My Arms (and the way I adorn them)

Currently listening to: "You're so Damn hot" by ok go (waiting for podcast to download)

While taking the pictures of my hans hoodies, posted earlier, I noticed I wear quite a lot of stuff on my arms, and decided to document this even if only for my own amusement, now with nothing else to post currently I thought now is porbably as good a time as any to realease them to the place where all random pictured evewntually inevitably end up, the blogosphere (or internet).

Since when these photographs were taken however I  have broken both the watches pictured, the Identity London watch I smashed on my mates hand, while he was randomly tapping my keyboard, somthing that I find amazingly annoying, to my knowlege he still has a small amount of glass embedded in hand which stings him occasionally (so I win) the other watch the ebay jobbie, broke while at my girlfriends house, without going into too much detail the strap broke... hmmm, however the other arm (the left arm) has now become more pirateuy with the addition of a bracelet from my recent trip to torquay, the bracelet that allowed me to buy alchohol un-iD-ed for the duration of the trip ( need a real life one of these, however with only 21 days till Im 18 probably isnt worth it hehe).  Im also now wearing another red and white deeley with coppoer ends, ANND when I can find it,  I ALSO wear a white burton sweatband thing. Recently I had a bit of fun by telling a particularly gullable friend that i wore all the arm stuff to cover the marks where I have cut myself during a spat of depression, however upson seeing his saddened and concerned face it became less fun and I gave him a hug, confirmed o him that it was a lie and a jest that i was fine and had no need for councilling before showing him my un-scarred arms, hehe

--END--

Currently listening to "the jon Richardson podcast" BBC.co.uk/6music

..Wade

1st of December

Currently listening to: my kid brother tootle away on clarinet, (tis his music lesson)

Yes it is, the 1st day of December, so break out your advent calender and eat some of that sickly yuletide chocolate.. or in my case seeing as it is also the run up to my birthday I have a gift-a-day from my girlfriend each gift is hand made and full of special love garunteed to make me feel both mushy and loved, but also rubbish for being unable to muster enough feeling to stay in bed (its an inside thing) REGARDLESS! Yesterday were the instructions for the proper operation of the gift, basically "dont cheat, peek, or poke the presents" and today was the first giftola, it took the form of some felt cakes (felt being myt girlfriends weapon of choice) delivered as samples from the octopus bakery. And this is where the plot thickens, see, it would appear that none (well bar the one that I open on my actuall birthday (22nd of december)) are from her, but are from a random assortment of charaters dotted around a set of far out locations, the present includes a map so it can be seen where each of the gifts has come from geographically (kinda like a really friendly version of grand theft auto) anyway, apparently I live or have been travelling through this world without my knowlege and have made a number of aquaintences who have all sent me post dated presents in the run up to my birthday, by an amazing coincidence none are post dated for the same day, but hey the world is a strange place.  all of these letters have been sent to some of my various addresses around the areas depicted on the maps, but i have recived them at my current adress (here in the really real world) due to the fantastic roal mail re-direction service. which obviously operates transdimentionally, (and you thoght those postman shorts were just for show, and postmen went nuts cos they were bored) Am having to exercise a great deal of self control in order to not open all the envelopes at once, though the forbidden fruit date stamping does help me to fight this urge, theres something kinda official about those date stamps.

So to re-cap, today, Felt cakes from the underwater cotopus bakery accross the road (underwater road) from my (supposedly waterproof) watch shop, thankyou octopus bakers (and karys awwww huggs) 

currently listening to, nothing (ahh the sound of silence .... and household hustle and bustle), about to slart listening to the Jon Richardson podcast (if it has been released yet)

..Wade

Peteunia

Currently listening to "Money by Pink Floyd" (classic tune, often sends me to sleep though)

Desipide all the badness of this week one good thing has come of it, well im sure more things really, the undying support of my girlfriend, my friends , my family, general good health etc, but one thing in particular that came in the mail, (theres something magical about packages in the mail isnt there, even if you know whats coming its nice when A man in blue shorts has to personally bring it to your door. Anyway what came in the mail for me was "peteunia" not a mail order bride, but a Dell Axim X30 pocket PC (so called  petunia because of my girlfriends PDA which has been dubbed pete, and mine being the female version was obviously PETEunia) This handheld device has let me become fully OCD and over the last 3days I've had it has been at my side every step of the way noting and storing key and organisable information about everything storable and organisable that pops up, so far I have, put in

- My driving lessons

- When I'm seeing ny girlfriend

- The details of a party im attending this weekend

-  All the Names and adresses of acts appearing at my show

- A running order (provided and created by my girlfriend) which I have edited to include details about whether or not I have acts addresses and how confirmed they are (ooh colour coded) 

- also wasted many free hours playing solitaire and the jawbreaker games included on it 

so here it is in all Its gloy

Peteunia...!

Dell Axim X30 

Currently listening to: "Eyewishes" By Lemon Demon

.. Wade

More Tragedy

Currently listening to: Nothing (well besides the sound of my kid brother playing "brawl" an the Wii and softly swearing to himself)

This week, (and indeed that last couple of weeks) have not been good, I keep losing and breaking things, since the panasonic heros died, i have so far broken

- My PC (though I fixed that, duh) 

- My iPod, (sad faced on, me and not just the software sadface the "harddrive is damaged and ruined forever" sad face)

- I broke my watch (while punching my best friends hand (he desevered it though))

- I lost my only sensible ish jacket for when I want to look kinda subtle (my friend (the one I punched) say's it makes me look like a guy from Fall out boy, or at least like someone who wants to  look like somewone who looks like they in fall out boy

- I broke my old Skool black converse low tops (though my ever patient girlfriend sewed them back up for me and added funky bits (pic coming soon hehe)

- I lost my tech folder, with all my Design work from this year in it, and some Art work I was transporting (luckily i found this though someone had taken the liberty of writing "I {heart} fannys" on the cardboard insert (hilarious) leading me to believe that it was infact stolen and i wasnt JUSt being careless)

- and finally the scarf I was wearing today (my girlfriends one which I am very fond of) was taken from where I left it (with my jumper) in the common room by a mystery assailent (whom I plan to track down and kill in the most hoorible manner Imaginable, also I may poo in his/her bed)

On Top of all this I feel lethargic and tired bdue to a sh1tty low-level cold and I'm stressed out of my mind due to general school stuff (not understanding physics as much as the nutters in my class) and my concert drawing ever closer (at this moment only 9 weeks and 22 hours) annnd I'm finding myself increasingly having my "off" days where I'm generally grumpy and anti social, these are the days where I hear people calling my name ut theres no one there and I feel increasingly paranoid about everything (hence the suspicioun of theft on the part of my scarf and folder). therefore understandably not an ideal state of mind leading up to the holiday season. ah well as the song says "things can only  get better"

Currently listening to "Always" by Saliva (nice hehe) 

.. Wade

"Hans" Hoodies

I thoought Now would be a good time to post about my invention, well kinda invention I saw it in passing on an episode of peep show, and decided to copy it due to generally thinking it was a cool idea, basically it is  a hoodie where ear hole have been cut out so that the hood can be up and you can still wear over the head headphones joy of joys. Tis really usefull for looking super antisocial, scaring old ladies and (what the hood was actually invented for) keeping your head warm and dry. Obviously being unsatisfied with simply cutting big holes in my new 12 pount (24 USD) hoodies, i drew new design things on them in permenant, so now when worn with the headphones it looks like the hoodie is designed that way rather than just feebly bodged. In addition I have cut a small hole in the back of the main front pocketmeaning my trusty iPod can be stowed away in there with the wire coming up to the headphones inside the hoodie preventing me getting tangled in it an what not, it also gives the slightly magic impression that the headphones arnt connected to anything, and a similar effect when the iPod is taken from my pocket. After the're (more or less) creator in peep show I have dubbed my (albeit limited) range of unique aduiophile hoodies "Hans Hoodies" and each hoodie has "Hans" written along the left sholder. As yet most people to see them (bar one, gotta love colin) have dubbed them a waste and a pointless exercise in mutilating perfectly good clothes, ahh well I like them and I'm the only one who has to (gets to) wear them, will post an Instructable online at a later Date, so you can have you very own "Hans Hoodie" 

Short note, I havent posted anything about actual music yet so from this point on I will start every post with what I am listening to, and end it the same way, this no doubt will cause me to witter on about the music rather than what i intend the post to be about for a few minutes, but still will fill up space and give me somthing to do, and get my voice out of my head, and isnt that the point after all (to do anything to queit the voices, oooh the voices) 

currently listening to:

nothing no music, a rare state of peace at my workspace.

..Wade

Frank

Just took a picture of my dog, this is frank, thouroughbred parson jack russel terrier,  daft as a brush, but look at that face, only really posting this picture because I have nothing else to do at the moment, also edited this photo slightly in photoshop to bring out his hansome doggy features a little more, im going to sketch this as part of my art project (I hope i havent bitten off more than I can chew with this hairy beast)

..Wade

Top Hats (bane of the hat loving audiophile)

Ahh The Top hat, no eccentric should ever be without one, it makes you look sharp stand out, and feel rather grand, people will look and you can pull of a bit of a strut without looking like a wierdo (well, you will look like a weirdo, but a proffessionsl weirdo, not just a strutting amature) however the problem with being a developing audiophile and an avid lover and supporter of the hatted community  is that all but a few hats, (the beanie, the flatcap and the baseball cap) make it impossible to wear the large signature headphones that are so coveted by the sound loving community. Untill recently I had the problem more or less sussed with large headphones being worn with hoodies (or the afore mentioned available hats) and my panasonic buds for hat use, however as mentioned in my "retro headphones" post, those little beauties died an untimely death at the hands (spokes) of my bike. Again I appear to have strayed from the point of this post and started ranting about my destroyed headphones again. Top Hats, the hat pictured here is infact my own top hat, bought from the eternal wonder that is eBay, it only cost £30 and there is never a day I regret that purchase, It has become my personal friend, treasured possetion and sorta my mascot, it is just about 100 years old, making it the most antique thing I have ever carried on my head. I have had to alter my habits about wearing it around the miscreant and subhuman examples that are labelled as my classmates, as on one occasion it was stolen and stamped on, (obviously in some form of fit of jelousy on the part of the stamp-y) seriously affection the structual soundness of it. Wearing asa standard clothing item rather than just looking at it from behid glass it has caused a great deal of wear and tear on hat anyway, the inner band is coming loose and has been re-sewn and double sided taped back on, as can (possibly be seen from the pictures thre are a few bald spots on the moleskin, but all that just adds to the battered top hat look that is so cool. I now also own a much more recently made bright red top hat, which is cheaper and younger and so able to be worn in public (or school) without the possibility of attack causing too much distress. The pictures at the foot of this post serve to illustrate how my vivanco headphones cannot be worn in conjunction with the top hat, much to my sadness, however on quiet days a nice effect han be achived by wearing the vivancos around my neck with the volume turned up so I can hear the music leaving the top of my head free for any amount of hattage.

.. Wade

Fashion and the Scene

I said I'd be posting about things other than music and i will, mostly just to keep a record of what I'm doing, I havent got any pictured yet so instead I will share this website with you www.yourscenesucks.com it is basiclly a illustrator who has turned his hand to what he does best, drawing exaggerated (or not in some scary cases) of "depressed" teenagers, I am not ashamed to admit I see myself in many of the scensters depicted, and own a number of the shirts modelled (oh so elegantly) bu the "generic emo boy" (the shirts are available for the illustrator rob dobi, through a link on his website) I occasionally look here when thinking of new things to wear, in a similar way that top fashion designers follow kids around london and then steal their looks for they next show, let this be a warning to all the kids of london with truely unique looks, dont trust anyone, they're out to profit from our ideas, or acts of whim or whatever and soon everyone will be flaunting (and then discarding) your brainchild, and I imagine that would hurt. However (getting back to the point)  generally I just rummage through charity shops, someting which recently became uncool again so I have the best pick (hooray for flops in fashion)  so check out the website have a laugh (if your up for a laugh at yourself, or if you really dont see anything in them of you) or a scowl (if you take yourself too seriously) 

..Wade

The Jeffster 3000

I Decided I should post this, because someone besides me needs to see the wonderment of this guitar, it began life as a fairly rubbish yamaha kock off, a black straty type thing in need of some love, so I sanded it down and painted it in white primer, at which point my girlfriend (a really arty type, and fellow music head) took it away and began several months work upon it, work which I was not allowed to see the progress of at all, untill the final unveiling, this is the result....

as you can see the entire front surface of the guitar is covered in little tiny jellyfish and lightning bolts, the jellyfish in question is none other than Electro Jeff (or Sir Electro Jeffery Pickle to give him his full name) who is one of my girlfriends oldest illistratory characters, these will be posted on her blog whoisgrumblebeard soon, the rear of the guitar has the life story of electro jeff picked out in silver pen , and the side (as visible in some of the shots) has 'Jeff related mottos and guarentees. after the painting I decided that in order to protect if from the damagage i was sure to inflict on it due to general clumsyness I would need to have it varnished, being too scared to do so myself i sent it of to a friend of mine who works as a car body sprayer (overkill but if gets the job done) so the guitar was properly hung and sprayed in a pressure controlled environmen and now at present I am fitting the electronics and neck, to this beast and will hopefully be playing it live a the room upstairs gig next January (awesome), Im going to have to fill it out with some killer pickups. it has a space for one humbucker and 2 single coil pickups, im going to ebay myself a nice soapbar hummer and possibly get the telecaster set up pickups for the other two spaces, give me a proper weird sound for a proper weird guy playing a PROPER wierd guitar.

..Wade

Retro Headphones

Continuing on the previous post, (many experienced bloggers will note that all these posts ar on the same day, and even savvyer bloggers will notice that they are all done in he same couple of hours, this enthusiasm will probably not last very long, but at present I have much to say so here it goes, blogging my brains out, but I digress), Headphones, we as audiophiles need them to survive and will go to great lenghts to achieve them, however, as that dream job in a real recording studio is little more than I pipedream for most of us funds are a little limited, making headphones (and speakers) a source of longing and idolisation that the sihk people of the world would look down upon with fury. at present I have been drawn to more retro looking headphones ideally the headphones "Jez" wears in peep show, but failing that Panasonic RP-HTX7's which are super retro, however when I finally stumbled upon a panasonic shop in the desolate audio wasteland that is torbay in south devon I found that they (like many headphones that i want) are £50 (100 USD) so I left defeated not stopping even to look the smug bespecled shop assistant in the eye before I left (I bet he felt that ...not). later though while trawling the interweb in search of (more affordable) retro headphones I came across the "Boosted Stiloso Headphones" which look at least, awesome, and have become the logo for this blog, and my ultimate aim from this moment is to own a pair of these headphones (or the panasonics hehe im not picky) the colour range is limited but who cares when that "limited" colour range includes that fantasic cherry red or an equally striking arctic white. 

Not all good news, my panasonic in ear headphones (for use while wearing a hat, which I do very often much to the anoyance of my educators) were destroyed in a cycling accident (they became wrapped around the spoked and were ripped apart by moments and pressure, you win again physics!!) so I am back to the supremely uncomfortable unresponsive pieces of whiteplasic sh1t that woolwoths dares to call headphones, (though at 99p (2 bucks) i cant really complain too much) so its hats ahoy a little untill I replace the gallant knights that were my litle panasonic buds hehe.

..Wade

Headphones

As must be obvious, no self respecting, pavement observing, music headed, audiophile, would be complete without a pair of huge anti social headphones. until a few months ago i was the proud owner of a pair of skullcandy GI's the (black with camo headband image here), however even though the GI's offered amazing comfort and killer frequecy resopnce, (using them for the first time after woolies worth it headphones, was awesome, like hearing all my songs for the first time(audiophilia begins)), they were as brittle as glass babies, and broke after only a few months of (ver frequent, if not constant) usage, and at £50 a pair (near enough 100 USD) I would have thought that they would put up a little more of a fight against wear and tear, It wasnt even as though I was throwing them around, I was super carefull, but it appears the construction of them wasent designed for them to be put over the head by holding the cups, a major design flaw as this is the way most people would put on headphones of this typel. To begin with the cups themselfs fell out of the rotational holders, a problem which was relaticely easy to fix but was irritating and resulted in a weird rattling sound if your head was shaken while wearing them, (making headbanging unenjoyable) a little while after this the extendable arms attatched to the cups snapped, breaking the wire ( I maintain that these arms and the wires within them were too thin and not strenghthened enough), in short say no to skullcandys (or at the very least the GI's) having said that I am very fond of the new double agents (mainly due to the giant cups, image here) they look more robust,  and are selling for £50 (100 USD) same as the GI's so who knows.  However in the absence of by beloved GIs I bought a pair of vivanco SR200's, basically becasue they looked a bit like the skullcandys and I wanted to feel better, but they are surprisingly good, good responce and comfortable fit, I have owned them now for far longer than the GI's and they show no signs of wear,  (they're even less discoloured than the skullcandys) and best of all they only cost £17 (34 USD) so the lesson is never underestimate the small lesser known brands of headphones, you may just be surprised, give your local smal time electronics store a visit, (chances are a fellow audio phile will be hiding in there either as a patron or behind the counter, and you can make a new friend)

..Wade

The Room Upstairs

My Live Music Show, 

Recently as my audiophilia was just begining to develop ( I can imagine already that this will become more pronounced, and annoying to others over time) I began the arrangements for a small scale, one-night-only musical variety show in the old theatre above the youth centre where I work. The theatre itself hold 300 people and asa relitively small theatre in a very small town, is terribly neglected and hardly ever used apart from the occasional amature dramatics group performance or school play, so in part it is a gig to raise awareness of the old theatre,  (I'll post some pictures aty a later date, it is delightfully retro). The acts playing at the gig (dubbed "The Room Upstairs" being that the theatere is located in the upstairs area of the building) will be entirely youth acts from around my area (Torbay in South Devon) so the Gig is also (obviously) youth based, and is designed so that some of the less known or "gig challenged" acts in the area can have a go at performing live, and all of the shenanigans that go with it. The gig is to be on the 30th of January 2009 so if you are in the brixham area on that day between 6 and 11 feel free to drop into the theatre and check it out. the theatre has been booked and now we are looking for a lighing/sound guy and a security guard (which the theatre booking office assures me is essential if anykind of live music is bening played), luckily my good friend who is doing a mucis production degree is coming down (making time is his very strict sleeping/drinking shedule) to help us sound check and set up everything, and ultimately to shout at the sound and light guy for me while I'm running around in circles stressed out of my mind. 

In a shocking turn of events the councill agreed to pay for the booking of the theatre, so all the fundraising that was to be required has now been dramatically cut, being needed only to pay for the afore mentioned sound guy and security guard. so (a little used phrase these days coming up ) yeey for the council! 

check out the myspace www.myspace.com/the_room_upstairs 

0r the facebook 

..Wade

The First Posting

Oh the first post on a new blog, the one that no-one bar the most dedicated blog readers will read if/when this blog becomes popular with anyone other than myself. 

So here we go, MISSION STATEMENT:

with this blog I plan to,  just put all my random twitterings out into a domain where I can let them lie and here someones input on them if they feel the need to do so,  to share what im doing, listening to and what i have seen, not because its more interesting than what anyone else has seen or anything but because... well i donty know myaybe I'm just self centred, but everyone else has a blog so why shouldn't I have one.

..Wade