Geneva

Travel


This comes from Geneva. I'm having a 6 hours of stopover here before continuing to Barcelona. Well, just don't ask why. In all my brilliant need of "not to do the easy way", I though it might be fun to stop here. How wrong the sometimes interesting plan might go and I'm already regretting. Geneva is most boring fucking city I've been.

Seriously, the central area is filled with posh wifes of billionaire bankers and diblomats, all on their way to buy the next diamond ring. Otherwise there is nothing here but diamond retailers, gold retailers, banks and shops selling you the best machines ticking on your wrist (we are in Switzerland afterall). Ridicilous. I'm already afraid of my returning flight

Well, there is a nice medieval castle on a hill.

Richmond Park Run

London


Today dawned with an early wake up, even before my alarm around 8am (which is stunningly early for me). After a check on weather "sunny, that's nice", quick morning shower and check on emails, I took for a little adventure to run around Richmond Park. Now, for you who do not know, the Richmond Park is the jewel in this congested metropolis, a vast open space famous for its deers and low flying planes landing on the nearby Heathrow Airport. And the park is huge, I mean HUGE!

Its like retreating to a tranquil meditation, where your spirit can actually relax. Your heart is not beating, like it would when you are driving 200km/h on the wrong lane (..hmm...I think I'll start descriping Ministry of Sound as that).

So by now you might get that I really do like Richmond Park. The beauty is that even me, who is living right in middle of the city near London Bridge, can retreat to nature and slow down for a moment. Check it out yourself. Here are some photos around the park....Oh the run? It took 2,5 hours with few rest and then I walked through the park. Next time under 2h. Promise.

Retrospect

Thoughts + Philosophy



This blog has been running since Sept. 2006. However, I've been a global nomad sometime now, living away from my home country. Basically I took the step on 5th September 2003, a day after playing my last ever show in Finland with Velcra. See the photo attached. Tours around Europe followed, but I have not stepped on stage in Finland ever since. Ironic, isn't it?

Yes it is, for the reason that this adventure has completely overhauled my course in life. Most likely I will never play music anymore, not at least with a professional pursuit in mind. The University degree in 2003-2006, which concentrated on Visual Arts, made me realise my strenghts in visual perception, visual composing and visual interpretation.

Although the 2003-2006 were the toughest years in my life, the shit that was unloaded on me carved out the best. Not that I know everything now, but those years washed away the blind spots that I was pursuiting. Like dear Marcella said: Open your eyes and you will see.

So the result of these years was ignited in June 2006 in the form of Moradi Hudson Management. First off with a hellish video production in Las Vegas, which was a good school. I was quite naive with my leadership, and so take some blame on the mistakes (which are too numerous to go through here). These experiences combined with Team leader skills with Ministry of Sound and about 20 business plans in a year, have made me very sure of myself. We see if it is all rewarded soon. At the moment it looks good.

Live Lounge @ Ministry of Sound

Performance




Sometimes life is good, and on this blessed May Sunday in 2007 life really is good. Yesterday morning started off slowly with a delicious english breakfast as my local coffee joint. I needed to load myself with a massive breakfast to take through out the day and night. Afternoon went on chilling and nervously waiting for the evening to set upon London.

As I've learned so many times in the past, (especially with Velcra) no production is without its last minute hassle. And Live Lounge is no exception to this rule. On 6pm I got a call from MoS technician that we would need one extra S-video cable, and issue that was too small to notice during the set up. An obviously by now it was Saturday evening with no electrical stores open. So I quickly took my keys and run to the Tube, in order to go the West End. Surely there is some stores open still. Well, there wasn't. Luckily one small side street store was just about to close its doors when I knock at them to "please, can I still buy one cable?". All good at the end.

There I was standing with the cable in West End. Its almost 9pm and I should already be at the Ministry. After a eventful run to the club, I get there to start making sure all is set up. Finally, the night is about to start, I give away my promoter speech at the staff meeting and all look really exciting.

Overall I was really nervous at the beginning, and the night was kinda numb because I have been managing the room for a year now (reminder for myself: need to go to other clubs as well!). Some technical problems were encountered, doors opened and I saw people actually preferring my room over such stars as Gilles Peterson. That made me relaxed. Throughout the night all went really well, we received praising from the management and staff. The best part was though the clubbers response. We must have done something right.

As a summary, from 200 audience two months ago to 2000. I can't complain, even though I saw some small issues to attend for the next one. Massive thanks to Ibz, Ed, Gary, Andy, MoS Staff and all the rest who came to MoS that night. The next one is on 16th June. We are aiming to make it even better.

Live Lounge Set-Up

Visuals




We spend the whole Thursday setting up the Live Lounge projectors and screens. I was planning for 6 projectors, with two of them covering the upper mezzazine windows of MoS Lounge Bar. At the end, we had to settle for 5 projectors, with one that will only half way cover the windows. In addition, one big setback was the size of the screens the projectors were able to conjure. Not exactly my vision, but overall I'm really happy and honestly believe that on Sat, it will blow the clubbers minds. Its that good afterall.

As a side note, major success came with the mosquito net used on a glass wall looking down at the MoS main bar area. Through out the last week we were wondering for a solution to get image projected on the glass wall. The glass itself won't catch light, and I was againt a screen because it's not transparent. A lucky idea turned out to work really well. Mosquito net is cheap, very transparent and does catch light nicely. Result is a almost magical hovering of the image in middle air, invinting the customers for the Lounge Bar. Cool.

Party time

Log




Damn, went to have some proper party. Dancing until the sunrise. Jason, MoS trusted aussie staff member left to continue his travels to the White Island of Ibiza, Spain. So he did throw a nice leaving party, which continued until the morning in the Fabric. Haven't had that much fiun for a long time. Though it did take a while to get back to this hectic rhythm with work.

Live Lounge

business

Live Lounge will have a major debut at Ministry of Sound on 19th May 2007. The night will feature VJ Movement from highly anticipated new visual label Ne1co. The sounds are provided by a DJ group Adrenaline Junkiez.

I'm very excited, because this is a start of something I've been working on the last 8 months, researching, developing ideas and trying to twist the concept into something that evolves the clubbing scene. It started last summer with some VJ nights seen in MoS, but those poor things had to be on small flatscreens. Well, the screens were 40", but on a massive space they just did not do justice.

So after realising that this is a great way to take a major step towards my goal of merging music and visuals, I created treatments after treatments for the club management. Now, hopefully it will take off and have an impact on the clubbing scene.

So come on down, because I bet you look good on the dancefloor.