Sydney Sillyness

Bad Trent.

Volume and Sound Design

I've just finished reading a really good blog post on the escalating volumes in sound design, and how it relates to everyone. Anyone with an interest in audio, or theater, should give it a read.

It's here:

http://nikku.net/blog/should-i-dress-as-sound-hitler-or-sound-pol-pot/

The ‘TGIHAB’ tour part 12 – The way home

So I’m sitting at Dubai airport waiting for our flight home.

We’re finally on the way home. Duty-free shopping is planned for Singapore. Presents for my favourite girly, alcohol for the band, a shirt for me (crazy shirt Fridays will be excellent from now on).

Here’s us all ready to come home.



More from Singapore….

Peace!

The ‘TGIHAB’ tour part 11 – in reference to Previous parts.

Here’s the reason I want to settle down with an Arab girl.



That's all.

The ‘TGIHAB’ tour part 10 – a well spent day

Geoff and I got shirts made up. Yes, we’re idiots.





Also, Geoff was going through my photos, and asked who this girl was in my old photos. I actually used my ex as an example of ‘how good life used to be’. How depressing…

The ‘TGIHAB’ tour part 9 – Evening annoyance

I just watched a ‘re-enactment’ on the TV (ironically enough, on Arabian TV) of United flight 93, the only flight that didn’t hit it’s intended target on September 11, 2001.

It really reminded me of my distinct distaste of religion, especially extremism. I can’t see how any human, the same life form that created classical music, rock and roll, white bread, cricket, The Eiffel tower, the Statue of Liberty, The great wall of China, the hanging gardens of Babylon…how can a species that created all these great things intentionally set out to kill innocent people, especially in the name of a supreme being that they have no proof of even existing.

I’m not saying anything bad about Islam. Christians have been especially guilty of killing people in the name of religion throughout the middle ages. It just happens to be Muslims now that are killing people.

Fuck it, fuck all your stupid shit. Instead of worshipping something in the sky, try worshiping the love that’s in each and every soul living on this planet. Learn that every being is beautiful, and everyone has the chance, and the right, to live their lives without being fucked over by your crap.

Goddamit, being reminded of this crap annoys me.

The 'TGIHAB' Tour Part 8 - The catchup edition

While Dubai is lovely, it’s starting to ware on me. Coming from a very ‘rock and roll’ background, any more than a week in any destination makes me antsy to do something. I much prefer doing a week of shows with one off day to see the local sights. Also, there’s only so much shopping and massive buildings that you can see.

We’ve been doing a heap of stuff, yet I still long to actually be either working, or going home. After all, three 20 minute shows a day doesn’t take up a lot of time. I’m blogging this from a café named ‘Costas’ in the Mall that we’re doing shows in. The others are in Ski Dubai, the worlds only (to my knowledge) indoor ski park. I can see them from where I’m sitting.

We all went there earlier today, and I actually remembered stuff from when I went boarding a few years ago (try 12 years ago). That being said, I still fell on my butt a fair few times, so I’m sitting it out (which is quite painful, I might add) and writing this.

Here’s a shot from halfway up the hill, where I sat and grabbed a photo from my board.



What have we been doing in the past few days? Well, we went to the beach! The water was exceptionally warm, no waves, and crystal clear water. We played with a ball and mucked about in true aussie style. I wish we’d bought a bat and a set of wickets.

On the way back, we saw a stretch hummer.



After that there was a few shows, and then dinner at ‘Johnny rockets’ (Anyone older than about 26 will remember that there used to be one in the Queen St. Mall back home)



Some interesting sights from Dubai:

All the bus stops are airconditioned



The shops stock Tim Tams



The cars are lavish (yes, that's a rare Ferrari in front of the Lambo...)



There are chicken big macs



And they haven’t heard of multiplexing satellite signals, so everyone has one to themselves.



Keeping in the spirit of going to the beach, I decided to take it easy one day at work.



Also, Geoff decided that the camels we bought are too big, so he got himself a miniature one. Unfortunately, it came in a pack of about 12, so he gave the rest to me. Here’s what my desk looks like now.



Alrighty, that’s a bit of a catch up on what we’re doing. While we’re here, we’re scheming about few new shows (well, re-doing two old shows with better production values). Here’s the traditional way of plotting things out, on napkins.



Anyway, I’ll blog more in a day or two. We’re possibly going to a water park on Tuesday, so that might be worth a few piccies!

The 'TGIHAB' Tour Part - Soooo

Ok.

So I lost the cable for my camera....

It's got to be around the hotel somewhere.

I'm just resting my legs from Skiing in Dubai. I'll upload photos soon...

...


...


...


...when I find my camera cable...

The 'TGIHAB' Tour Part 6 - No new movie titles...

...When I get home, I'm going to find a nice attractive arab girl and settling down...

...that's all.

The ‘TGIHAB’ tour part 5, The (Sheikh) Empire strikes back

Day 4 arrives with much fanfare.

…Okay…so by ‘much fanfare’ I mean that we decided what to do with our day over a lovely breakfast of cheese, meat and hot chocolate (it’s actually better than it sounds).

We headed over to the museum of Dubai, where I decided to declare war in the only way I knew how…



The whole point of our shopping trip was to head off and see the Bazaar, so we crossed the river



…and headed off to the Gold Bazaar



…which also happened to have some local headscarfs…which we bought…



(Liam bought a black one)

The fun part of the day happened when we found out (much later) that liams headscarf was actually he colour of palestinian militants...much hilarity was had)

Oh, I forgot…we went past the world’s tallest building. It. Is. Impressive.

The ‘TGIHAB’ tour part 4, A new hope (for coming shows)

Here we are, first day of shows.

I was greeted by a text from our LD asking us if we can bring him breakfast, as he’d been programming all night. Poor Geoff. He’s such a professional, too…

The first part of today was spent soundchecking and doing the usual setup things. We were interrupted by people taking promo photos for a new credit card they offer the staff in the mall. Typical of Geoff and myself, we grabbed a few loose signs and joined in.







We were also interrupted by a guy who wanted to play along. Was quite hilarious.

We decided to have a quick wander around the mall, and this thing is HUGE. I’ve decided to devote a new section to it. I’ll update it with new ones every day, and I guarantee I’ll be able to do it.

------Mall Wanderings Pt 1-----

The world’s biggest plasma TV. It’s seriously big.



Does your local mall have a ski field?



-----End Mall Wanderings Pt 1-----

On the way back from the mall, we went on a ‘scenic’ tour (courtesy of an overly zealous cab driver) past the Burj Al Arab (The world’s only 7 star hotel).



My car had Geoff, Lucy and Kristy in it.





-----Desk paraphanelia Mini Special-----

Our LD, Geoff, and I love to be cooky and weird…which is actually really fun in this company. Anyway, we decorate our desks with crazy stuff to remind us of loved ones, and to have something cool and unique.

Here’s a long shot of Geoff and my desks.



My toys consist of

Yoshi



Bullet from Super Mario



A camel (bought here in Dubai)



Harmony Smurf (You’ll notice a matching Smurfette at Geoffs Desk)



I’ve also got a few pictures of loved ones and friends back home, to keep me sane in all this madness







-----End Desk paraphanelia Mini Special-----

Part 4 is done…part five is still to come….It involves a long car trip, and one of our breakers getting mistaken for a palestinian militant.

Till then!

The ‘Thank god I’m male and have a beard’ tour. Part 3, Revenge of the heat!

I’ve decided that’s the unofficial motto for this tour. After seeing how the girls in our party are looked at, it’s no surprise.

We went around for a walk today to buy supplies, and check out the local infrastructure. As soon as we hit the pavement outside the hotel it was 40 degrees in the shade. Amazing heat. We’re used to it, being from Queensland, but even for us, this was intense. Anyway, I took some shots of the buildings that are close to us.



Then we found the closest resteraunt (Lebanese). It had the nicest hommus I’d ever had. Great value, too. It worked out that our meal total cost 100 Dirham, which works out at about AUD$50 each, which then divides to about $12.5 a person…which is great for a completely filling lunch!



--------*Cliché self reflection*---------

Seriously, if you don’t want to read sappy bullshit, look away now.

This afternoon we had nothing better to do, as we’re waiting for midnight for the shopping centre to close so we can go in and set up, so we watched a few movies on my laptop. The popular choice was American Pie 1 and 2.

American Pie 2 came out right as we were hitting our ‘flowering’ stage in our teens (15, I believe). I can even remember the circumstances of seeing it. My best friend and I took our then dates to the cinemas for a ‘movie marathon’. American Pie 2 was the first movie on.

The whole movie makes me feel nostalgic, from the characters (who we all know one of…somehow I was the closest to Stiffler, but that’s neither here nor there), to the music (I was very much into Blink 182 and penis jokes then) to the activities. Now I’m coming up on my 23rd year on this planet, it makes me think hard about my ‘post school’ years.

Immediately after school, while my friends were dong the University thing, I got a job doing audio. 5 years on, and I’m still out working most weekends. I never had the opportunity to get wasted on summer breaks, go to the beach with friends on ‘holidays’ etc. etc. I’m not complaining, as I love my career, but it’s made me think about priorities. My lack of love life is one. Luckily, I have amazing friends that support me even though they only see me a few times a year (although most see me more than that), so I’m not resenting that part of my life.

I guess what I’m trying to say, as I lie here in bed at 6pm on a Sunday night on the other side of the world from everyone bar seven that I care about, is not that I’ve wasted my immediate post school years, but that I need to use this chance for self reflection to appreciate the gifts that we all have, and my friends most of all.

The first Idea I’ve had is to have a ‘post new-years’ party. Seeing as I work every New Years Eve, I think a BBQ on January second would be a great chance to relax and have some techies, musos, bar staff etc. over for a small gathering. A chance to just relax and have a few, instead of always being worried about work.

Anyway, we’ll see how that goes!

--------*End Cliché self reflection*---------

Tonight we go to the venue, as I think I’ve mentioned. Shall be interesting to see how we fare. A little birdie told me that they’re going to try and get our LD to program moving lights without actually turning them on…which needless to say is going to cause some problems. Oh what a life…

…at least I have a beard…

A New season Part 2, The revenge of the Sheikh

Ok, so I did promise that I’d have more dialogue this time.

…I was wrong

It’s 5.32 am local time, and we’ve just got into the hotel after what seemed like an eternity. Our rooms were mixed up, they booked the wrong rooms…And now it makes more sense to stay up another hour until breakfast @ 6.30am, stuff myself, then head back to sleep.

The worst part was waiting in customs for an hour to get through. That was just the line to the desk. By the time we got to our luggage carousel, our bags had been chucked off…how lovely!

Anyway, here’s everyones reactions to being waylaid at the hotel.



And Geoffs reaction to the heat.



When we were in Singapore, Geoff and I went for a walk and found heaps of cool things to buy. I need a new pair of sunnies, but I might way until the way back incase I can pick up some cheaper ones here. We all then crahed out at the departure gate, and Kristy showed us her lovely shawl (not that it helped her reduce any attention at Dubai airport though, she was still checked out quite thoroughly.



Meanwhile, the breakers were their usual selves.





Back to the present, our room is….errrr….a little on the ‘wee’ side.



I’ll probably write another entry later in the day. For the moment though, I’m doing up a sound design for our bigger tours next year. Hopefully I can swing it so we only have to hire certain things internationally (sidefill speakers, wireless mics and inears) and use the in-house PA of wherever we travel, and the system should be able to travel around the world!

A New season commences!!! Part 1

Alrighty.

The new mini-season of blogging is upon me. We're going to Dubai for two weeks, and that's as good a reason as any to post some more weird crap.

Anyway, here's my two bags, full of crap, one of which was apparently too heavy for carry-on.



The cast get extremely bored, resorting to crazy games



and even posing



although sometimes it goes too far.



Here's our Lighting Designer in his natural habitat (reading light smut)



Of course, I was apalled at this



(Ok, so the mag might have been mine).

Here's our travelling companion....The ball. It had it's own seat and everything.



Unfortunately the long flights make the cast sleepy



Or in some cases, the opposite



Even with some local icecream



So for now, We wait until the next flight.

I apologise for the lack of text now. It's the middle of a layover and I'm tired as hell. I'll post more insightful stuff tomorrow, I promise.

Till then,

Jamie.