grace turned 2 & a half on friday, me & G have been boyfriend & girlfriend for one quarter of a year since saturday, and will have been being foolish together for one half of a year next saturday...
we had a lovely day today, dressed up a little (as in... she got all calss... i looked like i always do).. some stranger in the street said: oy posho & becks... hello... we went to the amazon and then on to waterlow park, the second day there for me... then cafe nero in highgate...
then on returning home she cut my hair...
saw nippy yesterday, once i'd been out taking pictures in the park and my camera ran out of batteries i came home and hung with her for an hour or so which was great... just really good to talk to her and have her in my space... her presence prompted me to set up my mic with my mixing desk that i've been meaning to do for months... we had a good talk about a certain subject that's been bothering me and last night in my dreams i was given something that i only knew i wanted through talking to nippy...
then we went and saw her son play ice hockey, about the 3rd or 4th time i've been and i've still never seen him score... R & S were there with their three boys... it's been ages and it's always good to see them, the boys change so much...
anyway i love my haircut... i'm just throwing this together before i go and cook / eat with my beautiful girlfriend...
pictures to follow... and video's
x
still need to tell you about the mentalers...
x
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Friday, March 17, 2006
dog face
strange that i should pretty much ignore youtube for months and then only 24 hours after i start posting videos again i'm being called a dog face in reply to a comment i'd left about someone else's video (those two young, chinese men miming)...?
the last victory, being a documentary about the palio in sienna is a wonderful, wonderful film... spski recently bought it on DVD and me, him & gorby just watched it, they'd both been to sienna, i never have... i've been to duino in northeast italy and there were echoes of that place in this film...
having watched it, it has become necessary to know one or two pertinent facts, although i can't share these facts or indeed the questions until you've seen the film...
i taught with nippy today, who had some fantastic news about her son and schooling, i did a dance... i so love teaching with nippy, we want to teach together more... at the end of the lesson we had a jam, only a few students and we pretty much each played an instrument that wasn't our main instrument... i sang, nippy on bass then drums (she told me that she wanted me to form a band, so that she could play drums for me), students: N on keys, B on drums then bass, O on electric guitar & only Y doing what she does... being singing...
not the greatest music ever made but it worked quite afew times and it was great for me to practise microphone technique, the kind of singing/improvising that i would so love to do more of, reminded me of that gig over a year ago with S who now runs little bit of sunshine with M... the improvisation that part of harbour walls
came from...
also good for the students and teachers to do something they're not very good at...
oh and the mentalers... have to be another post...
the last victory, being a documentary about the palio in sienna is a wonderful, wonderful film... spski recently bought it on DVD and me, him & gorby just watched it, they'd both been to sienna, i never have... i've been to duino in northeast italy and there were echoes of that place in this film...
having watched it, it has become necessary to know one or two pertinent facts, although i can't share these facts or indeed the questions until you've seen the film...
i taught with nippy today, who had some fantastic news about her son and schooling, i did a dance... i so love teaching with nippy, we want to teach together more... at the end of the lesson we had a jam, only a few students and we pretty much each played an instrument that wasn't our main instrument... i sang, nippy on bass then drums (she told me that she wanted me to form a band, so that she could play drums for me), students: N on keys, B on drums then bass, O on electric guitar & only Y doing what she does... being singing...
not the greatest music ever made but it worked quite afew times and it was great for me to practise microphone technique, the kind of singing/improvising that i would so love to do more of, reminded me of that gig over a year ago with S who now runs little bit of sunshine with M... the improvisation that part of harbour walls
came from...
also good for the students and teachers to do something they're not very good at...
oh and the mentalers... have to be another post...
Thursday, March 16, 2006
yesterday in pictures & video
all in all it was a 35 mile cycling day, i think my route looks a little like a strange fruit, or possibly a strange face... no pictures from the morning cycle as i was in a hurry, the pictures start once i'd gone past to the south western tip of my journey, once i'd left felinity in clapham and i was chilling out in battersea park:
at first i thought these were wierd modern sculptures but after a while i realised they were sculptures that had been wrapped up for some reason...
i sat down by the water and let the various different waterfowl come and say hello and then ignore me:
this one was preparation for the second of the slowing bicycle wheel videos, which ended up at 13 and a half minutes, not so successful as the first which was cut short sadly because my camera was full, here it is in all it's 6 or so minutes (there's an angry swan chasing geese):
yes the videos are probably way too long, i have a fondness for what others often think boring... partly though, watching these today, which was such a foul, cold, rainy day it's just lovely seeing the way the sunlight plays on the water...
outside the stage door waiting for my G i was listening to my shuffle and taking pictures...
and finally to describe a little more precisely what it was like hearing these herbie hancock tunes last night as i waited for my food @ crystal...
i'd completely forgotten that i'd put them on there, all day i'd been randomly listening to tracks as i cycled by the canal or the river thames, not one herbie tune all day... i mistook them for miles davis tracks... from the era when herbie used to play for him, as did tony williams, the drummer... i hadn't put any miles davis on there at all... it was great hearing miles... (so i thought)... but i had absolutely no notion how it had got onto my ipod shuffle... (i'd had a long day - i was pretty stupid by this time, and romantic in that full moon hanging over the millenium eye kind of way)...
i started half believing that the universe had put them there for me... here you go longcat, miles davis...
at first i thought these were wierd modern sculptures but after a while i realised they were sculptures that had been wrapped up for some reason...i sat down by the water and let the various different waterfowl come and say hello and then ignore me:
this one was preparation for the second of the slowing bicycle wheel videos, which ended up at 13 and a half minutes, not so successful as the first which was cut short sadly because my camera was full, here it is in all it's 6 or so minutes (there's an angry swan chasing geese):yes the videos are probably way too long, i have a fondness for what others often think boring... partly though, watching these today, which was such a foul, cold, rainy day it's just lovely seeing the way the sunlight plays on the water...
outside the stage door waiting for my G i was listening to my shuffle and taking pictures...and finally to describe a little more precisely what it was like hearing these herbie hancock tunes last night as i waited for my food @ crystal...
i'd completely forgotten that i'd put them on there, all day i'd been randomly listening to tracks as i cycled by the canal or the river thames, not one herbie tune all day... i mistook them for miles davis tracks... from the era when herbie used to play for him, as did tony williams, the drummer... i hadn't put any miles davis on there at all... it was great hearing miles... (so i thought)... but i had absolutely no notion how it had got onto my ipod shuffle... (i'd had a long day - i was pretty stupid by this time, and romantic in that full moon hanging over the millenium eye kind of way)...i started half believing that the universe had put them there for me... here you go longcat, miles davis...
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
a hazy glow
i would have liked to say here that i rode my bike for x miles today...
but i don't have the energy for the gmap pedometer tonight... having rode those x number of miles...
as me & spski came out of the ICA having seen mirrormask the full moon was hanging in the air right by the millenium wheel...
just right, just right for the film we'd just left and just right for the day i've had...
only got 5 or so hours sleep in the end last night what with my stupidly early morning today and that kind of sleeplessness, a shadow of wobblyness over the day, is exactly the kind of thing that makes me cry in films all the more... although i would have cried in mirrormask anyway, the gorrilla/birds made me cry tonight... not quite the part that i'd expect to be bringing tears flowing...
so to see the full moon afterwards on top of that...
and all this on top of...:
(very quickly because i'm going to have a bath and then bed any minute now...)
cycling 14 miles to sydenham, including the regent canal passed victoria park, the isle of dogs, the grenwich foot tunnel under the thames, an unknown river with a cyclepath beside it almost all the way once i'd got south of the thames...
the observation of the teaching - a class of 25 6-7 yr olds... the teaching of my students... moving stuff...
the journey from sydenham to clapham to meet felinity for lunch, including sydenham hill that i'd cleverly avoided on my way to sydenham, and dulwich which is like a country estate, cycled passed my old flat on half moon lane above the hat shop (now a different shop)... and clapham common which is beautiful...
then the lunch with felinity in which we both elected to drink a pint of john smiths... (very wise)... very nice indeed, could easily have stayed in that pub all afternoon but of course she was working...
then battersea park which i just wanted to check out, stooging around, taking pictures/video (none uploaded yet so no examples... hmmm... no, i need my bed... but it would make it look so nice...?)
then drifting downstream beside the thames, from albert bridge to the tate modern... using their loo, hanging out a little way down the stone steps to the water's edge... listening to much shuffledge...
then cycling to the stage door of whichever theater G works in to meet her, having a cup of tea that made me late meeting spski for the film... racing along the strand to get to the film on time...
then the film... the full moon, the return cycle journey with spski, the detor via crystal for food, the herbie hancock album that i'd forgotten putting on my shuffle that appeared for the first time as i was waiting for my food, mistaking it for miles davis (similar band)... the conversation with spski at the kitchen table... the bath that i'm about to have, the bed that yawns to me...
x
but i don't have the energy for the gmap pedometer tonight... having rode those x number of miles...
as me & spski came out of the ICA having seen mirrormask the full moon was hanging in the air right by the millenium wheel...
just right, just right for the film we'd just left and just right for the day i've had...
only got 5 or so hours sleep in the end last night what with my stupidly early morning today and that kind of sleeplessness, a shadow of wobblyness over the day, is exactly the kind of thing that makes me cry in films all the more... although i would have cried in mirrormask anyway, the gorrilla/birds made me cry tonight... not quite the part that i'd expect to be bringing tears flowing...
so to see the full moon afterwards on top of that...
and all this on top of...:
(very quickly because i'm going to have a bath and then bed any minute now...)
cycling 14 miles to sydenham, including the regent canal passed victoria park, the isle of dogs, the grenwich foot tunnel under the thames, an unknown river with a cyclepath beside it almost all the way once i'd got south of the thames...
the observation of the teaching - a class of 25 6-7 yr olds... the teaching of my students... moving stuff...
the journey from sydenham to clapham to meet felinity for lunch, including sydenham hill that i'd cleverly avoided on my way to sydenham, and dulwich which is like a country estate, cycled passed my old flat on half moon lane above the hat shop (now a different shop)... and clapham common which is beautiful...
then the lunch with felinity in which we both elected to drink a pint of john smiths... (very wise)... very nice indeed, could easily have stayed in that pub all afternoon but of course she was working...
then battersea park which i just wanted to check out, stooging around, taking pictures/video (none uploaded yet so no examples... hmmm... no, i need my bed... but it would make it look so nice...?)
then drifting downstream beside the thames, from albert bridge to the tate modern... using their loo, hanging out a little way down the stone steps to the water's edge... listening to much shuffledge...
then cycling to the stage door of whichever theater G works in to meet her, having a cup of tea that made me late meeting spski for the film... racing along the strand to get to the film on time...
then the film... the full moon, the return cycle journey with spski, the detor via crystal for food, the herbie hancock album that i'd forgotten putting on my shuffle that appeared for the first time as i was waiting for my food, mistaking it for miles davis (similar band)... the conversation with spski at the kitchen table... the bath that i'm about to have, the bed that yawns to me...
x
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
ouch
i'm planning my route for tomorrow's school visit, it's going to be 14 miles long and i'm going to have to be there by 9 am...
that means leaving mine by 7:15 i reckon, to be on the safe side...
that means getting out of bed @ 6:30am...
considering i eventually arose today at around 1:30pm that is going to be quite a challenge...
also mirrormasking tomorrow with spski, who was my consultant on the route...
x
that means leaving mine by 7:15 i reckon, to be on the safe side...
that means getting out of bed @ 6:30am...
considering i eventually arose today at around 1:30pm that is going to be quite a challenge...
also mirrormasking tomorrow with spski, who was my consultant on the route...
x
productive
the marrying of a chord sequence that's been banging around in my head for awhile and some lyrics that i've been muttering to myself for the last week...
i think it's the session i had on friday with producer G, the possibilities of the sound... the mpc being able to deliver some bollocks should i want it...
i was a little concerned on friday that i only had 2 tunes that i knew i wanted to play at the gig and now this one floats out of the ether, along with the shadow of all those chord sequences i wrote this winter... if i could find a way of bringing them into the lyrical light...
of course once it's all written i have to learn it all, no small feat...
but it feels good to be writing, and to be in love,
and for songs to spring from love instead of from pain as is so often the case...
happy days,
x
i think it's the session i had on friday with producer G, the possibilities of the sound... the mpc being able to deliver some bollocks should i want it...
i was a little concerned on friday that i only had 2 tunes that i knew i wanted to play at the gig and now this one floats out of the ether, along with the shadow of all those chord sequences i wrote this winter... if i could find a way of bringing them into the lyrical light...
of course once it's all written i have to learn it all, no small feat...
but it feels good to be writing, and to be in love,
and for songs to spring from love instead of from pain as is so often the case...
happy days,
x
Monday, March 13, 2006
snapshot
as always on mondays i'm a little short on sleep, spent a very obsessive hour and a half last night going through all the pictures i've ever taken on my camera and finding new ones to put on my desktop... the camera which i left at producer G's on friday and this is the kind of activity that is indicative of being without it... i hope that makes sense...
spelling is nowhere today...
i just taught a workshop for new students here @ londonbridgework, they come in for interviews this week and have this workshop with me first... i always love it, seeing new faces, reaching into energy of the piece that i teach (now time for unification now time), the future that is in that room...
then now i'm waiting for a student so i can go through her composition with her, while at the same time working through in my head how i'm going to teach my afternoon class (first year teaching students), using clapping music by steve reich, i do enjoy thinking like this, taking the way i was going to teach this and swapping it around, placing the emphasis in a slightly different way... somehow still feeding off the energy of the morning workshop...
and at the same time i'm working out my hectic timetable for schools visits, the second year teaching students are out on placements in primary & secondary schools and i split the visits with another teacher, the madness of it all, getting from school to school, briefly existing in the culture of whichever school it is, and each school culture is so different...
i'm liking the mixture of past & future in this present time...
just a thought x
spelling is nowhere today...
i just taught a workshop for new students here @ londonbridgework, they come in for interviews this week and have this workshop with me first... i always love it, seeing new faces, reaching into energy of the piece that i teach (now time for unification now time), the future that is in that room...
then now i'm waiting for a student so i can go through her composition with her, while at the same time working through in my head how i'm going to teach my afternoon class (first year teaching students), using clapping music by steve reich, i do enjoy thinking like this, taking the way i was going to teach this and swapping it around, placing the emphasis in a slightly different way... somehow still feeding off the energy of the morning workshop...
and at the same time i'm working out my hectic timetable for schools visits, the second year teaching students are out on placements in primary & secondary schools and i split the visits with another teacher, the madness of it all, getting from school to school, briefly existing in the culture of whichever school it is, and each school culture is so different...
i'm liking the mixture of past & future in this present time...
just a thought x
Saturday, March 11, 2006
adventures (some whilst asleep)
cycling from londonbridgework to producer G's house in gypsy hill i was wearing the cape, even though it wasn't really raining enough to warrant it, i hadn't yet worked out the cycle route that avoids the elephant & castle roundabouts and i was hairily rounding the second one when a gust of wind inflated the cape like a sail and reduced my speed from some to very little just as a bus was waiting for me to pass it...
in the middle of the night last night G woke to find me trying to pick her up, don't worry just hold on to me i said and though at first she went with it, once she'd worked out what was going on she started grabbing the sheets, the duvet, the bed and yelling... whereupon i woke up and got back into bed...
two nights ago she awoke to find me leaning over her
me: i've got to look under the bed,
her: oh... honeybunny...
me: BUNNY, bunny, BUNNY, BUNNY...
whereupon i woke up and got back into bed...
at producer G's yesterday we got the backing in shape for the neurotic love song, all sampled from my ipod shuffle, all from illegally downloaded mp3's... the gig is going to be great, i spoke to H cello on thursday and she's up for it, by the time i meet her in a couple of weeks me & G should have got the backing to harbour walls done too...
i just cycled into town to meet my G on her break between shows, drank a cheeky cocktail (mojito for me, cosmopolitan for her)... hmmm...
playing backgammon last night with actor G, drinking white russians, he won the first game, then at the end of the second game i had no way of winning unless i threw two doubles in a row... in the game after i could only win if i threw a double 6 on that last throw...
i won both games...
x
in the middle of the night last night G woke to find me trying to pick her up, don't worry just hold on to me i said and though at first she went with it, once she'd worked out what was going on she started grabbing the sheets, the duvet, the bed and yelling... whereupon i woke up and got back into bed...
two nights ago she awoke to find me leaning over her
me: i've got to look under the bed,
her: oh... honeybunny...
me: BUNNY, bunny, BUNNY, BUNNY...
whereupon i woke up and got back into bed...
at producer G's yesterday we got the backing in shape for the neurotic love song, all sampled from my ipod shuffle, all from illegally downloaded mp3's... the gig is going to be great, i spoke to H cello on thursday and she's up for it, by the time i meet her in a couple of weeks me & G should have got the backing to harbour walls done too...
i just cycled into town to meet my G on her break between shows, drank a cheeky cocktail (mojito for me, cosmopolitan for her)... hmmm...
playing backgammon last night with actor G, drinking white russians, he won the first game, then at the end of the second game i had no way of winning unless i threw two doubles in a row... in the game after i could only win if i threw a double 6 on that last throw...
i won both games...
x
Thursday, March 09, 2006
the rain
decided to miss my manolis meal before going to hammersmith today in favour of going to the bike shop and getting some rain protection...
a new rear mudguard and a cape... the mudguard does a great job actually, my wet arse has been more a victim of my back wheel than the falling rain, the cape is huge, kind of strange, it's like a poncho, my head pops through a hole in the middle, it stretches over my handle bars and behind my saddle... completely incasing my upper half...
i cycled to work and the rain was off & on, i was fully caped to the canal, then the rain had eased and i wanted to listen to my ipod so i changed my costume for the canal journey, donning the cape once more for the final road bit, although the rain was patchy, at one point i stopped a passer by and asked her opinion, she thought it probably wouldn't rain for the 20 minutes i needed to get to work from there...
i was listening to roberta flack & donny hathaway's album, something i've had on cd for years, one of my students wanted to learn some piano from a tupac song and i recognised it as being from that album, the original sample, a tune called be real black for me, beautiful...
all in all, what with both canal journeys (there & back) i managed to listen to the whole album by the water, it's a killer, i like it more now than i did when i bought it, in particular their version of you've lost that loving feeling, and where is the love?, just fantastic, great voices and great musicians, the album closes with a piano/fender rhodes duet that is just heaven...
my phone started working today after not working for several days (including over 24 hours after i'd paid my bill), and i'm looking forward to listening to the messages that have been building up, there's one from the piano movers and i hope one from H (cellist), which coincides well with meeting up with producer G on friday...
me & G went and saw memoirs of a geisha last night, the very last chance we had, the last day of her holidays, it was alright, very good in places, too long and too hollywood in others places, she'd read the book and so wanted to see how it translated... the shoes were great...
we've also been watching the league of gentlmen, the first series of which is on VHS in the TV room, i've borrowed the 2nd & 3rd series on DVD from a friend of a friend... not always funny but pretty compulsive... the last episode we saw was actually very funny, an audition in which a woman has to say a line to get an advertisement job, i can't describe why, but the way she says the line is just pure comedy gold...
also the way those 3 actors produce so many different characters...
a new rear mudguard and a cape... the mudguard does a great job actually, my wet arse has been more a victim of my back wheel than the falling rain, the cape is huge, kind of strange, it's like a poncho, my head pops through a hole in the middle, it stretches over my handle bars and behind my saddle... completely incasing my upper half...
i cycled to work and the rain was off & on, i was fully caped to the canal, then the rain had eased and i wanted to listen to my ipod so i changed my costume for the canal journey, donning the cape once more for the final road bit, although the rain was patchy, at one point i stopped a passer by and asked her opinion, she thought it probably wouldn't rain for the 20 minutes i needed to get to work from there...i was listening to roberta flack & donny hathaway's album, something i've had on cd for years, one of my students wanted to learn some piano from a tupac song and i recognised it as being from that album, the original sample, a tune called be real black for me, beautiful...
all in all, what with both canal journeys (there & back) i managed to listen to the whole album by the water, it's a killer, i like it more now than i did when i bought it, in particular their version of you've lost that loving feeling, and where is the love?, just fantastic, great voices and great musicians, the album closes with a piano/fender rhodes duet that is just heaven...
my phone started working today after not working for several days (including over 24 hours after i'd paid my bill), and i'm looking forward to listening to the messages that have been building up, there's one from the piano movers and i hope one from H (cellist), which coincides well with meeting up with producer G on friday...
me & G went and saw memoirs of a geisha last night, the very last chance we had, the last day of her holidays, it was alright, very good in places, too long and too hollywood in others places, she'd read the book and so wanted to see how it translated... the shoes were great...
we've also been watching the league of gentlmen, the first series of which is on VHS in the TV room, i've borrowed the 2nd & 3rd series on DVD from a friend of a friend... not always funny but pretty compulsive... the last episode we saw was actually very funny, an audition in which a woman has to say a line to get an advertisement job, i can't describe why, but the way she says the line is just pure comedy gold...
also the way those 3 actors produce so many different characters...
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
not right but not all wrong
rained for my journey in to work today...
and my current technique for dealing with the rain while cycling is not wearing the hat, but wearing the ear warmers...
this because the hat may get damaged...
the whole issue of my trousers...
this led me, a few weeks ago, to talk about my wet trousers with my students over in hammersmith, i'd cycled in, it had rained... take it from me, 16 - 17 year old students don't want to talk to their teachers about wet trousers, cue awkward silence...
anyway, once in work today, feeling soggy, i was able to feel slighted by something one of the other teachers said, about something they were'nt prepared to put up with, something which i do put up with, amazing how powerful the feeling of being taking for granted is once it's awakened...
then just now one of my housemates raised his voice in a slightly unpleasant way to me and i realise that i'm just not in the right space today...
nothing too terrible i just shouldn't be speaking to people...
oh and my phone has been cut off, so that's helpful... the universe assisting me in not talking to people...
of course i had a very funny chat with spski before this other housemate came into the room, but then that is the wonder of spski, even when i'm a little wrong i'm not too wrong for him...
and waking up with my G this morning was a blessed, blessed thing...
one of those days when people are either good or bad for you, after the meeting at work, me in my slighted damp state, i walked with producer G to the cafe and he pretty much made me alright just by being normal with me... i'm looking forward to meeting him on friday and checking out how we might work together musically...
i'm disappearing under my duvet now...
x
and my current technique for dealing with the rain while cycling is not wearing the hat, but wearing the ear warmers...
this because the hat may get damaged...
the whole issue of my trousers...
this led me, a few weeks ago, to talk about my wet trousers with my students over in hammersmith, i'd cycled in, it had rained... take it from me, 16 - 17 year old students don't want to talk to their teachers about wet trousers, cue awkward silence...
anyway, once in work today, feeling soggy, i was able to feel slighted by something one of the other teachers said, about something they were'nt prepared to put up with, something which i do put up with, amazing how powerful the feeling of being taking for granted is once it's awakened...
then just now one of my housemates raised his voice in a slightly unpleasant way to me and i realise that i'm just not in the right space today...
nothing too terrible i just shouldn't be speaking to people...
oh and my phone has been cut off, so that's helpful... the universe assisting me in not talking to people...
of course i had a very funny chat with spski before this other housemate came into the room, but then that is the wonder of spski, even when i'm a little wrong i'm not too wrong for him...
and waking up with my G this morning was a blessed, blessed thing...
one of those days when people are either good or bad for you, after the meeting at work, me in my slighted damp state, i walked with producer G to the cafe and he pretty much made me alright just by being normal with me... i'm looking forward to meeting him on friday and checking out how we might work together musically...
i'm disappearing under my duvet now...
x
almost not worth it
long time no post... sorry,
i guess my life's a little busy... doing nothing as ever...
flew the helicopter on sunday...
some spectacular crashing video...
but now i'm running out the door for work, later...
x
i guess my life's a little busy... doing nothing as ever...
flew the helicopter on sunday...
some spectacular crashing video...
but now i'm running out the door for work, later...
x
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
before sunset...
... which will be at 17:41, although if i'm trying to watch it from that hill on hampstead heath it'll be more like 17:32...
still haven't checked out sukhdev sandhu & his night haunts but i'm still digging the chart with all the times on it...
i've been a bit mad with work and cold and sleeplessness the past couple of days...
although me & spski did find time to go to the photographers gallery on great newport street, in particular alec soth is great... sleeping by the mississippi is his show and it moved me...
last night W shaman came round for another bout of chess... the last time we'd played he beat me twice, out of two games... last night was a return to form, he beat me twice again, but out of a total of eight games... a lovely night, obviously it's nice to win, but it's mainly just good being in his company, for the first time since K has put a turntable downstairs i played some records... vinyl enveloping us in it's warmth as we went head to head with those pieces...
maceo parker & all the kings men - doing our own thing
van morrison - common one
the unpredictable jimmy smith - bashin'
van morrison - tb sheets
which has a great opening tune, maybe even the whole first side is good, but the second side...
oh no mr morrison, what were you thinking of...
john martin - solid air
portishead - dummy
john lee hooker - mr lucky
oh vinyl...
G came home a couple of games before the end and stoogged about a bit... the three of us hanging out once the chess was done...
later on me & G watched before sunset, the follow up film to before sunrise that we saw a few nights ago...
there was less at stake now, the first one, whilst good, hadn't been fantastic, this one's set in paris, it was alright, probably even good, we laughed alot, ignoring some crucial dialogue no doubt...
something in the opening of this one suggests that richard linklater had made his first film based on something that had happened to him... if this is true, and it's quite believable, i like that his character (the american man) is such a rooster prick as she calls him in the first film...
i also like that the two characters appear in waking life, in bed, another space for them to live in...
oh and my cold yesteray was an evil thing, today it seems much better, thanks largely to jai krishna's fantastic vegetarian food which i cycled off to pick up somewhere between about the 4th and 5th games i think...
long live jai krishna
x
still haven't checked out sukhdev sandhu & his night haunts but i'm still digging the chart with all the times on it...
i've been a bit mad with work and cold and sleeplessness the past couple of days...
although me & spski did find time to go to the photographers gallery on great newport street, in particular alec soth is great... sleeping by the mississippi is his show and it moved me...
last night W shaman came round for another bout of chess... the last time we'd played he beat me twice, out of two games... last night was a return to form, he beat me twice again, but out of a total of eight games... a lovely night, obviously it's nice to win, but it's mainly just good being in his company, for the first time since K has put a turntable downstairs i played some records... vinyl enveloping us in it's warmth as we went head to head with those pieces...
maceo parker & all the kings men - doing our own thing
van morrison - common one
the unpredictable jimmy smith - bashin'
van morrison - tb sheets
which has a great opening tune, maybe even the whole first side is good, but the second side...
oh no mr morrison, what were you thinking of...
john martin - solid air
portishead - dummy
john lee hooker - mr lucky
oh vinyl...
G came home a couple of games before the end and stoogged about a bit... the three of us hanging out once the chess was done...
later on me & G watched before sunset, the follow up film to before sunrise that we saw a few nights ago...
there was less at stake now, the first one, whilst good, hadn't been fantastic, this one's set in paris, it was alright, probably even good, we laughed alot, ignoring some crucial dialogue no doubt...
something in the opening of this one suggests that richard linklater had made his first film based on something that had happened to him... if this is true, and it's quite believable, i like that his character (the american man) is such a rooster prick as she calls him in the first film...
i also like that the two characters appear in waking life, in bed, another space for them to live in...
oh and my cold yesteray was an evil thing, today it seems much better, thanks largely to jai krishna's fantastic vegetarian food which i cycled off to pick up somewhere between about the 4th and 5th games i think...
long live jai krishna
x
Monday, February 27, 2006
before sunrise
i'm on artangel's mailing list, they sent me something recently about a writer called sukhdev sandhu, some web based writing project he's doing called night haunts, i haven't yet checked it out...
part of the thing they've sent is a list of all the sunsets & sunrises this year...
using this i was aware yesterday that the sun would set @ 17:34, so i was able to fix my puncture (while listening to semble's studio album... fantastic... and also while filming my front wheel going round and then stopping... something which took about 12 minutes the first time i did it, 18 minutes the second time - my camera ran out of batteries midway through the first...)... really slowly... and then get out onto the streets in that amazing light we had... i raced up to hampstead heath,
cycling up the hill, getting to the top about 3 minutes before the sun dipped below the horizon, which in turn was about 10 minutes before the sunset... this being london, the true horizon being a rare commodity...
i'm also now aware that the sun will rise tomorrow morning (later this morning) @ 6:51...
tomorrow i teach from 10:30 am until 8 pm... my otherwise largely leisurely life is a bundle of work tomorrow...
but good work... i love teaching,
me & G just saw before sunrise, a film that was both disappointing and good... a little lame in places, full of beautiful ideas, things i would love to make a film about, almost like two characters from hopscotch, the cortazar novel... there's a short story of his in which a man & a woman are sat opposite on the tube, strangers...
he says to himself that if she returns his look, through the reflection of the glass to their side, he will speak to her... she does, he does... they really enjoy talking together, they get off and sit at a cafe table on the platform...
now hang on... just a moment, but can't we have cafe tables on platforms on our tube here in london? surely ladies & gentlemen there is no good reason not to...
at the end of the short story they decide not to exchange phone numbers, only to meet again if they meet again by chance...
they never meet again...
killer...
really works as a cortazar short story, doesn't work quite so well as an american film, but great that they tried to do it, whether they've heard of cortazar or not...
me & G went up to crouch end and ate in cafe solo, walking back with a slice of cake each from dunn's, along the disused railway, stopping at her folks place to pick up her bass and a mic stand for me, to drink tea and talk... lovely...
then once we were home fairly soon we had a house meeting... been brewing long and some contentious issues were raised... i don't want to go into it here but i fear the motivation behind raising this thorny issue was as an attack on spski and i hope we don't lose him as a result... bleak thought's, but thoughts none the less...
also sends a small shudder through my living arrangement here... just as i'm thinking of moving the piano here i have this minor tremor in my bedrock...
strangely inspirational times... i have at least two, maybe more, different strands of ideas that i can see a way forward with... the gigs that are coming in april which includes the material i'm writing now i hope, the film footage that i've been building up since i edited together the tree films... the films that will come... the rilke poems and the thought of recording versions of the 10 elegies, voice and piano... maybe construct visual accompaniment...
but now to bed, long day ahead...
x
PS the ghetto style of hat wearing being unfolded and so longer, the bulk of the hat coming down behind the head, reaching to the base of my neck... kind of as though i had dreadlocks... which i clearly don't have... photo may well follow,
described as ghetto by me and as hiphop by felinity's namesake who taught it to me, both of us being white middleclass...
x
part of the thing they've sent is a list of all the sunsets & sunrises this year...
using this i was aware yesterday that the sun would set @ 17:34, so i was able to fix my puncture (while listening to semble's studio album... fantastic... and also while filming my front wheel going round and then stopping... something which took about 12 minutes the first time i did it, 18 minutes the second time - my camera ran out of batteries midway through the first...)... really slowly... and then get out onto the streets in that amazing light we had... i raced up to hampstead heath,
cycling up the hill, getting to the top about 3 minutes before the sun dipped below the horizon, which in turn was about 10 minutes before the sunset... this being london, the true horizon being a rare commodity...i'm also now aware that the sun will rise tomorrow morning (later this morning) @ 6:51...
tomorrow i teach from 10:30 am until 8 pm... my otherwise largely leisurely life is a bundle of work tomorrow...
but good work... i love teaching,
me & G just saw before sunrise, a film that was both disappointing and good... a little lame in places, full of beautiful ideas, things i would love to make a film about, almost like two characters from hopscotch, the cortazar novel... there's a short story of his in which a man & a woman are sat opposite on the tube, strangers...
he says to himself that if she returns his look, through the reflection of the glass to their side, he will speak to her... she does, he does... they really enjoy talking together, they get off and sit at a cafe table on the platform...
now hang on... just a moment, but can't we have cafe tables on platforms on our tube here in london? surely ladies & gentlemen there is no good reason not to...
at the end of the short story they decide not to exchange phone numbers, only to meet again if they meet again by chance...
they never meet again...
killer...
really works as a cortazar short story, doesn't work quite so well as an american film, but great that they tried to do it, whether they've heard of cortazar or not...
me & G went up to crouch end and ate in cafe solo, walking back with a slice of cake each from dunn's, along the disused railway, stopping at her folks place to pick up her bass and a mic stand for me, to drink tea and talk... lovely...
then once we were home fairly soon we had a house meeting... been brewing long and some contentious issues were raised... i don't want to go into it here but i fear the motivation behind raising this thorny issue was as an attack on spski and i hope we don't lose him as a result... bleak thought's, but thoughts none the less...
also sends a small shudder through my living arrangement here... just as i'm thinking of moving the piano here i have this minor tremor in my bedrock...
strangely inspirational times... i have at least two, maybe more, different strands of ideas that i can see a way forward with... the gigs that are coming in april which includes the material i'm writing now i hope, the film footage that i've been building up since i edited together the tree films... the films that will come... the rilke poems and the thought of recording versions of the 10 elegies, voice and piano... maybe construct visual accompaniment...
but now to bed, long day ahead...
x
PS the ghetto style of hat wearing being unfolded and so longer, the bulk of the hat coming down behind the head, reaching to the base of my neck... kind of as though i had dreadlocks... which i clearly don't have... photo may well follow,
described as ghetto by me and as hiphop by felinity's namesake who taught it to me, both of us being white middleclass...
x
Friday, February 24, 2006
big gay sad light comic kissing poo
so which film do you think i saw this afternoon?
that takes care of the 1st three words of my title...
very moving, made me cry in a way that hurt me, you know, constricting the throat kind of pain,
the music was great, i'm beginning to take the chip off my shoulder about rufus wainright... the chip had nothing to do with his being gay, i didn't even know, it was because he was all over the place a little while back and i thought...
i don't know, chips being chips, often stupid,
i was great at work today, my last three hour friday, now they're only going to be 90 minutes... which is both rubbish and great...
my apprentice, lovely M (who made that beautiful track with me a little while ago) had a hard time of it and i found a way forward without losing him...
i also found a more ghetto way of wearing the hat... more ghetto and warmer... the warmth being more motivation than the ghetto, although the ghetto does amuse me... (one of those words, the more you say ghetto it starts to sound odd...) anyway it was the suggestion of one of my students, who has the same name as felinity as chance would have it...
i'd taken the train in, disasterous return to public transport as my bike got a puncture yesterday in the rain and i didn't fix it straight away, also was carrying something in for producer G and snow was threatened...
and so after work i strolled along to the river, popped in to the tate modern, saw mapping the studio 2 by bruce naumann which A had recomended to me after seeing my films, i could see why he'd mentioned it to me, at first i wasn't really up for it but after awhile i became intrigued, it's a series of video's of naumann's studio at night, certain things like moths, or rats, caught my attention... it made me wonder if i'd be up for my films in a gallery setting... and also made me want to see them in a gallery setting, in fact in that gallery, which is where i saw a great piece of video work by someone of people diving into water... slowed down, reversed...
today was one of those amazing light days... i found myself singing the words i'd written for E years back, to the tune of my ship (an old jazz standard on miles ahead, one of the gil evans/miles davis albums):
the kind of light that we had today,
teaches me freedom inside,
that i can feel that and still.. i'm yours... you are mine...
i take a sign...
still feel it, and it warms me to my love G these days in the same way.. not that she's getting any 2nd hand song from me... her tune will come...
so anyway i stooged around there for awhile, either side of the river, over the millenium bridge, many pictures, much filming... looking back on it i'm thirsty for a new camera, just for video, the stills that this beast gives me are great, and the video has been a revelation, but i want better definition video... probably a little jealous of felinity's new camera, and mum's actually as well...
also looked back just now at the video i took when grace was here, us reading the three little pigs together... her noticing the similarities in that and the billy goat's gruff book, the same publisher, the same series... although the billy goat's one is better, and not just because i got it for her, this three little pigs is too verbose...
on the video is us putting her jumper on her legs, to which she said:
we need to put the zip at the poo!
poo a constant theme these last few days, from the threat on the train from brighton of: i'm going to poo on your shoulder, to the threat just before she left of: i'm going to eat your poo!
oh and the comic kissing... i am so excited... questionable content feels just like moonlighting all of a sudden...
x
that takes care of the 1st three words of my title...
very moving, made me cry in a way that hurt me, you know, constricting the throat kind of pain,
the music was great, i'm beginning to take the chip off my shoulder about rufus wainright... the chip had nothing to do with his being gay, i didn't even know, it was because he was all over the place a little while back and i thought...
i don't know, chips being chips, often stupid,
i was great at work today, my last three hour friday, now they're only going to be 90 minutes... which is both rubbish and great...
my apprentice, lovely M (who made that beautiful track with me a little while ago) had a hard time of it and i found a way forward without losing him...
i also found a more ghetto way of wearing the hat... more ghetto and warmer... the warmth being more motivation than the ghetto, although the ghetto does amuse me... (one of those words, the more you say ghetto it starts to sound odd...) anyway it was the suggestion of one of my students, who has the same name as felinity as chance would have it...
i'd taken the train in, disasterous return to public transport as my bike got a puncture yesterday in the rain and i didn't fix it straight away, also was carrying something in for producer G and snow was threatened... and so after work i strolled along to the river, popped in to the tate modern, saw mapping the studio 2 by bruce naumann which A had recomended to me after seeing my films, i could see why he'd mentioned it to me, at first i wasn't really up for it but after awhile i became intrigued, it's a series of video's of naumann's studio at night, certain things like moths, or rats, caught my attention... it made me wonder if i'd be up for my films in a gallery setting... and also made me want to see them in a gallery setting, in fact in that gallery, which is where i saw a great piece of video work by someone of people diving into water... slowed down, reversed...
today was one of those amazing light days... i found myself singing the words i'd written for E years back, to the tune of my ship (an old jazz standard on miles ahead, one of the gil evans/miles davis albums):the kind of light that we had today,
teaches me freedom inside,
that i can feel that and still.. i'm yours... you are mine...
i take a sign...
still feel it, and it warms me to my love G these days in the same way.. not that she's getting any 2nd hand song from me... her tune will come...
so anyway i stooged around there for awhile, either side of the river, over the millenium bridge, many pictures, much filming... looking back on it i'm thirsty for a new camera, just for video, the stills that this beast gives me are great, and the video has been a revelation, but i want better definition video... probably a little jealous of felinity's new camera, and mum's actually as well...also looked back just now at the video i took when grace was here, us reading the three little pigs together... her noticing the similarities in that and the billy goat's gruff book, the same publisher, the same series... although the billy goat's one is better, and not just because i got it for her, this three little pigs is too verbose...
on the video is us putting her jumper on her legs, to which she said:
we need to put the zip at the poo!
poo a constant theme these last few days, from the threat on the train from brighton of: i'm going to poo on your shoulder, to the threat just before she left of: i'm going to eat your poo!
oh and the comic kissing... i am so excited... questionable content feels just like moonlighting all of a sudden...
x
Thursday, February 23, 2006
all goddadded out
for the second time in a week i'm clambering back into the world after being wiped out...
after josiah came to collect grace yesterday (45 minutes late) i jumped onto the bike and raced into town, slightly unsure of the route, at one point i was faced with a fairly direct way to where i was going but it was all one way, the wrong way...
but i'm on of those irresponsible cyclists who doesn't care about small things like traffic coming the other way, it's often easier in fact, noone's overtaking you,
i arrived at the curzon mayfair with absolutely no time to spare... felinity was waiting patiently with the tickets to good night & good luck and we strolled in just as the film was beginning... good film, captures those tense times well, and it is a great story to tell...
afterwards in the lobby of the cinema she gave me a hat that she'd knitted for me... it's really lovely, a soft, warm yarn, good shape, and it's thin enough to go underneath my cycling helmet (i think) we went to a small pizza place that i realise now i've been to before, but with who i couldn't say... the picture through that link was taken in that pizza place...
lovely to see her as well, much to talk about what with the christening this weekend gone...
the cycle journey home was really cold, even with the new hat, i guage the coldness by how fast i lose feeling in my fingers and toes and last night was one of the coldest so far this winter... (apparently it snowed this morning, although i was fast asleep)...
when i got in i was absolutely nowhere, all engagements completed i had nothing to be together for and i just came apart, G got in shortly after me and i spent a lot of time leaning on her in a limp way...
i was surprised by the level of tiredness actually, compared to other grace visits i got more sleep this time, and there was less stress,
anyway today is happening very slowly,
many stories from grace's trip but i'll restrict myself to one which adds to the picture of exhaustion i've just painted,
we were going to go to finsbury park to see the swans, it was getting quite late and the light was beginning to fade and her mum was going to be due fairly soon so i wanted to get rocking, she wouldn't get in the buggy, so i told her that we couldn't see the swans without the buggy, it was too far, but we could still go to a smaller park...
she agreed to the smaller park sulkily, so we left the house without the buggy...
last time she'd stayed we'd been to that smaller park and she'd had a great time on the swings then screamed her head off getting off the swings... i was thinking about this and i decided that maybe we should just walk all the way to finsbury park for the swans... it would take longer but she did want to see them...
after one street i picked her up, intending to put her down again at the end of that street, pick her up for alternate streets... but no sooner was she in my arms than she fell asleep... at first i thought i'd just take her straight home again, put her in my bed... but something in me wanted to be true to my intention so i decided to go and see the swans...
and that girl is so much heavier now compared to when she was younger...
it killed me getting to finsbury park... it killed me having to walk around the building work they're doing there to get to the pond... it killed me that there were no swans there... and the pond surrounded by workmen, no nice bench to sit on and gaze at the water, no point waking her up i thought...
really thought about getting a taxi home,
but i gathered my strength and walked all the way back again, kind of similar sensation as when i used to carry my keyboard around, a feeling as though you can't actually do it, but then miraculously you find another strength you didn't know you had...
and when i got to my front door again she woke up and said oh, didn't we go to the park?...
that obscure trip had more to do with me than her i realise... trying to prove something i suppose...
it was a joy having her for the night and day, her dad has recently left the country & she's a little mixed up about it, although this only showed at one point... at the end of the three little pigs story she was mainly interesting in allocating the different brick houses to her parents and her... and sometimes me...
ok, that's my house, that's mummy's house, and that's daddy's house, and that's your house... no, that's daddy's house, ok you can have that house... no that's my house... ok, you can share that house with daddy...
x
after josiah came to collect grace yesterday (45 minutes late) i jumped onto the bike and raced into town, slightly unsure of the route, at one point i was faced with a fairly direct way to where i was going but it was all one way, the wrong way...
but i'm on of those irresponsible cyclists who doesn't care about small things like traffic coming the other way, it's often easier in fact, noone's overtaking you,
i arrived at the curzon mayfair with absolutely no time to spare... felinity was waiting patiently with the tickets to good night & good luck and we strolled in just as the film was beginning... good film, captures those tense times well, and it is a great story to tell...
afterwards in the lobby of the cinema she gave me a hat that she'd knitted for me... it's really lovely, a soft, warm yarn, good shape, and it's thin enough to go underneath my cycling helmet (i think) we went to a small pizza place that i realise now i've been to before, but with who i couldn't say... the picture through that link was taken in that pizza place...
lovely to see her as well, much to talk about what with the christening this weekend gone...
the cycle journey home was really cold, even with the new hat, i guage the coldness by how fast i lose feeling in my fingers and toes and last night was one of the coldest so far this winter... (apparently it snowed this morning, although i was fast asleep)...
when i got in i was absolutely nowhere, all engagements completed i had nothing to be together for and i just came apart, G got in shortly after me and i spent a lot of time leaning on her in a limp way...
i was surprised by the level of tiredness actually, compared to other grace visits i got more sleep this time, and there was less stress,
anyway today is happening very slowly,
many stories from grace's trip but i'll restrict myself to one which adds to the picture of exhaustion i've just painted,
we were going to go to finsbury park to see the swans, it was getting quite late and the light was beginning to fade and her mum was going to be due fairly soon so i wanted to get rocking, she wouldn't get in the buggy, so i told her that we couldn't see the swans without the buggy, it was too far, but we could still go to a smaller park...
she agreed to the smaller park sulkily, so we left the house without the buggy...
last time she'd stayed we'd been to that smaller park and she'd had a great time on the swings then screamed her head off getting off the swings... i was thinking about this and i decided that maybe we should just walk all the way to finsbury park for the swans... it would take longer but she did want to see them...
after one street i picked her up, intending to put her down again at the end of that street, pick her up for alternate streets... but no sooner was she in my arms than she fell asleep... at first i thought i'd just take her straight home again, put her in my bed... but something in me wanted to be true to my intention so i decided to go and see the swans...
and that girl is so much heavier now compared to when she was younger...
it killed me getting to finsbury park... it killed me having to walk around the building work they're doing there to get to the pond... it killed me that there were no swans there... and the pond surrounded by workmen, no nice bench to sit on and gaze at the water, no point waking her up i thought...
really thought about getting a taxi home,
but i gathered my strength and walked all the way back again, kind of similar sensation as when i used to carry my keyboard around, a feeling as though you can't actually do it, but then miraculously you find another strength you didn't know you had...
and when i got to my front door again she woke up and said oh, didn't we go to the park?...
that obscure trip had more to do with me than her i realise... trying to prove something i suppose...
it was a joy having her for the night and day, her dad has recently left the country & she's a little mixed up about it, although this only showed at one point... at the end of the three little pigs story she was mainly interesting in allocating the different brick houses to her parents and her... and sometimes me...
ok, that's my house, that's mummy's house, and that's daddy's house, and that's your house... no, that's daddy's house, ok you can have that house... no that's my house... ok, you can share that house with daddy...
x
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
grace
she's asleep in my bed... i'll be crawling in beside her in several hours time and she'll be waking up way earlier than i'll want to wake up...
josiah's coming up tomorrow early evening and i'm heading out to meet felinity for a cinema trip...
grace has been great, a small teary moment when we went over some bumps with the buggy on the way to the train station in brighton and i wouldn't let her out to put her feet on them herself, but this only lasted a few minutes...
i foolishly turned down siggi's offer of the portable potty... we went to the loo a few times on the train up from brighton but she was shocked to learn that there was no toilet on the victoria line train....
go and look!
no grace, honestly, there are no toilets on this train...
she held on admirably and asked if she could have a wee in a puddle as soon as we got outside finsbury park station... an offer i should have taken...
just a minute or two up the road and i'd decided to stop and let her wee in the street, but it was too late by then...
uncle longcat i'm weeing the buggy
didn't get her down though, she was still able to see the funny side of it...
by the time we'd got to mine she'd fallen asleep, so i carried her up to my room, stripped off the wet clothes and let her snooze for a little while and i ran a bath...
even when i woke her up to have the bath and eat something she didn't get upset... she was a little quiet for awhile, after the bath she was sat at our kitchen table eating toast while, K, spanish M & T chatted about how their parents don't undertand them...
then her bathroom ablutions, a couple of books (one of which was the three billy goats gruff that i got her for her 2nd birthday and that she loves, the other was the three little pigs that josiah got her for christmas that she also loves), then sleep, i lay beside her for awhile as she dozed off, reaching out to touch my arm as she likes to do...
x
josiah's coming up tomorrow early evening and i'm heading out to meet felinity for a cinema trip...
grace has been great, a small teary moment when we went over some bumps with the buggy on the way to the train station in brighton and i wouldn't let her out to put her feet on them herself, but this only lasted a few minutes...
i foolishly turned down siggi's offer of the portable potty... we went to the loo a few times on the train up from brighton but she was shocked to learn that there was no toilet on the victoria line train....
go and look!
no grace, honestly, there are no toilets on this train...
she held on admirably and asked if she could have a wee in a puddle as soon as we got outside finsbury park station... an offer i should have taken...
just a minute or two up the road and i'd decided to stop and let her wee in the street, but it was too late by then...
uncle longcat i'm weeing the buggy
didn't get her down though, she was still able to see the funny side of it...
by the time we'd got to mine she'd fallen asleep, so i carried her up to my room, stripped off the wet clothes and let her snooze for a little while and i ran a bath...
even when i woke her up to have the bath and eat something she didn't get upset... she was a little quiet for awhile, after the bath she was sat at our kitchen table eating toast while, K, spanish M & T chatted about how their parents don't undertand them...
then her bathroom ablutions, a couple of books (one of which was the three billy goats gruff that i got her for her 2nd birthday and that she loves, the other was the three little pigs that josiah got her for christmas that she also loves), then sleep, i lay beside her for awhile as she dozed off, reaching out to touch my arm as she likes to do...
x
Monday, February 20, 2006
worn out
had a beautiful weekend @ connie's christening... went down with my G on saturday night, stayed in a B&B, arriving at the church on sunday glammed up... as only G knows how to do... me cutting a dash with the paul smith suit beside her...
she's met felinity before but in one fell swoop she met mum & dad, trave & his M, uncle R & aunty J and all four cousins... as well as A & of course connie herself, at one point in the do afterwards three young girls were running in a circuit through the living room where we were and every time they passed G they gazed at her...
she did look fantastic...
we went and saw fun with dick & jane afterwards while waiting for our train back and it was surprisingly great, very funny, essentially fluff, but just right for last night...
then we got two pizza express pizza's & a bottle of rose cava for the return train journey, a moment of genius on her part, the best pizza i've ever eaten...
eventually getting in to ours around 1:30 am this morning, even though i didn't have to be in work today until 2 i'm still really paying for the weekend,
taught 2 sessions and i was good, but i'm no good anymore, really tempted to go home via jai krishna and eat some good, good food...
x
she's met felinity before but in one fell swoop she met mum & dad, trave & his M, uncle R & aunty J and all four cousins... as well as A & of course connie herself, at one point in the do afterwards three young girls were running in a circuit through the living room where we were and every time they passed G they gazed at her...
she did look fantastic...
we went and saw fun with dick & jane afterwards while waiting for our train back and it was surprisingly great, very funny, essentially fluff, but just right for last night...
then we got two pizza express pizza's & a bottle of rose cava for the return train journey, a moment of genius on her part, the best pizza i've ever eaten...
eventually getting in to ours around 1:30 am this morning, even though i didn't have to be in work today until 2 i'm still really paying for the weekend,
taught 2 sessions and i was good, but i'm no good anymore, really tempted to go home via jai krishna and eat some good, good food...
x
Saturday, February 18, 2006
but she was beautiful
manolis enjoys saying something vaguely dirty to me - should he leave his cafe soon, which is pretty likely - if not definate - i will miss his laugh & his conspiratorial beckoning & whispering...
i told him i was writing something for my G and it brought on a host of allusions, old stories, notions...
in my young days...
... but she was beautiful...
so that i could include it in my song he said of himself:
mad as he is he can be very inspirational
semble played for the last time last night and they broke my heart, i went with producer G, he picked me up from brixton, drove me to his for a meal and to check out his new keyboard (and meet his new cat), then we drove over to kingston...
when we arrived we were told that there were aout 16 bands playing and we'd missed 6 of them... pretty soon it became clear that each act was only doing one song, except for semble whose goodbye night it was & and who played a whole set...
it's a sign of how loved they are that so many great musicians (and some not so great musicians) were prepared to just do one tune for them...
G managed to find us two seats in the crowded venue and we saw almost the entire set, leaving just before the last tune in order to drive back into town for my last tube home...
they did many of the tunes off their current album as well as others, a tune called remind me that i remember from the first time i saw them years ago @ the turaya gathering, they've played it every time i've seen them and it's a killer... i'd love to sing it, but they do it so beautifully...
this journey i've been on in the last month with them, seeing them @ bush hall & buying the album, going down to brighton to see them and then last night, my relationship to some of the songs was a little like my relationship to spski's bicycle route that i now know... the repeated experience of them, without really thinking about it, and then the crystalisation of recognition the third or so time...
beautiful mental process...
producer G & me hatching possible plans to play together, he wielding an MPC, perhaps for the gig @ the vibe bar that i'm now doing on april 24th... very up in the air now but possible...
the other thing about semble was the relentless experimentation of it.. they've been playing for 10 years and they're still pushing boundaries and presenting new things, for almost every song last night each member of the band swapped instruments in a way that served the music rather than their ego's...
mad as semble are they can be very inspirational...
but they were beautiful...
x
i told him i was writing something for my G and it brought on a host of allusions, old stories, notions...
in my young days...
... but she was beautiful...
so that i could include it in my song he said of himself:
mad as he is he can be very inspirational
semble played for the last time last night and they broke my heart, i went with producer G, he picked me up from brixton, drove me to his for a meal and to check out his new keyboard (and meet his new cat), then we drove over to kingston...
when we arrived we were told that there were aout 16 bands playing and we'd missed 6 of them... pretty soon it became clear that each act was only doing one song, except for semble whose goodbye night it was & and who played a whole set...
it's a sign of how loved they are that so many great musicians (and some not so great musicians) were prepared to just do one tune for them...
G managed to find us two seats in the crowded venue and we saw almost the entire set, leaving just before the last tune in order to drive back into town for my last tube home...
they did many of the tunes off their current album as well as others, a tune called remind me that i remember from the first time i saw them years ago @ the turaya gathering, they've played it every time i've seen them and it's a killer... i'd love to sing it, but they do it so beautifully...
this journey i've been on in the last month with them, seeing them @ bush hall & buying the album, going down to brighton to see them and then last night, my relationship to some of the songs was a little like my relationship to spski's bicycle route that i now know... the repeated experience of them, without really thinking about it, and then the crystalisation of recognition the third or so time...
beautiful mental process...
producer G & me hatching possible plans to play together, he wielding an MPC, perhaps for the gig @ the vibe bar that i'm now doing on april 24th... very up in the air now but possible...
the other thing about semble was the relentless experimentation of it.. they've been playing for 10 years and they're still pushing boundaries and presenting new things, for almost every song last night each member of the band swapped instruments in a way that served the music rather than their ego's...
mad as semble are they can be very inspirational...
but they were beautiful...
x
Friday, February 17, 2006
routes and dark places
went with spski to the NFT yesterday to see kinoautomat, 1967 czech film where the audience votes on which choice the character makes...
interesting, some very funny bits... i found it a little unsatisfying but spski loved it...
anyway, on the way back he took me a route that we've cycled together once before and it's a good one so i tried to remember it...
we passed very close to where my G works and she'll be cycling to work any day now so i'm having a look at routes for her too (not that she's incapable of finding her own route, she's been pouring over maps...),
taught today and afterwards i ambled (can you amble on a bicycle?) down the river for awhile before deciding to try and recreate spski's route...
got it just about, i could have chopped off a corner here and there but i think i've got it, and it's 4.17 miles from right by G's work, as opposed to 4.79 miles, the route i've been following up until now...
oh and the dark places... very eerie... oh yes...
i was walking G up to a watt's session on tuesday, up the disused railway, and she was telling me that she'd walked it once before with shaman (fellow wattage) and they'd walked down a long dark tunnel... well every time i've reached the end of the disused that long, dark tunnel (one of two) has been locked...
i assumed that they must have walked down it a long time ago, but no, she told me, this was late last year...
so yesterday, pre NFT, i jumped on the £10 bike and i set off up the disused, listening to the chords of the song i'm trying to write... it had rained and hailed earlier on in the day and it was very muddy up there, even though the sky was blue, i got covered in black mud, black mud that still clings to my shoes, i kind of like it, very unlondon...
i reached the highgate end and indeed the 2 tunnels were unlocked, at least that end of them, so i locked up the bike and i explored...
pretty scary, even though it was bright outside it was very dark in the tunnels. at intervals along the walls there are hollows that are probably locked doors, or just hollows maybe, almost certainly only about a foot deep, but it's so dark you can't tell, for all you know they could go back much further... i'd seen a bunny version of night of the living dead (me & G's 1st date movie) earlier on in the afternoon and i was scaring myself by thinking of zombies...
the other end is locked but you can see into the now overgrown highgate overground station, another fear that plagued me was that someone would come and lock the other end and i'd be stuck in there...
after i'd been all the way down both tunnels and satisfied myself that there were no monsters/homeless people lurking about i started singing into the tunnel i was in, a strange metallic resonance down there that was very satisfying, changing depending on where in the tunnel you are... i wonder what's happening acoustically...?
i'll definately be going back there...
x
interesting, some very funny bits... i found it a little unsatisfying but spski loved it...
anyway, on the way back he took me a route that we've cycled together once before and it's a good one so i tried to remember it...
we passed very close to where my G works and she'll be cycling to work any day now so i'm having a look at routes for her too (not that she's incapable of finding her own route, she's been pouring over maps...),
taught today and afterwards i ambled (can you amble on a bicycle?) down the river for awhile before deciding to try and recreate spski's route...
got it just about, i could have chopped off a corner here and there but i think i've got it, and it's 4.17 miles from right by G's work, as opposed to 4.79 miles, the route i've been following up until now...
oh and the dark places... very eerie... oh yes...i was walking G up to a watt's session on tuesday, up the disused railway, and she was telling me that she'd walked it once before with shaman (fellow wattage) and they'd walked down a long dark tunnel... well every time i've reached the end of the disused that long, dark tunnel (one of two) has been locked...
i assumed that they must have walked down it a long time ago, but no, she told me, this was late last year...
so yesterday, pre NFT, i jumped on the £10 bike and i set off up the disused, listening to the chords of the song i'm trying to write... it had rained and hailed earlier on in the day and it was very muddy up there, even though the sky was blue, i got covered in black mud, black mud that still clings to my shoes, i kind of like it, very unlondon...
i reached the highgate end and indeed the 2 tunnels were unlocked, at least that end of them, so i locked up the bike and i explored...
pretty scary, even though it was bright outside it was very dark in the tunnels. at intervals along the walls there are hollows that are probably locked doors, or just hollows maybe, almost certainly only about a foot deep, but it's so dark you can't tell, for all you know they could go back much further... i'd seen a bunny version of night of the living dead (me & G's 1st date movie) earlier on in the afternoon and i was scaring myself by thinking of zombies... the other end is locked but you can see into the now overgrown highgate overground station, another fear that plagued me was that someone would come and lock the other end and i'd be stuck in there...
after i'd been all the way down both tunnels and satisfied myself that there were no monsters/homeless people lurking about i started singing into the tunnel i was in, a strange metallic resonance down there that was very satisfying, changing depending on where in the tunnel you are... i wonder what's happening acoustically...?
i'll definately be going back there...
x
Thursday, February 16, 2006
half term
right now is my half term...
hammersmith respects the half term to from 3 to 5 today i would normally teaching, but i'm not...
instead i'm going to go ride up the disused on the bike listening to this mp3 of myself playing the chords to the nuerotic love song i'm trying to right...
then a little later i'm meeting spski at the NFT for an interactive film made in 1967...
earlier, once i'd dragged myself out of bed at a lazy hour, i was drinking the last of the innocent smoothie carton and i was struck by the sight of the light from the back door refracting through the glass i was drinking from, being tilted as i drank to the bottom of the glass... still slightly in the dream world this really captivated me, for a split second...
i'd woken before this to the sound of rain against my window, feeling that it wasn't looking good for the day i went back to sleep, but now (and indeed when i woke up properly) the sky is blue and lovely...
x
hammersmith respects the half term to from 3 to 5 today i would normally teaching, but i'm not...
instead i'm going to go ride up the disused on the bike listening to this mp3 of myself playing the chords to the nuerotic love song i'm trying to right...
then a little later i'm meeting spski at the NFT for an interactive film made in 1967...
earlier, once i'd dragged myself out of bed at a lazy hour, i was drinking the last of the innocent smoothie carton and i was struck by the sight of the light from the back door refracting through the glass i was drinking from, being tilted as i drank to the bottom of the glass... still slightly in the dream world this really captivated me, for a split second...
i'd woken before this to the sound of rain against my window, feeling that it wasn't looking good for the day i went back to sleep, but now (and indeed when i woke up properly) the sky is blue and lovely...
x
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
napping
(this is how obssessed i am with this game...)
so i was trying to write some lyrics to one of my tunes, about how G sleeps better than i do... and i realised that i was really tired... so i took a nap...
this was around 7ish, woke up around 10ish, really confused, irish G & her A were in the kitchen and i tried a little of her sugar-free cake which was great... very different as a genre to the ordinary cake, but great none-the-less...
i've been called a geek already once today, to carry on in that vein, i'd like to welcome my 2200th visitor... which will happen pretty soon i think... maybe i should offer a prize..?
walked up the disused with G earlier, dropping her off at a watts rehearsal i walked a little further to crouchend, passed Dunn's bakers, considered cake... (just as britney spear's hit me baby came randomly on my ipod shuffle, she's on there because she was a mystery tune for my teaching on monday night (successfully got by one student)... and the production on that tune is so sugary... i found it quite compulsive for a minute or so... then headed straight for the cake shop...)
i resisted cake (for once) and did what i had to do then got the bus home, just stopping in briefly to pick up my book (louis theroux's call of the wierd, christmas present from trave & M) and my bike and then headed out to manolis's, ate very well then was driven to just cycle randomly awhile, west of holloway road, the day giving a certain light...
so anyway, the lyrics must continue... could be something brewing...
x
so i was trying to write some lyrics to one of my tunes, about how G sleeps better than i do... and i realised that i was really tired... so i took a nap...
this was around 7ish, woke up around 10ish, really confused, irish G & her A were in the kitchen and i tried a little of her sugar-free cake which was great... very different as a genre to the ordinary cake, but great none-the-less...
i've been called a geek already once today, to carry on in that vein, i'd like to welcome my 2200th visitor... which will happen pretty soon i think... maybe i should offer a prize..?
walked up the disused with G earlier, dropping her off at a watts rehearsal i walked a little further to crouchend, passed Dunn's bakers, considered cake... (just as britney spear's hit me baby came randomly on my ipod shuffle, she's on there because she was a mystery tune for my teaching on monday night (successfully got by one student)... and the production on that tune is so sugary... i found it quite compulsive for a minute or so... then headed straight for the cake shop...)
i resisted cake (for once) and did what i had to do then got the bus home, just stopping in briefly to pick up my book (louis theroux's call of the wierd, christmas present from trave & M) and my bike and then headed out to manolis's, ate very well then was driven to just cycle randomly awhile, west of holloway road, the day giving a certain light...
so anyway, the lyrics must continue... could be something brewing...
x
dream
cycling to work today was a dream, with the silenced menagery...
i so love my bike... the journey home also just as smooth as you like...
the teaching in between these two journeys was also good... the DOTS class showing some real progress in the students, however small the numbers are right now...
and the musicianship class a somewhat crazy but good affair, J my apprentice did a fair bit of the teaching, he also reflected on my own teaching in our discussion at the end, bringing to light how i deal with challenging behaviour and how he'd like to get to the point where he can do the same... a product of my experience, where me & J differ, he's really good but he has very little experience so far...
reminds me of when i was in that place,
i do enjoy teaching...
and now i've got a couple of days off and for once i have a girlfriend on valentine's day, neither of us are too arsed about it, both of us have had too many negative experiences of that day... time to reclaim it...
but i guess it's a little similar to how i feel about reading books that everyone else is reading, a reluctance to go with the herd...
almost tempting to not be at all romantic tomorrow (later today) and just carry on being deeply romantic when we're moved to (which is quite a lot of the time, still early months for our romance...)
but not quite tempting enough... we'll see how our valentine's comes about...
x
i so love my bike... the journey home also just as smooth as you like...
the teaching in between these two journeys was also good... the DOTS class showing some real progress in the students, however small the numbers are right now...
and the musicianship class a somewhat crazy but good affair, J my apprentice did a fair bit of the teaching, he also reflected on my own teaching in our discussion at the end, bringing to light how i deal with challenging behaviour and how he'd like to get to the point where he can do the same... a product of my experience, where me & J differ, he's really good but he has very little experience so far...
reminds me of when i was in that place,
i do enjoy teaching...
and now i've got a couple of days off and for once i have a girlfriend on valentine's day, neither of us are too arsed about it, both of us have had too many negative experiences of that day... time to reclaim it...
but i guess it's a little similar to how i feel about reading books that everyone else is reading, a reluctance to go with the herd...
almost tempting to not be at all romantic tomorrow (later today) and just carry on being deeply romantic when we're moved to (which is quite a lot of the time, still early months for our romance...)
but not quite tempting enough... we'll see how our valentine's comes about...
x
Saturday, February 11, 2006
menagerie silenced
it had grown a little.. as well as the birds, and the monkeys, there were now some pigs...
the pedals pigs grunting away with the occasional tweet from the pedal birds...
the gear hub monkeys screaming their little hearts out...
so i went down to cycle surgery on holloway road and they sold me a plastic bottle of sturmey archer cycle oil, the very company that made my gear hub in '76 (was it '76?) who got destroyed by some company and then bought out by an eastern company (taiwan i think), surely not in business in the UK at the moment... have their own brand of cycle oil...?
well that's what it says on the bottle and i have no reason to doubt it... glad to get the oil tailor made for my gear hub...
so i swanned home and i poured a little of this stuff into the hub, put some slightly different oil (house oil) on the chain...
and my little beauty is now a quiet little fella...
i cycled up to alexandra palace to see nippy's son R play ice hockey, the hill that hornsey road goes up and down into crouch end was hard work and then nervous fun, i freewheeled most of the very steep descent that i normally brake all the way through...
ally pally itself giving me some insane hillage to deal with...
then sat in the cold with nippy while R's team got destroyed by the opposition, lovely to see her, a long chat, R played well and it was nice to exchange a few words with him after the game,
i cycled home again, already cold, the crouch end hill harder to climb this way and easier on the nerves coming down the other side... much more gentle...
but a very cold journey, fingers and toes were barely speaking to me when i got in...
and i've beaten level 12 on the planarity game which is deeply satisfying...
my G will be home within the hour...
she is lovely...
x
the pedals pigs grunting away with the occasional tweet from the pedal birds...
the gear hub monkeys screaming their little hearts out...
so i went down to cycle surgery on holloway road and they sold me a plastic bottle of sturmey archer cycle oil, the very company that made my gear hub in '76 (was it '76?) who got destroyed by some company and then bought out by an eastern company (taiwan i think), surely not in business in the UK at the moment... have their own brand of cycle oil...?
well that's what it says on the bottle and i have no reason to doubt it... glad to get the oil tailor made for my gear hub...
so i swanned home and i poured a little of this stuff into the hub, put some slightly different oil (house oil) on the chain...
and my little beauty is now a quiet little fella...
i cycled up to alexandra palace to see nippy's son R play ice hockey, the hill that hornsey road goes up and down into crouch end was hard work and then nervous fun, i freewheeled most of the very steep descent that i normally brake all the way through...
ally pally itself giving me some insane hillage to deal with...
then sat in the cold with nippy while R's team got destroyed by the opposition, lovely to see her, a long chat, R played well and it was nice to exchange a few words with him after the game,
i cycled home again, already cold, the crouch end hill harder to climb this way and easier on the nerves coming down the other side... much more gentle...
but a very cold journey, fingers and toes were barely speaking to me when i got in...
and i've beaten level 12 on the planarity game which is deeply satisfying...
my G will be home within the hour...
she is lovely...
x
Thursday, February 09, 2006
visuality
in a slightly strange space...
not bad as such, but contemplative & restless,
after i posted that last thing from hammersmith work i had a look at what was on at the pictures and i saw that breakfast on pluto was showing for the very last time in london (in it's current run) @ only two cinema's; the croydon clock tower @ the curzon soho...
the curzon soho showing was twenty minutes away, so i jumped on the £10 bike with it's menagerie and i raced over to shaftesbury avenue... hoping that there would be at least 10 minutes of trailers...
the menagerie consists of an aviary and some kind of monkey house i think, the aviary being the squeaking of the pedal axle, the monkeys the screaming of the gear hub...
since my bell's been broken i've been using the screaming gear hub as an i exist/get out of my way sound... it comes every time i freewheel, i think i just need to open the cap and pour oil into it to fix it but i'm kind of liking the screaming just now...
the day was still amazing at this point, now i was cycling away from the sun, the other two journeys today (into londonbridge work, from there to hammersmith) had been into the sun so this was a nice contrast, seeing my shadow stretching out in front of me, my bicycle clipped shins bobbing up and down...
i reached the cinema 5 minutes after the film started but it was absolutely the last chance i had of seeing it so i went in anyway and it was GREAT...
perfect for the day i was having...
after it finished and i'd waited for all the credits to roll, looking out for who sang that great me & mrs jones (billy paul) and to mentally cheer the two van morrison tunes (both off astral weeks), and just to enjoy the dusty springfield tune that was playing (the windmills of my mind) i remarked on it's lastness to the only other people in the place... two women,
the older of the two said that although i wouldn't believe it by the tears running down her face it was the second time she'd seen it... tiny moment of community...
so i cycled home and the sun had long set by now and it was a great deal colder, and i've had one of those odd evenings where you don't really do anything...
just been playing that planarity and i'm loving it... the way the impossible gradually becomes possible, small solutions adding up the whole solution...
x
not bad as such, but contemplative & restless,
after i posted that last thing from hammersmith work i had a look at what was on at the pictures and i saw that breakfast on pluto was showing for the very last time in london (in it's current run) @ only two cinema's; the croydon clock tower @ the curzon soho...
the curzon soho showing was twenty minutes away, so i jumped on the £10 bike with it's menagerie and i raced over to shaftesbury avenue... hoping that there would be at least 10 minutes of trailers...
the menagerie consists of an aviary and some kind of monkey house i think, the aviary being the squeaking of the pedal axle, the monkeys the screaming of the gear hub...
since my bell's been broken i've been using the screaming gear hub as an i exist/get out of my way sound... it comes every time i freewheel, i think i just need to open the cap and pour oil into it to fix it but i'm kind of liking the screaming just now...
the day was still amazing at this point, now i was cycling away from the sun, the other two journeys today (into londonbridge work, from there to hammersmith) had been into the sun so this was a nice contrast, seeing my shadow stretching out in front of me, my bicycle clipped shins bobbing up and down...
i reached the cinema 5 minutes after the film started but it was absolutely the last chance i had of seeing it so i went in anyway and it was GREAT...
perfect for the day i was having...
after it finished and i'd waited for all the credits to roll, looking out for who sang that great me & mrs jones (billy paul) and to mentally cheer the two van morrison tunes (both off astral weeks), and just to enjoy the dusty springfield tune that was playing (the windmills of my mind) i remarked on it's lastness to the only other people in the place... two women,
the older of the two said that although i wouldn't believe it by the tears running down her face it was the second time she'd seen it... tiny moment of community...
so i cycled home and the sun had long set by now and it was a great deal colder, and i've had one of those odd evenings where you don't really do anything...
just been playing that planarity and i'm loving it... the way the impossible gradually becomes possible, small solutions adding up the whole solution...
x
a gift on this beautiful day
ok, so it would have been better perhaps if they'd let me know that i wouldn't be teaching @ hammersmith today, but then i wouldn't have got to do that journey...
let's start earlier shall we?
last week and this week i had a reason to be @ londonbridge work before coming here to hammersmith, which allowed me to still carry on with the filming project that needs me to be at certain points on that journey at the right time of day...
a jetty on the south bank of the river (near the oxo tower, although not the one directly by the oxo tower),
the canada memorial in green park (or is it st james park? i realise that i don't really know which bit of park is which in the middle there, it's all park...)
my regular work on thursday mornings @ londonbridge work stopped a few weeks ago & i've been reluctant to let go of the filming thing...
so it was nice to be able to carry on with that today, particularly as it is such a fantastic day...
and i suppose this represents the end of that bit of filming, i really like the notion that it will all be at roughly the same time of day for this project, so although i may return to those locations... unless i make a point to be at those places at those times... which is possible...?
anyway, after the lovely journey i arrive and discover that there are no lessons...
but as nobody told me this i should still get paid...
nice
x
let's start earlier shall we?
last week and this week i had a reason to be @ londonbridge work before coming here to hammersmith, which allowed me to still carry on with the filming project that needs me to be at certain points on that journey at the right time of day...
a jetty on the south bank of the river (near the oxo tower, although not the one directly by the oxo tower),
the canada memorial in green park (or is it st james park? i realise that i don't really know which bit of park is which in the middle there, it's all park...)
my regular work on thursday mornings @ londonbridge work stopped a few weeks ago & i've been reluctant to let go of the filming thing...
so it was nice to be able to carry on with that today, particularly as it is such a fantastic day...
and i suppose this represents the end of that bit of filming, i really like the notion that it will all be at roughly the same time of day for this project, so although i may return to those locations... unless i make a point to be at those places at those times... which is possible...?
anyway, after the lovely journey i arrive and discover that there are no lessons...
but as nobody told me this i should still get paid...
nice
x
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
winning
i've been losing a fair bit recently, over on gameknot,
also in real life, lost 2 games in a row to W, my G's dad, after having beaten him convinsingly always in the past... G, whose competitive streak extends to her imidiat family has stopped crowing on W's behalf now but i'm sure once she's reminded of it by reading it here she'll begin again...
funny how that paragraph contained many words that i couldn't spell, for once i decided to press on, not find another word i can spell... spelling,
anyway, losing...
i just won a game over there which was particularly satisfying, yes they quit before the final kill but still the magical energy of winning is there, somehow related to the killing of animals for food, some manly architype that my vegetarianism pushes into the realm of chess...
and i think that maybe it's a sign that my winning days may be returning,
damien rice's music, i always found it a bit like being in love, still has that...
like semble last week, their live gig, i was recounting it to M & L @ work and i made the same analogy, like being in love,
before remarking that i am in love... and maybe that's why i've been losing, some twist on unlucky in love...
anyway, beautiful day out there...
going out in it
x
also in real life, lost 2 games in a row to W, my G's dad, after having beaten him convinsingly always in the past... G, whose competitive streak extends to her imidiat family has stopped crowing on W's behalf now but i'm sure once she's reminded of it by reading it here she'll begin again...
funny how that paragraph contained many words that i couldn't spell, for once i decided to press on, not find another word i can spell... spelling,
anyway, losing...
i just won a game over there which was particularly satisfying, yes they quit before the final kill but still the magical energy of winning is there, somehow related to the killing of animals for food, some manly architype that my vegetarianism pushes into the realm of chess...
and i think that maybe it's a sign that my winning days may be returning,
damien rice's music, i always found it a bit like being in love, still has that...
like semble last week, their live gig, i was recounting it to M & L @ work and i made the same analogy, like being in love,
before remarking that i am in love... and maybe that's why i've been losing, some twist on unlucky in love...
anyway, beautiful day out there...
going out in it
x
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
black flags
this news link from the BBC is really pleasing me, international news by headline every day if i want it...
i have no idea how i would go about getting it if i didn't already have it...
so today we have the scientific team who have been spending time in papua and finding any number of new species...
and then castro erecting a massive statue holding 138 black flags, directly in front of the US embassy in havana, in response to the US putting an electronic, scrolling sign on their building...
the people in the picture are holding pictures of those who have been killed by US violence...
if it weren't for the tragic element this would seem so much like an argument between two neighbours on a street, the husbands erecting more and more bizaare and ridiculous things in their gardens while the wives and the children look on in amazement...
the black flags though, anarchist icons, can't help but like it...
day off today and i'm taking it really slowly, the beginning of the new semester this week and it seems that i'm only at londonbridge work mondays & fridays now, with hammersmith on thursdays... a life of leisure, maybe should find a little more work but equally i should be able to achieve a fair amount of artistic stuff in this time...
yesterday i was teaching the musicianship module to the teaching students, including P who asked me to show her a little more of the bach piece after the class... teaching with J again as my apprentice, J who may end up teaching felinity's flatmate guitar, great situation, great subject, great students, great apprentice... very happy...
x
i have no idea how i would go about getting it if i didn't already have it...
so today we have the scientific team who have been spending time in papua and finding any number of new species...
and then castro erecting a massive statue holding 138 black flags, directly in front of the US embassy in havana, in response to the US putting an electronic, scrolling sign on their building...
the people in the picture are holding pictures of those who have been killed by US violence...
if it weren't for the tragic element this would seem so much like an argument between two neighbours on a street, the husbands erecting more and more bizaare and ridiculous things in their gardens while the wives and the children look on in amazement...
the black flags though, anarchist icons, can't help but like it...
day off today and i'm taking it really slowly, the beginning of the new semester this week and it seems that i'm only at londonbridge work mondays & fridays now, with hammersmith on thursdays... a life of leisure, maybe should find a little more work but equally i should be able to achieve a fair amount of artistic stuff in this time...
yesterday i was teaching the musicianship module to the teaching students, including P who asked me to show her a little more of the bach piece after the class... teaching with J again as my apprentice, J who may end up teaching felinity's flatmate guitar, great situation, great subject, great students, great apprentice... very happy...
x
Saturday, February 04, 2006
slightly bruised
went down south for G's birthday, he who records me... felt all very easy, cycling down to kingscross thameslink then 25 minutes to tulse hill, then 5 minutes to the place...
had a nice couple of hours, a couple of bombay sapphire gins, some good company...
got back on the bike heading home for the party feeling on top of things, powerful, you know, cool, a little drunk, but the drunk that gin gives you, sophisticated...
anyway, got to kingscross and the area just decided to do me in a bit... not much, just a bit...
walking up the stairs with the bike under my arm, a patch of water on a landing and i slipped, didn't fall far, landed on the bike which stood up... just hurt my hand a little and was shaken...
concern from fellow passengers...
then out onto the streets and i haven't done that route for a little while so i'm thinking a fair bit, see a street which i at first dismiss but then decide to go for, a sharp turn on an icy road...
this time on the floor...
again nothing too serious, just a little bruising, upset...
cycled home carefully, got in, the beats pumping from down below, just had a shower...
my beautiful cat balthazara here where her food is for the party... loving me in that way she has, when i need a little feline love...
about to get dressed and find that party feeling... must be here somewhere...
x
had a nice couple of hours, a couple of bombay sapphire gins, some good company...
got back on the bike heading home for the party feeling on top of things, powerful, you know, cool, a little drunk, but the drunk that gin gives you, sophisticated...
anyway, got to kingscross and the area just decided to do me in a bit... not much, just a bit...
walking up the stairs with the bike under my arm, a patch of water on a landing and i slipped, didn't fall far, landed on the bike which stood up... just hurt my hand a little and was shaken...
concern from fellow passengers...
then out onto the streets and i haven't done that route for a little while so i'm thinking a fair bit, see a street which i at first dismiss but then decide to go for, a sharp turn on an icy road...
this time on the floor...
again nothing too serious, just a little bruising, upset...
cycled home carefully, got in, the beats pumping from down below, just had a shower...
my beautiful cat balthazara here where her food is for the party... loving me in that way she has, when i need a little feline love...
about to get dressed and find that party feeling... must be here somewhere...
x
sorabji
when i first learnt about skryabin, the russian composer, i was told that effectively he was the end of the line, noone came after him to continue what he was doing...
a few weeks ago i went over to uncle filmo's with bo and one of the things he played us was le jardin de parfum by sorabji (spelt wrong i'm sure, from memory), solo piano music, very beautiful, sparse, although dense at times, i'd never heard of him...
he was born in england to an indian father and possibly sicilian mother in 1892, died in 1988 having published over 100 works (largely for piano),
in 1913 he attended skryabin's performances in london...
so now i'm downloading as much as i can from soulseek, (strange what turns up on soulseek) and listening to bits of it...
ethereal,
insanely complex,
oh filmo you lead me down some strange pathways...
oh and my life... oh yes...
the lesson on thursday was a triumph, subtle mix of carrot and stick (largely carrot), i came home and slept for 12 hours which was sorely needed, went to work yesterday for the final assessment of the search & reflect intensive... lovely, not real teaching, just checking out where the students have got to with it all, validating,
and today i'm going to go down south for producer G's birthday before coming back up here for a mini-party tonight...
x
a few weeks ago i went over to uncle filmo's with bo and one of the things he played us was le jardin de parfum by sorabji (spelt wrong i'm sure, from memory), solo piano music, very beautiful, sparse, although dense at times, i'd never heard of him...
he was born in england to an indian father and possibly sicilian mother in 1892, died in 1988 having published over 100 works (largely for piano),
in 1913 he attended skryabin's performances in london...
so now i'm downloading as much as i can from soulseek, (strange what turns up on soulseek) and listening to bits of it...
ethereal,
insanely complex,
oh filmo you lead me down some strange pathways...
oh and my life... oh yes...
the lesson on thursday was a triumph, subtle mix of carrot and stick (largely carrot), i came home and slept for 12 hours which was sorely needed, went to work yesterday for the final assessment of the search & reflect intensive... lovely, not real teaching, just checking out where the students have got to with it all, validating,
and today i'm going to go down south for producer G's birthday before coming back up here for a mini-party tonight...
x
Thursday, February 02, 2006
semble josiah cheeky f**kers
just about got back to my human self again after last night, went down to brighton to see josiah & semble, semble's penultimate gig, they were achingly beautiful, josiah lovely, grace this morning was a joy, i this morning was a wreck...
came back to london to meet with G (recording G) with some ibuprofen and some toast, that was good, engaging the brain,
i just cycled over from londonbridge work to hammersmith work, where last week my students really pissed me off...
we'll see how today goes...
i have a plan... and i am human again...
x
came back to london to meet with G (recording G) with some ibuprofen and some toast, that was good, engaging the brain,
i just cycled over from londonbridge work to hammersmith work, where last week my students really pissed me off...
we'll see how today goes...
i have a plan... and i am human again...
x
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