Meeting some of the world’s best drum n bass djs and producers was not something I expected to happen last Friday evening but it turned out that the Ram Records Christmas party was more like the Ram Records office party!

The night, at the end was pretty banging. J Majik, Ed Rush & Optical were laying down some heavy beats and Andy C, the executioner, played a two hour set from 2-4am.

After that set I was in the bar drinking a Red Bull when Andy C came up next to me to order some drinks. We started talking about his set, drum n bass and venues in France/Belgium (where the crowds are mad apparantly). He then asked if I wanted a beer (bar shut at 3 – one rule for the djs, one for the proles) so I enjoyed a nice Becks courtesy of Andy C himself. Quality. Nicest beer I’ve had for a while! 😉

Later on spoke to Foxy (MC), Mampi Swift (another DJ) and stumbled across a few others (Red One, Fats). It was good that they were not hiding themselves away in some VIP bar and appeared to be enjoying the set by Bryan Gee in the smaller room as much as the next man! Overall was a very good night, venue was up to scratch as usual and the sound system was heavy.

The Ultimate Flash Face site, allows you to make photofits of your mates. Quite funny seeing how difficult it is to build up a face. This swedish site is random and reminds me of dubselector. More flash antics with Kittens singing the vines. Bare funny. Just the sort of stuff for the wind down to Xmas…

I’m sorry but you have to watch/listen to this. It is one of the most surreal things I have ever seen – and especially to advertise a brand of soy sauce.

While on about mad animation, look at this. Don’t restart your computer though when it says.

Continuing on the theme, engrish.com is full of badly translated signs/adverts etc. in japan. Good for a few cheap laughs, here’s a few more.

Finally, the strangest video game ever, called Boong-Ga Boong-Ga….. no comment on this one

I have sort of started a blog on the subject of djing. (I have recently joined the amazing world of being a vinyl junkie). You can find it here. There is also a list of the vinyl I’ve bought recently – still a lot of good stuff that I want but that will have to wait until the new year 😉 Hopefully 2003 will mean some gigging out – but a lot of practise required first…. I never thought I’d appreciate how good it feels to do a good mix (and drum’n’bass is regarded as very difficult to mix due to it’s off-beat structure) and also to flick through a load of vinyl selecting the next tune is so much more rewarding than CD’s – I’m a convert!…

We have broadband in our house now and if you don’t have it – you should. Going back to dial-up would be pretty difficult I think. On the first night, I downloaded so much live video and audio off mtv.com – they have concerts/videos/live performances. It’s also great for listening to streamed radio from anywhere in the world without any buffering, I could also watch live football on the BBC website. When this becomes present in the majority of people’s homes the Internet will step up to a higher level. You won’t actually think about the net being there, it will become like the TV – you’ll use it and find out traffic, weather, news whenever you want – without booting up and dialling up.

Then, when ‘push’ services start to appear, your computer will probably ring/beep like a telephone to tell you when something happens that you have been waiting for… I’ve read a lot about intelligent devices like alarm clocks that adjust the wake up time according to traffic jams on a person’s commute or train delays, when you wake up it informs you of them… sounds pretty hi-tech but it’s only a couple of years away. Oh and wireless screens about A4 size and an inch thick that you can use to surf net sat on your settee wirelessly.

There are some new photographs from this years trip to Thailand. More professional looking ones will be arriving shortly…