February 2009 Archives

This was tagged on to a previous post, but I think that it has become more important.

I am fairly bummed about the demise of the Sunday Showcase and Misssy M's film club; two things which, to me, were signs of the creative tide turning in Aberdeen.

Huzzah, a new era for Aberdeen where creative people are valued and supported by Aberdeen City and Shire.

The curfew flies in the face of some good work by the Arts department in the City Council to create more dialogue between creative practitioners in the North-East and encourage cross discipline collaboration. Also to create a support network which is self sufficient in creating opportunities for itself.

The proposed curfew IMO does not tackle the real problem, which is of flocks of drunk people coming out of clubs all at once.

• The Council should tackle the problem at the source, by penalising those licensees who serve alcohol to already-drunk people.


• Conversely, they should reward responsible traders with extra opening hours. This blanket approach didn't work in Glasgow, didn't work in Edinburgh, so why do they think it will work here?


• Bear in mind that there seems to have been virtually no consultation with existing licensees on the proposed curfew, despite the fact that the FOI documents that I received specified that a consultation should be arranged before taking the proposal any further.


• ACC have also ignored the initial suggestion by Aberdeen Taxis for the curfew to be one hour from closing and instead have made it 12.30pm for all pubs and clubs. Considering the lack of industry guidance on the issue and the suggestion by Aberdeen Taxis, there is no justification for the curfew to be that early.

I can't help but feel that Aberdeen was getting somewhere by means of supporting the arts, but now it is running a great risk of regressing.

Thanks to Andrew Learmonth and Misssy M and their work in
creating exposure for local bands and the North East in general.

They are two of only a few people that are trying to hold back
the tide; people with skills and artistry will probably want to pack
up and leave Aberdeen, and who can blame them.

I have no lectures this term, which means that I have some spare time, woo hoo!! Though I should be getting on with my disseration, but that's another matter.

One of the ideas that I have for getting more experience of collaborating with people is to form a collective.

Whiskey has joined as a kinda bass guitar craftsman and IT guy, I will compose stuff and my sister-in-law is going to paint the bass guitars. They will look pretty cool as each guitar will be its own work of art, huzzah!!

I have sent a proposal for an exhibition called Synaesthesia which looks at the interaction of art inspiring music, which inspires art again, and then you can see the sounds, ooooooh.

Haven't heard anything back yet, but I'm going to try Limousine Bull too.

The best part about new exhibitions is that there is always free wine on the first night. :-)

It's not very often that I actually act upon one of my ideas...
This week I have booked some time in a recording studio to collaborate with my mate Colin who is a local music promoter and funk/hip-hop guy.
We are going to create a new hip-hop track, using a sample of 'Dies Irae' from Mozart's Requiem.

I know it sounds totally weird, but I have an idea in my head. It will be interesting to have a bit of experimentation and see what happens :-)