[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\ {e17d4fc0-5564-11d1-83f2-00a0c90dc849}] @="Search Results Folder"

Hope this helps someone!

I won't re-tell the story (Veebs does an excellent job here) but suffice to say last week was one of the most enjoyable I've had for a while. It's not just the technical stuff (although I won't deny I like that part) - it's the sheer energy one gets from being around such a motivated and highly talented bunch of people.

Thanks to everyone involved (cast and crew alike) for putting on an excellent production and making it such a fun show to have been involved in.

Last time I saw them, most of the set was new to me and I didn't appreciate it as much as I would have had I known it better. This time, having had a couple of months to listen to the new stuff, it was completely different.

They played an amazing set - from the opening to the encore there wasn't a single song that let them down. Special highlights for me were Tonight, This is were I stand and the set finisher Goodnight/Kill the last romantic. Armistice got a rare outing too. It was good to see a decent and mainly attentive turn-out - quite a change from that infamous gig in the Liverpool Lomax a couple of years ago (they thought it was the worst crowd ever, but decided to put their hearts and souls into it anyway. It worked).

I think they are destined for - and deserve - big things.

I'll start posting regularly again in the coming weeks, but in the meantime I felt the above was worthy of distribution.

There's a fair bit of stuff that i've skipped here - mostly the recording session with Cousin Walter ages ago. I have pictures and mp3's which I'll post at some point in the coming weeks.

Spent part of my first weekend in London at the PLASA show at Earls Court. Was a little disappointed in the lack of new products in general but there were a few bits and pieces, including Behringer's new B5 small diaphram condenser mic, and their (seriously cool) updated Ultracurve - I spent quite a while chating to them about the new features in that - it looks alot more flexible than the last one, which was pretty good itself. Also notable were White Light's radio controlled mini fog machines which were small and cool enough to hide in a costume, and some neat  LED console lamps which were on Soundcraft's stand.

Started my new job the following day, and spent most of the week on an induction course, which was very well designed - some very interesting presentations and we also got to make a short TV programme - given the zero expereince of the group it turned out very well IMHO. It also was an excellent opportunity to meet loads of people from all over the company - from producers and presenters to accountants and engineers. Only downside was that the days were long and combined with the inevitable pub visits I ended up exhausted at the end of the first week. (but it was worth it!)

Skipping ahead a bit i'm now on a training course for the next 7 weeks (actually the next 3 weeks now - shows you how long ago I wrote this!). It's kinda like being back in school and having physics lessons from 9-5 everyday, except it's interesting physics about TV signals, audio, digital stuff, etc. and how various bits of the broadcast chain work. Plus, we get insane amounts of food and a reasonable room to stay in. The course is at a training centre in the middle of nowhere - there is just the accommodation, the BBC complex and a mysterious MOD bunker on the site. This of course means lots of eating and drinking and not alot else. I'll probably be about two stone heavier before i'm done here, and just in time for Christmas too! They do have a music night once a month though: I was roped into engineering it, and it was certainly an interesting night! (I've certainly never mixed digeridoo before!)

Still got no internet access in my flat, and I think i'll probably leave it till after Christmas now (it's a long story involving BT rules about cable and plasterboard, spiked fences and faked site surveys - don't ask). Hopefully it won't matter too much as i've got access while i'm on the training course and i'll be back home for a week in December - it's the Glossop Christmas Panto which i'm going to be teching on again :-)

Oh, and before I finish, a quick plug on behalf of all the fantastic people at Fuse - they've just finished their current broadcast and by all accounts did an excellent job.

(Normal posting will resume shortly - just need time to write stuff down!)

The bad news: It's $50 more than Cool Edit was.

Hopefully I'll be able to get it on an Academic license before my Uni card runs out :-)

Unfortunately it's this weekend, which is also the weekend we're turning the ground floor of Iain's house into a recording studio for Cousin Walter to record a couple of tracks. It's always the way: I haven't had a major event happening at the weekend for ages, and now there are two things I want to do happening at once.

Ah well, there will be another one next year I hope!

Only downside was that I forgot to take my camera - there were loads of great scenes and some of the scenery in Edinburgh is fantastic (particularly the castle and surrounding gardens).

Justin, Stig, Brian and I were talking in the car on the way back about the number of sequels there are this year, and how most of them are based around films that weren't that good in the first place. Don't get me wrong, there's a place for the likes of Charlie's Angels 2 & American Wedding, but there seem to be a lot of 'formula' films being released, and they all have one thing in common: a lack of originality and genuine creativity.

This leads me to wonder whether filmmakers are having original ideas any more, or are just content with churning out the same rubbish as long as the punters keep paying? Or is it the case that commercial pressures mean that cinema is becoming more about box office takings than making entertaining and inspiring films? I know that independent and small scale film-making has been struggling for a long time, but it's only in the last year or so that I've noticed that the shoot-it-by-numbers films are so prevalent that it's hard for smaller and more diverse movies to break through. The parallels that this has with the music industry are immense: never ending commercialisation, lack of government support for breakthrough talent, investors who are only interested in their returns and talented people who would rather have short-lived fame that be remembered and respected for what they do.

I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with simple, entertaining, check-your-brain-in-at-the-door films - there isn't. I've seen and enjoyed a lot of them this year. But of all the films I've seen this year, only one of them really strikes me as being fairly original: Secretary. I just don't seem to be inspired by films as often as I used to be. Is that a bad thing? I think it is.