Lee’s Daily Blog

A good video of our now former SU President, Alex Nicholson-Evans, discussing achievements for BUSU in the past year and what can be looked forward to in the future.

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This post is for Tuesday 2nd June, 2009

This photo was taken this past weekend when I was rigging lights at the top of the library for the Summer Ball this year

View Towards The Lake From Level 5 of the Library - University of Bath

Despite being at the University of Bath for 2 years, it is the first time I had been outside on Level 5 of the library and was therefore the first time I’d seen this view – which I thought was pretty good! I think it was certainly helped by the good weather we were having that day – certainly made rigging for the Summer Ball more enjoyable.

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Further to my post on the U18 Vs The Bright Orange Bus, could we be seeing the U18 making another move towards taking some of First’s business and making it more likely for people to switch.

The following was posted on the Uniconnect facebook group:

Having the buses going till 3am – even only 2 an hour, would certainly remove one of the main arguments of getting a U18 bus pass. It would also make life a lot easier for people getting home after the SU’s club nights.

All we need now is a joint bus pass between the two services.

This Post is for Thursday 14th May, 2009

At the start of this week a new battle started around Bath – the Battle of the Buses between First and Wessex Connect.

The Existing Service - The 18/418 - The Bright Orange Bus, provided by First

Vs

The Newcomer - The U18 - UniConnect - Provided by Wessex Connect

This Monday Wessex Connect launched its rival service to the 18/418 – the U18. Concentrating on the Oldfield Park to University route, it has been highly campaigned for from the Students’ Union as an improvement to the bus service from First – a topic of conversation which seems to frequently come up.

The U18 was announced at the same time that Wessex Connect announced that they would start providing an alternative to the cancelled 20a/c service in Bath. As well as providing more buses and lower fares than first, they also announced that they would be donating 1p per ticket sold to a charity, chosen by students.

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This post is for Tuesday 12th May

This weeks photo is a slightly different style photo. It was taken on my phone (I forgot my digital camera this day – doh!) and is of the stage set up ready for The Automatic’s performance in Elements at the University of Bath

The Automatic Stage Set Up - Elements, Bath University

The thing I found most amazing was how much we fitted on such a small stage.

To say our standard set up in Elements isn’t that large would be an understatement. To fit The Automatic on their, with all their equipment, plus that of support acts etc. was nothing short of a miracle.

Although a big (ish) named band, they did struggle to get a crowd. Their performance at the University of Bath was part of the uLive tour which goes round a number of Students’ Unions in the UK. Apparently we weren’t even the smallest venue on the tour.

I believe only a few over 100 people came to see them in the end, which was surprising considering they’d had a number of hits – tickets weren’t even too expensive at only about £12. I think it perhaps came down to timing, with a lot of people starting to become busy with coursework at that time in the semester. That said, live music seems to struggle at the University of Bath in general.

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This post is for Wednesday 25th March, 2009

The main reason for my blog not being updated recently is BUSMS’ performance of Little Shop of Horrors. Although I was only the LX desk op, it meant many hours in the theatre (including 40 hours solid to do a pre-plot before the tech), however, even if I do say so myself, the show was fantastic.

From a performers point of view it went really well – no major problems during the dress or any of the performances and even the band didn’t seem to mind too much about being put in a cupboard (the small area forming the outside of the shop).

From a Backstage point of view everything seemed to go well. The set was mainly our new set of flats, which popped up and down really quickly (great news for a quick de-rig). The plants and some of the props, were a good purchase to save some time and the rest of the props seemed to be sourced elsewhere.

Lighting wise, although we had a reasonable number of generic fixtures up in the sky (3 different washes plus a reasonable number of specials), there was nothing particularly complicated (no scrollers, or heads to mess around with). This made programming nice and quick (the pre-plot of just over 100 cues, although done in the very early hours of the morning took about 4 hours, including listening through tracks etc.). By doing this pre-plot, it meant we got through the tech even quicker, with any modifications being easy to make. The only problems we really had were with the booms which unfortunately landed in the path of the additional tab track we fitted.

Sound seemed to have the most problems and seemed to take longer to set-up. The band wasn’t huge but were put inside a wooden box. We used 8 radio mics – 2 or so of which were swapped among different performers. The reason it took longer was probably due to us put a fair amount more into it than usual and it did result in it sounding pretty good when it was all done – not bad considering they were mixing from the gallery at the side of the theatre, rather than central like they usually are!

With this all in, I think it resulted in one of the best shows I’ve seen in the last couple of years at Bath Uni. I do wish all the audiences had been like the one on the Saturday (closing night though). They got really into it and it was obvious they were enjoying the show, leading to everyone else enjoying it a lot more too.

Read more for some photos.

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I visited campus on Friday afternoon to start setting up for the SIFE show taking place on Saturday night. The amount of snow up there is completely different to the amount still left in the town. Here are some of the photos I took:

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Bath University Parade in Snow

The University was hoping to open almost as normal today, but how are they doing so far?

Update 8:02am: The university has now cancelled 9.15 lectures as well as 8.15. There are also no buses running up the hill yet. Keep an eye on Twitter or internal news for updates. Should hear more from the university by 8.45.

Update 8:25am: Apparently the STV will be open as normal today.

Update 8:50am: all lectures before midday have been cancelled. The refresh fair has also been postponed to another day. Still no buses running.

Update 10:00am: Buses still not running to the University. Some other bus routes in Bath are attempting to run though. For further bus updates follow the bus service on twitter @bathcsc

Update 10:19am: The University is now closed for the whole day. Further information for people on campus is due to be posted on the internal news page soon. Fresh is open till 2pm today.

Update 10:27am: Looks like the STV can’t saty open and will be closing at 2pm today.

Update 11:15am: The Flirt! Foam Party has also been postponed and will be taking place next week. Check the internal news page for the most up to date list of shop opening /closings. Worthy of note though is Level 1 will be open for food between 11:30am and 2pm tomorrow.

Photo by Katie Mabery

Today I was lucky enough to have the day off university. What it meant was that my frienda dn I got to go outside and enjoy the snow, allowing me to take quite a few photos, including these:

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A bonus post for you. It has been all over the news about snow in the UK. In Bath, we haven’t had much yet, however I took the following photos on my way out of a lecture.

Lake at The University of Bath in The Snow

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