Coursework/Music Video

Currently swamped in coursework, so forgive the lack of updates (all none of you reading this). I'm not that consistent with keeping my blog, and I'm even worse at doing so with coursework logs, so, obviously, if I combine the two, it'll work, right?

Last Friday, we went to B&Q to ask if we could use their car park as a location for the video, and were told we'd need to contact Head Office and Bexley Council to get permission. Henna volunteered to do the paperwork.

THURSDAY 17TH

Thursday we met to scout further locations. I'd looked online the last 2 days (With the help of Google Earth) for suitable locations. I had narrowed it down to a Football club in Bromley, and a Health Club towards Mottingham.

Football club

Health Club

First, we headed to the football club, but on the way found the car park to a set of pitches owned by the council, so we made a note of the contact details.

Upon arriving at the football club, we discovered the car park actually belonged to Cannons Health Club. (which Henna then remembered she was a member of!) We went to reception, and enquired about using it, and were told my reception staff that it should be OK, but we'd have to contact the manager. So, we left are card, and were told to expect a call on Friday afternoon.

Springs in our step, we headed to the other club, which, surprise surprise, Henna used to belong to! We decided that the car park wasn't as ideal as we first thought, but kept it in mind.

FRIDAY 18TH

We agreed to meet at my flat as it was close enough to the college should we have to go in to get paperwork signed, and was a bit more relaxed than the hot stuffy "L" rooms of college. At 10.30am Henna and Alex arrived as planned, but with some distressing news: none of the kit would be available!

So, yeah, things looked like they were about to turn to 5H17.

We had two options: see if the band could change the flights, or hire equipment from outside the college.

I rang Ethan straight away and he said to change the name on a ticket cost £50 alone, so that option wasn't feasible. Also, it was too close to A Levels.

So, with the only option left, we started looking at companies online.

After spending all day looking and debating, we decided on a company, and chose to go an HD camera, which meant filming onto a hard drive, as opposed to DV tape.

Good news came in the form of Cannons: we were allowed to use the car park! The only condition was that we donate some money to Cancer Research, which we were more than happy to do.


Craig, you are my new best friend.

Speaking of Craig's, 2nd year BMT student Craig was kind enough to lend us his bass amp for the shoot. Craig, you are second new best friend.

........

So that brings us up to date. I'm currently working on a shot list for the video, so wish me luck!

Whodunnit?

Going through old phone pictures, and came across this


If you can't make it out, its the pageholder for Television X, which I found as soon as I turned on the telly in the living room one morning. So, which of my housemates wants to own up to being a perv?

March Mixtape: Samples

I try to do a Mixtape every so often with a different theme. Its in no way intended to be "cool" (most of my choices are embarrassingly mainstream) but I like to try and get the flow of the tracks seamless.

This month's mix is entitled "Samples". If the title doesn't give it away, it's a collection of songs that contain samples of other song's. Maybe I'll compile a mix of the sampled song's at some point (interestingly, 3 of the tracks sample The Clash).

Enjoy

And if you want a physical copy, let me know.

Walk Along the Canal

After working nearly all week, Elisabeth finally had some free time, and we went for a walk along the Stoke canal.

Everyone thinks they're such sweet little things.
Every duck we saw was with a partner: it was sweet.


One of the reasons I love walking along the canal is to see the old buildings.



Part of the canal path was getting work done, so we had to be diverted, which led us to a part of Stoke that was like a ghost town: streets of houses completly boarded up.


The sign which caused the argument over how far we had walked (I still think I was right!)


We came across this old abandoned railway track, where we sat to eat our sandwiches. Next time, we'll see where it leads!


Isn't she prettyful?


A duck couple, with the mail-order bride.

East Grafton

With a few days off this week, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to visit my Grandad, aunt and cousin.



Always loved what Gale has done with the house.



Lexi, the whippet. Quiet as a mouse, but hyper as a kid who's drank too much coke!


The Village Green (Preservation Society)


The stump which Joe is sitting on used to be the base of a gigantic tree, which for some reason will always remind me of the Roswell Alien Autopsy.

The house of a family friend which burnt down a couple of years ago. We stayed in it one year, and had a great pool in the back garden.

In the centre of this picture, you'll see a bit of dip in the green. I remember water gathering at the bottom when i was young, and it almost looked like a mini pond. I also remember a photo of either me or Ethan face down in the water. At least, I *think* I do. Weird.


We once went to a midnight Christmas service here. Looked beautiful when candle lit.


My Grandad keeps bee's, and makes honey. Roll on next batch!


Where the bee's are kept. Fact: my aunt and cousin are allergic to bee's.


The front of the house which used to be the village post office.

The path to the house has bits of old ceramics sunk into the cement. Alwasy thought that was cool.


The entrance to the "Secret Garden"

Where on a summers night, many years ago, around a fire, I first heard Automatic for the People.

Lazy Sunday

After the pumpkins, and all the jetsetting about to airports and the like, we decided to have a nice relaxed sunday, making buns, pancakes, and watcing movies! (Ratatouille, Juno and Superbad!)

Tonight Tonight

Today was the day that I had been waiting for. Not so much, all my life, that would seem a little tragic, but definitely one of those things that ensure I am one step closer to dying happy: I saw Smashing Pumpkins live! (a recap on how I got into them later)

As with Linkin Park, this was at the 02 Arena, and unfortunately, we weren't as close to the front, (but at least there were no neck injuries from sitting at an odd angle!)



They played for just over 2 and a half hours, and 27 songs, covering every album! Understandably, Zeitgeist got the most coverage, but it was nice to hear Drown (from the Singles Soundtrack), and while only 2 Siamese Dream tracks were played, at least one of them was Mayonnaise.

Highlights included Today segueing into Tarantula, and this little tease before 1979




The final encore was to be Cherub Rock, but for whatever reason, it wasn't, and instead a cover of Echo and the Bunnymen's "Lips Like Sugar" was played (with Billy, already looking awkward being so tall and wearing a tinfoil dress, looking even more so with just a microphone!)




Was it worth the wait? Yes. I think so, though I don't think I could possibly say no!

Happy Valen Times

Yes, we all know its a day made up by card companies to make money, but what sane person (more importantly: those in a relationship) wouldn't celebrate it??

Well, February 14th rolled by again, and I did indeed celebrate it well with Elisabeth. I'm terrible at keeping secrets, and the gift I got her I had wanted to give her for the longest time since I found it. A little back story..........



When walking along the Stoke canal, Elisabeth told me of a book she used to love as a child, but due to leaving it her Wendy House, it got wet, ruined, and had to be thrown out. She could remember every detail, but for some reason, not the title. After this, I made it my mission to find it!

Armed with the description, I tried my best to search on amazon for books about Doll's and houses. As you can imagine, the list was pretty long. So, in a desperate attempt at solving the mystery of the title, I turned to the BKV message board. Thankfully, Kedd was able to tell me the name of the book. (I am now forever in his debt, and our first born will be named accordingly)

So, title solved, now to find it! A trip round London's bookstores yielded nothing but dead ends, and the news that book was out of print.

Undeterred, I turned to the internet once again, and finally found the book on Playtrade, second hand. And the rest is history.

She liked it very much, by the way.


Elisabeth's gift to me was a very special one. Last year, following a viewing of Science of Sleep, I heard that there was a competition to make a short film on the theme of dreams. My creative juices flowing after watching said brilliant film, I had the idea for a poem that would tell the story of a dream...........I'll spare you the details for now. Anyway, I didn't have it finished in time for the competition, so left it.

However


Over the last few months Lize had been working on an illustrated version of the poem, and gave it to me. It's beautiful. She is such a talented artist!

So, I hope everyone else had a loved up day, and if not, you have about 360 days to make sure you do next year :)

Birthday Sugarmill

Being the party animal that I am (.........) the day after everyone head home post birthday, I headed to Elisabeths for the weekend. As I didn't have a cake, I treated myself to this cheap one from Tesco, but mainly for the free mug!


Friday night was Sugarmill night, so I'll let the pictures do the talking. Guess when "Killing in the name of" was playing....
















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Birthday celebrations over: returning to normal programming shortly!