Sticking To Routine

Another average Sunday really. I was up in the radio rooms burning CDs and saving storage on my hard drive. You'd be surprised at the people who are at Uni on Sunday, particuarly the London International Faith Centre are in the main lecture theatre. I also had to show someone the way to the television studios which were actually open oddly enough.
James came in along with flatmate Gemma and her boyfriend and proceeded to give them a demonstration of how everything worked in studio 5 although we've got a problem in studio 6 with the eject button jammed in it's hole in one of the CD players. Looks as if I'll be using Audition to play out half of my show this week if they don't sort it out which will at least save me an extra CD-R.

I was the last out of the studios once again as the presenter of the gospel show was unable to show up for the second week running. Commitment isn't a strong point of the radio station as is evident by a few presenters but I'd imagine this is the same sort of thing that would happen at any non-profit station. However I'm starting to go up to the radio rooms less often than normal as nearly everyone's getting the hang of recording their shows without me having to help out.

I'm dreading tomorrow's Media Technology lecture and am unsure about the seminar afterwards as I may risk being late for my appointment at the opticians at 1:20. For now though, I guess I'll be finishing the rest of the sultana fingarellas I brought yesterday which are delicious and terribly addictive.

Just An Illusion

Not too bad a night really, save for the fire alarms going off at 2am. Thankfully they haven't been as constant as last year as the halls manangement have finally seen sense into reducing the building's sensitivity to heat.
FTN were showing the grand final of the 1987 Krypton Factor last night which was the first to have three female contestants and the first female winner who had her trophy presented to her by then Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan. It turned out that said winner Marion Chanter ended up working in television from the introduction to the 1988 series which followed immediately after although her current whereabouts 20 years later are unknown.

One of the highlights of the first show of the 1988 series was the Observation round featuring a send up of illusionist David Copperfield (a bizarre but saner David Blaine figure from back in the day) and Terry Wogan performed by actor Andrew O'Connor fresh from his "success" as one of the performers on the BBC's Saturday morning summer show
"On The Waterfront".
I can vaguely remember the programme which most remember for it's send up of French drama "The Flashing Blade" where they re-dubbed the dialogue with hilarious results.

The title of this blog post reminds me that I must include some Imagination in my set tomorrow night and I'm thinking of spinning one of their lesser tracks called "Burning Up". Let's hope the CD decks don't end up in that situation with my constant playing with the pitch.

"Breaking" Into Harrow Halls

There always appears to be broken glass on the grounds outside the Halls of Residence which I am becoming fed up with and the amount of boy racers who speed past the buildings every night which I am guesssing is the cause of all this. Haven't these idiots got anything better to do with there time and do they even go to the University?
Very doubtful.
Luckily my bedroom isn't facing that direction outside, so I don't have to put up with them or the tubes and trains that go past throughout the day. I suppose the boy racers are making up for the noise overnight normally provided by Transport for London during the daytime hours.

On a lighter note I managed to by some sultana fingarettes from Sainsburys this afternoon which aren't too different from the Madeline bars that dad would always bring back from France after a Christmas booze cruise. There's more than enough to keep me going this weekend and they aren't too steep neither considering the amount of them.

Always Active

I was up pretty early this morning, well 8:50 is pretty early when you get to my age. Nothing majorly eventful so far today, I put together another whooshy promo thingy for the specialist output on Smoke mixing together the Arctic Monkeys with Gil Scott-Heron. That's how far our musical output tends to stretch out on the station especially when you've got people such as the Shuffle boys as part of the team.

Adam was telling me during their show last Thursday that he'd written a letter to BBC Radio 3 complaining about the axing of their show "Mixing It" and that Late Junction is to be shortened in length. The letter also mentioned that he wasn't happy about the corporation's attitude to experimental music and they should donate a large amount of their funds from the government to community stations such as Resonance FM in London who are more than willing to give time to leftfield genres. One of the fellow students on my radio course helps out with a Swedish comedy show on Resonance and even Matthew presents a show there on Sunday afternoons which covers all sorts of interesting and peculiar topics.

I went in to the studios just before 12 to put the promo on the system and give Steve a hand switching studios as he's covering for Ricky on the chart this week. If anyone can switch studios and make the transition sound seemless then there's no one slicker than Steve. Apparently we've got a Smoke meeting on Tuesday which I really think we need more of because there seems to be a lack of motivation between each other than there was last year, and it's good for others to get encouraged and for all of us to know what's going on more reguarly.

Learning From The Advanced

It's more or less a quiet weekend ahead as always although I may take advantage of the time to see if can make an early start on my critical report by analysing radio programmes and particuarly presenters of shows similar in style to the one we'll be doing. I have in mind Mick Brown's breakfast show on Capital Gold and Jo Whiley's mid morning show on Radio 1, the latter essentially because the Live Lounge section of the show.

I'm currently having a listen to Steely Dan, a band I doubt we'll be featuring on the show but certainly wouldn't complain if we did, as it really takes me back to the summer of 2003. Not a great summer really as I was stuck in ASDA for the majority waiting for them to change my shifts to coincide with the start of my HND course which eventually happened.
I'd imagine Radio 2 were to blame for my interest for the duo and Donald Fagen has one of the most recognisable voices in classic rock music.

I'd definitely reccomend British act Talc to more established Dan fans as they take a similar approach with clever lyrics and a mixture of rock and funk. Whilst it would be great to see them perform live, one band I've never seen since moving to London are the Steely Dan tribute act "Nearly Dan". They often make an appearance at the Jazz Cafe at least twice a year and I may make it one of the aims of the third year provided they don't do a spot there again this year.

Work In Progress

Friday morning was spent planning ideas and features for our Retro Room show and making a start on sorting out the music despite a problem with low storage space, again. Jo and Lamby have come up with having a connections based game and incoporating concert reviews but it looks as if we'll progress further in the coming weeks especially as Lamby pointed out that ideas don't just happen.

The afternoon consisted of a lecture about PRS/PPL licenses and station branding, where for the former it ended up with us going on a tangent about pubs having to have PRS licenses and the muddles that can prevail from those issues. Matthew also told us about him knowing a lawyer who deals with those sorts of issues to which Dave Baldwin responded "how can you hang about with a man like that?!"
When we looked at branding I volunteered to help read a script for a Kiss 100 "Smoove Grooves" promo sponsored by Nik Naks in which the script described the product as "little freaks". Luckily I didn't have to read that line out. We also had a listen to some rather forgetfull sung jingles for stations such as Key 103, Vibe FM, and Radio City.

I didn't leave until just after half 6 as I had to get Liz's techno show recorded and scheduled for tonight and the music producers in my group were still around as I was leaving. It didn't sound like they were planning however as James was telling Ina his views on the War in Iraq and how you should help someone if they've been knocked down by a vehicle. He wasn't all that keen on people who just say "yeah I might help them out" or "not sure", but his ideal response was for the one lifting the body to assure them that he or she would go to a better place. At this time now anywhere would be a better place than my bed in halls.

"This Is What You'll Get"

In the last couple of days I've been brought to the attention of Radiodread; an album containing dub reggae covers of tracks from Radiohead's "OK Computer" album performed by the Easy All-Stars. Joey played the cover of "Karma Police" from it yesterday whilst recording his jazz show and Seb and Jon managed to get hold of the album from him to play on their show earlier this evening.

I managed to find out a bit more goss from them about the other group's soul and funk show in the Music Radio assignment and have found out they've got Ricky to present. I'm certain that at his expertise, the show will sound better than any of the soul shows I've done in the last 18 months!
I'm really looking forward to hearing their effort although I don't want it to overshadow my groups attempt and I know overall that Ricky's better than me at running a desk and just want to give it my best shot. I found myself listening to a bit of Paul Coyte's drivetime on Capital Gold this afternoon so I'd best keep at it.

It's superhero night tonight at Area but I'll be staying clear of that after the antics of last nights Bar Footsie. And partly because I've got a gut feeling that the club will be dead with people just sitting on the tables that are spread out around the place.

"Greetings Pop Pickers!"

The roles for our two hour music show were sorted out this morning after a rather lengthy debate on who should do what. I've ended up as the presenter of a show which we're calling "The Retro Room With Robin Blamires" which we have to assume is going out on Capital Gold and is what we're basing our station style on. James and Ina are both assistant producers for the show and Jo and Lamby are dealing with branding although as the case normally is, I may end up giving an extra hand. Khalia and Dave Baldwin are working on our live music O/B whilst Aussie Dave and Carolina our working on our ads.
One of the major aims that James had at the top of our meeting was to get ourselves a Facebook group after the other group made a similar move! We also spent the rest of the morning listening to Kid Pension on the station itself and how the really tiny bits such as news and adverts were done on air.

This afternoon we split into two groups to be trained how to use RCS and the group I was in were shown by Joey. I made sure I avoided giving any hints to those asked to use certain features of the software for the first time but Joey made it enjoyable particularly when we had to insert a song by Grinderman that was basically just a rant with no hooks whatsoever! It turns that our RCS system has rules set by itself so we can guarantee that each hour starts off with a belter. If the show producer agrees that is.

I'll probably need to spend extra time in there tomorrow with the studio producer when both Joey and Jacko will be giving refreshers on how to use the playout software. For me it's pretty straightforward as I just have to start and stop stuff on air but it's good to get those who have never been near such software to have a go. I'm certainly looking forward to how both groups shows are going to sound on air.

Flushed At Footsie

Wasn't really impressed with last nights show on a technical level. Not only were the bulbs for the on-air light not working but I sounded rather faint in the first three quarters of the show due to me not having the EQ switched on my microphone. Quite a good response on the shoutbox however as those listening liked the George Benson and Al Jarreau cover of Summer Breeze by the Isley Brothers. That's definitely the highlight of that album and I'm sure Ron Isley will actually be able to hear it sometime after they release him from his cell!

After the show I headed over to Bar Footsie at the Undercroft were there was a good turn out including Charlotte who promised not to drink anything after Monday night, both the Phils; Harris and Landers, and Sam and Kelly were also there after being too ill to come down on Monday. I spent quite a bit on VKs using the spare change to put some interesting choices on the bar jukebox including Eternal, Lisa Stansfield, Vanilla Ice and even Betty Boo! Shortly after midnight I headed back where before I could even get some sleep I was constantly wheezing and as I type now I'm still not great. I may splash out on some Strepsils after Joey offering me one yesterday although I doubt I'll ask for the lemon and honey flavour.

Almost In Focus

I went to the Specsavers in Harrow to book an eye test for Monday afternoon, provided I don't get held up in another exciting Media Technology lecture. I'm hoping they'll let me use my NUS card to get a 25% discount as advertised.

Progression on the Music Radio assignment seems to be in full flow as the other group have decided to set up a group on Facebook of all things! Luckily my group have a meeting tomorrow to decide what roles we'll be taking and overall this whole assignment should not be viewed as a contest. A few people in the opposing group during the magazine module got a bit big headed about their show to the extent that the plan of action is still on the whiteboard in RP2!
Luckily I've not worked with many of the people in my group before and it will be interesting to see how they perform with certain tasks and jobs on offer. I was rather non-plused to find an e-mail from Lamby yesterday when she referred to one of the acts that should be played on the show as "whoever sings Dance, Boogie Wonderlaaand".

A couple of years ago BBC 2 did a series called "Soul Deep" tracing the history of Soul Music from Sam Cooke to Mary J Blige which was well put together but completely skipped the late 70s and 80s disco jazz funk. Stephen Howie at the Incognito gig last week told me that Earth Wind and Fire didn't even get a mention which I didn't notice at the time of transmission but it was certainly a disservice to the band considering their contribution to the genre.

Just about got everything for tonight's show sorted out including a rather lengthy version of "Saturday Love" by Cherelle and Alexander O'Neal as sampled on the Junior Jack club anthem "My Feeling" back in December 2000. I always thought the remix sounded like a fragment of the Hill Street Blues theme on a continuous loop.

"Wriggling Out Of The Shadow Like A Grey Snake"

My wheeziness is slowly deteriorating although I'd thought it gone after I'd spent an hour in bed at lunchtime. Wasn't exactly the case in my Media Events lecture but Maria was kind enough to give me one of her cherry flavoured Tunes.

Media Events this week looked at how broadcasts put fear and panic into the listeners with the radio version of "War Of The Worlds" being one of the main examples. The radio adapation of the HG Wells novel caused a lot of panic when orginally broadcast in the late 30s as it was done in the style of a genuine news broadcast and those listening believed everything that was happening. This was despite disclaimers at the start and the end of the programme that it was a drama, as the majority of those who complained switched on around halfway through. The concept of spoof in the 1930s wasn't one to be taken lightly.

I'm rather surprised that I don't own Jeff Wayne's musical version despite hearing it in all sorts of places. Not least a techno remix done back in 1989 which appeared to lead the way for the likes of Thunderbirds, Trumpton and Sesame Street to jump the bandwagon. Nobody could have put it better at that time than Lenny Henry.
I may watch the Bewilderness DVD from Bill Bailey tonight, which I'm certain will contain similar humour along with ramblings about weasles.

Orange Intoxication

Pound a Pint was less busy than normal when I arrived there last night but a few of the usual attendees were there including Chris, Pete, Stewart and both the Phils. I didn't drink any booze last night as my throat was still poorly and managed to survive the night on orange Fantas. First years Kat and Charlotte were trying to get Pete to actually talk to fellow resedential assistant Jason as there appears to be some sort of aggro between them although in most of these cases it appeared to be done in a playful manner. I on the the other hand was distracted by their pen tattoos including one saying "I Love Cardies!"

I left at around midnight so as to avoid wheezing but it turns out I wasn't the only one. A couple of familiar faces were being thrown out by the bouncers and I managed to spot a very tipsy Charlotte making a move as well. It took quite a while to get her back as she ended up twisting her ankle just outside Area which meant she walked rather jerkily between there and halls. Another reason for first years to make the most out of halls as one or two people in the second and third years have forgotten the way back to their own houses after large amounts of drink!

The Annual Plague

Who would have thought that Duncan Goodhew was a serial killer? I know it's snide but I'm sure I'm not the only one making that joke in response to the story about the ex-gulf war soldier.

A bit of light relief after what seems to have been another poorly day, and once again it all seems to be spreading round the University. I feel I may be responsible for fellow radio student Ross Powell catching flu which has resulted in co-presenter Paul flying solo on their show tonight. I'm guessing tonight's pound a pint will be pretty sparse as a result of all this, and there's no better time of year for these sorts of illnesses to creep up.

I'm still pondering on whether to have rice or pasta with the remains of my mince from last night. I may go with the rice as the sauce I used in the mince was chilli con carne resulting in a rather strong taste. There's heaps of stuff in my fridge that I still haven't eaten because of my illness and the freezer's always rammed. Although I still have another chilli in there that mum and dad gave to me after Christmas which may come in useful.
If I'm a bit better tomorrow I'll head down to the opticians to see if I can arrange an eye test as for quite a while now nothing has made sense from long distances. The big problem is finding frames that won't lead to a possible ribbing.

Too Much Information

I really shouldn't have got up this morning. I ended up sitting through a Media Technology lecture that went on longer than it should have done and a seminar that barely had any interaction within it at all. I was still very wheezy and drowsy throughout both and I'm certain that when the lecturer was explaining about inventions that paved the way for modern day technology, he referred to one of them as a "twat-writer".
If they were to publish cut down versions of books on the reading list and just gave general explanations on the theories that are present then I'm sure a lot of us would benefit. And why can't things be explained in a way in which we'd be able to understand rather than using long words and detailed theories. I've tried very hard not to use the word "poncey" in that last sentence.

For me it's no good to hear the theories behind methods and areas of media, I have to see (or hear) them in a physical form. That's probably why the only things that I thought were useful from the Introduction To Broadcasting module right at the beginning of the course were the audio clips of "Josh's Diary" and the Kodacolour radio advert that we heard plenty of times last week. If a physical example of a theory was shown beforehand then the explanation would be a more interesting listen.
Then again I don't appear to be having any problems with the Media Events module although it's partly because of Maria Way's irreverent take on certain issues.

If I was taking the Technology module in the third year alongside my dissertation I'd be in agony.

Memory Lapses

Much better night this time round, still have a bit of a cold but I'm sure it will disapear sooner or later. May need to buy some more soothers as I have gone through the entire lot that I've had since the beginning of last semester! I knew they'd come in useful sometime within the year.

One of the rounds on the Krypton Factor was to identify the continuity errors within a short film, and I believe that FTN's showing of the series is an elongated variation of that round. This is because they're showing all the group finals back to back along with the series final rather than after the individual heats and it's evident that they're in the wrong order as Gordon Burns is often heard saying "join us next Monday at 7 for the first heat in Group C...". I've no problem with date or time references but it's a rather peculiar order to show the series.

It was also interesting to see Derek Jameson in the Observation round of last night's show in a spoof edition of "What The Papers Say". The failed newspaper editor seemed to be everywhere in the mid-late 80s including presenting Radio 2's breakfast show. I haven't seen him on television since he foiled a Noel Edmonds gotcha, saying to him "you've gotta get up early in the morning to catch me mate!", so Noel and his team did exactly that at an expensive hotel!

Unplanned Exhaustion

I was back and forth non stop between my flat and RP1 today, mainly because I kept forgetting my mobile everytime I left. Funnily enough however I can't remember ever forgetting my wallet on leaving the flat which contains my Uni pass. Just as I was about to leave after 3pm, Pheobe and Emma the Dry Ice girls arrived to record their show so I stuck around for a bit longer to enjoy their musical offerings. Not to mention their constant photo taking including a rather unpleasant one of me half asleep on the studio floor. I'm starting to feel tired more often in the last couple of days and that certainly doesn't help with me waking up constantly in the middle of the night. I really hope my cold doesn't lead to anything worse although I'd probably recover more quicker in my bed at home rather than my lame excuse for one in halls.

Tonight though I've come up with a temporary cure by divulging in mince and pasta bows and enjoying the delights of FTN with Bullseye and The Krypton Factor. It may be a bright idea to stay up until 12 midnight to make sure that I end up waking up lesser amount of times than last night!

"The Sugar And Soul Show"

Another rotten night in bed again, this time it was because of my flu. This kept on waking me up every hour and I kept thinking I was in weird scenarios once again as if someone I knew from Uni had forced this upon me. No names mentioned of course.
After finally getting some shut eye I was craving for my regular helping of Citizen Soul on Solar Radio with Sandra C and I found out that todays show was to be the last Citizen's Soul Show after three years. This is due to Solar moving to new studios and it appears that they're too far for Sandra.
I had a chat to her on the phone and found out that her husband Kev also went to see Incognito at the Jazz Cafe last week. I also told her that I'd finally be able to get a lie in on Sunday! I'm certainly not the only listener who would be saying the same.

I'm now up in RP1 where everything is rather hectic and not working as they should be working.
Luckily we've solved our little problem with RCS running out of storage space by making sure pre-recorded programmes get deleted as soon as they've gone out. If they could sort out the PCs with Burli and Audition so that they actually play out I'd be more than happy.

"If An Ant Has The Strength Of A Horse..."

I've just finished watching Bill Bailey's "Cosmic Jam" which was recorded back in 1996 and doesn't look at all dated. Some of my favourite jokes included Bill's take on the News At Ten theme by saying it was sinister and he's not wrong. The closing theme as illustrated here (apologies for the dodgy start) must have frightened a generation of younger children around the time as the music seems to signify "Go to bed! Now!" Not the sort of thing I'd want to hear in the middle of the night when least expecting it.

Other highlights of the stand up act included Bill telling the audience about when he used to be in a Jazz band and the organ player tried to adlib on his solo by incorporating Bach's "Tocatta and Fugue" but ended up sounding like the Ski Sunday theme! Funnily enough the name of the theme to that programme is "Pop Goes Bach". There were also tangents about insects and how classical and rock music was inspired by Cockney culture. There's no better comedian who can do nonsense as part of his act and get a good response.
Unfortunately the DVD hasn't really helped me with my cold as my nose is completley snotty and blocked up. I guess I've become a late victim of the Refresher's flu.

Multiple Illnesses

Still recovering although now in place of my sore throat I've now got an annoying cold. I also seem to be having trouble alleviating the taste of the Throatie I had earlier, why cant they use less strong flavours to deal with the pain?

I went into Sainsbury's as planned to get my wares and I also bought a DVD of Bill Bailey's "Cosmic Jam" which I'm hoping will provide light relief for tonight at least. It also contains the director's cut of "Bewilderness" which is certainly enough to keep me occupied for the rest of the weekend. This performer has the ability to turn well known musical compositions on their heads and is definitely someone I'd love to see live. Well I did see him when I went to Buzzcocks but I would loved to be immersed in his random ramblings.

Hopefully I'll be in a better state by tomorrow although I need to buy more Ibuprofen tablets. I'm never prepared to deal with illnesses when needed.

Oral Agony

Last night was beyond terrible. My dodgy throat kept on getting the better of me which kept waking me up just about every hour. I kept on having a recurring dream about having to learn how to help those who were less fortunate and learning how to rebuild a city. Completely twisted I'm sure you'll agree. My voice isn't as raspy as it was yesterday but I can't drink anything fizzy as it will make me feel poorly again and start wheezing.

I haven't eaten anything for the last couple of days either although as I type the Throatie that I'm chewing seems to be clearing the pain despite the sweet itself tasting really rotten. A bit like licorice or sambucca. I'd imagine you have to go through hell to alleviate it in almost the words of an ex British prime minister.
I may head over to Sainsbury's to get some more wares although I may break the bank again and go into Harrow to see if there are any DVDs that take my fancy. Anything to stop me feeling like I want to shoot myself.

The Exploded Mouth

My throat didn't get any better today during the visit to Central to go behind the scenes at GCap. The Halls soothers didn't help at all as they made me feel more drowsier and colder than I should do although my overall temperature seems to react to whatever the room or location temperature is.

As for the GCap visit itself we were given a presentation by Classic FM's Jamie Crick where we found out about the different aims of each station in terms of listeners. For example XFM assumes it's listeners know about the music it plays but Classic FM tends to focus more on the emotional effects of the music on the listener. It was rather embarrasing to find out that Jamie's producer who was also present had looked at this blog whilst researching about the future uses of radio!
After the presentation and Q&A we went for a tour round the many offices and studios around the big building where we popped into the Hit 40 UK studios and found out how you can adapt the desk setting to suit the style of the presenter from anywhere in the building. Something we could heavilly do with on Smoke considering the amount of fiddling about it takes to get Audition to work properly. Our guide was also full of behind the scenes stories such as Planet Rock presenter and radio veteran Nicky Horne, who doesn't like having the mic fader on the far left as opposed to the far right of the desk.
We also saw a few familar (well to me) faces around including Rob Birnie in the Planet Rock studio and Jonathan Miles ex Invicta FM. Not forgetting fellow radio student Lizzie who's now working in the sales department for Planet Rock.

The afternoon was spent going through the brief of our assignment for the Music Radio module where we have to produce a two hour music show from a genre of our choice. I ended up in the "Castle" group having spent the first semester as an "Elephant" and I'm really happy with the people I'm working with. After much deliberation we decided to go with the 60s 70s and 80s format which I'm fine about although the Elephant's rather shockingly went for the soul and funk genre! I'm not too gutted however and the genre we've got isn't too challenging.

For now I may have a quiet weekend in as my throat is absolutely dreadful. It may sound enigmatic but it feels as if I've swallowed a stick of dynamite.

"Pretty Bubbles In The Air"

I know now that it probably wasn't the best idea to head down to the foam party at Area in the condition I'm in. It was certainly vibrant and full of people dressed up not in Speedos but Hawaian shirts and feather boas.
I made sure I only drank soft stuff and my only intoxication of liquid was a half pint of lemonade. By midnight there were enough people dancing for them to switch on the foam machines and oh my, it was just utter chaos.

I managed to surivive two drenchings before accidentally swallowing some of the bubbles which made me start wheezing and I really needed to get out of there. To raise a point from an earlier post I had to be unwell on this of all nights! Hopefully it won't be the last we see of Area getting covered, which tonight I reckon managed to re-decorate the club in a better way than last semester's refurbishment!

Really Poorly

I thought I was getting better about 10 minutes ago. I went over to the radio studios to see the Shuffle Boys do their show in their new Thursday slot and those guys have a great ability to sound knowledgable about the music they play without sounding smug. They even managed to get compliments from the boss along the way! Adam was kind enough to lend me his CD of "The Sound Gallery Vol.1" which they started the show off with and whilst I've probably got most of the tracks already it's definitely a must have for fans of 60s lounge. Similar to in style to the music which acompanied the girl playing noughts and crosses on the BBC all those years ago.

I really felt as if I would be able to go to the foam party, but after walking into my kitchen which is below zero I feel a hell of a lot worse. I'm safe and warm in my bedroom now but if I do go in the end it will probably only be for half an hour as I want to be bright and breezy for the GCap visit tomorrow. I doubt the bubbles will be
the best remedy for my illness.

Terms And Conditions Apply

I'm bloody throaty, I don't know exactly why but I'm also pretty chilly as well as I was so knackered after the radio lecture today which was on the subject of Radio Commercials.

We had a guest called Simon Blaxland who used to work for the COI and in local radio who now runs his own company which specialises in radio commercials, one of the only companies which caters entirely for that medium.
Some of the examples of critically acclamied radio commercials included and ad for Kodacolour cameras featuring the inspired choice of Jimmy Nail as the voiceover and a series of ads for the TA making very good use of the audio-only medium. If they wanted they could use my cough in between "Army" "Be The Best" instead of that gun loading sound effect as I could not stop doing so today even after about a packet full of Halls Soothers. At least I made the room we were in be decorated with a blackcurrent odour.

In the afternoon we were split into groups where we had to devlop an idea for an MFI commercial from a professional client brief. Some groups even recorded their finished pieces, the funniest one being a dig at IKEA featuring a charater called Bjorn coming over to the UK after his business was not going to plan.
Very funny stuff bearing in mind it was thought up within 45 minutes.

I was starting to feel rather poorly towards the end of today and have just woken up from a early evening doze where I've had a gander through the GCap dial in preparation for our visit to there tomorrow. The first one I listened to obviously was Chill which was ideal for my current state although I switched over as soon as Jack Johnson came on. I also gave a few minutes for Classic FM where after today I felt the need to analyse all the ads in my head which is rather worrying. I'm really looking forward to what questions the rest of my group will have in store for the guys at GCap tomorrow, I particuarly want to know what sort of visions the guys have on "theJazz" and whether the public will be turned on to it in the way they hope.

Hopefully for now I'll be in a better enough state for tonights foam party which sounds as if it will have a good turnout. I just hope no one will be wearing Speedos!

Exhaustion (Or The Most Annoying Web Pop-Up)

Very hectic today, I ended up lending my hard drive to Chris and Phil to help them compile their set for the foam party at Area tomorrow. Luckily it was in safe hands and came in very handy for sorting the music on my show tonight as one of the CD players only works out of one speaker for some peculiar reason. As always listening back to it makes things feel so much better than they were in the studio.

Luckily for me Ricky's sent out an e-mail asking people to record their own shows rather than having me do it all the time as it will allow me to have a bit more relaxation and actually put some much needed preparation into my own show rather than worrying about other peoples.
I'm a really bad perfectionist and want everything that's on the station to fulfill their potential. If I was webwise I would certainly make a few changes to the website including that ridiculous gimmick of the audio player going round the screen before you've even had a chance to click on it! I hope Stewart the new web monkey's reading this! If you don't know what I'm talking about click here.

It looks like party central again this weekend as Natasha's having a pyjama party at her place on Friday and there's a gangster party on the Saturday in Flat 42. I doubt I'll be making an effort on the costume side but on providing drinks, no probs. Provided you like Blueberry Breezers.

"White Stuff"

An ideal reason to wrap up warm this morning as it's been snowing overnight. Whilst it's not completely covered it's a very different sight and complements the rather chilly temperatures that we've been having.

I've been having a look at some of the reviews on last nights (and the other two) Incognito performance in the band's official forum and have to agree with what's been written down. I'd love to go again on Friday but I reckon one visit to Central that day will be enough and I don't want to break the bank even further.
I guess now it's back to the trials and tribulations of planning tonight's show and removing the obstacles that are causing problems for the station such as our low storage space on Selector!

The United Nations Of Incognito

A fantastic gig, even without a horn section Bluey and the guys could do no wrong. I met up with Stephen in a nearby pub in Camden where I got to meet his girlfriend Elle say hello to Claire once again who has her sights set on Blues and Soul after her succesful review on the last Cog gig at the Jazz Cafe. It was also good to meet David, one of Stephen's regular listeners who had some interesting stories to tell about Light Of The World performing at a local youth club before they achieved their fame on the Brit Funk scene.

After we'd settled in at the front of the Jazz Cafe stage, Bluey and the band came on and performed "Summer's Ended" from the debut album "Jazz Funk" in respect for the late Paul 'Tubbs' Williams, one of the bands founder members. I liked how Bluey introduced the gig by saying that "up there they wanted to have a jamming session" and how James Brown, Alice Coltrane and Paul 'Tubbs' Williams formed their own act, or along those lines.
Vocalists included Imaani who was on top form on 'Everyday' and the brilliant "As Long As It's You" which always tugs at the heart. Tony Momrelle did justice to "Tin Man" and Joy Rose got the crowd going towards the end of the gig.
This was complemented by the musicians including Matt Cooper the man of a thousand synth voices, Tony Remy on guitar, Francis Hylton on bass and it wasn't a completley brass free set as Trevor Myers came down to perform on trombone in "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing".
And you can't leave out Adam Glasser on the harmonica who added that extra sparkle to the performances.

This certainly wasn't a completely chilled out affair and although I wouldn't want to see them go overall it proves that the band don't need brass all the time in order to sound stunning.

"Such A Good Feeling"

Halfway through a Media Events lecture as I type, the seminar's just after 4 and immediately afterwards I'll be on my way to Camden Town to meet Stephen, Claire and all the others who will be attending tonight's Incognito gig.
The lecture this afternoon was rather interesting, it basically looked about how audiences respond to media events using an early example of the spaghetti trees item from Panorama from April Fool's day 1957. The audience obviously believed the story at the time as it was broadcast on a respectable programme but also because of the way the item was staged and read in a very serious manner from presenter Richard Dimbleby. Whilst the lecture was interesting I felt very guilty thorughout as I'd forgotten to bring my pen with me to make notes!

It will be interesting to see how Bluey and the guys will sound minus a brass section and I'm hoping that this gig won't be too much of a mellow affair. Unfortunately for me it appears that the majority of Incognito's fans seem to prefer the mellower material to the dancey stuff which I what I have always associated the band with ever since seeing them perform "Always There" on Top Of The Pops 16 years ago. This leads to a clip I found on youtube from their Jazz Cafe set last October where I can just about be seen dancing on the bottom left to "Everyday". Luckily I can't be heard singing!

Temporary Escapism

There's nothing better than putting all your bugbears to one side and letting your hair down at Pound a Pint night every Monday. This week it was very crowded and the DJs were spinning quite a few cheesy tracks such as 2 Unlimited, Eiffel 65 and even the Scatman got played. They were quite keen to get us into a frenzy; "any first year students here? (first years cheer) any second years about? (second years cheer) and are there any third years? (third years cheer), go home and do your f****ng dissertations!" Really good stuff.

It all went a bit crazy towards the end as there were a few boy racers near the halls who we tried to avoid before heading up to Pete's flat in premium towers. It was there I started to vent my spleen about certain things which have been irritating me that I can't post on this site but it certainly made me feel better. Unfortunately I seem to have strained my throat again after hollering along to "We Are The Champions" by Queen along with over such delights at the undies so whoever's going to the Cog gig tomorrow won't have to endure me joining in. Without the brass section it will be very difficult to join in with the catchy riffs synomous with tracks such as "Always There" and "Everyday".

Audio Blog-Tired

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More Empty Holes

Very chilly and windy this Monday morning and I'm not down about it at all. It makes a change to be wrapped up warm within it all but by tonight I'd imagine I'll be going out into the rain with withouth a coat as often is the case at pound a pint.

There was another Media Technology lecture in order of the morning although it wasn't really about technology but the poncey ideas made up about it by theorists. We were also divided into our seminar groups where my group was crammed into a tiny room where each week we have to give a presentation on a particular area of media technology. I chose to take the one on mobility which is sort of relevant my obsession with preserving everything and having instant access to it. The sort of things that were discussed in the seminar however were slightly more relevant to technology itself such as companies like Apple enforcing their products on the public and wanting to monopolise people's lifestyles.
This reminded me of a sketch on 2DTV where an animated caricature of Bill Gates was demonstrating "House 2001" with the house disapearing due to an "illegal operation".
I've never had to deal with those sort of error messages since converting to Windows XP which shows that Gates could get something right.

I may be extending my show to two hours from this Wednesday onwards due to more empty gaps being made in the schedule, which I think would be ideal as it really needs to be improved and spaced out a bit more. I could certainly try talking more slowly and may consider writing a script in places as it worked out well for the outside broadcast exercise last week. Ideal timing really as I'll be able to talk about the Incognito gig that's happening tomorrow.

So Much Information, So Little Space

The reading for the Media Events assingment on blackboard is a bloody nightmare, how I'm going to get this stuck in my head by the lecture on Tuesday is beyond me. However it may become more interesting when it gets the Trendy Hendy treatment in the lecture itself so if I'm really lucky I may end up wanting to find out more about how the media caused turning points on the war in Vietnam.
After reading the blog of another first year student, I'm annoyed to find out that David Gauntlett who I had on Media Consumption is also taking a few of the lectures in the Understanding Broadcasting module. I may not have recieved the greatest of marks from him but it would have made the lectures that extra bit more colourful to have him in the first year.

As promised from earlier a selection of IDs for The 80s Team with Tim Pryor sounding rather more authorative than normal.

"Producer's Block"

I wasn't too sure if I was here or there today. Apparently the reason why things aren't going well webwise at Smoke is that there's maintenance work going on with the internet servers all weekend and nobody at the station was informed in advance despite the whole thing being planned a couple of months ago.
We should be back on air properly from tomorrow and it looks as if things will go from strength to strength. If we can come up with stand out ideas that is. Ross T got most of the news team in for a meeting at lunchtime and one of the main tasks is to get a new name for the half hour news programme on a Sunday as most of us agreed that "Smoke Reports" is a bit too formal and not really relating to our target audience.
It's difficult to come up with something that doesn't sound similar in name to Radio 1's Newsbeat although it will be tough to avoid using the word "news" in the title.

Apart from that, I've been pretty busy getting stuff done for other people including some new things for Ina to play with on her 80s show featuring the voice of Tim Pryor of all people! I may get a few examples online later although as funny as Ina can be, I doubt she'll beat Fabian as my favourite German on the radio course!

Party Central

Last night was rather insane, before going to the chav party I popped over to Flat 68 where Chris, Phil and Stewart were providing a little do. Phil as always seemed to have a habit of messing about with any inaminate object he could find including whoopee cushions, water pistols and even a toy gun.
After attempting to breakdance to Daft Punk I headed over to the chav party where loads of people had made an effort on the dress code! Jess, Linzi and Ashlea had a best dressed contest running throughout the night where the winner who's name I can't remember looked rather similar to Catherine Tate although she said she bore resemblance to Lily Allen. Some of the other guests in tracksuits were both the Pippas, Maz and Gab who will be tieing the knot in a few months and even Joey stuck around despite having to be up early for work by 3am. The highlight for me had to be Linzi's antics when she had a bit too much to drink and was saying how much she loved celebrity autobiographies which happens to be her choice of dissertaition topic.

By the time I got back to the flat there was even a party in my own kitchen by luckily I was tired enough to sleep through it. It may be an idea to indulge in a Halls soother before heading out today.

Out Go The Turntables

I had a lie in this morning for a change after the antics at Proud last night. Then again I would have hated to be stranded after closing time in Camden so it's just as well I got the tube at midnight.

I headed up to the radio studios only to find that the stream for Smoke had buggered up. Luckily Tim one of the technicians was in helping out with the MA Students so this was sorted by the afternoon. I was also in the studios when he removed the vinyl decks which I'm rather gutted about as I didn't know that he actually owned the needles for them that I thought kept getting stolen. I'm not too downhearted as I hardly own that much vinyl.
I've realised that it's definitley not worth doing a masters or PG Diploma after this course as the MA's were being trained on Audition and had to edit the Star Trek feature exercise that we did in the first year!

I also had some spare time to get a few extra things done including another new promo for my soul show in time for it's move to Wednesdays next week. You can hear the result here although it's not too different from the last one. Now I'd best go and get the Red Russians for tonight!

"With A Little Bit Of Luck"

...I made it past the Nightbus. Just arrived back from the weird goings on at Jo's birthday do at the Proud club near Camden of which the interior reminded most of us of a scout hut.
There were also a few beds, yes beds in their which people could lounge on but only if they paid £250 in advance. That seemed like complete rubbish especially as they were easy to get on to and Joey, Spence and Gary her boyfriend ended up occupying them for most of the evening.

The drinks on offer were appalling, I ended up drinking only two glasses of Vodka mixed with lemonade and lime, and Lamby at her naughtiest decided to mix a shot with a cranberry drink. I wondered which she was offering a sip to everyone resulting in negative reactions.
It was nice to meet a few new people including Jo's sister and ended up trying to follow the fast moving spotlight in the disco room itself so I guess I'd drunken enough in order to do so.
How I managed to get the almost last tube back to Northwick Park is another thing but tomorrow night has the advantage of the Chav party not too far from the Uni in terms of distance.

The Blamires Basement

This afternoon's O/B exercise went more smoother in terms of technicality and was overall enjoyable. I took the presenter role for our programme "Blamires's Basement" and despite a rather speedy start I think it went really well as a whole. I've put up most of my links from the show here which is probably the closest I'll get to being Jo Whiley but I'm happy with what we achieved despite having only two hours to prepare.
It was a good learning exercise to present from the booth as opposed to the studio itself despite needing to head to the loo halfway through the show! I'm hoping to have some sort of on air role when we do our asessed shows but can't understand why the people like Steve and Ricky have shying away from the mic in when they've got ideal radio voices. I guess the love the power of ordering people about.

Quite a busy weekend in terms of partying, I'm heading up to Camden for Jo's 21st birthday night out and tomorrow there's the Chav party at Jess and Linzi's. A crate of Red Russian will be at the top of my shopping list tomorrow.

One Way Communication

Halfway through today and we've done the first part of the outside broadcast exercise. This has inolved our class being split into two groups where one sorts out the studio operation and the other is on the O/B itself to put together a thirty minute show.

The group I was in this morning went to the live rooms in the Commercial Music department of the Harrow Campus in a very long underground corridor. We had a fantastic singer/piano player who did two of her songs for us, very similar in style to Tori Amos or in her own words "Kate Bush having a fight with a piano at a jazz club".
We weren't without our technical flaws however as the matrix between the live room and the radio studios hadn't been set up properly and we only managed to get the feed working two minutes into the programme itself. Ina our producer did a great job however and kept relaxed throughout the muddles.

My group are in the studio this afternoon and I may attempt to take a role I've never done before in a practical module as it's just a practise exercise. Hopefully it won't start to get too steamy.

The Large Sparse Area

Pretty mudane night really, after I'd done my radio show I stopped off at my flat for a couple of hours before heading up to Area and it was pretty dead in there despite them playing dance music at full blast. There were one or two people I knew there, Goodlass, Marc, Seb, Jon and Matt but I decided to head back as I felt pretty tired before leaving the flat and didn't want to make things any worse.

It appears that just about everyone's going to Jo's 21st birthday do in Camden tomorrow although I hope there won't be any more fallen trees slowing down the tubes in these breezy conditions. I'm hoping it will be more of a worthy night out and it happens to be my first visit this year into Central funnily enough. Yeah baby!

Audio Blog: Two For The Price Of One!

13:56

17:05

Waking Up To A Near Nightmare

Oooh, I had a bit of a nervous start after getting up when the dreaded blue error message screen came on my laptop shutting the machine down after plugging my external hard drive in. Luckily it's working as normal now but I think I deserved that after being an absolute gimp at Bar Footsie last night at the Undercroft. I may as well use the spare time I've got now to get tonight's show prepared, the last Thursday one nontheless as I'm moving back to Wednesday's next week swapping with Adam and Zo from the Shuffle show.

Last night's show saw the duo adapting the roles of Trinny and Suzannah introducing a selection of songs with the theme of clothing items including a very witty track by Richard Thomas, one of the co-writers of Jerry Springer The Opera involving the instructions of a Corby Trouser Press sung by an opera singer. As an aside Adam mentioned to me that London community station Resonance FM needs £60,000 by August to keep the station going and I maybe very tempted to donate provided I don't break the bank. I need to give Matthew's show on Sunday evenings a listen actually, there's so many bizarre topics covered from what I've heard.

I'm a little nervous about the Music Radio module that we're starting as I'm worried about group work and certain members either getting too big for their boots and acting like show ponies. That's how I felt about a few people in the magazine programme and find it very difficult to draw the line when people who know each other better start making little in jokes and I get bollocked when I start mucking about in a similar manner. I've heard things about students in the year above me in similar situations with their co-workers to the point of them getting depressed. For now though it's probably best to leave the backstabing until the end of the module.

Sloshed

It was partly the responsiblity of a CMP lecturer. I managed to agree with Adam from the Shuffle show to switch slots from Thursday to Wednesday on Smoke and after the show tonight we decided to head down to the Undercroft. This is where things got a bit crazy as I decided to overindulge in too many VKs at decreased prices as it was Bar Footsie where the prices of drinks could go up and down and I got completely wasted.

Luckily Phil and Sam decided to escort me back to my flat before things got too raucous and I've resorted to listening to Everyday by Incognito on my laptop at full blast as I couldn't get to plug my hard drive into the computer playing the music at the Undercroft. I've also resorted to reheating the mince and pasta from last night as I'm that sloshed and tomorrow I'm going to get a lot of ribbing in the radio lecture. Hopefully I'll be able to get Wonderwall burned onto a CD for Matthew. Makes my audio blog posts seem more listenable.

Audio Blog - Babbleonic

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Laughter Without The Booze

A very interesting evening, Martin and Joe came in to record this weeks edition of "The Pits" where I discovered Martin owned a CD soundtrack of the children's animated series "Charlie Chalk" and played one of the tracks on the show! I'd no idea there was actually a tie-in CD released around the same time and I was rather keen to have a listen to the rest of the tracks on there, with songs by characters such as Lewis T Duck and Mary the Hover Fairy.
I seem to remember on a visit to Venice a few years ago at the film festival when a few of us made up a song about Tom Cruise to the Charlie Chalk theme which went subsitituted the characters name with "Tiny Tom". Very witty stuff at the time.

This leads on to the comedy night at the Undercroft which I went to later on and was sat very near the performing area with Chris, Phil and Stewart where we all got our fair share of stick. In my case it was my Happy Mondays t-shirt that got my share of the ribbing but Shappi the compere was kind enough to give me £1.05 that she found in the bar jukebox at the end of proceedings! Not bad considering it was free to get in.

The acts themselves were rather funny as well with main act Alistair Barrie going down really well.
This was partly due to two "hoodies" walking in halfway through whose names were Warren and Terry and they ended up becoming the stars of the night along with rather naughty jokes about airport security and a few gags about the racism in the Big Brother house from Shappi.
The funniest part for me being the juvenile type was when the first act took the piss out of two girls walking out early on in the set by muttering "lesbians" just after they disapeared. You can't beat stroppy humour.

Audio Blog: The Uni Obstacle Course

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Audio Blog: Killing Time

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"I Need A Heeeerooo"

Towards the end our night at the Undercroft I and many others were screeching along to Bonnie Tyler and as a result I've ended up sounding like her.
Overall it was a very good night and so good to see plenty of faces including the two Emmas, Stevie who's returned from Edinburgh and Lamby who was feisty as ever.
It was a bit of a shaky start to proceedings as I arrived five minutes before I was meant to start only to find that the equipment hadn't been set up. This meant having to work with just one CD player in the first half of my set and there were no headphones with the mixing desk meaning that we had to use my walkman headphones for part of the night before nicking a pair from the radio studios.

I ended up heading over to Pete's flat with Chris and Stewart where we were later joined by Phil, Cat, Charlotte and Sam. I managed to find out about Phil's outspoken behaviour and Sam's honest opinions about a few of her ex-colleagues at 2-Ten FM in Reading. That's just about all the clean subjects I can post about on here. I'm not sure if it's worth going to bed now as I plan to have another early start in the radio studios this morning but it's probably just as well as I would have been woken by a text message from Ross G congratulating us on our efforts for tonight resulting in the Undercroft being at it's most busiest this year! Surprisingly there wasn't a mosh pit in sight!

Returning To Form

I was up pretty early as planned in the radio studios getting various things organised. It's probably the only time I can be bothered to have the radio switched on as there's a DAB radio and was entertained in some way or other by the antics of Chris Moyles who's started a campaign to get "Honey To The Bee" by Billie into the charts under the new chart download rules.
This was followed by the first of this semester's lectures in Media Technology in what Tudor described as the equivalent of the Magic Roundabout theme; the same points being made over and over again. His words, not mine.

I managed to get my haircut sorted out and will probably head up to the studios again pretty soon to burn the CDs for my spot at the Undercroft night which happens to be the first one of the night at 7pm. I've made sure I've got more than an hours worth of material as I have a habit of playing tracks at a higher or lower pitch in order to beatmatch. Then again that's an important skill of nightlclub DJing we can't have any dead air. Well not in aural sense anyway.

Back On Track

Well I've managed to find out the timetable for my modules this semester via the SRS web function of the Uni website so it looks as if my agenda's been set.
The afternoon was spent waiting for a studio to become available so the Dry Ice girls could record their show for tomorrow night. This was due to live shows coming out from 6 and some Chinese students hogging 5 despite not using any of the equipment.
The time was passed with Tudor popping in and telling us about a few of his mates at uni in Staffordshire and how they ended up with a few security guards ramming in there becuase of a few people causing a bit of un called for chaos.

It may be a pretty early start tomorrow as I need to get a few things dubbed in the radio studios a couple of hours before lectures start as I find their computers more reliable than my laptop when it comes to getting things recorded. However I've got my playlist sorted for tomorrow at the Undercroft so I'll get a bit of shut eye until then.

Lack Of Appetite

The Sainsbury's in Kenton seems to be the bane of most of the students here on the Harrow Campus. Not least for me as I brought a granary loaf amongst a few other wares and despite it being fresh for a change I didn't think it was that delicious. I've never been turned on by any sandwich fillings, in fact I'd probably feel queasy if I was to consume them.
I arrived at the studios to get a few more CDs burnt only to find that the posters from yesterday were still there. Luckily Chris arrived to collect them and the Blu tack and with Pete's magical key that allows acess into any room in halls, they should be covering many a kitchen window.

One thing that's baffling me is where on earth are the theory lectures that are meant to start this week taking place? There's been no information on Blackboard and I haven't recieved any e-mails to inform me on room details. Well for the modules I'm doing anyway. The good news however is that there aren't any evening lectures this semester.
I'd imagine that the third year theory modules are going to be a bugger to sort out if this inconsistency continues.

The Bottomless Pit

Some light amusement has been the order for tonight as I managed to see Marcus Brigstocke disposing of his abominations into Room 101. I understand that this is Paul Merton's final series as the host although he seems to let everything into Room 101 and is a lot less firmer than Nick Hancock especially when resorting to asking the audience if they want an item be dumped inside.

Quite a few of Marcus's choices were particuarly derserving especially David Blaine but one of the more bizarre choices was grammar police, the so called know it alls on elocution. This gave an excuse to show clips of Wordy, a puppet form the BBC's educational programme Look and Read. This was a weird floaty orange character covered in letters who was very popular with most of the people I was with at primary school. It's rather shocking to realise that he was voiced by none other than Charles Collingwood, better known either as Brian Aldridge from the Archers, or from his brief spell with Noel Edmonds as the scorer on Telly Addicts.

If someone needs a visit from the grammar police then I'm sure David Blaine would be the ultimate victim. God knows how much it cost him at the car park whilst in that transparent box.

Work Never Ends

The Media Consumption essay is now complete, I managed to get it done this morning although I went through it again this evening checking for typos and other gramatical errors that can't be found by Microsoft Word. In between that I was going through the material from the last five days of Refresher's Week and have managed to edit some of the more entertaining moments into a fifteen minute podcast which should be added to the site by tomorrow.
The good news is that it doesn't contain me in it.

I imagine this means that I can get back to normal life although to be honest nothings really that different it's just that I don't have the pressures of deadlines hanging over me whilst I do my everyday exploits. For now.
Actually there are a few things I need to sort out, my setlist for Monday at the Undercroft. I've been put on between 7pm till 8 so I'm sure to have a good audience. And we managed to sort out the typos on the posters for the event, which have been put up around campus and in as many halls kitchens as possible.

"Not A Real Doctor"

Today was slightly better in the surroundings of M Block. There weren't that many of us in but it was a rather nice atmosphere and there was plenty to be getting on with. I made an appearance on Smoke Signal as "Doctor Robin" where I was asked to give my alleged expert advice on Steve's "man flu" and whether he was suffering from that or bird flu. Show producer James made an appearance on just about every show either as presenter or newsreader which proves a point that I'm not the only one who gives a large amount of dedication to the goings on at Smoke. On the subject of dedication it's best to spare a thought for a certain Chris Chilvers who was sent on an errand to Central to get our posters for Monday's Undercroft night only to find that they said September on them and not January!

We recieved our marks for our magazine shows and I managed to get 67% for all the backtiming and backstabbing that I had to cope with throughout our "Weekend Treatment" programme last semester. The other group who did the London what's on show got the higher mark out of the two but I'm not bitter as it's the sort of show I would have preferred to have worked on and was more to my interests.
I'd imagine tomorrow's more of the same working on my essay and getting stuff sorted in M-Block where Ricky's presenting the first chart countdown on Smoke between 12 and 3. It's definitely a better time slot than the proposed 4-7 slot on a Sunday as we won't have much in the name of competition! "It's the only chart that counts!"

The Pain Decreases

It looks as if the saltwater and ibuprofen's done it's job and I'm a tiny bit better. As I've been up for quite a while I've spent a bit more time getting my media consumption essay up to just over halfway regardless on whether it makes any sense or not. Still unsure as to whether I'll head up to campus this morning as I haven't really enjoyed the excitement or lack of from Refreshers Week.
However I've found some light relief which has resulted possibly in me waking the up the rest of the flat.
If you've ever wondered what sort of things really come out of Pingu's mouth then this extract contains a translation not for the over sensitive.

The Pain Increases

I'm feeling even worse now, my left tooth next to the empty one feels swollen and is causing irritating pain. I've had a look at the paper that contains the possible side effects which tells me it's natural for this sort of thing to happen and I've just taken an Ibuprofen tablet with salt water.
This isn't helped by having constant nightmares about the worse possible scenarios that could happen to me whilst I'm still here and there's every opportunity for this to happen.
I can't pretend to like things that everyone else does, I don't eat the same meals, drink the same drinks, can't remember the last time I went to the pictures, in short I don't think I'm cut out to be here.

Everything just has to be ordinary and dry these days, especially in radio which is the idea I've got after reading an article in this weeks Radio Times. This looks at how the radio presenter has changed through innovators such as Russell Brand and Dermot O'Leary who are just themeselves on air rather resorting to dreadful puns and meaningless info in between records. I'm slowly being converted into Russell Brand after seeing him on Channel 4's Big Fat Quiz Of The Year over the festive period although how long this will last I'm not too sure.

The Premium Towers

An insight into the antics of the first year radio students here, three of them appear in this mimed rendition of Goldie Lookin Chain's "Guns Don't Kill People, Rappers Do". Phil comes across as the funniest larking about in the background although it's not exactly the most mature idea to mess about with plastic a plastic bag covering the head. There's also a few other offerings on the site including Justin Timberlake's "My Love" and "Amazed" by Lonestar.

The show went well and I felt was a good start to 2007 particularly with the Mistura track kicking off proceedings. One to play in the set on Monday if that goes ahead. I'm still feeling rather unsure and nervous about the rest of the semester and feel that I may have outstayed my welcome in other areas of Uni. I hope nobody takes offence at this but it's probably since Ashlee went back to Australia that things have slowly started to go downhill. Uni life is suffering from a lack of playful behaviour and antics that result in incidents like the one below.


I'm sure that's the last photograph I had taken with me smiling in it.

Lifting Spirits

Everything's dead in the radio rooms so I've decided to head back over to the flat a couple of hours before tonight's show. Our two guests who were meant to be guest hosting the 5-6 slot dropped out an hour before airtime and I appear to be the the only live person going out tonight. Luckily I've sorted out the tracklisting in advance and have a bit of extra time to sort out the details of the "Soulspots".

As news editor Ross T's hosting a show between 6 and 7 Ricky stepped in to do the news and he's not too bad actually, is there anything he can't do on the wireless? Very confident sounding.
We've almost managed to sort out our DJ lineup for the Undercroft night next Monday. As things stand I'm on pretty early at 7pm and have a rough idea on what I want to play but may be able to get away with a few obscurities as the place might not exactly be heaving at that time. Completely different story this time last year as everyone seemed to pack the place out at 7 due to the 11pm closing time.
Then again it's easier for me to have a good time when you can actually hear what people are without being drowned out by the loud music in there.

Tidier Domains

Last night was a nightmare as the fire alarms went off at two this morning thanks to the Chinese person in my flat letting a few things burn in our kitchen. However it appears somethings paid off from it as the mess from the sink mainly of his responsibility due to the amount of dirty noodles has been cleared out. That makes me feel better that we managed to clear the clutter from my room when dad came earlier today as it feels a lot more spacious. I was also lucky enough to get a bottle of bleach from first year radio students Phil and Sam which they attempted to give away as part of their "Reduced To Clear" competition on their show last night.

At the moment I'm sorting out the music for my first soul show of 07 on Smoke and I'm liking the cover of "God Bless The Child" by Al Jarreau and George Benson with a female vocalist who I don't know the name of. Not really a song I've been a great fan of but this has a nice relaxed down to earth touch. Summer appears to have arrived early.
Hopefully everyone else will be in the same mood as we had to carry Ali into the studio for the show yesterday as she was so knackered. This wasn't helped by co-presenter Steve wanting to do the first half of the show on his mobile whilst handing in a module change form to the undergrad office. Everyone here has their eccentricities. (Does that word even exist?)

Drowsiness

Well I've made it, the pains after the teeth removal weren't excruciating but my tounge certainly feels an awful lot larger. I'm not allowed to drink any alcohol for the next 24 hours and to get plenty of sleep. For most of this week however I'm trying to get up extra earlier to go to the library in hope of completing my media consumption essay. Luckily I've got a few books near my bedside which should lend an extra hand although when Dad came over to sort my room out I wasn't too keen on having them moved to my shelf. Mainly becuase I can never be bothered to move from my bed to my shelf and in a very tiny room for goodness sake!

I don't think that this will put a stop to the proceedings on air tomorrow as I'm doing two shows, an hour loung request show and the first soul show of the year, where I think I may include the duet between George Benson and Al Jarreau as my featured album for January. If I can download the tracks I want off iTunes without Digital Village messing up.

Deprivation

I'm suffering really badly this morning, I'm not allowed to eat or drink anything for 6 hours prior to my dental appointment and the internet is switching on and off constantly.
On the plus side I've managed to get some more books out of the library to help me with my Media Consumption essay and have had a chance to listen back to my show from yesterday and those microphones do need sorting out. They seem to be able to pick up any sort of noises and rattling but I guess they should be working fine now as other people with more technical knowledge have occupied Studio 6 after I was in there.

I still need to sort out my theory modules for this semester as I'm meant to be doing Broadcasting and Society although I have Media Technology listed in the same place, which is the module I chose to take until they selfishly decided to move Broadcasting and Society from the last semester to this one. Hopefully it shouldn't be too much anxiety and nowhere near the anxiety I will probably be in after I have my deadly denture removed.

Shades Of Blue

I've just read a Myspace bulletin about the Incognito gig at the Jazz Cafe in a few weeks and it looks set to contain plenty of new surprises. The band will be performing in a new line up, the first without a horn section in over 15 years and a smaller band with guest performer Gareth Lockrane on flute. Having been to many a Cog gig since moving to London I'm really looking forward to hearing what the new band lineup have to offer and Bluey's promised old favourites with a new twist as well as classic Cog tracks that haven't made it to the live stage before.
Tony Remy and his talking guitar will also be there and Imaani, Joy Rose and Tony Momrelle will be on vocals once again.
Not forgetting the man of a thousand synth voices Matt Cooper on keys.

In the meantime I had to upload this, a re-working of a classic Tommy Vance jingle for Tudor Rock which resulted in many of us (especially the host) in stitches. Rather appropriate as Ed's doing TV here at Westminster along with Ross G who did the voice for this monstrosity.

A Sleepless Night?

Tomorrow I will be in absolute despair, it's not the actual dentist appointment I'm worried about but the side effects afterwards. I'm just hoping the pain won't be to the extent of which I'm paralysed.

The rest of the day's been fun however Pippa C and Hannah from the SU shop presented for a hour today which included their rendition of "A Whole New World" from Aladdin! That's probably the first time I've heard that song without breaking down.
After having a few problems with the exact time markers I managed to get tonight's pre recorded shows scheduled leaving Tudor to soldier on with his two hour rock show. I'm listening back at the flat for what seems like the first time in ages but as we've got access to Studio 6 for the rest of the week now we don't have to go through all the trouble of switching studios. I'm having second thoughts now however as Digital Village is doing what it appears to do worst by disconnecting every three minutes.

I'm also unsure what to use as my visual item for my Media Consumption essay and may resort to an Excel diagram if worst comes to the worst. The essay itself is to answer the question on whether new media is redefining media audiences.
I've always wondered if anyone's actually sumbitted an essay that just contains the word "yes" or "no" to any of the closed question titles.

Controlled Chaos

Today's been a bit more relaxed as we've got back Studio 6 for transmission today and it looks to be available for most of tomorrow as well.
Lunchtime got rather hectic though, as I spent lunchtime along with Chris, Phil, Pete, Sam and Ross G going round halls giving away our Smoke Radio calendars. Many of the flats we went into hadn't bothered to take their Christmas decorations down and were made up of a variety of odours not all that pleasant.

A few of us wrangled our way into the studio for my first request show of this week where we recieved a few anoynmous emails from an individual known as "Bob Ob Law". I also decided have a dig at the rather dodgy haircuts of those in the room in me despite the fact that I need one myself. I'm hoping that Thursday will be more of the same if the side effects of tomorrow aren't still in play. I may have to sort the playlist out for Thursday's soul show tonight if I'm in agony tomorrow. Then again it will hopefully be the last of the oral pains that have handicapped me throughout this disaster of an autumn semester.

Lozenges Anyone?

Not a good start to today, I'm a bit throaty despite not making a great deal of noise at the Underpants last night. This didn't put me off going into the library to work on my Media Consumption essay now up to around 600 words. It was made extra easier by the library computer records being down due to upgrades which meant I had to search for the books by instinct so I'm hoping by tomorrow the search engines will be working properly as advertised. Then again I'd imagine most of the books I need will already be taken anyway and I don't want to spend any more money buying the books I need just for this assignment.

Having said that I got my loan through yesterday, on time this time round although I've got to pay my share of the rent for when my dad arrives tomorrow at my dental appointment.
I really hope that the pain afterwards doesn't last for too long so this is going to be a really tough fight. Especially as I'm on air twice the day after! I reckon I'll be in a wheelchair by the end of this course if things continue this way.

Easily Distracted

I'm feeling no motivation to work on my Media Consumption essay that's due in Monday week despite having a good night at the first pound a pint of the year. 2500 words and a "visual element" this is a very demanding task although with David Gauntlett I'd imagine any sort of visual aid will be acceptable with himself using Lego to illustrate his points on how we consume media.

As for the antics at the Undercroft it seems that Mum and Dad made the right choice of present as my new t-shirt was welecomed by most of the people who turned up. However it wasn't as visually attractive as first year student Stewart's t-shirt with a sound reactive graphic equaliser which lit up in response to loud noise prompting Pippa C to scream loudly at it constantly in order to light it up completely! After closing time myself Stewart, Chris and Phil went over to Pete's flat in the premium block where we went through his ever extensive iTunes playlist which lead to playing obcure tracks by 3T, A1, Mark Morrison and other long forgotten artists which caught the attention of many passers by.

Not worth going to bed really is it?

Many Holes To Fill

Although it's been good fun I've been having second thoughts about the week of programming for Freshers Week on Smoke due to quite a few absent people. This is mainly becuase of people not returning until lectures start next week and this has meant a few shows in the evening have had to be extended to two hours, mine probably being one of them. Tonight was good fun however, Ross Powell with the help of Poulterguiest managed to pull off a two hour Live Variety Show featuring the rather quirky inclusion of Bill Bailey's Hokey Cokey done in the style of Kraftewerk.

We also got Tudor on to tell us about his bargain basement travel arrangements for the Adastreia gig in Poole which cost him £2 in total from London to Poole on a coach. And also about crowd surfing, literally on actual surfboards!
Pretty much the same tomorrow really I'm doing the Request Show between 2 and 3 with the added bonus of Edward filming me in action. God knows how we'll all fit into studio 4, Smoke Radio's equivalent of the Broom Cupboard.

It Was All Going So Well...

Due to a miscommunciation we've had to move the studios as the PGdip students have snatched access from us for the whole week. This has resulted in all the daytime shows coming from Studio 4 and as I've never presented from there before tomorrow's going to be a challenge as the desk is set up differently and the faders (or sliders as some people refer to in the industry) are smaller and very loose.
What's also annoying is that we don't have reliable telephone equipment in studio 4 which has meant outside broadcasts have had to be dropped. However as Studio 6 tends to be the one not used as much by the PGdips we take every opportunity to nab it off them at all costs. Another hinderance which goes to show that when it comes to organisation, Westminister University is appalling.

This hasn't dampened spirits overall and life goes on I guess. Stay classy!

Refreshers Rundown

Everything's just about set for us to go back live on air for Smoke Radio's refresher's week. And the scoops keep on coming, we've sent Chris, one of the first years to get all the insider info from today's FA Cup draw and Steve and the team have been trying to get hold of one of the Soapstar Superstar contestants who is an ex actress from Hollyoaks which only Steve and surprisingly Tudor have heard of.

Speaking of which Ed's doing a two hour show tomorrow which looks set to go strong and I'm looking forward to what some of our special guests have to offer including bar manager Chris and SU activities manager Sarah Lefley being given their own shows for this week!
So far everything's sounding really good and it looks set to continue that way until we try to set up Scoopy to work!
Looking forward to getting a few down me by the end of tonight at the first Pound A Pint of 07.

Moments Of Truth

Tommorow looks set to be an early start as I need to give Steve a hand with return of one his features "It Only Takes A Minute Girl". Whether they'll get any girls to play is another story but I'm hoping that sometime within this week co-presenter Ali will be put on the spot! Luckily being male prevents me from taking part although we bent the rules last time the game was played on our Smoke Aid day by allowing Tom Farthing to talk for a minute on Manicures but it ended up being about anal fluids!

The rest of the night has been spent watching the delights of Ftn and the contestants on one of tonight's editions of Bullseye managed to lose the 101 gamble and were shown the infamous speedboat!
It's nowhere near as bad as a gameshow presented by Cilla Black in the late 90s called "The Moment of Truth" where families were shown an array of expensive prizes but could risk losing them if the nominated member failed an endurance task. This was particuarly cruel for the younger children so the options for the parents would be to win the prize or be hated by their children for the rest of their life! Probably not the intention but the beginning of the array of "nasty" gameshows that were to infultrate throught the noughties.

For now though I'd best get some shut eye which won't be too much of a task knowing that my News critical report has been sent succesfully to Charles Carroll. I'm in for a tounge lashing.

RIP Magnus Magnusson 1929-2007

Sudden Preparation

The preparation for Refresher's Week really is in full swing now with Ricky , Ross G and Ross T all present in the radio rooms this morning. As always work has certainly not escaped me as I've been sorting out the music promos and getting various voices recorded to promote our sparkling selection of shows for the next semester. First year students Chris and Phil (Harris) were also present sorting out the music to be scheduled and clearing out the heavy amount of tracks by Alanis Morrisette and The Beautiful South which always seem to go out consecutively. Liking some of the new tracks we've got particuarly "Grace Kelly" by Mika who's one to watch for this year.

Ross G announced that we've got another night at the Undercroft on the 15th of this month which I hope to be DJing at for the second time. I actually get more excitement from that than I do presenting as you have to make sure everything runs consistently and it's good fun to beatmatch all the tracks with the pitch control. However whether we'll get the rest of Harrow to know about it remains questionable if Ross G and Ross T continue to argue about what the posters advertising the event should look like!

Overall it's all looking swell.

Many Empty Holes

Last night's Krypton Factor on Ftn was a treat as they were repeating the 1987 series which included a Granada frontcap at the beginning! The response round was different to the flight simulator that most people my age would be familiar with, an even complicated set up involving a weird excercise bike mechanism followed by a Simon esque light response game in which contestants had to correspond with flashing lights on a video wall. Timeless I'm sure you'll agree.

Right now I'm making the finishing touches to the critical report for the magazine show before heading up to the radio studios where Ricky should be if his note from Matthew will get him past the petty porters. I'm hoping this week will go well as there are a few absences in the schedule and I'm hoping that these won't be increased after I get my deadly dentures removed on Wednesday.
Will be good to start exhausting myself again as the case normally turns out to be.

"Take Yer Time, There's No Rush"

My agenda for tonight's almost set as Ftn are showing double bills of both Bullseye and The Krypton Factor! Whilst Bullseye for many people was a staple of many an 80s Sunday teatime I always used to be scared when Bully would bellow at the bottom of the screen when a contestant ran out of time! It may have been because it often came after a long length of silence but I found it rather intimidating to see a live action animation within real images on the television. Nowadays it's rather hilarious to see what the show was like and I would love a pound for the amount of times a contestant has refused to gamble by saying "We've had a wonderful day Jim".

The Krypton Factor brings back more fonder memories apart from the final series when they tried to emulate Gladiators with an indoor assualt course! I always found it amusing when presenter Gordon Burns in the first round would always respond to an incorrect answer by saying "wrong" in a very stern manner. Nowadays Gordon's popular with viewers in Lancashire with viewers of the BBC's North West Tonight and it's made me realise that London doesn't really have any established figures to present their local news programme. Well to be honest it pretty much the same when I lived in London at an earlier age as LWT had Frank Bough presenting their Friday night news magazine programme 6 O'Clock Live and at the time I had no idea of his exploits with drugs and women's clothing that had him demoted to that presenting role from the bright lights of Breakfast Time.

It's probably just as well that I'm doing the course in 2007 and not 1989 as I don't think I would be welcomed for having a few drinks before going live on air. Then again the very few listeners wouldn't really be that fussed.

When Will Everyone Wake Up?

It's essentially dead on the Harrow Campus and there's all sorts to get done by Monday. I've completed the critical report for the News programmes we did and just need to get the Magazine one done but I can never work on two assignments one after the other at one time.
It doesn't really help that the radio studios are bolted as well but I imagine on Monday it will be buzzing. It would be nice to know what's going on however and I'm glad that many of the first year students have kept Smoke Radio alive by embedding it onto their Myspaces!

I was lucky enough to see John Bardon and Jocelyn Brown give a rendition of "Always There" on last nights Just The Two Of Us which was utterly bizarre but entertaining at the same time. I've probably underestimated how popular that song actually is but to have it done by one of the Eastenders actors has to be one of the best performances I've seen this year with John adding an authoritive tone to the song! Here's hoping the duo make a surprise appearance at the Jazz Cafe in a few weeks especially as I've never seen Jocelyn perform in the flesh before.

Far From Modern

I made my way into Central and found one of the books I was looking for which helped me to get my propoganda essay done and dusted with. I've also made a start on my Media Consumption essay due for submition by Monday week which I hope won't be hindered by my dental appointment next week. As long as I get a doctor's note at least it shouldn't be too much of a struggle.

I've finally found excuse to start using my Freeview box as Ftn have started repeating the Crystal Maze nightly! The timing couldn't be better really considering the obsession with the series shared by a few of the TV students on campus. Interesting considering they used to record the show not too far from here in North Weald, home to many an automatic lock-in.
I've also indulged in an offering from Central South, a Sheena Easton Special from Thames Television produced around 1982/1983. You very rarely get pop stars of today having their own one off TV specials and no, live concerts don't count. This really sums up what defined light entertainment in the 70s and 80s and I'm rather pleased that a few adverts are included too. Who would have thought Birdseye's range extended to bakery products?

As for the show itself songs performed by the bonny Scot include "Modern Girl", Bond theme "For Your Eyes Only" although I don't understand why "Morning Train" has been relegated to an instrumental version in the closing credits. Which reminds me, I'm sure I have an easy listening instrumental version of that song used by the BBC over it's programme menus from the early 80s. I'm sure I'll find a way to resurrect it in the next 18 months of the radio course.

Access All Areas

As is the case most of the time, I was up pretty early to get the train back to London which was a hassle free journey really, save from the pettiness of South Eastern Trains refusing to accept cheap returns, travelcards etc on the fast service from Canterbury to London before 9am.
However I may as well make use of the travelcard while it's intact for the rest of the day and will be heading into Central to get those important books to help me write the rest of my propoganda essay which is about halfway done.

Also I need to get the IDs for Refreshers Week sorted as well although I doubt it will be demanding as Freshers Week was. There aren't that many new tracks around to make new sweepers, the only two around which stand out for me anyway are the latest one from Amy Winehouse and Eric Prydz's take on Pink Floyd. I think a few of us need to realise that we can't be hip all the time and I'm certainly one of those who helps to prove that on the station! The big question is will my dental appointment on Wednesday render me "dead"? Well painful in a way that would have me wishing I was dead.

Not to worry as long as I don't get any more dried fruit in the most painful areas I'll be fine.

Dirty Money

I headed into Canterbury this morning to spend my other Virgin voucher to avoid having to go into Central London to spend it due to a lack of Virgin stores around the Harrow area. Ironic really as if the Waterstones formerly Ottakars in Harrow doesn't have any of the books I need to help me with my propaganda essay then I may end up going to Central after all.
I managed to get a few more DVD-Rs which I'm certain will last me a whole year with the ones I've already brought and a copy of "The Lost Boys", the only horror movie I've really taken a liking too. Corey Haim who plays the part of Sam doesn't appear to have aged at all after seeing him being interviewed in one of the extra features and its amusing to see Alex Winter as one of the vampires before he found fame in the Bill and Ted movies. Now a director apparently.

I was rather shocked when I went into the toilets in the recently built Whitefriars in Canterbury on finding out that you have to pay 20 pence through a turnstile to use them! The only luxury is that there's music playing in there where in this case it was "Bodyrox" or whatever the songs called. Reminds me of the changing rooms at either the Leyton Lagoon in London or Tides in Deal near Canterbury when I was younger and they would have popular dance tracks of the day playing in there such as "Numero Uno" by Starlight or "Wap Bam Boogie" by Matt Bianco. Maybe I'll check out the Harrow Leisure Centre when I get back this semester as it's a very long time since I had a swim in an indoor pool. Having a peferated eardrum doesn't really help.

The House Of Nonentity

A mixed bag, that's what the housemates in this years Celebrity Big Brother have turned out to be. As expected "H" from Steps has made an appearance in hope of possibly relaunching his recording career. Funnily enough he shares his real name Ian Watkins with one of the performers of The Lost Prophets who also happen to be Welsh. Although it actually takes longer for H to write an autograph. (Thanks Mr Lamarr for that gag!)
I'm probably one of the few people who can remember when H and fellow member Claire formed a double act after leaving Steps whilst presenting SM:tv Live around the same time taking over from the ever wooden James Redmond.

Moving back to the point film director Ken Russell also made an appearance as one of the new housemates in a rather flamboyant manner. For some reason or other he reminds of of "Baaadad", Adam's dad from "The Adam And Joe Show" who would get sent to Ibiza or to a music festival to give undercover reports. I'm not sure if I'll get attached to the series although with the many distractions of Refresher's Week I'm sure a few members of our radio team will be willing to give daily updates. Possibly an interview with an early evictee? It's a cruel world out (or in) there.

An Expensive Essay

I've had a browse on Amazon for a few books that would come in handy for my Propoganda essay and they're pretty steep, especially as the ones that I need aren't available in the Harrow Library. Then again nothing of use is available in the Harrow Library at this time of the year. One that looked pretty interesting was Tell Me Lies by David Miller which includes several contributors including John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton whose books have given me ideas for the areas that have been covered so far in my essay.

Also I've been avoiding sites such as Digital Spy and BBC News to avoid finding out who may be entering the Big Brother house tonight in the 5th celebrity intake of contestants. Whether I'll be grabbed into the malarchy beyond the first episode is unlikely even if the Hoff does end up entering the house! Overall it's likely that they'll end up having an MP, an ex boy-girl band member and an ex-entertainer hoping to develop a new cult status. Essential viewing.

Soulful Side Effects

I'll never eat Fennel Loaf again. I accidentally managed to get one of the sultanas into a painful part of my teeth which means that I'm dying to get this dental appointment done and dusted with.
I'm not sure how painful it will be afterwards as I'm being sedated a week on Wednesday and I really don't want this to affect my involvement in Refreshers Week, especially as I'm presenting twice on the Thursday including my first soul show of 2007.
I think the pain came at the right time as I was devouring the fennel loaf whilst watching Eastenders and could really understand Martin's frustration with the police interrupting the funeral as I bit into that dried fruit.

On a similar note I've just seen fellow Enders actor John Bardon on Just The Two Of Us performing with Jocelyn Brown of all people in a very amusing rendition of "What Can I Do" by The Coors. I was also happy that they showed a clip of Jocelyn performing with Incognito on Top Of The Pops 16 years ago when they introduced the pair! An ideal pairing actually as I understand the Cog can be heard quite often amongst the banter in the Queen Vic.

Lazy Progress

Well I've managed to get 500 words done on my propoganda essay although I've deviated from my initial aim to speak about propoganda used in Bush's campaign for the war in Iraq overall rather than just political speeches. It will probably make more sense as well as when I proposed the essay to my tutor he didn't sound too sure about the proposal although I'm always dreadful at planning case studies. If any political events would have any effect on me personally I would be full of opinions and it's only stupid trival things that wind me up the most.

I also went into Morrisons where I had to make the difficult decision on whether to buy raspberry jam or apple filled doughnuts. Now like most of the bakery products, the doughnuts there are a lot better than the ones in the Sainsbury's in Kenton so I gave in and brought the raspberry flavoured ones. They really need to get more staff in the bakery in Kenton and stop leaving things to go stale. On the plus side at least it saves a bit of money and doesn't ruin my appetite.

Probably an idea to actually make use of my freezer in halls when I get back provided that people don't steal things from it.

How Many Words?

I'm rather stunned myself actually, this is my 500th post on this blog and I'm certain the amount that I've written down is longer than two Uni dissertations.
I've got back from a walk with a few family friends in nearby Bekesbourne which took us through the Howletts Zoo where we saw a few elephants and Gini who was with us had some sort of telepathic vision of monkeys that were a wooden playing course that for some reason the rest of us couldn't really make out.
We stopped off afterwards at a pub called the Mermaid where I got rather bored as tends to be the case in these situations. However there was a shelf full of doll mermaids including quite a few of Ariel which caught my attention which reminded me how I really wanted a soft toy of Sebastian the crab as a Christmas when the film was out. I may spend my Christmas money at the Disney Store in Harrow to make up for what I didn't get 17 years ago!

As for now I'm procrastinating as I've no idea where to start on my propoganda essay although my main aim for tomorrow is to reach a target of 500 words. Maybe a case of a very detailed introduction but if the lecturers marking it don't think that my points are clear, then I can feel better knowing that I'm giving them a taste of their own medicine.

New Year, Same Old Angsts

Happy new year, nothing's changed dramatically since the last post but at least it isn't raining outside. Didn't really do too much to celebrate last night, just watched Jools Holland as has been the case for the last few years. A few good acts as well including Sam Moore performing "Soul Man" after midnight and Ade Edmondson doing a big band version of "Anarchy In The UK". Not to mention Prick Reeves's midly amusing rendition of "Little Jack Horner".

Nothing's really planned for the next few days apart from my main aim to get my propoganda case study completed on political speeches. The official White House site does contain transcripts of a few speeches made by Bush dating back quite a way, my main problem is explaining how they relate to propoganda in 2000 words. I should have just done it on Bush in general after reading John Stauber's "Weapon's Of Mass Deception" although in all honesty that book only grabbed my attention because of the bright colours and the witty cover illustration.
Hypnotism would be the perfect remedy into making me read these books.