27-Nov-07: Impressed or what?

I wasn't in a good mood yesterday. I'd spent most of the morning composing a letter to the Customer Services department of John Lewis detailing the miserable quality of service we received when we bought our new iMac. Normally, that sort of activity would make me feel a whole lot better. It's a safety valve, a chance to let rip with some well-deserved vitriol. But, as I said, for some unknown reason it didn't make me feel any better. Equally, I didn't feel any better when I tore a lengthy strip off the poor technical support lady at Parallels over the crappy documentation for their PC emulator package of the same name. In truth, bad mood or not, their documentation actually isn't very good and, straight of the box, the package is less than impressive. All I wanted to do was run some PC software. I didn't expect to go through the kind of mental gymnastics typical of an episode of The Krypton Factor.

However, as I later discovered, I was sort of tempted to eat my words because Parallels is just one special piece of software.

Parallels is a PC emulator that runs on an Intel Mac. It actually creates a virtual machine inside the Mac, with the Mac providing memory, disk space, keyboard, mouse etc and the Windows operating system emulated by some cool programming combined with the Intel Core Duo chipset inside the Mac.

Above is a screen grab of the iMac running QuarkXpress. I have to admit I'm impressed. There have been a couple of mysterious crashes, I suspect because I was trying to do too much too quickly and the virtual machine just bailed on me. Hey ho. It happens.

I've tried to use emulators in the past. Years and years ago, I think 1990 or thereabouts, I tried out an Mac OS emulator for the Atari 1040 STFM and it worked, right up to the point where you moved the mouse. After that, it died, and it did so horribly, trashing the Atari disk in process. Although the prospect of running the Mac OS on such a low-cost and therefore accessible platform was very, very exciting, I lost interested very, very quickly and I don't know if the project was ever finished. I suspect not. I can't imagine Apple being too thrilled at a third party emulating their high end machines on a cheap 'n' cheerful, bought-in-a-store Atari.

I've also tried emulators running on other platforms. Somebody produced a neat Commodore 64 emulator that ran on a PC. It played games and did some other cool stuff but, well, it wasn't what you would call a serious project. Likewise, there are quite a few Sinclair ZX Spectrum emulators on the net though they don't really interest me because I was never fond of that platform - the whole thing smacked of cut-price amateur hour with the plasticy construction and dead-flesh keyboard. You may disagree.

I recently discovered a thriving community of programmers producing emulators for the BBC Micro and I really wanted to see if I could get Elite running on the new iMac. For those of you too young to remember, Elite was widley agreed to be the finest computer game ever developed mainly because it wasn't all blasting aliens and buying bigger guns though it had that element (in spades). Elite was also a strategy game, linking commerce and trade to staying alive. These were important lessons if you had any intention of doing business in the 21st Century and I often think that it would be so much easier to solve many of my supplier issues with a well-aimed laser blaster.

Alas, I never achieved Elite status - I was merely highly dangerous - and much as it was good to wallow in a bit of nostalgia for a few minutes as the introductory screens burst into life and I was suddenly catapulted back into the Elite universe, the game had lost much of its appeal. Elite was a product of its time (1984) and the world has moved on. Same here.

The same applies to music. Emulating bands that were big in the 70's and the 80's just doesn't appeal. The world has moved on. What matters is the here and now.

  26-Nov-07: The Terrible Trials of a System Administrator

Last week was a rough week. The week before was a rough week. So was the week before and the one before that. And before that. There's a pattern emerging here. I need a vacation.

Yesterday, Sunday, The Lord's Day, is usually reserved for rest and relaxation, a chance to spend time with the family or to just generally sit back and watch the clouds go by. Instead, we decided to go shopping.

I had my eye on two purchases (both for the company). Firstly, I wanted a software package called Parallels, which lets you run Windows software on an OSX Macintosh. Secondly, I wanted a new external disc drive, in this case a Free Agent 500Gb from Seagate. I really need to get the new iMac backed up properly (and on a regular basis) - currently, we do it manually - and Time Machine, the backup utility integrated into Leopard, would be an ideal solution.

Shopping in Newcastle is a lot of fun, if you have the right attitude. You need to be quiet, patient and ready to smile at anything because you can virtually guarantee that some total assh*le will spoil your day in one way or another. Take, for example, the guy playing the Scottish Bagpipes in Northumberland Street. I have a soft spot for the sound of the bagpipes. The Northumbrian pipes too. I love drone music and, on this occasion, a guy wearing a full kilt and sporran was playing a rather nice Highland lament outside of Marks and Spencer. I would loved to have paused to listen. However, all of a sudden, some tired hackneyed pan-pipes started belting out up over tinned beats and pre-recorded Whoops further up Northumberland Street. Festive, it wasn't. It was APU - a south American novelty band or possibly another of those APU clones that seem to haunt all of our major cities at this time or year. They just shoved the bagpipe guy out of the way. APU didn't ask, they didn't say sorry. They just started playing and the bagpipe guy had no alternative than to just pack up and find a new pitch. And yet he did so with a smile and a polite nod as he went on his way.

So, you need the right attitude to go shopping in Newcastle.

Our first port of call was John Lewis in Eldon Square. On a previous occasion, one of their sales staff told us that our Leopard upgrade would be posted to us free of charge as soon as possible and yet, a month later, there's been no sign of it. They also stock Parallels and so I thought I'd see if I could combine the bitching session with a buying opportunity and get another price reduction. It worked the last time with Microsoft Entourage. I snagged an unattached salesguy and he said he'd find out where our copy of Leopard had gone. However, although he claimed he was a Macintosh Specialist, he clearly wasn't because he couldn't even find his way around the Apple website. I also asked about Parallels. "Yes, sir. We have plenty of copies available." says the drone, pointing to the pile of copies on a shelf. However, when I checked, only one of those packages was for the Parallels software itself. The other packages were upgrades and they need the original program installed before you can use the software. See what I'm getting at here? These guys just don't know what they're talking about. Either they don't have time to learn about the product or they just don't care.

I snagged the last copy of Parallels, paid for it and, since it was a company purchase, asked for a VAT receipt. "Yes, sir. You'll have to go along to Customer Services for a VAT receipt. I'll have the information about Leopard for you by the time you get back.". "Okay...", I mumble, clearly unimpressed. How come the garage, the supermarket, even the local newsagent can give you a VAT receipt straight from the till without having to stand around in a Customer Services area for 20 minutes? Strange, eh? It's almost as if John Lewis don't want business customers.

Anyway... we picked up the VAT receipt and made our way back to the computers section but, alas, there was no sign of the drone. He'd gone, nobody knew where he'd gone, or knew when he'd be back or even if he'd be back.

See what I mean about being patient, staying calm and being prepared to smile no matter what?

We did some other shopping. Jules' took me into the frilly underwear section of Marks and Spencer, which, in a former life, I used to enjoy. These days, well, I'm older now and though still interested in that sort of thing, I have the attitude that when it comes to Christmas presents, I'm not really interested in wrapping. I'm more interested in what's inside. That said, I did derive considerable enjoyment from watching a young couple as she walked from isle to isle picking out one revealing item after another and the undisguised look of glee on her boyfriend's face, which said, in none-to-subtle terms "I've hit the Motherlode!" "Good for you! Mate!" I thought. "Good for you...". Does that sound just a little bit jealous? Pathetic even? I think it does.

Sniff.

Moving on from all the frilly underwear, we then went to Maplins, who were selling the FreeAgent drive on special offer. As a complete contrast, their staff couldn't have been more friendly and/or helpful and they produced the VAT documentation without having to be asked. "Certainly, sir! It's on the bottom of your receipt!" said the rather cheery girl. My only complaint was that the plastic bag they wrapped the disc in gave out before we'd even reached the bottom of Northumberland Street and I ended up carrying the fairly bulky package around town for the rest of the afternoon.

When we got home, I set about installing the Free Agent drive. That took around 20 minutes, mainly because the drive had been locked read only and I had to use Apple's Disk Utility to write enable the drive. The documentation with the Free Agent drive was available in nearly every language that I could think of plus a fair number that I didn't recognise at all but none of it actually told Mac users what to do. 20 minutes learning about Disk Utility solved that problem but it could and should have been so much easier.

My next job was to figure out what to do about upgrading to Leopard. I went to the Apple Web site, looked under Store, clicked on Leopard and, well, there it was. Leopard Up-to-Date. In plain view. Contrary to what we were told, the update isn't free. Apple charge you £5.95 to mail the disc to you once you've verified that your Macintosh qualifies for the update.

Fair enough. That was the last straw. I've just written a long and detailed letter to John Lewis's Customer Services section complaining about the way we've been handled. They've screwed up every single aspect of the purchase. And to think that John Lewis used to enjoy a reputation for being one of the best shops in Newcastle. I wouldn't buy a can of dog food from them after this episode.

Next up was a copy of Anna Sewell's Black Beauty, a feature film given away as a free DVD by the Daily Mail. This is one of Jules' favourite movies, which I picked up as an extra Christmas bonus in case there is/was nothing decent on telly over the festive period. For some reason, the DVD region was set to region 0 and the iMac's DVD is currently set to region 2. To play the DVD, I had to change the player back to region 0. However, Apple's DVD player only lets you change the region code a maximum of 5 times before it has to be reset by Apple. (Apple themselves can only reset the DVD code a maximum of 3 times before the drive itself becomes inoperable!) This is something to do with the rules set out by the MPAA and not Apple's fault at all. Rather than endlessly frig on with region codes etc, I downloaded a copy of the freeware player VideoLAN, which completely ignores the DVD's region code and just plays the disc directly. What I'm saying here is not "Oh! Look at me! I'm a hacker! I'm so clever! I beat Apple's copy protection!". I'm saying that I shouldn't have to download bucketloads of applications in order to get my bloody computer to work properly in the first place! These feeble attempts at copy protection are in place because the MPAA and RIAA simply brushed the whole business under the carpet when the issue of downloading music first raised it's ugly head over a decade ago. Talk about closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

I've saved the best until last. Parallels.

I wasn't impressed with Parallels to start with. I installed the demo version on Thursday of last week and then mailed them for a temporary authentication code. Nothing turned up, either on Thursday or Friday. I mailed them again. No response. I joined their forum on Saturday morning and, as of Sunday, nothing had arrived. Hence, I bought a pukka copy rather than mess around any further. I've since heard that it was Thanksgiving is the US over the weekend and their support staff were probably on holiday.

Installing Parallels is trivial right up to the point where you decide which OS you need to install. I wanted to go with Windows 2000, which I've used for 6 years and it's been absolutely rock solid. I can count the number of blue screens on the fingers of one hand. Windows XP doesn't impress and I haven't spent enough time with Windows Vista to be able to decide one way or the other.

Parallels doesn't really offer much help when it comes to doing anything out of the ordinary. It was a struggle but Windows 2000 is now installed and running as a Virtual Machine on my Macintosh OSX box. It runs though I'll need to spend time figuring out how to make the screen bigger, support more colours, install the service packs etc before it will be of any real use. Parallels should note that their documentation isn't good enough, frankly. For instance, when the installation procedure asks you to remove the Windows 2000 installation disc and insert the Windows 98 installation disc, just to prove that you have a copy of Windows 98, well, there isn't anything to explain how you do that. It takes a bit of thought but this is how I did it - take a snapshot of the virtual machine, stop it, swap the discs, restart the VM, restore the snapshot, let the Windows 2000 installation procedure recognise that there's a Windows 98 CD in the drive, take another snapshot, stop the virtual machine, swap the Windows 98 disc out for the original Windows 2000 disc, restart the virtual machine and finally restore the second snapshot. Easy, right?

All the same Windows 2000 is up and running on my iMac. It works. Bloody hell.

So, here I am on a Monday morning after a long weekend spent installing, hacking and generally messing about. Frankly, I'm just as tired now as I was on Friday afternoon.

  21-Nov-07: Funeral

I went to a funeral today - Helen Sinden, who was the wife of my friend, David Sinden. Helen died quite suddenly at the weekend and, as soon as I heard, I cursed loudly because I'd been on the point of ringing Helen for a couple of weeks now, just to see how things were. Every time I remembered to call, something came up and I put it off. Now it's too late.

It was Helen who told my Autie Ethel about a junior's position at Sinden Optical Company. Auntie Ethel told me the following Sunday afternoon and I rang up for an interview the following day. The interview, such as it was, was on Tuesday and evidentally I passed because I started work on the Wednesday morning. I turned up at the workshop wearing a pale blue pastel suit - all the rage in the early 80s - and I looked a right prick. I was hopelessly out of place. The next day, I turned up in jeans and a t-shirt. It's been pretty much the same ever since.

Helen was a tiny woman, only 4'3" tall, due to contracting TB at an early age but these impediments didn't stop her living a very full and active life. She became a skilled and highly accomplished artist with a very strong, very dynamic personality. She was also a natural foil to David, in that she was better able to handle those things that David wasn't very good at, like balancing the books.

Helen would occasionally terrify me. She had the ability to cut straight to the point, sometimes in a manner that could be a little abrupt, but this was usually because Helen had detected some element of bullshit somewhere in the proceedings and Helen hated bullshit. There was no point in trying to pull the wool over her eyes.

I will miss Helen, as I miss David. They were a double act, each complimenting the other perfectly. The world is worse off without these womderful people.

  19-Nov-07: Old discs/new ears

At 10pm on Friday night, we switched off the TV and put some music on as a more intelligent alternative to watching another self-congratulatory masterbate-athon like Children in Need. I dug out an old CD I haven't played in years, "Spirit of Adventure" by Mike Shipway, which didn't, at first, seem like a good choice for chilling out. After a few seconds, I suddenly realised that I'd forgotten how good this CD actually is. It's full of good arrangements, fast rhythms and cool choonz, and harks back to a time when the UK scene produced some of the best music in the world. These days... well, it's *ALL* Berlin School Music. Endless noodling, endlessly looped Mellotron choirs and the same old 8-note sequences trotted out time and again for an ever diminishing number of easily-satisfied fans. Little wonder that the scene shrinks year on year.

What's worse is that I too have strayed into this territory. Whilst the Ion disc contains many, many references to the Mother-ship, they're buried beneath layers of sequences and sound effects and therefore pretty difficult to spot. Plus there's none of my customary soloing or, indeed, anything that makes this album stand out from the crowd. By and large, my guts tell me that the arrangements are interesting and work (mostly), the melodies and the chordal structure are sufficiently varied to drive the album along at a healthy rate and the album doesn't outstay it's welcome so I would guess that duration is about right. Of course, some of the pieces like Minerva and Flying over Blue Waters are really T-Bass tracks re-cycled from the 1990-1995 period anyway, so I'm still on Holy ground there but my guts also tell me that there's none of my typical energy and kick'em in the balls attitude either.

And whilst Future Forever has enjoyed very healthy airplay right around the world, the sales have been absolutely piss poor. I'm not going to say how many copies it has sold because the figure is very low indeed and, frankly, it's too embarrassing to even mention. Suffice to say that I would have made more money had I just stuck the cash in my Post Office account.

The trouble is, I like Future Forever. It feels natural, un-forced, un-hurried - and therefore completely unlike my previous discs. Bits of it, like the title track, really do make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It's the same with Evensong and Flying over Blue Waters. And this is the reason why I'll continue with that aspect of the project, as a personal thing rather than as a money-making venture. I will continue to produce music under this banner though I am not sure if I will release it just yet. I'd rather hold it back for a special set later on, perhaps as a live venture.

However, what really, really gets on my tits are the fans who used to bang on endlessly about us doing a Berlin School album. This has been a persistent issue since we first started doing gigs a decade ago. "When are you gonna do a Berlin School analogue album? It would really rawk!" was the first thing that someone said to me when we came off stage after our debut gig at the EMMA 4 festival in Derby. After my December 2005 gig in Leeds under the SkinMechanix banner, the organisers said they would have been happier if the set had contained "fewer beats and less tunes" which, in other word means "more BS". Finally, when we do finally yield to the relentless pressure and produce an album full of sequences, floaty choirs and ambient fluff, nobody buys it. Great, eh? So, this leads me back to a point I keep hammering on about time and time again - the re-emergence of my old style of writing and the need to find a new audience.

It's time to jump ship again, just like we did in 2000. I've said this before, many times. However, this time around, I have a new set worked out full of big, bold arrangements and all of the elements that made T-Bass and SkinMechanix work so well. The next step is to search out that elusive audience. Before I'm too old and broken down to carry on.

  19-Nov-07: Networking problems

We have been beset by networking problems this weekend. Our link to Talk Talk has been up and down like a tart's drawersfor the last 24 hours and, frankly, it's was beginning to annoy. It tried to update the Mac's OS 4 times yesterday and gave up in the end due to the line dropping every 5 minutes or so.

That said, it's working properly now. I just carried out the OS update, which downloaded in less than 3 minutes - considerably better than the 2 hours it said it would take yesterday - and so I suspect that Talk Talk were doing something to the infrastructure. I wish they'd send me an announcement that their service is going to be crud for a day or so. Then I can prepare - and not make plans for the weekend.

  16-Nov-07: Apple and the iMac

Apple computer sent me a request for feedback message today, asking me to fill out a form to let them know how we feel about our new iMac. This was my response.

"I have used Macintosh computers for 13 years and this is my fourth machine. It is also the first machine I felt like tossing out the window.

The machine was bought to replace an aging iMac DV running OS9.1 and a successful upgrade to the new platform was of major importance to my company. Sadly, the migration process was not smooth.

When I attempted to move all of my data to the new iMac, the Migration Manager would not recognise my old machine. Consequently, I had to copy all of my data by hand using an external Firewire drive.

I was also told by the sales staff where I bought the machine (John Lewis, Newcastle upon Tyne) that the new machine would run all of my existing OS9 applications. It does not. I understand that support for OS9 applications was dropped several years ago. Whilst this isn't Apple's fault, it does not show the company in a good light.

When I was finally able to move my data over to the new machine, I found that Mac Mail would not import all of my Outlook Express documents. It requires a copy of Outlook Express running on the machine before it will import the data. This is difficult because Outlook Express was apparently never ported to the new Intel range. Other mail applications such as Eudora also failed to run on the new iMac. To restore e-mail, I had to buy Microsoft Entourage, which was another £100 ($200).

A month after buying the machine, I have not received any information about upgrading to Leopard. Then again, I am not sure that I want to until the majority of the bugs have been fixed.

The machine is, at present, highly unstable. We are not power users and the machine is mainly used for e-mail, accounts and surfing. It is not used for games or anything that is likely to upset the OS. I have given up using Safari because of the number of crashes and lock-ups I have experienced. I currently use FireFox, which is better but not perfect.

I have worked with Macintosh computers for 13 years. Before then, I worked as a Systems Administrator with Silicon Graphics and Hewlett Packard machines, supporting a network of over 70 graphics workstations. I feel that if I had not had this background then migrating to the new platform would have taken us significantly longer and cost us a great deal of money in calls to the various technical support lines. The impact on my business would have been considerable and, for a long time, I was deeply concerned that we would be left with a very large and somewhat expensive White Elephant.

With hindsight, we should have done more research before upgrading. We should have known about the lack of support for OS9 before we began and I feel that we should not have trusted the sales staff so readily because their knowledge was deeply flawed.

In short, we have a new Macintosh which does not do everything our old machine did and is actually less stable.

One final thought - Had I not persisted with this machine and, instead, listened to the company accountant then I would be typing this feedback form on a brand new Dell XPS420, which does everything our old iMac did and is currently available for around half the price.

Yours faithfully,

David J. Hughes

http://www.infectionmusic.co.uk

  14-Nov-07: Baebes and iPhoto

Jules and I went to see the Mediaeval Baebes at Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Newcastle last night and it was a stunning performance. The Baebes were on cracking form, and covered a wide range of old and new pieces with the usual gusto. The performance itself was more physical and energetic than on previous outings whilst the overall delivery also felt more joyous, relaxed and less po-faced. The musicians too were absolutely fantastic, coping well with the cramped conditions and obvious tuning problems due to the temperature changes within the Cathedral.

The Cathedral Choir also joined in the proceedings, adding extra warmth and a special fullness to the overall sound. The absolute highlight had to be the serendipidous timing of the last song, the mournful Coventry Song, with the Cathedral Bells gently chiming the hour as the piece drew to a close. A very special moment.

I uploaded the above photographs into our trusty iMac this morning. Nothing unusual in that except, on this occasion, I stumbled across a collection of photos of a personal nature that I thought that I'd hidden away. Obviously, hidden files on OS9 don't translate into hidden files under OSX and I was a bit surprised and disappointed at my own naivety. I just assumed that they'd be hidden, fool that I am.

Anyway, I decided to beef up the security on the iMac, switching off the auto-login feature and adding password-protected accounts for Jules and myself. I also looked at a couple of techniques for hiding stuff away from prying eyes so that, should this machine be stolen or have to go to the repair shop for some reason then I won't suddenly find a picture of myself in the bath displayed on the Wall of Shame at my local branch of PC World. What? You didn't know about the Wall of Shame? Oh dear. :)

  09-Nov-07: Pirates

I went ego-goggling again last night only, this time, it was with a purpose in mind. I wanted to know how many sites are currently offering The Secret Life of Angels for sale on their web sites and what percentage of them are pirates. Frankly, I was astonished. Last month there were two or three. This month... well, I lost count.

This makes me very unhappy. Yeah, I'm pissed that I'm not getting paid for my work. These parasites are stealing the money straight out of my pocket. If some guy tries to lift your wallet in the middle of the high street then you too would probably get pretty pissed and maybe call a cop. If you're so inclined, you might even work the snot nosed little punk over with a fist or a swift kick to the love spuds. Fair enough in my book.

But, seriously speaking, how do you stop the pirates? You could invest millions in developing a data protection system that stops people copying your music. Equally, you could make the music available for free. Or you could just stop releasing music altogether.

That option is suddenly looking very attractive.

  08-Nov-07: Knackered

Three days away from the office and I'm still exhausted. At first, you might think that driving up and down the length of the country wouldn't really help but I have to admit that, after a while, I started to enjoy the drive and far more so than I have in recent years. The gentle throb of the engine combined with the bright autumn sunshine and roads that weren't too congested with bad tempered idiots meant that, to an extent, it was possible to relax and take it easy for a change.

I certainly think it's fair to say that I - we - have been put through the Mill in recent months. Production problems with the wretched CPU boards, the arrival of the new iMac and the dubious pleasures of running a business in Gordon Brown's vision of a utopian Britain have all come together to leave us all feeling tired and lethargic.

This was a short break in Bletchley, a suburb of Milton Keynes, with Jules' parents. Jules made it very clear that I was completely banned from all forms of work - no computers, no notebooks, no electronic music. This was family time, a rest and not just a case of relocating the office. Hence, the laptop was left at home but then I remembered that Jules' Dad has a PC and figured that I could at least try and get some green screen in that way. But, alas, that avenue too was cut off with a stern finger wagging warning - "take it easy, walk the dogs, relax... or else!"

I came away still feeling tired but with a refreshed perspective with regard to some areas. Clearly, certain activities are not going to plan and we need to change how we do things if we plan on staying in the game, staying sharp, learning from mistakes and moving on to the next phase.

I'll fill in more of these details as time moves forward but I want to capture and bottle these ideas so that I can refer back to them in the near future.

  01-Nov-07: Seminars

I've been to two seminars in the last two nights and, frankly, I'm pretty knackere. In both cases, I didn't get home until after 830pm and we didn't finish eating until after 9pm so there wasn't much left of the evening except doss in front of the telly.

Anyway, both of these events were put together by the Generator organisation based in Newcastle and, frankly, they were pretty damned good.

The first was on Synchronisation Rights - in other words, getting your music synced up to visuals including how to do it, who to talk to and where to get the breaks. The panel were good and included a strong mix of experienced folk from across the business. Damien Baertens of Generator held the proceedings together and Rachel Wood of Woodwork Music had a lot to say, most of it very useful as well as highly entertaining. I've met Darren Jobling of Eutechnyx before. Alas, he didn't recognise me but then it was 2000 when I went to him for a job. Anyway, Darren had a lot to say about working in the field of computer games and, again, it was useful to see how they source material for their product - they tend to concentrate on up-and-coming bands who have yet to make it because that's who their target audience is listening to right now. A cynic might suggest that it's also because their sync fees are lower than say a named artist but I don't have my cynic's hat on at the moment. It's in the wash along with my tight-ass underpants and my I hate the world t-shirt.

Andrew Archer of Loft Music had some small snippets of information about publishing. I would loved to have heard more from this guy but he seemed fairly quiet and reserved. Duncan McKeown, Creative Director for ad agency Robson Brown, gave a number of highly valuable insights into gaining commissions. The good news is that it does still seem to be down to personal relationships and building a rapport with the creatives rather than just telling everybody how good you are and waiting for the phone to ring. Strangely, Duncan strongly recommended the cold calling approach i.e. get a showreel together, call the agency and ask to speak to one of the creatives. When was the last time that you heard someone advocate that appraoch to gaining work? It made me wonder if this technique would actually get you an interview. Are you more likely to just get the usual "He/She's in a meeting right now. Can I get him/her to ring you back?" response? Guess we'll just have to wait and see. :)

The second seminar was a talk by UK film composer Guy Farley and this was just terrific, an absolutely perfect way to spend two hours. Farley has done a staggering amount of work in TV, film and advertising and his delivery was spot on, down-to-earth and very frank. Again, most of his experience to date appears to be based on personal contacts and word-of-mouth recommendations. Plus, his Can-do attitude seems to an essential factor in keeping him at the top of his game.

Guy showed a number of examples of his work, past and present. He began by playing a fairly cliched piece of Christmas humbug, The Miracle of Johnathan Toomey, firstly without the score and then, again, with the score turned up to illustrate how music can lift the visuals, turning them into something very special, full of warmth optimism energy and then, by contrasts, how to use the music to change the tone into something at once darker and more sinister.

Other stand-out examples included a Portugese version of an Ealing comedy made on an absolute shoestring, Land of the Blind, a film about a failed European Dictator with Donald Sutherland and Ralph Fiennes, best of all, the soon-to-be-released thriller The Flock with Richard Gere and Claire Danes. Such was the power of the visuals and score, this clip really did make me jump out of my seat. Brilliant stuff.

I left the building a very happy man indeed and came away with the feeling that this was one presentation where I wished that a few of my friends could have come along to share in the experience.