Ginger DJ Rob

Remember the poor this season. Merry Christmas peasants! ( Image found on the L magazine website )

Like everything pathetic about the UK, my work closed because of the deep snow and imaginary travel chaos (even though the main routes were open and buses up to the University of Sussex were still running). A relief for those with hang-overs and great for my plans of visiting my dad in Norfolk . I say working from home but checking emails and adding a web page to the site that I manage hardly qualifies as a full day's work. In the background, the TV news was permanently on checking for the weather and travel. Could I even make it to Norfolk by car? I had to check out my mum's old house, which the tenant had moved out, and to see my Dad but with at least 6 inches on our street and Norfolk being affected by the snow it was a tough decision. With no one else 'working from home' I left at 3pm and ignored the media doom-sayers. Getting to Norfolk was actually easy with the main motorways clear. Norfolk was just as bad as Brighton though the temperature was getting lower a...

Yesterday was an interesting one. It was my work's Christmas meal and night out with luke-warm meat and veg (I blame it on the half-cut catering staff who could double as Victorian cockney ladies of the night from the language they use) followed by a charity raffle. Prizes ranged from a night's stay at a Lewes hotel (half the staff live in Lewes!), some dodgy wines, pulp fiction books to the strange contribution of an AC/DC in concert blu-ray video. The evening was held at the upstairs of the Open-House near London Road station starting with a well put-together quiz then into a disco. I made my excuses quickly and didn't stick around for the music as the last Pond pub quiz of the year, nay decade was also on. Bit of a crap turn-out really with only three teams entering. My out of the blue team name won us the fake, stick-on moustaches with "I ain't getting on no B.A. plane fool". Unfortunately, this was the only thing we won as our arch-enemies who always s...

  Picked this up from following Daft Punk on Twitter . They seem to be breaking new photos and the odd bit of news about Tron:Legacy which comes out next year.

I see the retail version of Beelzebub, Tescos has got itself into trouble over the Christmas card pictured above. Too right I'd say. BBC news story explains all.

What a night at Soulwaxmas! First of all I must thank my amazing missus, Kerry for getting me some excellent gifts this year. I must be one of the most difficult people to buy for but she's done it again and again. Presents awarded this year were: Charlie Brooker 's new book, The hell of it all; Star Trek on Blu-Ray ; a B+W kasemann polarizing filter (an inspired idea) and Nikon SB900 flash (thanks Kev for the technical advice). I'm a lucky, lucky boy. I tired the filter down at the seafront taking some photos, and although it was raining I was rewarded with a rainbow behind me. The evening started with a quick buffet and friends (thanks again Kerry) before the mini-bus up to Brixton Academy . An 8 seater with a return journey worked out at £250 (about £35 with 7 of us). So much better than the thought of waiting on a cold platform and multi-taxis. Shame we had to put up with some dull Radio 2 sounds. Amazingly, even after turning up 15 minutes late we arrive in Brixto...

Work's been a little slack lately waiting for others to do their bit. Ever since the volunteering I did in November and meeting a number of local ' social media ' experts I've been addicted to Twitter. It's quite handy having a job that means I can experiment with these web technologies. I've never needed to worry about getting caught on Facebook as I can say I'm 'researching' though others would probably say 'stalking' or the industry technical term of 'lurking'. The video below (think of me as the bearded, baseball hat-wearing guru) lampoons this new trend of marketing though from the Twittering I see from such experts I really wonder whether the industry is getting away with offering these services or if their clients are really wearing the emperor's new clothes . I've been to a couple of interesting web/social media seminars and presentations lately. Switch off now if you're not really bothered. First of all its w...

I ignored the rumours and believed the hype (and some of the media reviews). But it was mainly down to pledging my support to the Boosh family being produced by Baby Cow, the producers behind Noel Fielding and Julian Barrett 's surreal Mighty Boosh . Only the Duke of York's was showing the flick and as we entered the foyer I nearly stepped on local Oz legend and cinema patron, Nick Cave . He didn't hang about as I think he saw the previous Australian film. Turnbull or Bull to his mates has been stuck in his flat for over a year, refusing to come out and begins thinking back to his Eurpoean road trip with Bunny. Cue elaborate scenes and visuals integrating Bull's flat and contents with the holiday that would make French director Michel Gondry green with envy. It was good to hear Rich Fulcher ( Bob Fossil ) voice the seafood restaurant chain phoneline but the humour highlights are few and far between. Another Boosh regular, Richard Ayaoade (Saboo) appears as a very d...

Image by jlori via Flickr After all the web hype and lurking at others commenting about it I've finally got to use Google Wave . I'd registered my interest a couple of months ago but only got an invite via a kindly Brighton New Media member. Two days after that I was sent my offical invite from Google so now have a work and personal account. Bear in mind that this is still a beta release so there should be some final tweaks to come. Here's some very initial thoughts: If you're not a web geek here's a quick explanation as to what Google Wave actually is. At the moment most people will see it as a web email service similar to Hotmail but you create 'waves' which can act as messages so you can attach files, photos and links etc. The Wave itself can develop as a conversation (think Facebook comments on a status) as others can add their own comments or files, images etc, etc as well as correct or add text to the original message you started. If you'r...

Last night, it seemed that no one under the age of 25 had heard or experienced the excellence and majesty that is The Bays at the Concorde 2 (why they bother keeping the number I'll never know). It was a bit of a late for a band as the line-up had some very experimental warm-up acts including Fidgital (great name but the violin and hip-hop starty-stoppy act wasn't my bag), Puncture Kit (I don't remember seeing them stage but apparently use a bicycle as a bass drum. Wouldn't the spokes get in the way?) and new favourite Brighton DJ for us, Natural Self . Most of the crowd waiting the Bays were enjoying the DJ who I could only describe as using those moody, breakbeat, tech-step (I have just created a new music genre?) rhythms and sounds that perhaps DJ Shadow or UNKLE used to use. I see he's done his own hip hop album taking on himself to do rap vocals. Checking out his Myspace page and the featured tunes are not the dance pace we experienced so a tiny bit disappoi...

Before battling the wind and rain for the cross-dressing comedian that is Eddie Izzard , we had a quick tapas meal at La Bodega on Church Street. I didn't enjoy it too much personally as we've been spoilt by Hove 's Latino through the range of choice but everyone else liked it. If you've been to Pompoko you'll understand the minimum décor to expect as well which made shuffling around tapas plates and multiple bottles around the table challenging for four people. The evening's tickets were bought way back in February for Kerry's birthday (April). The seats themselves were the last row in the highest balcony next to the disabled section. At least we had the row to ourselves and had a great view of the stalls and impressive stage. Its possibly the biggest comedy event we've been to with a set looking like an ancient pyramid and an animated cell window showing the sun passing then an eye peering in changing into what felt like travelling through space. ...

After weeks of preparation, design work and a lot of UV paint, our London mate Sam turned 40 in the most glowing, raving and Trade worthy way possible. Thanks to Paul and Sarah for hosting the event which saw possibly the most pink balloons you could get in one room. The décor downstairs looked fantastic thanks to Kerry and team, and with the smoke machine turned on and lights behind the DJ booth adding that little bit extra, the disco dungeon was transformed into sweaty, beneath the arches illegal rave . Below are some highlights to the evening whilst you can click on the title above to see my Flickr photo set: Birthday girl! Kev finally comes out of the closet!   Pirate Paul's Disco Dungeon in full UV glory.

Thanks to the Brighton New Media email group I'm a member of, I volunteered myself to help SCIP (Sussex Community Internet Project) with their stand at the Brighton and Hove City Council event called Get Involved . I was expecting to show charity and community types how to use Twitter, YouTube and blogging but with the lashing rain and wind it seemed that everyone stayed at home. As soon as I arrived I was asked to interview one brave soul then upload it to their YouTube channel. The second person was a little more interesting, a guy called Jason Kitcat who as well as being the main web bloke for Mums Net, he is the Green City counciller at Brighton and Hove. You can watch the video interview at YouTube and listening to my excellent questioning technique! Otherwise it was a case of getting to know the other volunteers as there was hardly anyone at the event, possibly due to the stormy weather. A few name checks: killer_bunnie (Claire Stokoe who describes as herself as a s...

Congratulations to Trevor and Pom who got married yesterday (or should I say 'wadded' according to the translated invite). Through the magic and trickery of the internet, Trev televised the ceremony, held at Pom's house in a town in Thailand via a webcam . We invited most of the Brighton crew to view on our big TV. Not sure whether we missed the first half as the camera was fixed on four of the seven Buddhist monks praying and giving their blessings. We didn't get any sound either but it was great to see them both looking like Thai royalty and a couple of cheeky waves from Trev. I heard the rumour that Trev had financed a road to be built and there's a local Tesco planned for next year for his Stella addiction. All the best you two!

Thursday of our week's holiday was up to London for some Christmas shopping (early I know) and to have a special dinner at Inamo , the asian restaurant with the interactive, electronic display menu (and other cool features) on the dining table. Our shopping wasn't the success we had hope for. Whether we've just spoilt each other for so long at Christmas, outdoing the last or it was just a bit wrong to think about buying presents, there was nothing that  really inspired us to buy. The Mercedes McLaren F1 in Selfridges got close, promoting some luggage but seeing Martine McCutcheon book signing didin't. At the moment I'd be happy for a monster bag of Malteasers and Kirin. Halfway up Wardour Street in Soho is Inamo. The table projection and décor was every bit as futuristic and desogner cool as I'd hoped for. With a quick demo of the table controls we were changing the virtual table cloth colour and pattern, viewing the kitchen webcam, ordering drinks, scr...

It wasn't really an eventful weekend to start our week off. Most of the time we worked on Sam's 40th birthday party decorations to the theme of Trade. Otherwise it was a visit to Croydon for a few hundred lighter off. We finally gave in and bought it. After a visit to a friends and a journey of furniture tedium, we spent our Nectar points on DJ Hero . The deal struck between us was to decorate through the day then DJ at night. The mock DJ deck and mixer is a great bit of kit with a nifty cross-fader and Technics like platter. When you are scratching you have to hold the wheel of steel with the coloured button and thumb to get the best action. When you have to do rewind/spin-backs its also better to hold down the coloured button again to wind it round one revolution otherwise it will just spin out of control. The tutorial is very easy to follow and master whilst the beginner and easy levels are also simple and fun to play. It's when you get to the medium level that the ...

After last year's full-on party (back-breaking preparation and flu chaos) and the previous week's White Night partying, Halloween took a back-seat like an evil midget hitcher with a blunt pen knife. Brighton was full of part-time zombies (turning up with a bit of blood and ripped clothes isn't really a costume mate) and wannabe Timewarpers for the world record attempt . I still had a bit more mileage to use from last year's costume so the Crazy 88 look (not the Green Lantern ) got a public appearance. Kerry wore some impressive make-up to go with her new red hair dye but the rest of us didn't bother. It was chaos in town with zombies and Frank N Furters and if you weren't dressed up then you looked a little out of place. Audio was our only appearance out but after 2 minutes a psychic decision was made not to stay even after escaping the main room for the DJ back-room which wasn't as glamourous as you'd think. A smoke and a drink upstairs just confir...

According to Data Transmission and Last.fm, Daft Punk will be touring Europe next year (2010). This hasn't been confirmed properly but worth looking out for ticket news. Instead of cramming everyone in a tent or small field they're playing in stadiums including Wembley Arena , London. There's nothing on the Arena or Le Zénith website yet but the search continues. Jul 30 Le Zénith, Paris, France Aug 1 Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam, Netherlands Aug 3 Allianz-Arena, Munich, Germany Aug 5 The O2, Dublin, Ireland Aug 7 Parc des sports, Nice, France Aug 15 Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York NY, United States Aug 22 Sydney Football, Sydney, Australia Aug 28 Olympic Park Stadium, Melbourne, Australia Sep 3 Wembley Arena , London, United Kingdom Sep 6 City Of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

Image via Wikipedia Influenced by our friend, Julian's impressive (and slightly worrying) collection of retro games consoles plus the recent BBC4 Electric Dreams programming, I raided the attic to find Kerry's ZX Spectrum for some classic gaming. I'd bought this for her birthday or Christmas present some years ago, not the rubber keyboard version but the newer 128k '+2' with proper keyboard and integrated tape deck (according to Wikipedia it cost £149 at launch) plus a heap of games. We were amazed it still worked and the legendary loading sound brought back memories of worry and paranoia whether the tape would load (until we got bored of listening to it). Over the past few evenings we've tried a Dizzy game (you played an egg character), Manic Miner , Hyper Sports and Atic Atac . Manic Miner is still hard-as-nails to play, Hyper Sports surprisingly addictive and Atic Atac a recurring nightmare with a finger twister to play on the keyboard with all keys on ...

After a few weeks break, our super-team of quizzers won the 1st year anniversary of Horace McSquirter's Quiz me Hardy at the Pond pub. It was very exciting with the place decorated with knob shaped balloons though I'd say we were robbed of the best team name prize (c'mon Horace, keep up with the news) with a nod to Amy Winehouse 's year free cold-turkey "They tried to make me go to quiz night but Horace said no, no, no". The music round was a tie-breaker between us and another team but we lost that too. The last laugh was with us as we scraped through to win the grand prize with a cheeky half point. Fredag (Friday in Swedish) We celebrated Sukey's first day at work, which started for her on a Friday. Our chosen meet up point was the Northern Lights , the Scandinavian bar on Little East Street. It was a gloomy, wet evening but the atmosphere inside was cosy and cool. Shame their gin and grapefruit speciality was sold out but I did get a chance to sample ...

Our Friday night cocktail evening based on Spaced went well, I think. Thanks to Kerry, we had a late inspiration to base it on Simon Pegg and co. and designed the cocktail menu accordingly with every character receiving their own drink. Thankfully the ice-crusher bought on ebay arrived just in time though typically only got used twice. There was a frantic 3 hours of shaking, mixing and washing then it seemed everyone realised how drunk they were and calmed down taking it easier preferring to extend their stay. Personal favourites were the Bubblegum shooter made of Creme de Banana, Blue Curacao and Baileys Irish Cream which actually tasted like Hubba Bubba. Saturday teatime/evening was another comedy festival event. I'd never heard of the theatre group Spymonkey but they were presenting their version of Moby Dick at the Brighton Corn Exchange. With our front row tickets we got slightly more than we expected from the performance. The stage props and scenery looked quite basic ...

After our complete bender of a 1920's night out, dragging ourselves out again was a huge challenge (I really wish my mind could switch off and let me rest). We'd promised ourselves a Wagamamas for an evening treat and invited Paul and Sarah along for the nosh. The spicy katsu chicken went down just but its destination didn't quite appreciate or expect it. With our stomachs full we headed over to the Brighton Dome for the Simon Amstell show without any expectations. The settling-in music was like a repeat of the night before with 1920's swing music pumping from the speakers literally next to our seats so no snoozing for us. The warm-up act was slightly forgettable but didn't draw away from the main show, titled 'Do Nothing'. Instead of the fast paced, witiness of Never Mind the Buzzcocks (of which I can say he's sorely missed from the current series), it was a slow-burn of a performance like the feeling of our day. He dealt with an over-friendly heck...

Wow! What a night! With some costume headaches and worries throughout the week everyone turned up at Riki Tiks looking the part. Kerry's side-parting, facial twirl and Louise Brooks look won me over (and a few others). Julian and Sukey were a pair of dapper gangster bosses, Clare transformed herself into a living Bonnie Parker , Charlotte looked amazing in her Flapper outfit whilst I went for a more blue collar look, a black-shirted fascist Andy Capp . Go-Bang DJs were playing the house sounds in the bar and sat just behind the decks was my boss which was interesting... A couple of drinks later and we went down to the venue, the Old Music Library opposite the Brighton Dome , which from the front window looked like an old funeral parlour complete with coffin and flowers. We were a little bit miffed at having to queue even though we had tickets but once in we were impressed by building's atmosphere and décor. The ground floor had a few clothes rails for the cloakroom (which...

Game & Movie news Couple of pieces of news to make the future seem that more brighter in a week of rainy gloom. The soon-to-released mixing game, DJ Hero from Activision has released its full listing of song mash-ups. Data Transmission has the full details but highlights are DJ Shadow , Beastie Boys, David Bowie (Let's Dance), Justice (Genesis), Gorrilaz, Killers and Tears for Fears plus, of course, Daft Punk as mentioned in a previous blog entry. Speaking of the Paris Punk Princes (c), as well as scoring the new Tron Legacy film, they'll also be appearing in it - hopefully as their full robot selves. Worst Previews website has the details.

After an enjoyable weekend away in Janner land ("Green Army") to see Donna and favourite niece Morgan, our telly addiction continued thanks to a new series of House . No sooner had the last series finished the other week, all of a sudden Sky pulled out another series which starts with the grumpy medic doing mental time. Another drama-drug we're doing is Flash-Forward on Channel 5 . I had tried to avoid it but thanks to other users/abusers recommendations we're already hooked. The characters are a little one-dimensional at the moment which I'm hoping its down to the early episodes and the mood music just dumbs down the atmosphere for the audio warning signs e.g. tinkly piano moment for emotional pull, dramatic orchestra bit for tense action, sinister sounds for the baddies - are we keeping up American viewers (or do US TV execs think they need it)? Still, the concept is really clever but simple, the writers have an easy job of taking the story forward in any angl...

Must be time for a break from the pub quiz as we came second last Thursday. Luckily we had an opportunity to earn some money instead of trying to win it but more on that later. The weekend was a new cosy one with Kerry for a change. Our Saturday night was an unplanned meal out but quickly learnt that not booking ahead meant many restaurants were fully booked at 8pm. After the third place we tried we headed into Seven Dials (Brighton) with the intention of visiting The Tin Drum . We checked the other restaurants within the area but settled for our original choice. Although the décor was a little scruffy with a relaxed cafe/pub style, the food was really tasty. The organic, locally sourced range of food was delicious. We had some small problems with the service but after some polite nagging we were given the desserts for free as well as a round of drinks. The bill was well under what we expected so won't have any problem going back or recommending it. Retro tech TV I'm likin...

According to Charlie Ross' Twitter he's added a YouTube video with some footage of his show. Its slightly strange without any audience reaction but good nonetheless.