Ginger DJ Rob

I really wanted to have a party to remember my 40th by so chose fancydress. Thankfully my wife came up with the theme of Heroes and Villains which allowed a wide-interpretation. It wasn't all smooth sailing with the planning and preparation. Finding a decent venue in Brighton before Christmas proved to be expensive or couldn't offer a late closing time. Fortunately, good friends Paul and Sarah stepped in to host it. Rejected costume ideas for me were Link from Zelda, Snake (with cardboard box) from Metal Gear Solid , Han Solo , Mad Max, Tron or a Galdiator/Trojan Warrior. Instead I kept it simple and played it for my look-a-likee, Simon Pegg having done Shaun of the Dead at a previous party. So, discounting films like Paul (not that funny), Run Fatboy Run (as a jogger?!) and Star Trek (love to but too geeky) I went for Sergeant Nicholas Angel . Hot Fuzz costume Possibly the most iconic part of the costume which had to be just right was the Police stab vest . I'd seen...

Birthday Set 1 by Gingerdj on Mixcloud

The director who did the TV show about photography I was on told me about this. Being a huge Blade Runner fan, I was so jealous but at least someone took these photos. Its like a party with film sets to walk around, scenes to watch, live bands, actors playing parts, the film played and an experience to never forget. See the Secret Cinema website for more details. If the photos don't impress, check out their YouTube channel .

Image by Ginger DJ via Flickr The lack of real blog entries lately has been down to being either really busy on things that aren't that exciting or small things that only deserve a Twitter shout. I blame it on the Winter Olympics and decorating. First off, something I forgot to mention that a friend who works for Brighton council said that my photo (right) had made their 'media briefing'. Not quite sure what this means but being a secret council informer/spy excites me slightly.  Kev, Karol, Sarah and James all celebrated their birthday at the end of February/start of March. After some pre-drinks at K and K's we bundled round to the Disco Dungeon and started the proper party. Since updating to Windows 7 and Virtual DJ 6 I'd hoped for a stress-free set. The only thing that went wrong was the time codes where the sound quality using the virtual vinyl was a watery-muffled sound. As soon as I switched to just using the laptop all was good and had another blinding...

My holiday break started with a bump on the Wednesday before Christmas. The combined icy conditions and previous evening's rain turned the roads into highly polished glass. Without checking the university website, I stupidly cycled into work coming off worse from a) cracking my arse after slipping off my bike and b) wasting my time after discovering the university had closed due to the conditions. The catch-up drink at the Eagle pub on Gloucester Road cheered me up with my Elf t-shirt going down well. Christmas Eve was a restrained one with the core (K n K and P n S) though never got to play our new Buzz game on the PS3. Another missed opportunity was watching the Christmas Day swimmers down at the pier. After unwrapping the presents we ran out of time and scrambled into action for a last minute tidy up for my dad's arrival at 1pm. As well as unwrapping his present to us (see picture), I kept him entertained (and sent him to sleep) with a recording of Channel 4's Queen in...

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.

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...

After the previous weekend of excess, I thought we'd be ready for a quiet one until we decided to host a cocktail evening. Within a week we'd (perhaps) over-did the preparations with a cocktail menu and far too much booze ordered through Asda (surprisingly well-stocked with obscure spirits), Ocado (who stock Tuaca ) and a grand haul of Japanese beer, Shocho and plum wine ( Japan Centre ). The menu was scripted by Kerry on PowerPoint whilst I injected some themed style of using The Usual Suspects which got us in trouble with Kerry's work. It wasn't the cock in cocktail but the quote within the emailed document of 'Gimme the fuckin keys you fuckin cocksucker mutha fucka arrghhh!'. Something like foul, non-business language with sexual explicit under-tones. Ooops! The night itself was another mad rush of fast drinking with Keyser Soze's canopes going down well and the following drinks being asked again: Lady Killer: Gin(1), Apricot Brandy(3/4), Cointr...

Although we've lived in Brighton for two years, we were Gay Pride virgins and our first experience was a wet and stressful one. The plan was to drop off all our stuff at Kev and Karol's in the North Laines which included laptop and stuff for DJing, drinks and a cake Kerry had made the night before (6 hours of chocolate labour). We wanted to catch some of the parade after this then collect enough willing mates to join us at the festival in Preston Park . When the taxi arrived for us at around 11:40am we bundled out without realising the front door key had been left in the lock. The last time this happened it cost me about £90 to get a locksmith out who used a type of bar. I'm not going to give away how I did it but got back into the house without another expensive call-out. Kerry and Emma went without us in the taxi but rang 10 minutes later saying the parade had blocked all traffic and there was no way of crossing the road in the North Laines. This left James and I to cycl...

Half the month has just slipped away and I think most of it is deciding which HD television to buy! And here it is, the Sony Bravia 40" LCD KDL-40Z4500 which has a 200hz refresh, the first of its kind. I'm using Delicious to tag all the shopping websites and monitoring their downward price - have a look at my Delicious feed on the right. Since I started looking, some retailers have reduced the prices from an average of £1500 to £1300 in the space on a 3 weeks. January is supposed to be a quiet month to conserve the cash but we've braved the big freeze for a few treats along the way. To celebrate Sarah's last day of her old feet (before her feet operation that is) we went treated ourselves to the best tapas in Hove at Latino . It was an opposite experience the evening after trudging round Ikea with only meatballs and their chocolate biscuits a result. Downloaded the highly addictive GTi Club+ on the PS3 . This was a favourite of mine in the arcades where you race a ...

It so nearly didn’t happen and by mid afternoon Saturday we even debated to cancel the party. All through the working week we were struggling to muster up enough energy to do any preparation and even missed out on the annual chaos that is Lewes Bonfire Night thanks to that crappy flu like cold. Luckily, we’d booked Friday off for the back-breaking work to clear all the remaining hardcore, old plaster and concrete fireplace taking it to the dump. Kerry was still too ill to help so I dosed up with everything we had to scrub the back yard clean. Saturday was more work with the dining room (soon to be dance) floor to be have the laminate finished and skirting boards fitted. The weather started to misbehave and with 60mph winds expected we ditched the pop-up marquee for the tarpaulin. A few breakages and scratches along the way whilst moving furniture and decorating put us on a downer but the fakes cobwebs, skeletons etc. made the place look excellent. Trev and Pom rolled up early with th...

Friday was a bit of a wipe-out after the Midnight Juggernauts. My ears were still ringing and alertness down to minimum. We had a tasty BBQ in the evening and I thrashed everyone at poker. Saturday was the Big Beach Boutique 4 down on Madeira Drive and the weather was perfect with warm sunshine and blue skies. Before our planned 4pm entrance I prepared a load of mp3 tunes for the after party at Paul and Sarah's. We all met up including new friend Nick who'd flown in from Ibiza then headed for the beach party. I say beach party but it was actually a road and car park party. No drinks were allowed and a police sniffer dog to welcome us in. As we got in we still had about half a mile to walk to the stage going past various food stalls, bars, toilets etc. under the promenade arches with expensive looking branded signs. We found a cosy spot to dance about 20 metres away from the stage whilst Danny Tenaglia DJed. He wasn't too bad although he did drop a couple of desperate old sc...

The masses have spoken. Saturday 8th November 2008 will see the dead rise again in Brighton.

Preparation With Pav's 40th birthday party themed as anything starting with the letter 'P' Kerry had the idea to go as Pav himself in face-mask form. Either everyone thought it was such a great idea or they were too lazy to get an outfit themselves so we made 7 masks on Friday night. Unfortunately I only had a couple of photos of Pav in high resolution so had to lift them from Facebook. We ended up with 6 identical DJ pose Pavs and one 'teethy goon' Pav. Kerry's printer served well with the output glued to cardboard then some chopsticks sawn in half taped to the back. Party Pav's party itself, hosted at the Clapham's Artesian Well was a great laugh. The birthday boy had punked himself up whereas there were a fair share of police, pirates, more punks, a Playboy bunny , a couple of priests (special mention to Jake for his Father Ted outfit), oh and a pimp. The winner of the competition was a Primadonna but slightly confused by Pav's speech to say ...

Thanks to today's B3TA newsletter I found one of the best blogs for a long time. Sorry I missed your party is someone trawling through FlickR photos for some images people would rather forget. It's worth reading the captions as well. Here's some favourites we've found:- Ralphing I hate you Mum and Dad This is what ruined Woodstock 99 for me (NSFW) Nice faces The blog invites people to submit their own photos so guess who I've sent in as a possible new entry???

DSC_1027 Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . After returning from shopping in London we were a bit drained of energy and expecting a short stay at Trev's. Bless him though, in response to the complaints from ladies, he built a toilet next door to the summer house so no one needed to walk down and up the hill. It had a heater and light with only the small inconvenience of using a big jug of water to flush the thing so only number 1's. A few new faces joined the celebration including a DJ who used to do Turnmills and some girl who drove down from Lincoln. Shame my laptop couldn't get sorted in time my slot due to some driver problem so was left to taking photos all night. It turned out to be a very good night with some good tunes all round and everyone dancing most of the time. I can't really remember that much but I'm sure the photos on Flickr will tell you a thing or two. Early casualities were Kev sleeping in the corner and being posed with the Lincoln ...

Bunker entrance Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . Saturday was a lazy affair watching TV films including Tron which was nice. We had the option to go back to Global Gathering with the weekend tickets but the drive put us off. Instead we drove towards Salisbury to meet our London friends camping at Vinfest, an all weekend party on the grounds of Vinnie's step dad's field. This was no ordinary country field but an ex- Ministry of Defence site which stored nuclear weapons in bunkers and even had its own railway. Most of the happy campers were in full swing dancing under canvas as the weather had drastically changed. Marc was playing his trademark US Soulful House and a few of the ravers were in costume or face-painted. After Marc, the music/DJ quality went down for some of us so used the time to scout out the area and talk to a few people. A table-tennis tournament had been arranged by Trev which was held in the bunker. He even had his own clip-board titled ...

Banner Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . Spent about an hour researching new tunes for downloads preparing for Paul 's birthday party (though with only a third of them played). In the evening we put Kerry's plan of a birthday banner into action whilst watching Sezer get booted. His face was a picture and glad to see the back of that big-headed tw@t. Next on my Big Brother hit list is Grace who seems to console anyone just to get good PR. Other than that, new girl, Aisleyne needs to cover her arse or at least buy some bigger buttocks if she's going to wear a piece of shoe-lace to cover that boney bum of hers. Anyway, we finished the banner Saturday afternoon (pic above) after renewing our supplies of purple felt-tips in time to go into town on the bikes. Went into Orange hoping to sort out the free broadband and lovely new phone to satisfy my green-envy of Kerry's new Nokia N80 . I was prepared to pay a little money but Orange don't offer any trade-in if y...