delicious lie-in this morning, thursdays have been restful for awhile now, wierd that fridays will also be holiday too now...
breakfasted @ manolis's, loufkia on the menu for the third time in a row now, things have changed... manolis commenting on the obituary section of a greek paper,
i knew this man, he was in the betting shop all the time, he died a happy man, he got 5 winners then he died...
the waitress:
stupid man, should have got himself a woman..
then i went home, got the bike and set off up the disused, cycling is the new walking, got all the way to the highgate end and i carried on, into queens wood which is fantastic, but very hilly, my present one gear bike was hellish... over into highgate wood where i saw a sign for the newly opened pavilion cafe, (where osho basho used to be), then picking up the disused - parkland walk as they call it, from highgate wood to alexandra palace, a breathtaking view opening up to your right as you do that path, (cycle, walk...) you are so high above london, yet the path is so flat, the climbing comes in between the highgate end of the disused and the highgate wood end of this part...
got within spitting distance of ally pally and then turned round and headed back, stopping in the pavilion cafe for tea and cake (which cost more than my entire brakfast @ manolis's)...
was going to go round to the landlords but i think i'll do that tomorrow now, playing with nippy tonight, gonna pop out to get some milk and maybe just play T's piano for awhile...
x
Thursday, June 09, 2005
duchess deppa solo thoughts
coming home tonight from seeing nippy, cold in my shirt which i left the house in, being a really warm day earlier... walking through the streets near my house as i listened to van morrison, still caught by the magic of astral weeks which had come in so perfectly after the lovely solo piano album by gonzales that had kept me company on the north london line...
so i was walking in the middle of the roads listening to van, appreciating the perspective that that gives me, enjoying turning corners for this visual tickle... and out of the corner of my eye i see a flash of duchess, jumping over a wall at the wrong end of her street...
so i walk over and see her, lock into eye contact, remain motionless for awhile, slowly lowering my eyelids in a friendly hello... she as still as me, a garden away, eventually she breaks the gaze and jumps up to another wall, looks back for a moment then jumps down on the other side, i walk to that corner of the street and i see her disappear over another wall... no wonder i haven't seen her since january if she's been hanging out over here...
and of course maybe it's not duchess, maybe it's another tortoiseshell / calico cat that hangs around the same street that duchess used to, i'll get a picture of this one if i see her again, compare with pictures of duchess from last year when i was writing midnight (or was it the year before that?)...
calico... just discovered on a website where i was checking the spelling of tortoiseshell, because duchess is white mixed with tortoiseshell she is calico...
hmmm...
calico...
also saw the fantastic trumpeter claude deppa on the train today, i sat down next to him and he noticed my keyboard, remarked on the amount of musicians on the train... i recounted to him the occasion when me & D (not fiat) were @ the rhythmic jazz jam, a blinding solo from a tapdancer, what could top that? then the immense sound of a trumpet from off the stage, claude deppa striding towards the stage as he let loose a driving solo...
we talked for awhile about the life of the musician, gigs, money, covers bands, (for that was where i was headed tonight), original material... nice guy, funny i should bump into him today as i spoke to francine earlier who has played with him... me & her still thinking of an exchange of lessons, although she has some other plan now which i'm dying to hear...
spent the day @ hammersmith teaching, also learning the songs we were doing tonight, let's stay together by al green being one of them, such a beautiful song, the chords, his voice...
i don't want to talk too much about the covers band itself, except that it was my first meeting with them and i have mixed feelings about the project... we'll see if i go through with it...
feeling ambivilent about that project contrasted against feeling excited about the notion of recording a solo piano album myself, prompted by how lovely the gonzales album is... who he is i don't know, but the album is right up my street, i'd like to get some money to him if i can, small label, coherent reason for actually buying the album instead of just downloading it...
i could make a habit of going to the landlords and writing some solo piano pieces, aiming for a recording either @ overtones, or just in the landlord's... maybe by the end of the summer...
hmm...
x
so i was walking in the middle of the roads listening to van, appreciating the perspective that that gives me, enjoying turning corners for this visual tickle... and out of the corner of my eye i see a flash of duchess, jumping over a wall at the wrong end of her street...
so i walk over and see her, lock into eye contact, remain motionless for awhile, slowly lowering my eyelids in a friendly hello... she as still as me, a garden away, eventually she breaks the gaze and jumps up to another wall, looks back for a moment then jumps down on the other side, i walk to that corner of the street and i see her disappear over another wall... no wonder i haven't seen her since january if she's been hanging out over here...
and of course maybe it's not duchess, maybe it's another tortoiseshell / calico cat that hangs around the same street that duchess used to, i'll get a picture of this one if i see her again, compare with pictures of duchess from last year when i was writing midnight (or was it the year before that?)...
calico... just discovered on a website where i was checking the spelling of tortoiseshell, because duchess is white mixed with tortoiseshell she is calico...
hmmm...
calico...
also saw the fantastic trumpeter claude deppa on the train today, i sat down next to him and he noticed my keyboard, remarked on the amount of musicians on the train... i recounted to him the occasion when me & D (not fiat) were @ the rhythmic jazz jam, a blinding solo from a tapdancer, what could top that? then the immense sound of a trumpet from off the stage, claude deppa striding towards the stage as he let loose a driving solo...
we talked for awhile about the life of the musician, gigs, money, covers bands, (for that was where i was headed tonight), original material... nice guy, funny i should bump into him today as i spoke to francine earlier who has played with him... me & her still thinking of an exchange of lessons, although she has some other plan now which i'm dying to hear...
spent the day @ hammersmith teaching, also learning the songs we were doing tonight, let's stay together by al green being one of them, such a beautiful song, the chords, his voice...
i don't want to talk too much about the covers band itself, except that it was my first meeting with them and i have mixed feelings about the project... we'll see if i go through with it...
feeling ambivilent about that project contrasted against feeling excited about the notion of recording a solo piano album myself, prompted by how lovely the gonzales album is... who he is i don't know, but the album is right up my street, i'd like to get some money to him if i can, small label, coherent reason for actually buying the album instead of just downloading it...
i could make a habit of going to the landlords and writing some solo piano pieces, aiming for a recording either @ overtones, or just in the landlord's... maybe by the end of the summer...
hmm...
x
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
grand union sweet thing
alright, well it's getting late, yes it is, yes it is,
and this time i forget to slip into your slumber,
the light is on the left side of your head,
and i'm standing in your doorway
and i'm mumbling and i can't remember
the last thing that ran through my head
just as the music takes an inward breath, he sings the above lines... it's been a long time since i listened to astral weeks by van morrison, i still love it so much...
so i cycled all the way in and all the way out today, i'm heading back to work tonight for a jam session with G, also lovely M will be there, could be the start of a beautiful friendship... but i'll be public transporting it, still not a night time cycler...
the way in took me 40 minutes, and i bumped into lovely M actually, similarly cycling, on the way back i went up to the thames, by the tate modern, crossed over on the millenium, then took the thames path back to the east along the north side, i had a cycle map with me & i decided to go far enough east to cath the grand union canal, the one that runs past mile end park and victoria park before disapearing eventually under islington, resurfacing for regents park (mind you that the regents canal... hmmm),
so i wove my way along the river until the tower, then i went through some fairly unpleasant roads for awhile (trusty map led me through) until i hit the canal and then it was just joy, joy, joy...
started the van morrison album as i hit the canal... it was all beautiful, such a lovely day, the water to my left looking spectacular in the sunlight... in particular when sweet thing came on i was racing up the towpath and it was blissful, such a heart breakingly beautiful song anyway...
i love my bike
x
and this time i forget to slip into your slumber,
the light is on the left side of your head,
and i'm standing in your doorway
and i'm mumbling and i can't remember
the last thing that ran through my head
just as the music takes an inward breath, he sings the above lines... it's been a long time since i listened to astral weeks by van morrison, i still love it so much...
so i cycled all the way in and all the way out today, i'm heading back to work tonight for a jam session with G, also lovely M will be there, could be the start of a beautiful friendship... but i'll be public transporting it, still not a night time cycler...
the way in took me 40 minutes, and i bumped into lovely M actually, similarly cycling, on the way back i went up to the thames, by the tate modern, crossed over on the millenium, then took the thames path back to the east along the north side, i had a cycle map with me & i decided to go far enough east to cath the grand union canal, the one that runs past mile end park and victoria park before disapearing eventually under islington, resurfacing for regents park (mind you that the regents canal... hmmm),
so i wove my way along the river until the tower, then i went through some fairly unpleasant roads for awhile (trusty map led me through) until i hit the canal and then it was just joy, joy, joy...
started the van morrison album as i hit the canal... it was all beautiful, such a lovely day, the water to my left looking spectacular in the sunlight... in particular when sweet thing came on i was racing up the towpath and it was blissful, such a heart breakingly beautiful song anyway...
i love my bike
x
Monday, June 06, 2005
new bike circling
it's got one gear, it cost me £10, it wasn't stolen,
D who lives with P, salvaging battered bikes and selling them, he's sold me this little one for now and when he's finished the one i want i'm going to sell this one back to him...
i cycled down to kings cross thameslink, then got the train to blackfriars, then hopped over the river by the tate modern and got to work real easy.
after work i went over to the salad bar @ TAZ and then wended my way along the river, discovering that it's not that effective cycling along the beach, crossing the river by the north/east hungerford bridge and finding my tentative way up to kingscross again, managing to get lost from there back to mine (even though i'd done that bit of the journey earlier), found once i got home that i'd done a tiny circle around the top of york way, half familiar roads leading me the wrong way... (how many different hilldrop roads are there - meaning the crescents, the streets, the drives..?)
so now i'm home i've got the requisite cycle maps and tomorrow's journey will be a great deal more directed, spski lending me his cycling knowledge, kingscross altogether the wrong part of town, staying in the east i'll be...
so now i'm planning to have a bath (or tomorrow my legs will shout at me), K's getting me a tiny bit of chocolate fomr the shop... it's amazing how much cycling takes it out of you when you're not accustomed to it...
x
D who lives with P, salvaging battered bikes and selling them, he's sold me this little one for now and when he's finished the one i want i'm going to sell this one back to him...
i cycled down to kings cross thameslink, then got the train to blackfriars, then hopped over the river by the tate modern and got to work real easy.
after work i went over to the salad bar @ TAZ and then wended my way along the river, discovering that it's not that effective cycling along the beach, crossing the river by the north/east hungerford bridge and finding my tentative way up to kingscross again, managing to get lost from there back to mine (even though i'd done that bit of the journey earlier), found once i got home that i'd done a tiny circle around the top of york way, half familiar roads leading me the wrong way... (how many different hilldrop roads are there - meaning the crescents, the streets, the drives..?)
so now i'm home i've got the requisite cycle maps and tomorrow's journey will be a great deal more directed, spski lending me his cycling knowledge, kingscross altogether the wrong part of town, staying in the east i'll be...
so now i'm planning to have a bath (or tomorrow my legs will shout at me), K's getting me a tiny bit of chocolate fomr the shop... it's amazing how much cycling takes it out of you when you're not accustomed to it...
x
Sunday, June 05, 2005
The Interview Game - on this the birthday of this blog
1. Which is your favourite stretch of the Thames and why?
i’m particularly fond of the southside of the thames from
the tate modern down to the london eye...
partly for the tate modern & the eye themselves, the national film theatre and the whole of the south bank... the bookstall under waterloo bridge and the skaters underneath the south bank, but mainly because of the beach that you can get down to at lowtide, the solitary feeling right there in the centre of the city, loads of people walking along the thames path and just you, or maybe one or two others, picking your way across the sand, being that close to the river... finding things the tide has left...
also the way the stairways into the water look at hightide or in between, the way the waves cover then reveal the stone steps of the two stairways down from outside the tate modern...
2. Why do you mainly read books written by men?
a partial answer is that i am a man and therefore i resonate better with other men, except that this isn't born out by my preference for female friends and also my liking for non-english (but male) writers who i resonate with better than i resonate with english (like myself) writers...
another partial answer is that there are (probably) more books written by men out there, men being better represented in the world over women... a symptom of the patriachal society that we still live in...
but this is only part of the story, i tend to get into authors and try and read as much as i can by that author... i'm always looking out for new writers to get into but it's quite a slow process as i work through the writers i currently love, and it's true that they're all men at the moment, richard ford, haruki murakami, william maxwell, w g sebald, john berger... i had a setback recently when i tried to read an isabel allende book that disappointed me, she being a writer i had previously loved, although i could still rescue her, it seems that her books since she moved to america are below par, but her books from chile (is it chile where she's from?) are excellent, how many books did she write before america though, have i read them all?
i've read some great women writers in the last year or so and some of them could get onto my favourite's list, the book i last read - the ice is singing by jane rogers was excellent and i'll be delighted to find anything else by her, mrs dalloway was fantastic and i may try another virginia woolf soon, susanna clarke, barbara kingsolver and maureen duffy were each great, maybe i'll check out more by them...
but it takes awhile for us dinosaurs to haul ourselves into the future and frankly it's bad enough women being able to publish books without me having to read any of them...
3. What is the most unusual thing you have witnessed on the disused railway line?
i like watching graffiti artists working on the disused railway, but this has happened more than once so not so unusual. i witnessed the sunrise one bright morning recently from a vantage point on the railway,
unusual for me that was, i’m guessing the sunrises every day so not so unusual for the disused... i saw three tree huggers yesterday which was pretty unusual, but the most unusual thing i've witnessed on the disused railway was a mosaic pressed into the mud that i found in late april of this year... i was investigating the twisting side paths & i came upon it, a mosaic made from lots of little pieces of broken china, in the shape of a circle with a heart in the middle,
i went back yesterday to try and find it again, i followed the same path i'd walked back then and found the site, i could tell where it was from the scattered pieces of china that lay about... sad that it's no longer there in it's emblematic form, but who knows how long it lasted, it was made at some point before the 24th of april, and it was broken at some point before yesterday...
4. If you were to compose a personal ad in the LRB what would it say?
(i found this particularly hard as the quality of personal ads in the London Review of Books is so high...)
scruffy pianist, cheap, own beard & teeth, seeks rich patron to keep him in the manner to which he has become accustomed, must be female, tolerant, beautiful, eccentric, ordinary, plain, some poetry appreciation preferred.
5. If you had to have dinner with either Julie Burchill or Tony Parsons who would you choose? (Staying at home with a sick headache is not an option)
to be bored by tony parsons or to be found boring by julie burchill... what a choice...
having lost sight of both of my potential dinner dates for awhile i had a look on the web for a taste of them, tony parsons is just as dull as I thought he might be, (i’ve never read any of his books), he now seems to pass himself off as a spiritual guru offering telephone conferences on his astral thoughts... now it could be that he’s a deeply perceptive commentator on our sick western world and the path of quietness... maybe.. but julie burchill is so going to be better company, funnier, a little too fond of the sound of her own voice probably, and it wouldn’t be the most relaxing of dinners, but julie has it... somewhat reluctantly...
there, now wasn't that a longish interview? i seem to be able to rattle on a fair bit... thankyou very much to ganching for the perceptive questions, a conversation about heimat3 would be nice if you're up for it soon...
The Official Interview Game Rules
1. If you want to participate, leave a comment below saying "interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions - each person's will be different.
3. You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
i’m particularly fond of the southside of the thames from
the tate modern down to the london eye...
partly for the tate modern & the eye themselves, the national film theatre and the whole of the south bank... the bookstall under waterloo bridge and the skaters underneath the south bank, but mainly because of the beach that you can get down to at lowtide, the solitary feeling right there in the centre of the city, loads of people walking along the thames path and just you, or maybe one or two others, picking your way across the sand, being that close to the river... finding things the tide has left...
also the way the stairways into the water look at hightide or in between, the way the waves cover then reveal the stone steps of the two stairways down from outside the tate modern...
2. Why do you mainly read books written by men?
a partial answer is that i am a man and therefore i resonate better with other men, except that this isn't born out by my preference for female friends and also my liking for non-english (but male) writers who i resonate with better than i resonate with english (like myself) writers...
another partial answer is that there are (probably) more books written by men out there, men being better represented in the world over women... a symptom of the patriachal society that we still live in...
but this is only part of the story, i tend to get into authors and try and read as much as i can by that author... i'm always looking out for new writers to get into but it's quite a slow process as i work through the writers i currently love, and it's true that they're all men at the moment, richard ford, haruki murakami, william maxwell, w g sebald, john berger... i had a setback recently when i tried to read an isabel allende book that disappointed me, she being a writer i had previously loved, although i could still rescue her, it seems that her books since she moved to america are below par, but her books from chile (is it chile where she's from?) are excellent, how many books did she write before america though, have i read them all?
i've read some great women writers in the last year or so and some of them could get onto my favourite's list, the book i last read - the ice is singing by jane rogers was excellent and i'll be delighted to find anything else by her, mrs dalloway was fantastic and i may try another virginia woolf soon, susanna clarke, barbara kingsolver and maureen duffy were each great, maybe i'll check out more by them...
but it takes awhile for us dinosaurs to haul ourselves into the future and frankly it's bad enough women being able to publish books without me having to read any of them...
3. What is the most unusual thing you have witnessed on the disused railway line?
i like watching graffiti artists working on the disused railway, but this has happened more than once so not so unusual. i witnessed the sunrise one bright morning recently from a vantage point on the railway,
unusual for me that was, i’m guessing the sunrises every day so not so unusual for the disused... i saw three tree huggers yesterday which was pretty unusual, but the most unusual thing i've witnessed on the disused railway was a mosaic pressed into the mud that i found in late april of this year... i was investigating the twisting side paths & i came upon it, a mosaic made from lots of little pieces of broken china, in the shape of a circle with a heart in the middle,
i went back yesterday to try and find it again, i followed the same path i'd walked back then and found the site, i could tell where it was from the scattered pieces of china that lay about... sad that it's no longer there in it's emblematic form, but who knows how long it lasted, it was made at some point before the 24th of april, and it was broken at some point before yesterday...
4. If you were to compose a personal ad in the LRB what would it say?
(i found this particularly hard as the quality of personal ads in the London Review of Books is so high...)
scruffy pianist, cheap, own beard & teeth, seeks rich patron to keep him in the manner to which he has become accustomed, must be female, tolerant, beautiful, eccentric, ordinary, plain, some poetry appreciation preferred.
5. If you had to have dinner with either Julie Burchill or Tony Parsons who would you choose? (Staying at home with a sick headache is not an option)
to be bored by tony parsons or to be found boring by julie burchill... what a choice...
having lost sight of both of my potential dinner dates for awhile i had a look on the web for a taste of them, tony parsons is just as dull as I thought he might be, (i’ve never read any of his books), he now seems to pass himself off as a spiritual guru offering telephone conferences on his astral thoughts... now it could be that he’s a deeply perceptive commentator on our sick western world and the path of quietness... maybe.. but julie burchill is so going to be better company, funnier, a little too fond of the sound of her own voice probably, and it wouldn’t be the most relaxing of dinners, but julie has it... somewhat reluctantly...
there, now wasn't that a longish interview? i seem to be able to rattle on a fair bit... thankyou very much to ganching for the perceptive questions, a conversation about heimat3 would be nice if you're up for it soon...
The Official Interview Game Rules
1. If you want to participate, leave a comment below saying "interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions - each person's will be different.
3. You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
Saturday, June 04, 2005
encounters
took a trip into the world and up the disused to find out something in relation to my answers to the interview game...
on the way i had some encounters and i wish to share these with you:
encounter no.1 - siri behavioural health.
i've walked passed them before, a gap in the middle of a terrace of houses on evershot road, i walked in today and found an open door, i went in and spoke to P, offering my services as a pianist / teacher / workshop leader... conscious of the summer and my need for work... kookie place, near my house, maybe some work..?
encounter no.2 - a man, then a woman carrying flowers, on a side path that i've never seen anyone but me walk... but of course people must walk it, thus making it a path... i was filming that part of my walk and they both politely stepped aside as i advanced.. both over 30..
encounter no.3 - tree huggers, including the woman with the flowers, on my way back down the disused, i saw them, three women, approaching the tree, backs to it, i stopped to smile and they invited me in... i put my back to the tree, the woman with the flowers put her arm around me.. perfectly nice... i chatted awhile with them, spoke about the tree by the renoir that i'm enamoured of...
encounter no.4 - semi naked smoker, smoking in his window about 4 floors up, very visible, i found myself looking up at him and he turned his gaze to mine, i waved, he waved back...
x
on the way i had some encounters and i wish to share these with you:
encounter no.1 - siri behavioural health.
i've walked passed them before, a gap in the middle of a terrace of houses on evershot road, i walked in today and found an open door, i went in and spoke to P, offering my services as a pianist / teacher / workshop leader... conscious of the summer and my need for work... kookie place, near my house, maybe some work..?
encounter no.2 - a man, then a woman carrying flowers, on a side path that i've never seen anyone but me walk... but of course people must walk it, thus making it a path... i was filming that part of my walk and they both politely stepped aside as i advanced.. both over 30..
encounter no.3 - tree huggers, including the woman with the flowers, on my way back down the disused, i saw them, three women, approaching the tree, backs to it, i stopped to smile and they invited me in... i put my back to the tree, the woman with the flowers put her arm around me.. perfectly nice... i chatted awhile with them, spoke about the tree by the renoir that i'm enamoured of...
encounter no.4 - semi naked smoker, smoking in his window about 4 floors up, very visible, i found myself looking up at him and he turned his gaze to mine, i waved, he waved back...
x
hangover goodbye too much violence interview almost
so how can 2 pints of guiness and a gin & tonic @ around 5 pm, followed by a meal, a film, some toast, bed at around midnight... how come i'm this hungover? i feel cheated.
the drinking was with my students, the last day of term for them and a goodbye.. always emotional... also a goodbye to this course, as it is now, big changes afoot before next academic year, me with a bit less work next year, some others with no work at all, (from this college, they have work elsewhere - as have i)...
a few students coming back next year on other courses which is good... found myself somewhat drunkenly recounting what i'd been doing ten years ago, a student who is returning, a great piano player, feeling slightly at sea...
the meal was with dr K and spanna, a thai place dr K knew, although they didn't do the fried roti which she was looking forward to, a staple dish in melbourne, nowhere it seems in london can you get it... the food was alright, fairly cheap, then dr K headed home and me & spangle went to the pictures, the original plan was to see mysterious skin but in the end we opted for sin city...
which was really good, but too long, and in the end too violent... a film in three broad sections and the last section just carries it over the edge, the constant violence starts to numb... also the story (it's all from a graphic novel) in the first two bits just that much more satisfyingly twisted than the last... all the men in leather jackets, moody, all the women in almost nothing, pouting... all a bit cliched and titillating, but good to live in that world for a couple of hours, the stories and the atmosphere of it all really good...
a long way from heimat which was my last cinematic experience...
so this week i've successfully read through twelve months of this here blog, fascinating to myself if to noone else, kind of heart breaking to trace the ups and downs, but also really good...
tomorrow is the blogs first birthday and i'm going to answer the questions that ganching has asked of me, this interview meme... the rules and the questions are in the comments to this post, i've almost finished the answers but i'm stuck on a couple, a very good selection of questions...
and it strikes me that one could trace back the meme, i read her answers to anothers questions before i requested that she interview me, presumably the one that asked her had in turn answered another, and so on and so on...
x
the drinking was with my students, the last day of term for them and a goodbye.. always emotional... also a goodbye to this course, as it is now, big changes afoot before next academic year, me with a bit less work next year, some others with no work at all, (from this college, they have work elsewhere - as have i)...
a few students coming back next year on other courses which is good... found myself somewhat drunkenly recounting what i'd been doing ten years ago, a student who is returning, a great piano player, feeling slightly at sea...
the meal was with dr K and spanna, a thai place dr K knew, although they didn't do the fried roti which she was looking forward to, a staple dish in melbourne, nowhere it seems in london can you get it... the food was alright, fairly cheap, then dr K headed home and me & spangle went to the pictures, the original plan was to see mysterious skin but in the end we opted for sin city...
which was really good, but too long, and in the end too violent... a film in three broad sections and the last section just carries it over the edge, the constant violence starts to numb... also the story (it's all from a graphic novel) in the first two bits just that much more satisfyingly twisted than the last... all the men in leather jackets, moody, all the women in almost nothing, pouting... all a bit cliched and titillating, but good to live in that world for a couple of hours, the stories and the atmosphere of it all really good...
a long way from heimat which was my last cinematic experience...
so this week i've successfully read through twelve months of this here blog, fascinating to myself if to noone else, kind of heart breaking to trace the ups and downs, but also really good...
tomorrow is the blogs first birthday and i'm going to answer the questions that ganching has asked of me, this interview meme... the rules and the questions are in the comments to this post, i've almost finished the answers but i'm stuck on a couple, a very good selection of questions...
and it strikes me that one could trace back the meme, i read her answers to anothers questions before i requested that she interview me, presumably the one that asked her had in turn answered another, and so on and so on...
x
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
tea the ice is singing sleep
drinking my first cup of tea of the day, at 5:45 pm, which is frankly wrong...
woke up too late to have my customary cup, had to jump straight in the shower and then off to work, the cup of tea i made myself last night before i napped for an hour which i didn't drink teasing me with it's presence, how much of my stability do i derive from my cup of tea?
anyway i'm sipping it now, curiously cold day, i'm going to have to start reading the weather forecasts more, only just decided to wear my coat today over my t-shirt, how cold it turned out...
wednesdays for me at the minute are about hammersmith college, in fact barons court station, the 30 minute tube journey there and back giving me a big stretch of reading, finished the ice is singing today, really good, nice to have a random book buy be quality, must look out for another jane rogers... affected me a fair bit this one, all about children, parenting, a good writer...
so i can't decide if it's going to be the next wole soyinka one or the thomas bernard memoir i started rereading then lost a month or so back... (oh i so love tea...)
tea came up last night in conversation about language, edge was talking with catalan E about words, about how there isn't an english word for pistachio, we just use the italian, and i suggested that there isn't an english word because it doesn't grow in england, it's not native, so we started checking out if there were any foods/drinks that were not native to england but had an english name...
tea?
but tea is a derivation of cha, the chinese name for it... apparently...
anyway, i got to work with 20p in my pocket, went to the cashpoint directly outside the college which had a runtime error window hiding the centre of the screen. so it took me longer to work out what was going on when it swallowed my card, because i've been sent another card in the post this month and that one had expired...
so 20p was to last me... but D from work lent me enough for my lunch and i made it home so no biggy, but it did mean i had to come straight home, no passing go, no collecting £200... half intended to go the pictures tonight...
and how am i this scatty today?
because i staill haven't caught up properly on my sleep since monday night when i had a real sleepless one, ran off to work (again no tea) on tuesday morning and was really out there with my headspace... just another experiential lesson in sleeplessness and why i should avoid it...
so enough of this random post... i have requested an interview and i must burrow myself away to consider my responses...
x
woke up too late to have my customary cup, had to jump straight in the shower and then off to work, the cup of tea i made myself last night before i napped for an hour which i didn't drink teasing me with it's presence, how much of my stability do i derive from my cup of tea?
anyway i'm sipping it now, curiously cold day, i'm going to have to start reading the weather forecasts more, only just decided to wear my coat today over my t-shirt, how cold it turned out...
wednesdays for me at the minute are about hammersmith college, in fact barons court station, the 30 minute tube journey there and back giving me a big stretch of reading, finished the ice is singing today, really good, nice to have a random book buy be quality, must look out for another jane rogers... affected me a fair bit this one, all about children, parenting, a good writer...
so i can't decide if it's going to be the next wole soyinka one or the thomas bernard memoir i started rereading then lost a month or so back... (oh i so love tea...)
tea came up last night in conversation about language, edge was talking with catalan E about words, about how there isn't an english word for pistachio, we just use the italian, and i suggested that there isn't an english word because it doesn't grow in england, it's not native, so we started checking out if there were any foods/drinks that were not native to england but had an english name...
tea?
but tea is a derivation of cha, the chinese name for it... apparently...
anyway, i got to work with 20p in my pocket, went to the cashpoint directly outside the college which had a runtime error window hiding the centre of the screen. so it took me longer to work out what was going on when it swallowed my card, because i've been sent another card in the post this month and that one had expired...
so 20p was to last me... but D from work lent me enough for my lunch and i made it home so no biggy, but it did mean i had to come straight home, no passing go, no collecting £200... half intended to go the pictures tonight...
and how am i this scatty today?
because i staill haven't caught up properly on my sleep since monday night when i had a real sleepless one, ran off to work (again no tea) on tuesday morning and was really out there with my headspace... just another experiential lesson in sleeplessness and why i should avoid it...
so enough of this random post... i have requested an interview and i must burrow myself away to consider my responses...
x
Monday, May 30, 2005
anniversary approaching too much tv
my first post in this blog is dated june 5th 2004, so exactly 12 months later will be next sunday...
and so i've decided to read through my entire blog thus far before then, i've read the first three months so far, last summer, fascinating (to me)...
and i've also watched 2 films on tv, firstly we dive at dawn on bbc2, john mills in a propaganda film from 1943, submarines... really good for what it is, watched it with spski after we went to manolis for breakfast, manolis back now after he left his job @ the beehive, loufkia made by his son, the dish i really love, i had it yesterday and today... manolis on good form, telling us about the party he went to last night...
then later on i sat down just for the intro to robin hood prince of thiefs on bbc1... oh what folly, i have square eyes now... alan rickman... you were great in that film...
i'm continuing to download episodes of 24, i wish i could download episodes of heimat, the original, which is currently showing on bbc4, come on one of you cultured digital types, give me a torrent...
i've got an assessment to prepare for tomorrow, i'm considering getting my students to sightread the song i wrote for the absent piano last july, anyway i can't watch any of these 24 episodes now, i've got to work... so naturally the procrastination part of my brains swings into action... hmm, a meal...
x
and so i've decided to read through my entire blog thus far before then, i've read the first three months so far, last summer, fascinating (to me)...
and i've also watched 2 films on tv, firstly we dive at dawn on bbc2, john mills in a propaganda film from 1943, submarines... really good for what it is, watched it with spski after we went to manolis for breakfast, manolis back now after he left his job @ the beehive, loufkia made by his son, the dish i really love, i had it yesterday and today... manolis on good form, telling us about the party he went to last night...
then later on i sat down just for the intro to robin hood prince of thiefs on bbc1... oh what folly, i have square eyes now... alan rickman... you were great in that film...
i'm continuing to download episodes of 24, i wish i could download episodes of heimat, the original, which is currently showing on bbc4, come on one of you cultured digital types, give me a torrent...
i've got an assessment to prepare for tomorrow, i'm considering getting my students to sightread the song i wrote for the absent piano last july, anyway i can't watch any of these 24 episodes now, i've got to work... so naturally the procrastination part of my brains swings into action... hmm, a meal...
x
Sunday, May 29, 2005
compost
what a smell people, what a smell,
like no other thing - except perhaps the toilet...
digging out the compost from the bottom of the bin, as the top in now full, but there are still recognisable bits of food in the compost, it is not the mulch that i was hoping for...
battling against the whiff as well as fighting the mulch itself, wielding a spade like i haven't done in ages...
followed by an american in paris with spski, G & new G, both G's having moved in this month, new G today...
gene kelly sure can dance, the film pretty much a vehicle for him, great though, insane dream sequence at the end which went on for hours, huge dance number... mad colours, rhapsody in blue or something like it over one part, i wonder if the gershwins wrote that for this film, or just reprised it... was it a stage show before it was a film?
new G has funny face on video, audrey hepburn & fred astaire, can't wait for that one...
and i'm downloading the closing episodes of 24, i hope it keeps its edge until the end, good until now but it still has time to get rubbish again...
x
like no other thing - except perhaps the toilet...
digging out the compost from the bottom of the bin, as the top in now full, but there are still recognisable bits of food in the compost, it is not the mulch that i was hoping for...
battling against the whiff as well as fighting the mulch itself, wielding a spade like i haven't done in ages...
followed by an american in paris with spski, G & new G, both G's having moved in this month, new G today...
gene kelly sure can dance, the film pretty much a vehicle for him, great though, insane dream sequence at the end which went on for hours, huge dance number... mad colours, rhapsody in blue or something like it over one part, i wonder if the gershwins wrote that for this film, or just reprised it... was it a stage show before it was a film?
new G has funny face on video, audrey hepburn & fred astaire, can't wait for that one...
and i'm downloading the closing episodes of 24, i hope it keeps its edge until the end, good until now but it still has time to get rubbish again...
x
Saturday, May 28, 2005
one more tune
don cherry had a varied spectrum of music with his albums, eternal rhythm was an improvised madness album, hear & NOW is funk... & that's what i'm listening to now, getting all kinds of great music from soulseek today, just sitting here playing chess and watching it all come down... i was getting a bit tired of what my shuffle held yesterday, so it's mostly change today...
chesswise i went against my principles last night and played while really drunk... that lost me a game today, careful maneuvering in the last few days to get a foothold on one of my games, wasted with a careless drunken move last night, letting the enemy hordes in under my nose...
the baby birds died in a shoebox, in case you don't read the comments and care about their fate...
i started watching an american in paris this afternoon, i was videoing it but i wanted to see the beginning, fatal, i kept waiting for just one more tune from that lovely score, the gershwins... made me think about going to the last herbie hancock gig where he's playing gershwin... wonder when that is,
and i almost went to the pictures (again) to see either it's all gone pete tong or starwars, i had it all planned, i'd watch x men on tv (which i did - great), then i'd head over to the holly O, but soulseek & chess kept me rooted to this chair for the last few hours... oh well...
oh and i've found my camera again, T found it for me in the bathroom (?) but i missed so many things the weeks it was gone, the icehockey match, grace & josiah's visit, the gig on monday night, herbie hancock's gig last week,
i had it with me yesteray and i took mainly video's of the late sun moving over the surface of the thames... nice to have it back...
x
chesswise i went against my principles last night and played while really drunk... that lost me a game today, careful maneuvering in the last few days to get a foothold on one of my games, wasted with a careless drunken move last night, letting the enemy hordes in under my nose...
the baby birds died in a shoebox, in case you don't read the comments and care about their fate...
i started watching an american in paris this afternoon, i was videoing it but i wanted to see the beginning, fatal, i kept waiting for just one more tune from that lovely score, the gershwins... made me think about going to the last herbie hancock gig where he's playing gershwin... wonder when that is,
and i almost went to the pictures (again) to see either it's all gone pete tong or starwars, i had it all planned, i'd watch x men on tv (which i did - great), then i'd head over to the holly O, but soulseek & chess kept me rooted to this chair for the last few hours... oh well...
oh and i've found my camera again, T found it for me in the bathroom (?) but i missed so many things the weeks it was gone, the icehockey match, grace & josiah's visit, the gig on monday night, herbie hancock's gig last week,
i had it with me yesteray and i took mainly video's of the late sun moving over the surface of the thames... nice to have it back...
x
approaching the end pissed
next week is the last week of the courses i teach at my main job... i still have work for them in other ways and with my other job, but it's coming together... always sad to say goodbye to students... had my teaching observed this morning, it went pretty well, some interesting points came up...
and then after work i walked down by the river (on this beautiful day), eventually getting a train south to meet with bo and E, also F & M from bo's place and in the end also E's B... really nice time, pretty drunk now on cocktails... my light flickering on and off in a wierd way...
this morning i woke up eating an apple, it was lovely, pretty odd to be already eating it as i woke but i accept this kind of thing these days,
and i saw the end of heimat 3 last light (thursday)... really great in the end, you've got to watch these things altogether, not in bits, and josiah's been offered a place that she likes (probably), so things are looking good, can't wait to see the new buggy...
x
and then after work i walked down by the river (on this beautiful day), eventually getting a train south to meet with bo and E, also F & M from bo's place and in the end also E's B... really nice time, pretty drunk now on cocktails... my light flickering on and off in a wierd way...
this morning i woke up eating an apple, it was lovely, pretty odd to be already eating it as i woke but i accept this kind of thing these days,
and i saw the end of heimat 3 last light (thursday)... really great in the end, you've got to watch these things altogether, not in bits, and josiah's been offered a place that she likes (probably), so things are looking good, can't wait to see the new buggy...
x
Thursday, May 26, 2005
heimat 3 journeys balthazara hunting eerie
after working @ hammersmith yesterday i popped over to nippy's to give her the minidisk of our gig on monday night, we listened to it, one duff note from me, a few other offkey moments from other members of the band and a nonetooperfect mix means that we won't be using it too much but it's instructive to listen to it...
she made me a bag of popcorn and i went over to the renoir to see parts 3 & 4 of heimat 3, the huge long german film i'm watching this may, i'm going tonight to see parts 5 & 6 & i can't wait, the first 2 parts i saw separately and i liked them both, but seeing 2 back to back, and then in effect 4 back to back after tonight is definately the way to go... the power of it in concentrated form...
so i woke up today, slowly, as ever on a thursday, read through the guardian weekly, pottered about for a good few hours... T told me that balthazara has been terrorising 2 baby birds, she'd found one in the house and one just outside, so she put them in a pot outside and locked the catflap, so balthazara can't get at them...
personally i don't see how they can be saved now those little fella's, they're not old enough to fly and i think they're too injured to survive without their mum... i've moved them to a spot where balthazara can't reach them (except that cats can always get to things you think they can't get too) but i reckon we'll just find them dead one morning not so far in the future, starved, or balthazara will get her way with them and we'll just see some half formed feathers...
i'm quite proud of balthazara's killer instinct... no contradiction for me there with my vegetarianism... which reminds me i must get out to the amazon and eat my fill..
one more thing though... tuesday,
the day after the gig and my older students were presenting the compositions they've been working on in the last few weeks, really nice, great songs...
it was the last time i'll see J @ work sadly, she's leaving us today (i haven't been there since tuesday), but i hope i'm going to hook up with her soon outside of work, she's really nice and just in the last few weeks we've chatted abit more... i see gallery visits ahead...
i also saw P @ work, left me a little melancholy and after work i drifted down by the river, the tide going out, some of the beach visible and walkable on... i bought a couple of books under waterloo bridge, a nice copy of justine by laurence durrell, and the ice is singing by jane rogers, which i started reading last night,
i crossed over the river on the south/west hungerford bridge and i toyed with the idea of going to the cinema, i almost went to see either jacket or mysterious skin but in the end saw neither and got on the tube to come home...
at one point i looked up from my book and there was a woman sat opposite me, she smiled that half smile that commuters sometimes give to one another, i smiled a big friendly smile to her and she gave me one back... nice...
and then shortly afterwards, just as our victoria line train was getting to finsbury park i saw M, friend of spanish M who lives here, this M also spanish, also from barcelona, lovely girl, nice to have chance meetings...
ok one more thing before the cafe, the end by nossack (can't remember all his names) - about the bombing of hamburg in 1943... i finished on my way to the renoir yesterday, lent to me by P who lives with the landlord, lovely book, haunting, sebald talks about it in a natural history of destruction... haunting, also pictures in it by someone who's name i forget, one of a stream of people walking through the ruined city, with facades and pillars standing on their own... eerie...
x
she made me a bag of popcorn and i went over to the renoir to see parts 3 & 4 of heimat 3, the huge long german film i'm watching this may, i'm going tonight to see parts 5 & 6 & i can't wait, the first 2 parts i saw separately and i liked them both, but seeing 2 back to back, and then in effect 4 back to back after tonight is definately the way to go... the power of it in concentrated form...
so i woke up today, slowly, as ever on a thursday, read through the guardian weekly, pottered about for a good few hours... T told me that balthazara has been terrorising 2 baby birds, she'd found one in the house and one just outside, so she put them in a pot outside and locked the catflap, so balthazara can't get at them...
personally i don't see how they can be saved now those little fella's, they're not old enough to fly and i think they're too injured to survive without their mum... i've moved them to a spot where balthazara can't reach them (except that cats can always get to things you think they can't get too) but i reckon we'll just find them dead one morning not so far in the future, starved, or balthazara will get her way with them and we'll just see some half formed feathers...
i'm quite proud of balthazara's killer instinct... no contradiction for me there with my vegetarianism... which reminds me i must get out to the amazon and eat my fill..
one more thing though... tuesday,
the day after the gig and my older students were presenting the compositions they've been working on in the last few weeks, really nice, great songs...
it was the last time i'll see J @ work sadly, she's leaving us today (i haven't been there since tuesday), but i hope i'm going to hook up with her soon outside of work, she's really nice and just in the last few weeks we've chatted abit more... i see gallery visits ahead...
i also saw P @ work, left me a little melancholy and after work i drifted down by the river, the tide going out, some of the beach visible and walkable on... i bought a couple of books under waterloo bridge, a nice copy of justine by laurence durrell, and the ice is singing by jane rogers, which i started reading last night,
i crossed over the river on the south/west hungerford bridge and i toyed with the idea of going to the cinema, i almost went to see either jacket or mysterious skin but in the end saw neither and got on the tube to come home...
at one point i looked up from my book and there was a woman sat opposite me, she smiled that half smile that commuters sometimes give to one another, i smiled a big friendly smile to her and she gave me one back... nice...
and then shortly afterwards, just as our victoria line train was getting to finsbury park i saw M, friend of spanish M who lives here, this M also spanish, also from barcelona, lovely girl, nice to have chance meetings...
ok one more thing before the cafe, the end by nossack (can't remember all his names) - about the bombing of hamburg in 1943... i finished on my way to the renoir yesterday, lent to me by P who lives with the landlord, lovely book, haunting, sebald talks about it in a natural history of destruction... haunting, also pictures in it by someone who's name i forget, one of a stream of people walking through the ruined city, with facades and pillars standing on their own... eerie...
x
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
gigged terror
maiden voyage by herbie hancock, who i saw last week, i wrote some lyrics for it and sang it @ a college gig tonight, along with harbour walls...
saw this man... just six days ago...
hypnotised... by his fingers flow...
he was old... but his sound was fresh...
he plays his chords... sweet perfume made flesh...
this being the head, i improvised the lyrics/melody of the verses... only worked out the chords of the tune this afternoon, wrote these lyrics in the cafe today...
really scary getting up and performing it but i did it alright i think... i haven't listened back to the recording yet (which i need to record into my computer tomorrow morning before work... aaargh), so i'm still in that nice bubble where my recallection of it is still just my experience... which was really nice... much scarier than the rest of the night, which was largely organising the students and also playing in nippy's band... she accidentally lopped off my solo in one of the tunes which mortified me at the time but i got over it, i don't like getting annoyed like that... a product of the mad day i've had more than anything else...
anyway the band were pretty good for a first gig, L joined us on backing vocals and it worked pretty well i reckon...
the students were great, it was really nice night in the end, must get to bed now... big day tomorrow (tuesday)...
x
saw this man... just six days ago...
hypnotised... by his fingers flow...
he was old... but his sound was fresh...
he plays his chords... sweet perfume made flesh...
this being the head, i improvised the lyrics/melody of the verses... only worked out the chords of the tune this afternoon, wrote these lyrics in the cafe today...
really scary getting up and performing it but i did it alright i think... i haven't listened back to the recording yet (which i need to record into my computer tomorrow morning before work... aaargh), so i'm still in that nice bubble where my recallection of it is still just my experience... which was really nice... much scarier than the rest of the night, which was largely organising the students and also playing in nippy's band... she accidentally lopped off my solo in one of the tunes which mortified me at the time but i got over it, i don't like getting annoyed like that... a product of the mad day i've had more than anything else...
anyway the band were pretty good for a first gig, L joined us on backing vocals and it worked pretty well i reckon...
the students were great, it was really nice night in the end, must get to bed now... big day tomorrow (tuesday)...
x
Saturday, May 21, 2005
half asleep hallucinations
it's been quite the week for me what with one thing and another, my early night last night turned into dinner @ dr K's place, E & bo there too, really nice, dr K only there for a week and a half so still very new and shiny, a big contrast to the cluttered, homely feel of birdbath road where we're still missing her...
i guess i drank a few different drinks and when i got into bed they all jostled within me, nothing terrible, just an unsettled sleep, blathazara came in amongst it all and was very sweet, anyway, i'm drifting between sleeping and waking at one part of the night and i can see pictures on my PC monitor...
as an aside, before i make this clear... i mislaid my camera about a week ago, it must be here in this room but i just haven't seen it, the iceberg effect of my room has taken it and will give it back when it's ready, days, weeks, years later, (also some of my chess pieces seem to have gone with it...)
so last night somehow in my dreamy state i thought the spaniards might have it, the catalonians to be more precise, they were here last weekend when it went missing, they were here last night, (crazy, smoky drinking session that was going on when i got in, i didn't join them...), somehow i thought one of them had my camera and was busy downloading images into my computer, giving the camera back...
the images had that flickering, like many pictures had been taken of the same scene, one after each other, the scene was of some kind of cafe, a table with a parasol, friends... so i'm trying to work out who is at my computer, but it becomes apparent there is noone there, but the pictures are definately there... i look closely and they collapse down into the flashing green light which my monitor has when i don't turn it off...
and thinking back on it now, i didn't have my glasses on or contacts in, i couldn't have seen the detail that i saw... not that this is any great surprise, it's clearly the product of my brain, taking that blurry light flashing on and off and projecting whatever my unconscious fancies...
it's happened a few times before, but this time was the first time there were pictures, it's generally been intricate patterns that i've woken up looking at, which have turned out to be the flashing light...
the sleep of a longcat,
x
i guess i drank a few different drinks and when i got into bed they all jostled within me, nothing terrible, just an unsettled sleep, blathazara came in amongst it all and was very sweet, anyway, i'm drifting between sleeping and waking at one part of the night and i can see pictures on my PC monitor...
as an aside, before i make this clear... i mislaid my camera about a week ago, it must be here in this room but i just haven't seen it, the iceberg effect of my room has taken it and will give it back when it's ready, days, weeks, years later, (also some of my chess pieces seem to have gone with it...)
so last night somehow in my dreamy state i thought the spaniards might have it, the catalonians to be more precise, they were here last weekend when it went missing, they were here last night, (crazy, smoky drinking session that was going on when i got in, i didn't join them...), somehow i thought one of them had my camera and was busy downloading images into my computer, giving the camera back...
the images had that flickering, like many pictures had been taken of the same scene, one after each other, the scene was of some kind of cafe, a table with a parasol, friends... so i'm trying to work out who is at my computer, but it becomes apparent there is noone there, but the pictures are definately there... i look closely and they collapse down into the flashing green light which my monitor has when i don't turn it off...
and thinking back on it now, i didn't have my glasses on or contacts in, i couldn't have seen the detail that i saw... not that this is any great surprise, it's clearly the product of my brain, taking that blurry light flashing on and off and projecting whatever my unconscious fancies...
it's happened a few times before, but this time was the first time there were pictures, it's generally been intricate patterns that i've woken up looking at, which have turned out to be the flashing light...
the sleep of a longcat,
x
Thursday, May 19, 2005
thursday rituals
slept as long as i could this morning, still in a deficit after this mad week, 2 men in our house today replacing the boiler, my sleep gently interrupted every now and then by one of them coming in and tinkering with the radiator...
i so love having a day off in the week, particularly now i'm working over in hammersmith on a wednesday, and with that mad report writing engulfing the start of the week... to get up slowly as i like, open the guardian weekly that arrives on a thursday... gently peruse it...
found myself almost moved to tears by this piano man today, i resonate with him hugely, hasn't said a word since he was picked up on a wind swept island in kent, smartly dressed with all the labels ripped out, spent much of the last month visibly frightened by those around him until he's put in from of a piano where he finds peace, he plays some classical tunes but mostly what appears to be his own melancholy tunes...
x
i so love having a day off in the week, particularly now i'm working over in hammersmith on a wednesday, and with that mad report writing engulfing the start of the week... to get up slowly as i like, open the guardian weekly that arrives on a thursday... gently peruse it...
found myself almost moved to tears by this piano man today, i resonate with him hugely, hasn't said a word since he was picked up on a wind swept island in kent, smartly dressed with all the labels ripped out, spent much of the last month visibly frightened by those around him until he's put in from of a piano where he finds peace, he plays some classical tunes but mostly what appears to be his own melancholy tunes...
x
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
herbie on no sleep
one of those times when i ended writing all my reports in one night & getting no sleep & going to work the next day...
actaully not quite true, i still had one or two to complete but the main issue here is the staying up all night part...
at around 5am i took a break and walked up the disused to watch the sunrise... once i'd realised i was going to do it this way i really settled into it and liked it...
i was also downloading episodes of 24 via bittorrent which i'd only just optimised and was amazed at how fast they were downloading...
anyway, after work the next day (yesterday) i went over to the barbican for a pregig talk between julian joseph & herbie hancock... nice, particularly resonated with herbie when he said he was no longer interested in being a virtuoso pianist, he just wanted to express humanity in his playing...
now herbie hancock is already a virtuoso, but still, i saw myself right there in that statement...
the gig itself started a little late and i was intrigued to see three of the four musicians were using some kind of technology to give them more sounds... herbie himself used a few different sounds during the gig, including one sampled voice (on a doo) which rubbed me up the wrong way, except when he was using it to play chords... then it was heaven itself, herbie hancock playing chords.....
he also used a clavinet sound and a string sound that were just like classic herbie / headhunters sounds... but really it was all about the piano for me,
the guitarist had some interesting effects going on and the drummer also had some digital interface right there next to his regular kit and his tabla's,
the other musicians were all quite a bit younger than herbie (who was celebrating his 65th birthday) and it reminded me of the period when he joined miles davis's band back in the 60's, all the band were much younger than miles, and they did some fantastic, challenging albums...
as they started playing i found myself almost falling asleep in the first tune, but as the gig progressed i shook off my tiredness and really enjoyed it..
it got better and better, (as jazz gigs often do) and by the end i was really bowled over by them...
as an encore they did maiden voyage... a killer, beautiful version of it...
then i came home and slept..
x
actaully not quite true, i still had one or two to complete but the main issue here is the staying up all night part...
at around 5am i took a break and walked up the disused to watch the sunrise... once i'd realised i was going to do it this way i really settled into it and liked it...
i was also downloading episodes of 24 via bittorrent which i'd only just optimised and was amazed at how fast they were downloading...
anyway, after work the next day (yesterday) i went over to the barbican for a pregig talk between julian joseph & herbie hancock... nice, particularly resonated with herbie when he said he was no longer interested in being a virtuoso pianist, he just wanted to express humanity in his playing...
now herbie hancock is already a virtuoso, but still, i saw myself right there in that statement...
the gig itself started a little late and i was intrigued to see three of the four musicians were using some kind of technology to give them more sounds... herbie himself used a few different sounds during the gig, including one sampled voice (on a doo) which rubbed me up the wrong way, except when he was using it to play chords... then it was heaven itself, herbie hancock playing chords.....
he also used a clavinet sound and a string sound that were just like classic herbie / headhunters sounds... but really it was all about the piano for me,
the guitarist had some interesting effects going on and the drummer also had some digital interface right there next to his regular kit and his tabla's,
the other musicians were all quite a bit younger than herbie (who was celebrating his 65th birthday) and it reminded me of the period when he joined miles davis's band back in the 60's, all the band were much younger than miles, and they did some fantastic, challenging albums...
as they started playing i found myself almost falling asleep in the first tune, but as the gig progressed i shook off my tiredness and really enjoyed it..
it got better and better, (as jazz gigs often do) and by the end i was really bowled over by them...
as an encore they did maiden voyage... a killer, beautiful version of it...
then i came home and slept..
x
Sunday, May 15, 2005
i see you on buses
many reports to write this beautiful sunday afternoon, so i'll keep it brief...
had a delightful, way too short time @ felinity's birthday bash, i had to skip out before the food went on the barbie but i got to spend some funny time with G & felinity, beer in hand, it looked like it was shaping up to be a very pleasant do...
but i had to be on a train heading to brighton to see josiah perform in a gospel choir, hold grace...
i got to meet many of josiah's brighton friend who i've been hearing about from both josiah & grace, lovely people, really nice kids, also bo, spanna & dr K were there, dr K only recently moved out of my house loooovely to see her and laugh about stuff, bo there with M & G? M who she lives with, spanna with S who guesses presents... also N, M & A josiah's sister and family, they drove us back (grace, josiah & me) in the middle of the night...
when the concert started i found myself so holding back tears, really surprised me actually though it shouldn't have done, that packed out church, the powerful music, the 2 beers i'd had, i always get moved by great audience reactions, and this was very special...
josiah came on for a solo in the second tune and she was streets ahead of the other soloists, i know i'm biased but she's a pro, video'd her bits with my shaky low grade camera, grace spent some of the time with me, some with a few different adults there, but mostly she was with J, one of the brighton residents, she was amazing, she rocked grace to sleep in amongst the mayhem of the gospel gig, this in the second half when grace was really tired and quite out of sorts, J gave her to me and i spent the last few tunes holding my sleeping goddaughter, a priviledge i love...
utterly triumphant gig, lovely to have so many of josiah's friends come and support her, spski's smiling face wasn't amongst us sadly as it sold out unexpectedly and he couldn't get a ticket, but we still filled up two whole rows of josiah fans...
dr K said to me as josiah was singing away in the second of her 2 solo pieces that she'd really arrived in brighton now, and it's true...
josiah told me later that after the gig a lady from the audience came up to her and said i see you on buses, that kind of celebrity so suits josiah down to the ground, even now recounting it it brings almost a tear, although last night when she told me over a glass of wine amongst spaniards here i couldn't stop laughing,
so as i said we came back to london with N, M & A in their car, driving through the night, dropping off N & A @ their's before coming to ours, they live so close to P... who we saw today...
me & josiah out @ manolis's and P walked in, lovely to see her, tells me i'm being selfish keeping my goddaughter to myself... lovely for josiah to see her as well... if i didn't have to write these reports i'd be over @ hers probably today getting my hair cut and buying a bike... this beautiful weather brings such a nice vibe from people...
also saw C & S who i'd met on thursday in the amazon, but who i'd originally met some time ages with grace & josiah, so nice that josiah could meet her again...
la la la, what a nice afternoon... but look can i ever keep it brief? these reports aren't going to write themselves...
just to close by saying after we got back here, after me & josiah had drunk abit and chatted and i'd sorted out their bed for them, i stayed up another hour or so talking with E, spaniard, language issues... nice chats, my night ended not a million miles from where it started, a brief party @ felinity's, funny talk, a massive night down in brighton then closing with a brief partyette here, funny talk...
x
had a delightful, way too short time @ felinity's birthday bash, i had to skip out before the food went on the barbie but i got to spend some funny time with G & felinity, beer in hand, it looked like it was shaping up to be a very pleasant do...
but i had to be on a train heading to brighton to see josiah perform in a gospel choir, hold grace...
i got to meet many of josiah's brighton friend who i've been hearing about from both josiah & grace, lovely people, really nice kids, also bo, spanna & dr K were there, dr K only recently moved out of my house loooovely to see her and laugh about stuff, bo there with M & G? M who she lives with, spanna with S who guesses presents... also N, M & A josiah's sister and family, they drove us back (grace, josiah & me) in the middle of the night...
when the concert started i found myself so holding back tears, really surprised me actually though it shouldn't have done, that packed out church, the powerful music, the 2 beers i'd had, i always get moved by great audience reactions, and this was very special...
josiah came on for a solo in the second tune and she was streets ahead of the other soloists, i know i'm biased but she's a pro, video'd her bits with my shaky low grade camera, grace spent some of the time with me, some with a few different adults there, but mostly she was with J, one of the brighton residents, she was amazing, she rocked grace to sleep in amongst the mayhem of the gospel gig, this in the second half when grace was really tired and quite out of sorts, J gave her to me and i spent the last few tunes holding my sleeping goddaughter, a priviledge i love...
utterly triumphant gig, lovely to have so many of josiah's friends come and support her, spski's smiling face wasn't amongst us sadly as it sold out unexpectedly and he couldn't get a ticket, but we still filled up two whole rows of josiah fans...
dr K said to me as josiah was singing away in the second of her 2 solo pieces that she'd really arrived in brighton now, and it's true...
josiah told me later that after the gig a lady from the audience came up to her and said i see you on buses, that kind of celebrity so suits josiah down to the ground, even now recounting it it brings almost a tear, although last night when she told me over a glass of wine amongst spaniards here i couldn't stop laughing,
so as i said we came back to london with N, M & A in their car, driving through the night, dropping off N & A @ their's before coming to ours, they live so close to P... who we saw today...
me & josiah out @ manolis's and P walked in, lovely to see her, tells me i'm being selfish keeping my goddaughter to myself... lovely for josiah to see her as well... if i didn't have to write these reports i'd be over @ hers probably today getting my hair cut and buying a bike... this beautiful weather brings such a nice vibe from people...
also saw C & S who i'd met on thursday in the amazon, but who i'd originally met some time ages with grace & josiah, so nice that josiah could meet her again...
la la la, what a nice afternoon... but look can i ever keep it brief? these reports aren't going to write themselves...
just to close by saying after we got back here, after me & josiah had drunk abit and chatted and i'd sorted out their bed for them, i stayed up another hour or so talking with E, spaniard, language issues... nice chats, my night ended not a million miles from where it started, a brief party @ felinity's, funny talk, a massive night down in brighton then closing with a brief partyette here, funny talk...
x
Thursday, May 12, 2005
warm coursing blood
ritual upon ritual today, cleaned my sheets, moved my bed to a new place, decided to have an only new music policy for my ipod for a few days, so thus far i've listened to volume 1 of ethiopiques, courtesy of one of my students (i have volumes 2, 3 & 4 waiting there for me), and then ian_nagoski's warm coursing blood which was the focus of this ritual i just did:
actually his music came to me through that same student, a webpage of mp3 links he gave me... i downloaded the album last night and put it on my ipod this afternoon...
i left my house around 7:30pm, hit play on the album as i stepped onto my street, a lovely day, late sunlight making the world beautiful... i walked up to wray crescent where a cricket match was going on, wended my way through those streets up to the top of stroud green road, pausing only to bemoan the knocked down library, then across to the disused railway...
i'd decided to walk as far up it as i could while listening to the album, then i'd turn back and play it again... seeing if it finished as i arrived at my door,
i also decided not to take any pictures, just let it be a feast for my eyes and my memory, walking up that path with the sun ahead and to the right, one final decision was to walk only in the middle path, not to take any of the many side paths that i've been exploring recently...
it was a little like taking acid, the music being electronica, no beats, just electronic textures, track 1 - feather finished just as i got to the top of stroud green road, track 2 - rain kept me company at least as far as crouch end, this one just a little too nosebleed for me, relentless high pitched sounds for 15 minutes, track 3 by contrast is heavenly - the stars are beautiful, just my cup of tea the filtered, dark, washes of sound, this got me almost all the way to highgate, which gave me a dilemma, i didn't expect to reach the highgate end before the end of the album...
track 4 - a joy forever, began near the highgate end of the disused, carried me over the road there, down another path, along another road and into an enchanted place i'd never been to before by the name of queens wood...
true to my plan the track finished and i stopped... went a little further out of curiousity but turned back and hit play on the album exactly where i'd reached when it finished...
the sun going down rapidly behind me now i came back through the roads to the highgate end of the disused and plunged homewards, the first 2 tracks on the album building this fearful sound as i took in the darkening trees and most of the same faces i'd seen on my way out, mostly lone walkers, some with dogs, a man who'd been whistling as i came off the disused on the way to queens wood... a group of 4 boys pushing each other about on the halfpipe, track 3 the stars are beautiful, probably my favourite, kicking in nearer where i'd joined the disused, lasting past stroud green road, past the demolished library, track 4 beginning as i threaded my way through the streets, choosing a slightly different way home so as not to walk through wray crescent after dark, i'd paused a couple of times on the way up, firstly to take a picture of the demolished library, secondly to half heartedly look for a beautiful mosaic in the mud i'd seen on a side path a few weeks back, to compensate for these stops i looped around the other end of my road, the track finished within about a minute of me arriving home...
beautiful album, if challenging at times, highly recomended if you like abit of electronica,
now i'm about to do one last ritual on this day of rituals, take a bath with my back door open, not done it for years but i used to do it a fair bit when i first moved in here, before we had a catflap for balthazara so she'd always come in and say hello...
then maybe food, or maybe just sleep, work tomorrow, lovely to have had this day off, for once i feel centred in myself before the end of the week, good sign...
x
actually his music came to me through that same student, a webpage of mp3 links he gave me... i downloaded the album last night and put it on my ipod this afternoon...
i left my house around 7:30pm, hit play on the album as i stepped onto my street, a lovely day, late sunlight making the world beautiful... i walked up to wray crescent where a cricket match was going on, wended my way through those streets up to the top of stroud green road, pausing only to bemoan the knocked down library, then across to the disused railway...
i'd decided to walk as far up it as i could while listening to the album, then i'd turn back and play it again... seeing if it finished as i arrived at my door,
i also decided not to take any pictures, just let it be a feast for my eyes and my memory, walking up that path with the sun ahead and to the right, one final decision was to walk only in the middle path, not to take any of the many side paths that i've been exploring recently...
it was a little like taking acid, the music being electronica, no beats, just electronic textures, track 1 - feather finished just as i got to the top of stroud green road, track 2 - rain kept me company at least as far as crouch end, this one just a little too nosebleed for me, relentless high pitched sounds for 15 minutes, track 3 by contrast is heavenly - the stars are beautiful, just my cup of tea the filtered, dark, washes of sound, this got me almost all the way to highgate, which gave me a dilemma, i didn't expect to reach the highgate end before the end of the album...
track 4 - a joy forever, began near the highgate end of the disused, carried me over the road there, down another path, along another road and into an enchanted place i'd never been to before by the name of queens wood...
true to my plan the track finished and i stopped... went a little further out of curiousity but turned back and hit play on the album exactly where i'd reached when it finished...
the sun going down rapidly behind me now i came back through the roads to the highgate end of the disused and plunged homewards, the first 2 tracks on the album building this fearful sound as i took in the darkening trees and most of the same faces i'd seen on my way out, mostly lone walkers, some with dogs, a man who'd been whistling as i came off the disused on the way to queens wood... a group of 4 boys pushing each other about on the halfpipe, track 3 the stars are beautiful, probably my favourite, kicking in nearer where i'd joined the disused, lasting past stroud green road, past the demolished library, track 4 beginning as i threaded my way through the streets, choosing a slightly different way home so as not to walk through wray crescent after dark, i'd paused a couple of times on the way up, firstly to take a picture of the demolished library, secondly to half heartedly look for a beautiful mosaic in the mud i'd seen on a side path a few weeks back, to compensate for these stops i looped around the other end of my road, the track finished within about a minute of me arriving home...
beautiful album, if challenging at times, highly recomended if you like abit of electronica,
now i'm about to do one last ritual on this day of rituals, take a bath with my back door open, not done it for years but i used to do it a fair bit when i first moved in here, before we had a catflap for balthazara so she'd always come in and say hello...
then maybe food, or maybe just sleep, work tomorrow, lovely to have had this day off, for once i feel centred in myself before the end of the week, good sign...
x
odor* glasses
a statement made by a portly american* man representing banking interests somewhere near the beginning of the last century, he appears to be a character in a story told by a musician about a tour he (the musician) was on where there was much drinking going on by the musicians... maybe this is during prohibition...
all this in the last dream i had before i awoke today, in which, as well as listening to this story told by a musician i was also trying to pull my hair out and play pool, i was in a group of people... largely friends i think...
i was concentrating more on my hair than on the story which involved the musicians distilling some really strong liquer, the bank - who were funding the tour - occupying some kind of double position on this, officially banning it but unofficially allowing it... enter the portly bank representative... and this is where i wish i'd written it down immediately on waking because it was a diamond of a sentence, completely took us by surprise that this story had such a funny punchline and we really laughed, maybe there were some small tensions in the group that were relieved by a moment of real laughter...
the portly bank representative was commenting on this relation the bank had with the drinking in a dry humourous way & he closed his comments with a statement about how, given all of this, they, the bank, would not wish to be in the company of the musicians wearing odor glasses...
and it;s funny how when i came to blog it today i knew without a doubt that he'd said odor and not odour, i could see it written down in the dream almost, he was clearly american and the english spelling of odour really wasn't right, it was odor without a doubt,
trying to find that waking edge as ian anderson had it, and also laughing in a real way, in my dream... nice...
as an aside, when i checked odor and then odour in google to verify the spelling i was particulalry touched by an irish company who are Odour abatement specialists located in Trim, County Meath, Ireland...
x
all this in the last dream i had before i awoke today, in which, as well as listening to this story told by a musician i was also trying to pull my hair out and play pool, i was in a group of people... largely friends i think...
i was concentrating more on my hair than on the story which involved the musicians distilling some really strong liquer, the bank - who were funding the tour - occupying some kind of double position on this, officially banning it but unofficially allowing it... enter the portly bank representative... and this is where i wish i'd written it down immediately on waking because it was a diamond of a sentence, completely took us by surprise that this story had such a funny punchline and we really laughed, maybe there were some small tensions in the group that were relieved by a moment of real laughter...
the portly bank representative was commenting on this relation the bank had with the drinking in a dry humourous way & he closed his comments with a statement about how, given all of this, they, the bank, would not wish to be in the company of the musicians wearing odor glasses...
and it;s funny how when i came to blog it today i knew without a doubt that he'd said odor and not odour, i could see it written down in the dream almost, he was clearly american and the english spelling of odour really wasn't right, it was odor without a doubt,
trying to find that waking edge as ian anderson had it, and also laughing in a real way, in my dream... nice...
as an aside, when i checked odor and then odour in google to verify the spelling i was particulalry touched by an irish company who are Odour abatement specialists located in Trim, County Meath, Ireland...
x
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
felinity born 25 years ago today
joking with dr K over the last few weeks about her moving out, we the house where she's been living as her womb, a 2 & a half year long pregnancy, odd joke, but it made us laugh, if it was true, as she moved out today, she'd be 25 years younger than my fantastic little sister who i have decided to christen felinity here in this blog, too long has she been K, or sister, felinity she will be from hence forth...
after work today i met up with P for brief lunch then went over to the river to mooch about, my camera ran out of battery power just as i was filming the water rippling over one of the stone steps into the thames, very similar shot (although video not stills) to some of these pictures i have over on flickr, as i was reaching into my pocket for the other batteries i had (also dead as it turned out) my london review of books fell out of my pocket and into the mud... shortly after that my ipod shuffle ran out of steam... everything running down around me...
i walked to the bookstall under waterloo bridge and bought three wole soyinka memoirs, then over the river and up charing cross road a little to a coin shop to buy 3 chinese coins for use with the yijing, finally wending my way up to the renoir to see the second film of Heimat3,
it's an 11 hour story spread over 6 films, i have a season ticket and it's on for the month of may so i'll be gradually getting through it... good stuff so far...
after work today i met up with P for brief lunch then went over to the river to mooch about, my camera ran out of battery power just as i was filming the water rippling over one of the stone steps into the thames, very similar shot (although video not stills) to some of these pictures i have over on flickr, as i was reaching into my pocket for the other batteries i had (also dead as it turned out) my london review of books fell out of my pocket and into the mud... shortly after that my ipod shuffle ran out of steam... everything running down around me...
i walked to the bookstall under waterloo bridge and bought three wole soyinka memoirs, then over the river and up charing cross road a little to a coin shop to buy 3 chinese coins for use with the yijing, finally wending my way up to the renoir to see the second film of Heimat3,
it's an 11 hour story spread over 6 films, i have a season ticket and it's on for the month of may so i'll be gradually getting through it... good stuff so far...
Monday, May 09, 2005
change
a little wistful tonight as dr K moves out tomorrow, change no doubt will be good, but she's lived in this house nearly exactly as long as i have, (a couple of months difference)... and i will miss her...
a day for events tomorrow as my sister K - who will be given her very own name here one day soon - turns 25 - oh the young thing, 25... which means i'm hitting 32 later this year, curiously unpleasant mathematical number for me... noticed that my birthday will also be on a tuesday this year, and therefore is always so, always on the same day as K's, odd not to have noticed that before...
but a name for her... for here...
... no idea just yet, but it'll come to me...
all change,
x
a day for events tomorrow as my sister K - who will be given her very own name here one day soon - turns 25 - oh the young thing, 25... which means i'm hitting 32 later this year, curiously unpleasant mathematical number for me... noticed that my birthday will also be on a tuesday this year, and therefore is always so, always on the same day as K's, odd not to have noticed that before...
but a name for her... for here...
... no idea just yet, but it'll come to me...
all change,
x
Sunday, May 08, 2005
bathed in bluebells
i didn't take my camera out with me last night as it spoilt the line of my jacket... but had i known that i would be going to kew gardens today without returning home i would certainly have gone against that aesthetic consideration...
nippy's R's birthday dinner party, lovely, lovely, lovely, nippy improvising a love song to her girlfriend in the middle of the night rhyming there've been ups & downs with but i'm still in acton town...
went to kew today with A and flitted about deliciously... the sunlight coming and going, the greenery extending in all directions...
i particularly wanted the bluebells, and she took me to them...
the bluebell woods in may... she reminded me that we'd been there last may, and i'd told her about visiting my dad in hospital the may before, then going with my mum to a bluebell wood a drive away from their house...
one may before that i'd been mountain biking with my students on an activities weekend and we'd plunged into this heavenly bluebell wood...
and then me & J, gilrfriend of a few years ago now, going to kew on mayday and seeing the bluebells, loving it so much we bought 12 month tickets...
so today, without camera, so just me and my eyes, so much nicer in a way, standing on the edge of this mass of blue in the wood, getting lost in it, bathing in it...
lovely to see A,
x
nippy's R's birthday dinner party, lovely, lovely, lovely, nippy improvising a love song to her girlfriend in the middle of the night rhyming there've been ups & downs with but i'm still in acton town...
went to kew today with A and flitted about deliciously... the sunlight coming and going, the greenery extending in all directions...
i particularly wanted the bluebells, and she took me to them...
the bluebell woods in may... she reminded me that we'd been there last may, and i'd told her about visiting my dad in hospital the may before, then going with my mum to a bluebell wood a drive away from their house...
one may before that i'd been mountain biking with my students on an activities weekend and we'd plunged into this heavenly bluebell wood...
and then me & J, gilrfriend of a few years ago now, going to kew on mayday and seeing the bluebells, loving it so much we bought 12 month tickets...
so today, without camera, so just me and my eyes, so much nicer in a way, standing on the edge of this mass of blue in the wood, getting lost in it, bathing in it...
lovely to see A,
x
Saturday, May 07, 2005
bad timing
performance, that film with mick jagger, directed by NR, he also made a film called bad timing which was on tv just now, really great director, great film, if deeply distressing...
so distressed a metal....
a line from a poem i love,
made more sense after this week, meeting a bass player who we didn't choose to be in the band i play in... talking about distressing his bass guitar...
tired and probably not making much sense...
art garfunkal... spelling different from that i guess... great in this film, as is harvy kightel, and indeed theresa russell...
lovely, distressed,
x
so distressed a metal....
a line from a poem i love,
made more sense after this week, meeting a bass player who we didn't choose to be in the band i play in... talking about distressing his bass guitar...
tired and probably not making much sense...
art garfunkal... spelling different from that i guess... great in this film, as is harvy kightel, and indeed theresa russell...
lovely, distressed,
x
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
adventure
whilst online yesterday i noticed that the tide @ london bridge was low, the 2 websites i checked disagreed by about an hour about the exact time of lowtide but one was just after 5, the other just after 6, so as i was finishing at 5 i thought it was worth checking out the adventure i've had planned for a little while...
just west of southwark bridge on the north side of the thames there is a building that juts out into the river. at hightide the water comes up almost to the walkway beside the building, but at lowtide you can see pillars holding up the building with a space underneath that obviously fills with water as the tide rises...
an early draft of harbour walls had a line about a lowtide reality... which i guess was written around may/june 2004, that space amongst those pillars is that lowtide reality... so the desire to investigate that space has been with me at least since then, if not before...
i had my new camera with me so i left as quick as i could after 5 and trekked over to the river, crossing the thames at the millenium bridge, (this picture i've posted here taken from there), coming down from the thames path to the beach by some quite scary wooden steps, obviously submerged every tide and looking a little worse for wear... a film crew were down by the waters edge when i got down, but my film subject was away to the left...
the biggest shoot of digital film so far for me, the folder containing all the files is 291Mb, maybe i won't always be so snap happy but this was worthy of recording...
quite scary approaching the pillars, a grey day by now and me still ragged after the bank holiday, also the awareness that i had to be careful of the time, being trapped by the tide down there would be very scary indeed although there was no real risk of that so long as i didn't fall asleep down there...
so i checked it out, took quite a bit of shaky lowgrade video, concieved of a very scary thriller that could be shot down there...
the water being channelled by different walls of concrete made really nice patterns of ripples, if a boat went past the waves would come in from one end, then come in a little later from the other, meeting in the middle... the sounds of the water rebounding in that concrete space, mixing with the traffic of southwark bridge right there... eerie stuff...
i want to make a video to which i'll write some music and perhaps this will be that video, clumsy and lo-fi as it will be... strange the odysseys we choose for ourselves, i'll be returning there at some point, maybe with a better camera, someday when the tide is low enough and i'm in the area...
but it's great to have checked it out, this, like the view from the top of the trellick tower that i've wanted to see for so long, long held desires to see the world from certain places... related to the walks i used to take on blewburton hill when i was younger...
x
just west of southwark bridge on the north side of the thames there is a building that juts out into the river. at hightide the water comes up almost to the walkway beside the building, but at lowtide you can see pillars holding up the building with a space underneath that obviously fills with water as the tide rises...
an early draft of harbour walls had a line about a lowtide reality... which i guess was written around may/june 2004, that space amongst those pillars is that lowtide reality... so the desire to investigate that space has been with me at least since then, if not before...
i had my new camera with me so i left as quick as i could after 5 and trekked over to the river, crossing the thames at the millenium bridge, (this picture i've posted here taken from there), coming down from the thames path to the beach by some quite scary wooden steps, obviously submerged every tide and looking a little worse for wear... a film crew were down by the waters edge when i got down, but my film subject was away to the left...
the biggest shoot of digital film so far for me, the folder containing all the files is 291Mb, maybe i won't always be so snap happy but this was worthy of recording...
quite scary approaching the pillars, a grey day by now and me still ragged after the bank holiday, also the awareness that i had to be careful of the time, being trapped by the tide down there would be very scary indeed although there was no real risk of that so long as i didn't fall asleep down there...
so i checked it out, took quite a bit of shaky lowgrade video, concieved of a very scary thriller that could be shot down there...
the water being channelled by different walls of concrete made really nice patterns of ripples, if a boat went past the waves would come in from one end, then come in a little later from the other, meeting in the middle... the sounds of the water rebounding in that concrete space, mixing with the traffic of southwark bridge right there... eerie stuff...
i want to make a video to which i'll write some music and perhaps this will be that video, clumsy and lo-fi as it will be... strange the odysseys we choose for ourselves, i'll be returning there at some point, maybe with a better camera, someday when the tide is low enough and i'm in the area...
but it's great to have checked it out, this, like the view from the top of the trellick tower that i've wanted to see for so long, long held desires to see the world from certain places... related to the walks i used to take on blewburton hill when i was younger...
x
Monday, May 02, 2005
back to front
mopping the floor before i went to bed this morning @ 7ish, grace & josiah in my bed so i crawled in where i could shortly before grace woke up, so no sleep really until they left around 2... D & M had also left by then, D claiming to be doing some gardening when he got home... i went back to bed and finally surfaced around 10pm...
not clever....
but it was a lovely party, D had never met josiah or grace, josiah with her new shorn look hadn't seen loads of our london friends for awhile... me & josiah sang early on, seemed alright to me, T video'd it so we'll see how it came out, the watts rocked it in the basement, some neighbours came round and joined in, dr K's last party as resident... orson presence providing beats 'til the early hours... E, bo, spanna, D those kids...
and i'm half considering watching the appartment before i go to bed (again), although that might really twist me up sleepwise, working tomorrow...
x
not clever....
but it was a lovely party, D had never met josiah or grace, josiah with her new shorn look hadn't seen loads of our london friends for awhile... me & josiah sang early on, seemed alright to me, T video'd it so we'll see how it came out, the watts rocked it in the basement, some neighbours came round and joined in, dr K's last party as resident... orson presence providing beats 'til the early hours... E, bo, spanna, D those kids...
and i'm half considering watching the appartment before i go to bed (again), although that might really twist me up sleepwise, working tomorrow...
x
Sunday, May 01, 2005
moment factory sleep needed
i'm very tired, just been rehearsing with various people to play music @ the party tomorrow night, but it's probably a good idea to be still awake now, to practice being awake tomorrow night...
on returning to a past post i was reminded of moment factory yesterday so i emailed off my euston braking tiny video to see if it could be included in the moment factory... got an email back today from them, friendly people, still not sure whether it's going in there or not... but i'm interested in the process... i'll keep you posted...
x
on returning to a past post i was reminded of moment factory yesterday so i emailed off my euston braking tiny video to see if it could be included in the moment factory... got an email back today from them, friendly people, still not sure whether it's going in there or not... but i'm interested in the process... i'll keep you posted...
x
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