My first blog post. The future! ( 2018 so far and yet to come).

I am just returned from a week in Budapest. It was a leisure trip with my wonderful Kim, meeting up with some of her old college buddies. Others, all USA citizens, joined us from Barcelona and Germany, and one has been living in Budapest for years.

The trip ended for me with the last two days on my own to enjoy and expore at my own pace. I spent Sunday exploring the Castle district of Buda, and in particular the Museum of Musicology. There was a small but information-rich exhibit on the ethnomusicological research of Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly.

We've been very busy since Thanksgiving, all through Christmas (lots of live sound gigs) - so a break was in order. Budapest is a good city to chill in. Lots of nice cafes and thermal baths. It was a week to recharge and reflect about the many upcoming projects ahead.

I'm currently involved in a number of projects. There's a short feature horror movie with a really nice script at the pre-production stage. Tonight I'm doing a final mix on a short film that will be on the festival circuit later this year. I did a few music cues, dialogue editing and foley for it and it has been premiered - but ya know, sometime on the big screen things look and sound a little different so I'm glad to get a chance to finesse it further for the festival season. I'll publish it here later in the year. I'm also in the middle of recording a new EP for Mick Joyce and the Sonic Gypsies. I'll be editing a few of the songs from that next week. Also in pre-production is a nice singer-songwriter project. Gosh, quite a few other things too that are coming down the line...this is all in between my regular gigs. This weekend I'm mixing for The Best Men in Dun Laoghaire's Purty Kitchen, and I'm also doing live sound in Alliance Francaise next week. With hopefully another slot or two in the Science gallery, another regular gig of mine that I love (fun AND educational). So enough to keep me busy for now. Nevertheless, I do see opportunities arising in Dublin that I'll throw my hat in the ring for...

But regarding this blog, my main intention at the time of writing is to give at least a monthly update. Not necessarily about me and what I'm up to, but perhaps other more general reflections on music, film, the Irish live scene (as seen through my eyes), perhaps gig reviews, album reviews, and perhaps retrospective reviews on older works. For example, my last purchase was a 180g vinyl reissue of John Coltrane's "My Favourite Things" - maybe I'll have my own thoughts on that in the fullness of time. In short, I'll be going a little more "public" on my activities, now that I'm a year graduated from Windmill lane. More to come...stay tuned.