the friedorange years

OMFGR. IT IS HERE.

It came this afternoon right after I posted just then and I played it for 2 hours non stop. OMFGR the finish IS NICE, the craftsmanship is SUPERB and the sound is WARM AND RINGING. The pickups are amazingly SILENT, no hum AT ALL, and the bass has so much sustain and resonance.

Too bad I'm a beginner and can't play the bass for peanuts. But I can't wait to play scales AND arpeggios AND dominant sevenths AND finger exercises on this thing. *drools* Since when did an instrument motivate one to do boring etudes? Hmmm...

:o)

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Back to FFoF - OtH...

Had two of my last PHIL tutorials for this semester today: 100 and 105.

They were incredibly enjoyable, especially the 105 one. It is sort of sad to be leaving all these cool people, awwwwww. Hopefully I'll still bump into 'em 'round Uni in the future. Time has gone by so fast, I am stunned. So much has happened in the past three months, it's been amazing. Next semester will be awesome, I am enrolled to do:

1. Film Studies (YES, finally!)
2. Drama on Stage and Screen (YES, a drama related paper)
3. Philosophy of the Arts (YES, the course description looks so interesting, I am so looking forward to this)
4. Applied Ethics (YES, the one in which you get to discuss cool issues and piss each other off)

Exams coming up in exactly 2 weeks, I have not started studying for anything yet. I have a 40% Critical Thinking assignment due next Tuesday which I have also not started. But I will do in the weekend.

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The bass will arrive any second now.... oooooooo exciting.

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I've been given a small extension for the music video! Fiona (from the Wellington Fringe Film Festival) has said that a Monday/Tuesday 'the latest' deadline is the most she can stretch to, and I am really thankful for it. It means I've got 2/3 more days to polish it up, but even with that it's still a really tight schedule. Better get back to it then... cya!

I have exactly 30 seconds left in FFoF - OtH... it is so close but so far away. I have no idea whether or not I will make the Friday deadline for that Kodak thing, but I did 7 hours today and I have time tomorrow night to do it as well. But really, when you're so close you start shaking because everything's just coming together and becoming and existing.

Ok, enough of existentialist Metaphysics 101 psychobabble. But the point is, I'm excited about this. My first music video, I can't wait to see it on my TV. Or somene else's TV.

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The bass was supposed to come today, but for some reason the package took awfully long to clear through customs. Oh well, FedEx will send it out first thing tomorrow... after hearing the GREAT regional finals of the RQ on Saturday, I'm more amped up than ever to pick up that bass and learn seriously. All that good music has made me an eager beaver. Or whatever. Let's hope this isn't a fad. If it is, well, at least I will have learned/learnt how to play the bass, thus helping me be a better composer and songwriter and arranger or music critic or some other occupation. Or filmmaker. Yeah, filmmakers need to learn the bass.

Ok, I'm tired and majorly lacking vitamin D, spending all day in front of the screen piecing together this work of art. Good thing I'll be up early tomorrow for my PHIL 100 tutorial, I hope to catch some electromagnetic waves around the middle of the spectrum or something. I've forgotten the wavelength. Actually I've forgotten almost everything from physics in high school.

...

Come to think of it I might've forgotten 90% of every subject I did at high school except English, which I remember everything from for some weird reason.

Good evening.

The weather was crazy. Fortunately I made the decision to stay home (to do FFoF - OtH), missing both my POPMUS tutorial and the buckets of water outside. Woah, it looks freaky from where I'm sitting right now (upstairs, inside).

Woohoo! Completely finished two and a half minutes of FFoF - OtH! Thomas's solo has just been tweaked, and it's really funny and entertaining. Well, I think it's funny anyway; it's so dramatic and spastic. I'm getting to the really spooky part now, heading towards the climax of the video. Oooooo... I wonder how it's gonna look like after the fresco-ing. I've got a minute to go.

Alright, back to editing, cya!

I was just listening to La Fille Aux Cheveux De Lin by Claude Debussy, an arrangement for classical guitar. Alex recommended it, and I am so happy he did because this song just made me remember how awesome classical guitar is. My mum has tonnes of classical guitar CD's that I am going to pull out now and listen to. Just hearing the tone and the harmonics makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Ok, I've posted so many times today, I'll stop now.

Heya, so I got this email today...

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Dear Dennis,

Thank you for submitting your film STREAM to us. We regret to inform
that we are unable to accommodate your work before a feature on our
programme this year.

Please accept our apologies for the delay in getting back to you. We
have had an overwhelming number of local films submitted this year, so
it has taken a long time for us to finalise our selection.

Your interest in our Festivals is appreciated.

With best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

Michael McDonnell
Assistant Programmer
New Zealand Film Festivals

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I submitted my films to three different programmes this year. I submitted Epilogue to the Asia New Zealand Film Festival, and I submitted Stream to the NZFF for screening before feature works and to the MIC (Moving Image Centre) for the NZFF 'Homegrown' short films showcase.

Results:
1) Heard nothing back from the ANFFT, and the Asia New Zealand Film Festival is already well under way, so I assume that Epilogue was obviously not chosen.
2) Stream was not accepted for screening before features in the NZFF (email above).
3) Still yet to hear back from the MIC.

Thus, two rejections out of three so far. I presume (or anti-presume) that the last rejection may (or may not?) come some time in the next week. So what happens now?

Well, life goes on, and so here is what we've got lined up in the coming months:
1) Fist Full of Fives - Only the Hopeful music video will be completed this week.
2) Semester 1 exam period starts, but Ethan Waters will begin concept development for a small series (duology or trilogy) of mockumercials for a pseudo-corporation.
3) Scriptwriting for Short Film No. 3
4) Shooting Short No. 3 and mockumercials in inter-semester break.
5) Editing of these projects in the first half of semester 2.
6) Scriptwriting for Short Film No. 4 in semester 2.
7) I don't know what happens next, things will work out. Insert miscellaneous music-related activities in the above plan.

:o)

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Ok, back to tweaking FFoF - OtH, cya!

Did I just say the word amazing too many times in that last post? Oops.

I'm typing this the morning after, so some details might be fuzzy (I really should've typed this as soon as I got home, but my mum was sleeping and the keyboard is right beside her room and she hates the clicking of the keys when I type because it wakes her, and she doesn't like the door closed because there's no air circulation, so I decided to wait until this morning).

Here goes...

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Macleans College almost swept the Auckland East Regional Finals, awards:

1st place: The 44th Calibre
3rd place: Gladdis

Vocalist Award: Nikita (The 44th Calibre)
Woman's Musicianship Award: Ashleigh (The 44th Calibre)
MAINZ Scholarship: Oliver (ADD)
Lyric Writer's Award: Warwick (Gladdis)

I think the only thing a Macleans band did not win was 2nd place or something. Oh, and the best song award by that girl band Replica/Replika (the one with the guy drummer? not sure, forgot). Wait maybe someone from Macleans also won something else too. Sorry if I missed you out of the list above, there were a lot.

Anyway, onto the music:

I was listening with ear plugs the whole time. That was really really good, there was so much more clarity in everything. The East region is awesome. The standard was good in everything EXCEPT vocals. What I feel about the vocals is this: basically almost every female vocalist of the evening was a good singer, while for the male vocalists it was a different story. Other than that, most of the bands were surprisingly tight for high school bands who had only had such a short time jamming together, it was amazing.

Incursa came back to perform, they were amazing. They sounded exactly like they did in the recordings, and by that I mean how tight and integrated they were. Their guitarists were awesome, the rhythms were creative, and their songs were Incubus/Punk/Progressive hybrids. And the singer's amazing. He has such good intonation and stability when singing live. It is hard to believe this is a band just one year out of Rockquest, I knew they were good last year, but this good? Wow, they are one of the best high school bands to have won the Rockquest, to be this polished and integrated and tight and at this stage. Woah. Ok, I'll stop raving about it, you get the point.

Now for the Macleans College bands (sorry I can't really remember every band yesterday so I'll just write about the ones I care about):

ADD: They were better this time than in the heats. They play two more metal-ish songs, which was a really good decision because Oliver's shred and Michaelangelo solos became totally appropriate for the songs. For a band who've only been together for 2 or so months, this is an amazing effort. Go ADD.

Gladdis: 'Journey to the Underground' is an amazing song, when you hear it the second time you begin to appreciate the rhythmic complexity of it. The band had such good rapport with the crowd and the integration between each instrumental part was impressive. The other amazing thing was, after a LOT of bands who were pretty good (but conventional in chord progressions and so on), Gladdis came on, set up their effects gear and then played a Spanish kind of song. Which was good. But then, they started JttU, and it had something like a 1-2 minute intro, and that was really a turning point in that evening's Rockquest (for me anyway), because firstly they were the only band who DARED to come out with an outright art-rock progressive piece of music and do their own thing, THEN what was more incredible was you could almost sense the tension and anticipation of the crowd building up as the intro progressed. The drumming was integral to that, and I love the atmospheric and spacial feel of their music. They were one of the only bands of the evening who actually used effects PROPERLY unlike some other bands who just put on chorus/flanger just to sound funny. Their stage presence was also incredible, especially the attention they paid to making their performance almost a cinematic experience, from the extended classical structure of their song to the fade out effects at the end when every member walked off slowly except Sam who continued with the 'zooooone' playing. Ok, enough of that now, I guess what I'm trying to say is, they should've come 2nd.

Neverscent: I feel a lot better about them this time than last time round. Firstly I quite like the guitarist's style, the one who wears glasses. The frontman (is it Ashton?) also had really good rapport with the audience. I also quite like the punk but San Francisco Indie look they chose to go with. A band with potential but unfortunately thin lyrics. But I really did like them better this time though.

The 44th Calibre: I've already written so much on the bands above, I think if I do the same for The 44th I'll just be repeating myself. I'll try to keep it short. They are, to this year's Regional Finals, what Incursa was, to last year's Regional Finals. You didn't really have to say anything, they got on the stage, they played, then walked off, and the MC of the evening said, "Ok, they are through to the next round." It was that simple, really. The most polished and balanced band in competition yesterday. Great song choices - two contrasting songs, the first one showcased the coordination between the guitarists and a melodic, modern, energy charged anthem, and the second showcased the rhythm section (very prominent bass line and White-Stripes neo-classic rock drumming) and Nikita's amazing vocals in a soul/Rn'B/blues hybrid. Contenders for RQ winning band 2005, period.

That's about all now, this is such a long and waffle-y (waffly? waffle-ie?) post.

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Now back to FFoF OtH.

Had curry for dinner, I. Ok, it was.

Academy. New music. Fast and difficult. But fun. For the break, bear cookies, we got. There was one song in which there were 4 violin parts, it was pretty cool, I thought. Although, I did miss one entire section of my solo cos I came in a bar late. Pfft, I will do better next time.

Did heaps of tweaking today for FFoF Oth - one entire minute (what? really?) is completely done. That means, everything, including the fresco-ing and the titles. Oooo exciting. Anyway, I'm going to do more of it tomorrow and on Monday too.

Rockquest tonight! Yay!

A pretty shallow, predictable movie. But I really really liked it. Especially the last story ('That Yellow Bastard'). It was sort of the only one with a complete story that made sense. Rodriguez gets two thmbs up, he is an inspiration. This movie was obviously violent but nowhere near as violent as Kill Bill Volume 1. The thing with Sin City is that there was a lot of implied violence, but you didn't see a lot of it (well, you did see a lot of it, but just not all of it). Kill Bill Volume 1 lost all credibility because of the squirting paint blood. That sucked. Kudos to Rodriguez for the tone of this film. He's really a talented director, and I hope to see him direct some other movies too, because although these are fun (Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Spy Kids, Sin City), I'd love to see how he tackles an outright drama or a non-'fantastical' film.

Thumbs up. Watch this movie, but cover your eyes in the bad bits. And remember that it's not real. That's really important. The movie is as twisted as it's good.

I'm off. Good evening.

Tomorrow:
Lots of FFoF OtH-ing
Academy workshop - new music!
Rockquest thing - good luck to all the bands playing!

Good day. Went to this Taiwanese place where it was 'Buy one and get one free' for everything. Crazily cheap - what was $6 turned out to be $3 for an entire meal.

Today we had our last real Critical Thinking lecture. It was sort of sad in a way. It is an AWESOME paper. The lecturers and tutors are AWESOME. I've had so much fun in this class. I'm going to take the stage two paper with the same lecturer, he is a genius.

I just finished this little dialogue by John Perry. Very interesting and very funny. Basically three people are arguing about immortality and identity, two vs. one. The one who is about to die in a hospital bed is arguing against the other two (a la Phaedo), and the funny thing is at the end the other two people get really fired up and passionate, then the third guy dies, and it's like, "Haha! Take that you fired up arguers!" Anyways, it's good.

I saw the girl who looked like Utada again on the bus this morning.

I just got home, it is raining.

The concert was awesome. There were jazzed up versions of 'My Favourite Things' and a lot of improvising. There was an awesome drummer and a great rendition of 'Fly Me to the Moon'. The MUSED groups were all pretty good, although the last one (Serene, Ajita, Melody, Amos and Jess) were probably the most slick and entertaining.

There were also two attempts at movie soundtracks. The first were these Japanese wannabes who did a terrible arrangement of the suite from Spirited Away (and they EXCLUDED the title theme!). It sucked majorly. They butchered one of the nicest animation scores around and since Hisaishi is still alive, he won't be turning in his grave but in his bed or whatever.

The second one was a three-flute plus viola arrangement of themes from Phantom of the Opera. This was a joke.

There was this great jazz bassist who had a Warwick, improvised AND crooned as the lead singer. OFMGR now I understand why I wanted to learn the bass. Really inspired right now.

After the concert we walked past this street busker, a speed guitarist. He had an Ibanez Vai Universe. He was AMAZING. He was basically Steve Vai, except he didn't look like him. And he played this amazing passage all with pinch harmonics, no bum notes or anything. Incredible.

Ok, I'm off to bed.

Met so many random people today. Sachrea (sp?) spent an hour explaining to me the artistry of coffee making. I forgot all the names of the different beans. I don't drink coffee. I have never drank coffee in my life. She was shocked, but I to justify it, that is the single characteristic that distinguishes me from every other director in the world today, so I'm going to see how long I can last without it. Sharon snapped me before I even realised who it was. I was sitting there after three hours of reading my Metaphysics notes, totally brain-fried.

I did a bit of OtH editing before I left home for the bus this morning, then while I was on the bus I started re-organising the speech bubbles and narrative passages that I'm putting in. The aim is to reduce the amount of words required to say the same thing.

I'm in the Kate Edgar place now. I'm going to this free concert held by the 1st year Music Education students. I had salami, alphalpha and a bun today for lunch. Not separately. It tasted OK.

The Media Studies lecture today was on music. I assumed wrongly that it would be interesting, and it wasn't so we left after an hour. It was basically a repeat of everything Dr. Zemke-White said in our first POPMUS lecture. However, the lecturer today was really cool, it was just that the overheads were kind of dull.

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I finished watching the Christmas Specials of The Office (UK) today. It was such a good show before, but now it's totally awesome. The second Christmas Special gives the show so much more depth and weight that I'm going to have to reaccess:

The US series is funnier than the UK series, mainly because it moves at a faster pace and is slicker in execution. However, the UK series manages to be more depressing (although ultimately VERY satisfying), emotional and moving, especially in the last episode.

The US series (if it gets renewed for series two) may develop into such a show. I hope so, cos I really like the characters and actors/actresses in the US version as well. Also I like how although the first one or two episodes were almost identical to the UK series, it started developing it's own personality and explored different subject matter later on. Cool. Really, do watch both versions, this is a quality show. It's not really 'new' now, but it's one of the more successful and meaningful mockumentaries that have graced television screens.

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Alright, I'm off to eat now. Cya!

I got a new ID card today. It was so cool, they took my photo and printed it LIVE, in front of my eyes. Hah.

I also made an awesome paper dart today from a piece of propoganda in Critical Thinking today. However, I chucked it in the bin.

We did Disco, Techno, House, Jungle and other forms of electronic music. There are so many branches that I was more confused after the lecture than before. Strands included 'Stupid', 'Noizecore' and 'Speedcore'. It was horrific.

The bus home today putted out right before Priestley. So we got a replacement bus.

And I had fish for lunch.

I was really productive this evening. I've 'fine cut' the first 30 seconds of the FFoF video. Man, this is the hardest part of the entire editing process. It's been such a blast editing this video, I wish I could have done it over ONE week intensively, full time (i.e. 6-8 hours a day) but instead I've been doing it on and off over a period of three weeks and still counting.

Editing this has been so different from anything else I'd done before because it's so editing intensive - you have to get the rhythm, tempo, momentuum, emotion and everything down just right because you've got so little time to express so much. Previously I've basically sent 'rough cuts', i.e. the first impulsive and intuitive cut (or in Stream's case, the second intuitive cut) out as the final cut. But in the case of OtH, I had only recently finished lining up the entire video, meaning all the shots I wanted were put in the right place. Right now I'm down to the tweaking stage, which is either extending or shortening particular takes, adding different shots in between shots of long duration if I feel it is dragging or removing cuts if I feel it's too messy. Right now most of what I'm doing is simplifying it, having longer shots and more simpler and more linear cuts. I'm quite happy with how I'm tackling this, because I've seen so many modern videos with short cuts, I thought I'd go my own way and make a really 'earth-ed' video.

I'm excited by the possibilities. I've already applied the fresco filter over the first 32 seconds of the video, and I love the look. Some shots are unexpectedly darker than the others, but it makes some faces so mysterious and noir-esque that I want to keep it as it is.

Anyway, going to bed now. Exams are coming up in about two weeks, but I haven't started studying yet. I don't care, I'm doing this video first, it's way too fun.

Cya!

Came home early today, did nothing productive at all. I sat around and watched the entire first and second series of The Office (UK). My conclusion:

The American series is just as funny if not funnier than the UK series.

They're all really good though. So to justify my afternoon of mockumentary watching, I'll say that I think I learned something from The Office.

"Don't screw around with your life wasting time watching shows like The Office or you'll end up in a dead end job just like the people in The Office."

It really is a funny and sad show. I feel terrible about the predicaments of the majority of the characters, but you can't help but laugh. With them.

And I must say, Ricky Gervais (David Brent) is actually not too bad on the guitar, nor does he have a bad singing voice. It's just a pity that his lyrics are hilariously bad and crude. But yes, do watch The Office in all it's incarnations (UK/US), it's a brilliantly written and directed TV show.

Cya!

Hi, here's a cool site: http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/7734/cdoaa.html

I'm considering staging my own college dropout event, hmmm, anyone wanna join me? I'm thinking middle of second year is about the right time.

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These few weeks I've been listening to: Dream Theater, The Police, L'Arc-en-Ciel and Damien Rice.

Dream Theater - Haven't heard enough to say yet, but liking 'em so far.
The Police - Yay! They are good.
L'Arc-en-Ciel - very sweet bass lines but I can't really stand the singer's voice. He's a good singer though, I just don't like his shout-sings.
Damien Rice - Mentioned him already, great as usual, although not nearly enough songs... only about 1/2 albums' worth of stuff. Eagerly waiting for his next release.

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Ok, back to editing the video, cya!

I've finished both my POPMUS and FTVMS essays! OFMGR I am so happy. That means I can spend the whole of tomorrow (minus Uni) polishing up the FFoF video, playing guitar and listening to music OFMGR YES.

Cya!

:o)

This just occurred to me... am I the only person on the planet who actually watches The O.C. for its story and characters?

:o(

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Had the Academy of Strings concert today. It was good. I stuffed up my Haydn Variation 1 thing. It was wimpy like usual. Grr. Neil Guyan had a good rapport with the audience and it was fun playing to them. We weren't as tight as usual, especially in the Vivaldi, but I think people were so mesmerised by National Bank's musical branding that it didn't really matter. It was raining outside and warm inside, thus Winter was good. Saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in a long time, who I sort of waved at and said hi to but didn't really socialise with to the best of my ability. I think I was sleepy.

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Brad sent over the Pandora and the amp. Woohoo! Now I'll have to wait for the bass... All I can do now is twiddle with the knobs and play the bass in my mind. Hopefully my imagination will transcend the boundaries of my head and change the state of the real world and I'll hear sound coming from the amp. So far, nothing.

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Cya. Rainy afternoon.

Ok I just finished watching the finale. I can't be bothered doing a full season analysis thing, there are a lot of those around on the net which say the same thing so, meh.

Overall: The second half of the season was awesome. The season finale was one best acted and written episodes in the history of the show, with a cliffhanger to rule all cliffhangers.

Best episodes? Any episode from The Rainy Day Women onwards, but in particular - The Dearly Beloved, The O.Sea, The Showdown, The SnO.C., The Chrismukkah That Almost Wasn't.

Best moments? Seth catching the crystal egg, Caleb revealing the error in judgement, Caleb dying, Caleb getting a heart attack, Seth being evil in The Showdown, Seth hanging out with old people, Lindsay and Ryan's 'Freudian slippers' moment, Death Cab For Cutie at the Bait Shop, Summer and Seth's Spiderman rip-off, Marissa's 'mischief' t-shirt.

Season Three Wishlist:
The Return of Anna (as a cast regular)
The Return of Luke (as guest)
The Return of Jimmy (as a cast regular)
The Return of Hailey (as a cast regular)

The Return of Awkward Seth
The Return of the Nana (again)
The Return of Fist Fights
The Return of Big Social Functions

That's about it. Awaiting Season Three...

This was cool.

The Good: The 44th Calibre (solid and tight, amazing reminiscences of Neil Peart's YYZ in Alex's drum solo, great soul vocal performance by Nikita in the last song), FFoF (esp. the Tele-rhythmed Say It Ain't So), The Lastimes (awesomely integrated band, Franz Ferdinand influenced), Gladdis (original, atmospheric, spooky and Tool-influenced), and the BK BBQ Cheese Burger.

The Bad: crappily set up sound, muddy parts mushed up together (it was a real pity that we couldn't hear a lot of the nice leads and solos in a lot of the bands' songs), almost NO crowd at all, Burger King's extra salty chips.

I was wearing ear plugs most of the time, it contributed to way more clarity (but still not enough for things to sound nice). I think I will get some ER-20's (Etymotics) sooner or later, but these $3 foam ones will do for now.

Overall, cool concert.

Cya!

Hi. The Season Finale of The O.C. Season 2 aired yesterday night (Thursday in the U.S.). I haven't seen it yet, but once I do, I'll do a full-season analysis and coverage, including outlooks for Season 3, flashbacks, good episodes, bad episodes, music highlights and so on.

I can't believe the season went by so fast.

This was inevitable, a post about the film.

Anyway, it was as expected. The best SW film in the prequel trilogy. High on action and digital effects, low on story and good lines.

Here are some great lines:

Obi-Wan: The Chancellor is evil!
Anakin: From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!

Anakin: You are so beautiful.
Padme: It's because I'm in love.
Anakin: No, it's because I'm in love... with you.

I thought the scene when Anakin finds out that Padme is dead could've been more dramatic, but in general the movie delivered. Maybe too much action and too many unnecessary scenes with irrelevent dialogue, but the sadness of Anakin's fall is what satisfies.

Evil Sith Guy getting zapped by his own thunder zap was gross. Yoda is cool. Anakin is an idiot. But hey, we knew that all along.

Ok, I'm going to go eat now.

Good day today.

Went with Ajita to Asia-Town, and unfortunately we didn't find any T-Shirts which were bad enough grammatically. Actually there were one or two terrible ones, but they were more er... feminine in colour and design, so I wasn't really interested.

Had a donut. Which was really good.

Got a new Levy's (not Levi's) GENUINE LEATHER guitar/bass guitar strap. Wooohooo! Also am getting a Korg PX4B 'Bass Personal Multi Effect Processor'. Oooo... exciting!

Seeing Revenge of the Sith tomorrow. Muahaha. I'm not really a Star Wars fan, I don't really know the full character histories or the entire family trees. But I sure am looking forward to seeing multi coloured flashing lights and hearing the score. And seeing that evil Sith villain's face get screwed up. I wonder how it happens.

That's all for now. I've done 6 artists for my POPMUS assignment, I have two left. I've done half of my FTVMS essay, so I'm off to finish that.

I'm not sure what you can call today. Today was a good day. But then a lot of 'bad' things did happen. Ok, so here's the list:

1. Lost my Shuffle. Yeah, it's gone. No lost property at Uni so. Err...
2. Bought ear plugs which don't fit my ear. Wasted $5.
3. Ripped the side of my jersey as it got caught by the door as I was walking past the lockers. It is like partially shredded.

Other events:

1. Ordered the Godin A4.
2. Walked around Uni and realised that I was *almost* broke.

Anyway, I have to get back to my assignment.

I got home at 7. I carried a high-tech state-of-the-art umbrella around for the entire day. It didn't get much use. Then I went to Ajita's and left it there by accident, and walked out of the bus to an underwater volcano. Grrr.

Anyway, I am an idiot. I put shampoo on my face and facial wash on my hair. Didn't turn out well.

I'm going back to work. But, I've made a new resolution: I will order the bass this week, before Friday. This way I HAVE to stop spending money every day thus meaning I am saving for a worthy cause, thus meaning I am managing my finances better. Or something.

Cya.

Finished the Queen Latifah section of the POPMUS assignment. Starting on Dr. Dre today.

The results for the second Critical Thinking test are on Cecil. I got 81%, which keeps my grade and a comfortable A-. I haven't got the test paper back yet, so I'm curious as to what I got wrong.

So I've decided on the bass. Yes, the end of procrastination.

However, yet another bland post.

Just came back from the Rockquest East heats. Every band which played got through because some bands dropped out. This is a new region, and to be honest the standard was pretty good.

Heard The 44th Calibre and Gladdis for the first time in quite a while. Both were very good. The 44th were probably the most polished and [best] band there. And I'm not just saying that (heh...). But yeah, once again I'm blown away by Nikita's vocal performance, and the superb integration between her melody and the rest of the music. So here's a plug: The 44th Calibre.

Gladdis were also very cool. They were a really integrated band and everyone was noticeably 'into' the music (unlike some other crappy bands whose members looked like they were playing alone). The Tool influences were deep and unsubtle, including the lead singer's 'Tool' T-shirt. However, they were the ONLY progressive rock band in the entire heats and I hope they do really well.

ADD was another Macleans band. It seemed like they had an identity crisis. On one hand they had a shredding metal guitarist (who was wearing a Metallica T-shirt). On the other hand they sounded poppy and had a crappy bassist. The virtuoso solos were just tagged onto the song at stupid bits. It was a badly written song. However, good on them for the effort though.

Neverscent was the last Macleans band. I have trouble feeling anything about them. They were bland, but they didn't do anything wrong either. They aren't terrible so, that's good.

That's about all I remember from the heats. Next Saturday there is a concert at Botany College featuring many of the bands I mentioned today AND Fist Full of Fives. The following weekend are the regional finals at Howick College. So um, come along, it'll be fun, and you can be inspired. Right now I feel inspired.

Cya.

Another songwriter person. Who is good. I haven't seen Closer, but The Blower's Daughter is a nice song. On first listen his voice sound like Jason Mraz, but his songs are a bit more mellow.

Had Academy today, it was good. I have a dilemma right now between buying a bass or a new guitar. Hmm, musical instruments are pretty. And they sound really nice. What do I do?!

So my next artist profile is on Queen Latifah. Gonna start that now.

Had pizza again. We usually have pizza on saturdays.

Oh yeah, my sister came home for the weekend. She's staying for two/three days, then bussing back down to Wellington.

Results for the second Critical Thinking test were out quite a few days ago, but I still haven't gone to the offices to get 'em. I don't really feel like getting them now. I think I will wait until Tuesday's tutorial.

Good night.

Anyways, TV show aside. Today:

It's Yuen's birthday, he's turning 19. Happy Birthday!

I ate some curry spring rolls. It's what the child of an Indian and a South-East Asian would cook his/her parents. It was tasty but unhealthy. But tasty.

I contacted bmusic.com.au, and the Godin BG-4 (BG-IV) has been discontinued and they just sold out a few days ago. Awwwww... Now I have two options, one quite interesting and one not quite so.

1) Get a Godin A4 fretted instead. This is a semi-acoustic bass with piezo pick-ups and a semi-hollow body. Very interesting instrument with a lot of resonance. Although it might not be sufficiently loud in a live gig unplugged, the acoustic-ness will be great when practising in the bedroom.

2) Get a Schecter or a similar solid body bass that is in the price range of the Godin BG-4. Meh, sounds boring.

3) [Bonus Option] Wait another 2 months and get a Warwick. This seemed like a pretty cool option at first, but then I realised it was dumb. Firstly, it is a very costly high end instrument. Secondly, Warwicks have a specific growl/sound. I have never played bass seriously. This is my first instrument. I am buying the instrument sight unseen. If I don't like the Warwick tone then it is $2200 NZD down the trash can. Or the wood shredder. Or compost bin. Do people put bass guitars in compost bins? I'm not sure. But some sort of drainage/waste place. Proverbially speaking.

Anyway, I think I am going with 1). And I am selling my MIM Sunburst Telecaster with Poplar body and 21 vintage frets, two single coil pick ups, a lot of twang, the SKB hard case, a few picks and the Fender guitar polish. If you're interested don't hesitate to email me with the link on the right. It'll be listed on Trade Me soon anyway.

Cya!

Today (or was it yesterday?), the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) sued six (or something) websites for providing TV shows, specifically on the Bit Torrent system. Here is the official press release: http://www.mpaa.org/MPAAPress/2005/2005_05_12_BitTorrent.pdf

How do I feel about this? I'm not sure. On one hand, it is obviously illegal to download TV shows off the net. You aren't watching any advertising so the advertisers don't get an audience, therefore the $$ they pay the broadcasters is not really functioning and you are 'cheating' the system. On the other hand, BTefnet (so I've heard, I might be wrong on the statistics) has a membership of around 40,000 people. Popular shows typically get around 30,000-50,000 downloads. And that's if it's REALLY popular. A highly rated show in the U.S. gets audiences of millions (5-8 million) in one night. So um... that isn't even 1% of the audience.

HOWEVER, just because it has a tiny impact (or non at all) doesn't mean it's legal. So really there are arguments both ways, but my thoughts are that this is just hurting the big corporations in the long run. Basically, the downloaders of TV shows are split into the following:

1) People who are NOT in the US who want to watch a show that does not air in their country, or airs at a much later time.
2) People who usually watch a show on TV but have missed the odd episode and want to download it so they can see it.
3) People who have seen the episodes on TV but want to see them again/keep them in an archive to view in the future.

Now, I can understand why each of these could hurt the corporations financially. But let's take a moment to break this down.

In 1), when the show comes to a country (let's call it X), people would've already seen the episodes, thus not watch it on the TV, thus hurting the show's ratings. However, there are two significant upsides to this. Firstly, in countries where the show does not air AT ALL (not even later), these people downloading the shows can only help promote the show. After all, they wouldn't download the show unless they liked it, thus their downloading and watching is basically viral marketing and promotion for the 'show franchise' in countries which don't even air the programme! And the corporations don't even have to lift a finger. The second upside is that (as I've witnessed), most people who download the show and watch it before it airs in their country watch it ANYWAY when it runs in their country. This is because not everyone downloads TV shows, and most people who download a TV show are avid fans of that particular show. Secondly, most of these people who watch these episodes earlier spread the content/spoilers by word of mouth to their friends and social circles, and as I've witnessed, PROMOTE the show's airing to others, i.e. "Hey, WATCH Y SHOW TONIGHT, I've seen the first few episodes and it's brilliant!" Again, viral marketing for free.

In 2), corporations may be hurt if people think that it's not crucial that they watch a show because they can always download it later, thus the show may lose ratings. But isn't this the same with TiVO? Thus this isn't a strict download-related issue - it's about similar technologies which allow people to shape television around their own schedule/lifestyle getting in the way of television shaping the schedule/lifestyle of the population. They seem to have a point about people not watching advertisements and just fast forwarding with TiVO, but I think it is funny that something which makes peoples' lives MORE convenient (i.e. digital broadcasting with people choosing the time they want to watch a show as opposed to one fixed time) is being criticised because it hurts Z corporation's profits.

In 3), I understand that it hurts the corporations in that DVD sales of TV shows will not be as good. But what they also have to understand is that this is a widespread phenomenon not just apparent in TV shows, but in music and film as well. We are in a new generation, when broadband internet is becoming widely available and consumers are becoming more savvy. new methods of viral marketing and presenting products must be invented. Change is good. It's like the development of iTunes, it works, it's a response to the change in consumption patterns of music, and it's a solution. Soderbergh is pioneering a style of simultaneously releasing his films on multi-mediums (online, on DVD and in the cinemas at the same time). Who knows if it will work, but I'm just saying, media producers can't blame and alienate and antagonise their core audience and consumers. It's like how nowadays more effort is put into music merchandise (band T-shirts, caps and pens), attractive live concerts, cosmetics/fashion lines for artists, custom-signature guitars/instruments for musicians, endorsements (e.g. Apple iPod) and so on.

It's a new era, embrace it.

I'm not advertising fast food franchises here. I just had some Burger King and thought it would be appropriate to mention that. It's been an unproductive but calming day. I'm tired.

In other news, I am going to buy a Godin BG-4. Four strings, Seymour Duncan soapbars, 34" scale.

And... I'm tired. I think I said that though. Anyway, less boring-ness is still to come, I promise. Or more interesting-ness. Whichever way you want to say it.

Cya!

I had some chicken today, and I think I'm a bit sick of it now.

I had good lectures today, but I felt sleepy. Not much to write about, going to go to bed. Really tired.

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The Office (the American series) is also really funny! Perhaps not as funny as the British series, but still highly amusing. I hope NBC are renewing it for season 2...

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Cya.


EDIT: I started listening to Death Cab and I am not sleepy now. DEATH CAB IS MY FAVOURITE BAND NOW. Yes, that is replacing Goo Goo Dolls. They are Number 2 now. It's sort of weird because I haven't listened to them in the last 2 months since my Death Cab phase, and now I'm hearing their music with new ears. Maybe it's the progressive stuff I've been listening to. It's good to get back to understated and visceral music.

Had 3 hours of class today but finished early too. Came back to early again. The PHIL 105 tutorial today was great fun. Topics included abortion, pornography, euthanasia and showgirls. Apparently that is what they discuss in Applied Ethics (210). I might take that as an elective... it sounds interesting.

I finished the Pink Floyd section of my POPMUS assignment yesterday, doing 'Nu-rock/grunge/alternative' today. Today's bus was 30 minutes late. The new PHIL 100 lecturer is not a fluent speaker. However, the new topic (Mind & Body and Personal Identity) is really quite fascinating.

I am probably going to buy the bass in about 2 weeks' time. Or as soon as I save up enough for it, which is soon. Woohoo!

Cya!

I only had one tutorial today, so I just came home early. The tutorial was on DJ'ing and and MC'ing. Really cool stuff. We saw a clip off a DVD called 'Scratch' that was devoted to turntabling and similar arts. I finished another artist profile (Gerry & the Pacemakers) yesterday, so I'm 1/4 of the way through the assignment. Next up is Pink Floyd.

The Harry Potter GoF teaser trailer is out. Meh, it's not THAT good (it's a teaser so, you hardly see anything?). However I also saw some BtS footage, and that looked cool. Since the acting in the first two movies (and to a degree the third one) were so mediocre, this is a franchise that is ALWAYS improving. Which is a good thing. GoF looks promising. The HBP book is coming out on my birthday. Yay! Anyways, if you're interested, here's the link to the teaser:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/harry_potter/thegobletoffire/

One thing, did you know the Backstreet Boys have a new album coming out? That scares me, I thought they were like, late-2o's or 30's now. Maybe they should change their name to Mainstreet Men (courtesy of Simon) or something. But then they aren't really 'mainstreet' anymore. They are sort of... prototype pop music? Hahah...

Cya!

Having heard only a song here and there before of this band, I was introduced by Henry to one of their more recent albums; Scenes From A Memory yesterday.

I just heard the entire album, and I think I am going to cry.

Tool is the best progressive rock band ever? Or Dream Theater? I have no idea, but I do know that I am inspired. These guys are good and I'm glad I discovered their music. The lyrics in this album are sort of so-so but their technical proficiency (no matter how in-your-face) still should be acknowledged. Also, the ballads on this album shine. They'regood songs.

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Petrucci is very good (as good as Satriani? close/maybe/probably not, Satriani wins on the wah-front, but he's still really really good). I think the order goes something like this:

1. Joe Satriani
2. Eric Johnson
3. John Petrucci
4. Steve Vai

And somewhere in the top ten are Marty Friedman and Michael Angelo. But that's my list anyway: Vai is the most amazing tapper, Johnson has the most amazing tone, Satriani is the best all-rounder and Petrucci is less of a show off than Vai so I give him credit for that. He's good anyhow. Satriani's still the best just because of his emotional connection with the songs that is lacking with a lot of these guitarists.

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Cya!

The Macleans Ball today. Have fun everyone!

Had Academy today, it was fun as usual. Got a Diana Krall CD for Mum, hopefully it sounds as good as all her other albums.

Woke up too late but anyway, got some things done. Finished the Chuck Berry section of my POPMUS assignment, I'm about 15% done. What's funny is about 5-6 of his songs all have the same guitar riff intro, just in different keys. His distinctive style and amazingly energetic stage presence make his songs really enjoyable to listen to (eventhough you can't see him you can imagine it).

I found my Editing Mojo again. Although I did re-cut the first 20 seconds of the video, I'm liking it a lot more now. Probably going to re-cut the next 40 seconds too before I move on. I'm really happy with how it's going.

I had pizza. Probably not as great as the buffet at the ball but, once again, I'm just going to say: Have fun everyone and take care. Should be an awesome evening.

Cya!

First, the Stagecoach drivers are on strike, which means a lot of people are crapped out for 6 days. Actually in my PHIL 105 lecture only 20 people showed up (out of 150), most probably because of transport problems. This also means everyone is trying to drive into city, thus resulting in the 90 minute bus ride into city yesterday.

Second, this morning I got a temperamental bus drivess (driveress?), who liked 'tap braking'. In other words she liked stamping the breaks at a regular tempo, sometimes to complex rhythms just for fun. Thus, I spent the next two hours at Uni sleeping in the Info Commons because I felt like spewing up.

Third, on the way home I got a really good bus driver, who unfortunately thought I was a retard and thus resorted to talking to me in 'Fake-o-Asian' Speak --> "You Where Going? Street What Name?" Also unfortunate was the fact that we got a farting bus. No, it wasn't just farting, it was 'putt-ing' and 'crack-ling' too. But farting was definitely the most prominent among these.

In short, a weird week in the Bussing Adventures.

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TODAY:

We had a funny lecture for FTVMS 100 about telephones, saw an amusing segment of Coffee and Cigarettes (dir. Jim Jarmusch, featuring Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan). Luke Goode also talked about 'txt-flirting' and the unfortunate absence of the usual lecturer of this topic (Nick Perry) who has apparently done extensive research into the cultural and social repercussions of phone sex as a case study.

The PHIL 105 lecture was interesting too, it was about analogies used in arguments both deductive and inductive. Insanely funny stuff and great skits.

Then I had this semi-warm pasta thing from the cafeteria, it was pretty good. Hung out with Yuen, Lip and Ada (who makes really really nice lasagne :oP), then bussed home on the Farting Route 52.

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Alright, the plan for this weekend is:

First priority --> FFoF Music video, I'm still not fully "in the groove" yet. It's sort of like I'm 'zombie-editing' (like, on auto pilot) but not really going, "Wow! Yes! That cut looks AWESOME! The rhythm is kinetic..." Hopefully I'll find my editing mojo soon.

Second priority --> Do at least 3 artists (750 words) for my POPMUS assignment. I'm thinking of Chuck Berry, Gerry & the Pacemakers and Radiohead right now. Gonna do the Hip Hop and Disco ones last.

Third priority --> Play guitar/GET NEW STRINGS. Really important, otherwise the frets will be severely abused.

Fourth priority --> Sleep.

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Cya!

Ok, no posts for a coupla days, my bad.

Tuesday: I forgot what I did. It was a good day though. Oh right, we had a tutorial, it was interesting.

Wednesday: Great day, cool lectures, had KFC for dinner then went to that Choral concert. It was a lot shorter than I had expected, and the University Singers are great. They sang this Samoan piece which was really cool. The Cathedral in Parnell is also really nice. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the concert.

Thursday: Good lectures, the Media Studies one was on Video Games today, gave a lot of insight into the remediation and complexity apparent in the art of games. Saw a lot of Macleans students in uniform in the Quad, thought I was hallucinating, but nope, I wasn't. A Level English students coming into city to see 'Equus' at the Maidment. It was surreal meeting everyone again. But good.

Nothin' much more to say for today, ALTHOUGH, the official programme for the AFFA (Asia Film Festival Aotearoa) 2005 is out. Check out the site here: http://anzfft.org.nz/

Cya!

I understand how boring this book of productivity is. There is only one character, me. And the arc goes something like this:

I am sort of productive.
I get less productive.
I get slightly more productive.
I get really productive.

Therefore --> I grow as a character.

The crisis point is when I am almost finished with my essay, and the obligatory scene is when I finish my essay. Well, here it is:

I finished my PHIL 100 essay! 1,036 words, today was really productive.

Alright, I'm off. Productivity is over, I promise. And I'm sorry there is no denouement. I think the denouement is when I get my essay back. No wait, that's another crisis point for another story. A really horrible story at that.

Boring titles again, my bad. But anyway, let's move on:

1. Woke up at 7:15. Ate breakfast, played guitar for a while, recorded a *you can start cringing* Lifehouse cover. Meh, it's alright.
2. Got on bus, went to city.
3. Went to my POPMUS tutorial --> this week we start Hip Hop. We watched a bit of a documentary called 'Style Wars'. It is amazing. It was mainly about b-boying and graffitti art. Amazing. I wanna take that documentary out some time and watch it out of class. It is that cool.
4. Got my essay back. A. That is good, it means I'm back squarely sitting on an A- now. However, the tutor didn't really write any comments. Actually, he wrote nothing on my essay except, "A - Good work." I was looking for advice/critical discussion but hey, I shouldn't complain.
5. Went to Info Commons, did more of my PHIL essay. Got about 500 words done. GOOD.
6. Went to grab some lunch, saw Daniel, then saw a big group of people, then saw Wi Bian and Yuen. Got my copy of Craccum, read it. Emailed in for the 'Free DVD' competition, but I wasn't fast enough. Saw Lip.
7. Went back to the Commons, sat down on one of those really nice red couches. Slept for an hour.
8. Spent an hour reading the 36 page long course reading on the 'Sonic Foundations of Rap Music'. It was actually pretty boring. It's the first reading that I've found boring, all the previous ones were really interesting. The writer just kept repeating the phrases, 'poly-rhythmic juxtaposition', 'black poetic tradition' and 'black oral conventions' over and over again. However, it was informative.
9. Went home in Yuen's car which is being modded up now. It looks cool.

And I'm too tired to explain the rest, but yup, it was a good day. Cya!

I've done 764 words! Today was really relaxing - I had only one tutorial, thus I spent the rest of the day finishing off some stuff and actually being productive. Well, semi-productive.

Alright, bye.

I've done 362 words. Wooo!

Ok I'm off.

Hi. Today I did 1/10 of my PHIL 100 Essay on Schopenhauer's 'stress and boredom' argument. So really, I think productivity is in the negative now. But not to worry, I still have 3-4 hours until bedtime, during which time I will finish this essay. Or not.

In other news, I woke up quite early today, 6:30, but didn't really make good use of the time I had. No, I just ate things and played guitar. And I didn't even learn new songs either, I was just playing the same songs over and over again. Err...

I'm going to go back to that essay now. Bye.