on a sports track. (The drummers cymbal was made of various circles of scrap tin, see video!)
The whole night had a fantastic vibe and had everybody dancing, and i mean everybody. I'm sure if you didn't even want to dance you would have ended up surrendering and moving your body to the beat.

For me the close down was a nightmare, as all the gear had to be emptied from the venue and into an already very full van (to be expected) but then across to SoundControl, where an unrelated event packed the venue full of blue jeans and white tee shirts. All this gear was loaded through the crowd and into the venue, which (without ramps or lifts) needed to be taken down 3 flights of stairs! Exhausted I got to bed at 3am another day of FutureEverything  already not far on the horizon.

Bizarrely, i met my old college mate from years ago, who was running the 'world music society*' merch stand. Apparently the gig had originally been theirs, but had a FutureEverything stamp of endorsement on it! (Although I think that is another story!)

Plaid & Mark Pilkington

Manchester's 'Victoria Baths' was definitely an 'odd choice' of seated venues for the festival. Inside the walls had been coated in black cloth to absorb the sound. The pool (now empty, obviously!) had been lined with seats, the gradient towards the deep end offering a perfect angle on which to hold a show. As I entered calls of 'well, it's a bit weird in here' came from across the room An enormous AV screen had been set up at the deep end, displaying the FutureEverything logo, and the glitchy opening of Mark Pilkington proved to be interesting. 
The show had to be delayed for half an hour, due to the sun (and heavy reliance on AV was needed). So, starting the show early, Mark Pilkington played us in (sat in a cold and rapidly filling venue). Although as the venue filled, something very odd happened. The audience seemed completely unaware that the first act was on. The majority of the audience talked, progressively louder as his set went on, until Mark finally stopped playing, the audience clapped and then went quiet, as if waiting for something to happen, not realising that it just had and they had missed it! Very Unfortunate, because Mark's set was actually brilliant, just a shame it was spoiled.

Plaid played an awesome set, astounding visuals, drifting from abstract views of aeroplane con. trails, to glitchy and distorted fractals. I also found out that Plaid did the Warp "Pig Corp" video, which I think everyone should watch at least once :). Half way through their set they got very heavy and 'warp' esc. At this point, supprisingly quite a lot of people left! (including the family that had brought at 10 year old boy! - well what did they expect!). I realise that this gig wasn't supposed to be a "Plaid - Gig" but have somthing to do with Reindeers, but that guy pulled at the last minute.
In bed at six, back to work at four!

Festival Insanity

The festival is starting to take it's hold now. The pang of dehydration now plays a permanent role on my lips. Another bus journey down the strip. Another cigarette, another bottle of lucozade. More bands are arriving soon. Quickly spike the stage. Gear to the back. Earplugs back in. Monotony and exhaustion now common place. Another bus ride, cigarette. Not long now till doors, more beer, another party, the satisfying feeling of why I do this. Another night at the festival, on the town. The final party is rapidly approaching. So tired. Sleep won't come easy, the festival drawing to a close. One last show, one more year behind me.

Ryoji Ikeda

Studio 7 at the BBC is always a weird venue to work in, most noticeable because it isn't a venue. This orchestral rehearsal space has the best acoustics of any venue in Manchester, bar none! Unfortunately, it is just not set up for the general public. The heavy security to the main entrance to the BBC building on Oxford road had a real problem even letting the staff into the venue, but as it came closer to the start of the event, most of them went, leaving nice security guards who seems just happy that there shift wasn't as boring as usual. The security conditions of FutureEverything putting on a gig here was that each person had to be personally shown to their seats (or if not in person, at least in small groups). Working as a skivvy meant that was my job. Ear plugs were given to every single member of the audience and they were all warned, Several times, and christ did they need em!
Arriving two hours early for my shift, found me sitting in in Kro2 next door (apparently the FutureEverything Hub). The bloke we were sat with, I gathered, had just landed in Manchester from Berlin; trouble with the volcanic ash. It soon occurred to me that this was Mika Vainio, the supporting artist for the nights performance. I attempted to gather some kind of conversation with this fella, but he was quiet, shy, (typical musician,) and having none of it.
He played a devastating set, going from complete silence to white noise, the volume of which would make you gran cry, and back again, accompanied by bleeps, hums and synthesised tinnitus. The shear dynamic range of his performance made ear plugs mandatory.
A rushed, fifteen minute interval (which isn't a lot for a 340 people) was all that stood between one form of pain and another. Ryoji Ikeda,was a lot more palatable (as far as sonic art ever is) and gave a lot more structure to the constant, lung rattling sub bass and white noise, glitch accents. The front lit projections looked a little bit like that black and while thing that appears at the top corner of your telly when ITV are about to go to adverts, only massive, cool, and proper messed up!
An incredible, brain rearranging experience... I can quite honestly say that I don't want to hear anything like that again for a while, but I'm incredibly glad that I went, and would highly recommend it to anyone!
At Kro2 after, Ryoji Ikeda sat on his own at the back with a glass of brandy. I let him know my thoughts, and I was surprised at how genuinely lovely he seemed, and genuinely happy that I had let him know.

So, It's that time of year again, for a "more arty than ever" FutureEverything. Looks like they have got some real money from somwhere this year, and spent it all on staff! There's more paied workeds than voulenteers this year! After a few problems last year, I'm not taking a week's hollidays and hurtling round manchester at a hundred mph trying to sort things out. Instead concentrating on getting some solid experience. This year, anyone interesting in production had to sumbit a CV. Which means I now have a CV for Music Event Production, (and it looks supprisingly impressive, It's amazing what happens when you remeber stuff!). So I have 2 gigs working front of house (BBC and Cliub Academy), then Event Production work at Sound Control for 2 days, which I'm quite looking forward too. What I'm not looking forward to is missing the opening 'free wine' and the enormous amount of "Lack Of Sleep" I'm going to suffer, working two full time jobs!

My New Timelapse Camera

So I decided that enough was enough, stood pressing my camera button with my watch in my hand. A plan was needed. To start with, I needed to externalise my camera's shutter trigger. Luckily I managed to find a service manual for my camera, which contained disassembily instructions (very useful when your as inpatient as me!) - Incedently, if anyone else feels like doing this, you might wanna discharge the flash capacitor with a resistor, and not a screwdriver... a 330 Volt instant electrical discharge can be a bit of a shock first thing on a Sunday morning :).

   My camera has a mini jack socket on the side labeled "AV Output". I've never used this, so instead of drilling a hole is the side of my camera I though I'd use it to route the trigger through. The service manual contained circuit diagram and schematics, allowing me to find a couple of test points on the PCB for the shutter and the auto focus. I removed the AV socket, insulated it with kapton tape, soldered the wired from the test points on it, and superglue it back on. Re-assembling the camera, I found, to my astonishment that it had worked!!!
   My new improved camera can now be controlled (by a little Adruino app I wrote) to generate timelapse photography on it's own! - This isn't quite as easy as it seems, beleive it or not. You have to think about the macro scale of what you are filming, which isn't anything I was thinking about when I built the damn thing, now I have to spend the next few weeks trying to learn how to use it! :)

Volcanic Sunset

The Volcano that went of in Iceland has grounded all the planes, but they said on the news it would make the sunset look good. At sunset I took one photo every 10 seconds. Stringing them together was not so easy. I found lots of programs, but none would let me fade between one picture and another (thus producing a smooth video) so I decided to write one myself! I found a language called "Processing", very similar to the "Arduino" language, only based around visuals. Apparently it is a form of JAVA (which if no-one know, is a really clumsy and awkward way of going about existing!), but the end result is now I can produce lovely movies like this. Out to take some more soon I think :)

Summer Music

Summer is just around the corner, so shake of the throws of winter and let's see if we can make a compilation for people who aren't insanely happy.

Time was I would create 2 summer compilations on CD and play them in my car, but now Spotify is here, I thought I'd have another go!

So here is the more standard "Summer" compilation.

And hear is the more eclectic "For The Last Three Years I Have Been Staring Directly Into The Sun", compilation :).

Compilation for No Planes

Yesterday, all flights in the UK were grounded, due to a volcanic eruption in Iceland! The ash is hanging around in the troposphere, too dangerous to take planes through. Jet engines easily overcome by small particles. So we are having two days of no planes! So to celebrate, here is a compilation :)

(Over half of these weren't on Spotify, hence the reason for a blogged play list!)

Pavement - Grounded
Massive Attack - Weather Storm
Pink Floyd - Goodbye Blue Sky
Longpigs - Blue Skies
Chris Watson - Birdsong
Pink Floyd - Learning To Fly
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Aeroplane

ASIWYFA

Its not often that you get to legitimately call a band "And You Will Know Us By A Trail Of Good Recommendations" but "And So I Watch You From Afar" were just that band.
To be met with a half full Ruby Lounge was a bit of a surprise but the majority of the audience being young blokes with t-shirts and semi-expensive haircuts was really not.


So for me it was 'Does it offend you Yeah' playing in Sheffield or a night out with my dad in town, not much competition. The limited research i had done (3 last.fm plays during my day in the lab at work) had convinced me that a trip over the peak district to listen to a band who blew me away the 'In The City' before last could be better avoided. The Ruby Lounge as it is, a small an perculier shaped venue, hosted not only a night of a quality performance, but also a sound system that was manipulated to within an inch of it's ability to produce a night that would leave even the deafest engineers ears ringing in the morning, (if sans earplugs!)
It was the bands bass sound that kept the mood riding on a buzz, and the Irish guy's sound sported a bass distortion that roared at a frequency much less than that of the instrument, threatening to rip open the chest cavity of all those who dared not to pay attention (which I must admit was verging on zero, ASIWYFA are not to be ignored). The band, most completely hidden in smoke bathed light to all but the front row, played a set not only acceptable, but ideally timed in terms of it's length and variety, but well composed, if only for playing their 'hits' in the unreserved encore.
It's not often that you get to discovered a band twice, but Oceansize's support off their last tour really did 'cut the mustard'.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Les Arcs 1800

The alps was awesome, indescribably so... I have finally managed to upload a slide show of the mountains and beautiful scenery that was on show. The music accompanying is the only song I listened to while skiing, and (for me) was the soundtrack to my trip :)

Arduino - First Project

Got my Arduino this week, as inspired my the Maker Faire at the Newcastle Science festival. Needed to save penny and have a friday night it, so stayed in and made it work. Got a 16-way rotary switch and a line of 5 LED's and made a kind of Christmas Lights arrangement, selectable patterns. Flexing my electronic and C basic skills.

Tomorrow might be a nice day and warrant a walk up Pendel, if not, have to see if I can't get my stepper motor working :)

Glade 2010

Spotify playlist of the Glade 2010 artists, as informed by their press release dated Wed 17th March 2010!

Foures into electronics

Inspired by this years Maker Faire (and the nature of my job) sees me needing to make a decicive move towards understanding a bit more of electronics. An Arduino has been ordered, and I have been inspired to design and build a musical instrument, using an aluminium bowl, a bag of ball bearings and a few stepper moters I have liberated of an old dot matrix printer from the warehouse at work. The sad thing is, it seems like I am a few decades too late. Getting microelectronic parts that aren't surface mount or £5 delivery charge seems nearly impossible. I went to Maplins for a bag of transistor, and they only had 4!! This is a shame, cause it means people are going to find it hard in the comming years to get into electronics, meaning all hardware development will be taken abroad, just like every other industry we have ever had! Yikes!

Damn Studio

The problem with recording in a studio that have over 100ms latency, is at first, you do not notice it, and you play correctly to the click, or backing tack. Then after a while, your subconscious takes over and begins to allow you to play slightly behind so that the instrument you are playing sounds in time with the rest of the music. The end result is a take that is half in one time and half in another (or in other words, Out of time). As far as I can see, without different recording /studio techniques this is unavoidable... Meaning everything recorded in a studio suffering latency will always be a little bit crap....

Damn Studio!

Matter is Clever

If gravity is exerted by all matter, and gravity is a form of energy, then in accordance with the conservation of energy rule, then where does matter get the energy from to convert into gravity!?

Generative Music

Why is all generative music all so horrid. When you are wandering around in a morning and you hear the dawn chorus, it sounds awesome. Is not all it is a series of musical phrases that are triggered for enviromental reasons (seemingly at random). Why is that case does generative music not sound awesome. I can't decide wether it has to do with the complexity of the over all system, or the interplay of the phrases within each system, or is it just because birds are analouge and not digital.
The dawn chorus contains all birds, supposedly, singing at the tops of their lungs like crazy. In that case they are not listening to each other and responding, so in that respect, there is no intellegence going on. All the little bird does is pump it's little songs out as much as possible... If a generative peice of music was written that did this it would sound awefull and cocofanous.
Maybe then, the dawn chorus actually is cacophanous, and we have just gotten used to it?

NOTE: In trying to find an audiosample of the dawn chorus for this blog, I became slightly distracted and found somthing even better. THIS, is a sample found on a website with the followin description "Lightning whistlers propagating in the magnetosphere. Lightning-generated whistlers came into regular use as remote probes of the radial distribution of electron density in the Earth's geomagnetic equatorial plane."

Music to come down a mountain to.

Within the next 3 weeks, i'll be spending seven days in the alps, in a combination of sitting on a ski lift, and sliding down a mountain (hopefully not on my butt!), and have come to the conclusion that instrumental post rock will just annoy me. I'd imaging the best kind of music would be something slightly repetative (keep your mind on the mountain) happy and floaty (the mood I hope to be in coming down the mountain). Reading back that description, it looks like "Trance" to me... so I wanna find some good trance, but i'm not sure whether "good trance" isn't an oxymoron. I've got as far as "Concord Dawn" and then got completely sick of it, this is going to be hard work! :)

--

Followup: I was far to busy to listen to much music!

First Max/MSP Project in a LONG time.

So, I've been tasked with composing for a 16 note input system for the Maker Faire. A pendulum will swing, generating MIDI, and it has been by job to do something nice with this MIDI. Also part of the challenge is to make the installation fit within the remit of a faire. It will be busy with people walking round from stall to stall, so sometimes it will be active and sometimes it will not be. I needed something that can be left running unattended, and will not be too irritating, yet when it is being used, it will be engaging enough to be interesting.

This has lead me to a two tier application. After seconds of un-use, the system will merely play nice atherial samples, MIDI triggered, the program will be randomly changed every 2 minutes.

To activate the system, the user will speak into the microphone in front of the pendulum. this will trigger the system to begin recording sound up into the 16 buffered. Once the voice has stopped, the 16 buffers will be played in sequence with the MIDI In, coupled with the "Glitch" VST cyclically stepping though it's effects, this should be enough to keep the public entertained.

With this done and under my belt, I can start thinking more about chaos (in the hope I can produce some true algorithmic based sounds for the project!)

Note: Max/MSP and LabVIEW are definitely NOT the same thing, although they may look like it... spent a lot of the day getting my syntax out of a mess! ;)

Got My Work Cut Out

OK, so now the defeatism is being driven away for new years, a handle on the music industry needs to be restored. Especially with the advent of the brand new music tools available to the consumer side of the industry.

Let the Research begin!!
Last.fm and Spotify are the first tools given to us by the Phonex that is the music industry, and I seem to have been missing out during this turbulant period, so in an effort to catch up, I have compiled the following:

From the Picadilly Records end of year review, here are singles from one of almost all of the artists on the top albums of 2009, Available as a Spotify Playlist.
Just for thoes wanting to catch up also, the BBC 6 Music top 100 of 2009 has some good avenues to explore too.
I will be sampling the Drowned In Sound top 50 of 2009, and at some point attempting to compile some kind of list, at least of things worth checking out, from The Wire 2009 Rewind Review.

*phew* should bring me up to date, and if i'm not lucky, completely destroy my critical listening faculty, just in time for the festival season :)

The Ultimate Manchester Gig Guide

Now available, a complete guide to all music events over the whole of manchester, in calender (ical) format.. OK, not for the caveats. This is only a guide of stuff that has been placed into last.fm, and it's not for the whole city, it's for the best (in my opinion) 26 live music venues.

So it does give you a general idea of most things that are happening, but the odd one might slip through the net!!

GO!! ---> http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=d803712e5c927e910469414456b46105

This calander was created with a thing called "Yahoo Pipes" which allows you to get data from several bits of the internet and compile them and way you like! Really handy, especially since i'm now trying to pipe info from the web straight down to my phone so I don't have to worry about "Looking" for it every time. Genious!

Venues as follows:
Ritz, Central, Bridgewater Hall, Warrehouse Project, Life Cafe, RNCM, Academy 1, 2, 3 & Club, Night and Day, Islington Mill, Roadhouse, Jabez, Star & Garter, Moho, Sankeys, Deaf Institute, Mint Lounge, Ruby Lounge, Dry Bar, Apollo, M.E.N., Satans Hollow (yes, honestly), Joshua Brooks, Music Box, Retro Bar, Band

Fractals

There is something so ornate about Fractals. Rebecca was watching a simple program on telly outlining the basics of mathematics, fractals and quantum physics, which got me interested again. Through a little research I have uncovered a fantastic application called Aphopysis, an application which generates fractals based on three overlapped geometric shapes, the X, Y and Z of all three are then plotted in the X, Y and Z of three dimensional space. These shapes are chosen on a random basis and assigned a random pallet, the emphasis being placed on art as apposed to science (hence the blase use of the word random). Fractals are one ofthe first things that got me interested in science as an art form when I was little, designing an algorithm that would extract the 'picture' out of an equation whilst in high school.

The problem with such a pass time is as nice and serene as your time spent doing such things is, it doesn't really lead you on to anything, leaving your head stuck in a bit of a wonderland of visuals. Hence my reason to blog this, not really knowing what else to do with this little pastime of mine!