there is a great website that i found earlier this year, you can download some great films from it of various counter culture icons like william burroughs, maya deren, jean genet... in the past i've downloaded genet's film un chant d'amour which he made in the 50's, also maya deren's meshes of the afternoon a surealist film from the 40's i think...
the grey lodge this week furnished me with a few different things, a film about shane ballard, an enormous 22 year old who stood for sheriff of some southern county on a pro-pornography platform, maya deren's living horsemen of haiti, some noam chomsky stuff and william burrough's the cut-up's that he made with brion gysin and anthony balch in the late 60's...
i've been interested in burroughs and his cutup technique of writing for many years now, (i taught it as an aspect of composition to a class earlier this year), he used it as part of his writing from the late 60's all the way until he died...
he got the idea from brion gysin, the painter, and the first thing they did with it was to make films... really nice therefore to have seen the later literature that came out of the cutup's and now get to experience the earlier, cinematic experiments...
this film the cut-up's is almost 20 minutes long and seems to be made up of four different films cut together at half second intervals to form the whole... i sat through it yesterday and it was pretty intense... in 1969 it ran for afew weeks in a regular cinema in london and people regularly walked out of it, often leaving their belongings in the cinema...
so it got me thinking about an approach to my videoing of the sky that i did october-november, so far i've taken one of the 4 locations from which i video'd and selected a minute from each day that i did it... 15 days in all...
as a preliminary test i took the first half second from each day and threw them together, being 7.5 seconds long... i really like it, particularly the sound, chopping between each clip...
i need to find a way of moving each clip a little so they line up nicely, easier said than done, i've spent the last hour & a half working it out, my brain is starting to melt, but once i've done it putting together the next, longer version should be fairly straight forward...
then whether to just leave the sound as it is or to compose a piece for it, maybe letting the sound that is there dicate the music that comes out...?
x
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
TfL possible number perfection performing dream
i'm not sure if it's accurate but every time i blog i see a counter saying how many posts i've posted... if it's true then this post is post number 444... just missed this coinciding with the palindromic visitor number 1331, they came here last night...
groovy huh?
anyway, back in the real world i got up late for the second day in a row... sleeping until 1 (yesterday) or 1.45 (today), then reading in bed... and in these short days too, pretty nocturnal creature i'm becoming...
my last dream before i woke up today was of a gig, i was playing, although maybe i was just walking through the stage during a piano solo by Y, the organiser of Raison D'Etre those live gigs we used to be apart of... he was playing this really nice jazz tune, as a solo - i got the impression he was playing over a record... he was also controlling things from offstage, (dream logic) and he told me he wanted me to have a solo next... Y stopped to great applause, i walked back over to the piano (my pink shirt open and flapping in the wind)... also to great applause, was struck by the silence, where was the backing record?
started out my solo with a few blues chords/riffs, out of these freefrom bits a rhythm emerged and i got onto a blues/boogie-woogie thing... started rocking away but there was one voice (female) i could hear amidst the yelling crowd that was shouting:
stop playing that f****** awful rock'n'roll
so i started singing lyrics, improvised, like i did a year or so back... i can't think of the rhythm now but effectively:
stop shouting abuse at me, it won't get you anywhere...
i stopped playing shortly after this and ran out of there, ran really fast away from the gig, then realised where i wanted to get to but didn't want to go the direct way as this would take me near the gig, instead started running the round-about way...
then i woke up...
talking of direct ways and round-about ways i saw a link on a website today to the Transport for London's cycle route planner and i may not have complained about them enough... so here it is...
twice in the past month or so i have had occassion to look to the TfL's cycle route planner and both times i have been led a merry dance (as it were)...
the first time was coming from my london bridge work to the eastend and it led me the wrong way down two one-way streets and directly down the middle of a busy market...
the second time (and why oh why did i use it a second time if it had messed me up so much before? good question, i'm slightly at a loss for an answer) i asked it how to get to herne hill from my hammersmith work (last thursday, day of much cycling) and it made me turn right at a junction where there is no turning right allowed...
both times it also took me along some big, big roads before settling into a quite good back street route...
so frankly i'm pretty unimpressed by it... but aside from it's bad points the route to herne hill it gave me turned out to be a good one... i think i'm going to have to email them, see if i can effect some positive change in it, because it does fill a hole, it is needed, although what would fill that hole better would be digital versions of the excellent london cycle maps that you can get sent to you for free... if i could just download the relevant one(s) of them for my journey i wouldn't need a journey planner... for some reason they are only published in hardcopy...?
x
groovy huh?
anyway, back in the real world i got up late for the second day in a row... sleeping until 1 (yesterday) or 1.45 (today), then reading in bed... and in these short days too, pretty nocturnal creature i'm becoming...
my last dream before i woke up today was of a gig, i was playing, although maybe i was just walking through the stage during a piano solo by Y, the organiser of Raison D'Etre those live gigs we used to be apart of... he was playing this really nice jazz tune, as a solo - i got the impression he was playing over a record... he was also controlling things from offstage, (dream logic) and he told me he wanted me to have a solo next... Y stopped to great applause, i walked back over to the piano (my pink shirt open and flapping in the wind)... also to great applause, was struck by the silence, where was the backing record?
started out my solo with a few blues chords/riffs, out of these freefrom bits a rhythm emerged and i got onto a blues/boogie-woogie thing... started rocking away but there was one voice (female) i could hear amidst the yelling crowd that was shouting:
stop playing that f****** awful rock'n'roll
so i started singing lyrics, improvised, like i did a year or so back... i can't think of the rhythm now but effectively:
stop shouting abuse at me, it won't get you anywhere...
i stopped playing shortly after this and ran out of there, ran really fast away from the gig, then realised where i wanted to get to but didn't want to go the direct way as this would take me near the gig, instead started running the round-about way...
then i woke up...
talking of direct ways and round-about ways i saw a link on a website today to the Transport for London's cycle route planner and i may not have complained about them enough... so here it is...
twice in the past month or so i have had occassion to look to the TfL's cycle route planner and both times i have been led a merry dance (as it were)...
the first time was coming from my london bridge work to the eastend and it led me the wrong way down two one-way streets and directly down the middle of a busy market...
the second time (and why oh why did i use it a second time if it had messed me up so much before? good question, i'm slightly at a loss for an answer) i asked it how to get to herne hill from my hammersmith work (last thursday, day of much cycling) and it made me turn right at a junction where there is no turning right allowed...
both times it also took me along some big, big roads before settling into a quite good back street route...
so frankly i'm pretty unimpressed by it... but aside from it's bad points the route to herne hill it gave me turned out to be a good one... i think i'm going to have to email them, see if i can effect some positive change in it, because it does fill a hole, it is needed, although what would fill that hole better would be digital versions of the excellent london cycle maps that you can get sent to you for free... if i could just download the relevant one(s) of them for my journey i wouldn't need a journey planner... for some reason they are only published in hardcopy...?
x
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
headache squeeze random cyclist
the headache is today,
the squeeze is spread over a couple of months now,
the random cyclist yesterday...
not too much to say about the headache, just that it's there, coupled with an aching back that could be a result of the marathon lord of the rings fest we did on sunday (oh... haven't blogged that... hmmm), or could be related to the headache, also felt a little sick earlier...
so i hope i'm not coming down with anything big and nasty... i'll let you know...
then the random cyclist... i met him as i was cycling down on the river, decided to cross by the hungerford bridge, the south facing one... i could see that someone had called the lift already, could see it descending from the other side of it, i cycled around to the front and it was Ch... random cyclist who i'd met on the way to a restaurant very close to there actually where i was meeting felinity & dad a couple of weeks ago...
i'd reached the euston road on my way to the south bank and i was waiting at the traffic lights, wandering how i was going to get there, only a rough idea of the route.. he cycled up beside me and started looking closely at my bike, the wheels, the lights... asked me how much my front light cost me and how big my wheels were... the lights changed and i said goodbye and cycled off, i looked back a minute or two later and he was there, keeping up with me...
so i asked him where he was going and he said chinatown, not too far from my destination i thought, so i asked him to lead the way... which i love, following someone else's route... took me almost to waterloo bridge... i thanked him and we parted...
yesterday i asked him his name to verify that it was the same man... as we got into the lift with our bicycles he didn't remember me but after awhile, crossing over the bridge he did remember me, we spoke about all kinds of crazy things...
condoms, sex, lesbians, chinese philosophy, lao-tze, blood groups, bicycle tires, hands...
i hope to see him again, two random meetings in a town this big, in just under two weeks... odd cycling companion...
and then my squeeze... not to say much about it, just that it's going on and it's been going on, sometimes more off than on, for a little while now...
she's really nice...
x
the squeeze is spread over a couple of months now,
the random cyclist yesterday...
not too much to say about the headache, just that it's there, coupled with an aching back that could be a result of the marathon lord of the rings fest we did on sunday (oh... haven't blogged that... hmmm), or could be related to the headache, also felt a little sick earlier...
so i hope i'm not coming down with anything big and nasty... i'll let you know...
then the random cyclist... i met him as i was cycling down on the river, decided to cross by the hungerford bridge, the south facing one... i could see that someone had called the lift already, could see it descending from the other side of it, i cycled around to the front and it was Ch... random cyclist who i'd met on the way to a restaurant very close to there actually where i was meeting felinity & dad a couple of weeks ago...
i'd reached the euston road on my way to the south bank and i was waiting at the traffic lights, wandering how i was going to get there, only a rough idea of the route.. he cycled up beside me and started looking closely at my bike, the wheels, the lights... asked me how much my front light cost me and how big my wheels were... the lights changed and i said goodbye and cycled off, i looked back a minute or two later and he was there, keeping up with me...
so i asked him where he was going and he said chinatown, not too far from my destination i thought, so i asked him to lead the way... which i love, following someone else's route... took me almost to waterloo bridge... i thanked him and we parted...
yesterday i asked him his name to verify that it was the same man... as we got into the lift with our bicycles he didn't remember me but after awhile, crossing over the bridge he did remember me, we spoke about all kinds of crazy things...
condoms, sex, lesbians, chinese philosophy, lao-tze, blood groups, bicycle tires, hands...
i hope to see him again, two random meetings in a town this big, in just under two weeks... odd cycling companion...
and then my squeeze... not to say much about it, just that it's going on and it's been going on, sometimes more off than on, for a little while now...
she's really nice...
x
Saturday, November 26, 2005
connie & alfie
made my way over to putney to see connie today, felinity & me have been planning it for awhile with J & A, J being our cousin, dad of connie...
so hang on... am i calling her by her real name? i appear to be, oh well, no harm, she's only 4 months old... odd though, to have a rule and not observe it in one situation...?
anyway, on the way there i was thinking about her, her birthday, which was the day after my 32nd birthday, and of alfie, G's son, who was born on my 25th birthday...
when i arrived in putney felinity was already there sipping tea... she gave A her present which was a perfect little hat that she'd knitted, fitted very well on connie's head, i gave them the CD of the track and we listened to it... i think over the course of the visit we heard it maybe three times... neither J nor A actually said whether they liked it or not, they both said how much they appreciated it, the fact that i'd done it and how only i could have given a present like this, but neither one said what they thought of it... not that i mind, it's for connie not them... odd though...
near the end of our visit, which involved much tea and some cake, connie was layed down on a mat, she'd started rolling over this week, although J hadn't yet seen it in the flesh... so we all watched as she wobbled around on the mat and raised her little legs in the air, toppling over onto her side then rolling back again... very exciting actually, would she do it? i video'd her exertions, possibly to be used on my video of the piece... she did in fact do two complete back to front rolls (as in, lying on her back and then rolling onto her front) while we were there, something special about the fact the J was seeing it for the first time too... J and A were both lovely, he's become a really nice dad, this was the first time i'd met A except for their wedding (for which i bought the suit), nice to talk to her - passed on the knowledge of chamomilla for teething troubles, just as josiah passed it on to a new mum at her house on wednesday night...
very glad to have felinity there, strangely her voice got quieter and quieter as the visit went on, although she was back up to normal volume as we walked to the train... i forgot to mention it to her...
nice also to have long train/tube journeys in which to read, the wind-up bird chronicles being great, for some reason i didn't know that felinity had read it, and i was slightly put out that i hadn't lent it to her... i'm fairly possessive about haruki murakami in an odd way...
so anyway once back in north london i was out and about doing some shopping and i got a phonecall from G, dad of alfie, who i'd been thinking about earlier, he's in town for the night and was inviting me out to the party he's going to, which i now know i'm not going to, just going to read and chill out at home...
another saturday night not partying, boring old man i'm becoming...
x
so hang on... am i calling her by her real name? i appear to be, oh well, no harm, she's only 4 months old... odd though, to have a rule and not observe it in one situation...?
anyway, on the way there i was thinking about her, her birthday, which was the day after my 32nd birthday, and of alfie, G's son, who was born on my 25th birthday...
when i arrived in putney felinity was already there sipping tea... she gave A her present which was a perfect little hat that she'd knitted, fitted very well on connie's head, i gave them the CD of the track and we listened to it... i think over the course of the visit we heard it maybe three times... neither J nor A actually said whether they liked it or not, they both said how much they appreciated it, the fact that i'd done it and how only i could have given a present like this, but neither one said what they thought of it... not that i mind, it's for connie not them... odd though...
near the end of our visit, which involved much tea and some cake, connie was layed down on a mat, she'd started rolling over this week, although J hadn't yet seen it in the flesh... so we all watched as she wobbled around on the mat and raised her little legs in the air, toppling over onto her side then rolling back again... very exciting actually, would she do it? i video'd her exertions, possibly to be used on my video of the piece... she did in fact do two complete back to front rolls (as in, lying on her back and then rolling onto her front) while we were there, something special about the fact the J was seeing it for the first time too... J and A were both lovely, he's become a really nice dad, this was the first time i'd met A except for their wedding (for which i bought the suit), nice to talk to her - passed on the knowledge of chamomilla for teething troubles, just as josiah passed it on to a new mum at her house on wednesday night...
very glad to have felinity there, strangely her voice got quieter and quieter as the visit went on, although she was back up to normal volume as we walked to the train... i forgot to mention it to her...
nice also to have long train/tube journeys in which to read, the wind-up bird chronicles being great, for some reason i didn't know that felinity had read it, and i was slightly put out that i hadn't lent it to her... i'm fairly possessive about haruki murakami in an odd way...
so anyway once back in north london i was out and about doing some shopping and i got a phonecall from G, dad of alfie, who i'd been thinking about earlier, he's in town for the night and was inviting me out to the party he's going to, which i now know i'm not going to, just going to read and chill out at home...
another saturday night not partying, boring old man i'm becoming...
x
Friday, November 25, 2005
huge cold cycling
yesterday that was... cycled to work in london bridge then over to hammersmith, then over to herne hill to see bo then back to mine (finsbury park)...
phew... the last leg, back from bo's to here, took me 55 minutes and was hard work, drunk as i was at the start of it... the entire day's journey looks like this... and was 29.78 miles long...
really cold feet by the time i got here around 12.20am, not something i felt today as i had even thicker socks on (yesterday i'd taken the precaution of wearing thicker than usual socks and they didn't quite cut it)... sadly these are the only really thick socks i have with no holes... methinks sock shopping is a priority, also cycling glasses, i've been finding it really tricky cycling south in the mornings on clear days... the sun low in the sky and really glaring me, particularly where the new arsenal stadium is being built the road is often wet and the combined sun & reflected sunlight is blinding... but also my eyes have been suffering with this cold, spski says it's the eyes drying out... so cycling glasses are another key item...
around lunchtime yesterday as i was beginning my journey west it was really grey still, but there was a line of blue sky on the horizon, framing st paul's and the barbican towers really nicely from the millenium bridge... by the time i got over to hyde park the sky had mostly cleared...
but back to the millenium bridge, it was lowtide and i had a bit of time free so i decided to go check out that wierd underworld right by southwark bridge on the north bank of the thames... but the wooden steps that i'd found a bit unsafe on my first visit there had completely come away from the stone... no way down... so i abandoned the lowtide concrete world for the day...
instead i found myself getting off the bike in st james park and chilling out with the canadian memorial again, my thursday route takes me past it each week but i'm always in a hurry, i love it... the maple leaves, the running water... the geometric shape of it...
phew... the last leg, back from bo's to here, took me 55 minutes and was hard work, drunk as i was at the start of it... the entire day's journey looks like this... and was 29.78 miles long...
really cold feet by the time i got here around 12.20am, not something i felt today as i had even thicker socks on (yesterday i'd taken the precaution of wearing thicker than usual socks and they didn't quite cut it)... sadly these are the only really thick socks i have with no holes... methinks sock shopping is a priority, also cycling glasses, i've been finding it really tricky cycling south in the mornings on clear days... the sun low in the sky and really glaring me, particularly where the new arsenal stadium is being built the road is often wet and the combined sun & reflected sunlight is blinding... but also my eyes have been suffering with this cold, spski says it's the eyes drying out... so cycling glasses are another key item...
around lunchtime yesterday as i was beginning my journey west it was really grey still, but there was a line of blue sky on the horizon, framing st paul's and the barbican towers really nicely from the millenium bridge... by the time i got over to hyde park the sky had mostly cleared...
but back to the millenium bridge, it was lowtide and i had a bit of time free so i decided to go check out that wierd underworld right by southwark bridge on the north bank of the thames... but the wooden steps that i'd found a bit unsafe on my first visit there had completely come away from the stone... no way down... so i abandoned the lowtide concrete world for the day... 
instead i found myself getting off the bike in st james park and chilling out with the canadian memorial again, my thursday route takes me past it each week but i'm always in a hurry, i love it... the maple leaves, the running water... the geometric shape of it...
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
one moment of bratness
josiah has told me that she wants someone else to witness what a brat her daughter is... being told that grace is a lovely, beautiful, well behaved child is a little jarring with her because grace is a terrible two year old and she can be a real brat to her mum...
so today, in amongst a lovely day of piano playing, reading books, eating, playing... after i took her to the park to play on the swings... all just beautiful...
getting her off the swings proved a nightmare... to be fair to her she was tired... and she fell asleep as soon as it was over... but i witnessed the brat...
so once again she's asleep in my bed, i'm about to pick up the wind-up bird chronicle... T, the dad, is coming here at some point in the next hour or two and we're taking grace down to brighton together...
amazing how i was congratulating myself on a stress free visit only 30 minutes before the fight... that girl can wail...
x
so today, in amongst a lovely day of piano playing, reading books, eating, playing... after i took her to the park to play on the swings... all just beautiful...
getting her off the swings proved a nightmare... to be fair to her she was tired... and she fell asleep as soon as it was over... but i witnessed the brat...
so once again she's asleep in my bed, i'm about to pick up the wind-up bird chronicle... T, the dad, is coming here at some point in the next hour or two and we're taking grace down to brighton together...
amazing how i was congratulating myself on a stress free visit only 30 minutes before the fight... that girl can wail...
x
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
the wind-up lullaby chords
grace here & asleep in my bed... i'm doing myself some food and i'm going to watch ghost squad in about 45 minutes...
there was a torturous separation from josiah who brought her up here, we'd eaten in the amazon, got back here and me & grace were playing just prior to josiah leaving when she shifted into i want to go with my mummy i don't want to stay in this COLD house...
once josiah could be persuaded to leave i rocked the wailing child to sleep while playing two chords on the piano... later on, once i'd woken her up to get her changed and she had her doll near her she asked me play the chords again... lullaby business, her name sung as well... i love being a godfather...
so i turned the lights down low and i started the wind-up bird chronicle for the second time, it was the first murakami book i read back when i was running that blues workshop & one of my students lent it to me... i'd read everything there was in english a few years before kafka on the shore came out earlier this year, i remember the thrill of that one... now i'm going back to the source again, while grace sleeps in my bed...
x
there was a torturous separation from josiah who brought her up here, we'd eaten in the amazon, got back here and me & grace were playing just prior to josiah leaving when she shifted into i want to go with my mummy i don't want to stay in this COLD house...
once josiah could be persuaded to leave i rocked the wailing child to sleep while playing two chords on the piano... later on, once i'd woken her up to get her changed and she had her doll near her she asked me play the chords again... lullaby business, her name sung as well... i love being a godfather...
so i turned the lights down low and i started the wind-up bird chronicle for the second time, it was the first murakami book i read back when i was running that blues workshop & one of my students lent it to me... i'd read everything there was in english a few years before kafka on the shore came out earlier this year, i remember the thrill of that one... now i'm going back to the source again, while grace sleeps in my bed...
x
days off about to disappear
in less than 2 hours my life will be given over to a 2 year old...
josiah's bringing her up now, i'll have her until tomorrow night when i'll be taking her down to brighton then hanging out a bit for a little social...
so my tuesday & wednesday space in the week is now completely full... and even though i wanted this, asked for it, just this element of it is slightly unsettling to me, i love having days off, of not knowing what i'm doing...
not that i know what i'm going to do with grace all the time she's here...
anyway, just a thought, i've been thinking about joseph schillinger and about how he was an inspirational teacher but after he died his techniques died too after a decade or so... these days there are a few people interested in him but it's recognised that the books he left behind aren't as good as they could be, not as good as having him there to answer your questions...
the w h matthieau book on music theory that i bought almost 12 months ago now and still haven't really got my teeth into addresses the question of having a real teacher against learning from their books... but just the fact that matthieau is addressing this bodes well for the quality of the book...
the long & the short of all this is that i can see myself writing a book in a decade or two... a distillation of the ways i have found to teach music... and i want it to be a good book.
i finished what i loved the other day, still haven't started another yet... toing with the idea of rereading the wind-up bird chronicles but haven't made up my mind yet, yesterday i enjoyed being bookless for once, i had several hours off in the middle of my day, just as the sun was nearing the horizon, drifted around by the thames and took pictures, video's, there was a lovely almost mist around things that turned into a real cold mist by the time i was cycling home in the dark...
wintery feeling to that journey,
when G got home last night we watched the first of the downloaded lost episodes, i've lost patience with the TV, going to download until the end of the series and then maybe on into series 2, it was great, so much better without adverts, longer somehow, (i dreamt that we discovered that the uncut episodes were an hour and twenty minutes, i was outraged)...
x
josiah's bringing her up now, i'll have her until tomorrow night when i'll be taking her down to brighton then hanging out a bit for a little social...
so my tuesday & wednesday space in the week is now completely full... and even though i wanted this, asked for it, just this element of it is slightly unsettling to me, i love having days off, of not knowing what i'm doing...
not that i know what i'm going to do with grace all the time she's here...
anyway, just a thought, i've been thinking about joseph schillinger and about how he was an inspirational teacher but after he died his techniques died too after a decade or so... these days there are a few people interested in him but it's recognised that the books he left behind aren't as good as they could be, not as good as having him there to answer your questions...
the w h matthieau book on music theory that i bought almost 12 months ago now and still haven't really got my teeth into addresses the question of having a real teacher against learning from their books... but just the fact that matthieau is addressing this bodes well for the quality of the book...
the long & the short of all this is that i can see myself writing a book in a decade or two... a distillation of the ways i have found to teach music... and i want it to be a good book.
i finished what i loved the other day, still haven't started another yet... toing with the idea of rereading the wind-up bird chronicles but haven't made up my mind yet, yesterday i enjoyed being bookless for once, i had several hours off in the middle of my day, just as the sun was nearing the horizon, drifted around by the thames and took pictures, video's, there was a lovely almost mist around things that turned into a real cold mist by the time i was cycling home in the dark...
wintery feeling to that journey,
when G got home last night we watched the first of the downloaded lost episodes, i've lost patience with the TV, going to download until the end of the series and then maybe on into series 2, it was great, so much better without adverts, longer somehow, (i dreamt that we discovered that the uncut episodes were an hour and twenty minutes, i was outraged)...
x
Sunday, November 20, 2005
joseph schillinger
i was wondering about palindromic scales again, since i checked them out last week and i typed that phrase into google and i found a few interesting things...
firstly someone called Benjamin Tubb, he made a list of all the palindromic scales in the same number format i use to teach with... it's dated 1981... he's also got a list of international scales which i'm going to be perusing...
on my musicianship module, which i teach to two of the courses at my london bridge work, i try and present students with a range of different scales for them to check out and potentially use... he's got way more scales than i've seen...
my little investigation the other day about palindromic scales was just a teasing look, he has it all laid out... of course you've got to hear them as well as just see them written down, i'm glad of what i've got both in my teaching and my own journey... glad also of this resource he offers...
then he mentions joseph schillinger, a russian born composer/teacher who came to new york in the 30's and taught loads of groovy students including gershwin, he had some kind of mathematical approach to teaching music, which is my bag too... i'm just finding out about him, and he reminds me of count alfred korzibski who taught his general semantics to william burroughs amongst others in the 40's... also of willhelm reich, european ideas fleeing to america... a rich time...
just as i write this my eyes fall on the edward said DVD i borrowed from D (not the writer of book about fiat cars)... another great teacher and ideas man... must watch that again some day soon.. i saw it at the cinema back in early summer i think it was...
x
firstly someone called Benjamin Tubb, he made a list of all the palindromic scales in the same number format i use to teach with... it's dated 1981... he's also got a list of international scales which i'm going to be perusing...
on my musicianship module, which i teach to two of the courses at my london bridge work, i try and present students with a range of different scales for them to check out and potentially use... he's got way more scales than i've seen...
my little investigation the other day about palindromic scales was just a teasing look, he has it all laid out... of course you've got to hear them as well as just see them written down, i'm glad of what i've got both in my teaching and my own journey... glad also of this resource he offers...
then he mentions joseph schillinger, a russian born composer/teacher who came to new york in the 30's and taught loads of groovy students including gershwin, he had some kind of mathematical approach to teaching music, which is my bag too... i'm just finding out about him, and he reminds me of count alfred korzibski who taught his general semantics to william burroughs amongst others in the 40's... also of willhelm reich, european ideas fleeing to america... a rich time...
just as i write this my eyes fall on the edward said DVD i borrowed from D (not the writer of book about fiat cars)... another great teacher and ideas man... must watch that again some day soon.. i saw it at the cinema back in early summer i think it was...
x
Saturday, November 19, 2005
palindromic number
i'd like to welcome visitor 1221 especially because it is a palindromic number (looks the same forwards as it looks backwards), like the dorian mode as i was talking about the other day... although that visitor has gone now and may or may not return again, they came twice in the last two hours trying to find out something about the beaux arts building that i so love...
and then just a few words about sony vegas which i've started using today to put some music to the video i took of la pro that day when he fell off spski's bike and i put him on a train to gatwick trussed up in inexpertly applied bandages...
i'm enjoying it and i'm somewhat intrigued by the fact that i can output video of proper quality using it... albeit video that has come originally from my little camera and it's compression... so i've had to get another piece of software to compress the result back down again in order to make it a suitable size for the internet... funny business...
at the minute that piece of video is in DIVX format, i hope those of you who wish to check out my video's can see DIVX, it does seem to be the most popular of the mpeg-4 codecs so i will probably stick to it... may even pay them the £20 they want for the converter...
the music i used is one of the piano tunes from love & understanding that i listening the last time i went up the beaux arts building, odd circular route back to my 1221st visitor...
oh and i've managed to lose all my cards (travel, cash & credit) in the back of nippy's car... last night i was feeling so cold and hungry... couldn't bare the thought of leaving the house but had no food in... nippy came round to pick up the money for her PA which we borrowed for the party i didn't go to and she gave me a lift to crystal kebabs on holloway road, what i loved by siri hustvedt was in my pocket and it must have pushed out my blue plastic wallet... so no money until monday beyond what G lent me this morning...
and i just got paid as well.. typically awkward...
i've been reading the siri hustvedt book avidly today, really enjoying it... very moving, certain passages in it that really strike home, in a passing offhand way...
x
and then just a few words about sony vegas which i've started using today to put some music to the video i took of la pro that day when he fell off spski's bike and i put him on a train to gatwick trussed up in inexpertly applied bandages...
i'm enjoying it and i'm somewhat intrigued by the fact that i can output video of proper quality using it... albeit video that has come originally from my little camera and it's compression... so i've had to get another piece of software to compress the result back down again in order to make it a suitable size for the internet... funny business...
at the minute that piece of video is in DIVX format, i hope those of you who wish to check out my video's can see DIVX, it does seem to be the most popular of the mpeg-4 codecs so i will probably stick to it... may even pay them the £20 they want for the converter...
the music i used is one of the piano tunes from love & understanding that i listening the last time i went up the beaux arts building, odd circular route back to my 1221st visitor...
oh and i've managed to lose all my cards (travel, cash & credit) in the back of nippy's car... last night i was feeling so cold and hungry... couldn't bare the thought of leaving the house but had no food in... nippy came round to pick up the money for her PA which we borrowed for the party i didn't go to and she gave me a lift to crystal kebabs on holloway road, what i loved by siri hustvedt was in my pocket and it must have pushed out my blue plastic wallet... so no money until monday beyond what G lent me this morning...
and i just got paid as well.. typically awkward...
i've been reading the siri hustvedt book avidly today, really enjoying it... very moving, certain passages in it that really strike home, in a passing offhand way...
x
Friday, November 18, 2005
sturmey-archer short light
i've been talking with spski about my bike, the strange noise eminating from it (i'm fed up with not using a word just because i can't spell it - and i'm too tired to find out how this word is truly spelt)... he thinks a ballbearing might have come out... it turns out that my gear system (which doesn't get used) is a sturmey-archer hub...
after checking a website he told me about i've found that my sturmey-archer hub is a little younger than me, made in october of 1976, just a little older than my fender rhodes piano which was made in 79, can't remember the month now but it's stamped on the main inside bit in exactly the same way the stamp is on my hub... pleasing piece of knowledge...
spski also tells me there is a bike shop that specialises in hub gear systems, somewhere around notting hill, it would be good to lavish some care and attention on the gears... particularly as it's started complaining to me every now and again...
i went out today without my bicycle lights, only working for an hour or so as i was today, finishing @ midday... after work i did some extra stuff, tutorials with my students, then made my way over to the river to pootle along for awhile,
i stopped in @ the NFT to use their loo and as i was coming out i noticed that double indemnity had just started, 5 minutes in and i didn't even have a ticket yet, so i left it, thinking idly that i might catch a film in town...
cycled into leicester square and the constant gardener had also just started, i missed three minutes or so i think... really enjoyed it, found it curiously moving and also vibrant, city of god director did it...
anyway midway through the film i realised it would be dark when i got out of the cinema, no lights with me, foolish, perilous journey home therefore...
not that anything happened to me, just got caught by the shortness of the light,
x
after checking a website he told me about i've found that my sturmey-archer hub is a little younger than me, made in october of 1976, just a little older than my fender rhodes piano which was made in 79, can't remember the month now but it's stamped on the main inside bit in exactly the same way the stamp is on my hub... pleasing piece of knowledge...
spski also tells me there is a bike shop that specialises in hub gear systems, somewhere around notting hill, it would be good to lavish some care and attention on the gears... particularly as it's started complaining to me every now and again...
i went out today without my bicycle lights, only working for an hour or so as i was today, finishing @ midday... after work i did some extra stuff, tutorials with my students, then made my way over to the river to pootle along for awhile,
i stopped in @ the NFT to use their loo and as i was coming out i noticed that double indemnity had just started, 5 minutes in and i didn't even have a ticket yet, so i left it, thinking idly that i might catch a film in town...
cycled into leicester square and the constant gardener had also just started, i missed three minutes or so i think... really enjoyed it, found it curiously moving and also vibrant, city of god director did it...
anyway midway through the film i realised it would be dark when i got out of the cinema, no lights with me, foolish, perilous journey home therefore...
not that anything happened to me, just got caught by the shortness of the light,
x
dance police
A's last night, a work night, i only have to work for 1 and a half hours tomorrow but it is going to hurt...
i started getting ready for my bed about 15 minutes ago but i was simply not allowed to get to my bed...
the other 4 dancers steadfastly refused to let me off the dance floor and i am truley knackered now...
on a school night..
oh dear..
x
i started getting ready for my bed about 15 minutes ago but i was simply not allowed to get to my bed...
the other 4 dancers steadfastly refused to let me off the dance floor and i am truley knackered now...
on a school night..
oh dear..
x
Thursday, November 17, 2005
strange noises
left my london bridge work to come over to my hammersmith work, a cycle journey by the thames and through several parks... very beautiful today it was too, but i'm getting ahead of myself... just as i came up behind the tate modern i heard and felt this very strange noise coming from my bike...
i stopped (as you do) and the noise stopped...
after a little experimentation i found out that it happened sometimes when i freewheeled... somewhere inside the gear hub of my back wheel... the mysterious holder of the key to more gears, or less gears if i'm unlucky...
after awhile of cycling it stopped doing it, my last thought was that it had something to do with the cold, and when my journey had warmed up...?
but a scary sound, like metal chewing into metal, can't be a good thing...
i'm about to cycle back now from hammersmith to finsbury park, tired... it will be properly dark as well now by the time i get to the canal... maybe find another route...
a little sad today because something beautiful came to an end last night... in my morning lesson part of the time was spent listening to the students music, many minutes listening and not talking... mind free to ponder...
x
i stopped (as you do) and the noise stopped...
after a little experimentation i found out that it happened sometimes when i freewheeled... somewhere inside the gear hub of my back wheel... the mysterious holder of the key to more gears, or less gears if i'm unlucky...
after awhile of cycling it stopped doing it, my last thought was that it had something to do with the cold, and when my journey had warmed up...?
but a scary sound, like metal chewing into metal, can't be a good thing...
i'm about to cycle back now from hammersmith to finsbury park, tired... it will be properly dark as well now by the time i get to the canal... maybe find another route...
a little sad today because something beautiful came to an end last night... in my morning lesson part of the time was spent listening to the students music, many minutes listening and not talking... mind free to ponder...
x
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
piano symmetry grappa sleep
slept well and long last night and today is the first of 2 days off that i am so loving...
in a whole better place than i was in at the start of the weekend, worked yesterday and was still a little not there, worked out that i hadn't slept properly since thursday...
was just round at manolis's ate well, then he offered me some watermelon, which was lovely, then a friend of his offered me some cypriot grappa... i can't remember what they called it but it was just like the italian drink... clear, strong...
asking manolis if he'd had one:
i've had one glass and i'm smiling,
if i have another i'll be laughing,
if i have a third...
cypriot grappa alternating with bits of watermelon... hmmm
then in the warm glow that that gave me i went over to the clerks factory shop on seven sisters road and picked out the 2005/2006 longcat shoe... missed josiah just a bit as she was always the one who helped me decide in that shop... a nice lace-up blue suede affair, trainerish...
spoke with josiah after and have decided to go down there to see the pair of them tomorrow for the day... way too long since i've seen my goddaughter... and tonight i'm off to see felinity and dad, he's in town buying mum's birthday present... annual thing...
and then this piano symmetry... it came out of teaching about modes last thursday, always a tricky subject... the riskiest of those sessions i teach in that module, being the furthest out we go in terms of music theory, and the nature of the group i'm teaching to means it doesn't completely make sense to everyone...
anyway i was thinking about scales afterwards, about the structure of the major scale - tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone... (last year on the same course i had a tony... it made me laugh all year, he didn't find it quite so funny)... and what scale would have the same structure coming down...
so on sunday i sat at my fender rhodes piano and played through some scales to find out... it became clear to me that each scale would have another scale associated with it which was it's mirror image, i found that for all the major modes the mirror image was another major mode except for the dorian mode, which was it's own mirror image...!
one example of the dorian mode is played from D to D using only the white notes...
and i appreciate that this may be a little tricky to follow, i apologise,
following on from this i noticed that the note D on the piano (in between the two black notes), is a point of symmetry for the keyboard, if you put a mirror in the centre of the note D and looked along the keyboard at it, the keyboard would look right...
also the note Ab is a point of symmetry...
i love this... the piano keyboard is so a part of my life... finding a new way to look at it, to percieve it... hmmm
x
in a whole better place than i was in at the start of the weekend, worked yesterday and was still a little not there, worked out that i hadn't slept properly since thursday...
was just round at manolis's ate well, then he offered me some watermelon, which was lovely, then a friend of his offered me some cypriot grappa... i can't remember what they called it but it was just like the italian drink... clear, strong...
asking manolis if he'd had one:
i've had one glass and i'm smiling,
if i have another i'll be laughing,
if i have a third...
cypriot grappa alternating with bits of watermelon... hmmm
then in the warm glow that that gave me i went over to the clerks factory shop on seven sisters road and picked out the 2005/2006 longcat shoe... missed josiah just a bit as she was always the one who helped me decide in that shop... a nice lace-up blue suede affair, trainerish...
spoke with josiah after and have decided to go down there to see the pair of them tomorrow for the day... way too long since i've seen my goddaughter... and tonight i'm off to see felinity and dad, he's in town buying mum's birthday present... annual thing...
and then this piano symmetry... it came out of teaching about modes last thursday, always a tricky subject... the riskiest of those sessions i teach in that module, being the furthest out we go in terms of music theory, and the nature of the group i'm teaching to means it doesn't completely make sense to everyone...
anyway i was thinking about scales afterwards, about the structure of the major scale - tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone... (last year on the same course i had a tony... it made me laugh all year, he didn't find it quite so funny)... and what scale would have the same structure coming down...
so on sunday i sat at my fender rhodes piano and played through some scales to find out... it became clear to me that each scale would have another scale associated with it which was it's mirror image, i found that for all the major modes the mirror image was another major mode except for the dorian mode, which was it's own mirror image...!
one example of the dorian mode is played from D to D using only the white notes...
and i appreciate that this may be a little tricky to follow, i apologise,
following on from this i noticed that the note D on the piano (in between the two black notes), is a point of symmetry for the keyboard, if you put a mirror in the centre of the note D and looked along the keyboard at it, the keyboard would look right...also the note Ab is a point of symmetry...
i love this... the piano keyboard is so a part of my life... finding a new way to look at it, to percieve it... hmmm
x
Sunday, November 13, 2005
not partying with felinity
just got back to this house that has that stale beer smell to it... mayhem strewn about...
i was thinking that they'd have put the house back by now but clearly it went on until the early hours... (7am) and they're still sleeping...
i got my shirt pressed, did my bit setting up the house, recycled the tetrapacks... got in sack loads of loo roll...
then realised that i simply wasn't in the right space for a party... spoke with josiah who offered that i come to brighton for the night, then in the end decided to go down south where felinity was cooking her first ever dahl...
i found all the housemates i could and raised a beer with/to them to not be a damperner... and set off...
which was lovely, we watched some seinfeld, chatted, walked around wandsworth common today, lovely autumn sunlight, a chill in the air... a heron...
i just had a really nice chilled out time with felinity and her flatmate E...
i also really enjoyed the tube journey, both south last night and north today, never tubing it as i don't... a chance to read the book i'm currently reading, what i loved by siri... can't remember her second name, paul auster's wife... the last book i read was by him as well, i wonder if they have any children and if so whether any of them have written anything, it would be good to remain in the family a little while longer...
but also just to experience the strangeness, the unreal warmth against the cold on the surface, the extreme right angle at the top of the stairs at finsbury park when it is so easy to bump into someone walking across you... the palimpsest of posters that have been ripped off and replaced by others that you only see when the new poster has yet to arrive... always makes me think of william burroughs paintings...
so now i'm going to help some in the setting back to normal of the house... i'd like to eat well tonight, i might take G over to jai's...
x
i was thinking that they'd have put the house back by now but clearly it went on until the early hours... (7am) and they're still sleeping...
i got my shirt pressed, did my bit setting up the house, recycled the tetrapacks... got in sack loads of loo roll...
then realised that i simply wasn't in the right space for a party... spoke with josiah who offered that i come to brighton for the night, then in the end decided to go down south where felinity was cooking her first ever dahl...
i found all the housemates i could and raised a beer with/to them to not be a damperner... and set off...
which was lovely, we watched some seinfeld, chatted, walked around wandsworth common today, lovely autumn sunlight, a chill in the air... a heron...
i just had a really nice chilled out time with felinity and her flatmate E...
i also really enjoyed the tube journey, both south last night and north today, never tubing it as i don't... a chance to read the book i'm currently reading, what i loved by siri... can't remember her second name, paul auster's wife... the last book i read was by him as well, i wonder if they have any children and if so whether any of them have written anything, it would be good to remain in the family a little while longer...
but also just to experience the strangeness, the unreal warmth against the cold on the surface, the extreme right angle at the top of the stairs at finsbury park when it is so easy to bump into someone walking across you... the palimpsest of posters that have been ripped off and replaced by others that you only see when the new poster has yet to arrive... always makes me think of william burroughs paintings...so now i'm going to help some in the setting back to normal of the house... i'd like to eat well tonight, i might take G over to jai's...
x
Friday, November 11, 2005
abuse and friendship
i was sat in the amazon cafe today, and P walked in, actually i saw her when she was leaving with a sandwich in her hand... she being the mother of S who runs it now that P has given it over to her...
i just exchanged a few words with P and it pleased me... i felt so different than i'd felt so far today, in fact my whole experience of the amazon was one of friendship and love... so far removed from the one relationship that was bothering me today...
i've just finished teaching the search & reflect intensive week... another source of love it turns out, much appreciation from my students... great week, though hard...
i've not been able to sort out something in my house, actually to do with my cat, because i've been working, and there has been quite some level of agro building up this week because of this...
culminating in a text message from one particular house mate which was abusive... this morning before i went to work...
it hung over me like a cloud of rain through my teaching this morning... i was teaching keyboards first thing, i couldn't shake it...
i think the storm has broken and whilst we're not exactly speaking we'll probably be alright by tomorrow night's party, not something i would normally bother blogging, i don't like giving such things the energy that blogging gives them if that makes sense to you? anyway,
that darkness throwing quite normal exchanges with people into sharp relief, making them seem full of love... that's been my day...
x
i just exchanged a few words with P and it pleased me... i felt so different than i'd felt so far today, in fact my whole experience of the amazon was one of friendship and love... so far removed from the one relationship that was bothering me today...
i've just finished teaching the search & reflect intensive week... another source of love it turns out, much appreciation from my students... great week, though hard...
i've not been able to sort out something in my house, actually to do with my cat, because i've been working, and there has been quite some level of agro building up this week because of this...
culminating in a text message from one particular house mate which was abusive... this morning before i went to work...
it hung over me like a cloud of rain through my teaching this morning... i was teaching keyboards first thing, i couldn't shake it...
i think the storm has broken and whilst we're not exactly speaking we'll probably be alright by tomorrow night's party, not something i would normally bother blogging, i don't like giving such things the energy that blogging gives them if that makes sense to you? anyway,
that darkness throwing quite normal exchanges with people into sharp relief, making them seem full of love... that's been my day...
x
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
arnica power cycling firefly party
mid search & reflect week... the sometimes strange and marvellous set of workshops that JS wrote, he who set up my college with the current boss 20 years ago...
JS died before i even came to london, i learnt the workshops from A, A who left my college recently, @ whose leaving do my current boss told me the story of the welfare state, the organisation who did the first burning down of a model of the houses of parliament that walk the plank did on saturday night to great effect...
anyway, it's always hard work the intensive search & reflect week... and at lunchtime today i realised that i wanted to have an arnica... the homeopathic remedy that i used to carry around with me all the time, but haven't felt the need for for some time now...
it was a conversation with a student that brought on this fragile moment for me... i didn't have the arnica, didn't have any on me... as a cream it's used for bruising, as a pill... (is it homeopathic..?) it's helpful for getting passed emotionally challenging moments, you know when you are a bit paralised by something, can't quite get passed it...
anyway, the afternoon session was even harder work but i was triumphant... somehow, got the students to where i needed to get them, and got myself very much back into a stronger state... cycling home after work was one of those powerful... fast... deeply satisfying journey's... crossing over the thames and then a little later crossing over the regents canal...
on another matter i was kind of hoping that my counter over there would show 1111 on friday, being the 11/11/05, just now when i looked it was up to 1121 already, so it must have passed through the date it represented at some point in the last couple of days, either 1107, 1108 or 1109... i could check actually... maybe i will, the kind of numbery thing i like... i was tempted the mark the moment when i passed the millenium but i forgot, or it didn't matter that day...
and i have been really enjoying firefly the joss whedon scifi series that fox tv axed three years ago that then got turned into the film serenity that i saw a week or two back... i bittorrented the series and i've been watching it on and off for a week now... good characters and pleasing situations... please, please, please make another series, not that i'd get to see it for years now but surely after the film...?
and we're having a party on saturday, i keep forgetting about it and have invited almost noone (actually i just invited a few of the old crowd but it's already wednesday... i am terrible at inviting people to parties) but it should be a swinger... spanish M has thousands of spaniards to call upon, the watts are playing... the cocktails will flow, it'll be a farewell to A also, he's shipping out of this birdbath republic sometime next week...
anyway, the bourne identity is on the box and i quite fancy it, after the day i've had...
x
JS died before i even came to london, i learnt the workshops from A, A who left my college recently, @ whose leaving do my current boss told me the story of the welfare state, the organisation who did the first burning down of a model of the houses of parliament that walk the plank did on saturday night to great effect...
anyway, it's always hard work the intensive search & reflect week... and at lunchtime today i realised that i wanted to have an arnica... the homeopathic remedy that i used to carry around with me all the time, but haven't felt the need for for some time now...
it was a conversation with a student that brought on this fragile moment for me... i didn't have the arnica, didn't have any on me... as a cream it's used for bruising, as a pill... (is it homeopathic..?) it's helpful for getting passed emotionally challenging moments, you know when you are a bit paralised by something, can't quite get passed it...
anyway, the afternoon session was even harder work but i was triumphant... somehow, got the students to where i needed to get them, and got myself very much back into a stronger state... cycling home after work was one of those powerful... fast... deeply satisfying journey's... crossing over the thames and then a little later crossing over the regents canal...
on another matter i was kind of hoping that my counter over there would show 1111 on friday, being the 11/11/05, just now when i looked it was up to 1121 already, so it must have passed through the date it represented at some point in the last couple of days, either 1107, 1108 or 1109... i could check actually... maybe i will, the kind of numbery thing i like... i was tempted the mark the moment when i passed the millenium but i forgot, or it didn't matter that day...
and i have been really enjoying firefly the joss whedon scifi series that fox tv axed three years ago that then got turned into the film serenity that i saw a week or two back... i bittorrented the series and i've been watching it on and off for a week now... good characters and pleasing situations... please, please, please make another series, not that i'd get to see it for years now but surely after the film...?
and we're having a party on saturday, i keep forgetting about it and have invited almost noone (actually i just invited a few of the old crowd but it's already wednesday... i am terrible at inviting people to parties) but it should be a swinger... spanish M has thousands of spaniards to call upon, the watts are playing... the cocktails will flow, it'll be a farewell to A also, he's shipping out of this birdbath republic sometime next week...
anyway, the bourne identity is on the box and i quite fancy it, after the day i've had...
x
Sunday, November 06, 2005
guy fawkes
and a lovely party...me & A (temporary resident of this house) made it over to victoria park for the fire works... including the burning of a massive model of the houses of parliament...
we got there about 15 minutes after it was supposed to start and we got there at exactly the right time... a big image of guy bursting into flames as we walked up...
the burning of the houses of parliament was just great... a remake of the 1981 welfare state version i believe... stange how watching the seat of our nations government burn to the ground answered a deep seated need in me...
fireworks hidden in the structure - for example in big ben - went off when the flames reached them, burning the wood around them really quickly...
guy himself appeared, a massive puppet, he walked passed the crowd and around the houses of parliament ending up on top, he was engulfed by flames and utterly destroyed in minutes...
i video'd quite a few bits, including guy's burning and also big ben catching alight and eventually toppling... but when the fireworks really got going, after big ben had come down, the rest of parliament burning away, i put aside the camera and just enjoyed the complete thrill of the fireworks, i so love being in a crowd and oohing and aahing at fireworks, near the end of it they let loose with so much all at once it was truly great...
i've enjoyed quite a few different november 5th nights but this one was the best, largely because of the burning of parliament... (to the talking heads tune - burning down the house)...
we couldn't find spski who'd come down separately, neither did we set eyes on W floopy who was there with Th, they being G's mum & dad, but i spoke with floopy, hope to catch him soon...
we did however see the lovely P whose house we went back to for a bit of a shindig, met her flatmate L which was cool, nice chats about meeting strangers... funnily enough didn't talk with P herself too long, hope to rectify that some day soon... and another friend of P's J, named by her mum after the lawrence durrell book that is the first of the alexandria quartet... she said that she would reread J, and go on to read the rest of the quartet for the first time, pleasing, i hope she does...
eventually me & A wended our way home, got tea and biscuits and watched the 9th gate
which was good, but not that good, too slow to do justice to the great arturo perez- reverte book it's based on... but a good attempt...and now i'm sleepy...
x
Thursday, November 03, 2005
stupid
bicycle stupidity at that... on a par with when i fell off my bike because i was reading the map while cycling... but no injuries this time...
my front wheel got a puncture, which i've been waiting for, so i could get a new inner tube with the same kind of valve as the back tire...
so yesterday i walked down hornsey road to the bike shop and they said they didn't have time to fit it but i could buy one... (an inner tube), ok, so i got it, walked the bike home again and swiftly left the house heading down to the angel to meet felinity... we ate and watched wallace & grommit and it was lovely, (we also saw these blue symbols embedded in the pavement on chapel market... marking where the canal goes underground...)...
i got home and set up the video for lost, K was watching attack of the clones and i'm glad because no matter how stupid i might have been there's no way i could match the stupidity of these new starwars films...
anyway, once videoing i decided to replace the inner tube on my front wheel, discovered that in fact to replace the inner tube i had to take off the entire wheel... you live & learn... then i discovered that i'd bought an inner tube with the same mismatched valve on it as my last - now broken - inner tube, the guy in the shop obviously seeing which kind of valve i had already on there and giving me the same type... helpful...
i went round the inside of the outer tube and found the tiny shard of glass that had made the puncture, got it out... feeling pretty conscientious... put the new inner tube in, fought with my bike to get the wheel back on, pumped it up...
and heard the unmistakeable sound of air escaping... another puncture, there must have been two tiny shards of glass i thought to myself... the new inner tube pucturing even now as i put it... having fought for so long with the beast i gave up and went upstairs to watch the video of lost with G (pretty good this week, it's picking up lost is)...
just before i went to bed last night i went to pack up the bike fixing mess and discovered that the new inner tube that i'd bought was still lying over the back of the chair i'd been sat on...
i'd taken out the old inner tube and put it right back in again... the new puncture was the old puncture... stupid...
and today would have been so nice to cycle through - well, cold for sure but nice... the bright sunlight making buildings glow against the dark clouds... the patches of blue inamongst it all... leaving work tonight i had such fun kicking through the leaves underfoot... so anyway i have to do it all again now... that'll learn me...
x
my front wheel got a puncture, which i've been waiting for, so i could get a new inner tube with the same kind of valve as the back tire...
so yesterday i walked down hornsey road to the bike shop and they said they didn't have time to fit it but i could buy one... (an inner tube), ok, so i got it, walked the bike home again and swiftly left the house heading down to the angel to meet felinity... we ate and watched wallace & grommit and it was lovely, (we also saw these blue symbols embedded in the pavement on chapel market... marking where the canal goes underground...)...
i got home and set up the video for lost, K was watching attack of the clones and i'm glad because no matter how stupid i might have been there's no way i could match the stupidity of these new starwars films...
anyway, once videoing i decided to replace the inner tube on my front wheel, discovered that in fact to replace the inner tube i had to take off the entire wheel... you live & learn... then i discovered that i'd bought an inner tube with the same mismatched valve on it as my last - now broken - inner tube, the guy in the shop obviously seeing which kind of valve i had already on there and giving me the same type... helpful...
i went round the inside of the outer tube and found the tiny shard of glass that had made the puncture, got it out... feeling pretty conscientious... put the new inner tube in, fought with my bike to get the wheel back on, pumped it up...
and heard the unmistakeable sound of air escaping... another puncture, there must have been two tiny shards of glass i thought to myself... the new inner tube pucturing even now as i put it... having fought for so long with the beast i gave up and went upstairs to watch the video of lost with G (pretty good this week, it's picking up lost is)...
just before i went to bed last night i went to pack up the bike fixing mess and discovered that the new inner tube that i'd bought was still lying over the back of the chair i'd been sat on...
i'd taken out the old inner tube and put it right back in again... the new puncture was the old puncture... stupid...
and today would have been so nice to cycle through - well, cold for sure but nice... the bright sunlight making buildings glow against the dark clouds... the patches of blue inamongst it all... leaving work tonight i had such fun kicking through the leaves underfoot... so anyway i have to do it all again now... that'll learn me...
x
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
beaux arts again
it's a grey day out there... second day off in a row and i'm meeting felinity later for a film & a meal...
yesterday was not grey, in fact it was glorious... a little cold, (last night in particular was cold), but beautiful...
so i went out into the world with my camera, listening to the piano music i recorded for love & understanding last year... ate in the garden cafe on manor gardens, my first time there, pretty good... worth a second visit...
then it was just so glorious i had to go up the beaux arts building again, this time i skulked around a bit until a resident went in and i followed them through the front door.. (yes... like a criminal)...
took the lift up to the top floor and stepped out onto the roof...
what an amazing sight... the new arsenal stadium looks good from up there, in fact the new arsenal stadium (emirates stadium) is looking good to me from close or far off... when they start playing there i may not like it too much but right now it's pleasing...
you can't quite look in every direction sadly, the view west is blocked but north is uncluttered, south & east not bad... i enjoyed looking at the school on hornsey road, where our polling station is come election day...
as i've already said the new stadium, with eburne road looking lovely just in front of it (that's right by hercules street, where manolis's cafe is)...
shifting around to the other side of the building, looking southwest,
that blue building has drivers & norris written in red lettering on it, it's right where seven sisters road meets holloway road, near the cinema...
i found my way past an open gate that said no entry and i came to someone's flat, which i swiftly came back from, but before i returned i caught sight of an easel with a painting on it... facing in this direction, capturing this view of london...
and then north... in the front of the picture are the trees of the royal northern gardens where i've been videoing leaves & sky for the past month,
further back you can see archway tower... well it's a tower at archway i suppose it might have another name and behind that (although so small on this picture you probably can't see it) the blue dome of the church by waterlow park, that same dome that i see as i cycle back from camdem, a high point amid all those trees, leafy north london...
and then a look down inside the courtyard at the lovely ornamental garden...
as i was leaving the building i video'd the water in this garden, gently moving, as is my wont...
then over into royal northern gardens for the sky videoing that will come to a close probably soon, all the while listening to this piano music of mine, all in small pieces, nothing more than two minutes, most less than a minute, i really like it, out of the context of the play it was written for, i might yet do something with it...
x
yesterday was not grey, in fact it was glorious... a little cold, (last night in particular was cold), but beautiful...
so i went out into the world with my camera, listening to the piano music i recorded for love & understanding last year... ate in the garden cafe on manor gardens, my first time there, pretty good... worth a second visit...
then it was just so glorious i had to go up the beaux arts building again, this time i skulked around a bit until a resident went in and i followed them through the front door.. (yes... like a criminal)...
took the lift up to the top floor and stepped out onto the roof...
what an amazing sight... the new arsenal stadium looks good from up there, in fact the new arsenal stadium (emirates stadium) is looking good to me from close or far off... when they start playing there i may not like it too much but right now it's pleasing...
you can't quite look in every direction sadly, the view west is blocked but north is uncluttered, south & east not bad... i enjoyed looking at the school on hornsey road, where our polling station is come election day... 
as i've already said the new stadium, with eburne road looking lovely just in front of it (that's right by hercules street, where manolis's cafe is)...shifting around to the other side of the building, looking southwest,
that blue building has drivers & norris written in red lettering on it, it's right where seven sisters road meets holloway road, near the cinema...i found my way past an open gate that said no entry and i came to someone's flat, which i swiftly came back from, but before i returned i caught sight of an easel with a painting on it... facing in this direction, capturing this view of london...
and then north... in the front of the picture are the trees of the royal northern gardens where i've been videoing leaves & sky for the past month,
further back you can see archway tower... well it's a tower at archway i suppose it might have another name and behind that (although so small on this picture you probably can't see it) the blue dome of the church by waterlow park, that same dome that i see as i cycle back from camdem, a high point amid all those trees, leafy north london...and then a look down inside the courtyard at the lovely ornamental garden...
as i was leaving the building i video'd the water in this garden, gently moving, as is my wont...then over into royal northern gardens for the sky videoing that will come to a close probably soon, all the while listening to this piano music of mine, all in small pieces, nothing more than two minutes, most less than a minute, i really like it, out of the context of the play it was written for, i might yet do something with it...
x
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
mia farrow
rosemaries baby was on tv last night and me & G watched it... it was the film she made when she was married to frank sinatra that really made her famous and that really pissed off frank...
because mia was so boyish ava gardner used to tease him that he was gay... it was really good, just having finished that book to see her at that time, and she sure does look boyish...
she's really good in the film which i loved, the wierd dream sequences she has, the polite conversation she has with a bishop as she's having sex with satan, the satanists being so ordinary and boring... the way that the central satanist's face lights up as he says year 1, satan lives, god is dead... very good...
i got a puncture yesterday and it meant i got the train to work in the evening, which further menat that after work i took a stroll down to the river while listening to my ipod shuffle... it was randomly coming up with the perfect tunes as i walked up to the tate modern from behind, a route i'm normally cycling, nice to catch it at a slower tempo...
there is a visual moment i love when you come out into the open space in front of the building, by the river, the young trees are lit up from underneath with electric light against the dark night around them... the front of the tate stretching away to your left, you are level with the front so it's almost as though you're falling off the edge of it and as you walk into the space the hugeness of the wall and the chimney is slowly but suddenly becoming apparent...
last night this moment was accompanied by my favourite track off time - the revelator by gillian welch, april the 14th part one perfectly matching a certain melancholy which i'm prone to it seems these days...
day off today and i hope to cach some of this marvellous sunshine before it departs again... the answer to yesterday's mystery tune, which was really hard i realised, none of my students got it, was what's going on by marvin gaye, well done to felinity for having a go...
x
because mia was so boyish ava gardner used to tease him that he was gay... it was really good, just having finished that book to see her at that time, and she sure does look boyish...
she's really good in the film which i loved, the wierd dream sequences she has, the polite conversation she has with a bishop as she's having sex with satan, the satanists being so ordinary and boring... the way that the central satanist's face lights up as he says year 1, satan lives, god is dead... very good...
i got a puncture yesterday and it meant i got the train to work in the evening, which further menat that after work i took a stroll down to the river while listening to my ipod shuffle... it was randomly coming up with the perfect tunes as i walked up to the tate modern from behind, a route i'm normally cycling, nice to catch it at a slower tempo...
there is a visual moment i love when you come out into the open space in front of the building, by the river, the young trees are lit up from underneath with electric light against the dark night around them... the front of the tate stretching away to your left, you are level with the front so it's almost as though you're falling off the edge of it and as you walk into the space the hugeness of the wall and the chimney is slowly but suddenly becoming apparent...
last night this moment was accompanied by my favourite track off time - the revelator by gillian welch, april the 14th part one perfectly matching a certain melancholy which i'm prone to it seems these days...
day off today and i hope to cach some of this marvellous sunshine before it departs again... the answer to yesterday's mystery tune, which was really hard i realised, none of my students got it, was what's going on by marvin gaye, well done to felinity for having a go...
x
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