Monday, June 25, 2007

Up and Down Weekend (and a Happy Monday!)

It has been an eventful weekend.

Firstly, I should mention that Ben's proposed Saturday morning move was postponed for a week due to issues with hiring a van. This at least meant that I could enjoy my birthday present from Bevan on the Friday evening without having to worry about getting up early on Saturday.

Before minds start to wonder... No. He didn't get me a romantic meal for two or anything like that. It was in fact possibly the best birthday present I've ever had: Two hours of studio time with recognised drum'n'bass producer, Kubiks.

I've been saying for some time that I needed some tips from an established producer to help me get to the next level, and I learned loads. Not only that, but he was impressed by some of my tracks, and suggested that if I sent them to him to 'tweak' some of the sounds he would be able to get them released.

It was a great piece of feedback, but I didn't really believe anything would come from it.

Saturday morning was spent exactly where it should be: in bed. A traditional Saturday fry-up then followed, and I sat on the sofa for half an hour or so watching everyone getting very wet and muddy at Glastonbury, with great amusement I might add.



I wondered out to the middle room to use my phone, which I had left charging by my computer.

It wasn't there.

Obviously I must have unplugged it and left it somewhere else. I began searching.

After ten minutes of searching I realised I had looked everywhere it could possible be at least three times, so I asked Ali and Chew if they had seen it or perhaps taken it into their rooms. Of course they hadn't, but they both came downstairs to help me look.

Ali tried calling it, and on each occasion it cut off after a couple of rings. Our suspicions became raised, and at that point I realised that my wallet was also no longer at my computer desk, where I had left it.

Refusing to believe that we could have been robbed at half past two in the afternoon when all three of us were in the house, I began another search. I looked in all the same places that I had looked for my phone another two or three times, plus we checked all of the kitchen cupboards, breadbin, and rubbish bin.

By the time I had searched through the freezer I realised that I was really clutching at straws, so I began making the phone calls to the bank, credit card, phone company, and police.

I spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday in shock and disbelief. I kept imagining what would have happened if I had walked out and caught him red handed - re-enacting the resulting chase and scuffle over in my mind, again and again. Occasionally I wondered how I would feel if the missing items suddenly turned up... Relieved or embarrassed?

The only silver lining is that they did not take my camera, which was on the floor under the computer desk, or indeed my keys, which were right next to my wallet.

The police said they would be round shortly. Then they said they'd be round later. Then at half past ten they phoned and asked what time I would be going to bed. I put them off until Sunday. On Sunday afternoon I got another call asking me what time I would be going to bed that night. I lied and said 10:00. At 9:45 I got a call saying that they wouldn't make it round before 10, and they would instead send it to a local branch to investigate so I should get a call from them in the next couple of days.

Great.

So finally, to end a topsy-turvy weekend it has been a very happy Monday. This-morning I booted up my pc and instantly received a very exciting piece of news from Bevan on msn. Kubiks had contacted him and said that he found a release opportunity for the track that we had been reworking during the Friday night session. If I could get all the samples and necessary files over to him as soon as possible he would spend today tweaking it and it would feature on a new compilation CD for Phunkfiction Recordings. He has to send the finished version to them by midnight as they are pressing the CD and cutting the vinyl TOMORROW!

I instantly set about the task, and sent him all of the necessary files through AIM, and I am expecting to hear back from him later to confirm that I am happy with the final version. I am not sure at the moment when the release date will be, or indeed whether it will be released under my name of 'Morph', or as a collaboration, i.e., 'Morph & Kubiks', but either way I am a very happy bunny!

The track is called 'Inflicted' and the early version is on my myspace, but I will no doubt blog the full release version as soon as I have it.

Presuming he doesn't just rob it and I never hear from him again, of course.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Goodbye to the Middle Room



This will be the last blog I write looking out at this view - a view which has been gradually eroded over the last 34 months by the erection of those two giant warehouses (in the foreground) that have appeared on Winterstoke Road.

Tomorrow I will be moving my computer and decks into the front room, where they will be joined by my bed and the various piles of clothes that are scattered around my tiny bedroom, in preparation for the arrival of Mr Ben McGuinness.

While I'm really looking forward to having a proper bedroom again, I will be slightly sad to leave the middle room - after all, I have probably spent about 12 out of the 34 months we have lived here sat in this very spot. Of course, there are also many memories attached to it.

From Saturday it will become our living room, and will therefore no longer witness scenes like this...











...which is probably a good thing actually as it means whoever is cooking on a Friday night will no longer have to put up with our DJing and attempts at scratching - at least not quite so loudly.

Ben recently popped over and kept Chew and myself up until the early hours with his incessant rambling. This may have raised some concerns that he will be a bad influence on us once he has moved in.





We did however learn a valuable lesson...



...if you're going to smoke a sheesha...



...for the first time in about a year...



...make sure you clean out the pipe first...









Sunday, June 10, 2007

My 29th Birthday

Oh dear.

All of a sudden more than three weeks has passed since my last blog.

I'd like to blame this on being very busy, but I'd be lying. The truth is I've had more free time over the last 10 days than I've had for months, however I took full advantage by putting as much of that time as I could into finishing my latest tune.

In fact, you can listen to it by clicking this link, if you so desire.

It also seems that since everyone and their dog has signed up to facebook, the blog doesn't seem quite so 'important' anymore.

Plus which, I'm back on the poker!

Anyway, as if to emphasise the point about facebook taking over, here are the pics from my birthday bash which I've already posted on there. I would provide captions, only I really can't remember very much about the evening and so it's very hard for me to explain what on Earth is going on...



















Well, at least it looks like I had a decent night out, I suppose!