Back Oh no, I fell into that trap of not finding enough time to keep the blogging going. All better now, have to start getting my brain in order. Be afraid! @ 10:12 PM

Absorption There's lots of things in The Way The World Works that fascinate me. The lastest is how certain things (tissues, sponges) absorb things. It's so clever! Yeah, I just spilt something and used a sponge to mop it up. And it did. Very cool. Vacuums too. How great are they? Without them we wouldn't be able to get the mess off the floor, or even flush the toilet (that's how flushing the toilet works....by creating a vacuum). And all this happens by an accident of some chemical event all that time ago? Blimey! And I just discovered (by looking in the dictionary) that if something "absorbs" it has "absorption" - the "b" changes to a "p" - crazy language English, huh? @ 7:25 PM

Cost Of Killing Apps I should point out, though, that while Photoshop costs hundreds of pounds/dollars (and in reality the majority of people that use it haven't paid anything for it at all), Pro Tools costs thousands and thousands, requires special hardware (which certainly can't be pirated) and, well, there's no way to use it without paying for it. That's, perhaps, why it's become such a buzz-word in the UK record industry - if you "have" Pro Tools then at some point you must have earned the money to buy it (probably a minimal system costs 15000 pounds) so you must be good at something...on the other hand this currently means if you don't have Pro Tools (or, at least, know how to use it) then you're simply a nobody. I'm mean, that's so far off....without sounding egotistical I (and many other people I know and/or have worked with) can make great sounding records without a Pro Tools rig in sight...in fact I've only made big records this way so far (a certain mix album doesn't really count). It's not the tools you got, it's how you use them and all that... @ 12:42 AM

Jubilee Does this actually mean anything to people between the ages of, say, 16 and 35? I remember the Silver Jubilee of 1977 rather too well (I was dressed up as a pirate for all the street parties so I'm told) but it is just a sign of getting old (a whole 31 now) that means it really has no impact at all on me? Or am I just weird? Out of touch with the nation? I'm almost worried by it. @ 12:37 AM

Killer Apps Something inside me really likes the fact that there's millions (literally) of computer programs out there, but only a handful have actually changed people's lives. I bring this up because the other Mac on the desk here is currently running a program called 'Pro Tools' which won't mean a whole lot to people who know nothing about record-making technology (i.e. everyone) yet is the musical equivalent of Photoshop (which many more people have heard of, I'm sure). Pro Tools is the greatest thing to enter the music-making world ever. Ever. Despite what the purists think, it suddenly meant that you could get the idea from buried deep inside your head and turn it into something useful. It's no subsitute for talent, of course (it's basically a very clever tape recorder, so if you have no ideas to work with it ain't gonna help you much) but, boy, does it work the way my brain does. People that know Photoshop will understand how at one level it's just a tool, but a tool that sends you off in all sorts of directions just because it can do what it can do. Pro Tools is like that too. Thanks, Digidesign. @ 11:46 PM

Music, Oh Music The guy that writes Gibberations talks about the wonderment (is that a word?) of music and asks what is it and why it has the affect on people that it does. I've wondered this (too) many times, but I just love the fact that it does. I'd be very, very lost without music in my life. Not just because it's my job (in fact, despite the fact that it's my job!) but because it does things to you that...well....it's not possible to have done by anything (or anyone) else. @ 11:17 PM

Email What is it with me and my email address? So many domains, I forget which one's actually have active mailboxes I can pick up mail from. NOW it works properly (on the off-chance anyone's emailed me yet, please try again) @ 9:58 PM

Grammys That reminded me, I didn't win my 1999 nomination for a Grammy award. I hadn't even thought about it until just now. Shame really. Even though no-one in the UK has any real idea what the Grammy's actually are, it would have been nice. At least, since then, I have a hard time believing when you hear people say that they're not too fussed if they win an award @ 9:45 PM

More Filmness Oh yeah, and despite us doing a track for the Moulin Rouge soundtrack (and by association actually finally winning part of a Grammy award) we made the same mistake with them too....gave them the track in peices and hoped they'd reassemble it in a reasonable way. Er...nope. I don't think they even used our (my) original mix on the soundtrack CD but, you know what, I'm too scared to even listen to it and check. @ 9:42 PM

Music For A Film Letting someone use a track in a film is a strange experience, and I've just been reminded of this when watching "Charlie's Angels" (Hmmm...Cameron...) Their use of "Ya Mama" is, perhaps, the strangest edit it was ever possible to do of that track (and I did various edits of it for the video, radio edit, TOTP edit - that last one was never used - so I know what that particular track is like to chop into little peices and reassemble it) but it was far more respectful than what happened when we gave a track to the Tomb Raider soundtrack. What a nightmare that was. The moral kids - if you let someone else have control of something you normally don't let go off (in this case, the final mix) it will get screwed up. Never again will we let them have anything more than a stereo master, all mixed and ready to go. It ain't worth it. @ 9:33 PM

Sunshine Ain't sunshine great? All of a sudden everyone's smiling at each other and generally being nice (well...nicer). No wonder us Brits are such a moody bunch - on days like this there's only downhill to go when the weather turns bad (which will probably happen tomorrow) I was supposed to sit in the studio today and work on a track of mine...well I got as far as loading all the computers up and playing around with a snare drum pattern for half an hour but I was always being distracted by all the lovely ladies walking around outside...so I left it and went out instead. That is progress, by the way, because, in years gone by, I would have stayed in the studio trying to get something done but still failing anyway, so to give up early and go and be a real human being for a couple of hours is a reasonable character redefinition. @ 6:03 PM

Oops Probably best to have an email link that works then, idiot. @ 12:06 PM