Radio gothumentary update

OK so out of 9 proposed interviews I got 7 , from 4 different people. The support felt from people was really good, however the nature of the goth scene has a lot people juggling their work and social life as well as contributing to making the cogs in the scene go, so it was getting the time to do the interviews that was a problem.

I decided to leave it at 7, and after transcribing the interviews this isn’t a silly decision, there is around half an hour of interviews and it translates loosely to just under 6000 words.

So I’ve decided to narrow the scope, so I’ve taken out a fashion and retail element(because a) I couldn’t get the interviews in time, b) its a really wide field) secondly although I have the interview for it, the music producing side is just too hard to tie in properly.
narrowing the scope will give me more of an opportunity to flesh out the responses I do have, because I found that the responses are quite in depth and its hard to get that whole aspect into a peanut shell.

Now that I’ve got the interviews the narration has been easier to re-direct  and in the same way, its been a really good way to find what I want from the interviews.
Now that I’m into editing phases  I’m finding it very awkward to not get attached to the entire response, because all my interviewee’s were so lovely.

I’ve learned a lot, and it changed my perception of what I thought I knew, its also been incredibly fun, I’ve ran into old friends and met new friends, unfortunately I’ve re-learned a bit of the same old politics which is unfortunate but yeah.

Its coming along slowly but surely.

Documentary proposal/draft plan

Working title: The gothumentary.

 

Aim:

To give an insight into Melbourne grown up gothic subculture that attempts to break the stereotypes that popular culture can often have about it.

 

Synopsis:

Most people tend to be quick to judge the whole scene as black clad and scary, but there’s more to it than meets the eye, so this documentary aims to give some details and opinions from the other side of the coin on the different elements on which Melbourne’s grown up Goth’s enjoy. Its not all about dressing in Halloween outfits every day or worshipping darkness or self body modification or listening to evil music, which people tend to think of when you mention gothic. There’s a niche to it, a style of its own just like other popular trends and fashions it has its own little world and can still nestle itself quite comfortably with the rest of the world most of the time.

 

Duration:

10-12 minutes

Content:

· Vox Pop: from general people asking, what’s a Goth? Or what do you think of the gothic sub culture.

· Narration, Intro to the documentary and intro to music and nightlife and with Narrative segways and music between interviews etc.

· Gothic Nightlife, (i.e. Goth clubs) comments from an event organizer expressed through interview answers.

· Music: about the music from DJ’s, Musicians and Music producers expressed through interview answers.

· Vox Pop: from general people, what do you think about what Goths wear and how they look?

· Narrative introduction to the look and then narrative and musical segways in between interviews

· Gothic Fashion and Beauty, comments from; fashion designer, retail outlet and gothic hair and beauty salon through interview answers.

· Vox Pop: from Goths; what is that you like about being involved in the scene?

· Narrative introduction to lifestyle.

· Interview with someone who may have had some years of experience within the scene to talk about lifestyle.

· Interview with someone who has played a big part in creating a gothic publication. (print press or internet)

· Conclusion, summary of everything or comments for provoking thought or maybe musical outro. (still undecided at this stage)

 

Basic ways of presenting

• Narration
• Vox Pops
• Interviews
• Music and Music segways.
• Possible actuality of nightclub (?)

 

Key Interview questions: (basically almost applied to every interviewee)

• What is it?
• What kind of role does it play within the scene?
• Why is it/how can it be an important role?
• How does it fit in with society/competitiveness/growth etc?
• What kind of people/what kind of stock/what kind of music/ what trends etc?

 

Interview sources:

• Goth nightclub/event manager
• DJ
• Band
• Music Producer
• Fashion Designer
• Retailer
• Hair and beauty
• Someone who has been involved and participated across the board
• Publication editor or website creator

 

References:

(Possibly)

• The article in the current Big issue.
• The article in the Age sometime a year or 2 ago.
• The negative articles in relation to the suicides of the 2 young girls earlier in the year

(Definite)

• www.gothic.org.au
• Personal experience

 

Actuality:

• Background noise at a Goth club. ( if applicable)
• Music.

(nb questions will be up shortly)

Comments on Group A’s half hour programs

Leon- The D-Roy and Shirk or the odd couple. (Now with %48 more Rictor)
-I thought the intro sting to the show was very whimsical and caught your attention.
-There was a few moments of the hosts and co-hosts interupting each other.
-Umms and Ahhs a plenty along with stumbling over some of the words, particularly after one of the songs, coming back in with a nice long winded umm.
-The musci in the interview was distracting and too loud, it was really hard to focus on what the interviewee was saying.
-The Vox pop seemed to end ver abruptly.
-There where volume changes, and it sounded like Jacks Microphone was volume was to low.
Really nice concept, has plenty of potential to be a really good show with practice.

Connor- At the Movies
-Love the Intro, its just a bit muffly .
-Chillax, your nerves are obvious.
-It sounded as though you were following the script very strictly.
-The music was a little loud around the review.

Nice choice for a theme show, included relevant material and generally stayed on track.

Jack- No Second Prize

-Great Modulation, well paced really snappy and catchy.
-I really appreciate the way you wrapped up your discussion, it was almost going to start severely waffling, and you would have lost me.
-The interview was really good content wise, but it sounded a little loud.
-You didn’t interupt your co-hosts, you waited for them to finnish their comments before making your own. You also used your co-hosts really effectively.

I loved the way you didn’t own your program to a particular regular theme, I also think you sounded really confident in the drivers seat (so to say)and it suited you well.

Jacob-(I couldn’t catch the exact title sorry)
-The intro to the show was really well suited, but I felt the music was a little bit too loud and you couldn’t hear the spoken part of the intro.
-There was changes in your accent, which I thought was a bit off-putting particularly when you were saying the name of the show.
-The review was really well organized.
-you can hear really obvious volume changes between talking, and your mic sounded really low.
-You cant disguise a phone-call and pretend its a phone conversation thats not on the phone.

It had a really nice lae night feel to it, unfortunately I don’t know my rap stuff too well but I think it wuld certainly appeal nicely to the audience it was aimed for.

Dane- The D-Roy and Shirk or the odd couple. (Now with %48 more Rictor)

-Great opening
-The review seems really flat, and at one point I wasn’t sure if it was a review or a discussion.
-The music under you vox pop is really distracting form the vox pop, and it sounded like you’d looped a few.
-…”talking about our panel discussion” ???
-The discussion really de-railed often.
-Your intro to the song was really long winded, perhaps you should have started playing this whilst you were introducing it, the start of the song was quite enough that it would have blended nicely.
-Nice Outro music
-Nice Collingwood Joke.

Similar to Leons show, I really like the way you’ve almost combined the 2 shows into one and the concept as a whole works really well.

Matt- Non stop Sport

-Please slow down it sounded like some kind of race.
-For some reason I missed the fact that it was your review, and not a whole bunch of scores and teams I had no idea about, it was quite speedy, a bit too speedy.
-Is it a show about sport or is it just football.
-It was hard to decipher whether or not the phone-call was an interview or a discussion?
-The use of continuous music in the background was really good, it wasn’t distracting, and it was a really nice level.

Once again is it a sport show or a football show, please slow down your pace because it was a nicely polished show apart from the pace.

Jesse- The comedy Corner

I enjoyed the show so much I had trouble trying to make any comments about the running of it. It was a great use of the theme, and really stayed right on the comedy track.

PJ

-Your volume is a bit messy it was really up and down.
-You skip a lot of words in your sentences, perhaps read through your sentences and maybe find better words to help your sentences flow.
-What was the main topic in your discussion it seemed to go really off track and did waffle on a little.
-I thought the content of your interview was really interesting and informative.
-I didn’t like the way you assumed all your audience were B-Boys/Girls.

With Practice and good planning I think your show would serve a really good purpose to the particular style of audience

Reid- The Chit Chat.

-It had really nice flow.
-Your vox pop was very short, the music behind it though was interesting, perhaps a little curious.
-The discussion was too long.
-The use of anger for comedy was felt really displaced.
-The interview: The introduction didn’t clarify very well who it was you were talking t, it did have really good levels, but the background noise at one point was bad and overall it was really boring in contrast to your show, informative, good questions but it wasn’t interesting.

It had a really goog afternoon cruisy feel to it, the title suited it well and it was good how you didn’t own it strictly to a theme.

Laura- The Harry Potter Half Hour.

-I thought the opening was a really energetic and had a really good vibe.
-The Volume jump when you were starting the review is really obvious. They kind of seemed like editing points. It also seems quite short.
-Your Voice jumps around volume wise, theres also heaps of upward and downward inflections that seem to used more often than needed.
-The music behind the vox pop was really good it built tnesion nicely, but has the potential to get really distracting.
-The intros and outros to songs were really good.

It was a very unique and quirky idea for a radio show,the format was good, the show was very colourful and well paced.

Comparison: The breakfast radio experiment. Part 2 (from the the original on 27/02/07)

On Tuesday Morning 7.30am, it was a bit of Vega Variety to start my morning. But on this morning the show just didn’t tantalize my head in any way. I felt a wee bit out of my league, but why? It’s a question I’ve stewed on for a bit. The show had a good format, with about 2-4 songs played every half hour, the same half hour news and15 minute traffic reports, well and truly less commercials, interesting show hosts, phone polls etc. The talking segments went on much longer, we had $1000 pay day game, a talk segment on over 40 singles and the private vs public education debate. Each segment stretched out between 4 to 7 minutes with stories etc. Everything was interesting; the music was pretty ok too. But I figured out what it was that had me uninterested; the chemistry, did I pick a bad day, they were good but nothing was risky or slightly taboo it was really safe, I’m sure there is bound to be a Melbourne audience somewhere that want something interesting and non cynical, but it was like the listening to The Cage without that played up malice or Tracy and Tim without the good co-host bond. But then I thought thay couldn’t have been the whole reason. Then it hit me like a tonne of bricks there was no Laughter, that contagious thing that puts a smile on your face, it was definately missing. Three very good personalities from around the comedy circuit, all funny and intelligent but I feel that Vega management may have roped in these three in attempts to appeal to the competetive commercial radio audience, which might just work but is might going to be enough in the long run or will this strange mix vanish from radio too soon.

My glass half full award this week goes to Mix 101.1.

Interview comments Part 2

Late night Live on ABC radio national with Phillip Adams’
(Thursday afternoon replay of the show from Wednesday the 14th of March)

Phillip Adams was quite a contrast to Jon Faine; it was something I picked up instantly. On this particular occasion Phil was interviewing 2 people as well, Mahfuz Anam the editor and co-founder of the ‘Daily Star’, Bangladesh’s leading English-language newspaper and his daughter Tahmima Anam who recently published a book called: A Golden Age. It wasn’t a face to face (or same studio kind) interview, Mahfuz was being interviewed over the phone and Tahmima was been interviewed from a live feed from an ABC studio somewhere in the UK. It was an informative and perhaps it had some more emotional elements later into the interview. Early on into the interview mentioning that Tahm had recently had a book published, it was mentioned very quickly and wasn’t re visited as a main subject much at all, which I thought really wasn’t enough to warrant it as promotional.

As I mentioned earlier it was quite a contrast to the Jon Faine interview, it had a whole lot more seriousness to it, there wasn’t too many of the interviewer’s personal comments put in, although there were some. There was an obvious amount of preparation and research; it definitely had some political enquiry to it. Though sometimes Phil did comment which provoked further comments from the interviewee, it didn’t sound as though he hadn’t prepared a question. There was an almost professional sounding subtlety about it, perhaps it was entirely accidental that the interviewee took it as a chance to further discuss jumping in before Phil had actually asked a question, I cant really be sure, either way it didn’t really change that I thought it was a good interview with a well polished interview technique.

I mentioned earlier that this had two interviewees I’m not sure if this is a regular occurrence or a special kind of thing, although Phil did mention that it was very rare that he interviews both a father daughter. Phil handled the double interview by asking questions 2 at a time to each Mahfuz and Tahm. It kept a really good balance to the interview and it stood out in a good way, although for some reason his patience sounded like it was a bit shorter when asking questions to Tahmima compared to when he was asking Mahfuz.

I do think this was the better overall interview of the two I listened too, although I did find the other more interesting in terms of content, This interview also gains points because it has been titled: Bangladesh; Give me back my country .

For more info or to hear it for your self, go to:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2007/1871938.htm

Interview comments Part 1

The conversation hour with, Jon
Faine on 774, Wednesday the 14th of March.

The Jon Faine conversation hour on this particular occasion had Alan Brough as his co host helping. I’m not regular listener of the program but I am told that he does usually have a co host that might differ from day to day. On this occasion he was interviewing Asha Bhosle, who he quoted to be the highest selling recording artist of all time and Laurie Benson, the Curator of International Art at the NGV. I’m not sure whether he usually interviews two people at once or whether it was a special occasion, but it certainly was probably the more colourful interview of the two I listened to. It was an informative interview, though I think Jon poured a lot of personal interest into interviewing Asha, as for Laurie’s presence I think it might have been more on a promotional basis as a way of promoting a current exhibition at NGV (or an upcoming) Cinema India: The Art of Bollywood.

Having these two interviewees on together did tie together quite nicely and also by not making the entire interview promotional, however there was a lot of comment from the interviewers and not the rephrased question kind, it did sound a little like an attempt of a relaxed sounding interview. When Jon questioned Asha it just didn’t seem like there was the relaxed kind of rapport from Asha the question didn’t really allow it, but Alan did pretty well with her. I felt and it was reverse with Laurie, he was very serious it just didn’t sound as though Alan and Laurie were on the same personality wavelength; I think Jon handled the questions better. I’m sure by no means was it intentional that it came across in this way but it did kind of have a hole shaky borderline between serious and laid back that it kind of flicked to and from.

For more info or to hear it for your self, go to:

http://www.abc.net.au/melbourne/stories/s1871580.htm

Comparison: The breakfast radio experiment.

Please note that the following is my own personal opinions and views, they are not intended to harm anyone.

I’ve been raised on Breakfast radio,well about 12 to 13 years worth. Mum decided that morning cartoons were making us late for school and morning TV was replaced by the radio.

We hopped from station to station when they changed the hosts’ or the music became crap, I’m pretty sure we had covered all of the different commercial stations over those years almost twice. These days I’m a Triple M girl, The Cage has been a regular thing for the past year or so, I’ve excluded it from this comparison, its like a good hobby and will probably make me a bit bias or ruin my further listening experience. Another reason is because out of the six major Melbourne commercial FM stations, it’s the rock and sport station and it doesnt compare properly to the other five stations because of this.

For the purpose of this excecise I have chosen to stick with commercial radio, I have my reasons and they are long winded. So after ruling out Triple-M, I considered Gold 104 next, and then realisesed, it’s the solo great classic hits’ focused station, then I ruled out Nova and Fox I don’t find either of them too appealing for some reason, that left me with two stations. Vega 91.5 fm and Mix 101.1 fm, they seem to have similar mottos’ about their music; the eighties, nineties and the naughties, and are both aimed roughly at the 25 to 30+ age group and they even seemed as though they would appeal to parents with primary school aged kids.

Monday morning at about 7.30am I begun picking at the mechanics of the Tracy and Tim show. It was like starting a Monday with a bang we are talking about one very busy show. It was broken up with very short sharp segments of talking, traffic reports, and commercials every 15 minutes, around 2 to 4 songs and a News report every half hour on the half hour or hour even. Their talking bits were very short, perhaps the longest batch of talking went for maybe 5 minutes, and those bits of talk went along the lines of Tracy’s Trash twice, a mini debate, a promotion of a special event and 2 short phone-polls’. It was the kind of show I needed to pay attention to in order to keep up. It would have been perfect for the mums and dads out there with getting the kiddies ready for school, mum and dad could join the laughs of two fellow parents and the kids could have been grooving away to the music. The chemistry of the presenters was perfect, plenty of laughs and they were the contagious kind of laugh. I feel Tracy and Tim might just be the next Grubby and Deedee of the radio world, destined to keep us laughing for the next decade at least. The commercial breaks were about the only major put off, still not nearly as many as Triple M, but other than that, it had a tight colourful format, with plenty of everything, their names, the time, the songs, the station etc. It was a bit of a feel good show.

 

comments and views on some my community radio listening adventure

It is interesting how about 3 weeks ago I wouldn’t have really thought outside of my comfortable safe little box, happily content to just keep watching and listening to the same programs I always would. Not necessarily scared of what I might find outside of that comfort zone, just not feeling the need to change those habits. It was about 1pm on the sweltering hot Saturday just past; I got my copy of the latest green guide and scanned it for something interesting to listen into.

I made my mind up early that it was going to be something from a community station, been the notorious day for the all year season of sport, which I might add does not fascinate me in the slightest . I decided that music shows could also be ruled out format is just songs, and not many stations please my ears often, so anything with a title implying music and of course sport, was crossed out. I’m not religious and I don’t speak Spanish, Italian or German. The choices eliminating themselves before my eyes, that and I wanted something right then and not later. Something did catch my eye, finally, and it wasn’t just that I’d eliminated most other choices it jumped off the page and bit me on the nose. This show was:

HUMAN NATURE on SYN 91.7FM Saturdays’ 1-3pm

I like a good discussion on human psychology from time to time, but it isn’t my most informed subject so it may not be something I chat about often. When I saw the title “Human Nature” I had a pretty good idea that it wasn’t going to have anything to do with the band, and figured hey this might be something interesting indeed. My expectations were that it would be RMIT sociology, philosophy or psychology students, having discussions about human behaviour.

I missed the very beginning so I can’t say much about the initial introduction however I caught the last few minutes of the segment before and they introduced the show accordingly, that helped me confirm that I wasn’t judging the book by its title.

It was a good sign at when I caught the middle of a discussion between the hosts about crude teaching methods. Of course like many discussions in any radio involving talk (e.g. Morning shows on commercial stations, like the Cage on triple M etc) generally stems from a story from the presenter, whether that happened to them or someone they know etc. I’m not sure why, but anecdotes tend to give me the impression of format behind it all, despite the fact it’s just someone telling a story. The topic was medium length in discussion maybe 5 minutes or more and they then opened up for SMS comments from the listeners just before going to a song.

I do believe there was an introduction of the song either before or after it was played. The presenters said who they were and there were even station IDs, I can’t say how much it annoyed me when I used to have my old walkman on, couldn’t see what the station I was listening to and I really wanted to know what I was listening too, if I’m enjoying something I want to know the station, song and host. So I give that gold starsJ.

The shifty volume control mid through a song got my attention, but technical mistakes happen. Unfortunately it happened in every second song played on the program, which was about 6 to 8 songs played in the 2 hour slot. I’m not sure it was accidental or a bit dodgy sounding by the end.

So I’d now established who the presenters were, two young women by the names of Emily and Virginia. (At first I thought maybe one of them was a guest due to an accent either Canadian or American I haven’t ever been very good at telling the accents apart at first hearing) The song had finished and the discussion about crude teachings lasted a few more minutes’ maybe, with the SMSs’ read out etc. The next topic was introduced, and it had something to do with relationships; lessons in love. Well that’s what was introduced. Unfortunately this topic turned into conversation about a date that one of the girls was going on that night, the where to go, how to impress, what to wear, date limits etc. Whilst it had plenty to do with the prospect of relationships it was really only a discussion or conversation even, about the presenter’s date. I felt a bit disappointed by that, but I didn’t give up straight away. Before they fired up another lot of songs they informed us about the upcoming guest speaker who was going to talk about things like the meaning of life.

I missed the beginning of this part, but still caught enough to give me most of the discussion. The speaker was a nurse named Pat. She was talking about varying qualities of life from what she had seen in alcoholic, drug affected or addicted and homeless people. This gave me the impression that Pat was someone who worked in the psychiatric parts of the nursing world. It was interesting insight about the outlooks these kinds of people had of life, she mentioned highs and lows these people often had. Pat then made reference to her past work as a mid-wife which added more interest to the whole quality of life conversation, from the other end of the scale. It drew me back into the show, out of interest and the feel that the format wasn’t actually just ramblings.

After Pat finished and the hosts said there thanks, they mentioned that another guest would join them after some music. I’m not sure I heard a topic introduced but there may have been.

The guest was a bubbly social science student named Carla, I think maybe a classmate of one of the presenters. It kind of led to discussion and reminiscing about a project all 3 of the girls were involved in on a weekend passed about how people react to social interaction with strangers, better term a social experiment. The basis of the project was discussed about how it was getting people to join in for photos. They used the reason of a photography project to engage the strangers, and the discussion went on how it worked well and a lot of people took part enthusiastically. The conversation went on for a while, but really the gist was the same right through, whilst a good form of discussion about human nature it left me disappointed again.

The end of the program approached and then it was mentioned that they were actually taking a break from hosting the show after next week, so it began to explain perhaps why the show was very casual sounding. All in all I expected more, however when I thought about it more I came up with the conclusion, that for a student program it was relatively ok. It’s just a shame I didn’t catch many of their shows before to establish if I had actually got the right book, but got caught in the wrong chapter.

Comments on The Spoon Man

The Spoon Man, real life name Brian Carlton, hosts the late night talk show on commercial radio Triple M, 105.1fm from 9pm to 12am (I think its only a Monday to Thursday due to the weekend sport). I have had a few opportunities to tune into a few of his shows over thepast 8 months. However it was only by chance that I came across the program late Thursday nights whilst trying to cram last minute assignments and assessments. Thursdays are a free for all night, the night when the lines are open to any topic the audience feels they want to bring up for discussion.  It was only last week that I really had the pleasure of listening into one of his general shows, not a Thursday free for all kind of format.
In this blog I wish to comment in particular about the format of the show and the responses from both Spoony and the Callers that ring in. Ok and maybe a little bit about what seems to be his attitude towards things at certain times. Nturally I’ve submitted my opinions too.

A commercial radio station seems to attract a very interesting crowd of people, mainly people who probably prefer listening to music and the antics or  conversations of B or C grade celebrities, eg TV personalities and comedians. It was a bit unexpected that such a show like this existed on a commercial station, refreshing even.  At the beginning of the show Spoony  makes it very clear that he is opinionated and may touch on issues in the media with some of his opinions, informing the commercial listener audience how some of his views may be taken as offensive.  Good call by the Spoony and the station, I chose to listen to commercial radio for the music, which I’m sure many others would have, so I like the fact that I’m warned on what in a round about way I might expect. I could imagine that there would be an audience that would be a little irate, but will with-hold my comments on them.  I have really grown to like the program, whilst I’m not a big one for organized listening sessions of anything, or watching much TV either, I find it to be pretty fascinating. It’s even kind of refreshing hearing this kind of show on Triple M, it does spark the beginning of my interest to start listening to talk back radio shows, but in a one step at a time kind of way.

Unfortunately I missed the actual format of the show aired on Tuesday 13th of Feb 07, so when I did switch my radio on I got to a free for all callers segment, does make it a little tricky to figure out what the hot topics were. However from what times I have listened to the show, I can tell that he starts the show with a current media briefing in his own words  with some opinions added in, and from that, he selects about 3 or more, hot topics’ from the day then proceeds to open the lines for discussion for one topic at a time. The show I had pleasure of listening to last week included topics’ about the environment and the housing affordability crisis.

It’ s interesting the different kinds of stories opinions and sometimes heated debates between Spoony and the Caller. He might seem even a little controversial, but that’s probably more of his general audience perception of him. I don’t tend to find him to be too controversial at all, highly opinionated and passionate about the stuff he believes in, or agrees with. Some people do call in and sadly enough they really haven’t thought their cases through, or if they have they’ve looked at it in a one minded way, and have forgotten to take in all the aspects.  In responce to these kind of callers  Spoony gets into, perhaps the best term would be, debates. Overall though he challenges the commercial listening audience to think and be aware a little more, either that or he hangs up (that’s when I sigh relief, some callers really get my motor running high on the what a moron meter).
At times he makes his opinion widely known about his view of the current political situations, which I’m sure attracts just a few of the callers he receives defending their own views on politics. If the caller gave propper thought and research  to the argument, Spoony  listens, is there really any point of listening to those argue about things they havent researched? (you probably deserve to be hung up on really, Brains are good for thinking with.)

I feel the show has a great format being one of the first talk back shows I’ve listened to, I haven’t yet got much to compare it with.  To  summarize I think you’d  probably need nerves of steel to host this kind of show on a commercial radio station  some days, and it appears that Spoony’s got just that.

starting here

hmmm ok so this is a starting post to make things a little more interesting.

I dont nowhere near perfect spelling and grammer, it doesn’t phase me to much as yet, but its a good pre warning if your reading and a bit of anal retentive.

It will improve with time, the words are spelt correct in my head, short hand typing and writing etc is where it slides down hill.

and all that grammar stuff is fail. Never been brilliant at the concepts of grammar.

Jargon and interesting catch phrase’s will be used for my more personal, opinionative and reflective blogs.

However note I will also be making notes, comments and reviews even, on some media people. Its a new world of interest for me and well a good medium for some tafe work too. Cant say I have much experience in reviews, but we all have room for improvement. Heres to hoping that they can become nicely polished in the end