A man has flown across the English Channel using a home-built 'jet wing'. I'm not sure if it's cheating by starting in a plane rather than on the ground, but still. When I first read he was going to try this, I could only imagine it ending in disaster and the guy winning a Darwin Award. 

I think I'm going to call a stop to my recording sessions - I now have 30 backing tracks I'm happy with, and perhaps 24 or 25 of them likely to be good enough for the album. There are loads more songs I want to do, but the tuning problems have reared their heads again (and no, I'm not talking about my vocals, yet anyway - though I've now got some brilliant software for fixing those) and I'm getting annoyed I can't even play a freakin' D power chord without it being out of tune. I think I'll save up slowly and buy a proper guitar in time so it's not an issue. The next album's going to be wholly electronic anyway, as there'll be no room for my instruments and mess of leads and wires once baby boy is here.

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE FORTNIGHT!

1. Death Magnetic - Metallica
2. Dig Out Your Soul - Oasis
3. Boy (remastered) - U2
4. s/t - Scars on Broadway
5. Ultra Beatdown - DragonForce 

I won't go into too much detail about our Wellington trip this weekend, but I will show you this, spotted on the luggage conveyer belt this morning, all on its lonesome, and it made me laugh...



Okay, anything would've made me laugh at 9am after getting up at 6.15am for an 8am flight back to Auckland, but this I thought was pretty deep, and in a way, kind of melancholic. I don't know. I'd had about two-and-a-half hours' sleep. It seemed poignant. And fucking funny.

Anyway, saw loads of bands, my favourites of the night both played early on - Alex the Kid and Thought Creature. Good stuff. Moron Says What? were good in that chaotic kind of way, I'd have no idea how to write/not-write-but-make-it-up-on-the-spot or whatever it is they're doing that kind of stuff, it's not really my thing, but hellishly energetic and fun to watch at the time, you can't help but get into it. Wouldn't want to subject myself to it at home though, ha.

We played an all-ages show the night before, and oddly enough, it was impossibly to not have a beer. I asked some kid who can't have been more than 14 where I could get a drink, meaning a glass of water, as I'd been at work all day, and he leaned over and whispered, "You want some alcohol?" A few minutes later, I went to the backstage area to check on my gear, and was given a can of Ranfurly by one of the DHDFDs. There are some bars which not only refuse to give you a beer for playing, but won't even knock a dollar off the price of one as a token gesture, but at an "alcohol-free" all-ages gig, beer was flowing almost literally on tap. I should have guessed earlier on; Freyburg Square was full of mid-teens, five-to-a-Chardon, in some kind of glorious fuck-you to the man, or something.

I've got my TV3 contract, so I suppose I'd better call an official end to my illustrious end to my retail career, again, hopefully for the last time. About time too - gotta move house and all, bla bla bla.

Tariqa is away on a course till Tuesday, was good to get back in Aucks just in time to see her off (I still find it weird that I can be fast asleep in Wellington at 6am, and in Auckland waiting for the 224 bus to Mt Albert at 9am). I thought I'd record four or five acoustic songs today/tomorrow and put them out as a luna spark release right away over the net, but I didn't have the house to myself tonight, and the soundcard on this computer stopped playing anything out of one of the channels. I worked out there's no tamper seal or anything, so installed my old soundcard I bought for the last computer (when the same thing happened) and it worked fine, thank god. I still have yet to work out why Audition won't play files in single-wave file-view mode, but it'll do for now.

Anyway, I recorded a backing track for a cover version which I won't tell you what it is yet in case it turns out shit, and a basic guitar track for an original, based on a forgotten demo I found on the mixer as I was going through it looking for things to delete last week.

I'm listening to H.A.A.R.P on headphones, the DVD version - through the TV - and it sounds awesome. I think perhaps even more so than the CD.

Day 10,000 (Friday)

Well, as I've posted already, tariqa and I found out Scully had been hit by a car on Wednesday. Not only was I going to be missing Muse, but I was now down one cute, friendly, huge cat. I lost my big fat ginger cat Denver in 2004, and Scully was meant to be something of a replacement, but it was not to be.

The day could only get better, really, and it did, even without the Muse concert. For the very first time, I flew on a commercial aeroplane; I say commercial, as a couple of years ago Rob took me up in a four seater Cessna a couple of times. The second time, Tariqa came with us, and didn't seem to appreciate Rob letting me take the controls over lake Rotorua. Hey, there were 2000 feet between us and anything we could hit! Safer than driving!

Anyway, Kent, John and I (Kittyhawk) were on our way to Wellington for our first gigs there, organised by the awesome Heather (Foxcore). Riding in a plane is weird. We were at the very front, and the view back was something I'd only ever seen in movies - movies about plane crashes, hijackings and venomous snakes. I was looking forward to seeing the country from the skies, but it was extremely cloudy - so I thought, cool, I get to see what it looks like above the clouds. It was more clouds. Okay, I'll see what's above the next layer of clouds. More clouds. Eventually, after passing through FOUR layers of clouds, we had nothing but blue sky above us - and nothing but grey and white clouds beneath us. I couldn't see ANY land or sea at all till we descended before landing. That was odd enough, because as we came in to land, we couldn't see the airport at all... it was as if we were going to be landing on rocks, which was all that was visible from where we were.

So we landed, got everything and took a shuttle (a van with a trailer, not a space shuttle - I'll have to wait till my 100,000the day for that probably) to the venue, the Bodega. Got there just after 9, and it was empty. Hmmm. It remained empty till after 10.30, which caused a few jitters, but Heather assured us no one in Wellington went out till late, and she was right. It eventually packed out, and she said she hadn't seen that many people up and dancing there in a year or so. Tommy Ill went on first, and was quite a surprise - real good, and even being a rapper he still fit in with what we thought people who like us might get into. Heat Like Me went on next, and filled the stage with four or five analogue keyboards and a million leads.

We went on about 1am or so, and it was good. We played well. Before we even started, a bunch of girls were reaching up screaming, trying to touch the guitars - we were thinking, WTF? They left after a couple of songs, thank god :p Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords was there, as was A Low Hum's Blink. We got rid of over 50 CDs, which as awesome.

Eventualy we got back to Heather's and crashed out, not having any idea of what the next night would bring...

Day 10,001 (Saturday)

After breakfast and music store browsing on Cuba St, we planned our next moves... we'd got wind of a massive party apparently happening at this massive house in Mt Victoria, the only thing we lacked was the address. But more importantly, Kent's girlfriend had seeded the idea of crashing it with a gig within us, so we spent the afternoon trying to make it a feasible reality.

We detoured for some light recreation in a park, fucking about on some flying foxes, getting some random footage. By this time Heather's friend Kristy had joined us, providing an extra pair of hands in our mission. I managed to fall off one of them swivelling hold-on-for-your-life rides while being taped... none of us managed to fall off the flying foxes, despite some screams and dodgy two-at-a-time manoeuvres.

In the early evening, the weather threatened our outdoor plans, but a combination of approaching clear sky and some balls saw us getting together the necessary gear (a look that said, "you want a generator for what?" pretty much sums it up) and taking to the streets.

Our first port of call was Glover Park in the central city. When we arrived, a bunch of punk tween bands were just finishing up a concert in one of the local venues. We would've started right away, but realised we hadn't a proper mic/vocal set up, so were delayed a little. A couple of the kids in the last band, who'd closed with Green Day, asked us what kind of music we played. We told them disco-punk. Another came along and asked us what kind of music we played, and the first told his friend, "some kind of funk-rock". D'oh!

Anyway, their parents had dragged them all away by the time the vocal gear arrived, by which time we had a potential audience of one friend of Heather's who'd heard about the gig on MySpace in the last hour, two random passer-by bros, and a passed-out drunk. The PA didn't work, so we got the vocals working through the bass amp, and waited for the police to leave. They spent about half an hour dealing with the passed out drunk, but seemed to ignore the fact a band had set up outdoors, on the grass, with a smoking generator. Yes, it was a smoke machine and power supply in one - no problem, just dirty fuel or something.

Eventually the cops left, and we began. Within a single song (Land of Lemon), we had a crowd of 20 or so, soon upped to over 30. It was fucking fun too - the sheer volume of it meant even a few metres in front of us the drums struggled to fight through, and everyone was really enthusiastic. We kept the set short, six songs or so, and didn't get shut down - that's Wellington for you,  I suppose!

BUT... we forgot the bloody CDs! So told everyone the website, etc etc so they could get in touch... but the best part perhaps was that abotu half an hour after we finished, I looked around and realised all our gear had been packed back into the trailer, and I'd barely done anything. A crew had somehow formed, and many of them hung around long enough to get a CD once they'd arrived, and even came along with us to the main event....

The Mt Victoria party.  We got the address, and headed out. We parked around the corner, and some went in to check it out. They came back not sure it was a good idea... apparently the party was quite flash - hundreds of people, a MASSIVE two-storey mansion, everyone dressed up to the proverbial nines... perhaps we'd just be ruining their night, rather than enhancing it. A straw poll of people walking past suggested that perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea... regardless, we decided as a band (and a randomly assembled crew) to just do it.

So we cruised down, found a spot outside, set up... no one complained... and we started playing. Opening with Land Of Lemon, following with Allergic to Style... and perhaps a hundred or so people on the front lawn had turned from facing each other to us, dancing like maniacs.

At this point, one of the tenants got wind of what was happening, and accosted Kent, apparently saying something along the lines of, "this is great and everything, but ah, who the fuck are you?" Kent apparently replied, with typical casualness, "We're the band."

She told us she was afraid of the noise issue - not that having four hundred or so people partying was an issue already - and that we could play one more song. A reasonable request, so we played two, of course, Disco Peril and Minitron. And this time, we had CDs on hand! Woot. Best of all, we didn't actually get kicked out. As soon as the gear was on its way, Kent, Kristy and I went on partying. Probably more, I can't remember. There was a Bowie room, and some girl asked if I was dressed as a comic book nerd. Everyone else was dressed up as something, but obviously she'd missed the short, but loud and hopefully memorable performance we'd put on.

On the way home, at some ungodly hour, Kristy took us via the Basin Reserve, where I picked up a loose picket. It's what you do at that hour, right? Luckily it fit into my bass case, as it's perhaps not the most innocuous item anyone's ever tried to get on a plane.

Day 10,002 (Sunday)

We ate bad-for-us servo food, as we were in a rush to return the gear, trailer and generator before our flight. Luckily, we had the best crew ever on hand. Wellington people are awesome. Foxcore Heather and her bf Zack were the best hosts we could have hoped for.

So the flight home was amusing for two reasons: one, we were on the other side of the plane, so although it was fine, I still didn't get to look at NZ, and two, my old friend from the State Insurance call centre, Lauren, is now an air stewardess. Tariqa picked us up, and we piled all our gear into the tiny Fiesta, and came home.

Shit, I think that's my whole weekend. I hope so. This entry has taken ages to write.