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Friday, September 11th, 2009
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At work there is a boy who is obsessed with Action buses and mimics bird sounds. He has been nagging me for several weeks to bring in my keyboard so he can show off his chops. So on Wednesday I did and he played Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata for 25 other 'at risk' high school students and the Messengers' staff. It was very quaint and well performed and then I got up and I showed off one my songs and everyone clapped, yadda yadda. Then suddenly something amazing happened! *spirit fingers*
A girl from the drama group got up, totally unprompted and played and sang a song she had written. It was a really mature sounding song and she had the most incredible deep voice. Next one of the art students, an introverted girl buried in a big red coat and never making eye contact, also played and sang. She had the most incredible sense of pitch I've ever heard from someone so young. Two other girls got up and sang unaccompanied and finally Beethoven boy got up to sing a song. It was the title song from Phantom Of The Opera and he sang both Christine and the phantom's parts. This was especially cute and hilarious in that he's in year 7 and his voice hasn't broken yet. He sang all the soprano part in his tiny little boyish voice right up to the incredibly high note at the end. It was fascinating and hysterical and adorable. Ahhhhhh it's days like those I really love my job.
Speaking of recording I bought a new toy! The Zoom H4n! now I can record everything!
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*collapse*
My soundscape for messengers is finally finished, albeit not %100 of what I'd hoped and dreamed but I dream giantganticly epicnormous at the most meager and exhausted of times. I've spent the past month turning teenagers talking about their emotions into surround sound masterpieces and the last week squishing papier mache faces around speakers. I wish I'd started the papier mache first as I ended up throwing an all-nighter the night before exhibition to get it finished in time. Yayayayayay for 15 hours sleep in Josh's soundproof vocalbooth last night. Thank you Porkfish. Anyhows I just got it all finished in time with the joys of spraypaint. I wanted to add some colour to it in the form of red to signify emotion. Somehow red came in the form of feathers and glitter. I am a dragqueen at heart. Everyone at the opening thought it was a success despite looking like five dragqueen roadkill trophies and sounding muddy as hell. The room is a bit too big and echoey to get the whole surround feel and all my fun glitchy nerdiness gets muffled so it would be nice to get it set up in a better environment as some stage. Anyhow the rest of the exhibition s totally mindbloingly awesomeness and it's free, every uni student, bludger and Canberran rent-payer's favourite word ever. Go check it out.
( Flyer details )
Facefuck eventy
Also I miss the 90's.
And does anyone remember the band Primary? It's what Connie from Sneaky Sound System was doing in the sultry angsty gritty 90's.
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I just had my last evor driving lesson! Winnnn!
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Thursday, June 25th, 2009
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We've been looking at my original mix of Died Again Bohemian and on good quality speakers it really sounds dreadful. I can't wait to add a real harpsichord and re-record the vocals. I'm still not sure which harpsichord to use, I've got so many to choose from, oh life is so cruel. At the moment I think the best choice would be the one the school of music has on loan. It was built in a town just near Tamworth (apparently one of the best harpsichord makers in the world lives there) and it's painted inside and out with quaint scenes of meadows and butterflies and it's got a big lush sound, definitely the grandest sounding one there. There is another small one built from a kit that has a really sharp thin plucking that might be better suited for the electronic sound of the song. I also really like one that has a full length keyboard to sample some of the low notes. We'll be trying them out with the recording next day we get in the studio.
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Thursday, June 11th, 2009
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Yesterday Josh and I started to begin to look at mixing "Almost Like Being Loved" at The School Of Music's big studio. Here is a picture of Josh pointing at the variety of big loud amazing sounding speakers.
This is the best quality in which I have ever heard my own music and I'm blown away by how many flaws I never knew existed in my mix and at the same time how fucking awesome it sounded. The only problem was when we uploaded all the individual instrument tracks into Pro Tools in this decked-out professional commercial studio there were so many tracks it crashed. Aside from that I'm so very excited.
New Tori Amos = meh, new Karnivool = schmeh, new Patrick Wolf = Fuck Yes! I love that boy so much!
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I got absorbed by facefuck and it fulfilled all my needs for a while but not being able to customise my homepage with stupid graphics and being constantly updated about when people eat lunch/go to sleep/get bored/have sex with ugly people feels a bit like hanging around civic for too long. Also loosing the routine of writing daily crap ranting about mother made me fall out of a lot of other good writing habits.
Exciting news! I'm inches away from getting the go-ahead for running my own song-writing class at work. Everyone at the arts centre is pretty enthusiastic about it, none more than me getting a pay rise and simultaneously facilitating teen angst at its extremest pinnacle of angstiness! I'm getting a bit stupidly delirious with anticipation.
Othermusicwise I've been slowly dragging myself through some long dense sludgy industrial stuff like I always do and also been whipping together some quick minimal funky soul tunes like I've never done. Band schmand members are never in canberra long enough to talk at me so solo gigs for the moment.
Also mother is murghdurgh.
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Monday, February 23rd, 2009
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www.myspace.com/marcrobertson
Nectar
Coming out of a massive writers block in which I only wrote one new song that I liked the finished product ("Ghost In The Trees") in nearly a whole year, I've been splushing about with all kinds of experiments with timing, specifically speeding up and slowing down in patterns. This song loops a slowing down beat over two bars starting at 120bpm and ending at 60bpm while another beat at double speed is playing simultaneously so that by the end of the two bars it is playing 120bpm and meets up with the original beat as well as a half speed beat and quarter speed and so on were overlaid.
The vocals were recorded one word at a time and then each word was cut up and uploaded into the sampler, assigning each word to a note. I could then "play" the words in any order I liked. I added a delay that was slowing with tempo and jumping back to 120 at the end of every two bars to create the slowing and speeding vocal effect.
Other sounds were made by waving a microphone in front of the monitors to create different pitches of feedback. I then put the recorded feedback through a pitch-correcter to make melodies. I put the feedback through different choruses and ring-modulators for effects. I also had the window open and picked up some loud birds outside amongst the feedback.
You Let Me Fall
This is a song I wrote in college and has gone through many changes and incarnations since. At one point it was going to be called "Palindrome" and could be played backwards and sound exactly the same as forwards. The only remnants of that are in the main riff. The song had been substantially finished and has sat untouched on my computer for the past year while I seethed undecided and unsatisfied with it. Finally I decided to re-record the vocals and add some piano to it to beef it up. I put a pitch shifter on the piano to shift it up an octave.
Yesterday I set up the microphone in the living room and wailed out some vocal improvisations for the middle section. I think I layered about 10 different vocal takes on top of each other. It was fantastic to just let loose and sing as loudly and instinctively as I felt.
The "clockfish" sample at the beginning of the track is from the movie "Jindabyne". I pitch-fucked the two voices to make Rose Byrne's voice a bit more monotone and the child's voice as deep his voice. I also added a few other clock-like sounds.
~~
It is bed time. Next entry I must rant about being fucked around from the not-jury duty.
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Thursday, February 5th, 2009
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I've been called to do jury duty. I start next week, the very week I start work (grrrrrrrrrr) and am on call for a month! If I get selected. That means I could show up next week at 9am at the supreme court and then told to go home. At least it's paid.
( As promised... )
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Saturday, January 31st, 2009
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Repo! = Best movie of the year so far!
Almost everything surpassed my expectations for this movie! Music top to bottom! Total awesome!
Photos of the night to come soon!
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Saturday, January 17th, 2009
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| Subject: | Catpatch |
| Time: | 11:14 pm. |
| Music: | Hold Your Hand - Paul Oakenfield feat. Emiliana Torrini. |
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Pasco cam back from the vet yesterday with chunks cut out of his fur. Here he is in his cutout beautifulnessity:
( Cat parts )
He's back to his usual eating, snuggling, destructive self even though he's still a bit thin. And he has to eat pills 746874258703204 times a day.
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Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
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Sad cat. Pasco has cholangiohepatitis and has to stay at the vet for the next week being drip-fed and medicated. I miss my cat already.
My three month holidays are driving me insane. I've made stamps out of thongs, become addicted to X.O. Coffee Candy, began making an illustrated booky inspired by 'Brave New World' and been listening to non-stop David Bowie.
Josh and I have been organising a private screening/party of Repo! The Genetic Opera for the 31st of January and will be Facefuckbooking you the event detailies as soon as it's sorted so keep the date free.
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Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
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| Subject: | Out |
| Time: | 6:02 pm. |
| Mood: |  indescribable. | | Music: | Pass This On - The Knife. |
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Okay I did it. I told mum I'm gay. I'd been running all her possible reactions through my head from her bawling her eyes out and saying "I love you son!" to her bawling her eyes out and saying "Get out of my house!" but I could not have predicted this. I've never seen her so impassive. She's completely okay with it but she doesn't want a stream of strange men coming into her house. No tears, no disappointment, no angst. Just dispassionate reasonability. Very strange.
We're just not sure how to tell dad.
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Mum: "Did you have someone stay over last night?"
Me: "Yes. Dave."
Mum: "Dave from the other night?"
Me: "Yes."
Mum: "I'd rather you didn't have *pause* people *pause* stay *long pause* in the same bed *long pause* in this house."
Me: "Okay."
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Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
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"A ZERO tolerance approach to anti-social behaviour will be adopted by WA Police for New Year's Eve as they attempt to control alcohol-fuelled violence." - The Sunday Times link
"The stand-off between the Victorian Police Association and Victoria Police Command over riot gear continues, with union members threatening not to patrol parts of the Mornington Peninsula tonight unless they're given protective helmets and shields. " - ABC News link
"MORE than 40 extra police will patrol Ocean Grove's foreshore on New Year's Eve in a bid to crack down on booze-fuelled violence and underage drinking." - Geelong Advertiser link
"Canberra's annual Summernats car festival will begin on New Year's Eve this year, sparking fears police resources will be stretched to the limit." - The Canberra Times link
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Monday, December 29th, 2008
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Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
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Only six hours after I had bought my new telephone and taken it home did I realise it was in fact a cigarette lighter.
Hepple Crumbsmash yadda yadda.
Stephen Fry is one of my favourite human beings that I don't know personally. His podcast is an absolute joy and his latest one entitled "Language"has left me buzzing at his love of language and I highly recommend it. You may have to download it through iTunes as that's the only place big enough to host podcasts for anyone not willing to pay exorbitant hosting fees. But I couldn't recommend his musings on the evolution of language and it's phonetic bliss any stronger.
Linky to da podgram.
Other exciting things: about a week ago Josh took me for a tour of The School Of Music where he is now working. It was night when everyone had gone home and the brutalist concrete corridors were deserted. He led me into a dark room, switched on the light and in front of me were about twenty pianos and harpsichords ranging from between twenty to two hundred years old. It was very special. I played two of the harpsichords and two of the more unusual pianos. My harpsichord virginity is now popped. Hopefully I will be recording Died Again Bohemian on one of these harpsichords to be released as a promo single.
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Saturday, December 13th, 2008
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Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
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Mmmmaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhsssssnnndaht. *grin*
So the busy psycho busy happenings of the past couple of months has finally come to a close. MRB played our last gig for the year as well as the acting troupe performing our monologue and this years plays for the last time all last night. Work finishes up this week and then it's three weeks holiday. And so I'm going to spend being antisocial and hermited away. Although I Might go to Melbourne to visit all my friends who have recently moved there. And I might actually make it to Chrome one of these nights.
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Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
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I'm giving up listening to music for a while because it's depressing me. I spend so much time listening to gorgeously written and glisteningly produced complete finished masterpieces that when I sit down at the piano to write my own I get a couple of chords down and then rip up the writing pad in melodramatic angst because it sounds so impossibly far away from a finished product. Also I've found myself craving silence a lot recently. I've been going for big long walks to the middle of nowhere just to give my ears a break. I think this has been a side effect of listening to all the sounds in everyday life as possible musical inspiration or samples and I've become really aware of how much my ears are bombarded in even a small city like Canberra. So I've packed away my ipod and cd's, I've closed iTunes and I've tuned the radio to obnoxious talkback so even if the wrinklies decide they need to pretend they're still home by leaving it on while I'm asleep I won't be awoken by the easy-listening mix 106.3 teaching me the lyrics to James Taylor's greatest hits ("How sweet it is to be loved by you...").
If I want to hear music I have to make it myself.
I've always adored steampunk with an almost fetishistic admiration. The fashion, the philosophy, THE ROBOTS!!! The fist time I saw Steamboy I was so exhilarated and overwhelmed I forgot to eat for an entire day. I'm so excited that ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) steamfashion has at least three new posts every day! I can't get enough of it. Now I'm really craving some steampunk related literature, some retro-futuristic Jules Vern or H.G. Wells or the like. I loved Brave New World and I'm looking for some more of that sort of stuff. Does anyone have any recommendations?
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Friday, November 21st, 2008
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This month so far has been the most hectic doomy busy month ever but I've loved it. All this rushing and making things happen with music, work and boys has kept the depression mostly at bay with only few exceptions due to tiredness. But before I get on to all that dirge I must rave about the excitement of work yesterday. I got my drama kids to write a children's song about disgusting diseases! I swear Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon are all going to rise from their graves just to hear the line "When your eyes bleed ants and your ants' eyes bleed you need quarantine!"
Musicland has been going extreme with the Barrel Of Monkeys show going off well enough (as photographic evidence on facebook and myspace will show) and the monster Marc Band show being a grandly good experience despite some technical issues.
The Gungahlin mural project is up and looking spiffy and brightening up the square square architecture of the New Suburbs. If you ever pass by the Gungahlin youth centre check it out in all it's bright redness and giant shoes.
Tonight I walked the catwalk at the Black and Pink Jester Ball. Modeling is the most rewarding job ever for the amount of work it is. I'm also going to buy the man-corset I wore because it is divine sass.
Hadley has announced he's leaving the Arts Centre *MASSIVE CRYING* but his replacement Caroline is already my new favourite positive person so he can retire in peace now.
Next Marc Band show is at Pop The Pot at The Pot Belly. We're on at around 8.30!
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inhumelesnt's journal
cheerful.
relaxed.
WIN!.
porkflu.
accomplished.
enthralled.
hutfuzzdortfneed.
naughty.
cynical.
morose.
craving.
