Won’t You Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street ?
July 10, 2006
My mobile phone is in for repair and the shop has given me a loaner phone.
The last person to use it forgot to remove their text messages. Much to my disappointment they’re neither risque or amusing. Though the mind boggles…..
Hi to all. just had hour long message. Its like Heaven here, I could get used to this life! No animals here for O give him big hug xx lol to I O you K xxx
whatever about the massage… what’s this about animals ?
Wil pop in in 20mins,u neednt wash it,i wont knock,thanks.
Oo-er missus ! You dirty dirty girl !
C.See ya at 4,sorry i was puting K. To sleep
Back to animals I think…
What sorta food is in dat new takeaway+do u hav a menu?
If they don’t have a menu… how will they know what sort of food is in the new takeaway ?
Hey clo,we hav our lift sortd out for sat am, erics taxi friend owes him a favour so just wantd to let u know so ur off the hook! See u ovr wknd.
Who is Eric ? And what sort of favour did he do ?
Mr.Karma paid up promptly and even said “thank you”
The re-print was worth it. They’re happy too.
Yesterday a singer recorded for the first time in my studio. That was fun. For both of us. Sometimes it’s not supposed to be perfect. Sometimes it’s supposed to be about making a noise.
Today I’m feeling a little rough. It was a late night/early morning, but not as late as the people in the house behind us . . . their music was still pumping out at 7:00am . . . I’ll bet there’ll be words today.
I’m going to move into the sunroom for the day and recover. Then it’s World Cup Final time. Allez les bleus !
Talking about Fixing a hole
June 23, 2006
So. I reworked the booklet (just the page that needed fixing). Sent it to the printer and decided I’d eat the cost of getting the booklet re-printed. It would be easier to do this than to try and fudge the fact that the booklet isn’t perfect. Got to keep the customer satisfied.
That was some time ago.
Printer says “yeah, easy to do , will be ready Wednesday”.
It’s now Friday. Are they ready ? Are they fuck….
AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Quote
Ah bollix in anyway.I took delivery this evening of 1000 booklets and backliners for two of the CDs I’ve just produced. Both look better than I expected (I’m very pleased). But But But. On Page 3 of one of the booklets there’s a blank bit where a word should be. Oh. And it looks shite – the test was just too close to the safe area on top and it looks like a title has been cut off (it hasn’t).So, Do I just send it on or do I take the hit and pay the printer to run off 500 more ?I have time… the CDs aren’t due to be delivered until monday-week.
Instant Karma’s going to get you
June 22, 2006
So I stay up until 1:00am assembling 500 CDs and getting them ready to send to a school the next day. I wanted to make sure they got them at least a day before they actually needed them. To do this I paid a courier €100 to deliver.
Prior to this I pulled in a favour and got someone to do the printing & duplicating for me because the label design they wanted didn’t look as good as it should have when printed on my inkjet-based CD duplication system.
I had also created 4 different edits of the CD (a live recording of a concert made back in February). I smoothed out a situation with one of the artists who had forgotten to tell his manager and record label that he had allowed someone to record him in performance.
A friend of this school agreed to design the booklet and backliner. Turns out she is a professional graphics person and used to work (at sleeve design) for a major record label. An awesome piece of work – I was very impressed.
I phoned the principal of the school to ask if the CDs had arrived and if everything was ok. Yes he said. “I’m reasonably pleased”.
WHAT THE FUCK ? You’re REASONABLY pleased ? Well you bollox I’m REASONABLY PISSED OFF. You got an amazing live album at a brilliant price and you’re REASONABLY PLEASED ? Go fuck yourself buddy.
Why ‘reasonably’ ? Well it turns out that he wanted some low-quality photos taken on the night of the concert included in the booklet for the CD. Well why didn’t you say so at one of the 4 sets of proofs you were sent ? Oh… and he should have remembered to ask me to edit out some of the MC’s dialog from the recording. Not for any particular reason… he just wished he had asked me.
So “I’ll pop an invoice in the post… I don’t suppose you could get a cheque to me next week could you ? I’ve paid the printer and duplicator and it’s the end of the school year next week”.
Could he fuck. He’d have to look at the invoice. I know this fucker is not going to be happy that even though I’ve given him a 10% discount on the already excellent price that he’s going to drag out paying me.
Instant karma’s gonna get you mate. Gonna knock you right on the head.
Fixing a hole
June 15, 2006
Ah bollix in anyway.
I took delivery this evening of 1000 booklets and backliners for two of the CDs I’ve just produced. Both look better than I expected (I’m very pleased). But But But. On Page 3 of one of the booklets there’s a blank bit where a word should be. Oh. And it looks shite – the test was just too close to the safe area on top and it looks like a title has been cut off (it hasn’t).
So, Do I just send it on or do I take the hit and pay the printer to run off 500 more ?
I have time… the CDs aren’t due to be delivered until monday-week.
Turn Me On Dead Man
June 9, 2006
“Billy was the man widely regarded as the real fifth Beatle after he played keyboards on Let It Be , The White Album and Abbey Road and was the only non-Beatle apart from George Martin to get a co-writing credit on a Beatles album. “
AARGGGH !
All it takes is one lazy journalist to write this crap and it gets circulated as fact. Even on the BBC !
1. He didn’t play on the White Album.. ok ?
2. He didn’t get a co-writing credt. . .
3. Neither did George Martin
Yeah. I’m grumpy. Sod It.
I love the way there’s an explanation in case you’re confused as to who is who in that photo of Billy & George.
Now. Go and listen to Mr. Preston at the Concert For George. Sublime.
I am the bread man. Goo goo g’joob.
June 9, 2006
Hmmm. Turnover.
Oh boy it’s been a long time since I tasted fresh, still warm turnover.
Sometimes the crust would be charcoal-like but still gorgeous. Like eating honeycomb without the sugar.
I was always fascinated by the range of colours in the crust. Black through to milky brown. And how the side
would lend itself to peeling off small flakes and wisps of bread.
Yum. Who needs butter with bread like that ?
I’ll bet I won’t find it in Tesco either…
I looked for an online image but couldn’t find any…. so you’ll just have to imagine along with me.
… but it takes so long …
May 26, 2006
I’ve been a very naughty boy and have not been putting much into the blog this month. I have a bucket load of excuses but I’ll spare you the drama.
So. I get this phone call asking if I’m doing any playing these days. You know – piano type playing.
Now I’m in a gospel group and playing my first “gig” next Saturday ! (someone’s wedding). On Monday I had my first rehearsal with the singers and it was a really rewarding experience. Now don’t get me wrong – the whole religion thing doesn’t do anything for me. The joy of vamping on a piano (ooh-er missus) and making music with real people cannot be surpassed. I never thought I’d see the day when I’d be playing Primal Scream’s “Moving On Up” in a church.
I’ve been a busy little person for the last few weeks. One of my sidelines is a project where I go out to schools and help them produce CDs. It’s not going to make me rich but it pays for a few toys, keeps my studio busy and allows me to be my own boss. If nothing else I know I could never really be my own boss and hope to make a living. The first of 4 CDs I’ve made this year was a live concert in a “Gael Scoil”. A Gael Scoil is a school where everything is conducted through the medium of our native language Irish. The concert was quite good and featured John Spillane who very kindly allowed us to use the recording of his performance on the CD.
The second CD was also recorded at a Gael Scoil. This school recorded all the students performing various songs including a really cool track called “Conamara”. I had to do some additional playing on this myself (guitar etc) which is a part of the process which I enjoy and dislike in equal measure. Technically it’s work but it does let me play and figure out how I should be recording my own instruments. Some of the parents came over to the studio and recorded songs for inclusion. This coming Sunday I’ll have a chap coming over to play low whistle on a version of Paul Brady’s Gleanntáin Ghlasa Ghaoth Dobhair.
The third of these CDs was recorded down in Butlerstown County Waterford. It was a complete contrast to the Gael Scoil recordings as they used material primarily in English and from Disney movies such as ‘Mary Poppins’ and ‘Cinderella’. At the end of the day a bunch of lads arrived with bodhrán, guitar, mandolin, tenor-mandolin, flute, accordion and banjo for a lively session.
Last week I recorded the 4th of these CDs at (yet another) Gael Scoil. This one is much harder work for me because they have a number of parents, past-pupils and professional musicians involved. One of these musicians is actually touring with the Riverdance show. It’s harder because they’re more demanding and if their name appears next to a track then it must sound good. All perfectly understandable but it’s hard sometimes to explain to adults that children cannot sound like adults… it just doesn’t work that way.
What a long tiring day it was. But worth it in the end. I recorded some crazy stuff: Bassoon, Recorder and Piano…. a pair of Irish dancers (yes… I recorded the sound of their shoes on the floor) and a mass ensemble of fiddles, concertinas, harp, bodhráns, flutes, whistles and choir.
The fun part now is editing and mixing all of this and getting the artwork completed for the booklets so that the schools can have their CDs before the end of the school year in June. Fortunately I’ve completed 2 of these and should be able to get the back broken on the other 2 CDs over the next week.
Tonight I’m off to New Ross in County Wexford to record a colleague’s band Leper Messiah. I’ve got the mic splitters, 24-track recorder, microphones and several miles of cable in my car. This should be good…
told you I was busy . . . .
family updates to come this weekend
Got Live If You Want It
May 26, 2006
Would you trust this man to record your live album?
That’s me backstage at a theatre in Waterford recording the ‘Leper Messiah’ live album using my mobile 24-track studio.
Doctoring The Tardis
May 1, 2006
Dr. Who has a lot to answer for.
Imagine that: the family sitting together on a Saturday evening. Kids loving it. Dad “it were better in my day…”
blue eyed dressed for every situation 