Friday, August 22, 2003

Masochists and such
One recent event has recently convinced me that Sandor is continuing a trend of masochistic adventures that me and Chris F. were partners in crime originally. Last Year, he decided to climb up the front face of Mt. Stuart with seven children under the age of 13 including his own first born son 9 yo at the time. The eldest of this bunch happened to be a girl to boot. They started out early in the afternoon and by nightfall they had reached through nearly impenetrable jungle to the base of the cliffs near the lookout. Number of torches - zero, number of mobile phones - zero. Full moon - one. Walkie-Talkies - one. Water - running out. Realising that going up the cliff-face was suicide, they contacted a truck driver with the walkie-talkies. Got them to phone one of the kid's parents to come up to the top to help guide them the rest of the way. Hours and hours later after inching their way up one by one, they got to the top. This year, a small group of teenage males got stuck in a similar position (with mobile phones). They got "rescued" by Emergency service helicopters - wimps.

Did I hear Right
I was watching Susey Maroney ultra-marathon swimmer on TV. My wife tells me that her twin Brother died falling off a balcony at a hotel in Honolulu. She told me that it wasn't suicide but some kind of horseplay that went wrong. The height of stupidity! One should carefully calculate how to climb down safely before going near the edge.

Thursday, August 14, 2003

Presentation
Incidentally, I bought a cd labelling kit including software from Harvey Norman (Fellowes brand incidentally) and it makes cd's look absolutely marvellous. It cost less than $40 and has some clip-art ready to go. I think it is a must to label demo single cd's. (I labelled a cd with a guitar picture and named it Apple Sauce - at a pinch it will do nicely).

Strategy
First rule of chess that I read about recently - This is how you play the game, you try to predict what the opponent's best move is and work out what moves you can do to best thwart his plan. You don't just play a move that looks good and hope that the opponent is equally unthinking and it's just a game of chance. Common sense, you might say, but it took me years to teach my kids that chess is about strategy. Equally, I have been applying strategic thinking in vanquishin vermin, and in business to try to actually make a profit (having eluded us for a couple of years).

So I simulate being a radio DJ:-----> and every day, I look at the pile of incoming music and requests. The CD at the top, I notice has ten new songs from a band I've never heard before, the next one I see is a new looking CD single. Now, should I play one of these on the air straight away, or listen to one of them first. Ok, I don't want to get sued, I better hear it first, I'll play the single, I don't have enough time to go through a whole album to see if there's something I like on it without any unsavoury content.

Thus, it is not really about quality which gets an unknown song onto the radio, but convenience for the DJ. I am convinced that none of the demo CD's with more than one Title ever hit the airwaves (for a lesser known band). Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. CHOOSE ONE SONG AT A TIME BEFORE SENDING TO RADIO STATIONS. That is what my strategic thinking is screaming into my ear for Spit.

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

Ants and Such
Over the years, I have discovered some astoundingly cheap strategies for vanquishing vermin of all kinds. Starting with mice, I realised that, rather than getting a better mouse trap, the real secret for my situation was to find out where their nest was and block it off. Plugging the hole in the wall near the washing machine just made them dissappear. Cockoroaches, were a perennial problem until my Kylie's crazy uncle told me a simple statement that, in Townsville, the big dark breed of cocky's is predominant, and they are outdoor roaches and only come indoors to feed. Barrier spray along under the doors that lead outside (at my house that's only the front door, garage & back door), and there is no sign of them for months! Ants were a problem for years, and the barrier technique just wasn't working, because of their sheer numbers and small size. I coincidentally bought "SIMANT" computer game for the kids (ant simulator), and the solution was there in front of me. Find the queen ant in the patch that's causing the trouble, and just spray that small area. I have declared my house 100% ant free indoors. In all these cases, I had spent months in frustration before the light bulb appeared. Now if there was just the thing for head lice - I must keep thinking.







Things to do

Well, I'm expecting to send a promotional single CD of Spit to local radio stations timed to coincide with a new album coming out soon. So in the meantime there is plenty of preparation for me. I would like to see if any of my father's friends in the graphics art industry has done cd covers. Since dj's like everyone else judge a book by its cover, it seems important for the cd to have the semblance of professionalism. Otherwise, I will have to take my chances with whatever I've got when the timing is right. One of our former employees now works for 4TO FM. Maybe she could pull a couple of strings to see that the music gets on the air somewhat. I am hoping to at least get an airing on the "Hit or Shit" segment (Sea FM?) or the "Hot or Not" (Hot FM?) evening sessions where new music is aired first to be cheered or flushed down the toilet, metaphorically. I am also hoping to "request" the songs somewhere in the request times.

Thursday, August 07, 2003

1987

I want to not give up on remembering little bits of this trip. I am trying to remember everything that we did in Mexico, and my mind races through them much quicker than I can type the damn things - maybe I've already written something somewhere.....
Movies

Oh no. I've seen another one. I took Kylie out to the mooovies to see Jim Carey's new movie... How did I get talked into that one. Not only did I live a lie and pretend convincingly that I enjoyed myself, I found that the kids movies that I'd seen recently were distinctly better! My main problem was that the popular characters in the movie were already so stereotyped as other people in my mind, that I just couldn't believe their characters. This is not a problem in movies like Monsters Inc. , which I thoroughly enjoyed (on TV).
Make time you fool!

As I say so often to my employee underlings - It is not true that you don't have enough time - It's that you don't think that it is important enough to make the time.

So to hell with it - everything can rot for another half an hour.

Music

I want those spit CD's!! I know I could download the music and help to pick out suitable candidates for a CD Single. But, I would rather grandstand about what should happen rather than offer selective opinions about which is best.

Obviously a CD single must have a good song, a second song, and a couple of variations on the theme of the first song (dance version, karaeoke version). And rather than a demo CD, It should be presented as a shop-ready product to radio stations. Desktop publishing of CD covers and inserts have come of age. You can buy the paper and software for not a lot of money at your local Harvey Norman store and print it on your friendly inkjet printer. I am planning to go through the motions of that anyway.

I was thinking that "Apple Sauce" was an ideal single song - but, assuming that your recent work is a lot better, it could probably be a good second song.