Saturday, June 30, 2007
appearing rooms
this is from last wednesday (10 days ago), when me & felinity didn't go to the cinema, i've put it with the improvisation i did @ tin pan alley studio and i've messed with the video speed...
x
Friday, June 29, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
miss moneypenny writes
quite a day...
from this (above) this morning to getting the tube to south wimbledon and doing the flute thing...
which was so scary i managed to do my back in in some odd way...
to having a great random conversation on the tube sparked by a joke about the smoking ban... the stranger was on both the northern line and then the victoria line, and it turned out that he used to play the trombone just as i did, we touched on the oppressed peoples increased level of community as well as the johnny briggs theme tune...
all very marvellous and my tube travel made even better by beginning the waves by viginia woolf, which i am reading in tandem with my beautiful, gorgeous, talented, deeply sexy, highly intelligent and caring girlfriend who is typing this for me under dictation and not adding any of her own words...
because i am laid up in bed with the aforementioned bad back...
i don't know what else to say, i mean that's all really...
x
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
finding a way
just met with Z, the flautist...
final rehearsal before tomorrow, and i'm having to lower my sights...
because she's being examined and not me it's alright for me to drop to just one hand for some of it, and although i'm a little disapointed in myself for not getting all the way to both hands all of it, it is a weight of my mind that i can do the gig...
so i'm meeting her again @ the place @ 10:30, dawn project @ 8:30, it'll be tight but i'll get there, and then there'll either be a spare piano or not to practice with, exam @ 11:20, off to hammersmith directly after...
off to see R straight after that...
then a repeat of last friday's PRU experience...
it doesn't stop...
going over to T's to pick up my shades & a cd of my strings now x
final rehearsal before tomorrow, and i'm having to lower my sights...
because she's being examined and not me it's alright for me to drop to just one hand for some of it, and although i'm a little disapointed in myself for not getting all the way to both hands all of it, it is a weight of my mind that i can do the gig...
so i'm meeting her again @ the place @ 10:30, dawn project @ 8:30, it'll be tight but i'll get there, and then there'll either be a spare piano or not to practice with, exam @ 11:20, off to hammersmith directly after...
off to see R straight after that...
then a repeat of last friday's PRU experience...
it doesn't stop...
going over to T's to pick up my shades & a cd of my strings now x
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
2 steps forward 1 step back
but at least it's better than 1 forward and 2 back...
so i'm playing the piano a fair bit these days...
no
i'm playing the piano a hell of a lot today...
a moment came this evening when i was at work still using their piano and i started gaining on the pieces...
yesterday they had just been beating me, today i'm coming close up to them, they can feel my breath on their necks but they're running like anything to get away from me...
i was jubilant once i felt close to them and i went out and got myself some chocolate, only to return and find they'd gained a couple of lengths on me again...
just played the hardest one to dinah, harder playing to someone than playing on your own, and these music exams can be fairly terrifying... and i played it through, making loads of mistakes, losing the tempo many times, but this is the way,
tomorrow i'll be playing them all to her at intervals until i can do them perfectly, and then down to londonbridgework to meet the flautist and then onto T's to pick up my shades and the string recording from sunday...
i intend to get an improvisation in there as well tomorrow,
i both love and hate this process, love how it comes together, hate how hard it is...
x
so i'm playing the piano a fair bit these days...
no
i'm playing the piano a hell of a lot today...
a moment came this evening when i was at work still using their piano and i started gaining on the pieces...
yesterday they had just been beating me, today i'm coming close up to them, they can feel my breath on their necks but they're running like anything to get away from me...
i was jubilant once i felt close to them and i went out and got myself some chocolate, only to return and find they'd gained a couple of lengths on me again...
just played the hardest one to dinah, harder playing to someone than playing on your own, and these music exams can be fairly terrifying... and i played it through, making loads of mistakes, losing the tempo many times, but this is the way,
tomorrow i'll be playing them all to her at intervals until i can do them perfectly, and then down to londonbridgework to meet the flautist and then onto T's to pick up my shades and the string recording from sunday...
i intend to get an improvisation in there as well tomorrow,
i both love and hate this process, love how it comes together, hate how hard it is...
x
piano monday
i don't yet have it, because i walked the violinists home, and didn't hang around to get a DVD of my brand new strings recording.. but it exists...
it went very well, much longer than anticipated but that's often the case with recording sessions... i was in my element, being able to read music and communicate with the string players, by the time we got around to my one they were pretty tired and it wasn't the most perfect string quartet rendition of my arrangement but it was still sex on a stick and i didn't have the heart to get them to do it again, (i may regret that later)...
so i slept like a log last night after the session, got up today and lazily set to work learning up the tunes for thursday's flute exam, the first rehearsal was this evening and it was good, i couldn't play any of the 3 pieces properly but there's still time, we're rehearsing again on wednesday and i just have to be perfect on that day...
so i'll be getting up early tomorrow and playing my arse off all day, stopping only to do some paperwork for londonbridgework then going into said work to talk about paperwork, playing piano in the breaks...
the hardest piece is damn hard... the other 2 should be alright with enough practise, the hard one will just take more practise...
ok, once more around the 2nd hardest then i'm going to bed...
x
it went very well, much longer than anticipated but that's often the case with recording sessions... i was in my element, being able to read music and communicate with the string players, by the time we got around to my one they were pretty tired and it wasn't the most perfect string quartet rendition of my arrangement but it was still sex on a stick and i didn't have the heart to get them to do it again, (i may regret that later)...
so i slept like a log last night after the session, got up today and lazily set to work learning up the tunes for thursday's flute exam, the first rehearsal was this evening and it was good, i couldn't play any of the 3 pieces properly but there's still time, we're rehearsing again on wednesday and i just have to be perfect on that day...
so i'll be getting up early tomorrow and playing my arse off all day, stopping only to do some paperwork for londonbridgework then going into said work to talk about paperwork, playing piano in the breaks...
the hardest piece is damn hard... the other 2 should be alright with enough practise, the hard one will just take more practise...
ok, once more around the 2nd hardest then i'm going to bed...
x
Sunday, June 24, 2007
strings sunday
so, on friday T told me that the string session had to be tonight, sadly i'll be missing part of W(floopy)shaman's birthday bash for it but needs must...
so today, as well as doing my customary sunday thing with dinah, learning up another part of the handel piece that's hard, i'm putting together my string arrangement for anti-stardust...
i've been working on T's strings for a few sessions and i'm taking the opportunity of the session to record my own stuff as well, just this one tune...
it still could fall off the end of the session but i don't think it will...
so here i am, not a whole heap of sleep after a great night for me, dinah & Gordy @ dr K's... running MIDI strings through cubase, that will then convert into printed notes, that will then sit in front of real string players that will then become part of anti-stardust...
x
so today, as well as doing my customary sunday thing with dinah, learning up another part of the handel piece that's hard, i'm putting together my string arrangement for anti-stardust...
i've been working on T's strings for a few sessions and i'm taking the opportunity of the session to record my own stuff as well, just this one tune...
it still could fall off the end of the session but i don't think it will...
so here i am, not a whole heap of sleep after a great night for me, dinah & Gordy @ dr K's... running MIDI strings through cubase, that will then convert into printed notes, that will then sit in front of real string players that will then become part of anti-stardust...
x
Thursday, June 21, 2007
work dribbles in
head full of paperwork today, no fun...
but i did get to meet with yimkin and talk about antistardust... the strings plan is pretty groovy it seems, he agrees that it would be great, (did i even tell you about that?)
anyway, met with felinity after, which was delightful as ever, strolled about, taking in an obscure christian short film, the outskirts of the diehard 4.0 première, the fountain installation at the RFH, the bar/balcony while iggi pop played a gig...
and work, yes work,
probably going to budapest in august to teach search & reflect, that came up today, and i got a phone call from someone my ex-apprentice J knows (oh J, i miss you) who needs a piano accompanist for his daughters grade 6 flute exam next thursday...
just been playing through the music and it's tricky, i'm going to have to learn it in a few days... not my scene normally but i so need the work...
so excited about the strings for stardust - anti-stardust rather...
x
but i did get to meet with yimkin and talk about antistardust... the strings plan is pretty groovy it seems, he agrees that it would be great, (did i even tell you about that?)
anyway, met with felinity after, which was delightful as ever, strolled about, taking in an obscure christian short film, the outskirts of the diehard 4.0 première, the fountain installation at the RFH, the bar/balcony while iggi pop played a gig...
and work, yes work,
probably going to budapest in august to teach search & reflect, that came up today, and i got a phone call from someone my ex-apprentice J knows (oh J, i miss you) who needs a piano accompanist for his daughters grade 6 flute exam next thursday...
just been playing through the music and it's tricky, i'm going to have to learn it in a few days... not my scene normally but i so need the work...
so excited about the strings for stardust - anti-stardust rather...
x
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
routes
i cycled 11.5 miles last night to get home from felinity's place in tooting, (and in fact i followed a very similar route to the outward journey, so it was 23 miles in all yesterday), & if i cycle to work on friday (a days work in a PRU in kidbrooke, covering for a friend) then that journey will be 11.6 miles...a handy comparison, knowing that it took me 80 minutes to get home last night, that the guy whose work i'm doing on friday said it takes him 90 minutes to get there from roughly where i live...
i guess it depends on the weather report...?
x
Sunday, June 17, 2007
cafepress
i can't quite believe it's happening, but i've just finalised my 1st ever cd for sale on cafepress...
it is a cd of the 1st 6 rhodes improvisations (being week's 5, 6, 12, 17, 19 & 21 of the longcat weekly improvisation) and i began making it in response to a comment on week 6 over on youtube, (the one with a ludicrous amount of views) saying how nice it would be to have that one on cd...
W(floopy)shaman helped me out with the design and it's now ready for buying... $8.99...
i don't know what else to say about it... just... look!
x
it is a cd of the 1st 6 rhodes improvisations (being week's 5, 6, 12, 17, 19 & 21 of the longcat weekly improvisation) and i began making it in response to a comment on week 6 over on youtube, (the one with a ludicrous amount of views) saying how nice it would be to have that one on cd...
W(floopy)shaman helped me out with the design and it's now ready for buying... $8.99...
i don't know what else to say about it... just... look!
x
Friday, June 15, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
week 52
oh yes, damn right...
52 weeks,
the longcat weekly improvisation has been on the road for 52 weeks now...
and that's one whole year...
wierd huh?
rhodes, voice, tape delay x
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
bitten
our sleep cycle is way behind these days, and tomorrow is going to be a little hard because of that... but no more hard than it's been for awhile...
but once again this morning i woke after midday and i'd really intended to be out and cycling by that time...
i made it out the house with a cheese sandwich and a miniroll in me to go see T and work on his string arrangements, the sky was grey so i wore jeans and a black T-shirt, by the time i got down there the sun had come out and it was a glorious day, me in my all black outfit, with my various different bites chafing away at me...
bites... i hate them...
the other night i was hard at work marking when i should have been over @ T & W(floopy)shaman's i heard the tell-tale sound of a mosquito in here so i covered up my skin with all sorts of clothes on that hot night and got back to work... stopping after awhile to trap it in a glass and take it out... but not before it had bitten me a few times...
then i became aware that balthazara was entertaining a few visitors (hence the deflea last night) and every time i touch her i get bitten on my hand (i have 4 flea bites on my fingers so far)...
anyway, that's behind me now i hope, i'm just baring the marks and trying not to itch...
so i settled down to work on T's strings and it was productive, i'm really looking forward to the string session which'll be fairly soon, so much an area i want to grow in, string arranging, brass arranging... all that..
it all took longer than planned but it always does, i came home, still only a few chocolate biscuits in me in addition to when i'd set off...
popped over to W(floopy)shaman's to pick up the camera for the dawn project and chatted awhile with him then returned to find dinah had prepared the most delicious meal - her version of someone else's leak crumble... oh it is truly wonderful...
just about shaking off the ill-humour that i was under when i got in, hunger i guess it was...
and i've just realised something odd about my dawn project, i'm almost half way through the tape that i thought would last me the whole year and i've just found that the early weeks i was only filming for 30 seconds, somehow i slipped into filming whole minutes a month or so back... which is pointless if the early bits are only half that, so it's back to 30 second filming tomorrow morning... sorry, i guess it's a bit boring to talk about this technicality but what goes on inside my brain is what i write about...
x
but once again this morning i woke after midday and i'd really intended to be out and cycling by that time...
i made it out the house with a cheese sandwich and a miniroll in me to go see T and work on his string arrangements, the sky was grey so i wore jeans and a black T-shirt, by the time i got down there the sun had come out and it was a glorious day, me in my all black outfit, with my various different bites chafing away at me...
bites... i hate them...
the other night i was hard at work marking when i should have been over @ T & W(floopy)shaman's i heard the tell-tale sound of a mosquito in here so i covered up my skin with all sorts of clothes on that hot night and got back to work... stopping after awhile to trap it in a glass and take it out... but not before it had bitten me a few times...
then i became aware that balthazara was entertaining a few visitors (hence the deflea last night) and every time i touch her i get bitten on my hand (i have 4 flea bites on my fingers so far)...
anyway, that's behind me now i hope, i'm just baring the marks and trying not to itch...
so i settled down to work on T's strings and it was productive, i'm really looking forward to the string session which'll be fairly soon, so much an area i want to grow in, string arranging, brass arranging... all that..
it all took longer than planned but it always does, i came home, still only a few chocolate biscuits in me in addition to when i'd set off...
popped over to W(floopy)shaman's to pick up the camera for the dawn project and chatted awhile with him then returned to find dinah had prepared the most delicious meal - her version of someone else's leak crumble... oh it is truly wonderful...
just about shaking off the ill-humour that i was under when i got in, hunger i guess it was...
and i've just realised something odd about my dawn project, i'm almost half way through the tape that i thought would last me the whole year and i've just found that the early weeks i was only filming for 30 seconds, somehow i slipped into filming whole minutes a month or so back... which is pointless if the early bits are only half that, so it's back to 30 second filming tomorrow morning... sorry, i guess it's a bit boring to talk about this technicality but what goes on inside my brain is what i write about...
x
deflea
2nd time this summer,
she's looking at me now with suspicion but she is letting me stroke her...
tomorrow she'll love me again...
x
she's looking at me now with suspicion but she is letting me stroke her...
tomorrow she'll love me again...
x
Monday, June 11, 2007
anti stardust
very much in love with my beautiful girl this evening...
handed over a short notice load of marking that i collected on friday today...
began a new tune while teaching T for the last time, this weekend has been largely taken up marking and working out/writing stardust...
a dark lyric that i'm writing... kind of anti stardust...
x
handed over a short notice load of marking that i collected on friday today...
began a new tune while teaching T for the last time, this weekend has been largely taken up marking and working out/writing stardust...
a dark lyric that i'm writing... kind of anti stardust...
x
Friday, June 08, 2007
Thursday, June 07, 2007
dawn project videoblog week 13
made it out into the world this morning to do this but then once home couldn't get to work...
foolish financially but the right thing to do x
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
improvisation blanket - jade fox are invisible
a student over @ hammersmith was asking about html and it prompted me to start posting the improvisation blanket animated gif as a comment on a few different people's myspaces...
something i should be doing more of because it seems to me that it generates interest...
it always surprises me how few people have been to the improvisation blanket... i know it's of primary interest to me but... even after i'd posted the gif a few places as a link to it it's still had very, very few visits from non me personages...
anyway, above is how it looks currently, only bigger, (actually this is how it looks on my screen resolution but i think you can have more videos per line with more resolution)... it's handy for me to be able to see it now because i'm listening through all of it... currently on week 25 of 50, probably will have done week 51 before i'm through...
it's nice to be able to see @ a glance which instrument each week is...
and jade fox...
i mentioned a little while ago that i'd bumped into the guitarist & the bassist in the street... oh, it appears i didn't mention it... well i did, i was quite drunk and they told me that jade fox was no more and they had a new band... well i've finally taken the trouble to check out the new band - the invisibles - and they are pretty damn great... being produced by matthew herbert as well which is pretty classy...
x
Monday, June 04, 2007
improvisations
spent yesterday in tin pan alley studio (denmark street) recording for T... it was a long day and i hadn't slept much the night before but recording music is a beautiful thing and i gave it all i had...
carrying the keyboard home killed me a little and what with the whole lack of sleep thing that i'd been keeping at bay hitting me all at once when i got in i was a bit of a wreck...
but the day was great, meeting S, the engineer and owner of the studio, was really nice, he has a great attitude in the studio, made the whole thing work very well...
also playing with the band, including K who has recently joined as our drummer... very good stuff...
as a band we played 4 tracks, then afterwards i went over three of them overdubbing a piano track, and being as we were there and these lovely mics were already set up on the grand piano i decided to do my weekly improvisation there as well, with T & S's permission...
but by then my camera had run out of batteries and i didn't have any on me, feeling too broke to buy some specially... which maybe now i regret... maybe not...
so i recorded an improvisation anyway, it's just not video'd so isn't week 51...
it's 6 minutes long and it's sitting over there on my pace right now if you want to hear it...
i'm listening to week 11 of my weekly improvisation and although it would take 11 hours 6 minutes to listen to the entirety of my weekly improvisation up to now i am doing it, probably not all in one go...
carrying the keyboard home killed me a little and what with the whole lack of sleep thing that i'd been keeping at bay hitting me all at once when i got in i was a bit of a wreck...
but the day was great, meeting S, the engineer and owner of the studio, was really nice, he has a great attitude in the studio, made the whole thing work very well...
also playing with the band, including K who has recently joined as our drummer... very good stuff...
as a band we played 4 tracks, then afterwards i went over three of them overdubbing a piano track, and being as we were there and these lovely mics were already set up on the grand piano i decided to do my weekly improvisation there as well, with T & S's permission...
but by then my camera had run out of batteries and i didn't have any on me, feeling too broke to buy some specially... which maybe now i regret... maybe not...
so i recorded an improvisation anyway, it's just not video'd so isn't week 51...
it's 6 minutes long and it's sitting over there on my pace right now if you want to hear it...
i'm listening to week 11 of my weekly improvisation and although it would take 11 hours 6 minutes to listen to the entirety of my weekly improvisation up to now i am doing it, probably not all in one go...
Saturday, June 02, 2007
wole soyinka
a couple of early mornings and long days this week meant that i was very keen to sleep in this morning...
before dinah went off to the synagogue this morning she brought me a tea which i was keen to get at least one sip of, spski poked his head round the door when she delivered it, spski before you're ready for him is a peculiar experience...
they faded away and i woke up a little later for the sip that i wanted... then back down into sleep...
i was down in the kitchen making my second tea several hours later and the word woye soyinka came into my voice as a rhythm... a 5 rhythm with a 3 underneath it (must record it before it goes) and i was reminded that the woye soyinka interview that i took part in would now be available on the net...
so hear i am, sipping that tea, listening to the nobel laureate, the same words i heard on felinity's birthday, with every question hoping the voice will be mine...
once it's done i'm meeting dinah @ penny's for our sunday veggie roast, moved forward by a day because i'm in the studio all day tomorrow with T's band, and after eating i intend to cycle off to brentford... for the one of the last showings of the scott walker film in a cinema i don't know... waterman's...
...
just reached the end of the wole soyinka interview and there is no me... x
before dinah went off to the synagogue this morning she brought me a tea which i was keen to get at least one sip of, spski poked his head round the door when she delivered it, spski before you're ready for him is a peculiar experience...
they faded away and i woke up a little later for the sip that i wanted... then back down into sleep...
i was down in the kitchen making my second tea several hours later and the word woye soyinka came into my voice as a rhythm... a 5 rhythm with a 3 underneath it (must record it before it goes) and i was reminded that the woye soyinka interview that i took part in would now be available on the net...
so hear i am, sipping that tea, listening to the nobel laureate, the same words i heard on felinity's birthday, with every question hoping the voice will be mine...
once it's done i'm meeting dinah @ penny's for our sunday veggie roast, moved forward by a day because i'm in the studio all day tomorrow with T's band, and after eating i intend to cycle off to brentford... for the one of the last showings of the scott walker film in a cinema i don't know... waterman's...
...
just reached the end of the wole soyinka interview and there is no me... x
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