taking balthazara to the vets soon, the first time since she's been in my care (a couple of years), nothings wrong i don't think but it'll be good to check her out...
me & spski deflea'd her the other day - 6 weeks or so after the last time - and it's so much easier with two, hilda helped me last time, but if i had 3 arms i could probably do it on my own...
and there are certain tunes i've written that i can't play on my own, and again, three arms would help me out there...
cycling, with both hands on the handlebar and another hand holding the camera...
and they're trying to amputate one of his arms...
oh but hang on....
he was born on april 1st....
is that allowed, doing an april fools on may 31st...?
do the chinese even have april fools?
do you exist Jie-jie?
i hope you do
x
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Monday, May 29, 2006
This to This - come and see it
bank holiday monday and the sun is shining and the rain is falling...
spring...
so anyway i did make it out on friday to see This to This and for the first time i could relax and just watch the play, the music is complete and lovely and nothing rattles in that unpleasant way it did on the first preview...
it's great, it's quite dark, it's funny, it's on until june 17th...
i urge you to go see it my dear readers, it costs around £10, it's on @ the union theatre, 204 union st, SE1, (near to southwark tube)...
drop me a comment if you do intend on going, i might come and and meet you, (if you wish to be met)
x
spring...
so anyway i did make it out on friday to see This to This and for the first time i could relax and just watch the play, the music is complete and lovely and nothing rattles in that unpleasant way it did on the first preview...
it's great, it's quite dark, it's funny, it's on until june 17th...
i urge you to go see it my dear readers, it costs around £10, it's on @ the union theatre, 204 union st, SE1, (near to southwark tube)...
drop me a comment if you do intend on going, i might come and and meet you, (if you wish to be met)
x
Saturday, May 27, 2006
descending to dream place
the first of the 3 photos from sorrento that i posted without any explanation once we were back 10 days or so ago is of the inaccessible stone staircase that leads down from modern sorrento to old, old sorrento...
this is another view of the same thing:
at the bottom of those stairs is a magical looking place that me & dinah could see but not get to... we really, really wanted to walk amongst it...
a few days after we returned i dreamt that we were walking around it, over the stone brdge over the stream that you can see in the picture below... very ordinary dream but very pleasing to get there, i've wanted to go back in my dreams since...
so this morning, after dinah had got up and reluctantly brought me a cup of tea i was dozing in and out of sleep, i had a dream (you know how your dreams are more vivid if you've woken up and then go back to sleep again) that i was in a group of people and we were walking down a stone, spiral staircase, somehow i knew that it was another way down to this place, we were dancing to a 3 rhythm...
i woke up at exactly the right moment for the tea to be the perfect temperature and once i'd arisen i programmed a beat in fruity loops to this same rhythm...
it's become about a minute long so far and i love it... entirely instrumental so far but i have a good feeling that a vocal part is just around the corner...
x
this is another view of the same thing:at the bottom of those stairs is a magical looking place that me & dinah could see but not get to... we really, really wanted to walk amongst it...
a few days after we returned i dreamt that we were walking around it, over the stone brdge over the stream that you can see in the picture below... very ordinary dream but very pleasing to get there, i've wanted to go back in my dreams since...so this morning, after dinah had got up and reluctantly brought me a cup of tea i was dozing in and out of sleep, i had a dream (you know how your dreams are more vivid if you've woken up and then go back to sleep again) that i was in a group of people and we were walking down a stone, spiral staircase, somehow i knew that it was another way down to this place, we were dancing to a 3 rhythm...
i woke up at exactly the right moment for the tea to be the perfect temperature and once i'd arisen i programmed a beat in fruity loops to this same rhythm...
it's become about a minute long so far and i love it... entirely instrumental so far but i have a good feeling that a vocal part is just around the corner...
x
Friday, May 26, 2006
old tunes
i think because i did my tax return way early and without the usual frantic finding of pieces of paper my life has decided i need that frantic experience...
and so, right at this time when my room is at it's maddest, the composition whirlwind having left it's mark, i have to find a piece of paper with some marks written on it for written work and for performance work completed by certain of my students several months ago...
things like this end up being like archealogical digs, sifting through artifacts, dating them, finding a vein of stuff that is close in time to what i want to find, following it...
so of course i'm procrastinating, i've been ridiculously productive what with the music for the play so i'm allowing myself a little more space...
and i'm listening to some of my old tunes, an albums worth of music that i collated and then gave out to a few choice friends (with ears) for their opinions a few years back... by the time i'd got the opinions back i'd moved on from making music in that way (computer - cubase) and was more and more doing music directly with voice & piano so the album project fell away,
i was wondering what music to put on my myspace and i realised to my dismay that i no longer had the tracks from that album, P has kindly given me them in the format i gave them to her back when i was wooing her and now i'm eager to find them in proper uncompressed format... they sound lovely...
so the physical search for the marks is balanced by a search in my computer for these tracks (most of which are inexplicably missing) which throws up some interesting finds... (as does the physical search - in fact, about an hour ago i found a piece of paper with feedback from one of the friends with ears about the album)...
so far my myspace is pretty barren, with a picture and 2 tracks, one of them being harbour walls and the other the intro to This to This which i'm tempted to go and see tonight, (but i'll have to get my skates on if i'm going to)...
so... laters...
x
and so, right at this time when my room is at it's maddest, the composition whirlwind having left it's mark, i have to find a piece of paper with some marks written on it for written work and for performance work completed by certain of my students several months ago...
things like this end up being like archealogical digs, sifting through artifacts, dating them, finding a vein of stuff that is close in time to what i want to find, following it...
so of course i'm procrastinating, i've been ridiculously productive what with the music for the play so i'm allowing myself a little more space...
and i'm listening to some of my old tunes, an albums worth of music that i collated and then gave out to a few choice friends (with ears) for their opinions a few years back... by the time i'd got the opinions back i'd moved on from making music in that way (computer - cubase) and was more and more doing music directly with voice & piano so the album project fell away,
i was wondering what music to put on my myspace and i realised to my dismay that i no longer had the tracks from that album, P has kindly given me them in the format i gave them to her back when i was wooing her and now i'm eager to find them in proper uncompressed format... they sound lovely...
so the physical search for the marks is balanced by a search in my computer for these tracks (most of which are inexplicably missing) which throws up some interesting finds... (as does the physical search - in fact, about an hour ago i found a piece of paper with feedback from one of the friends with ears about the album)...
so far my myspace is pretty barren, with a picture and 2 tracks, one of them being harbour walls and the other the intro to This to This which i'm tempted to go and see tonight, (but i'll have to get my skates on if i'm going to)...
so... laters...
x
Thursday, May 25, 2006
oh yes... the rest of my life
ok, so the music for This to This was delivered earlier this week, the last CD i gave to them yesterday, after seeing the opening night and changing the mixes slightly...
press night is tonight, i'm going to go again to see it on friday night, then maybe once a week for the remainder of the run, it's good, i'm looking forward to seeing it without worrying about the music...
i got my bike back from the menders, it's not quite what it was before the accident but it's much better than afterwards...
and now i'm gradually picking up the rest of my life that i've let drift while the whirlwind of this composition project has swept about me,
i'm marking, and i'm locating previous marking, than i'll be thinking about my longcat trio, getting back in touch with the piano movers who seem to have faded away, getting back in touch with that part of me that plays in nippy's band, (we've got a gig in finsbury park a week today)...
resuming normal service
x
press night is tonight, i'm going to go again to see it on friday night, then maybe once a week for the remainder of the run, it's good, i'm looking forward to seeing it without worrying about the music...
i got my bike back from the menders, it's not quite what it was before the accident but it's much better than afterwards...
and now i'm gradually picking up the rest of my life that i've let drift while the whirlwind of this composition project has swept about me,
i'm marking, and i'm locating previous marking, than i'll be thinking about my longcat trio, getting back in touch with the piano movers who seem to have faded away, getting back in touch with that part of me that plays in nippy's band, (we've got a gig in finsbury park a week today)...
resuming normal service
x
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
structures done
ok so the play opens tonight, the scene change pieces were handed over yesterday morning, (i was on my back from the theatre when the accident happened), so that they could do the tech rehearsal,
the first dress rehearsal is in about an hour and i intend to deliver these 2 last pieces (intro & outro) in time for the second dress rehearsal this afternoon, then go to the dentist and see about this fatlip/tooth business, marking essays while i'm waiting...
i didn't cycle in to work yesterday, i wanted to, but the force of the collision had bent my left pedal out of shape so that it doesn't go round anymore... i'm taking it to the bike shop now, she's going to pay for the repair... when i saw that it was broken yesterday i had a flash of anger that was bouncing around in me all day thereafter...
& i had trouble getting to sleep, a nameless fear wrapped around me in my almost sleep kept making me wake up again...
but physicaly i'm fine, i was wondering where the force of that collision went (she was driving really fast) and it now seems that my pedal took the brunt of it... amazing that that much force was bending my pedal out of shape centimetres away from my foot... my left shoe is looking slightly scuffed...
anyway, i now have the structures of these 2 tunes sorted out, just have to arrange properly within those structures and then pay attention to the sound...
it's been a strange journey, going right in to write these 10 - 15 second pieces all weekend and then having to pan out again to deal with 3-4 minute tunes...
x
the first dress rehearsal is in about an hour and i intend to deliver these 2 last pieces (intro & outro) in time for the second dress rehearsal this afternoon, then go to the dentist and see about this fatlip/tooth business, marking essays while i'm waiting...
i didn't cycle in to work yesterday, i wanted to, but the force of the collision had bent my left pedal out of shape so that it doesn't go round anymore... i'm taking it to the bike shop now, she's going to pay for the repair... when i saw that it was broken yesterday i had a flash of anger that was bouncing around in me all day thereafter...
& i had trouble getting to sleep, a nameless fear wrapped around me in my almost sleep kept making me wake up again...
but physicaly i'm fine, i was wondering where the force of that collision went (she was driving really fast) and it now seems that my pedal took the brunt of it... amazing that that much force was bending my pedal out of shape centimetres away from my foot... my left shoe is looking slightly scuffed...
anyway, i now have the structures of these 2 tunes sorted out, just have to arrange properly within those structures and then pay attention to the sound...
it's been a strange journey, going right in to write these 10 - 15 second pieces all weekend and then having to pan out again to deal with 3-4 minute tunes...
x
Monday, May 22, 2006
hit by a car
my first time,
i was on my bike, i had the right of way on highbury corner roundabout... she didn't see me, & although i did see her it took me a little while to realise that she wasn't going to stop... she had a green light and culd see no cars coming round the roundabout, she saw no reason to slow down...
but i did eventually realise and she did eventually see me so we both took evasive action, which meant that i was shocked, pale & slightly bruised while she drove me home instead of not getting up in a hurry...
i feel well enough to cycle to work now...
highbury roundabout is a dangerous place, i'm going to find a route to work that avoids it...
x
i was on my bike, i had the right of way on highbury corner roundabout... she didn't see me, & although i did see her it took me a little while to realise that she wasn't going to stop... she had a green light and culd see no cars coming round the roundabout, she saw no reason to slow down...
but i did eventually realise and she did eventually see me so we both took evasive action, which meant that i was shocked, pale & slightly bruised while she drove me home instead of not getting up in a hurry...
i feel well enough to cycle to work now...
highbury roundabout is a dangerous place, i'm going to find a route to work that avoids it...
x
Sunday, May 21, 2006
20/22 fat lip
ok, that's all the short ones done... just the intro and outro now... no clue as of this moment but i'm sure something will come...
i woke up this morning with a fat lip, as though someone had punched me... related to the sore front tooth i've had since friday night... still no idea where it came from...
the scifi part of my brain wants to believe that someone stopped time and attacked me at some point on friday night, then cosmetically fixed my face so i wouldn't notice but forgot about the effects of healing that the body does... started time again and put me back in front of my computer writing this music... then gradually i became aware of my front tooth hurting and my body gets to work fixing me, giving me this fat lip and the continuing pain of the tooth...
the scifi part of my brain is but one of many voices trying to make sense of this toothache, i guess i'll be dentisting early next week once all this is done...
x
i woke up this morning with a fat lip, as though someone had punched me... related to the sore front tooth i've had since friday night... still no idea where it came from...
the scifi part of my brain wants to believe that someone stopped time and attacked me at some point on friday night, then cosmetically fixed my face so i wouldn't notice but forgot about the effects of healing that the body does... started time again and put me back in front of my computer writing this music... then gradually i became aware of my front tooth hurting and my body gets to work fixing me, giving me this fat lip and the continuing pain of the tooth...
the scifi part of my brain is but one of many voices trying to make sense of this toothache, i guess i'll be dentisting early next week once all this is done...
x
Saturday, May 20, 2006
14/22
and i'm about to go to the dry cleaners to pick up 4 of my shirts that have been pressed... one for tonight, and 3 that will be ready to wear whenever i wish to...
of the remaining 8 pieces to finish 6 of them are voice ones, tomorrow now for them, and the last 2 are the longer intro and outro pieces... so far all the finished ones have been less than 20 seconds long, the intro & outro will be 3 - 4 minutes long and i'm going to write them tomorrow once i'm done with the short scene change ones...
i'm loving the sound, i'm gradually getting on top of it all, just those scary voice ones tomorrow...
i'm off tonight to see F, whose invited all of us that used to live in kensal rise together (5-6 years ago) to hers... she's getting married in june and i'm playing something at her reception... weddings...
the wedding in sorrento was just beautiful... dress for a spring summer wedding on a terrace in italy... said the invite... hmmmmmmm... x what a place that terrace was...
x
of the remaining 8 pieces to finish 6 of them are voice ones, tomorrow now for them, and the last 2 are the longer intro and outro pieces... so far all the finished ones have been less than 20 seconds long, the intro & outro will be 3 - 4 minutes long and i'm going to write them tomorrow once i'm done with the short scene change ones...
i'm loving the sound, i'm gradually getting on top of it all, just those scary voice ones tomorrow...
i'm off tonight to see F, whose invited all of us that used to live in kensal rise together (5-6 years ago) to hers... she's getting married in june and i'm playing something at her reception... weddings...
the wedding in sorrento was just beautiful... dress for a spring summer wedding on a terrace in italy... said the invite... hmmmmmmm... x what a place that terrace was...
x
8/22
my right ear & my right front tooth are hurting... possibly related... mapped out the major voice ones and they scare me... i love the hammond... still short on sleep since sorrento so i'm going to bed, maybe rising @ 11 for more of the same...
i'm afraid this weekend will look pretty similar to this, a ratio out of 22 and a brief status report... expect several more...
x
i'm afraid this weekend will look pretty similar to this, a ratio out of 22 and a brief status report... expect several more...
x
Friday, May 19, 2006
this to this
being the name of the play...
i've probably lost Hcello for this project... a small possibility that she'll make it round tomorrow afternoon but i have to assume that she won't and then it'll be a pleasant surprise...
and whilst this was a bleak thing this morning, i've managed to rearrange my plans to include a hammond organ instead of her cello, wouldn't have been my first choice but actually it's sounding real nice...
it being a whole different acoustic world to the cello, but a good acoustic world, my voice remains in there, a little more vulnerable without the cello but there none the less... and the hammond being a virtual instrument has led me down an easier path to the piano and i'm currently using my REALPIANO module...
...bizaare aside, the written note that came with my module from the previous owner is currently lying on the floor beneath my keyboard stand - the iceburg effect of my room - it says: R... HAVE FUN WITH THIS BABY, ALL THE BEST, J...
if i have time and if i can i will rerecord the piano parts using an actual piano but this way i have more control and it's great to hear my little module within a whole sound like this one...
so, of the 22 pieces of music i have to write/record, i've finished 3, actually i haven't even finished them, some mastering things to be done when the whole project is recorded - but for the sake of my looking back and organising my present... 3/22 done...
it's going to be a long weekend...
x
i've probably lost Hcello for this project... a small possibility that she'll make it round tomorrow afternoon but i have to assume that she won't and then it'll be a pleasant surprise...
and whilst this was a bleak thing this morning, i've managed to rearrange my plans to include a hammond organ instead of her cello, wouldn't have been my first choice but actually it's sounding real nice...
it being a whole different acoustic world to the cello, but a good acoustic world, my voice remains in there, a little more vulnerable without the cello but there none the less... and the hammond being a virtual instrument has led me down an easier path to the piano and i'm currently using my REALPIANO module...
...bizaare aside, the written note that came with my module from the previous owner is currently lying on the floor beneath my keyboard stand - the iceburg effect of my room - it says: R... HAVE FUN WITH THIS BABY, ALL THE BEST, J...
if i have time and if i can i will rerecord the piano parts using an actual piano but this way i have more control and it's great to hear my little module within a whole sound like this one...
so, of the 22 pieces of music i have to write/record, i've finished 3, actually i haven't even finished them, some mastering things to be done when the whole project is recorded - but for the sake of my looking back and organising my present... 3/22 done...
it's going to be a long weekend...
x
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
sorrento baby
in about half an hour or so i'll be in bed, and then 5 hours later i'll be getting up again... another one of these stupidly early planes...
so a nap or two through the day would be good...
the wedding is at 4...
we have a hotel for the night and then we're flying back late on thursday...
director B came round and heard through the music as it now stands, he's also under alot of pressure, 3 more weeks would have been good he says...
hmmm... maybe i'll take this opportunity to advertise the play... hang on...
there you go... fancy huh?
this is what i'm slaving over right now, converting everything i've done to mp3 so i can take it to italy tomorrow and think about melodies...
x
so a nap or two through the day would be good...
the wedding is at 4...
we have a hotel for the night and then we're flying back late on thursday...
director B came round and heard through the music as it now stands, he's also under alot of pressure, 3 more weeks would have been good he says...
hmmm... maybe i'll take this opportunity to advertise the play... hang on...
there you go... fancy huh?
this is what i'm slaving over right now, converting everything i've done to mp3 so i can take it to italy tomorrow and think about melodies...
x
Monday, May 15, 2006
at it
deep in this busy week now... i've got tonight and tomorrow to write the music, (for the play), wednesday at the crack of dawn we fly to sorrento for the wedding, getting back late on thursday night, teach on friday morning then Hcello is coming round on friday afternoon to record the music, which i then have two more days to finish/record whilst also going out with old friends on the saturday night, to hand the music over on sunday/monday and the play opens on tuesday...
it's taking shape...
i started it in ernest on saturday, the day that i saw sinatra in the evening, to celebrate felinity's birthday, surprising great actually, really nice to see the footage of frank, mostly from that golden period when he was great (the 50's with capital) but a couple of surprises later on, such as a great send in the clowns which must have been 70's...
an obscure bono bit that went on far too long but even that was funny more than it was irritating (particularly afterwords in the pub. felinity's flatmate E really is very funny) so satisfying all in all... lovely to see felinity and her crowd (her G, her flatmates E & K)... dinah came out at the end of the night to have a drink with us too... that lovely girl of mine...
then on sunday, me & dinah had our customery roast @ the amazon and then i set to work once more, biking over to P's for a haircut midway through the afternoon... nice to see her in her new place, right by the river lea,
cycling back i passed abney park cemetary that i'd loved when i first moved to london, my first flat being on the corner of green lanes and stoke newington church street...
i couldn't resist cycling into the cemetary and i drifted around for half an hour or so, taking pictures... really fantastic place, overgrown and centurys old...
and then today i read yet another great short story in manolis's, from that same anthology, this time by kazuo ishiguro, before going to work and now here i am, petting my cat and pondering the play...
x
it's taking shape...
i started it in ernest on saturday, the day that i saw sinatra in the evening, to celebrate felinity's birthday, surprising great actually, really nice to see the footage of frank, mostly from that golden period when he was great (the 50's with capital) but a couple of surprises later on, such as a great send in the clowns which must have been 70's...
an obscure bono bit that went on far too long but even that was funny more than it was irritating (particularly afterwords in the pub. felinity's flatmate E really is very funny) so satisfying all in all... lovely to see felinity and her crowd (her G, her flatmates E & K)... dinah came out at the end of the night to have a drink with us too... that lovely girl of mine...
then on sunday, me & dinah had our customery roast @ the amazon and then i set to work once more, biking over to P's for a haircut midway through the afternoon... nice to see her in her new place, right by the river lea,
cycling back i passed abney park cemetary that i'd loved when i first moved to london, my first flat being on the corner of green lanes and stoke newington church street...
i couldn't resist cycling into the cemetary and i drifted around for half an hour or so, taking pictures... really fantastic place, overgrown and centurys old...and then today i read yet another great short story in manolis's, from that same anthology, this time by kazuo ishiguro, before going to work and now here i am, petting my cat and pondering the play...
x
Friday, May 12, 2006
crazy
gnarls barkley... just stumbled across him on youtube... that tune... crazy... just fantastic, i hope the album's as good...
brings godma G to mind, somehow,
felt a little scared today, just a tremor, to do with feeling manic, a hangover from attacking dinah in my sleep the other week...
really didn't want to leave dinah this morning in bed but i managed to, raced into work for my 1.5 hours of teaching then headed up to pointblank to sign a contract... getting home with no real clue as to what to do...
not unpleasant, very hot day...
hmmm
not much to say to y'all, i am a cat...
x
brings godma G to mind, somehow,
felt a little scared today, just a tremor, to do with feeling manic, a hangover from attacking dinah in my sleep the other week...
really didn't want to leave dinah this morning in bed but i managed to, raced into work for my 1.5 hours of teaching then headed up to pointblank to sign a contract... getting home with no real clue as to what to do...
not unpleasant, very hot day...
hmmm
not much to say to y'all, i am a cat...
x
Thursday, May 11, 2006
the Day of the Cat
actually the day after the Day of the Kat but i'll let that go...
i saw felinity tonight after my work, she who had been drifting around not working while i was working.... reversal of things...
we met in green park by the canada memorial, the second time in the last month or so that i've shared it with other people, (the first time was that great cycling day with hilda & spski), and we dipped our feet into the rippling water, something that it has never occurred to me to do...
i set my camera up for another of my slowing bicycle wheel videos and went off to buy lollies while she lay down and gazed at the trees... altogether utopian... her birthday was yesterday and she very sensibly took these two days off work...
we eventually ambled up to waterstones on picadilly (the simpsons building) where we had tea & cake (although not in such high style as claridges where her & G had been yesterday) before idly looking for books for her present... eventually i got her the virgin suicides (her choice) and kitchen by banana yoshimoto (my choice) and i couldn't resist i am a cat by soseki natsume for myself... which came to more than her two together - which is often the way with buying presents... and which provides us with the title of todays post, taken from this line:
For surely even human beings will not flourish forever. I think it best to wait in patience for the Day of the Cats.
it is my next book, having finished amanda & the 11 million high dancer last night, oh and i read a great short story today in manolis's, the lotus by jean rhys... that collection of shortstories he has in there is stuffed full of good ones...
anyway back to tonight, we ate in Getti's just along from the back entrance of Waterstones, quite pricey for not much food, but tasty...
after i dropped her at the tube i went over to somerset house to check out how easy it is to get to that high place i mentioned before... whether it was a fluke of that day or whether the way is open all the time...
which meant that as the light gradually bled out of the sky i was sat on a rooftop overlooking the fountains of somerset house... somewhere i'd like to take dinah - also felinity -
oh and what a joy it was today to have a functioning bicycle... i got it fixed up this morning after yesterday... as i was cycling from here to blackheath... just as i got to the bottom of the isle of dogs, about to go under the grenwich foot tunnel... i got a puncture... and no stuff with me to fix it...
a friendly passing cyclist pumped up my tire for me but it was dead by the time i got to the other side of the river, it just meant i had to walk through grenwich park to blackheath, fortunate that it happened so late in the journey and probably paying for the luck i had last month, getting that drawing pin in the tire and not getting a puncture...
grenwich park was heavenly, this was 6ish and the day was glorious (as was today) and there were so many smiling people strolling along... i felt it even through the slight funk i was in (joycean funk rather than james brown funk) as not only had i got a puncture but i'd also lost the batteries to my camera... it was dangling from my handlebars as i raced down the canal and the battery lid bit had worked it's way open and those batteries flew out before i even noticed... losing recharchables and polluting the canal all in one fell swoop...
and of course once i couldn't use my camera the visual world erupted in perfect pictures... a warehouse frame that was psychedelic, a path in grenwich park lined by trees that give off pink blossom... the path dusted with pink...
i met uncle filmo and we saw a modern classical concert given by ian pace, an excellent pianist, playing stuff by xanakis and finisee (i don't know how he spells his name the second one)... very good, more than a little mad... filmo said a piano string snapped in the xanakis, there was also a piece involving some technology with the piano written by the woman presenting the night - eva... somebody, based, it seems, on the novels of juan rolfo... whose pedro paramo i read a few months back... good stuff, less to filmo's taste but i liked it, intriguing use of technology... the pianist was a kookie guy, strange concert hall mannerisms...
oh and talking of concert hall mannerisms i met skinnyman in the bike shop this morning, he of the conscious lyrics UK hiphop... often does stuff for the stop the war demos... certain of my students have told me he's great, nice fella, council estate of mind is his latest album, he said to download it and then if i liked it to give money to wateraid...
groovy cat...
x
i saw felinity tonight after my work, she who had been drifting around not working while i was working.... reversal of things...
we met in green park by the canada memorial, the second time in the last month or so that i've shared it with other people, (the first time was that great cycling day with hilda & spski), and we dipped our feet into the rippling water, something that it has never occurred to me to do...i set my camera up for another of my slowing bicycle wheel videos and went off to buy lollies while she lay down and gazed at the trees... altogether utopian... her birthday was yesterday and she very sensibly took these two days off work...
we eventually ambled up to waterstones on picadilly (the simpsons building) where we had tea & cake (although not in such high style as claridges where her & G had been yesterday) before idly looking for books for her present... eventually i got her the virgin suicides (her choice) and kitchen by banana yoshimoto (my choice) and i couldn't resist i am a cat by soseki natsume for myself... which came to more than her two together - which is often the way with buying presents... and which provides us with the title of todays post, taken from this line:
For surely even human beings will not flourish forever. I think it best to wait in patience for the Day of the Cats.
it is my next book, having finished amanda & the 11 million high dancer last night, oh and i read a great short story today in manolis's, the lotus by jean rhys... that collection of shortstories he has in there is stuffed full of good ones...
anyway back to tonight, we ate in Getti's just along from the back entrance of Waterstones, quite pricey for not much food, but tasty...
after i dropped her at the tube i went over to somerset house to check out how easy it is to get to that high place i mentioned before... whether it was a fluke of that day or whether the way is open all the time...
which meant that as the light gradually bled out of the sky i was sat on a rooftop overlooking the fountains of somerset house... somewhere i'd like to take dinah - also felinity -oh and what a joy it was today to have a functioning bicycle... i got it fixed up this morning after yesterday... as i was cycling from here to blackheath... just as i got to the bottom of the isle of dogs, about to go under the grenwich foot tunnel... i got a puncture... and no stuff with me to fix it...
a friendly passing cyclist pumped up my tire for me but it was dead by the time i got to the other side of the river, it just meant i had to walk through grenwich park to blackheath, fortunate that it happened so late in the journey and probably paying for the luck i had last month, getting that drawing pin in the tire and not getting a puncture...
grenwich park was heavenly, this was 6ish and the day was glorious (as was today) and there were so many smiling people strolling along... i felt it even through the slight funk i was in (joycean funk rather than james brown funk) as not only had i got a puncture but i'd also lost the batteries to my camera... it was dangling from my handlebars as i raced down the canal and the battery lid bit had worked it's way open and those batteries flew out before i even noticed... losing recharchables and polluting the canal all in one fell swoop...
and of course once i couldn't use my camera the visual world erupted in perfect pictures... a warehouse frame that was psychedelic, a path in grenwich park lined by trees that give off pink blossom... the path dusted with pink...
i met uncle filmo and we saw a modern classical concert given by ian pace, an excellent pianist, playing stuff by xanakis and finisee (i don't know how he spells his name the second one)... very good, more than a little mad... filmo said a piano string snapped in the xanakis, there was also a piece involving some technology with the piano written by the woman presenting the night - eva... somebody, based, it seems, on the novels of juan rolfo... whose pedro paramo i read a few months back... good stuff, less to filmo's taste but i liked it, intriguing use of technology... the pianist was a kookie guy, strange concert hall mannerisms...
oh and talking of concert hall mannerisms i met skinnyman in the bike shop this morning, he of the conscious lyrics UK hiphop... often does stuff for the stop the war demos... certain of my students have told me he's great, nice fella, council estate of mind is his latest album, he said to download it and then if i liked it to give money to wateraid...
groovy cat...
x
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
more videos this world
ok, so a couple of videos today, one more of mine from the elephant on friday... shorter, less steady of the hand but more cheering which frankly is the only thing that i didn't like about the elephant experience... that the great, wet, british public just don't know how to properly cheer a spectacle like that... this being one of the few cheers and that whoop at the beginning being my whoop... (oh how i love my whoop):
2nd elephant video
and then this one which my sister felinity took, presumably on sunday after we'd left, (hurrying back to london to show the elephant to Wfloopy shaman):
spinning bears
these same spinning bears that have been on top of the piano in blewbury for the last 5 or so years... they were on top of the piano when i was performing on saturday night, i sometimes was conscious of them and tried to keep them spinning through the music, other times i let them be...
i've just watched the video i took of the first half of my saturday gig, sadly i forgot to turn the camera on for the second half... the sound is surprisingly good, although still rubbish, for some reason the s's don't come out right and i sound as though i have a lisp... i'm half tempted to put a tune up on youtube put i'm also scared...
my tax rebate came through so yet another briefly poor few days comes to an end... (that is a rubbish sentence)... i may get another camera...
i went over to pointblank today to check out work and i did alot of videoing from my bike, the camera dangling from the handlebars or from my arm... a particularly mad genre of footage gathering that may prove just too damn mad to use, but i'm gathering it anyway...
so anyway i was cycling along the canal and i passed another cyclist who put out his hand just in front of my face then took it back... to scare me i guess... dumb behaviour... i started muttering to myself about how it takes both kinds of people to make this world and gradually, over the course of my journey (which included picking up my new trial contact lenses... wahey...) that sentence became the beginnings of a song...
so that was nice...
x
2nd elephant video
and then this one which my sister felinity took, presumably on sunday after we'd left, (hurrying back to london to show the elephant to Wfloopy shaman):
spinning bears
these same spinning bears that have been on top of the piano in blewbury for the last 5 or so years... they were on top of the piano when i was performing on saturday night, i sometimes was conscious of them and tried to keep them spinning through the music, other times i let them be...
i've just watched the video i took of the first half of my saturday gig, sadly i forgot to turn the camera on for the second half... the sound is surprisingly good, although still rubbish, for some reason the s's don't come out right and i sound as though i have a lisp... i'm half tempted to put a tune up on youtube put i'm also scared...
my tax rebate came through so yet another briefly poor few days comes to an end... (that is a rubbish sentence)... i may get another camera...
i went over to pointblank today to check out work and i did alot of videoing from my bike, the camera dangling from the handlebars or from my arm... a particularly mad genre of footage gathering that may prove just too damn mad to use, but i'm gathering it anyway...
so anyway i was cycling along the canal and i passed another cyclist who put out his hand just in front of my face then took it back... to scare me i guess... dumb behaviour... i started muttering to myself about how it takes both kinds of people to make this world and gradually, over the course of my journey (which included picking up my new trial contact lenses... wahey...) that sentence became the beginnings of a song...
so that was nice...
x
Monday, May 08, 2006
Sunday, May 07, 2006
sultan's elephant
No words...
pure poetry...
video of the elephant
i so wanted to shake each of these performers hands..
x
pure poetry...
video of the elephant
i so wanted to shake each of these performers hands..x
Thursday, May 04, 2006
spaceship
so much cycling in the last couple of days, down to clapham to see felinity last night, (back via chelsea bridge, heavenly in the dark)... 
then to work in hammersmith today, back via town to see the spaceship... getting fit it seems.. the spaceship is on waterloo place... where the elephant will be showing itself @ 1 tomorrow...x
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
self assessed one of two things
this is the future...
today being the 2nd of may, i've just completed and submitted my tax return... online... (as i did just over 3 months ago for the first time)...
and yes, that is right, i did last years tax return only 3 months ago... and yet here i am doing my tax return now?
it has been my practise over the last... i don't know, 5 years or so, to do my tax return at the absolute latest moment... jan 31st...
it has always represented a deeply stressful week or so...
but NO... not now...
this IS the future... oh yes ladies and gentlemen i have struck out into the new...
short of cash you see, and i need my refund now...
and also this online business is so much more straightforward...
anyway, reluctant DIYing aho... (the other thing)
x
today being the 2nd of may, i've just completed and submitted my tax return... online... (as i did just over 3 months ago for the first time)...
and yes, that is right, i did last years tax return only 3 months ago... and yet here i am doing my tax return now?
it has been my practise over the last... i don't know, 5 years or so, to do my tax return at the absolute latest moment... jan 31st...
it has always represented a deeply stressful week or so...
but NO... not now...
this IS the future... oh yes ladies and gentlemen i have struck out into the new...
short of cash you see, and i need my refund now...
and also this online business is so much more straightforward...
anyway, reluctant DIYing aho... (the other thing)
x
Monday, May 01, 2006
beltane bluebell vistas
it's quarter to three... there's noone in the place... just you & me...
me & dinah at 2:45 last night, listening to frank sinatra just before bed...
waking up & breakfasting @ manolis's before getting the train over to kew gardens...
going to kew on or around may 1st has been something i've done or thought about doing for years now, (as documented in this post after last may's kew visit), the bluebells are in their element right now...
i'd left my camera at home by accident and i like the freedom this gave me, and the more direct experience of kew, though i'd like to go back with a camera... much to take pictures of...
it's such a visual experience, happening on one of the vistas, suddenly the trees open out and form a wide channel... beautiful... i really love the way it's planned out, vistas...
shortly after we arrived we decided to take a ride on a cart pulled by working horses... drey horses if you will, heavy, big fella's... it turned out we were the only takers so we had a private trip, just us in the back and the couple up front, another guy shovelling the occassional shit... the sunlight just beginning to break through the clouds... my beautiful girl and me...
we found the bluebells, swathing the ground, and we wandered about gazing at the trees... it turns out you can go up the pagoda these days, not today, but in the summer, we went in the palm house, 1840's designed and built,
our meanderings ending with tea/mocha & cake, dinah leaving to go to work and me remaining... producer G had emailed me a recording of last weeks gig and i'd put it on my shuffle before we left today... once dinah had left i put it in my ears and wandered...
good to listen to it, my performance ropey where i thought it had been ropey but good in general, good to lay to rest the fears i'd had about being terrible, whilst being realistic about my shortcomings...
i stayed @ kew for a good couple of hours after dinah had gone, just the perfect place, by now the sun was out, casting long shadows, warming... my shuffle in my ears, listening to all kinds of music, salif keita remixed, miles davis remixed, (a spacey version of in a silent way while i gazed at the temperate house and it's geometric perfection... made me want to get hold of the original album)...
walking aound and experiencing that visual world that has built up over the last 200 years or more, appreciating the layout of some designer hundreds of years ago...
a temple high on a mound, surrounded on all sides by undergrowth, unreachable...
a strange building with only one room, full of graffiti, really made me think of the leopard, burt lancaster and the faded glory of his once vibrant aristocratic life...
oh and my curtains almost fell down, more reluctant DIYing ahead...
x
me & dinah at 2:45 last night, listening to frank sinatra just before bed...
waking up & breakfasting @ manolis's before getting the train over to kew gardens...
going to kew on or around may 1st has been something i've done or thought about doing for years now, (as documented in this post after last may's kew visit), the bluebells are in their element right now...
i'd left my camera at home by accident and i like the freedom this gave me, and the more direct experience of kew, though i'd like to go back with a camera... much to take pictures of...
it's such a visual experience, happening on one of the vistas, suddenly the trees open out and form a wide channel... beautiful... i really love the way it's planned out, vistas...
shortly after we arrived we decided to take a ride on a cart pulled by working horses... drey horses if you will, heavy, big fella's... it turned out we were the only takers so we had a private trip, just us in the back and the couple up front, another guy shovelling the occassional shit... the sunlight just beginning to break through the clouds... my beautiful girl and me...
we found the bluebells, swathing the ground, and we wandered about gazing at the trees... it turns out you can go up the pagoda these days, not today, but in the summer, we went in the palm house, 1840's designed and built,
our meanderings ending with tea/mocha & cake, dinah leaving to go to work and me remaining... producer G had emailed me a recording of last weeks gig and i'd put it on my shuffle before we left today... once dinah had left i put it in my ears and wandered...
good to listen to it, my performance ropey where i thought it had been ropey but good in general, good to lay to rest the fears i'd had about being terrible, whilst being realistic about my shortcomings...
i stayed @ kew for a good couple of hours after dinah had gone, just the perfect place, by now the sun was out, casting long shadows, warming... my shuffle in my ears, listening to all kinds of music, salif keita remixed, miles davis remixed, (a spacey version of in a silent way while i gazed at the temperate house and it's geometric perfection... made me want to get hold of the original album)...
walking aound and experiencing that visual world that has built up over the last 200 years or more, appreciating the layout of some designer hundreds of years ago...
a temple high on a mound, surrounded on all sides by undergrowth, unreachable...
a strange building with only one room, full of graffiti, really made me think of the leopard, burt lancaster and the faded glory of his once vibrant aristocratic life...
oh and my curtains almost fell down, more reluctant DIYing ahead...
x
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