Hello Internetworld, goodbye bike

So Tuesday was supposed to be a stress-free day out in London for an exhibition on internet marketing but turned out to be a gutting experience. Cycled to Brighton station and locked it in good view of a CCTV camera, all just before my 8:16am train. Internet World was at Earl's Court which had loads of free seminars on CMS, social media, email marketing, etc. plus exhibitors of services and hosting. Some good presentations attended but later double the amount of people wanted to see the same ones as me so missed out on a few. Some of the exhibitors knew their target market very well having leggy models handing out flyers and a F1 car with a driving simulation to try.

Lunch was a joke opting for an off-site cafe and a coronation chicken sandwich which had less chicken than chicken's dandruff. The only highlight in the afternoon was another exhibitor gimmick of what looked like a guy dressed in an inflatable suit but could have been a robot controlled remotely which waved at passers by.


Got back to Brighton around 5:40pm and went looking for my mountain bike which should have still been locked to the rack. 2 or 3 more scans and all I found was the velcro strap my cable lock used to have. Reporting it to the station staff was a slight shambles. The Transport Police office was shut so the station staff member told me to use their emergency public phone. It was broken with no dial tone. Luckily an off-duty officer walked past and gave me a free-phone number to report the theft.


So my beloved and cherished Saracen Zen 3 is no more. Yesterday was a speedy claim process for the 2010 model which is a painful £300 more than the 2008 version. I didn't pay that amount but the insurance excess and another £40 made the order without any extras such as a replacement lock, mudguards, light mounts etc. I've since been watching ebay, Free Ads, Friday Ads, Gumtree and anything else. According to the police it takes 7 - 10 days to get the CCTV footage. Finally, someone suggested I contact all pawn-brokers in case the thief went straight to get cash.

This week's web findings

Found some great web content this week and for anyone not following me on Twitter or Facebook here's a summary of what I've found this week.

Event: Asahi Anime Festival 30 April - 2 May, Moshi Moshi Brighton

Expect Japanese pop bands, Gothic Lolita fashion shows, lovely, lovely Japanese beer and food, karaoke & more beer.

Video: The world's tallest bicycle record attempt
At 100 metres tall, this was the second attempt. It was done about 3 years ago and used scaffolding and a bungee rope in case he fell off.


Video: Wasted guy at Coachella Festival trying to put on his flip flops
Couldn't get the embedded code for this so click on the link above. Already over a 1.6 million plays so far.

Video and DJ technology for the future? DJing with Apple I-pads
I was really impressed by the concept of this. Rana Sobhany has taken two I-pads and linked them to a mixer. Instead of using say Virtual DJ, she's used various applications to mix and create her set. The best moment for me was using Daft Punk's ipod app with Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. Hopefully the DJ equipment manufacturers like Numark will take notice and we may see a virtual Technics 1210 in the near future!

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Happy Birthday Kerry

Birthday girl, Kerry had a week ending on a mercy mission to collect her sister from Calais. With the volcano ash grounding all Europe flights, Karol was stuck in Brussels until Kerry suggested she could pick her up from Calais. It took most of the day to drive and do both ferry crossings but I think she appreciated it after the amount of problems everyone else had.

The spoiling of the missus started with a Mr Ben themed card and the latest Gildas and Masaya mix CD, Tokyo (which I've just found on Soundcloud below). Soon-to-be-wed mates, James and Emma turned up for the evening's celebrations and we taxi-ed over to Karol's for pre-pub drinks where the other soon-to-be-wed's, Steve and Sam were waiting.

More presents for Kerry then over to the Office pub in the North Laines of Brighton to meet up with co-birthday girl, Sukey (yes, they do have some very similar personality traits).

We'd pulled together quite a good sized crowd between us all and headed over to Audio on the seafront for some Schtumm DJ action and a couple of new French DJs called Monsieur Monsieur. The club was packed as usual but each time we visit this place I get more annoyed by its crowd, layout and constant flooding of the toilets. With free entry it attracts a beered-up crowd who just stagger onto the dance-floor plus the layout of the club means people walk through the dance area pushing and never settling on one place.

We'd just missed the majority of Schtumm DJ Sam's set with the French duo of Mr Mister about to take the decks. Their set didn't really detract me from my slight grumpiness of the club. One or two decent tracks along the way but any flow or decent breakdown was ruined by their insistent need to tweak and transform the sound. Clever though it might be it just wasn't the right way to DJ and lift the crowd. Later the DJ's girlfriends joined them behind the decks grooving away until one of them knocked over the main monitor speaker. Luckily no one was under it at the time but they were quickly ushered away by security. Not long after that, it seemed their constant sound tweaking stopped the whole set and gave the crowd a typical French shrug.

Boredom, the need for some better tunes and a place where your feet didn't get wait whenever the call of nature happened ended our Audio experience. Back at Karol's and I set up my laptop and mixer for a couple of after-hours DJing. Shame we missed Brighton's first marathon the next day.

Tuesday was Kerry's actual birthday, after the Chris Cunningham night and she was spoiled rotten. French toast for breakfast and a adventurous mission for me to cook something special (believe me, this is a major mission since being a 'can't cook'). Present highlights from me were a tandem skydive, another ring (slightly cheaper than her engagement one) and a cartoon sound-effects machine (boing, outtahere dash, gong etc.).

Gildas & Masaya - Tokyo by maison_kitsune

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Chris Cunningham at the Brighton Dome review

After Saturday's double celebration of Kerry and Sukey's birthday, the thought of another mad night out was way down on my wish list. Still, after seeing the Star Wars video Chris Cunningham had done I was looking forward to similar music brilliance.

For some reason I thought we had standing tickets but we'd somehow booked seating at the Brighton Dome which was perfect. We'd come into halfway of the one of the warm-up acts, Beak> (that's not a spelling error by the way). At first they sounded awful as they distorted electric guitar and pots 'n' pans rock sound but after a couple more songs and swapping of instruments their sound transformed past the distortion into a rich, eerie but lo-fi soundscape. I noticed their merchandise stand only had their album on vinyl plus some really cool t-shirts (later bought). They have a blog too called Dream of Beak.

The second warm-up act was DJ Jackson of Jackson and his Computer Band. His music choice was as bizarre as his own personal look. He had a blond He-Man haircut and a white denim jacket and jeans (though could have been the stuntman for Spinal Tap). The first part of his set sounded more like a Black & Decker radio advert then mixed up hardcore rave, some punk sounds, a great cover version of Beck's I'm a Loser as I'm a Raver then continued blasting us with late 80s/early 90's classics like 808 State and Dominator. Some inspired choices and some dodgy mixing.

Right on schedule, Chris Cunningham strolls on stage with a technician and his huge display screens activated with test colours and shapes. It looked like they had technical problems but this was just part of the entertainment as you saw what seemed like a live feed of the technician plugging in the mains. A menacing feel took over with the crackle of electricity and the green laser activated like a futuristic killing machine. The sound effects were intense thanks to the Dome's excellent set up. As the Terminator-like visuals changed a naked couple came on screen fighting, wrestling without any care to each other. Sprays of blood added to the shock factor but the sight of the naked guy stroking himself as if holding a baseball bat took it to another level. It was as erotic as chemical warfare with each punch striking each other like a huge pulse of sound and energy where a beat formed and a side-helping of oral sex visuals projected.

Kerry descrbed it as "(exorcist + cocks) x lasers = chris cunningham"

More shocking stuff to give you nightmares including a drum and bass track with a lady flashing us with what looked like an octopus. Maybe Chris Cunningham liked the Roger Moore, James Bond film?

The set included a couple of more familiar pieces using Aphex Twin's Windowlicker remixed and Chris Cunningham's own disturbing film of Rubber Johnny film cut-up and remixed. The set finished with a blues song and visuals of the NY subway. It was an entrancing end to help sooth away the scary monsters of before though surprise you that 60 minutes had just flown by.

Overall, an excellent performance though can't help feeling my nightmares in future will be influenced by Mr Cunningham.

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• Chris Cunningham at Brighton Dome (gingerdjrob.com)

Chris Cunningham at Brighton Dome

We took a bit of a gamble on this. Even though we're fans of his work (the obvious being his Aphex Twin music videos), the concept of what could have been a glorified VDJ session didn't seem to warrant the high ticket price. However after finding the video below on YouTube, we can't wait. Apparently there's going to be a special guest which rumours say it is Richard James of Aphex Twin!

Mr Cunningham brings his visual madness to the Brighton Dome on 19th April.

My first Mixcloud set

Gingerdj Presents Disco Torture (01apr10) by Gingerdj on Mixcloud