Cheaper Final Cut Pro Keyboard, Roundhouse and Sonic Youth
I've always been a bit jealous of those colour coded keyboards with both Final Cut and Avid keyboard shortcuts, but put off by the hugely expensive 70 UKP price tag. You've always been able to buy stickers for application to normal keyboards but somehow it never seemed as nice. I recently saw this company in Germany making their own keyboards for a fraction of the price at 22UKP. Whether the quality is any good I can't tell, likely it's the cheapest import with custom keys, but it might be of use to the editor on a budget.
Last weekend I enjoyed alt-rock pioneers Sonic Youth playing their classic album Daydream Nation at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm. It neatly filled a gap in my formative live experiences, along with the fantastic performance at Benecassim festival of Dinosaur Jr. It's been a year of sentimentality, but entirely worth it as both bands performed brilliantly without a hint of any "In it for the money" tragedy. Sonic Youth looked almost spry as 10 years ago, with not a hint of the middle aged spread setting in. It was a joy to see Kim Gordon lurching about the stage in her mini dress, and Thurston Moore, with his trademark thick, curly bowl of an indie haircut, enthusiastically attacking his guitar with a drumstick as a makeshift slide. I made some recordings with the video capabilities of LV's N95, a super PDA/camera/phone and if I get a chance I'll edit it together up here.
For reference the Roundhouse is a gorgeous venue. A strangely polite bouncer on the door cautioned me that there would be no re-admittance and when I faltered on entering explaining I might get another quick ciggie in before committing, he replied "Oh, you can smoke upstairs, outside on the first level", so we entered and he smiled and said brightly "Enjoy yourselves!".
The first floor has a huge outside area, with plenty of space and seats, and on the night of the gig was offering freshly barbecued foods and salad. The bogs were clean and decent, the bars were plentiful and easy to get to the front of, and the gig was easy to see. Beirut are playing there in November so I'll definitely be returning.
0 comments