The Man...Freeland

OK this is a random musical shout-outs, for my favourite DJ's of the past few months/year: Mr Adam Freeland!

He's a DJ & producer who I'd link strongly & usually with the breaks scene. When I started to get into Breaks back in 2006/7 [thanks to Oli Long & First Contact, aka Ed Steele & Kostas from Fresh out the Box for that] one of my immediate favourite's was Freeland's "We Want Your Soul". For me this epitomizes the breaks scene & began to really get me into the whole genre. I then heard his Now & Them album. Check out one of the wicked tracks from it: Mind Killer [choon!]:



Next comes the most bizarre crossovers - I got given a CD, called "Back to Mine" mixed by Adam Freeland. Now this is my most listened to of all the music I own - no word of a lie - over 400 plays on some of the tracks. Now the reason for this really floating my boat is due to the chilled nature of the mix. Also it turned me onto a number of bands, such as Interpol, Autolux, And You Will Know us by the Trail of the Dead, TV on the Radio, Jape, Elliott Smith & Boards of Canada. Some of which I heard of but don't own & some which I was totally unfamiliar with.



To be continued!!

Failing, you have to love it sometimes - it's really funny!!

& one of my all time favourites [stick with it to the end]:

Guitar plea's!!

Oh & I now even have a list of stuff I need for my guitar so if you're getting rid of an amp, pedals, stand, case or even your old electric guitar - let me know!!! ;o)

Guitar Hero?

Don't worry not really succumbed to that fad of playing along with hero's on the 360 [phew!], no in actual fact I have begun to....learn to play the guitar!!

I came across a little electric guitar with no strings & in desperate need of some love, & I asked my good buddy Nate to fix it for me....well he didn't so last Monday me & Hobbit went to go get it, restring it & have a play & check it's all still in working order!

We went on a little jaunt to PMT [no seriously!] on the Cowley Road, just near where I've been having lectures for 3 years! Here I was advised to get some Ernie Ball strings & Hobbit suggested some Jim Dunlop plecks & then we say la piece de resistance a really, really, REALLY small, amplifier:

This is made by VOX [duh!] & is intended for personal practice, without disturbing your room-mates, neighbours, parents, siblings, pets, badgers, etc. & I have to say [even though I truthfully am a total n00b at this] that I was astounded as to how good it was - even through reasonably cheap & nasty headphones. The cool thing is I can practice without people wanting to garrote me with my shiny new strings & it actually sounds like an amp! IT runs with 2 batteries & lasts for like 15 hours [apparently].

Anyways, I've also got a tuner [as I can't tune properly yet - so will have to cheat for now!] & found [literally] a phono cable & dug out my old Absolute Beginner's Guitar book & have learned 4 chords now [so far]. Also Hobbit has been kind enough to chuck me his old guitar strap & has loaned me his beloved Marshall practice amp & a magical effects pedal - so it's a good start - I'll update this bit when I get reasonably reasonable & when I have a little money, but for now this, as it were, rocks!!

P.S. I have to mention my prime coercer into this - dearest Maddie - it's your fault methinks!!

D'oh well!!

Hey blog-peeps, it's been some time so it seems another update is required. You know I don;t think this would be so sparse if I spent any considerable time in Oxford or near my house!! Anyway I digress [meh!]...on with the blog:

OK didn't get the WinVin job, the feedback I got was that I did everything right, checking out the church before the interview, meeting the appropriate people, being communicative with the young people, having a sharing my vision for youthwork & working in Winchester, but in the end there were 3 really strong candidates [including me] but they went with one of the other 2.

I was a little disappointed, as you can imagine, but not terribly so, because like they said there's nothing I did wrong. I take this as meaning that it was down to a simple choice of personalities. When I am being interviewed & throughout this whole process, I've tried to remain as honest, as open & as 'myself', as possible & I don't believe this should change.

However, the issue is not just that I didn't get this one, it;s that it's now coming to the end of rather a long list of places that I have applied for. I now have just one egg left in my youthworker basket - St Alban's.

Or to be more specific St Paul's in St Alban's. This was a big challenge both the application form & the interview are simply huge - the app form was just under 3500 words & the interview is a 3 day affair. All-in-all a big deal. I will keep you posted as to what happens, but I'll also send round more prayer requests.

Chin up...as they say!!