Longing for the day ...

Reflections on Idol

Well, it's good to be liberated from having to watch TV at certain times ...

I've just been told that Ngaiire will perform, apparently, at the finale. That's awesome and is a good reason to watch again.

For the record, I'm tipping Anthony to win. I've complained enough about Casey, but I suspect his fan club will win out because of momentum - he was the last one in the bottom three and they won't want that to happen again.

Either way, I think the record company has either blown their million-dollar advance or will not make nearly as much out of it as they could have. Guy Sebastian developed into a genuinely interesting performer and, while I don't care a great deal for his syle of music, his performances have really got something - especially the second album. I don't think either of these guys could have that for very long without a radical makeover.

What I hope to see this time, though, is BNG correct the mistake they made after the last show and sign up the more interesting performers who didn't make the finale. I said at the time that Paulini and Cosima had better voices than either of the finalists last time, and sales of their Sony and independent albums and singles have shown they were a bad miss for BMG.

I jusy hope that no-one lets Chanel, Courtney, Ngaiire, Marty, Ricky-Lee or even Hayley go this time around ... the world would be a more beautiful place if these people's talent gets to shine.

Of course, this gives all of us who've been overlooked by someone with power hope - they're sometimes wrong and we should never give up.

Returning to my work, now (and checking out "The X-Factor").

Footy season off to a flying start

Well, we've won two from two so far, but last night I had a night like I've never had. Couldn't catch a cold! At one stage I was over the line and dropped the ball; another time I was in the clear and had only to score but threw an ordinary pass to a teammate, which he dropped; I took a clean intercept on our defensive line but dropped it three steps into the race to the line ... I could go on.

On reckon I blew at least five tries, but fortunately my teammates could catch and we won 6-3. Two from two's a good start. Our senior women showed our young girls the virtue of experience, patience and teamwork - running out clear winners, though I forget the scoreline. Mixed B also had a win, 6-5 and I don't know how the young guns went.

My Angie almost scored one and played well in attack, but is over-reading a little ... she's developing well.

Bring on next week.

Unplugged is almost here

Cool! After much effort, argument, delay and stress, Bun' Ber E Unplugged will soon return from the factory. We're taking advance orders via PayPal here.

This has been an interesting experience. Our first CD, Ceilidh, was recorded in a professional studio using top-notch gear but under very tight time limitations because we couldn't afford much post-production. This one we recorded in Focksy's studio with the gear we had at hand and mixed down in Huge's home studio. We took weeks to do the post-production because of other committments ... artwork done, once again, by Angie D designs.

It's a great learning curve and we'll now be so much better prepared to do the next one! (Hopefully early next year).

I learned a heap about placing microphones, monitoring levels, over-compressing input signals and even more abut mixdown and mastering. A few new software programs ... it's all good. Pretty happy with the results. Now for the marketting effort!

Have to add it to the Blog ...

Latest Events

OK, well, footy season got off to a winning start. We've decided to change to two mixed teams and no men's, which is fine by me. I don't feel fit enough to play two games, anyway.

In other news, I have learned that writing exams is harder than passing them. My UQ third-years have to sit their Multimedia Journalism exam tomorrow morning, and I found writing it rather difficult - but rewarding.

It was good to catch up my brother and family last week. They're over from the 'States for the first time in three years and it's the first time I've seen my youngest Niece. (She looks like her father, poor thing).

Bun' Ber E's new album is coming along OK. Photos on Thursday. I'm really excited about getting it out there and promoting it. We'll have a launch at Dicey Reilly's some time soon. Hopefully we'll have the copies back by then.

Moving on.

Well, I didn't watch Idol last night, and according to the papers, lots of others agree with me as audiences decline just when they should be growing. I read the result in this morning's paper and it only confirmed my view. Courtney was cooking on Sunday night and Casey was shaky, but I've said all along that this contest is not about performance ...

Good luck to the finalists. They might win the competition but I'm sure we'll hear more from some of the earlier and more interesting evictees in a few years' time.

Mixing and mastering Bun' Ber E's album has been more challenging and more interesting than I could have imagined. I think it's come up OK, though there are some regrettable technical glitches. It's got an Irish-lyric version of "Heart's With You" on it.

I'm now looking forward to my next challenge: getting a live show up and running with some optional sequences and a light show ....

Got a gig on Saturday with my mate Greg Peaty at Intraining's new shop in Milton. Fun! Fun! Fun!

New Footy Season!!

Starts Wednesday Night. We're back at Citytouch after a season at Puretouch. Had a great winter, won the comp, but the club wants to come back closer to home. This makes perfect sense, but it's a bit of a pity. I really like those guys ...

Anyway, we have four-and-a-half teams in the comp. Two womens, a mens, a mixed and a team that's really only half Club Foote, as it's the Qld under-16 representative team that went to the nationals this year. Lin wanted to keep it together.

The Women's teams are a new stage of development for my Angie - she's managing the Care Bears, which is all of our under-16 girls, plus Holly (who's 20) as captain. Coached by one of the fathers, Stewie McConchie. Should go well.

Looing forward to a big season!!

Over Idol

I guess you've figured out about now that I'm largely over Idol. Rather disappointed that it's not more about singing and performance, but fascinated about what, exactly, it is. Unfortunately, without more information, like exact vote counts, and without the resources to dig further, I cannot figure out more.

The eviction of Hayley over Casey last night (I only wached the result) is a classic case in point. Casey blew it, knew it, and still did better in the voting than Hayley, who I think has a voice particularly suited to the genre. Her post-eviction performance confrims this. I'm still rooting for Courtney, though.

In any case, I have a couple of other, more pressing constraints on my time right now. Hughie's latest Bun' Ber E album, Unplugged, is in post-production in my studio; and I'm working on a covers gig, which involves recording lots of sequences of covers. I'm planning to use this to fund th purchase of a laptop, which can be used to drive originals sequences with a lightshow ...

On that note, I am surprised and delighted at the number and quality of free midi sequences that are about. This guy's are great, and there's a few others about that are quite good, too (especially on European sites), though I've not kept the URLs.

It's wonderful to see so many artists and technicians sharing their efforts rather than trying to monopolise them. I'll have to give them credit in future by reporting the sites of teh the ones I use.

Stay tuned for updates on the next project.