Stevie C’s Blog.

D is for DDE

April - June 2018

D is for Dundee Dance Event, P is for Phoney Psychic, L is for Lawsuit. With the best will in the world, I’m writing this - yet again - in retrospect of the fact. By about 12 months. Call it procrastination, call it work/health/life getting in the way, call it whatever you want.

WMT

I’ve been working at the theatre again, for a “psychic” of all things (I didn’t bother to ask about the show before agreeing to do it). I’m not going to name names (let’s call her Psychic Strumpet) - because she SUES people who accuse her of being phoney, without doing anything to address said claims. Suffice it to say her performance was every bit as bad as every Richard Dawkins, James Randi, Ben Goldacre and Derren Brown expose makes them out to be. She scored miss, after miss, after miss, after miss, after miss… before finally scoring a tenuous “hit”, only to milk that for all it was worth.

The Vine Dundee

I was asked to help “shine some light” on bar displays in The Vine function suite, as well as on various architectural structures throughout the venue. I used safe low voltage LED tape, and avoided the cheap crap from online marketplaces.

DDE: Dundee Dance Event 2018

DDE 2018 came and went in a blur of stress, cable mess, moving heads, sofa-beds, glad-rags, colourful flags, sticky cables, sticky tables, pulled pints and pulled circuit breakers. I had a chance to test out my new mini LED moving heads (10W movers once described on techy-forums as “moving torches”), which worked a treat when run off an old laptop with MyDMX 3.0 and left to do random colours all night. Windows only crashed 6 times if memory serves.

This has been my last ever DDE in the Salty Dog - due to non-payment, equipment theft/loss and the general arsiness of the management.

audioWAVE.co.uk

I’ve been working for audioWave again, and I’ve been left with some memories - some good, some weird. We provided sound and lighting for a wedding at Mansfield Traquair in Edinburgh - where I noticed my MyDMX software looked startlingly like the support band’s Daslight software. We put systems into a school show in Monifieth and a rave in Perth, as well as PA & noise-metering for a football match and PA for a polo match.

We were also asked to supply sound and lighting for Dave Pearce in Huntly.

I have a new favourite choon - the Redanka mix of Right Here Right Now by Fatboy Slim. I’m also left with the memory of a posh lassie with her knickers around her ankles (her partner held her expensive coat) - shitting in the bushes.

BonFest 2018

I should probably mention BonFest - which was the same weekend as DDE (I had my priorities wrong in hindsight).

AML: Tayside Contracts Awards

I went to work some events with AM Lighting; setting up LED star cloths, LED dancefloor, pixel bars, video cameras & projection, moving heads, pinspot PAR cans and spotlights for the Tayside Contracts Awards. Oh, and a GIGANTIC Mirror Ball. I took some photos that were so good that the company now use them for business cards.

AML: DUSA & Kanzen Karate

I’ve been doing other stuff for AM Lighting: washing dancefloors, repairing lights, setting up lights/dancefloors for weddings in cow sheds, the DUSA Grad Ball and Kanzen Karate. I got a bit fed up wearing shopping bags over my feet to protect them from the pressure washer so I ordered some wellies. Unfortunately the only ones available were white slaughterhouse wellies; something which became a running joke…

We had a bit of a Spinal Tap Moment during Kanzen, but I’m keeping schtum. Newspaper article about Kanzen Karate

One More Thing…

I’ve been catching some live bands when I can, including Miami Vince playing MoFest in The Black Abbot. Between the work with AML & AudioWave and odd jobs for Apex Acoustics, things are looking busier. Just in time to avoid the DWP’s new £multimillion Universal Credit debacle. I also played my last ever DJ set in The Salty Dog (explanation above).

Having been asked to transfer some VHS footage to DVD/MP4 - using an old Dell WinXP tower and movie maker to capture in 720p - it got me thinking about computer power and obsolescence in general…

Having ruined the battery in a McKeller cordless drill (a brand specific to the now-defunct Focus DIY Group) at DDE, I decided to attempt replacing the cells in the battery pack - some measured as 1V to 1.2V, and some measured 0.001V (i.e. dead). I ordered a replacement cell package from batteriesplus.co.uk (before reading lots of negative reviews online - however, mine arrived quickly without any issues, albeit fully charged and thru the letterbox).

All I had to do was assemble and solder them together in the drill caddy, easier said than done. But I saved a drill from landfill.