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john b robot drum & bass diary
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> Snow, BT & Croatia. <
Hmm, so I'm back to normal now, after a pretty heavy few days - played in Edinburgh on Thursday, then Zagreb on Saturday - really early flights all round so my special airoplane sleeping-eyemask-thingie came in very handy. When it snowed on Tuesday night I went out at 2am and spelled out some random words in really big letters in the snow, to amuse rush-hour passers by in the morning and make some kind of random statement... I'm crap at that sort of stuff, so I wrote "WHY" in huge letters, and then decided that was ghay, and wrote "POO" next to it, even bigger. I tried to take some photos, but it was so dark they didn't really come out, but you can see how big they were by the footsteps in the letters... I had to go back inside, Police cards kept on driving past and writing letters in the snow is probably against the law round here. Anyway, here's the best pics i could manage...    PLayed up in Edinburgh on Thurday, had a groovy time - flight was delayed so I pretty much had to go straight to the club once I landed. Met up with my oldddd friend Jane, from University - hadn't seen her for years - she's living up there now. Tried to have a chat but lots of mad scots kept on coming up and butting in. Madness. There was one dude I swear was the reincarnatiion of a raver Russ Abbott - his catchphrase was "SEE THAT (insert track name here) THATS A WIKKID TUNE THAT IS" then he'd repeat jsut with a new track in there. Fun though - everyone was reeally nice there and it was a pleasure to play. HAd a reallly early flight back down south, had to be up at 730, so had v little sleep. Everyone was staring at my hair in the airport - and as in Heathrow on the way up, the baggage security screener man commented on it. i think at Heathrow they said something like "somebody's having a bad day!" then the guy in Edinburgh said "Windy outside is it?" but then he qualified it by saying how he was jsut jealous, cos he was rather baldy. Funnny thought. ITs ALLLLWAYS the baggage screeeners that say something witty about my hair. ALways. Some guy with a giant bavarian-style handlebar curly moustache in DC once said something rude about my hairdo too - a ticket check in man too for the airlines. I ususally smile politely - but its a strange conundrum that its always the baggage screeners - and quite often the funniest looking ones amoung them too. OH yeah and on the way to zagreb the Lady at Heathrow asked if it was real and then reached out and started stroking my hair, and commented on how soft it was!! hahahaha. MaD. Still I guess I like the attention... Oh yeah, I've also noticed this week, being on really early flights, how many people drink pints and get drunk at like 8am in airports. I think I've stumbled upon another mighty socialogical discovery... I had fry-ups at the Witherspoons in Heathrow and Edinburgh, and counted a whole bunch of people with pints, even some guy with a bottle of wine for him and his missus, at 8am! NNNNNnnnnice. As much as I love my wine, no way can I face it that early, not even in my Student days - or even on my 18th Birthday. ;-) SO yeah that was Scotland... Zagreb was fun, I was so mashed when i got there i had to get some sleep - but the guys - Damir (with a mighty moustache) and Sebastian (Royksopp Lookalike) took me out for a walkabout later and dinner - I had some crazy Veal Schnitzel thing, but was YuMMM, and some amazing croatian wine, i think i might have to track it down adn order some... Checked out the Zagreb town square and took a lot of pictures. There were lotsandlots of lovely ladies wandering about and they were totally all checking me out, maddddd. Or maybe it was Damir - the combination of his moustache and my barnet was unbeatable... anyway we had a white wine spritzer (!!!*) in a crazy punk bar then went up to teh venue, Mia the resident lady Dj was playing some fab electro, then i went on and did 2 hours DnB, then one 80s track as my last tune, then they came and said I coudl play for another hour, so I did 1 hour of electro, 80s and synthpop! hehehe. Nice. Again, had a dannnnger early flight home, so had about 1 hour sleep, adn got to the airporttt and had some parma ham... Very snowy, and amuzing cab driver talkign to me in Croatian, sounded russian. I jsut nodded and laughed as though i understood. Now I'm back, got a week or 2 to totally finish the album. Have to remix the track I did with Exile, and have one other track im in the middle of - that could be massssssive, so gota get that done too. Also as much gym as possible - been going quite regularly and feeeeling very healthy as a resuLt - except now that my shagging knee injury has finally recovered my ankle is bugggered up now, starts hurtinggg after about 1 mile running, which is lame, quite literally, so I guess I'll have to do more skiing things or whatever. Anyway, much dash. Here's a collection of pics from the weekend...        Oh yeah, and I had rukshions with BT this week too. First of all, the Digital phones I have of theirs, BTSynergy 3500 or whatever - buggered up and don't work anymore, i think the base station died - I have looked after them fine all the time i've had them, it jstu stoppped working - conveniently just after they were a year old and outside warrenty. BOLLOX. Then I phoned up the helpline and they wouldn't help because they were out of guarantee, and said i had to phone a premium rate 1.50 a minute helpline instead. F**K that. Then they cut off my broadband connection, because I'd replaced my bank card that they had been debiting too, cos the chip fell out. When they tried to debit from it, it wasn't authorized, cos i had new number. No phone call from them, no special last minute email to let me konw, jstu one email a few weeks ago, that looked like all their other standard ones - that flood through with all the spam and viagra emails that their ohsofabulous Spamfilter deals with so well - just saying that authorisation failed. I spent the whole morning and afternoon testing my router, reconfiguring all my DHCP biznizzz, trying out differnet microfilters, wondering if it was somethign to do with the snow, or my broken BT handsets, or power spikes in teh night, or service problems. Then when i phoned them up is was some poor Indian dude, in a Delhi call centre - so it wouldnt have been right to complain to him. Anyway, I'm really mad with BT, they suck. Severely. Ok. rant over.
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3.2.04 17:02
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> Photoshopped Grandma & DnB GoKarts <
Hello... SO, hmmm, this week... Went to London on Thursday night, hung out with Annabel, Sarah, Tom & Kat - and went to Mark Moore's mighty ELECTROGOGO at Madame JoJos. Had a fabulous time as always, I think its my favourite clubnight evaR - even more that nagnagnag now - pure synthesizer electronique biznizz. The only thing i don't like is everyone's got better hairdos than me in there... Mr Moore played soem wikkid stuff - I nearly died when i hear the AhA SunalwaysshinesonTV remix! WHoooo. It had the synth loop repeated and all filtered up and stuff. GoT to get it... OH, here's a picture of my Gran and Me photoshoppped onto A-Ha's bodies... courtesy of people at www.dogsonacid.com...  Nice... Went to Bar Rhumba after that - had a VERY late night - JJ Frost adn Ray Keith were in there, that new Dillinja tune with the big classical film music sample at the beginning was playing as we came down the stairs. BOH. Did tequila slammers in honour of the days of Stareyes, Ian Melvin, Pete Hinchey and Dodgey Mike D - guys that used to come over and hang out with me around Christmas when i was young - all Americanz people - mighty. Anyway. That was the only time i ever did tequila. Errrrghhh. Been in the studio a lot for the rest of the weekend - finishing the last track "Midnight Air" for my in:transit album. Turning out monstrously - but yet again, I've had to do the vocals - don't know anyone around here who can do any really - except Shaz - but shes tooo good and got flu at the moment anywayyy. Last night was pretty mad, it was Adam F's birthday and he invited a bunch of us DnB people etc up to a gokarting place in Kings Cross. There were about 20 of us - and did some big endurance race for an hour in teams of 2 - my partner was well fast, but I'd never done it before and was right old slow and overcautious, but I never crashed or spun out at all! Grooverider, Zinc, Jay Majik, the Pendulum boys and lots of other were all there, J. Majik won - but he had his own balaclava - so... I def wana do it again, proper adrenaline buzzz. Took me a while to get to sleep - had sorta motionoverload - a bit like when you've been surfing and you can still feel the waves when you're lying in bed. Oh yeah, and I watched some mad japanese movie on sat night while i was in the studio - called "Audition". This guy konws a mate in movies who sets up auditions for a film thats never gona happen so he can meet girls, jsut cos hes lonely and his wife died, not in a sleezy way or anything - but she turns out to be a nutter and cuts his foot off with cheese wire. Some other japanese movie called "Liar" was on last night, but I had to switch it off - was a bit much - some crazy sculptor making his girlfriend beat him up adn stuff. Better than most trashy hollywood biznizz, but not exactly pleasant viewing. Anyway, its Monday, got lots to do... Here's some more pics of my Grandma that internet peopel have edited... bizarrre... LOvE the alan Shearer one! haha.   
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9.2.04 13:39
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> Prophetic Illnesses <
Mad. I just woke up and have a raging cold. Dreamed about burglars - house invasion stylee - then got an email from my mate Jack saying he had been at his GF's house, woke in teh night by a guy with a torch, and basically some dude had come in their house and stolen the BMW, PC, all sorts. Mad. Maybe my new cold has given me future vision skills in my dreams... WHat a responsibility...
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10.2.04 15:57
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> Still Ill, freeky Waitrose Shopping lists <
My cold is still here, but now I have lots of drugs to combat it. Lemsip, Sudafed, Ecinasia, Ecenasia Tea, Night Nurse, Vicks Vaporub, Wine. Nice. Just been on an ill office task day today really - working out artwork for the album, and some adverts, figuring out how to use photoshop in the process. Had 2001 DvD on in the background this evening. Also been checking over the webstore bizniz, got a new server and am moving my normal label sites, and eventually everythign else onto there... except this - so dont worry... I love my powerbook. Managed to persuade Martin to get an ibook - set everythign up for him yesterday, went very well and im sure it will serve him fantastically. Figured out the reason why my dad was so anti mac was cos he thought there was only one mouse button and they couldnt work with 2... Explained that was not the case and demonstrated the powerrrr of panther today, think i'll chip in so he can get an eMac for his Birthday (tomorrow). Erm, this blog entry is dedicated to my Dad in a Birthday stylee... BOH.  OH, finished the last new track for the album yesterday too - "Midnight Air" - love it - will definitely be the opening track on there... Just have to go back and remix the track I did with Exile and polish it all off. Oh yes, went to Waitrose today and bought lots of wierd stuff. just things i needed, but it freekishly divided into: militant cleaning products and bleach - loads of vitamins, and cold remedies, lots of pizzas and soup, lots of sexthings, lots of wine. I should scan the receipt. I'm sure the checkout ppl dont notice, but I guess it could look like ingredients for a wierd night out/in, depending on teh order they were used in. ARgg. Oh that reminded me of a funny idea i had, i head about some website where this guy goes and finds disgarded shopping lists from shopping carts and scans them adn puts them on his website. WOuldn't it be cool to make fake, kinda nuts ones and leave them clipped to your trolley? Could be amuzing - even leave an email address on them too. I think I will develop the idea adn let u konw how it pans out...
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12.2.04 04:03
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> Quickie <
Just off to get some Toni & Guy bizniz, my last haircut before Miami - nothing mad, just s trimmm and gona get blonded up maxxximum. Finished "Midnight Air" last night. Worked on a Marilyn Manson bootleg, jsut for DJ-specialsss - and had a quick mess about with the parts for the Heaven 17 remix - they jsut sent ruff mp3 accapellas over so I'm waiting for the proper ones to come next week. Going out to Electrogogo tonight for some quality electroiDizm - should be scaNdalous as usual. Last time when i was hanging out outside waiting ffor my mates to turn up there was a really mad looking crackhead old guy wandering around with a big coat, and he leaned over a bin on the street corner and weed in it - but cunningly covered everythign up with his coat. The only thing that gave it away was the fact he was shouting/slurring "Hey Look EveRyboDdy I"m pisssinG in the BIN!!!". Madness. Perhaps I will see similar feats tonight on the mighty Wardour St. OK, must go - back later, with less hair.
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19.2.04 14:24
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> Album artwork <
Just got back from Budapest, amazing gig, really nice people. I've got a few photos to put up 2moro. In the meantime here's some tasters of album artwork...
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23.2.04 02:10
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john b robot drum & bass diary
