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Subject: Holy crap, it's still here!


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Original Message 1/76             09-Jan-09  @  07:23 AM   -   Holy crap, it's still here!

psylichon

Posts: 4573

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It was down so long I just stopped trying after a while.

I still talk with Beds every now and then on IRC, but who else is still around?



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Message 2/76             09-Jan-09  @  12:34 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

Posts: 12353

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how could it be there??, the folder and files were all removed from the server until I saw this thread & replaced it all today!... spooky!!

anyways i replaced it all just now... might as well - but somehow we need to get this forum working again, but how i dunno.... the 2 sites (dt & 7161) traffic is still good, we're getting plenty of signups everyday, week in week out, really good google placings for keywords, and the videos etc get good views.

The other thing is, look at the views counter for discussions on the forums here! - compare them to the views on sos or musicradar - they are as good as SOS or Musicradar forum discussion 'views' even without many posts being added. In fact in a way they are better because there seems to be a proportionately higher 'views to posts ratio' here if you check it, which must mean we've got more lurkers and passing thru visitors as a proportion of forum traffic than their sites have, but they have a better core regular-user count who actualy post.

So the traffic is there even for the forums, but not much actual postings, like people dont want to be first to try swimming in the crocodile infested lake.

anyways, thanks for that heads up on the chat Psylichon.. i'll drop in - btw, what was that girl called who used to chat there? the one who was a gun sales rep in the usa, lol

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



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Message 3/76             09-Jan-09  @  09:53 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

psylichon

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Hehe, Trillium (Amanda). She's since moved to Connecticut. Haven't seen her in months.

And by IRC, I mean a new room that I sit in, not the DT room (sorry k). Come say hi in #EIC on espernet...



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Message 4/76             16-Jan-09  @  01:01 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Jock

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I still lurk around. Although I tend to use my precious internet private time dropping my yop over free bongo sites.



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Message 5/76             18-Jan-09  @  03:57 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Maarten

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Hey Dave! I still drop in for a browse now and then but not as often as I used to... I kinda miss golf.



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Message 6/76             19-Jan-09  @  05:34 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Alan Blu

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Hey K, long time....

I notice alot of forums still - might be an idea to strip back for a while to : Music General / Hardware /
Software / Slaggit / Spam (For Sale, Artist Promotion etc)

Get the convo flowing firstly, then take it from there!

Blu



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Message 7/76             20-Jan-09  @  07:40 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Jock

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I think you should offer a free pair of womens tits for everyone who registers on the forum, that will get the punters in.



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Message 8/76             21-Jan-09  @  10:04 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Steve Roughley

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Hey all!

Haven't posted here in a good long while. Good to see some familiar faces still around.

K, kind of lost contact there. Hope you're well. Happy New Year and all that. The site is looking good!  

Steve



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Message 9/76             21-Jan-09  @  11:26 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

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hey Steve! hi mate, i'm kinda broke after the new year, but gimme 2 months to get 2 months worth of commission revenue in and i can drop you a little bit for that script help. It wont be much, but enuff for a really good dinner out with the wife with a few bottles of good wine. It's always like this after christmas  

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



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Message 10/76             21-Jan-09  @  02:47 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Steve Roughley

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No worries K! Was glad I could help.



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Message 11/76             19-Feb-09  @  05:44 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

psylichon

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Y'all need to get iPhones and come say hi.

http://www.everythingicafe.com/forum

I'm a moderator 'n' shit!

Sorry for the cross-promotion, k. Ban me!



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Message 12/76             19-Feb-09  @  11:09 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

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YOU ARE... OUTAHERE!!!... STEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-RIKE!

dude, the thing with those iproducts?... i've got an ipod nano AND an ipod touch (latest version), and i never have used either not even once, lol

for one thing the headphones dont stay in place unless you stay perfectly still.. worst headphone design ever on the planet... or mebbe i have wierd ears?

apart from that i'm an n95 guy cos of the better camera and video ;)

dude, come around more often and bring some freinds, we need to get this place more busy again.

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



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Message 13/76             19-Feb-09  @  11:48 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Jock Munro

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I thought the iPod headphones were notorious for sound bleed and shit design.


I've got an iPhone, I used my Shure E4C headphones and it sounds cack. Plug the same headphones into my Creative Labs MP3 player that cost 50p and it sounds great.


Thank you



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Message 14/76             19-Feb-09  @  09:04 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Milan

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bah ipods...i just lost my nano

would never have bought it in the first place, but it was the only way to get mp3 in my car (ipod adapter only... stupid bose ).

anyone from UK want to help me buy one cheap? with current conversion rates, its 30% cheaper over there!



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Message 15/76             19-Feb-09  @  09:27 PM     Edit: 22-Feb-09  |  02:53 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

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Holy crap! Steve, Psy, Milan, and whoever else. I still pop in here in spurts. I miss a lot of
people who were here but there are new people too so that's good. I can't think of but a few
names atm. Influx, Pongoid, Nobody. Hope everyone is doing well. Oh and just so you know I
haven't changed a bit, here's something I posted up this morning on a news blog pertaining to
the shoe thrower going to trial...

"A few thoughts on this whole shoe thing:

This incident is "laced" with controversy.

What did everyone expect? The U.S. and Iraq have become "arch" enemies.

Perhaps he should be pardoned in order to start the "heeling" process.

Or maybe they should just let his "sole" burn in hell.

When he threw his second shoe did someone call for pair-amedics?

Seriously, I don't see why such a big deal is being made over a shoe throwing incident. It
would have been different had he gone up to Bush and "socked" him one.

Next time someone does something like this they should consider instead throwing basketball
shoes. This way at trial they could use the defense, "I was pushed into it by the manufacturer.
I was thinking about it but wasn't going to actually throw them. That's when I looked at the box.
It said Just do it
"

Isn't it nice to know some of the idiots you knew from back in the day haven't changed? :P



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Message 16/76             22-Feb-09  @  02:52 PM     Edit: 22-Feb-09  |  02:53 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

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then there's the guy who has powers of intuition i've never seen in anyone else. you
mention anything and he applies his intuition. whatever the idea is...going to a concert, to a
football game, to a bar to pick up girls. No matter what you mention, his answer is, "dude. i'm
intuit".



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Message 17/76             23-Feb-09  @  11:57 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

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lol

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



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Message 18/76             05-Mar-09  @  07:51 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Trillium

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I'm not dead yet!!!

 



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Message 19/76             06-Mar-09  @  08:50 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

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omg! heh heh, Hi Trillium, hows the gun trade these days?

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



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Message 20/76             09-Mar-09  @  09:15 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

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La cucaracha, la cucaracha,
ya no puede caminar
porque no tiene, porque le faltan,
as dos patitas de atrás.



oh sorry...wrong website



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Message 21/76             10-Mar-09  @  10:51 PM     Edit: 10-Mar-09  |  10:53 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

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decided that i'm going to let you all in on a little secret. it's probably similar in the UK and
elsewhere but in the states we watch our favorite tv series like sex and the city, 24, burn
notice, nip tuck, the simpsons etc. the frustrating thing about these shows is the producers
come out with new seasons that run for about 16 weeks and once a season is finished you
have to wait 8 months before the next season starts. here's the secret.....that's why i watch
the weather channel. not only does a new season start every 3 months but there is no pause
between the previous season and the next season. one day it's one season and the next day
it's the new season and it picks up right where it left off. and a little insider tip for you. next
season doesn't start until march 20th but i've already heard that the clouds will be back.


no need to thank me. i'm always happy to share the kinds of valuable information that never
dawns on most people.



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Message 22/76             03-Jun-09  @  04:58 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

damballah

Posts: 1675

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this place still here?



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Message 23/76             03-Jun-09  @  05:44 AM     Edit: 03-Jun-09  |  05:46 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

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hey damballah. yeah it's still here. i pop in every now and then. I long for the days when this
forum was hopping and people like Influx, Nobody, Pongoid, Rtek and all the rest of you were
posting about every day. Fun times for sure. I'm not around much so I can't say what kind of
traffic is here these days. How are you doing?

The U.S. still isn't into electronic music much. It sucks really. I frequent bars in Manhattan and
people are still playing either Beyonce, who I like, or old rock tunes on the jukebox. God it kills
me to see people in their early 20s playing the Allman Brothers. That stuff is just old. Was
great in its day but give me a break. When I put money in the box and play some trance or
techno I hear moans. Someone half my age will say, "who played this?". Well they are wall
street bankers there so fuck em. There's one Israeli bartender there who's into trance. He
organizes underground sorts of concerts in NYC. Cool guy and he loves that I'm into this
music. Shares stuff with me and asks my opinion on flyers he makes up. But he's only there
on Sunday nights.

You guys who know me know that I'm too old to be liking electronic music but fuck you all. You
ever watch The Sopranos? Listen to the theme song at the beginning of the show. Around the
3rd verse a synth comes in with bleeps and blips and at the end of the song the synth is the
last thing you hear. I listen to that theme song just for that synth. The song is pretty lame but
the synth is spot on. Power to all of you making electronic vibes. The marriage of music,
mathematics, and passion.



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Message 24/76             03-Jun-09  @  09:19 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

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well sitar we need to try and get this thing back in the charts so to speak mebbe?

i dunno how the hell do you get the forum to rebuild? i spose everyone who used to be regular comes round now and again, buut i dunno, even track feedback has dropped to almost zero. man. what a shame cos traffic is actualy good. if we coud retain just 10% of new visitors so they regularly revisit the forum it'd be busy as hell

any ideas?

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



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Message 25/76             04-Jun-09  @  05:25 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

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I don't know either K. I guess a lot of the people I knew as regulars have gotten busy with other
things. There was so much talent amongst them. I'm sure the people who come here now are
talented as well. Of course the world is in a mess right now too. I have great hope now that we in
the U.S. have a president with a good mind. Don't want to get political but a lot of people in the U.S.
are struggling from the effects of bad choices. Also heaven knows millions of people are playing
WoW at this very moment lol.

Well what is the dance world like now? I'm not in the U.K. or anywhere else electronic dance has
been flourishing.

If traffic is good on the site maybe ad the forums a bit. promote them as something that might click
as beneficial and fun. This forum, for better or worse lol used to be the place where so many
valuable discussions took place. People couldn't live without this place and I met some of the
members in person which I'll always cherish. Darkstate Marc...we met a few times and had a
blast. I met Pongoid a few times and had a blast. Same with Nobody. In fact Nobody, Pongoid and
another member whose name I can't remember damn it hooked up at a mayday concert. Was
awesome.

It'll come around again here. I do think you need to promote the forums. people will come. when I
go to the music site it's somehow very separate from this section.

Also, I commented on someone's track a while back from the link I saw when I was listening to her
track. My comment never posted. I tried several times over a period of a few days because I really
liked her track.

And I hope that someday you, Darkstate Marc and me will get a chance to hook up. I have to get
myself to London. Every time I go to Europe I've spent the time hanging with my Munich friends.
Marc is good people. He's got some great friends and a wonderful and beautiful wife.



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Message 26/76             04-Jun-09  @  11:09 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

Posts: 12353

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yeah it's tuff. No-one wants to be the first in the water i spose

if a forum isnt busy, people passing thru see that and dont post themselves.

mind you, even the cm/fm music/tech forums have died too and they have a major mag publisher backing them.

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



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Message 27/76             06-Jun-09  @  04:54 PM     Edit: 06-Jun-09  |  04:55 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

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I stopped going to SoS and FM forums shortly after I found DT. I liked SoS as a magazine.
Was very informative I thought. God I used to sit at my computer laughing my ass off reading
through the posts here. I remember Rteks' comment when it was mentioned autotune was
used on Chers' voice, "I'm glad to see Cher discovered techno". And the time I was reading
through that longest of threads started by some guy that called himself "God" or something
like that. There was a nasty argument and name calling going back and forth. After reading
through probably 50 comments I came to a comment, "I just made the most delicious
mushroom omelette mmmmm. Oh sorry. Wrong discussion". I almost fell off my chair. That
was the first thing I saw posted by Nobody. Sometime later Nobody sent me an email that said
"I'm gonna kill you" with a large photo of a 45 caliber bullet pasted in the body of the email. I
sent the picture back to him with the word "ricochet". It was the beginning of a friendship lol.

Anyway, I know the site is better now. I guess just the forum chatter has dropped.



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Message 28/76             07-Jun-09  @  11:06 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

Posts: 12353

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lol, Nobody used to crack me up too. off the wall

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



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Message 29/76             11-Jun-09  @  05:36 AM     Edit: 11-Jun-09  |  05:41 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

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You might remember I met him in person a couple of times. He's a very nice guy. Very bright,
rather soft spoken and thoughtful. Oh he's a nut too but he's a nice guy. We had fun shopping
for vinyls and one time hanging with the great Pongoid.

I know I must have said this already a long time ago but first of all I'm an older guy but
whenever I went to a techno concert or an underground concert I met the nicest people one
can imagine. One of the 2 times I went to see Pongoid perform was an underground concert
in Manhattan. I arrived early, paid the cover, went in and headed to the bar. After a couple of
beers I went out the back door into the parking lot to have a smoke then went around front and
walked in again and went back to the bar. Two guys came up to me and said I had to pay the
cover charge. Before I could open my mouth a girl jumped in and told them I already paid. I
was like...who the hell is this? Turned out I was supposed to have gotten my hand stamped
when I paid but it wasn't set up when I arrived. She then sat with me and talked for a while.
She was one of the organizers. A real sweetheart. When I saw Orbital the first time a girl
came up to me and started asking me all kinds of questions. I think she thought I was a
producer or something lol. I'm 55 now but I know when I go again to a concert the 20 year olds
are going go out of their way to be nice to me. It's quite moving actually. The world of
dance music is a great world. I can't say enough about it.

And of course there's Marc Darkstate who you know. What a great guy. And what a character
LOL.



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Message 30/76             11-Jun-09  @  01:47 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

Posts: 12353

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yeah, it's shame everyone deserted the place tho. very sad.

actualy there was a documentary about Iran on tv recently. About how 60-something perecent of iranians are under 25 or whatever and showing how they cope in that reality and about change etc

one Iranian guy was a rapper called... Nobody - heh heh, i thought.. could it be him? he didnt want to talk much on the docu' cos he's not got many fans in government and his music is illegal i think

it's here, but only for a few more days then the bbc take it down

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00l16kn/Panorama_Obama_and_the_Ayatollah/

the 'Nobody' section starts at about 8:30 if you dont want to watch the whole thing

Apparently 'Nobody' in persian is 'Hichkas' - here's the same song as in the bbc docu with a video and ebveything - good music as it goes



anyways, you doing any music or what?

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



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Message 31/76             14-Jun-09  @  09:24 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

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the tracks pretty good. I like that they use some middle eastern drums. gives it a very earthy sound.

I'm not doing anything much at the moment in the way of music. I open tracks up and play with them
a bit but that's been it for a while. Still in my mind to do though. It's funny that I bought all that gear
and now use softsynths. /sigh

How about you? You writing tracks?



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Message 32/76             15-Jun-09  @  04:21 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

Posts: 12353

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not right now, i put ideas down occasionaly, just been thru a big gear upgrade see. I added a couple of mac pro's for a final-cut editing suite (with logic as well), and have setup also a dual g5 system, so it's been alot of costing, planning, arranging business loans, sorting out one problem faulty purchase item which had to be exchanged, re-setting things up, learning final-cut and other programmes in that suite (motion, compressor, dvd studio pro etc)

also lots site stuff to do (the new homepages will be here very soon), and i'm playing in a rock band actualy for 'shits and giggles'


i'll start doing some electronic music again when the final stage is done - that final stage is a whole bunch of old gear goes into storage, sell off and give away some old pc's also, and i then have to do some final setting up of my new music-only setup, so there is 2 writing suites.

it's all go anyways! been doing a few recordings for people in between, but only for friends, or friends of friends. One guy i've been working with is very ill; he's only got a few years left unless he has a very risky operation. He's a musician who writes songs, a friend of a mate of mine, I'm helping him out cos he's totaly broke & depressed and i think he's trying to get stuff down while he has time left on this earth frankly.

it's quite tough going sometimes cos his songs are very good and probably due to the state he's in some of the lyrics are very emotional ... lump in the throat stuff.

anyways, thats how things are... all in all it's trundling along mate

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



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Message 33/76             17-Jun-09  @  09:05 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

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Wow. It's sad to hear about your mate's mate having a limited time to live. It's great you're helping
him out. That's rough but a part of life too. On the bright side, we never know when the end is
coming. I could get hit by a bus tomorrow. I guess that's the bright side lol. At least he knows he can't
put things off like so many of us do until it's too late.

Sounds like you'll have a kickass studio setup. You're using Macs now? Traitor...



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Message 34/76             18-Jun-09  @  01:44 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Test Deejay

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i still got 11 pc's biatch!

hey joke



a mate of mine told me his is shagging a girl and her twin!

i said, "how do you tell them apart?"

"Easy!... her brother has a moustache"




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Message 35/76             18-Jun-09  @  01:46 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Test Deejay

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btw sitar thats me k above, we're building the new homepages & testing with dummy users



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Message 36/76             19-Jun-09  @  12:45 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

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LOL @ the joke.

Dummy users? I thought that's what we all were.



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Message 37/76             21-Jun-09  @  02:02 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Bedwyr

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The url is sat there on my bookmarks toolbar in firefox, but I rarely click it ... not making any music these days for a variety of reasons, mostly because i've been working as a programmer for the last year ... up at 6am back home at 7pm - just no time.

Back to school in october though to finish my degree, don't think i'll have much time then either!

But first ... getting married in August




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Message 38/76             22-Jun-09  @  04:41 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

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Hey Bedwyr. Congrats in advance on getting married. That's great!



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Message 39/76             22-Jun-09  @  10:17 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Steve Roughley

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Hey guys!

Yeah, I still pop my head in every now and then to see what goes on.

Congrats Bedwyr! I wish you and your missus lots of happiness in the years to come  

I've been a bit slack this year on the music front, for various reasons, but am now getting back into it. I've got loads of time booked for the studio over the coming months for a couple of projects I'm working on. Can't wait  

Steve



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Message 40/76             23-Jun-09  @  02:29 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

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hey Steve. That's awesome. Glad you're still writing. You write great stuff.

It's so true what they say (and we all know when *they* say it, it must be true) music is good for the
soul....sooths the savage beast.



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Message 41/76             24-Jun-09  @  02:51 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

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yeah beds congrats mate. Best wishes for that

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



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Message 42/76             27-Jun-09  @  06:52 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Maarten

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We wish her luck

Seriously though, congrats dude!



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Message 43/76             02-Jul-09  @  08:27 PM     Edit: 02-Jul-09  |  08:28 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Bedwyr

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thanks guys
. just bought my [shirt] for the big day.



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Message 44/76             04-Jul-09  @  10:10 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

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awesome! not that i should be giving advice but make sure it's her day!



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Message 45/76             06-Jul-09  @  03:42 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

xoxos

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that's strange, i'm at dancetech.



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Message 46/76             07-Jul-09  @  08:02 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Milan

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that is indeed strange.

i wore a white shirt for my wedding, more than a year ago

(bedwyr... best wishes mate!)

(glad to see all of you still check back, just as i do)

(no, i also dont produce anymore, i just deejay some house every now and then)



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Message 47/76             07-Jul-09  @  09:35 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

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Hey Milan how are ya?

Holy crap Xoxos! How are ya buddy?



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Message 48/76             08-Jul-09  @  10:40 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Bedwyr

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quote
Milan wrote:

i wore a white shirt for my wedding


I've sent the shirt back, it wasn't white, more of a grey, Swapped for another one but that's not got double cuffs so I can't wear cufflinks. More shirt news to follow.

bloody hell xoxos.



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Message 49/76             10-Jul-09  @  01:04 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

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*swoons*

the ghost of xoxos



yo, i was in deutchland in the last 6 days. awesome!,

http://www.rockhaus-duisburg.de

fucking great deejays over there i tell you. Minimal techno mostly at the festie and also on the last night one older deejay played a thru the night session of reggea, roots and dubs.das ist cool!

heheh. i was greast even tho it was bad weather which kinda killed it, thunder and lightning and the stage roof collapsed and the pa exploded, lol

i tell you tho, over there it was like the old days in Uk, people just doing something and getting it together proper punk style, not a pure money thing.


good bands too, these guys were great - STRAW

http://www.myspace.com/strawrockt

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



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Message 50/76             11-Jul-09  @  03:43 PM     Edit: 11-Jul-09  |  03:56 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

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i'm jealous k. i love deutchland. strange though...i googled duisberg to find out which part of
germany it's in. all i got was "do you mean dilsberg?" but the website gives the address as being
47137 duisberg.


oh and "the ghost of xoxos"

the ghost of xoxos past



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Message 51/76             12-Jul-09  @  08:45 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

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Duisburg - sorry i spelled it wrong - it's with a 'u' - duisbUrg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duisburg

we also were in and out of Essen everyday to get a shower at one musicians apartment.

damn man it is such a clean country, there is rabbits hopping around here and there, even they are hopping around on the lawn outside govt buildings in Berlin center, lol

also i like that they dont remove grafitti on railway sidings, so all thru any local train journey you get great grafitti to see, and they have some talented grafitti artists actualy.

i might relocate their tbh, i spent time in dusseldorf before and liked it alot, and a cursory investigation says the whole area is a bit lacking in recording studio facilities - add to that VERY affordable premises because the Germans dont do the whole property-buying sketch we have in usa and uk, and you can get studio space very cheap indeed!

___________________________________

"In other countries, art and literature are left to a lot of shabby bums living in attics and feeding on booze and spaghetti, but in America the successful writer or picture-painter is indistinguishable from any other decent business man!" - Babbit



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Message 52/76             13-Jul-09  @  03:13 PM     Edit: 13-Jul-09  |  03:21 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

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thanks for the link. i always find germany to be amazingly clean. i come back to nyc and it's like
a junkyard in comparison. there are a lot of things about germany i love. if you get a chance,
spend a few days in munich. check out the city center...the fussgängerzone and the quarter
called schwabing. in the summer you can't beat their biggest park (10 times the size of central
park in nyc), the englischer garten. Of course you have a ton of beautiful parks in london and i'm
guessing the rest of the uk. i need to visit norway some day. whenever i'm in europe nobody
wants to go to norway because the weather is usually shite. lol

oh and there is that part of the englisher garten...behind the university...where people sunbath
nude. at least they used to. i don't know if they still do. i used to do the same there. one time i
hopped in the stream that runs through the park. the water flows rather quickly. i floated
downstream for a while when it dawned on me that i was no longer in the nude sunbathers area.
i hopped out and had to make my way back past people who were fully clothed, many on their
lunch breaks from work. i made it back and was never so relieved to see a bunch of nude
people in my life.



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Message 53/76             13-Jul-09  @  08:39 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

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lol classic!!









___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



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Message 54/76             14-Jul-09  @  12:02 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

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LMAO! great ad!



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Message 55/76             14-Jul-09  @  10:22 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

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hehe, hey sitar, yknow in all this time i never really asked you about the whole sitar thing

do tell......... i mean that is one serious m*thafuckin intrument, int it like sposed to be the hardest of all instruments to master?

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



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Message 56/76             15-Jul-09  @  05:07 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

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hey k...oh boy lol. before i start to answer....the budweiser ad reminds me of a joke. i think if first
heard the joke on the forum here. people who drink budweiser piss water. people who drink
guinness piss budweiser. it's old i know but still classic.

Here's the story on the sitar. Pull up a chair. It's going to be lengthy. :P I grew up listening to
classical music (until my teens when Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, and that guy who sang "Fire. I
want you to burn" took over lol). I studied piano and sang in school choirs. In high school I
auditioned before NYSMA (New York State Music Association) judges and qualified for first the all
county choir, then the all state choir, and finally the all nation choir. The all nation choir toured
through 6 European countries. That was my first out of country experience and it was great. One
day after one of our first rehearsals in London a few altos came up to me to say I had the most
beautiful tenor voice in choir. Looking back I should have used that as leverage for sex but I was
still pretty shy in those days lol. Every single judge I sang for, either solo or as part of quartets, had
a conference with my music teacher and me. Each and every one said they'd never heard such a
voice. One judge asked me if I wouldn't mind doing the sight reading portion again because he or
she had never heard someone sight read with such feeling.

I didn't jump right into college out of high school but about a year later I started going with a friend to
the commuter college he attended. I didn't sign up for classes at first but sat in on some of his. I
checked out the choir and spoke with the conductor. He asked if I would sing something for him.
After I did he said I could be part of the choir even though I was not enrolled at the college and I
sang a solo for the christmas concert. The conductor didn't dare put my name in the program
because technically I wasn't supposed to be in the choir. He instead listed me as a guest singer on
a sign in the lobby of the auditorium.

So I had a lot of confidence in my musical ability.

I enrolled in the school the next semester but because i enrolled late there were only night classes
available. I didn't have a driver's license because my mom, with whom I still lived, didn't want me to
drive. She was afraid I'd get into an accident. My friend took day classes and I had to hitchhike to
and from the college every night. It's odd my mom would rather I hitchhike than drive. There were
nights I didn't get rides and had to turn around and go home. None the less I passed all of the
classes and made the dean's list the next semester.

The next 2 semesters I enrolled for day classes and went to and from school with my friend. I was
very interested in science and math, especially astronomy and took courses on that path.
Meanwhile, over the years my musical tastes had gone from Alice Cooper through rock like the
Cream, Jack Bruce had made a couple of jazz albums, one in particular called "Things We Like"
that eventually led me to John Mclaughlin, who led me to Miles Davis, who led me to John Coltrane,
Ornette Coleman, Dewey Redman, and a ton of other jazz musicians in my musical taste.
Eventually I was exposed to sitar music which fascinated me but playing and singing music had
taken a backseat to science, playing frisbee on campus and lots of girls.

After my third semester my friend transferred to a college far away where he would live on campus
There went my ride and with it my aspirations of attending college. I couldn't imagine going back to
hitchhiking. Around the same time I met someone who played sitar. He said he could get me either
a sitar or tablas. The tablas, which I was also intrigued by would be less expensive so I went with
tablas, moved to Queens, and found a teacher in NYC, a great guy with western sensibilities
named Badal Roy who had played many times with Miles Davis. Check out his discography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badal_Roy


I stopped due to a change in jobs and circumstances. Then one day a friend of mine who had
traveled around the world for 2 years returned with a sitar. He lent it to me one night and something
in my heart, it was actually a physical feeling, jumped out of me as if to tell me I had to play this
instrument. I bought one and looked for a teacher. The most prolific Indian Musician in NYC was a
sarod player named Vasant Rai. He also taught sitar and I started with him. This statement about
the late Vasant Rai was absolutely true: "He is just as great and beautiful a person as he is a great
and beautiful musician" -- George Harrison I always thought he looked a bit like Burt Lancaster.

http://vasantrai.com/

Vasant Rai had been a student of Ustad Allaudin Khan, the father of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Vasantji
soon regarded me as his most talented student and after about a year had me teaching beginning
sitar students when he couldn't. I actually lived with him and his family for several months.

Again this boosted my confidence.

At that time I had only listened to recordings of two sitar players, Ravi Shankar first and a bit later,
Nikhil Banerjee. I found I personally preferred the style of Banerjee over Shankar. I was trying to
learn to play not only a new instrument with 19 strings but also an entirely new musical language
but still I had every confidence that I could do it.

At some point I was looking through records in an Indian record store and came across a
recording called "A Night At The Taj". I read the liner notes. The sitarist' name was Ustad Vilayat
Khan. His younger brother Ustad Imrat Khan played the bass sitar called "Surbahar" with him. The
tabla accompanist was Ustad Nizammudin Khan. As happened when I first played my friend's
sitar, something jumped out of me as I held this album in my hands. I took it home and threw it on
the turntable. It took all of 30 seconds for a voice inside me to say, "This is what sitar is supposed
to sound like". I listened to the album over and over. I told Vasant Rai about the recording and he
only said, "Yes Vilayat Khan is also a very good sitar player" but added, "Some people believe him
to be the best but his school of playing is not the Allaudin Khan school". None the less I found
myself buying any Vilayat Khan and Imrat Khan recording I could get my hands on. There was
something that sounded to my ear as being both very clean and simple, yet very powerful about
Vilayat Khan's playing. I couldn't understand though how his every note sounded so flawlessly silky
and smooth. How was he getting his sitar and his music to sound so deep and eloquent? I wasn't
going to find out for over a year.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayat_Khan

I met a beautiful journalist from Germany who was among other things fluent in 8 languages. Her
English was better than mine lol. We married after being together for only 3 months and soon
moved to Munich, one of the greatest and most eye opening experiences of my life. I immediately
connected with the "European mentality". I felt like I was finally at home. In Munich I asked around
and learned that there was one accomplished sitar player in Munich named Al Gromer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gromer_Khan

I contacted him and he invited me to come by. During the following year I went to Al's home 3 or 4
times a week where we drank chai as he taught me for several hours each day. He never charged
me a dime. He had been for 12 years a student of Ustad Imrat Khan. Imrat Khan played Surbahar
and sitar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imrat_Khan

Al played beautifully. He was far advanced compared to me, especially in Alap, the portion of
classical Indian music that is played without tabla accompaniment and which the artist uses to
introduce the character of a raga before tabla joins in. In concert the Alap portion of the
performance often lasts as long as an hour, the raga unfolding as the sitarist gradually weaves
more and more notes and phrases together, while quite naturally showing off his command of the
instrument and the raga. It is much like a jet, taxiing to the runway and slowly picking up speed until
it takes off. Of course at the time I couldn't get the plane off the ground and Al was often frustrated
with me in that the sitar techniques I had learned in the Allauddin school kept creeping in, abruptly
destroying the mood of anything we were playing. None the less Al didn't give up on me. I broke old
habits and gradually moved into the direction Al was teaching me and we performed together in
Munich.

After living in Munich for about a year, my wife and I moved back to NYC. Things were soon to
become difficult. I went back to studying with Vasant Rai but realized the musical style I wanted to
pursue was going to be in conflict with Vasantji's. Soon after I got word that Imrat Khan was
performing in NYC. I bought tickets for my wife and I. Also the night before Ravi Shankar was
scheduled to perform at Carnegie Hall. I bought tickets for that concert too. During the Ravi
Shankar concert my wife leaned over to me and said "in two or three years you'll be playing like
that. I'm sure of it". I was flattered although I thought it might take longer. Still, I was confident that it
was within my grasp.

Then it all went south. The next night we went to see Imrat Khan. Imrat Khan has 4 sons. Two of
his sons performed first. The oldest, Nishat and age 19, played sitar and the youngest son, a tabla
player named Shafaat accompanied him on tabla. From the first pull of the sitar wire by Nishat I
realized why Vilayat Khan's music was so powerful and so sublime. I had never seen anyone play
the instrument like this. Nishat looked to me like a magician. I was like OMG how can anyone do
that on the sitar with such precision and with each passing moment, each stroke of the wire, every
pull of the wire, my heart sank another inch as I realized not only what Al Gromer was trying to
show me about their style but how far away I was from doing even one thing Nishat was spinning
off effortlessly. He played a raga called Puriya for what for me was a wonderful and at the same
time excrutiatingly painful hour. Then, as if to drive the nail into the coffin my wife turned to me and
said "I don't know if you'll ever play like that". Oh thanks a lot but she was only saying what I was
feeling. One hour wiped out all the confidence I had. I was a clean slate, wondering if I should give
up the idea of ever playing this instrument. Then the father played, followed by a "jugalbandi"
meaning Nishat and his father played together. It was fantastic and magical. It was like watching a
flowing river in which every drop of water was intentionally and precisely placed even though one
can't imagine how that could be possible. They were like magicians who with each new slight of
hand took more and more breath out of their audience. Nishat would make eye contact with people
in the audience. He'd offer a sly smile as he pulled out yet another trick. He had all the confidence
of the lion's cub, the lion being his father. He was almost like a precocious kid saying, "If you think
that was amazing, watch this". I'll explain why they could play like this a bit later. Meanwhile I
wanted to shoot myself lol.

I went backstage and met Nishat and Shafaat, then introduced myself to Imrat Khan as a student
of his student in Germany, Al Gromer. Imrat was very gracious and told me to call him where he
was staying and he would listen to me and see what he could do.

I called the next day. He was staying with a long time student of his. The guy told me Imrat had
gone out and to call back in about 2 hours which I did. Imrat was again not there. This went on for 2
or 3 days until this phone call. I called again and realized I had been put on speaker phone. The guy
said just a minute. Then I heard him whisper, "It's that guy that keeps calling. I keep telling him not
to call but he won't stop". At that point I yelled at the guy, telling him that he has told me to call back
in one hour, two hours, in the evening, and I did exactly that every time. I said if he doesn't want me
to call all he needs to do is tell me and I won't. At that point I heard Imrat's voice and then Imrat got
on the phone. As it turned out that guy was a real bastard.

Imrat invited me to come the next day. After listening to me He said that he would have to "fix my
right hand" so that I could have more control over the instrument. He also said it was amazing to
listen to me play. He said that although there were technical problems, I played with more genuine
feeling for this music than his Indian students in Calcutta. He took me as his student. He constantly
encouraged me not to worry, that I could someday play like his sons.

Over the next 20 years I studied under him. He stayed with us many times in NYC. I traveled to visit
him in London. His youngest son moved to New Jersey, near NYC and Imrat spent a lot of time in
his son's home. Of course I was there a lot. Imrat loved the fact that his 4 boys and I got along
great. He'd hear us laughing late into the night. I remember a precious moment when guests came
to visit. Imrat introduced me. He said, "This is Mark" then paused and said, "Mark is my 5th son" at
which point he looked at me as if to say, "how did you get me into this. I thought I could relax after i
raised my 4 sons to be concert musicians and then you came along". Although Imrat was my
teacher we also became good friends. He loved jokes and that was of course my forte.

In school I had gone through extensive musical ear training and while Imrat was not around I'd
listen to recordings and play phrases back on the sitar. I was able to collect man bootleg live tapes
and teach myself things from them. One night when Imrat was staying with us in NY he came to a
restaurant in which I was playing. I played a bandesh (a composition) in a raga called Mishra Piloo.
It was a composition I picked up from a tape of a Vilayat Khan performance. When I finished
playing I sat down at the table with Imrat and other people who were there. After asking me how I
had learned that composition he said that he remembered sitting in a room with his brother,
watching his brother compose it back in the early 60s. He said that still to this day rarely does
anyone dare attempt to play that composition "and yet here I sit in new york and watch this boy
playing my brother's composition. It's like I saw my brother shoot an arrow into the air and only
now, 30 years later am I seeing where it landed".

Over the years I performed in many places and in many venues. One highlight was playing at
Lincoln Center but A huge moment for me came when finally I met the Illustrious Ustad Vilayat
Khan backstage after his Lincoln Center concert. Unfortunately Imrat and Vilayat had a big falling
out, long before I met Imrat. None the less I introduced myself as his brother's student. He told me
that the next day he was meeting a record producer at the apartment of a tabla player named
Misha whom i knew very well and had played with many times. He said I should come and he
would listen to me. He said he would be there at noon.

I got there 2 hours before Vilayat was to arrive and Misha let me practice in her bedroom. Noon
came and went with no sign of Vilayat. I kept practicing. The phone rang and Misha came into the
bedroom to answer it. I stopped practicing so she could hear the caller. I assumed it might be
Vilayat. After a moment she covered the mouthpiece of the phone and said "keep playing. he's
listening". I wondered how much he could hear over the phone but started playing again. She
walked out of the room still talking and I stopped, anxious to hear if he was still coming. She came
back into the room, covered the mouthpiece of the phone again and said "keep playing. he's still
listening" then again walked out. Now I thought, this is ridiculous. What could he possibly hear over
a phone in the next room but again I started playing. After several minutes she came in and hung
up the phone. I asked if he was still coming. She looked at me as if surprised by my question. She
said, "No he's been here with the producer for 20 minutes. He came in, heard you're playing, sat
down and didn't say a word for 10 minutes. He just sat and listened. I wish you could have seen
this. He asked me, 'Misha...who's recording is this?' and I answered 'Vilayatji, that's not a
recording. It's Mark playing in the next room." She said his mouth literally dropped open.

At that point I got up and went out to greet him. He told me that hearing me play was like listening to
one of his own recordings. I had come along way since the night I almost gave it all up.

Eventually I had to stop playing because of severe pain in my right knee caused by sitting the way
one has to sit to play the sitar properly. I didn't grow up sitting like that.

As for the sitar being the most difficult instrument in the world to play, I would say it is debatable. I
believe that any instrument is very easy to play but extremely difficult to play well. That being said,
the sitar is a bear of an instrument.

I said above that I'd explain why they could play the way they did. Imrat's sons are the 8th
generation of sitar players in that family. It is all they do. They are born into the music. They first
learn how to sing, usually from the maternal side and as soon as they can hold a child's sitar they
begin to learn from their father, their uncles, in this case Vilayat and from other great musicians in
the community. To give you an example of what it's like to grow up in that family...practice comes
first and foremost. When dinner is made everyone has to come to the table *unless* they are
practicing. If one of the boys is practicing he can eat whenever he's finished and nobody will
disturb him. Like in any family the boys had a bedtime but if they were practicing they could stay up
until they finished, even if it meant they'd go to be at sunrise and they were allowed to sleep in.
They have a music room in their house in Calcutta. People have said that sometimes they'd heard
music coming out of the room when nobody was playing. The youngest son took up tabla because
there were already two sitar players and a sarod player amongst his other brothers. Shafaat also
plays sitar beautifully but it was decided it made more sense for him to play tabla and he could be
the main accompanist for his brothers. Imrat hired a great tabla teacher to teach Shafaat. The
teacher came to their home every day. He often spoon fed Shafaat so that Shafaat didn't have to
interrupt his practicing to eat. The family secrets of both technique and composition is held close
to the vest. I was very lucky in that Imrat entrusted me with many of those secrets. Each was like a
jewel. Each was like a piece of the puzzle I was trying to unravel.

Another example of what it is like to be in that family. I was staying with them in London. I woke up
earlier than everyone and went into the music room to practice. I was a bit concerned about
waking everybody so I played on the soft side. One of the boys came into the room and told me he
was listening. He said "I'm going to grab some breakfast and then I'll teach you something". A few
minutes later another one of the boys came in and said, "After i eat something I want to teach you
something". Then the third and then the fourth. lol. I was like, OMG.

I never did get to their level but I became very good and gained a reputation that reached places
where I'd never been. I was an odd candidate for sitar. A girl once came up to me in a restaurant
and asked if she could interview me for her Columbia University paper. When I saw the article it
started something like this. "I walked into a restaurant one evening and was immediately taken by
the swirling of notes that sounded like they could have been played by Vilayat Khan. I assumed it
was a recording until I turned the corner and saw a man playing who had more the frame of a
linebacker than a sitarist."

Well k...you asked. lol...but I'm not finished. :P

I had to take many different jobs in my life in order to sustain myself while I studied the sitar. In that
time I was taken under the wing of a chef who taught me how to cook in restaurants. I worked two
restaurants with him and in several others afterwards. One restaurant I worked in during the late
70s was in the east village. It was a cool place and attracted customers like Brian Eno. I was well
into sitar playing and studying by then but I remember hearing beats in the restaurant that I liked
very much. It was many years later that I went back and tried to find out what that music was
about. It was that search that led me to techno. I sucked at writing tracks which I don't need to tell
you lol. I just never got my head around how to create the right mix. Maybe it was that I did all of my
writing with headphones and couldn't crank up the music on my Events loud enough to really get a
feeling of what anything I did sounded like. I don't know. Anyway. There it is.



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Message 57/76             15-Jul-09  @  09:28 PM     Edit: 15-Jul-09  |  10:01 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

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my teacher's website:

http://www.imratkhan.com/

and a youtube vid of the last portion of a performance by his oldest son, Nishat. I used play
some of these compositions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH0fGO76FOs

This is worth watching. Rag Darbari. This shows him playing the portion called Jor Jhala. It
comes at the end of the Alap when Rhythm is brought into the music but still solo, without tabla.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFTy821JmqQ

and this starting in the middle of the alap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCXv4ooBsPo



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Message 58/76             15-Jul-09  @  10:37 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

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This is a fantastic video of Imrat with 3 of his sons probably from the late 80s or early 90s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXMSV-4Y5WQ



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Message 59/76             20-Jul-09  @  11:02 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

Posts: 12353

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blimey man, youve had some life.

so is the sitar fixed tuning i assume?... you play always in one key right? or do you shift up to a higher drone string or set of strings to go up a key or something? is there any good vids that describe the mechanics of playing it simply?

and before modern technology how did they make the strings ffs?

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



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Message 60/76             21-Jul-09  @  04:37 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

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I've had some life alright lol. I've had many different types of jobs, mostly to support myself while
studying sitar. I was a professional photographer for a while, working for Jeannie Trudeau. She
was a wonderful woman and sister of Gary Trudeau, the Doonesbury cartoon guy. Because of
Jeannie's standing in wealthy society (the Trudeau family founded the Trudeau Cancer Institute
and I believe it was her uncle who was the Canadian prime minister) she, and I on her coat tails,
were hired as private photographers. We were allowed into events and parties where press
photographers had to stay outside photographing celebrities and society people as they came and
left. I'm talking people like Frank Sinatra, Walter Cronkite, David Rockefeller, Lawrence
Rockefeller, Anthony Quinn, Cornelia Guest, royalty from Europe....mostly at small parties. It was
pretty cool.

About the sitar...it is a fixed tuning. Generally it is tuned to C# but that varies depending on the artist
but by no more than a half tone either way. Sometimes a sitarist will tune slightly above C# as the
bridge wears down. The bridge is a nightmare lol. The surface is made of animal bone. I forget
what kind of animal. As you play the instrument the strings (we call them wires...many buy rolls of
piano wire of the various guages) dig into the bridge and it gets to the point every few months
where the sound and the action deteriorates. At that point you need to do something called "jawari"
which is using sandpaper to smooth the bridge out again. It's a nightmare because you need to get
a back to front curve in the bridge that looks something like the cross section of a jet wing. If you
don't get it just right the instrument doesn't sound right and the action of the wire makes it nearly
impossible to play.

You don't always play in one key. There are 6 wires on the upper bridge and 13 sympathetic
strings which you tune to the raga you are playing. The sympathetic strings vibrate as you play
their corresponding notes on the main wire. The main playing wire is always tuned to the same
note but as are 3 others but 2 strings are sometimes tuned to different notes, changing the
resounding chord and therefore the key.

There are two setups on sitars. The traditional setup is what I played. 6 strings on top with 1
droning bass string. Another was developed by Allaudin Khan. It has 7 strings of which 3 are base
strings. It was an attempt to sort of combine the bass sitar (surbahar) and sitar. It's kind of like
adding cello strings to a violin.

I'm not sure what you mean by making the strings ff before technology.

As far as a vid, I don't know, probably. Maybe on youtube. I'll try to find something but I'm not sure
even what keywords would bring it up.



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Message 61/76             21-Jul-09  @  04:47 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

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if you go to this page it is the first of quite a few with instructional vids for playing sitar. It seems
women have cornered the youtube market for this topic. I don't know the one with the long hair but I
know the one with the short hair. her vids start to appear on page 2. Her name is daisy and she is
quite an accomplished player. I think she studied under Nikhil Banerjee.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+play+sitar&search_type=&aq=f



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Message 62/76             21-Jul-09  @  10:31 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

Posts: 12353

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i meant before steel wire strings could be made what did they string these with? some type of gut as for european string instruments just wouldnt sound the same surely? i couldnt find any info on what the strings were made of in old days

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



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Message 63/76             21-Jul-09  @  01:41 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

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File?:  No file



I was about to say that the sitar in it's relatively present form is probably less than 200 years old
which would make it a contemporary of the piano and since there was steel piano wire at the time I
assume there was steel sitar wire. I wanted first to check the dating of sitar so I went to wikipedia.
I'd forgotten about the name Amir Khusrau. I've forgotten quite a few things about sitar and Indian
music in general lol. Anyway, it's stated in wikipedia that the sitar is believed to have been created
by him in the 13th century which I believe is true but, it was also a modification of the Persian "Tar"
and sitar means 3 strings. Maybe they used gut in those days and yes it would have sounded
much different but the sitar then only had 3 strings. That was always my understanding. The sitar
didn't develop into being close to what we see today until maybe the last 150 years.

Ok here's a quote I just found:


"Large, fretted long-necked lute, a prominent instrument of the classical music of the northern and
central regions of the South Asian subcontinent, including modern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
and with extensions into Afghanistan and Nepal. The name 'sitar' is an Urdu transcription of
Persian sihtar, Persian being the court language of north India from the 13th century to the 19th. It
did not become standard in India until the instrument began to reach its present form in the 18th
century. Courtesy of New Grove DMI © 1995."


That's pretty much what was in my mind. At points in time I'd heard things about the history of sitar
but didn't pay much mind. I was too busy learning to play the thing, learning to file the bridge,
learning to tie the frets, to give a crap about who made the bloody thing and when.

Oh yeah and I was reminded that the frets move. You have to make sure they are tied tightly
enough that they won't move incidentally from playing but that you can move them deliberately
when you need to. The frets are normally tied end to end by rather thick wound gold thread that
runs behind the neck but I've seen heavy fishing line used. Whether or not fishing line is better is
de-bait-able



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Message 64/76             21-Jul-09  @  02:35 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

Link?: Link

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a fantastic vid of Vilayat Khan's oldest son Shujaat in concert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7cctrtfYCw&feature=related

two vids of Roshan Ara Begum, perhaps the greatest female vocalist of classical north Indian
music. She moved to Pakistan after the war and unfortunately didn't sing much because of the
prohibitions of Pakistani law at the time against the voice being used for anything but religious
music. One of the most amazing things to me about old school singing was the sarangi
accompanists. Sarangi is a stringed instrument played with a bow. It is used as a solo instrument
but also traditionally "shadowed" vocalists every note. Pretty amazing.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH8o9CX9Yns&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkrF_hAV7BI


A vid of Amir Khan also considered one of the greatest singers of his time.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhVE4sQIdS0



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Message 65/76             21-Jul-09  @  03:29 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

k

Posts: 12353

Link?: Link

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quote
sitar wrote:

Whether or not fishing line is better is
de-bait-able



lol, nut

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



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Message 66/76             21-Jul-09  @  10:19 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

Link?: Link

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had to slip one in there lol. The people I performed with made tuns of puns out of Indian terms. One
tabla player suggested we start a band called Sruti and the Blowfish. That one still cracks me up.



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Message 67/76             27-Jul-09  @  11:55 PM     Edit: 27-Jul-09  |  11:57 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

Link?: Link

File?:  No file



with cable tv we have so many choices to watch. some of the stations offered are foreign. so
sitting here in america i decided to see what's going on british television. i picked up the remote,
punched in the numbers and suddenly water started gushing from the television. i quickly turned
back to the previous station. that's the last time i'll switch to the english channel :P



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Message 68/76             02-Sep-09  @  12:19 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

nutoniom

Posts: 1345

Link?: Link

File?:  [image]



[image file]


Hello there,

thought I'd drop by and show you my latest creation:


Haven't done a track in a while, tho', being back to school and all. Anyway , nice to see you all,
and i'll
be back with some more tracks later. Don't hold your breath or anything.

Oh, and the pedal was made to celebrate Voivod's last Opus, Infini.



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Message 69/76             08-Sep-09  @  06:44 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

damballah

Posts: 1675

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whoa! rurik popped in!

hey, y'all.



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Message 70/76             09-Sep-09  @  04:22 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

Posts: 3872

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File?:  No file



hey damballah. how've you been?



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Message 71/76             10-Sep-09  @  12:49 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Test Deejay

Posts: 22

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yeah how - and nutonium - everyone retired from 'active service' or what?



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Message 72/76             10-Sep-09  @  06:22 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

nutoniom

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He!, I like it that after all those years you still can't spell my pseudo right  

And little d dropped by

rurik has got his own fanclub on kvr now, as soon as payday comes i'm gonna get hyperion



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Message 73/76             11-Sep-09  @  05:57 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

damballah

Posts: 1675

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...and i can misspell your old pseudo

hey, i still got that wrestler book, has a place of honor on my office bookshelf!

re: kvr. There was something I saw that xoxos was doing over there where his soft synth was modeling vocal chord and throat geometry so he could have choruses of singing aliens or something if I got that right. which i prolly didn't.



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Message 74/76             11-Sep-09  @  04:52 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

Bedwyr

Posts: 2890

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singing aliens sounds about right.

xoxos fan club ... I wonder what their meetings are like?



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Message 75/76             12-Sep-09  @  03:21 PM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

nutoniom

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Ha! I still need to make a track called Killer Kowalski or Abdullah the butcher  


Killer Kowalski was innocent , that sounds about just right, it'd be a great chorus  



quote
Oscine Tract:

Oscine Tract VST models the songbird vocal tract, also known as the syrinx.

This VST is part of 'Sounds of Nature' VST collection, which was voted first place in the Developer
Challenge 2007 held by www.kvraudio.com.



Beds, they do not meet, they tune their brainwaves through phase distortion.



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Message 76/76             17-Sep-09  @  02:50 AM   -   RE: Holy crap, it's still here!

sitar

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i love xoxos. definitely his own thinker



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