Had another gig with “Rocket Girl” or “The Rockettes” (as we were called) on Friday night. It was the Grand Hyatt for a benefit, auction, fund raiser thingy. The performance gave me a chance to put my new amp, tuner and wah pedal to the test – all were excellent.
At the end of the Gig, the bass player Damian was determined to get out in one trip with all of our gear, no arguments from me. We parked in the Hotel parking downstairs requiring us to go through the lobby. The lifts, however, don’t let you go all the way down. They come from that level, they just dont go back – we found out after about 10 tries (with all the gear). We finally decided to try our luck through the back ways, past the kitchen and laundry areas. After feeling like the subject in some cruel “rat in maze” experiment we made it out and down to the car park.
We paid the $8 for parking and when we finally made it to the cars to leave, the gate wouldnt open for us. Aaarrgh! Let us out!! The lovely man on the other end of the Wilson Parking operator button eventually opened the gate for us. Funny – it wasn’t that hard to get in to the hotel.
FYI – I just found the new electric guitar I want here. I better be extra good for Santa this year!
That’s right, it’s the last friday of July and according to www.sysadminday.com, it is officially “System Administrators Day “. Today is a day where people are supposed to be nice to those guys who Turn off your CAPS LOCK when your password doesn’t work, plug in your network cable when you have no internet access and fill your trays with paper when the printer stops working. Check out the commemorative cartoon!
Happy SysAdmin Day to the many System Administrators who read this blog! 
I casually strolled into EB tonight to check out the “City of Villains” adds. I currently am involved in the game “City of Heroes” which it is based off. I look one shelf down and find a DVD cover with the ever familiar horizontal green code. Being a Matrix fan I was compelled to have a look.
Currently on Xbox I own heaps of games and only play one. “Enter the Matrix“. So you can imagine how happy I was to find out that Atari are soon releasing “The Path of Neo“, another game in the same genre, made by the same people. Plus! You finally get to “Be the One! “.
Once again, I’m probably the last to find out, but roll on November 15 – I can’t wait!
Mel and I went to the Karingal Village Cinemas last night. There was a few movies we had to catch up on and Mel was keen to see “Sin City“. She liked the long shopping list of stars in it and was curious as to what it was like. I had heard good and bad things, but was willing to give it a shot.
When we arrived we hadn’t had dinner. We were happy to see hot Chips and Potato wedges on the menu. This was a first for us in non-Gold Class cinemas and it was better than just popcorn. Good quality stuff, although for the price you would hope so.
My main interest in Sin City had nothing to do with the actors. I was focusing mainly on the style it was shot in. I had heard they were making it look like a comic book – sorry “Graphic Novel” – and I was very impressed by the outcome. They did it perfectly in black and white, with great use of long shadows, selective coloring and angled framing. At some points it actually looked like a comic – sorry “Graphic Novel”.
Great “film noir” (spelling?) type stories that all intersected at some point. Plus the predictable plot ending of it all coming full circle at the end, leaving off where it had started. Over-all I think it’s originality and creativity alone makes it worth seeing. Not to mention the freakiest looking Frodo you’ve ever seen!
FYI – Sin City 2 is currently in Pre-production and due for possible release in 2006.
I seem to be in a demo frenzy at the moment. A couple of weeks ago I helped a band my uncle Keith was in, record an original demo. Great stuff! The lead singer Bob came around last Tuesday to do a mixdown with my new setup.
I have also been recording stacks of covers for our new Moonlight Duo promo pack. We are using different sorts of Backing tracks now, making our sound much larger than before. Marion and I are laying down around 20 tracks to be featured on our new demo, and I will upload it soon for all to hear. Dad, that means your school’s recess music can have a break from our old demo!!
Plus! GigManX is going to help us perform in a more organised way. The program has just jumped another level now that James (with Mikes help) has organised the tracks into alphabetical order. Plus my Dad’s teleprompt idea is also being included. This is all in version BETA 0.4.1 which can be downloaded soon from gigmanx.pantherx.net.
Finally I have also been hard at work on my originals. Now that I have the means to record my songs, whenever I write them, I will be producing a lot more YoursTRULY material. I also have a band in the making and will keep you all updated if there is anything you can do to help support us.
I just realised, my recent birthday grants me access to an integral part of todays social society, previously denied me.
Over 28 bars, here I come! 
Well all the staff are back today … joy 
I’ve just had to show a new staff member how to log into her laptop. My side of the conversation went as follows:
Type in your log in details … In the text box … Just there where it says Username … Click … With the Mouse Button … The Mouse … Look it moves the little arrow on the Screen … This is the screen … etc. (you get the idea)
I Hope she’s not teaching IT.
Friday I drove the 100 and something kilometers to Baccus Marsh to entertain the Patrons of the local “Border Inn” hotel. It was a good gig for me because I was listened to by all but bothered by no one. I set up, played for 3 hours, packed up and went home. Perfect!
Saturday I bought my New Rig. I’ve been called upon to do a few band gigs recently and my lack of appropriate gear was extremely frustrating. So I used the previous nights Gig money and Birthday money to upgrade. One of the main problems I had whilst running my old set up, was volume – or lack of. I could get a decent tone going but you couldnt really hear it more than 10 feet away. With this amp it is hard not to hear it. I had it on level 2 at home and still needed to turn it down.
This should help me win the war against my neighbours!
Yesterday was my 28th Birthday and I have celebrated with my family through to today. Poor Mel has been sick this week, but she still found the energy to sing “Happy Birthday to You! ” to me, every 5 minutes.
Thankyou to everyone who has contacted me and all gifts were greatly appreciated. Being this old is fine, but from now on I am going to count the coming years as 28 and ‘x’ dozen months.
One uneventful day saw me trying to think of ways that I could better Manage my Song Lyrics/Chords/Backing Tracks by using one of my many computers. It had occured to me to do this I would need some kind of database application. Knowing that this idea was already out of my computer expertise I went to my friend and co-worker James for help.
James had already offered me heaps of advise with web design and is studying various coding languages at uni. Together we have come up with a design I felt best suited what I needed to do with my duo Moonlight. From then, James has coded up a storm transforming this little idea into something that is a marketable product.
With the ever growing population of small musical groups on the Gig Circuit, there is finally a piece of software that will focus directly on their needs. Instead of managing huge lyrics books with chords and coordinating them with their appropriate Midi or MP3 backing tracks, GigManX will do it all for you!
The software is up and running, but is still very much in the BETA stage. You can find out all you need to know at http://gigmanx.pantherx.net. There you can download a trial copy of the software and help us out by submitting any bugs you might find.
Now I’ve got to hurry up and learn how to program so that I can help out with the bug fixing!
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