Flashy Flashy

As a technician, and especially a lighting technician, its not often that i get recognition from artists or in the press (aka blogosphere), but the last two weeks I've worked on two events where the feedback has been positive and has made me feel like my contributions have been appreciated.

The other week I worked a drum and bass night in the SU's Great Hall, called Hospitality. Hospitality is generally seen as the little cousin of the larger BEDLAM nights that happen at the union, but this last event was the best yet and hopefully will set the calibre of acts higher for next time.


Alongside the regular local and regional DJs and MCs, I had the privilege of lighting a set by Mr David Rodigan, the reggae equivalent of Tim Westwood. Rodigan (blue t-shirt) played some great tunes, was a fantastic MC and all round good fun.

After a big night of bass and "revelry" it was time for a week of tent-based christian music and worship in the form of IgniteHope 2010. 

IgniteHope is the sequel to the national Hope '08 initiative in which many thousands of young christian people did good deeds in their community to show the love of God through their actions, and Hope Local in 2009, which sought to let the churches have a go at organising their own social action, rather than having it centrally controlled by Ignite.

This years event production was provided by PG Sound and was a grand entry into the world of medium scale outdoor events for the company, only a year after its inception. 

The event was held in Sophia Gardens in Cardiff City Centre, (as far as I know we had no noise complaints!) and the site was used as a mustering point for hundreds of young people for the mornings and evenings, and was open to the public during the day.

Pictures From the event will hopefully arrive soon on the internet, I couldn't tell you where because there were so many people with cameras, but when I find some good photos I'll post them here

Lighting was provided by MJ Lighting, Video by Genero, Sound and crew by PG Sound and Staging from Stage Lighting Services.

The storm has passed

It was amazing going into uni today and seeing the faces and moods of everyone who only yesterday were in a mix of panic and sleep deprivation. Everyone was chirpy, cheery and wanting to get the rest of the deadlines out of the way so they could get their lives back to normal!

1/3 of this years marks will be derived from a joing honours group project, whereby Music Tech, Sound Tech and Media Tech all band together in one big techy mass and work in groups to create a product or business.
my group has created a Web-based project that attempts to join together people from all walks of life in the Cardiff music scene. It is this project that we are to present to a panel of 4 lecturers and a few dozen of our classmates on tuesday.

I'm not very optimistic about our groups presentation as the meeting today wasn't as productive as we would have hoped and because of various commitments acorss the group, we aren't able to meet up again until the morning of the presentation (the presentatation is in the morning).
The next few days will be a test of communication and co-operation as each member prepares his or her part, practises it and compiles it inot one stramlined presentation that flows as if i were actaully written as a group effort! Wish me luck.

On a different note, the reason i'm busy all the next few days is because of an event called IgniteHope. I mentioned Ignite in a earlier post, Ignite like to take on projects and events to promote the good works of christians in their community. One way of showing this is to take the Hope '08 initiative and keep it going every year.
The Hope '08 initiative involved christians going out into their communitys and doing various activities including painting fences, running youth clubs, gardening, building, washing and cleaning and cooking; all for people in their community who need help or just want something done. The groups aren't paid to do this, on the contrary the delegates PAY for the privilege of painting a fence or a scout hut for three days.

As part of the IgniteHope event I'll be going round some of the sites in south wales where the projects are taking place and filming them as part of a camera crew. The projects run from Saturday to Monday, culminating in an evening celebration at Cardiff SU.

Hopefully I'll have some photos or footage of the weekend up soon, but for now here's something from a site I came across earlier which may become a favourite of mine!