Alex Harries's diary

I haven't done much in the way of recording mixes lately, but I did have a chance to have a play about on the decks last week while I was setting up Lux for Orange Fridays. It's a bit/very (delete as applicable) rough round the edges 'cos I was trying to rush around doing other things at the same time, so if I was grading myself I'd probably rate it somewhere around "could do better".

Hope you enjoy it ;o)

How to listen

If you can see the player below, then all you have to do is click "play":

... or you can right-click and "save as" to download it.

Tracklisting 

• Soldiers of Twilight - drive on
• Mei Lwun ft. Gine Rene - too late
• Bent - magic love
• Unity - I love you
• Amma - was it real?
• Deep Area - mad love for ya
• Inaya Day - keep pushin'
• Gabro & Libe - I can be this
• Spektrum - kinda new
• Felix da Housecat - shiny disco balls
• Despina Vandi - gia (Scotty K's Tribal Middle Eastern Mix)
• The Egg - walking away
• Nightcrawlers - push the feeling on 2005
• Sucker DJs - lotta lovin'
• Plump DJs - electric disco (Brad Carter remix)
• Dave Spoon - at night
• Fedde le Grande - put your hands up for Detroit
• Bug Kann and The Plastic Jam - made in two minutes (original)
• Justice vs. Simian - we are your friends (original mix)
• Artificial Funk - never alone
• Freeform Five - no more conversations (Mylo remix)
• Underworld - two months off

Disclaimer

Mixes aren't hosted by or the property of UPSU. Copyright remains with the owner of all tracks listed and this mix is provided solely for the purposes of shameless self-promotion. Got a complaint? Contact me :o)

/al

Tracklisting

Mix 1 - classic funk

Click the play button below, or right click here and select "save as" to download.

• Young Disciples - get yourself together
  
• Degrees of Motion - shine on
  
• Aly-us - follow me
  
• The Night Writers - let the music use you
  
• Inner City - pennies from heaven
  
• Joe Smooth - promised land
  
• Frankie Knuckles - tears
  
• Rhythm On The Loose - break of dawn
  
• Deelite - groove is in the heart
  
• C+C Music Factory - gonna make you sweat
  
• The Beginnerz - reckless girl
  
• Seelenluft - manila (Ewan Pearson remix)
  
• Mei Lwun ft. Gina Rene - too late
  

Mix 2 - funkiness

Click the play button below, or right click here and select "save as" to download.

• Solu Music ft. Kim'blee - fade (original mix)
  
• ** HOT PICK ** Soldiers of Twilight - drive on
  
• The Chi Chi Squad ft. Kaori - treat me right
  
• Everything But The Girl - Tracy in my room
  
• Bob Sinclar - save our soul
  
• Brazz - heroes
  
• W.O.S.P. vs. Laurent Garnier - gettin' in 2 u (dub mix)
  
• Dave Spoon - at night
  
• Spektrum - kinda new 

Disclaimer: these audio files aren't hosted on UPSU.net's servers, and copyright remains with the authors of the songs at all times. These mixes are provided solely for the purposes of self-promotion. No endorsement is given by UPSU or it's affiliates, so if you want to tell somebody off, come and tell me off. Ta!

I'll try and get a copy of this mix uploaded soon if you missed the show and fancy a listen. You can tune in on Mondays from 7pm to 9pm at Pure:FM student radio.

March 19th 2007

• Young Disciples - get yourself together
  
• Degrees of Motion - shine on
  
• Aly-us - follow me
  
• The Night Writers - let the music use you
  
• Inner City - pennies from heaven
  
• Joe Smooth - promised land
  
• Frankie Knuckles - tears
  
• Rhythm On The Loose - break of dawn
  
• Deelite - groove is in the heart
  
• C+C Music Factory - gonna make you sweat
  
• The Beginnerz - reckless girl
  
• Seelenluft - manila (Ewan Pearson remix)
  
• Mei Lwun ft. Gina Rene - too late
  
• Solu Music ft. Kim'blee - fade (original mix)
  
• ** HOT PICK ** Soldiers of Twilight - drive on
  
• The Chi Chi Squad ft. Kaori - treat me right
  
• Everything But The Girl - Tracy in my room
  
• Bob Sinclar - save our soul
  
• Brazz - heroes
  
• W.O.S.P. vs. Laurent Garnier - gettin' in 2 u (dub mix)
  
• Dave Spoon - at night
  
• Spektrum - kinda new 

It's another late night, so it must be time for another rambling blog entry about "what I've dun lately". If you read this, I can guarantee you'll be bored... ;o)

This is going to be a bumper blog entry of all the really really boring stuff I've done this week altogether, so you only have to "ignore" one thing instead of loads ;o) 

Pugwash, gatecrashed 

Yesterday, I gatecrashed the Pugwash graphic design team's weekly "social", where they get together to organise who's going to illustrate and lay out what article. Having spent a very busy hour accosting members of the team and asking them what they would change about Pugwash if they could, I've got some great ideas for improving the way the writers' and designers' time is organised, and some suggestions to improve the tools available to the Union's creative teams, e.g. Pugwash, Purple Wednesdays, and more.

One of these is actually something I lost sleep over last night while trying to figure out the maths in my head; in short, I'd like to invest a chunk of money on the Union's multimedia suite - which at the moment is home to a collection of PCs - to see them using industry-standard kit which should be good for the next four years and to provide a set of really good training and production tools for graphic design, video and audio editing. In other words, with a little investment, the Union could boast a really solid production suite for Pugwash, Pure:FM, and Purple Wednesdays, and also be available for use as a classroom for teaching students to use the various software packages the Union makes use of.

Aside from that though, I was impressed - again - by just how enthusiastic every Pugwash team member is about what they do; it's nice to see they're so self-motivated, and talking to Mike Cooter - the comms manager - about the team's development, it's obvious there are some real success stories to be told there. In terms of what I'd love to achieve with the Union, these success stories are as close to role models as I think I'm ever going to get, and I'm keen to see more of the same stuff happening with UPSU media throughout the next year.

No matter what happens in the elections, I really hope next year's MAPO realises just what an asset Pugwash is, and invests a good deal of time and money in the magazine!

"Vlogging"... Or not... 

I still haven't made any more progress with my video blog entry thingy I mentioned at the bottom of this post; that's mainly due to stage fright, laziness, and a chronic case of being not-at-all-photogenic ;o) I promise I'll try to do something by next week, even if it's just so you can laugh at me... :oP

Anyway, I'm not sure it's such a great idea until someone thinks up a better name than "vlog"ing - it sounds a bit too kinky for me... 

Housekeeping 

Before I lose my admin access to the site on Sun 11th (the campaigning period has been cut from two weeks to one - March 12th to 16th; good thing or bad thing?),  I've been setting up the UPSU and UPEL homepage adverts (pic on the right somewhere); we've got Captain (March 16th - elections night, straight after the results) and - much more importantly (I think!) - the MoS's Cut Up Boy...

Yes, it's true - I'm running in the 2007 Sabbatical elections.

I'm running for the Media & Publications position, because it's the area in which I have worked almost constantly for the last 4 years, and because I think I could probably do a fairly good - ok, a very good job of it.

That, of course, is assuming I don't insert my foot in my mouth any more than is absolutely necessary, that I don't upset too many people, and that I don't inadvertently break the rules due to me being daft.

Oh, and of course, I'll have to beat the socks off the competition - I've heard rumours that there are no less than six candidates running for MAPO this year, including myself. Apparently, that means 2nd and 3rd place candidates will get a boost from the transferable votes of those in 4th, 5th and 6th places as they're knocked out.

All I have to do now is figure out how this transferable voting thingbob works...

Sleep deprivation. And stimulation... 

In the last 28 hours I've had 10 minutes' sleep, and in twenty minutes I'm off to start my first Pure:FM radio show. Today has been a haze of caffeine- and nicotine-induced consciousness, but as long as I stay awake long enough to finish My First Ever Pure Radio Show (TM) and don't break the studio too badly, I reckon I'll be ok... Uhhm, don't hold me to that though.

Over the coming days I'm afraid I'm planning to fill up this blog with more ramblings - this time about how my elections campaign is going. There will doubtless be neuroses and tears, tantrums and even some hair pulling - all from me, of course - so I really should warn you now; unless you like reading the inane babblings of a sleep-starved grey-head, maybe now's a good time to tune out...? ;o)

Seriously though, if you're reading this, I hope you'll stay tuned - the best way is to subscribe to the RSS feed up there on the right somewhere - and you can even chat to me - and ask me awkward questions - using the comments boxes (below each article) as my campaign continues....

With all that said, it's just starting to sink in just how much effort this campaign is going to take. While I don't mind the effort, I really do want to make sure it stays fair and friendly.

I'm also under no illusions that this will be an easy ride; even today I handed in my candidate pack with only a minute to spare because of some last-minute design tweaking on my flyers; seat-of-the-pants doesn't really begin to describe it...

Right, I'd better get off to my radio show. Sloppy's waiting for me, and the Channel 4 film crew should be heading out any minute.Ooh, note to self - must create a campaign logo... I have a cunning plan....

Peace out :o) /al