2008 Nicola Bryant calendar: February

It’s time for the second instalment of my Nicola Bryant 2008 calendar, and this month Nicola is looking particularly foxy. It’s the 24th anniversary of Nicola’s debut as Peri in the Doctor Who story Planet of Fire, so what better way to celebrate than with a few saucy screengrabs of that infamous bikini scene!


Make it your desktop wallpaper, and don’t forget to drop by next month for the March instalment. If you don’t want to miss it, you can always sign up to my mailing list! I promise not to sell your email address to marketing companies.

INSTRUCTIONS: Just click on the above image to open the larger 580x580 version in your internet browser. Then right mouse click to save to your PC. When you've done that just make it your desktop wallpaper. Bingo! You now have some saucy pics of Nicola to keep you company throughout 2008!

DrGaz's Music: Maybe Next Time

This here is my humble attempt at the mighty Ritchie Blackmore's "Maybe Next Time". This is the first part of the song. There's a mid-section and a more technical end section. I will try to finish them off soon. I've already learned most of the guitar bits, but I need to complete the backing track on Garageband before I can post it in its entirety.



Ol' Blacky is definitely my favourite guitarist, and this song is probably one of my favorites of his. It should really be played with a slide, but unfortunately I can't find mine. That may not be a bad thing as my slide playing is pretty dodgy.

If you would like to hear this in better quality than the iTubes offering above, click here to download an MP3 version.

INSTRUCTIONS TO DOWNLOAD MP3 FILES: Right-click on the "Download MP3" link and click on "save link as".

DrGaz's Music: New guitar tunes.

Here's a couple of new experimental ditties that I recorded by plugging my guitar into the computer:

Gazrock!


Download MP3

Basically I recorded a couple of clean guitar tracks on Audacity then transferred them individually to Garageband on the Mac. A bit of a pain in the arse doing this way, but I had no option because I currently only have a jack line-in to the sound card on my PC, and no such connection on the Mac. I really need to get some music composition software for the PC tomorrow. As good as Garageband is, my PC is much more powerful.

I had to use a metronome on Audacity to get the timing right, then when I transferred the tracks to the Mac I replaced the metronome track with some drum loops set to the correct tempo. It feels pretty weird trying to record riffs in cleantone when they are intended to be distorted in the final version. However are some nice guitar effects you can add in Garageband (distortion, echo etc), but listening again to Gazrock!, I think I may have overkilled on the reverb and echo. I was trying to get a really heavy sound, and although it sounded OK on my headphones I thought it sounded a bit distant and woolly through the speakers. That said, my current speakers are a bit crap anyway so maybe it's not so much of an issue. Please post a comment if you have decent speakers and tell me if it sounds any good! LET US ROCK!

Twiddly Tune


Download MP3

This is another little test (recorded using the same method as "Gazrock!"). It's half finished and I may have another bash at this one because I quite like it. I may even actually tune my guitar if I redo it! Maybe it'll go on DrGaz's Party somewhere (that is my um "album" I might do one day).

INSTRUCTIONS TO DOWNLOAD MP3 FILES: Right-click on the "Download MP3" link and click on "save link as".

Above is a quick "photo of the day" shot I took earlier of my guitar.

Organism Consciousness

This is another one of my experimental weird sketches done over the Christmas period when I was a bit bored one day. I know it’s a bit wacky, but don’t worry – I’m not on drugs or having a nervous breakdown or anything (or at least I hope not). This drawing follows the same rules as my Mechanics of a Damaged Mind drawing I did a few months ago. I am of course referring to the “make it up as you go along and just draw anything that pops into your head” rule. I drew this one in pencil instead of pen, the idea being to try to create a bit more texture and a 3D feel that my Mechanics pic lacked. I also added some highlights to the big swirls afterwards using an eraser to try to make them more 3D.