Rowan and Jimmi: Chippy Adventure

"The first adventure; an epic quest to buy some chips from the Chip Shop"

I thought it was time to release the weird and wonderful world of Rowan and Jimmi onto the Observation Blog but somewhat highly unfortunate YouTube and it's copyright laws or something wanted them taken off their site. What a swizzle! However, they're not going to stop me posting my brilliant posts. What I will do is link you directly to the *sleek and smart website that is blaktornado.com This is Rowan's playground. On it features his own videos, music, animation and of course Rowan and Jimmi. He has been mentioned a few times in some of my posts and now is your chance to see his face. I'm going to release a different adventure every month! It'll be something to look forward to until the end of the year. And, I'm going to add some production notes and trivia because I want to do my own version of IMDB. But not goofs because it's hard to know where they start and end...

* - Flattery gets you nowhere, kids!

Click here for part one of Chippy Adventure
Click here for part two of Chippy Adventure
Click here for part three of Chippy Adventure

Production Notes

• I had no idea what was going to happen. I originally thought it was going to be another one of Rowan's Vlog that wouldn't have been as long as this. 
• Rowan says the word 'brilliant' 16 times.
• The 'David...David...David Beckham' sequence is inspired by psychic mediums on a ghost hunt. We were in a haunted wood after all!
• The "...and here we see" sequence is inspired by David Attenborough. 
• The return bus ticket is dated 20 Dec 2007 - 07:59am and is ticket number 2510
• Rowan say's that it's Christmas a number of times throughout. It was filmed on the 21st of December which is Christmas, so he is correct. And it also meant it was bloody cold!
• Rowan did all of his own stunts. 
• This is very heavily inspired by The Blair Witch Project. In fact, some people also say that that due to the success of the Rowan and Jimmi series, it lead to the creation of Paranormal Activity!
• The sound of something metal hitting something else was actually me knocking off the street sign. I did my own vandalism. 
• I thought the end credits worked rather well with the Gremlins theme.
• We never actually see some chips. In fact, I don't recall buying chips!

The next adventure in the series is In The City

The Vending Machine - A Bible Story

This tale goes back many years. Around about 1 or 2. It slips my mind as to when it happened, but it really happened. It's a true(ish) story! Unlike some bible stories, depending on your beliefs...


The day was unclear in the commoners room. The Vending Machine was used on many occasion to replenish peoples thirst. It gave the people such gifts as Orange Juice and Chocolate Yazoo and many of these people ventured on a pilgrimage across the Room to the Vending Machine with their hard earned money to be free the thirst demon that had burrowed into their souls. They would put in their money and feathered the buttons of their choice. Their call would be answered and a beverage would be delivered...in a split second of an instance. Many people thought this was witchcraft and so opted to take the even longer pilgrimage to the holyland supermarket know as Ahz-Dah for their treasure but this didn't bother the people of The Vending Machine as they would rather have the convenience than the journey.

Days went by and people of The Vending Machine purchased their wanted goods but unbeknown to the people of The Vending Machine, the Devil was nearby playing his dastardly tricks. Some say he put a curse on the people of The Vending Machine to make them buy all the treats. Others say the Devil merely bought everything in The Vending Machine. Whatever the reason was, The Vending Machine was getting emptier and emptier by the day. The people of The Vending Machine started to panic. And then one day, it had ran out of Yazoo. Even Banana which wasn't as popular as Chocolate. In fact, it had run out of everything. It was empty and the people of The Vending Machine were so afraid. Some opted to venture to Ahz-Dah but many did not return from the traitorous journey. Days went by and it looked liked The Vending Machine will forever be empty; it would just stand there, showing future generations that the Devil has overcome the people, for an empty Vending Machine meant that Evil had overcome Good. The people of The Vending Machine were getting so scared they all prayed:
"Thine thirst demon is taking over...I can't carry on. I may have to go to Ahz-Dah, but I do not want to walk"
"Oh holy Lord...Please give us and our people guidance. Ahz-Dah is too far. And thine Spar of Eden is far too expensive for our wage"
"Times are getting hard now dear Lord. We cannot venture like this. We need an answer."
It seemed like it was the end for the people of The Vending Machine but their prayers were answered.

One morning, a beam of light burst down from the clouds. The people thought it was an angel about to land but before they could say anything, the automatic doors swung open and in the doorway stood a figure. Many were blinded by the light but they could make out that this figure was a man. He spoke to the people of The Vending Machine:
"Hark!" he said. "I am a prophet. I come from a distant place. Do not be afraid, for I am here to help you and your situation. I have been sent from the sacred supplies Warehouse to answer your prayers and I bring good tidings of beverages for your delight." The man walked through the door whilst the people covered their faces with their hands, still not knowing who this man was and what he was here for. As he walked through the door, he pulled along a trolley. On this trolley was all the Yazoo flavours, Orange Juice, Apple Juice, and mineral water that the people of The Vending Machine could have asked for. He approached The Vending Machine and took out a key from his pocket.
"Devil! I cast ye away from Thine Vending Machine. For Thou hast been a burden on thine peoples lives for too long"
He opened The Vending Machine with his key and the accounts from the people are hazy. Some say the man battled the Devil out of The Vending Machine. Other say he stocked up The Vending Machine so well, the Devil couldn't cope and so ran away in horror. The man then packed up his belongings as said:
"People of Thine Vending Machine! There is nothing to worry about. Your problems have been dispersed. Evil has gone and I have bought back the Good. Look" pointing at The Vending Machine. The people looked and there was an almighty flash of light as the people stared in awe of their beloved Vending Machine. The Vending Machine was full of beverages once again. The people then killed their thirst demons and turned around. The figure with the trolley had vanished...

Nobody knew what happened that day but one thing for sure, Evil was no longer present and The Vending Machine as result, was no longer empty.

Amen

Epiphany III

The school had given me a fair amount of experience. I could litterally use it for any area of expertise. Engineering; Production; Live Sound; Live Light; Instrumentalist and so on. As with the music, over the year, I became involved in more than just rock. I joined NK's Jazz Band for a bit of fun; to see what it was like. But as the weeks rolled on, I found that the Jazz Band was more than that. I had never played as an ensemble before ever. This was a big band. We played old songs. I had never played a song in that was older than me before in front of an audience. Any songs that I played were either songs I had written or songs that Rowan had written. These songs were Glen Miller hits from the 40's. I loved that Jazz band and wish I had joined earlier. Apparantly, Matt Jackson, a friend of mine who played the bass for the band, asked me to join in year 11. I can't remember any of that...But it showed that I could do something like this. It was a long way from alternative rock band to Big Jazz band. We played at a competition and won and then we did a concert at in the schools Theatre; the Terry O'Toole; the first time I had played to an entirely different audience. The one thing I got from this was that I still wanted to play an instrument. I'm waffling, this isn't where I'm wanting to go with this, but it's still important...

In May, as part of work experience, I got the chance to help out at a prolific recording studio in Lincoln. I was aiding in recording a metal band called Kallous. They were pretty tallented and some of the nicest guys to ever meet; you wouldn't believe they were these hardcore growly metalheads. I did litterally get the chance to record them. Soundcheck and press record and all that. It was brilliant but like I said before, I wanted to also play an instrument which isn't always possible with working in a studio. If you want to play an instrument, you join a band. Hmmm, kinda difficult now...I wanted to work in a studio. But then I had another epiphany. I didn't really want to involved with rock anymore. I love rock music, don't get me wrong. But as a creative element, there's only so far you can go. I realised this whilst recording drums for Kallous. Because there was so many patterns, we had to find where a mistake was and go back to that point and do it all again. I hadn't lost interest in rock, I just couldn't see myself working with it. Rock is about not caring about the rules. Or at the very least, bending them, not being told what to do. It was after this I thought that rock would be a lot happier confined to those who know how to do it and do it well. Delayed Finality could do it well but Lincoln's rock scene is massive. Trying to get noticed in a big pool of rock (Rock pool?) is a lot harder. Yes, there's different styles of rock that were out there but under an umbrella term, they are all rock. Alternative, Heavy, Metal and Indie are all rock. As for everything else, there's nothing. Not saying that rock gets boring after a while but these Lincoln bands are all the same styles. 3/4/5 pieces with vocals, distorted guitars, bass, drums and occasionally keyboards. Rock is big and a lot of people like it but it isn't the only choice. Maybe there was another way? Maybe a breakaway was needed?

Epiphany II

So, the band had stopped but it didn't mean I wasn't going to stop creating music. I love music. Music is awesome. I have since tried to broaden my horizons with music. It's such a good area to be involved in I think. This part of the epiphany started almost a year ago when I was offered a job.

The year was 2009. July, I think. I was a Sixth Former at North Kesteven just finishing my BTEC Music Technology course. One afternoon, I got taken aside by Mr Hird, the head of Music. He offered me a job of becoming the schools Assistant Studio Technician. Out of all the 7 people in the Music Tech group (I know, it was a lot), I got chosen to look after the studio. But that's not all it was. My main role was to make sure everything was working and everything was there. Not particually interesting. However, every Monday after 3 I had the opportunity to use the studio to its full potential. Since I worked until 4:30, I was required to record GCSE students for parts of thier course. And this was what kicked started this part and over the year I recorded many vocalists (good vocalists), electric, acoustic and bass guitarists, a flautist, a trombonist, keys, drums, violins, all sorts. Everyone liked being recorded by Jimmi. The studio's normal soundtech (my employer) had a very different method to me. He wanted it done stupidly quick. I didn't. For example, I brought the guitarists into the studio and let them change certain settings to how they wanted it to sound, rather than them telling me and letting me guess. I gave the instrumentalist an input, which for a studio (academical or otherwise) is essential. I may have engineered certain aspects but the sound is crucial for the performer. A quick soundcheck would be what was normally done and straight into a record. I soundchecked twice; one standard soundcheck and another runthrough soundcheck, because instrumentalists have a habbit of playing louder when being recorded than when they're being checked. I was friendly with everyone and they liked my laid back attitude. I was never really that strict, I kept a stern face and even if the performer wanted the moon, I could only try to work around them. "Thumbs up on record" I would say and they'd be off. I'd always end a recording with "rock n roll" just as a subtle hint of irony, especially if it was a showtune I was recording. It then hit me. "People like me doing this. I like the people. I know what I'm doing. I feel very comfortable. I love this creativity from the Year 11 students. I know I'm doing this as a job, but I could do this as a career..."