yr3wk11 hammond organ improvisation

bites

woke up kind of blue and at some point in the day balthazara came to see me and we had a love-in, always just the ticket...

a little later than this i was lying on the bed with my hand outstretched, reading the new scientist, balthazara was near my hand...

she was in a slightly different mood from the lovely, purring, stroking balthazara, for a little while she was lying half on and half off my hand and she took to licking my hand, then her own fur, then my hand,

i knew what was coming, i smooshed her, (dinah's word) meaning i touched her belly, and she continued to lick me, but suddenly her back legs kicked in and she was kicking at my hand, then biting my hand, then biting and kicking at once, i left the hand there and we did this a few times, drifting from one state to the other...

she bit really hard, not breaking the skin (that fleshy part of the hand between the thumb and the wrist) but stinging quite a bit...

i love that cat x

persepolis... & beyond

i forgot to eat breakfast,

ran out the house down to the prince charles cinema to see persepolis which was wonderful, if a touch too long...

during the film i found some chocolate in my bag from the night before... strange breakfast...

then afterwards i got on the bike and rolled gently downhill to the river, crossing the (non) jubilee bridge, (it doesn't make me cross anymore but i mutter to myself as i cross it these days), then up by the south bank, delighted to see the water sculpture back again (appearing rooms), although the day yesterday was a bit grey for it...



up past the Hayward and through that little passage underneath waterloo bridge, down some stairs and then the booksellers under the bridge...

i found my chess opponent and defeated him a couple of times... eating a few nuts he had,

then continuing along the river, past a crowd of people looking down onto the beach where no doubt someone was sculpting sand, all the way to the tate modern so i could check how long the cy twombly exhibition was on for (until 14th september)...

then over the (non) wobbly bridge,

all this in the way that i used to love doing, still love but somehow i don't have occasion to do it so much anymore, probably since CM moved east and further away from the river, drifting on my bike amongst the bank holiday crowds, (those who weren't carnivaling)... slowing for knots in the people, speeding up when there was the room for it, only having to put my foot down once from waterloo bridge to the tate, slowing to walking pace when necessary...

all the while listening to music, mostly the instrumental version of the song i'm working on at the moment, although the lyrics have slowed to a trickle again for now,

so over the (non) wobbly bridge i go, up toward st pauls, round the side, eventually finding my way onto high holborn, by which time i know exactly where i'm going,

to that church where i lost that piano all those years ago,

and they've got a new grand piano, not brand spanking new but newer than the (lovable) wreck they used to have... it's rolled into a niche so you can't get at the keys easily, but i played a few notes at the top of the keyboard and i'm considering how to get a gig in there...

on leaving there i headed straight up to floopy's and by this time, all that cycling, so little food, i was in quite a strange state... floopy insisted i ate a cheese sandwich and i just about made it home, slumped out in front of an episode of the wire, the last series now showing in my computer, being as i looked and it seems we don't have FX... i though we did, but we don't x

a cautionary tale

this is kind of a continuation of last mondays post... money woes, but hopefully brief and not too glum...

so on monday i thought i could just go to the post office and get money out from my savings account...

this is not true...

then all this week i've been waiting for the savings people to send me a "crossed warrant" which behaves like a check, and i've been convinced that such a thing will clear straight away...

this is not true...

it arrived this morning and i raced over to the bank and paid it in, hoping to be told it had cleared already and i could start getting money again...

the cashier told me it would clear by next saturday... it took me an hour or so to believe her... kind of like that time i arrived for my flight just minutes after the cutoff point and i wouldn't believe that i couldn't just get on the flight...

a little bit like those chickens you hear about who carry on running around when their head has been cut off...

in the airport i refused to believe the truth and it took a concerted effort on the part of the person telling me the truth before i finally accepted it...

today in the bank the cashier was very busy so i raced home in a grump... rang up the bank to be told that neither the person i was speaking to, nor indeed her manager, had ever heard of a crossed warrant... they said go back to the branch...

so i raced back, arrived at the bank but realised i'd left my keys at home and so could not lock my bike up, so i cycled home... got keys... arrived at the bank for the third time, was just about to lock up my bike when dinah rang and told me she'd rang the savings people and they'd confirmed that a crossed warrant still has to clear like an ordinary check...

my lifeless chicken body slumped to the ground...

the world is a bleaker place now that i know the truth...

i'm sure it won't stay bleak for long but bleak it is x

oh and i said it wouldn't be glum... sorry x

yr3wk10 piano & hammond

i look slightly lost in this one, don't know why...

my solution to our financial nothingness was going to arrive today and it hasn't...

the bank holiday looms without funds...

ho hum x

gigged

so my new box has lost it's gig virginity,

went over to hammersmithwork to see G and we ran through the set, me teaching him 2 of mine and him teching me 2 of his...

one of mine being brand new and beautiful... (i think)...

a whole heap of acoustic guitars and vocals on the night, plus us, doing our strangely terrifying thing, a great little band called the mayfly trio, got chatting to them and found them somewhat similar to semble, that great and beautiful now defunk 3 piece from kingston... the mayfly fol not similar musically, but socially i think...

lovely D from hammersmithwork came with his S, along with JTJP... nice to be supported, and to meet S after hearing about her so much from D...

and now i'm simply knackered, still with no money but we do have gas now...

x

yr3wk9 beatnik trio & gig news

and i'm playing a gig @ the cobden club on wednesday, wednesday the 20th of august, going to be me & gareth mitchell, he of the many improvisations he's done with me...

still in a gasless universe over here so we popped over to floopy's to cook & bathe, play chess, cards, smoke, listen to tunes,

an idea for a song came to me while shaving... might come out on wednesday night...

x

money, or lack of it

so we reached one of our "we have no money" moments last night, but dinah had just been to the shops & i knew i was being paid today so it's alright.. scary but ok...

now this money i'm being paid today is from last month when i didn't work, so it's just fictional money, money the tax office thinks i should get back, which is fine because lloyds bank took a big old chunk of my very little money last week in charges, pushing me into my non-existent overdraft and setting me up for more charges next month...

so i knew the money coming in today would get me back into the black and then i was going to go and get some money from my savings account to put into the lloyds account ready for my loan repayment tomorrow...

a few weeks back N-power decided to put our gas on one of those card things, subject to running out in the middle of the night and when we put £10 on it only £3 makes it into our gas supply, some goes as payment for letting it go into emergency and some for the debt which N-power thinks we owe them, which is largely the previous tenants debt...

i mention this because i woke up today to the gas having run out again... still with no money, so i check online to make sure i was paid and by some perverse set of circumstances my orange mobile phone bill has taken up all the spare money from my paycheck that wasn't paying off the overdraft...

so i have no available money until i get the money from the savings account...

so i start to cycle off and get that money, but i remember midway there that i need my passport for proof of meness and i start back again...

and that's where i am now, no hot water, no money, searching around my room for this passport which is nowhere to be found...

but it will be found and all this will be dealt with, my loan repayment will go off fine tomorrow, i'll put money on the gas i'll shower,

just an extreme moment in amongst all this summer drought situation that is worth noting so i can laugh about it in a few months time when i'm swimming in money x

the right place at the right time

finally met the woman who moved in to the house when we moved out...

she works for the organisation which put on my week's work this week, along with CM,

she told me she liked the tune that i worked on with 4 very talented young men, part of the work,

my part in it very much being in the right place at the right time, very easy working with talented people sometimes,

and the improvisation on wednesday was also very right in my mind, even though it was somewhat strange for dinah, the video almost done, just need to go over it once more,

a real leap into the dark for me, never having heard these players before, but going on D & N's recommendation, lovely people and lovely players,

also met a young me this week, black and church going, like so many great musicians, i showed him a few things and he picked them right up, one day he was looking at my fingers in awe and the next he was doing it himself...

i hope i'll get to carry on teaching him...

so the week's work was hard but great, very good feeling about it, good to work with the 2 teachers i was with...

and naturally floopy came round for shabbat and we drank and smoked, laughed a great deal, played cards, saw the kills & the fratellis on live from abbey road,

and like often when i've been smoking and i'm inspired i can't sleep, and i'm sat here at 6 in the morning, having got up around 22 hours ago...

but no work next week so in one way it doesn't matter, just don't want to drift too far from my love, she was just as decadent tonight but she's been asleep for a couple of hours and she's still working next week...

oh and i almost forgot, it arrived, almost 5 months later it's here and it's beautiful, next week's improv for sure will be on it...

x

yr3wk9 in progress

it was nuts... and lovely...

30 minutes long,

i've got to go to bed but, numbers:

30 to 35 minutes long,

mp3: 27.7Mb
old camera: 46.7Mb
new camera: 3.63Gb
sony floopy camera: 7.16Gb

x

notions

a few different notions floating around my head today...

i have thus far made the magnificent longcat logo that floopy made for me into a 3d shape in blender...

and what i want to do, is to make an animation/film, in which the camera floats around the 3D logo before plunging into one of the eyes, coming to rest, then a hatch opens in the side of the passageway and i beckon the camera into the hatch, the room beyond is my room with my rhodes, piano and such...

although it might be better if balthazara was the one popping out of the hatch...

and actually, i went round to see john sinclair yseterday, his computer is being odd and i picked it up and took it to floopy who had a look at it...

the house john was in is up in woodgreen - 5 minutes away on my bike - it's the home of D, who i really hope to get in an improvisation one day soon, also his two kids stay there with him half the time, it's the london home of john and it's soon to be headpress's office, headpress under whose name i bought my hammond organ, but who are a book publishers...

D took me up to the roof room and there's a lovely view south, in the direction of this flat, and if i took a picture of that view, put the longcat 3D logo in amongst it somehow...?

so, on to the techy side of it and all those who wish to not be geeky turn away now please...

so, a little internet research showed me how to easily export from google sketchup into blender, so i can make things in sketchup which i find quite easy, such as buildings... simple buildings of course, nothing too fancy at this stage,

maybe the view from D's house is cut out as a bezier curve, imported into blender, the bezier curve becomes a mesh and it's extruded, exactly how i did the longcat logo,

the picture itself then put on the front of the shape, (something i haven't yet done but it shouldn't be too hard?)

and now i think about it, i could cut out a few different shapes from the picture, several different horizons, then create a kind of staircase effect, looking straight at it it would look like the picture, but as you travelled over it, different parts of it would become visible...

hmmm, makes me want to go over there right now and take a picture...

anyway, a combination of this and sketchup versions of some kind of town in front and behind the longcat logo would be nice...

then flying around the logo is done in blender although i don't yet know how to do it,

then the chroma keying, green screen as it used to be, get a solid sheet and colour it accordingly, (whichever colour is least in either me or balthazara), put a hatch into the sheet, put the sheet at the right angle, camera on the other side, video me opening the hatching and beckoning,

i also thought about using the colour black as the chroma key colour, putting the camera in the loft in compete darkness, pointing at the hatch, then i open the hatch and appear.. easier... i might try it...?

anyway, having exported the blender movie into vegas, chroma key, or maybe just use the bezier mask to cut out the right shape, but it moves of course... hmmm...

so techy thoughts over...

that's what's swimming around my head at the moment,

we watched the first episode of GBH just now and i have the rest waiting for us, although each episode is over an hour and i'm not convinced dinah is really up for it... we'll see...

x

yr3wk8 hammond guitar drums foolish story

the fruits of thursdays trip over to hammersmithwork...

i so love this hammond organ, not to mention these 2 musicians,

so, how much to tell?

i've got another piece of musicalness arriving next week i'm fairly sure...

they contacted me this week, the pre-story being that i'd ordered and paid for this item back in march, it should have arrived in a week...

many times since then they've said, oh no, can't get it to you when we said, it'll be this other date now... each time i thought, well - at least i've paid for it,

many events, the 1st of which was the recording i did @ the townhouse, the last of which was the gig last friday @ the clapham grand, "oh well, at least it'll be here for... (insert name of any number of events).."

so i get a phonecall... "we're having a bit of trouble with your credit card"

but i paid for it back in march,

"no, that's not how we do it, you pay for it when it's here with us, it's ready to be shipped now, it's sitting on my desk, so if you can just sort out the money?"

thinking back i do remember being pleasantly surprised how much money i still had after paying for this thing...

now... it may not come as a surprise to many of you that even though i could afford this thing back in march, i certainly can't afford it now...

i didn't say this exactly to the man from germany but i think he got the message...

"3 days to come up with the money or your piano module is sleeping with the fishes"

i panic, i phone N, he of john sinclair managing fame, he saves the day, super hero that he is... swinging in with his cape flying behind him...

i'm going to train him how to make radio programs on his computer, he's paying for the thing, i'll work it off or pay back the remainder...

worked out nicely in the end x

gbh andrew harvey dark night

me & dinah, with T & floopy, went over to the muswell hill odeon tonight to see the dark night...

it was very episodic, i was quite taken with it in places, for awhile i was sat there thinking - oh yeah, posthumous oscar - just because he died... la la la...

but heath ledger is very good in it, the joker is by far and away the best character,

it's not good all the way through and jonesy from carnivale was pretty ropey as the DEA,

nothing like as good as the wire - nearing the end of season 4 as i am and it remains fabulous...

or indeed G.B.H. which i haven't seen since the early 90's when it was on the telly, (and which could therefore be nothing like as good as i remember it, but it has a good chance of still being excellent), virgin central are giving me the 1st episode of 7, just like they did with the wire a few months back, and i'm doing exactly the same thing...

thankyou the world for this great telly you give me...

tonight we fell into watching a very interesting but fairly badly made docu about a 14th century or thereabouts arabic traveller, a little spoilt by the presenter but beautifully shot and a great story to tell.. one shot reminded me of the cover to a book i loved back when i was 19/20/21 around the time i saw G.B.H for the 1st time, very happy to have found it still in my possession, i might read it next, having finished the 1st century after beatrice , which i wasn't right for this time around, but which is great,

so much rereading and watching things for the 2nd time... now i've gone past 35, into the downward slope of the 2nd half my life...

the book is called a journey in ladakh by andrew harvey and i probably read about it in the guardian...

oh the london review of books, i must get that back in my life...

yr3wk7 rhodes improvisation

recorded this afternoon, before i came down to blewbury where i am now x

gig tonight

ok pop pickers...

i'm about to go to the sound check, we rehearsed last night with half the string section...

i'm getting excited...

see you there?

x

(clapham grand tonight on stage @ 10, the Tony Cannam Set)

x