18 hours to go!!!

tomorrow is the last day!! therefore everyone is frantically writing their research proposal! had a meeting with james today. had a chat about the structure of my paper as well as some points on which i could elaborate/tidy-up. this was useful as i had a fair bit written down before i met him but realized i needed to add more issues to the paper, more specifically- theory! it has meant i have a lot more work to do now...but its a good thing as the direction has made me understand whats more important etc. and actually made me more aware of the way in which to set about writing such a proposal.

the structure of my paper is fine, i think i have understood the methodologies quite well and explained that section fairly ok. i dont think the literature review is great but theres still time to improve on that! every minute really does count... the objectives/aims/research questions have been ironed out. everything is coming to plan and i finally have a grip of whats going on and where to go next, just wish i had a little more time....oh well.......

nearly there!!!

85 hours and 21 mins left until the end of year, as you can guess i can not wait!! bit sad with the whole finishing thing but thats how it goes. i have been telling melik for weeks that i have been really looking forward to our last lecture....that would really mean the end of classrooms and teaching for me, but the last lecture was cancelled!!! i missed my last undergraduate lecture as well, oh well theres that for the education send off! we have now passed the bulk of the work and have just our research proposal remaining. wednesday will be a great day (or not) to remember...

so far the proposal is going good. i have managed to set aside some time for it while i had my other bits of coursework and thats allowed to a bit of research. the struggles i had with answering "is there a decline...?" have not gone a bit as i have managed to find some more info. i still need to find some more up to date info though. last meeting i had with james he told me to consider the whole market on the supply and demand side rather than focussing on one area at a time, this helped. considering the bigger picture actually makes it easier to focus on certain things. the structure of my dissertation is taking more shape now. meeting with james and the discussions we have as well as me doing the research makes it clearer on how to approach the topic.

question i would consider: "are electronic music events in the uk seeing mass closure due to frailties in event design?"

so all tidied up with james input, this comes to!!

Research Ojective:
To investigate the role of event design and production in the decline of the electronic music market...

Research questions:
Has the market for electronic music events followed the same patterns of decline as the wider electronic music market?
Does Event design and production have an impact on consumers' consumption of electronic music?

So there we go for now....this time tuesday should be my final blog.....but as ive taken a bit of a liking to this i shall continue until my dissertation is finished!!!

work overload!!!!!!!!!

as i write this the weather outside is lovely and it seems like everyones having fun, summer must be upon us. not for me and the MA events lot though as we've got a pretty sickening workload at the mo, assignments left, right and centre! i feel pretty geared up for it (i think) as i spent the last few days on a european road trip with the lovely bron, becka, manuel, garry and gintare, its provided me with some motivation.....well amsterdam has!!
spent a bit of easter looking at my dissertation, i love the topic and area obviously but i think it might prove to be more difficult than i originally thought....vaguely remember peter telling me areas in which we have an interest aren't necessarily easier. well it may be true, the first part of my dissertation involved answering the question: is there a decline in the interest of electronic music in the UK? this really isn't too specific to events but i need to answer this to move onto the next part of my dissertation, there is so much to it, i feel i may not be able to answer it exactly because there is nothing concrete to prove or dis-prove this-my research shows a lot of opinions, not exactly the best data!! also it may be very easy to move off the point!!! im thinking about rephrasing this question so it becomes more manageable and more events related to something like "why are events associated with electronic music in the UK seeing mass closure?" shall see what james thinks and can then go on from there. meanwhile its back to the assignments, roll on the 13th May and the european road trip part deux.....

end of term!!!!!!

today is the end of term, the year has passed so quickly...too quickly. heading into the final stretch now so the work is coming thick and fast, easter holidays will probably be spent working as theres quite a bit to do and if i finish off a couple of my assignments i can concentrate on my research proposal when i come back. had my first meeting with james on wednesday, gave me some articles to look at which can get me moving in choosing the correct area for my dissertation. also gives me a chance to have a look at how research is undertaken in this field. quite looking forward to starting my dissertation work, espeically as i love the field but need to start thinking about my final idea first!! right time for shoreditch.... much love.

completely forgetful week....

had a pretty torrid week... all kinds of things going on...but thats life!! :) to make it worse theres a wee case of an assignment to figure out for thursday. should be right though as ive left myself 3 days. on the dissertation front james is to be my tutor which is cool, kind of expected mind you. have first meeting on wednesday. to tell the truth ive not thought much on my dissertation for quite a while, theres been so much going on.... over easter im planning on sorting all that out so i'll be prepared for my research proposal. meanwhile i should get doing some work!!!

dissertation idea coming together.... kind of.....

had our topic presentations last wednesday. i think mine went ok, i at least have some kind of idea now! initially i was thinking on the lines of attendee motivations at various music events but then i changed my mind a little after speaking to James. im not sure if our dissertation has to be something which resembles a (maybe) unique idea but then again thats how i feel it should be, with that in mind and considering my history and likes i came up with the title: "the decline of UK underground dance culture: to be expected or recreated?" i spent some time coming up with this cheesy preliminary title (to be changed!) but post presentation i have a few more ideas which stems from the feedback James and Peter gave me. so with a bit more thought i think i should be on my way! what was also cool was that Peter said EMI would be interested in this kind of work, just a little impetus not to cock this up!!!!

last day of term!!!!

today is the last day of term, it saw the usual mad rush to finish assignments on time, as expected bronwyn was online at 7am working away, as was i, she had finance i had cultures, think i preferred the finance paper- cultures managed to confuse me royally! glad its over for now and looking forward to the holidays esp. nye as always, maybe laurent garnier at the end. term has passed so quick but its been an enjoyable one at that. so nice to meet people of so many varied cultures (paper is still in my head!!) theres a real warm international feel about our group. looks like everyone has settled down now, even me. me and melik had a laugh the other night because i realized i had lived in 6 different places since july, maybe i was some kind of nomad in a previous life. looking forward to january and the new year. uni should be good with the new courses on offer, roll on 2009!! have a wonderful xmas and new year everyone. x

dissertation ideas

wednesday saw us have our research methods lecture on interview techniques which was quite informative, we looked at qualitative techniques rather than quantitative which i think helps most people, wouldnt know why anyone would look at quantitative!! in the class i managed to ponder a few ideas for my dissertation, had a few 'it' words jumping around in my head so i noted them down because i would otherwise most probably forget! found out james used to have an interest in electronic music so reckon it would be a good idea to get his thoughts on my topic area. glad the presentations were not for today, gives me a bit longer to think and also more time to get my assessments done, well thats what i thought.... its now 23.49 and i still have another hour to go on finance and then its cultures time!! suppose i have another 15 hours and 11 minutes which is good, no priceless!! must learn.

me and creatures of the sea

i know bit late with my blog but at leasts its here now, sorry paola. the final week of our first term starts tomorrow, time has flown by. we've handed in a few bits of coursework already and im sure everyone is pretty anxious about their results but i know for sure its worse when it comes to handing in all the work for friday. i once again have underestimated the work load, memo for next term: start earlier!! also got our research methods presentation on wednesday, should be quite amusing considering some of the messages that are wrote about it on the RESE1073 blog! im still struggling to define my topic, it will have something to do with music- good start prad keep up the good work.
ps. found out im going to the arctic in may to sea kayak with whales wooo!!!!!!!!!!!