Ginger DJ Rob

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...