fernando pessoa, somewhere in the book of disquiet compares human beings with cats lying around in the sun, he's not within reach just now so i can't quote it, but it's a notion i like, and i've been thinking about it a little recently because i've been lying around in the sun... not normally something i like, a shy away from direct sunlight usually, but cycling around has got my skin a little used to the glare and somehow i feel a little more bold these days, (just in time to get skin cancer, sensible)...
anyway, i've been teaching the past two days, doing improvisation workshops which i love, i left work yesterday and cycled down by the river, happy because of the beautiful summer's day and because of the work i'd done, i'm good at it, and it's pleasing to do things you're good at.
i crossed the river and cycled slowly up to russell square where i lay down under the tree i've come to love in the past month... actually brunswick square, the one directly outside the renoir cinema...
gazing up at the sky through the many and varied branches of this huge, huge tree, having worked well, having cycled through the early evening streets, not bad at all...
then today i cycled into work and realised that i'd left my lights at home and i was doing a recording session tonight after work, and so returning home after dark, i also had to pick up a heavy load of marking which i couoldn't fit onto my bike so in the end i left the bike there and came home by tube, after the session, (which was groovy, another improvised thing set up by G),
on the tube i chatted with M, ex-student, now fellow teacher, lovely guitarist, lives in crouch end, when we got off at finsbury park he got on a bus, i started walking home...
i saw a flash of lightning followed by thunder a while afterwards, the storm a long way off, i found myself sad that the storm wasn't right on top of me, some odd desire to be consumed by it... then after the next flash the big raindrops started to fall, all at once, the rain getting harder and harder within moments, i walked down the middle of the streets so as not to be sheltered, as i got to my door the worst of it was over and it was easing off...
i was very wet...
sometimes i just love being rained on x
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Saturday, June 25, 2005
loving
loving justine by lawrence durrell, this, the second time round the block for me & the alexandria quartet, just fantastic writing...
and i'm loving chet baker, soulseek has been busy all day bringing me truckloads of the man, i'm still looking for the last great concert which i heard the first time i ever did special K with a couple of trumpeters from my bluesband workshop years ago, the floor bending at wierd angles and chet's scarred, beautiful voice floating over strings and a sea of tenderness...
chet, from handsome baby-faced innocent vulnerable to haggard beaten up junkie vulnerable... hmmmmmm, yes please...
and a tiny sketch of my afternoon, coming back from waitrose, crossing over that big road in the one way bit there, the next set of lights just changing, having plenty of time to get accross and appreciating the moment, cars accelerating towards me...
x
and i'm loving chet baker, soulseek has been busy all day bringing me truckloads of the man, i'm still looking for the last great concert which i heard the first time i ever did special K with a couple of trumpeters from my bluesband workshop years ago, the floor bending at wierd angles and chet's scarred, beautiful voice floating over strings and a sea of tenderness...
chet, from handsome baby-faced innocent vulnerable to haggard beaten up junkie vulnerable... hmmmmmm, yes please...
and a tiny sketch of my afternoon, coming back from waitrose, crossing over that big road in the one way bit there, the next set of lights just changing, having plenty of time to get accross and appreciating the moment, cars accelerating towards me...
x
Friday, June 24, 2005
muse or familiar
after my few nights away last weekend balthazara stopped sleeping with me, curious how much i like her coming in to my room after i've turned my light out, demanding attention then keeping watch while i fall asleep...
so last night i wooed her back again, which makes it seem like i had something to do with it, independent minded as all cats she just came of her own accord, (jamaica?)
and today she's been patiently following me around while i do things, watching intently as i knitted earlier, lying behind me as i play the piano...
i'm gluing the nice thing i wrote yesterday onto the thing i've been writing for the past week or so, had to move one of them to fit the other and i need something else i think to marry them but it's going well, i love writing music...
and i did see felinity & dad last night, met them by marylebone station, once more i'd cycled down the regent canal, we ate in a really nice indian restaurant and then i cycled home slightly drunkenly along the now dark canal, about ten so a little bit of light left in the sky, my first night time london cycle... the world is now my oyster, just have to get a bag to sling over my shoulder and i'm mobile cycling man at all hours of the day or night...
x
so last night i wooed her back again, which makes it seem like i had something to do with it, independent minded as all cats she just came of her own accord, (jamaica?)
and today she's been patiently following me around while i do things, watching intently as i knitted earlier, lying behind me as i play the piano...
i'm gluing the nice thing i wrote yesterday onto the thing i've been writing for the past week or so, had to move one of them to fit the other and i need something else i think to marry them but it's going well, i love writing music...
and i did see felinity & dad last night, met them by marylebone station, once more i'd cycled down the regent canal, we ate in a really nice indian restaurant and then i cycled home slightly drunkenly along the now dark canal, about ten so a little bit of light left in the sky, my first night time london cycle... the world is now my oyster, just have to get a bag to sling over my shoulder and i'm mobile cycling man at all hours of the day or night...
x
Thursday, June 23, 2005
quick before i run out the door
went over to the landlords to play the piano, started something new, cut short by a phone call from J no longer @ college, we met for a swift couple of gins in the fusilier & fullback (i think) off stroud green road and then i ran out for loo roll, now i'm running off to meet felinity & dad for a bite to eat after the cricket match that they're watching now...
x
x
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
kittens sudoku
two memes i got infected with at home in blewbury, if memes they can be called?
sudoku my dad showed me, the 9 x 9 grid made up of 9 (3 x 3) grids, where each row, each collumn and each (3 x 3) grid must have the numbers 1 - 9 in them... i cut my teeth on a couple at home and then felinity's flatmate E had a book full of them which she obligingly ripped in half, giving me the easy to medium difficulty ones, retaining the difficult and the super-difficult ones herself, i've so far done ten of the medium ones and i want more difficulty...
and kittens, not really a meme, one of the many subjects of the videos that we watched while in blewbury and i've put a tiny video up here set to bud powells piano... filmed from the tv onto my little camera, so odd quality, with the music it has a certain 1940's air to it i think, only 14 seconds so far, may expand it... it loops well, can't work out which litter it is but they are from about 1989 and are one of a few pedigree litters of kittens that silky bore, each kitten with a name starting with A in the first litter, B in the second.., Dixie who still lives at home with mum & dad was from the fourth litter, Honey being the other feline resident of that house now, also a daughter of silky but not pedigree so not the same naming system...
i saw auntie E today, went round to hers & her H was there, we shared some cold white wine and chatted while assorted kids / grandkids / other people's kids came in one by one in various states of wet to soaking, in amongst an escalating war of water between the late teens early twenties and the under 6's... traditional summer fun... E asked after josiah, neighbours as they once were, part of the extensive network of friends josiah had up here before she moved and which she's gradually building up down there...
oh and i got a random phonecall from S (percussionist of kyo) because he was working locally and we met up in finsbury park for his lunch hour, i heard his many stories, told a few of mine, always lovely to see him, been too long...
x
sudoku my dad showed me, the 9 x 9 grid made up of 9 (3 x 3) grids, where each row, each collumn and each (3 x 3) grid must have the numbers 1 - 9 in them... i cut my teeth on a couple at home and then felinity's flatmate E had a book full of them which she obligingly ripped in half, giving me the easy to medium difficulty ones, retaining the difficult and the super-difficult ones herself, i've so far done ten of the medium ones and i want more difficulty...
and kittens, not really a meme, one of the many subjects of the videos that we watched while in blewbury and i've put a tiny video up here set to bud powells piano... filmed from the tv onto my little camera, so odd quality, with the music it has a certain 1940's air to it i think, only 14 seconds so far, may expand it... it loops well, can't work out which litter it is but they are from about 1989 and are one of a few pedigree litters of kittens that silky bore, each kitten with a name starting with A in the first litter, B in the second.., Dixie who still lives at home with mum & dad was from the fourth litter, Honey being the other feline resident of that house now, also a daughter of silky but not pedigree so not the same naming system...
i saw auntie E today, went round to hers & her H was there, we shared some cold white wine and chatted while assorted kids / grandkids / other people's kids came in one by one in various states of wet to soaking, in amongst an escalating war of water between the late teens early twenties and the under 6's... traditional summer fun... E asked after josiah, neighbours as they once were, part of the extensive network of friends josiah had up here before she moved and which she's gradually building up down there...
oh and i got a random phonecall from S (percussionist of kyo) because he was working locally and we met up in finsbury park for his lunch hour, i heard his many stories, told a few of mine, always lovely to see him, been too long...
x
Monday, June 20, 2005
solstice full moon? big old cycle journey
tomorrow is the summer solstice, when does the moon become full? is it tonight? is it tomorrow? celestial concurrence that would be huh?
so i just watched stonehenge live on tv, channel 5 put it together so it was a bit rubbish but it was also informative, a nice idea putting polystyrene copies of each of the stones in a complete stonehenge in the position relative to the sun now comparable to the sun then...
i would love to see the sunrise tomorrow morning through it... i wonder if they've got some kind of webcam... hang on... chance would be a fine thing...
channel 5, you could be so organised, but you're not...
in other news... i woke up this morning @ felinity's house in tooting, a favour to deliver her bike to a bikeshop because i wasn't working today, after which i returned to hers for my own little £10 fella, met with felinity for lunch and then cycled from south to north london... over battersea bridge, through some quiet back streets over to kensington gardens where i sat under a tree for a little while, eventually finding my way under the westway to the regents canal, this the third time i've cycled along it recently, (fourth if you include the stretch on the other side of islington), i video'd the ride along the canal and returned home a couple of hours after setting off.. the longest london cycle ride i've ever done, maybe the longest cycle ride?
the stretch along the canal is so lovely and so brief, i get from edgware road to caledonian road in about 15 minutes, of course i could just go slower, the water runnnig beside you, the way you feel so inside and yet behind london... i wish there was a canal going from here to work, how nice my life would be, (maybe i could cycle to hammersmith along that canal?)...
anyway, huge journey done i collapsed into a heap on my bed and took a good few hours to recover, not the fittest yet, and probably red faced tomorrow, all that noonday sun,
going to a posh do being put on by my college tomorrow, an appraisal of a course working with excluded / almost excluded kids we did a few years ago, lots of bigwigs there in theory, as a tutor i was only invited at the last minute, politics more than teaching being the focus, but it will be nice to check out what the various speakers have to say two of which i've worked quite closely with outside of my college,
ah the brain i don't have, will post a picture of my first completed knitting pattern that i finished just as we got to felinity's last night, mum & dad dropping us off with our bikes and a few tomato plants, i realise i haven't spoken about the weekend which was so beautiful i can't talk about it, maybe later... i can feel the heat beginning to rise from my skin, must sort out some sun cream...
x
so i just watched stonehenge live on tv, channel 5 put it together so it was a bit rubbish but it was also informative, a nice idea putting polystyrene copies of each of the stones in a complete stonehenge in the position relative to the sun now comparable to the sun then...
i would love to see the sunrise tomorrow morning through it... i wonder if they've got some kind of webcam... hang on... chance would be a fine thing...
channel 5, you could be so organised, but you're not...
in other news... i woke up this morning @ felinity's house in tooting, a favour to deliver her bike to a bikeshop because i wasn't working today, after which i returned to hers for my own little £10 fella, met with felinity for lunch and then cycled from south to north london... over battersea bridge, through some quiet back streets over to kensington gardens where i sat under a tree for a little while, eventually finding my way under the westway to the regents canal, this the third time i've cycled along it recently, (fourth if you include the stretch on the other side of islington), i video'd the ride along the canal and returned home a couple of hours after setting off.. the longest london cycle ride i've ever done, maybe the longest cycle ride?
the stretch along the canal is so lovely and so brief, i get from edgware road to caledonian road in about 15 minutes, of course i could just go slower, the water runnnig beside you, the way you feel so inside and yet behind london... i wish there was a canal going from here to work, how nice my life would be, (maybe i could cycle to hammersmith along that canal?)...
anyway, huge journey done i collapsed into a heap on my bed and took a good few hours to recover, not the fittest yet, and probably red faced tomorrow, all that noonday sun,
going to a posh do being put on by my college tomorrow, an appraisal of a course working with excluded / almost excluded kids we did a few years ago, lots of bigwigs there in theory, as a tutor i was only invited at the last minute, politics more than teaching being the focus, but it will be nice to check out what the various speakers have to say two of which i've worked quite closely with outside of my college,
ah the brain i don't have, will post a picture of my first completed knitting pattern that i finished just as we got to felinity's last night, mum & dad dropping us off with our bikes and a few tomato plants, i realise i haven't spoken about the weekend which was so beautiful i can't talk about it, maybe later... i can feel the heat beginning to rise from my skin, must sort out some sun cream...
x
Saturday, June 18, 2005
past lives knitting
@ home on this scorching hot day, shortly to go off cycling in the oxfordshire countryside, sadly without felinity whose bike we unearthed in the garage and the back brake is broken, the local towns bike shop not able to fix it today...
but felinity has shown me (reminded me) how to knit, and i've begun a square, at this point it's gone wrong several times but my next one should be better... i have no idea if i'll coninue knitting without the presence of felinity but it was a nice, surreal experience this afternoon (as she pointed out), sitting side by side knitting away in the garden...
when i was 15 i submitted a composition for GCSE music on tape, we recorded it using mum's video camera and i wanted to find it amongst the video tapes from back then... so mum got out the box of video tapes and we've spent altogether too long looking at video footage from '89 and '92, lots of shots of siamese kittens falling over each other, my really long hair and spotty face, felinity progressing from bubbly 9 year old to shyer self conscious 12 year old, her 9th birthday party with me providing the music for musical statues and musical islands... three different tapes indicative of my 15 year old music tastes: five star, jean michel jarre, queen... and the fantastic birthday present i got her which was an elephant hand puppet that she still has (in her room here)...
ok, bike awaits, maybe some old friends at the pub tonight if i'm lucky x
but felinity has shown me (reminded me) how to knit, and i've begun a square, at this point it's gone wrong several times but my next one should be better... i have no idea if i'll coninue knitting without the presence of felinity but it was a nice, surreal experience this afternoon (as she pointed out), sitting side by side knitting away in the garden...
when i was 15 i submitted a composition for GCSE music on tape, we recorded it using mum's video camera and i wanted to find it amongst the video tapes from back then... so mum got out the box of video tapes and we've spent altogether too long looking at video footage from '89 and '92, lots of shots of siamese kittens falling over each other, my really long hair and spotty face, felinity progressing from bubbly 9 year old to shyer self conscious 12 year old, her 9th birthday party with me providing the music for musical statues and musical islands... three different tapes indicative of my 15 year old music tastes: five star, jean michel jarre, queen... and the fantastic birthday present i got her which was an elephant hand puppet that she still has (in her room here)...
ok, bike awaits, maybe some old friends at the pub tonight if i'm lucky x
Friday, June 17, 2005
24 done canal cycling
finally watched the last few episodes of 24, great tv, shamelessly hero worshipping by the end but i accept it... 24 doesn't have the wonderful, freer, truer intricacy of six feet under or the sopranos, and it's second and third series were quite ropy...
but this fourth series kicked some ass and i'm pleased i caught it...
i'm off to blewbury (parents) for the weekend shortly, with felinity, she's going to bring back her bike with her, so i'm taking mine with me, which means a lovely cycle ride along the regent canal, going past london zoo, funnily enough i did some of it in reverse this afternoon on one of my random cycle oddysey's after work... i just hope my bike will fit on the train @ rush hour...
x
but this fourth series kicked some ass and i'm pleased i caught it...
i'm off to blewbury (parents) for the weekend shortly, with felinity, she's going to bring back her bike with her, so i'm taking mine with me, which means a lovely cycle ride along the regent canal, going past london zoo, funnily enough i did some of it in reverse this afternoon on one of my random cycle oddysey's after work... i just hope my bike will fit on the train @ rush hour...
x
Thursday, June 16, 2005
why do all the beautiful women get off at highbury & islington?
obviously not a general rule, it's just happened too many times to not mention it... i think it's about affluence...
now i cycle more, my experience of the tube is thrown into sharper relief, i still feel very much at home down there, even as i embrace the wonderfully healthy feeling of cycling, a news item last night quoted a report that said it is more hygienic to wipe your hand around the inside of a toilet bowl, than to wipe it on a seat on the london underground...
so i was coming home tonight, after a vegetarian meal with L @ mildred's, good food, but too often a bit bland... bizaare how they can make such wonderful ingredients loose their taste...? i'm being overly harsh because i've eaten really well in there often, but a few times now i've been a little disapointed by the taste... anyway, coming home, reading justine by lawrence durrell, i look up and there is an attractive woman sat opposite me, she looks at me, i look at her, that's all,
i'm still reading as we pull into highbury and islington and i already know that she's going to get off at this stop, too well dressed for finsbury park... lo and behold... not that had she got off at my stop i would have spoken to her even... just that slight almost flirt... not to be...
i was reading justine on the train yesterday on the way to hammersmith, the only work related tube travel i have these days and therefore one of the few times i've been reading... i reached page 66, the prose picking up a pace, the style beginning to add up to something...
but for the most part these alexandrian girls are distinguished from women in other places only by a
mer suit.
page 66 went straight on to page 71...
nonplussed.
this was just as i was getting to work, i was going straight from work to bo's private view, only then to home... potentially two more journeys without the book, unless i just read on from page 71, (like the uncle of i forget who now who only ever read the right hand pages of any book he read, so he could be comfortable lying down and reading), and even though i've read the alexandria quartet of books before there was no way i could do it...
once home last night, a little worse for wear, i read through the appropriate pages in my other (even tattier) copy of the book, i'm back on it today, just met balthazar, namesake of my beautiful balthazara... loving it...
so just a few words about bo's show, the end of her textiles course, i loved her work, i probably would have told her i loved it even if i hadn't but i really did love it... all about her family, a picture of her mum holding her, reprinted as a pattern on cloth, a photo of her grandmothers room that she'd never been in, her installation a recreation of that kind of space... a hanging thin grey material off to one side which bo told me was there so you could look through it at the rest of her work and it made it like an old photograph...
such a coherent piece of work, really nice to see bo so satisfied and surrounded by friends...
x
now i cycle more, my experience of the tube is thrown into sharper relief, i still feel very much at home down there, even as i embrace the wonderfully healthy feeling of cycling, a news item last night quoted a report that said it is more hygienic to wipe your hand around the inside of a toilet bowl, than to wipe it on a seat on the london underground...
so i was coming home tonight, after a vegetarian meal with L @ mildred's, good food, but too often a bit bland... bizaare how they can make such wonderful ingredients loose their taste...? i'm being overly harsh because i've eaten really well in there often, but a few times now i've been a little disapointed by the taste... anyway, coming home, reading justine by lawrence durrell, i look up and there is an attractive woman sat opposite me, she looks at me, i look at her, that's all,
i'm still reading as we pull into highbury and islington and i already know that she's going to get off at this stop, too well dressed for finsbury park... lo and behold... not that had she got off at my stop i would have spoken to her even... just that slight almost flirt... not to be...
i was reading justine on the train yesterday on the way to hammersmith, the only work related tube travel i have these days and therefore one of the few times i've been reading... i reached page 66, the prose picking up a pace, the style beginning to add up to something...
but for the most part these alexandrian girls are distinguished from women in other places only by a
mer suit.
page 66 went straight on to page 71...
nonplussed.
this was just as i was getting to work, i was going straight from work to bo's private view, only then to home... potentially two more journeys without the book, unless i just read on from page 71, (like the uncle of i forget who now who only ever read the right hand pages of any book he read, so he could be comfortable lying down and reading), and even though i've read the alexandria quartet of books before there was no way i could do it...
once home last night, a little worse for wear, i read through the appropriate pages in my other (even tattier) copy of the book, i'm back on it today, just met balthazar, namesake of my beautiful balthazara... loving it...
so just a few words about bo's show, the end of her textiles course, i loved her work, i probably would have told her i loved it even if i hadn't but i really did love it... all about her family, a picture of her mum holding her, reprinted as a pattern on cloth, a photo of her grandmothers room that she'd never been in, her installation a recreation of that kind of space... a hanging thin grey material off to one side which bo told me was there so you could look through it at the rest of her work and it made it like an old photograph...
such a coherent piece of work, really nice to see bo so satisfied and surrounded by friends...
x
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
cycling routes reading blogs meeting as a house
i found it a little odd when i read my own blog from beginning to end, but i've just read someone elses also from beginning to end and it may be indicative of something in my character...
yesterday (sunday... why is it always after midnight when i blog these days?) i slept way too long, did my laundry and then jumped on the £10 bike and headed east...
it was fantastic... i found the new river...
which i've known about for awhile but haven't actually hung out with before... not a cycle path and in fact very bumpy, also circuitous, from the edge of finsbury park where i picked it up, (as though it were a scent), to near enough clissold park it goes in a big arc... not so great for getting places but lovely for seeing london from odd behind angles...
two swan couples, both with signets, the first group younger and more numerous... all bundled on top of each other in a heap,
mum & dad occasionally lifting their heads up from their bodies to look at me in that my neck could break your arm kind of a way...
the second swan couple on the water... only about 5 signets, older than the others, so is that normal? of the heap of younger signets will half of them die by the time they get to the age of these others? or are swan couple A just more fertile than swan couple B?
no idea...
i made it all the way to the river lea (or lee, as my bike map has it offering the choice), a strange concrete area really near where i used to live (in stamfordhill) which used to be some kind of waterworks... now graffiti'd up
and abandoned but for a big crowd of bmx bikers who'd constructed some kind of halfpipe in one of the bays... i felt like a polite older man, (which is what i was, probably),
i say, is the river just over there?
my route taking me through their halfpipe type thing, they encouraging me to go up the sides (my £10 bike not dissimilar to a bmx) but me declining...
then joyfully cycling down the river... crossing over into walthamstow marshes, just happily floating along... eventually get back to the east bank around hackney and found my way back again... through hackney downs, cutting across stoke newington then wending my way back to clissold park where i saw the aftermath of the stoke newington festival...
i stopped in @ the landlords and further refined the piano piece i'm working on, combining right & left hands doing quite tricky things, nice to be challenged by my own composition... then home...
today i changed my route home from work and took in the beautiful highbury new park... tree lined avenue, new plan for tomorrow morning, maybe even include a bit of the canal on my way home?
oh exciting, exciting, exciting... rediscovering london from it's quiet bicyle friendly roads...
saw dr K tonight, we ate @ jai's, i tired to get her to follow the regent canal all the way to hers... beautiful early evening as it was... victoria park, mile end park...
then i came home to a house meeting, long... kind of dull but also good...
x
yesterday (sunday... why is it always after midnight when i blog these days?) i slept way too long, did my laundry and then jumped on the £10 bike and headed east...
it was fantastic... i found the new river...
which i've known about for awhile but haven't actually hung out with before... not a cycle path and in fact very bumpy, also circuitous, from the edge of finsbury park where i picked it up, (as though it were a scent), to near enough clissold park it goes in a big arc... not so great for getting places but lovely for seeing london from odd behind angles...
two swan couples, both with signets, the first group younger and more numerous... all bundled on top of each other in a heap,
mum & dad occasionally lifting their heads up from their bodies to look at me in that my neck could break your arm kind of a way...
the second swan couple on the water... only about 5 signets, older than the others, so is that normal? of the heap of younger signets will half of them die by the time they get to the age of these others? or are swan couple A just more fertile than swan couple B?
no idea...
i made it all the way to the river lea (or lee, as my bike map has it offering the choice), a strange concrete area really near where i used to live (in stamfordhill) which used to be some kind of waterworks... now graffiti'd up
and abandoned but for a big crowd of bmx bikers who'd constructed some kind of halfpipe in one of the bays... i felt like a polite older man, (which is what i was, probably),
i say, is the river just over there?
my route taking me through their halfpipe type thing, they encouraging me to go up the sides (my £10 bike not dissimilar to a bmx) but me declining...
then joyfully cycling down the river... crossing over into walthamstow marshes, just happily floating along... eventually get back to the east bank around hackney and found my way back again... through hackney downs, cutting across stoke newington then wending my way back to clissold park where i saw the aftermath of the stoke newington festival...
i stopped in @ the landlords and further refined the piano piece i'm working on, combining right & left hands doing quite tricky things, nice to be challenged by my own composition... then home...
today i changed my route home from work and took in the beautiful highbury new park... tree lined avenue, new plan for tomorrow morning, maybe even include a bit of the canal on my way home?
oh exciting, exciting, exciting... rediscovering london from it's quiet bicyle friendly roads...
saw dr K tonight, we ate @ jai's, i tired to get her to follow the regent canal all the way to hers... beautiful early evening as it was... victoria park, mile end park...
then i came home to a house meeting, long... kind of dull but also good...
x
Sunday, June 12, 2005
pirates no covers inspiration
went to see the pirates @ chats palace last night (friday night), a production that began it's life right here in this house, three times i think the three performers did bits of it on various of our live events / parties... each time they told a different part of the story, the story of anne bonny & mary read, women pirates...
so on friday night it was really nice to see the whole production, the full story, beginning to end, so many lovely bits, the parachute silk that was our hammock last summer being so many things in this production, hammocks, sails, rigging, mast...
i decided against the covers band in the end, strange enough for me to come round to the idea of joining a covers band... really not right for that band to be the decidedly average one it turned out to be (the snob in me won out), but the whole thing was a kick up the arse for music making in general, i went over to the landlords today for a session on the piano and it came out really well... i started imagining cello and double bass parts through what i was playing on the piano and it prompted me to ring my musicians... so not mine, H answered the phone for once and we've agreed to meet up in a few weeks for a cello piano thing, L in turin until the 19th, that long foreign ring telling me he was abroad before his message told me...
and this after i saw grace & josiah, they came round for cake & tea on their way to witchy godmother's (who i finally showed the video to last week, she almost cried...), me and grace playing swordfights in the back garden & her saying cheers as the sticks hit... more footage for another video soon, which reminds me i must decant some stuff off my limited but fast webspace and onto my much bigger but much slower webspace... i got an mp3 of a track made from the jam on tuesday night today, it sounds lovely, i'll be putting it up there once i've juggled things a little...
oh and me & spski went over to crouch end this afternoon for (my) breakfast/ (his) lunch @ shufdi's, the turkish cypriot version of manolis's, lovely food, then a stooge around the end, wierd oxfam shop, fantastic book shop, marvellous cake shop... even popped into that lovely baby shop to show p-bug the amazing buggy thing that i'm tempted to get grace for her 2nd birthday, the forward motion is produced by turning the steering wheel... fascinating...
oh and honestly, this is the last thing, found two more jane rogers books in prospero's, but the editions they're in, i think it could be one more reason why i still mainly read men, some female authors are published in these really wimpy, nice editions...
anyway, pleased that there is more to devour by her...
x
so on friday night it was really nice to see the whole production, the full story, beginning to end, so many lovely bits, the parachute silk that was our hammock last summer being so many things in this production, hammocks, sails, rigging, mast...
i decided against the covers band in the end, strange enough for me to come round to the idea of joining a covers band... really not right for that band to be the decidedly average one it turned out to be (the snob in me won out), but the whole thing was a kick up the arse for music making in general, i went over to the landlords today for a session on the piano and it came out really well... i started imagining cello and double bass parts through what i was playing on the piano and it prompted me to ring my musicians... so not mine, H answered the phone for once and we've agreed to meet up in a few weeks for a cello piano thing, L in turin until the 19th, that long foreign ring telling me he was abroad before his message told me...
and this after i saw grace & josiah, they came round for cake & tea on their way to witchy godmother's (who i finally showed the video to last week, she almost cried...), me and grace playing swordfights in the back garden & her saying cheers as the sticks hit... more footage for another video soon, which reminds me i must decant some stuff off my limited but fast webspace and onto my much bigger but much slower webspace... i got an mp3 of a track made from the jam on tuesday night today, it sounds lovely, i'll be putting it up there once i've juggled things a little...
oh and me & spski went over to crouch end this afternoon for (my) breakfast/ (his) lunch @ shufdi's, the turkish cypriot version of manolis's, lovely food, then a stooge around the end, wierd oxfam shop, fantastic book shop, marvellous cake shop... even popped into that lovely baby shop to show p-bug the amazing buggy thing that i'm tempted to get grace for her 2nd birthday, the forward motion is produced by turning the steering wheel... fascinating...
oh and honestly, this is the last thing, found two more jane rogers books in prospero's, but the editions they're in, i think it could be one more reason why i still mainly read men, some female authors are published in these really wimpy, nice editions...
anyway, pleased that there is more to devour by her...
x
Thursday, June 09, 2005
from manolis to the pavilion via ally pally
delicious lie-in this morning, thursdays have been restful for awhile now, wierd that fridays will also be holiday too now...
breakfasted @ manolis's, loufkia on the menu for the third time in a row now, things have changed... manolis commenting on the obituary section of a greek paper,
i knew this man, he was in the betting shop all the time, he died a happy man, he got 5 winners then he died...
the waitress:
stupid man, should have got himself a woman..
then i went home, got the bike and set off up the disused, cycling is the new walking, got all the way to the highgate end and i carried on, into queens wood which is fantastic, but very hilly, my present one gear bike was hellish... over into highgate wood where i saw a sign for the newly opened pavilion cafe, (where osho basho used to be), then picking up the disused - parkland walk as they call it, from highgate wood to alexandra palace, a breathtaking view opening up to your right as you do that path, (cycle, walk...) you are so high above london, yet the path is so flat, the climbing comes in between the highgate end of the disused and the highgate wood end of this part...
got within spitting distance of ally pally and then turned round and headed back, stopping in the pavilion cafe for tea and cake (which cost more than my entire brakfast @ manolis's)...
was going to go round to the landlords but i think i'll do that tomorrow now, playing with nippy tonight, gonna pop out to get some milk and maybe just play T's piano for awhile...
x
breakfasted @ manolis's, loufkia on the menu for the third time in a row now, things have changed... manolis commenting on the obituary section of a greek paper,
i knew this man, he was in the betting shop all the time, he died a happy man, he got 5 winners then he died...
the waitress:
stupid man, should have got himself a woman..
then i went home, got the bike and set off up the disused, cycling is the new walking, got all the way to the highgate end and i carried on, into queens wood which is fantastic, but very hilly, my present one gear bike was hellish... over into highgate wood where i saw a sign for the newly opened pavilion cafe, (where osho basho used to be), then picking up the disused - parkland walk as they call it, from highgate wood to alexandra palace, a breathtaking view opening up to your right as you do that path, (cycle, walk...) you are so high above london, yet the path is so flat, the climbing comes in between the highgate end of the disused and the highgate wood end of this part...
got within spitting distance of ally pally and then turned round and headed back, stopping in the pavilion cafe for tea and cake (which cost more than my entire brakfast @ manolis's)...
was going to go round to the landlords but i think i'll do that tomorrow now, playing with nippy tonight, gonna pop out to get some milk and maybe just play T's piano for awhile...
x
duchess deppa solo thoughts
coming home tonight from seeing nippy, cold in my shirt which i left the house in, being a really warm day earlier... walking through the streets near my house as i listened to van morrison, still caught by the magic of astral weeks which had come in so perfectly after the lovely solo piano album by gonzales that had kept me company on the north london line...
so i was walking in the middle of the roads listening to van, appreciating the perspective that that gives me, enjoying turning corners for this visual tickle... and out of the corner of my eye i see a flash of duchess, jumping over a wall at the wrong end of her street...
so i walk over and see her, lock into eye contact, remain motionless for awhile, slowly lowering my eyelids in a friendly hello... she as still as me, a garden away, eventually she breaks the gaze and jumps up to another wall, looks back for a moment then jumps down on the other side, i walk to that corner of the street and i see her disappear over another wall... no wonder i haven't seen her since january if she's been hanging out over here...
and of course maybe it's not duchess, maybe it's another tortoiseshell / calico cat that hangs around the same street that duchess used to, i'll get a picture of this one if i see her again, compare with pictures of duchess from last year when i was writing midnight (or was it the year before that?)...
calico... just discovered on a website where i was checking the spelling of tortoiseshell, because duchess is white mixed with tortoiseshell she is calico...
hmmm...
calico...
also saw the fantastic trumpeter claude deppa on the train today, i sat down next to him and he noticed my keyboard, remarked on the amount of musicians on the train... i recounted to him the occasion when me & D (not fiat) were @ the rhythmic jazz jam, a blinding solo from a tapdancer, what could top that? then the immense sound of a trumpet from off the stage, claude deppa striding towards the stage as he let loose a driving solo...
we talked for awhile about the life of the musician, gigs, money, covers bands, (for that was where i was headed tonight), original material... nice guy, funny i should bump into him today as i spoke to francine earlier who has played with him... me & her still thinking of an exchange of lessons, although she has some other plan now which i'm dying to hear...
spent the day @ hammersmith teaching, also learning the songs we were doing tonight, let's stay together by al green being one of them, such a beautiful song, the chords, his voice...
i don't want to talk too much about the covers band itself, except that it was my first meeting with them and i have mixed feelings about the project... we'll see if i go through with it...
feeling ambivilent about that project contrasted against feeling excited about the notion of recording a solo piano album myself, prompted by how lovely the gonzales album is... who he is i don't know, but the album is right up my street, i'd like to get some money to him if i can, small label, coherent reason for actually buying the album instead of just downloading it...
i could make a habit of going to the landlords and writing some solo piano pieces, aiming for a recording either @ overtones, or just in the landlord's... maybe by the end of the summer...
hmm...
x
so i was walking in the middle of the roads listening to van, appreciating the perspective that that gives me, enjoying turning corners for this visual tickle... and out of the corner of my eye i see a flash of duchess, jumping over a wall at the wrong end of her street...
so i walk over and see her, lock into eye contact, remain motionless for awhile, slowly lowering my eyelids in a friendly hello... she as still as me, a garden away, eventually she breaks the gaze and jumps up to another wall, looks back for a moment then jumps down on the other side, i walk to that corner of the street and i see her disappear over another wall... no wonder i haven't seen her since january if she's been hanging out over here...
and of course maybe it's not duchess, maybe it's another tortoiseshell / calico cat that hangs around the same street that duchess used to, i'll get a picture of this one if i see her again, compare with pictures of duchess from last year when i was writing midnight (or was it the year before that?)...
calico... just discovered on a website where i was checking the spelling of tortoiseshell, because duchess is white mixed with tortoiseshell she is calico...
hmmm...
calico...
also saw the fantastic trumpeter claude deppa on the train today, i sat down next to him and he noticed my keyboard, remarked on the amount of musicians on the train... i recounted to him the occasion when me & D (not fiat) were @ the rhythmic jazz jam, a blinding solo from a tapdancer, what could top that? then the immense sound of a trumpet from off the stage, claude deppa striding towards the stage as he let loose a driving solo...
we talked for awhile about the life of the musician, gigs, money, covers bands, (for that was where i was headed tonight), original material... nice guy, funny i should bump into him today as i spoke to francine earlier who has played with him... me & her still thinking of an exchange of lessons, although she has some other plan now which i'm dying to hear...
spent the day @ hammersmith teaching, also learning the songs we were doing tonight, let's stay together by al green being one of them, such a beautiful song, the chords, his voice...
i don't want to talk too much about the covers band itself, except that it was my first meeting with them and i have mixed feelings about the project... we'll see if i go through with it...
feeling ambivilent about that project contrasted against feeling excited about the notion of recording a solo piano album myself, prompted by how lovely the gonzales album is... who he is i don't know, but the album is right up my street, i'd like to get some money to him if i can, small label, coherent reason for actually buying the album instead of just downloading it...
i could make a habit of going to the landlords and writing some solo piano pieces, aiming for a recording either @ overtones, or just in the landlord's... maybe by the end of the summer...
hmm...
x
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
grand union sweet thing
alright, well it's getting late, yes it is, yes it is,
and this time i forget to slip into your slumber,
the light is on the left side of your head,
and i'm standing in your doorway
and i'm mumbling and i can't remember
the last thing that ran through my head
just as the music takes an inward breath, he sings the above lines... it's been a long time since i listened to astral weeks by van morrison, i still love it so much...
so i cycled all the way in and all the way out today, i'm heading back to work tonight for a jam session with G, also lovely M will be there, could be the start of a beautiful friendship... but i'll be public transporting it, still not a night time cycler...
the way in took me 40 minutes, and i bumped into lovely M actually, similarly cycling, on the way back i went up to the thames, by the tate modern, crossed over on the millenium, then took the thames path back to the east along the north side, i had a cycle map with me & i decided to go far enough east to cath the grand union canal, the one that runs past mile end park and victoria park before disapearing eventually under islington, resurfacing for regents park (mind you that the regents canal... hmmm),
so i wove my way along the river until the tower, then i went through some fairly unpleasant roads for awhile (trusty map led me through) until i hit the canal and then it was just joy, joy, joy...
started the van morrison album as i hit the canal... it was all beautiful, such a lovely day, the water to my left looking spectacular in the sunlight... in particular when sweet thing came on i was racing up the towpath and it was blissful, such a heart breakingly beautiful song anyway...
i love my bike
x
and this time i forget to slip into your slumber,
the light is on the left side of your head,
and i'm standing in your doorway
and i'm mumbling and i can't remember
the last thing that ran through my head
just as the music takes an inward breath, he sings the above lines... it's been a long time since i listened to astral weeks by van morrison, i still love it so much...
so i cycled all the way in and all the way out today, i'm heading back to work tonight for a jam session with G, also lovely M will be there, could be the start of a beautiful friendship... but i'll be public transporting it, still not a night time cycler...
the way in took me 40 minutes, and i bumped into lovely M actually, similarly cycling, on the way back i went up to the thames, by the tate modern, crossed over on the millenium, then took the thames path back to the east along the north side, i had a cycle map with me & i decided to go far enough east to cath the grand union canal, the one that runs past mile end park and victoria park before disapearing eventually under islington, resurfacing for regents park (mind you that the regents canal... hmmm),
so i wove my way along the river until the tower, then i went through some fairly unpleasant roads for awhile (trusty map led me through) until i hit the canal and then it was just joy, joy, joy...
started the van morrison album as i hit the canal... it was all beautiful, such a lovely day, the water to my left looking spectacular in the sunlight... in particular when sweet thing came on i was racing up the towpath and it was blissful, such a heart breakingly beautiful song anyway...
i love my bike
x
Monday, June 06, 2005
new bike circling
it's got one gear, it cost me £10, it wasn't stolen,
D who lives with P, salvaging battered bikes and selling them, he's sold me this little one for now and when he's finished the one i want i'm going to sell this one back to him...
i cycled down to kings cross thameslink, then got the train to blackfriars, then hopped over the river by the tate modern and got to work real easy.
after work i went over to the salad bar @ TAZ and then wended my way along the river, discovering that it's not that effective cycling along the beach, crossing the river by the north/east hungerford bridge and finding my tentative way up to kingscross again, managing to get lost from there back to mine (even though i'd done that bit of the journey earlier), found once i got home that i'd done a tiny circle around the top of york way, half familiar roads leading me the wrong way... (how many different hilldrop roads are there - meaning the crescents, the streets, the drives..?)
so now i'm home i've got the requisite cycle maps and tomorrow's journey will be a great deal more directed, spski lending me his cycling knowledge, kingscross altogether the wrong part of town, staying in the east i'll be...
so now i'm planning to have a bath (or tomorrow my legs will shout at me), K's getting me a tiny bit of chocolate fomr the shop... it's amazing how much cycling takes it out of you when you're not accustomed to it...
x
D who lives with P, salvaging battered bikes and selling them, he's sold me this little one for now and when he's finished the one i want i'm going to sell this one back to him...
i cycled down to kings cross thameslink, then got the train to blackfriars, then hopped over the river by the tate modern and got to work real easy.
after work i went over to the salad bar @ TAZ and then wended my way along the river, discovering that it's not that effective cycling along the beach, crossing the river by the north/east hungerford bridge and finding my tentative way up to kingscross again, managing to get lost from there back to mine (even though i'd done that bit of the journey earlier), found once i got home that i'd done a tiny circle around the top of york way, half familiar roads leading me the wrong way... (how many different hilldrop roads are there - meaning the crescents, the streets, the drives..?)
so now i'm home i've got the requisite cycle maps and tomorrow's journey will be a great deal more directed, spski lending me his cycling knowledge, kingscross altogether the wrong part of town, staying in the east i'll be...
so now i'm planning to have a bath (or tomorrow my legs will shout at me), K's getting me a tiny bit of chocolate fomr the shop... it's amazing how much cycling takes it out of you when you're not accustomed to it...
x
Sunday, June 05, 2005
The Interview Game - on this the birthday of this blog
1. Which is your favourite stretch of the Thames and why?
i’m particularly fond of the southside of the thames from
the tate modern down to the london eye...
partly for the tate modern & the eye themselves, the national film theatre and the whole of the south bank... the bookstall under waterloo bridge and the skaters underneath the south bank, but mainly because of the beach that you can get down to at lowtide, the solitary feeling right there in the centre of the city, loads of people walking along the thames path and just you, or maybe one or two others, picking your way across the sand, being that close to the river... finding things the tide has left...
also the way the stairways into the water look at hightide or in between, the way the waves cover then reveal the stone steps of the two stairways down from outside the tate modern...
2. Why do you mainly read books written by men?
a partial answer is that i am a man and therefore i resonate better with other men, except that this isn't born out by my preference for female friends and also my liking for non-english (but male) writers who i resonate with better than i resonate with english (like myself) writers...
another partial answer is that there are (probably) more books written by men out there, men being better represented in the world over women... a symptom of the patriachal society that we still live in...
but this is only part of the story, i tend to get into authors and try and read as much as i can by that author... i'm always looking out for new writers to get into but it's quite a slow process as i work through the writers i currently love, and it's true that they're all men at the moment, richard ford, haruki murakami, william maxwell, w g sebald, john berger... i had a setback recently when i tried to read an isabel allende book that disappointed me, she being a writer i had previously loved, although i could still rescue her, it seems that her books since she moved to america are below par, but her books from chile (is it chile where she's from?) are excellent, how many books did she write before america though, have i read them all?
i've read some great women writers in the last year or so and some of them could get onto my favourite's list, the book i last read - the ice is singing by jane rogers was excellent and i'll be delighted to find anything else by her, mrs dalloway was fantastic and i may try another virginia woolf soon, susanna clarke, barbara kingsolver and maureen duffy were each great, maybe i'll check out more by them...
but it takes awhile for us dinosaurs to haul ourselves into the future and frankly it's bad enough women being able to publish books without me having to read any of them...
3. What is the most unusual thing you have witnessed on the disused railway line?
i like watching graffiti artists working on the disused railway, but this has happened more than once so not so unusual. i witnessed the sunrise one bright morning recently from a vantage point on the railway,
unusual for me that was, i’m guessing the sunrises every day so not so unusual for the disused... i saw three tree huggers yesterday which was pretty unusual, but the most unusual thing i've witnessed on the disused railway was a mosaic pressed into the mud that i found in late april of this year... i was investigating the twisting side paths & i came upon it, a mosaic made from lots of little pieces of broken china, in the shape of a circle with a heart in the middle,
i went back yesterday to try and find it again, i followed the same path i'd walked back then and found the site, i could tell where it was from the scattered pieces of china that lay about... sad that it's no longer there in it's emblematic form, but who knows how long it lasted, it was made at some point before the 24th of april, and it was broken at some point before yesterday...
4. If you were to compose a personal ad in the LRB what would it say?
(i found this particularly hard as the quality of personal ads in the London Review of Books is so high...)
scruffy pianist, cheap, own beard & teeth, seeks rich patron to keep him in the manner to which he has become accustomed, must be female, tolerant, beautiful, eccentric, ordinary, plain, some poetry appreciation preferred.
5. If you had to have dinner with either Julie Burchill or Tony Parsons who would you choose? (Staying at home with a sick headache is not an option)
to be bored by tony parsons or to be found boring by julie burchill... what a choice...
having lost sight of both of my potential dinner dates for awhile i had a look on the web for a taste of them, tony parsons is just as dull as I thought he might be, (i’ve never read any of his books), he now seems to pass himself off as a spiritual guru offering telephone conferences on his astral thoughts... now it could be that he’s a deeply perceptive commentator on our sick western world and the path of quietness... maybe.. but julie burchill is so going to be better company, funnier, a little too fond of the sound of her own voice probably, and it wouldn’t be the most relaxing of dinners, but julie has it... somewhat reluctantly...
there, now wasn't that a longish interview? i seem to be able to rattle on a fair bit... thankyou very much to ganching for the perceptive questions, a conversation about heimat3 would be nice if you're up for it soon...
The Official Interview Game Rules
1. If you want to participate, leave a comment below saying "interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions - each person's will be different.
3. You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
i’m particularly fond of the southside of the thames from
the tate modern down to the london eye...
partly for the tate modern & the eye themselves, the national film theatre and the whole of the south bank... the bookstall under waterloo bridge and the skaters underneath the south bank, but mainly because of the beach that you can get down to at lowtide, the solitary feeling right there in the centre of the city, loads of people walking along the thames path and just you, or maybe one or two others, picking your way across the sand, being that close to the river... finding things the tide has left...
also the way the stairways into the water look at hightide or in between, the way the waves cover then reveal the stone steps of the two stairways down from outside the tate modern...
2. Why do you mainly read books written by men?
a partial answer is that i am a man and therefore i resonate better with other men, except that this isn't born out by my preference for female friends and also my liking for non-english (but male) writers who i resonate with better than i resonate with english (like myself) writers...
another partial answer is that there are (probably) more books written by men out there, men being better represented in the world over women... a symptom of the patriachal society that we still live in...
but this is only part of the story, i tend to get into authors and try and read as much as i can by that author... i'm always looking out for new writers to get into but it's quite a slow process as i work through the writers i currently love, and it's true that they're all men at the moment, richard ford, haruki murakami, william maxwell, w g sebald, john berger... i had a setback recently when i tried to read an isabel allende book that disappointed me, she being a writer i had previously loved, although i could still rescue her, it seems that her books since she moved to america are below par, but her books from chile (is it chile where she's from?) are excellent, how many books did she write before america though, have i read them all?
i've read some great women writers in the last year or so and some of them could get onto my favourite's list, the book i last read - the ice is singing by jane rogers was excellent and i'll be delighted to find anything else by her, mrs dalloway was fantastic and i may try another virginia woolf soon, susanna clarke, barbara kingsolver and maureen duffy were each great, maybe i'll check out more by them...
but it takes awhile for us dinosaurs to haul ourselves into the future and frankly it's bad enough women being able to publish books without me having to read any of them...
3. What is the most unusual thing you have witnessed on the disused railway line?
i like watching graffiti artists working on the disused railway, but this has happened more than once so not so unusual. i witnessed the sunrise one bright morning recently from a vantage point on the railway,
unusual for me that was, i’m guessing the sunrises every day so not so unusual for the disused... i saw three tree huggers yesterday which was pretty unusual, but the most unusual thing i've witnessed on the disused railway was a mosaic pressed into the mud that i found in late april of this year... i was investigating the twisting side paths & i came upon it, a mosaic made from lots of little pieces of broken china, in the shape of a circle with a heart in the middle,
i went back yesterday to try and find it again, i followed the same path i'd walked back then and found the site, i could tell where it was from the scattered pieces of china that lay about... sad that it's no longer there in it's emblematic form, but who knows how long it lasted, it was made at some point before the 24th of april, and it was broken at some point before yesterday...
4. If you were to compose a personal ad in the LRB what would it say?
(i found this particularly hard as the quality of personal ads in the London Review of Books is so high...)
scruffy pianist, cheap, own beard & teeth, seeks rich patron to keep him in the manner to which he has become accustomed, must be female, tolerant, beautiful, eccentric, ordinary, plain, some poetry appreciation preferred.
5. If you had to have dinner with either Julie Burchill or Tony Parsons who would you choose? (Staying at home with a sick headache is not an option)
to be bored by tony parsons or to be found boring by julie burchill... what a choice...
having lost sight of both of my potential dinner dates for awhile i had a look on the web for a taste of them, tony parsons is just as dull as I thought he might be, (i’ve never read any of his books), he now seems to pass himself off as a spiritual guru offering telephone conferences on his astral thoughts... now it could be that he’s a deeply perceptive commentator on our sick western world and the path of quietness... maybe.. but julie burchill is so going to be better company, funnier, a little too fond of the sound of her own voice probably, and it wouldn’t be the most relaxing of dinners, but julie has it... somewhat reluctantly...
there, now wasn't that a longish interview? i seem to be able to rattle on a fair bit... thankyou very much to ganching for the perceptive questions, a conversation about heimat3 would be nice if you're up for it soon...
The Official Interview Game Rules
1. If you want to participate, leave a comment below saying "interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions - each person's will be different.
3. You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
Saturday, June 04, 2005
encounters
took a trip into the world and up the disused to find out something in relation to my answers to the interview game...
on the way i had some encounters and i wish to share these with you:
encounter no.1 - siri behavioural health.
i've walked passed them before, a gap in the middle of a terrace of houses on evershot road, i walked in today and found an open door, i went in and spoke to P, offering my services as a pianist / teacher / workshop leader... conscious of the summer and my need for work... kookie place, near my house, maybe some work..?
encounter no.2 - a man, then a woman carrying flowers, on a side path that i've never seen anyone but me walk... but of course people must walk it, thus making it a path... i was filming that part of my walk and they both politely stepped aside as i advanced.. both over 30..
encounter no.3 - tree huggers, including the woman with the flowers, on my way back down the disused, i saw them, three women, approaching the tree, backs to it, i stopped to smile and they invited me in... i put my back to the tree, the woman with the flowers put her arm around me.. perfectly nice... i chatted awhile with them, spoke about the tree by the renoir that i'm enamoured of...
encounter no.4 - semi naked smoker, smoking in his window about 4 floors up, very visible, i found myself looking up at him and he turned his gaze to mine, i waved, he waved back...
x
on the way i had some encounters and i wish to share these with you:
encounter no.1 - siri behavioural health.
i've walked passed them before, a gap in the middle of a terrace of houses on evershot road, i walked in today and found an open door, i went in and spoke to P, offering my services as a pianist / teacher / workshop leader... conscious of the summer and my need for work... kookie place, near my house, maybe some work..?
encounter no.2 - a man, then a woman carrying flowers, on a side path that i've never seen anyone but me walk... but of course people must walk it, thus making it a path... i was filming that part of my walk and they both politely stepped aside as i advanced.. both over 30..
encounter no.3 - tree huggers, including the woman with the flowers, on my way back down the disused, i saw them, three women, approaching the tree, backs to it, i stopped to smile and they invited me in... i put my back to the tree, the woman with the flowers put her arm around me.. perfectly nice... i chatted awhile with them, spoke about the tree by the renoir that i'm enamoured of...
encounter no.4 - semi naked smoker, smoking in his window about 4 floors up, very visible, i found myself looking up at him and he turned his gaze to mine, i waved, he waved back...
x
hangover goodbye too much violence interview almost
so how can 2 pints of guiness and a gin & tonic @ around 5 pm, followed by a meal, a film, some toast, bed at around midnight... how come i'm this hungover? i feel cheated.
the drinking was with my students, the last day of term for them and a goodbye.. always emotional... also a goodbye to this course, as it is now, big changes afoot before next academic year, me with a bit less work next year, some others with no work at all, (from this college, they have work elsewhere - as have i)...
a few students coming back next year on other courses which is good... found myself somewhat drunkenly recounting what i'd been doing ten years ago, a student who is returning, a great piano player, feeling slightly at sea...
the meal was with dr K and spanna, a thai place dr K knew, although they didn't do the fried roti which she was looking forward to, a staple dish in melbourne, nowhere it seems in london can you get it... the food was alright, fairly cheap, then dr K headed home and me & spangle went to the pictures, the original plan was to see mysterious skin but in the end we opted for sin city...
which was really good, but too long, and in the end too violent... a film in three broad sections and the last section just carries it over the edge, the constant violence starts to numb... also the story (it's all from a graphic novel) in the first two bits just that much more satisfyingly twisted than the last... all the men in leather jackets, moody, all the women in almost nothing, pouting... all a bit cliched and titillating, but good to live in that world for a couple of hours, the stories and the atmosphere of it all really good...
a long way from heimat which was my last cinematic experience...
so this week i've successfully read through twelve months of this here blog, fascinating to myself if to noone else, kind of heart breaking to trace the ups and downs, but also really good...
tomorrow is the blogs first birthday and i'm going to answer the questions that ganching has asked of me, this interview meme... the rules and the questions are in the comments to this post, i've almost finished the answers but i'm stuck on a couple, a very good selection of questions...
and it strikes me that one could trace back the meme, i read her answers to anothers questions before i requested that she interview me, presumably the one that asked her had in turn answered another, and so on and so on...
x
the drinking was with my students, the last day of term for them and a goodbye.. always emotional... also a goodbye to this course, as it is now, big changes afoot before next academic year, me with a bit less work next year, some others with no work at all, (from this college, they have work elsewhere - as have i)...
a few students coming back next year on other courses which is good... found myself somewhat drunkenly recounting what i'd been doing ten years ago, a student who is returning, a great piano player, feeling slightly at sea...
the meal was with dr K and spanna, a thai place dr K knew, although they didn't do the fried roti which she was looking forward to, a staple dish in melbourne, nowhere it seems in london can you get it... the food was alright, fairly cheap, then dr K headed home and me & spangle went to the pictures, the original plan was to see mysterious skin but in the end we opted for sin city...
which was really good, but too long, and in the end too violent... a film in three broad sections and the last section just carries it over the edge, the constant violence starts to numb... also the story (it's all from a graphic novel) in the first two bits just that much more satisfyingly twisted than the last... all the men in leather jackets, moody, all the women in almost nothing, pouting... all a bit cliched and titillating, but good to live in that world for a couple of hours, the stories and the atmosphere of it all really good...
a long way from heimat which was my last cinematic experience...
so this week i've successfully read through twelve months of this here blog, fascinating to myself if to noone else, kind of heart breaking to trace the ups and downs, but also really good...
tomorrow is the blogs first birthday and i'm going to answer the questions that ganching has asked of me, this interview meme... the rules and the questions are in the comments to this post, i've almost finished the answers but i'm stuck on a couple, a very good selection of questions...
and it strikes me that one could trace back the meme, i read her answers to anothers questions before i requested that she interview me, presumably the one that asked her had in turn answered another, and so on and so on...
x
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
tea the ice is singing sleep
drinking my first cup of tea of the day, at 5:45 pm, which is frankly wrong...
woke up too late to have my customary cup, had to jump straight in the shower and then off to work, the cup of tea i made myself last night before i napped for an hour which i didn't drink teasing me with it's presence, how much of my stability do i derive from my cup of tea?
anyway i'm sipping it now, curiously cold day, i'm going to have to start reading the weather forecasts more, only just decided to wear my coat today over my t-shirt, how cold it turned out...
wednesdays for me at the minute are about hammersmith college, in fact barons court station, the 30 minute tube journey there and back giving me a big stretch of reading, finished the ice is singing today, really good, nice to have a random book buy be quality, must look out for another jane rogers... affected me a fair bit this one, all about children, parenting, a good writer...
so i can't decide if it's going to be the next wole soyinka one or the thomas bernard memoir i started rereading then lost a month or so back... (oh i so love tea...)
tea came up last night in conversation about language, edge was talking with catalan E about words, about how there isn't an english word for pistachio, we just use the italian, and i suggested that there isn't an english word because it doesn't grow in england, it's not native, so we started checking out if there were any foods/drinks that were not native to england but had an english name...
tea?
but tea is a derivation of cha, the chinese name for it... apparently...
anyway, i got to work with 20p in my pocket, went to the cashpoint directly outside the college which had a runtime error window hiding the centre of the screen. so it took me longer to work out what was going on when it swallowed my card, because i've been sent another card in the post this month and that one had expired...
so 20p was to last me... but D from work lent me enough for my lunch and i made it home so no biggy, but it did mean i had to come straight home, no passing go, no collecting £200... half intended to go the pictures tonight...
and how am i this scatty today?
because i staill haven't caught up properly on my sleep since monday night when i had a real sleepless one, ran off to work (again no tea) on tuesday morning and was really out there with my headspace... just another experiential lesson in sleeplessness and why i should avoid it...
so enough of this random post... i have requested an interview and i must burrow myself away to consider my responses...
x
woke up too late to have my customary cup, had to jump straight in the shower and then off to work, the cup of tea i made myself last night before i napped for an hour which i didn't drink teasing me with it's presence, how much of my stability do i derive from my cup of tea?
anyway i'm sipping it now, curiously cold day, i'm going to have to start reading the weather forecasts more, only just decided to wear my coat today over my t-shirt, how cold it turned out...
wednesdays for me at the minute are about hammersmith college, in fact barons court station, the 30 minute tube journey there and back giving me a big stretch of reading, finished the ice is singing today, really good, nice to have a random book buy be quality, must look out for another jane rogers... affected me a fair bit this one, all about children, parenting, a good writer...
so i can't decide if it's going to be the next wole soyinka one or the thomas bernard memoir i started rereading then lost a month or so back... (oh i so love tea...)
tea came up last night in conversation about language, edge was talking with catalan E about words, about how there isn't an english word for pistachio, we just use the italian, and i suggested that there isn't an english word because it doesn't grow in england, it's not native, so we started checking out if there were any foods/drinks that were not native to england but had an english name...
tea?
but tea is a derivation of cha, the chinese name for it... apparently...
anyway, i got to work with 20p in my pocket, went to the cashpoint directly outside the college which had a runtime error window hiding the centre of the screen. so it took me longer to work out what was going on when it swallowed my card, because i've been sent another card in the post this month and that one had expired...
so 20p was to last me... but D from work lent me enough for my lunch and i made it home so no biggy, but it did mean i had to come straight home, no passing go, no collecting £200... half intended to go the pictures tonight...
and how am i this scatty today?
because i staill haven't caught up properly on my sleep since monday night when i had a real sleepless one, ran off to work (again no tea) on tuesday morning and was really out there with my headspace... just another experiential lesson in sleeplessness and why i should avoid it...
so enough of this random post... i have requested an interview and i must burrow myself away to consider my responses...
x
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