Photoshoot

It was time for another photoshoot with Fish Tank and this time it was around Ramsgate and Kingsgate with Nick Simmonds, a photographer that the band know through university. I went along to do another video diary, see below, and to occasionally throw rocks into ponds to create splashes for photos, none of which worked very well. It rained a fair bit which made shooting outside a little tricky but there were plenty of indoor locations to nip into whilst it wasn’t much fun being outside. Both KFC and Captain Digby got a visit which kept us all happy and shortly after we got back, I got the video all sorted out, along with the gig from a couple of days ago.

Some days are busier than others

Unfortunately there’s not an awful lot to do on some days here, but it provides a nice break from rushing around the country. All this means is that today’s picture is of a heart-shaped piece of a daisy (I think) that she picked on the way back from Tesco. The not-having-anything-much-to-do is nice but when it goes on for too long it can just be boring, So don’t feel too jealous just yet.

End of Year Show

The End of Year Show is an annual (funny, that) event for the uni to show off all the musical talent from all the students doing contemporary music courses. It was at the Folkstone campus in their little theatre there. The range of music was pretty good, mainly third year students but a little first year act, Fish Tank, managed to get in as well and did a pretty good job, considering it was a very different venue and audience to what they’re used to. I did another little video blog for them which will appear in a coulee of days, once some extra video is added.

Crafts

It’s nearing the end of term and Fia discovered a whole load of crafts stuff in her cupboard that she’s had since the start of term and we decided to make use of some of them this evening. There were various bits of card, pens, sticky things and here for example, Ed is creating a Fish Tank sick bag, I believe it says something along the lines of, “our music is sick, are you feeling it?” Just one of the many ways to entertain yourselves of an evening.

WWDC / Geek o’clock

Every now and then, Apple hold a massive media event in which they let us all know how well iPods, iPhones and Macs are doing against competition and also what their new products are. This calls for a massive geek session and browser windows all pointing at Apple news sites like Apple Insider and MacRumours Live. I also tweet some of my own thoughts on what’s happening and here is how it sums up. In this event, the new Mac operating system, Lion, was explained and a release date and price given, as well as iOS 5 unveiled for iPhones, iPods and iPads. Of particular interest was iCloud which brings the range of products together and means that if you take a picture on your iPhone, within minutes or even seconds it can be relayed to your computer and stored in the cloud, so that you never lose it. Pretty cool stuff, I’ll have to get an iPhone to take full advantage of it.

Fish Tank EP

A few days ago you saw us printing the sleeves for the Fish Tank EP and now, here’s the first delivered EP – to me! There are only 50 available and I think that the email letting you know if you’ve been successful has already gone out, so I’m very sorry if you missed out on it. Of course, you can still download the free EP on Fish Tank’s Facebook page and make sure you give them a like whilst you’re there – it’ll be the best way to be first in the queue for next time! Myself, I’ve just about seen enough of these things to last a lifetime!

Surprise!

Happy Birthday Matt! As a surprise birthday celebration we had a bit of a party in flat 4 tonight, all arranged without Matt’s knowing and just look at his little face when he saw us there! There were party games, decorations and of course Party Rings. My personal highlight was singing along to Afroman with Matt and James and everyone else in the room really, after I started humming it outside and it was suggested that it should be played. My jeans also had a great evening when they got their own drink of Budweiser spilled over them but the great thing about living in halls is that you can just nip back to your own flat, quickly change and carry on with the celebrations!

Summer Party

Today it was our campus’ summer party and with high expectations everyone went into the campus and had the best party night ever. Not really, it’s only fair and truthful to say that there isn’t the same level of entertainment at our campus that there is at others, such as the CCCU Canterbury Campus. Needless to say, not a lot happened and the joint highlight was the first Pimm’s of the year and a bouncy castle from which I got a rather nasty burn. Other than that, there were the usual over-priced burgers and some bands playing in Horizons. After all that it made more sense to go back to halls and have our own fun there, which was better organised, better attended and probably a bit louder.

Printing

Today, we started printing off covers for Fish Tank’s EP, of which 50 copies will be given away to the first 50 downloaders. We designed the sleeve over the past couple of days and with a design finalised, my printer went into Joe’s room and we started printing. (Quite why it had to be moved to Joe’s room I have no idea but that’s how it went.) 100 sides of A4 is quite a tall order and we’re bound to get through plenty of ink but at least it’s not particularly hard work, mainly just putting the card in the right way round and noticing when we’re out of ink. The sound of printing is getting a little monotonous though.

My wonderful colleagues

I don’t think they know that I’m using this photo as my picture for today but never mind, this is Ed and Emma whilst we take a break in a Kent Kitchen filming session. If my memory serves me well, we’d just said goodbye and thanks to one band and we were thinking of some questions for the next band’s interview. We like to keep it fairly relaxed in the kitchen/studio, hence the beautiful faces and the fact that we’re sitting on the comfy Kent Kitchen seats. The whole thing is going really well, there are plenty of fans on Facebook, the website is getting plenty of hits and YouTube views are higher than ever. Little advert here; if you want to fins some new music or would like to get a bit of promotion for you or your band, go to kentkitchenmusic.org and take a look at the videos there!