taking balthazara to the vets soon, the first time since she's been in my care (a couple of years), nothings wrong i don't think but it'll be good to check her out...
me & spski deflea'd her the other day - 6 weeks or so after the last time - and it's so much easier with two, hilda helped me last time, but if i had 3 arms i could probably do it on my own...
and there are certain tunes i've written that i can't play on my own, and again, three arms would help me out there...
cycling, with both hands on the handlebar and another hand holding the camera...
and they're trying to amputate one of his arms...
oh but hang on....
he was born on april 1st....
is that allowed, doing an april fools on may 31st...?
do the chinese even have april fools?
do you exist Jie-jie?
i hope you do
x
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Monday, May 29, 2006
This to This - come and see it
bank holiday monday and the sun is shining and the rain is falling...
spring...
so anyway i did make it out on friday to see This to This and for the first time i could relax and just watch the play, the music is complete and lovely and nothing rattles in that unpleasant way it did on the first preview...
it's great, it's quite dark, it's funny, it's on until june 17th...
i urge you to go see it my dear readers, it costs around £10, it's on @ the union theatre, 204 union st, SE1, (near to southwark tube)...
drop me a comment if you do intend on going, i might come and and meet you, (if you wish to be met)
x
spring...
so anyway i did make it out on friday to see This to This and for the first time i could relax and just watch the play, the music is complete and lovely and nothing rattles in that unpleasant way it did on the first preview...
it's great, it's quite dark, it's funny, it's on until june 17th...
i urge you to go see it my dear readers, it costs around £10, it's on @ the union theatre, 204 union st, SE1, (near to southwark tube)...
drop me a comment if you do intend on going, i might come and and meet you, (if you wish to be met)
x
Saturday, May 27, 2006
descending to dream place
the first of the 3 photos from sorrento that i posted without any explanation once we were back 10 days or so ago is of the inaccessible stone staircase that leads down from modern sorrento to old, old sorrento...
this is another view of the same thing:
at the bottom of those stairs is a magical looking place that me & dinah could see but not get to... we really, really wanted to walk amongst it...
a few days after we returned i dreamt that we were walking around it, over the stone brdge over the stream that you can see in the picture below... very ordinary dream but very pleasing to get there, i've wanted to go back in my dreams since...
so this morning, after dinah had got up and reluctantly brought me a cup of tea i was dozing in and out of sleep, i had a dream (you know how your dreams are more vivid if you've woken up and then go back to sleep again) that i was in a group of people and we were walking down a stone, spiral staircase, somehow i knew that it was another way down to this place, we were dancing to a 3 rhythm...
i woke up at exactly the right moment for the tea to be the perfect temperature and once i'd arisen i programmed a beat in fruity loops to this same rhythm...
it's become about a minute long so far and i love it... entirely instrumental so far but i have a good feeling that a vocal part is just around the corner...
x
this is another view of the same thing:at the bottom of those stairs is a magical looking place that me & dinah could see but not get to... we really, really wanted to walk amongst it...
a few days after we returned i dreamt that we were walking around it, over the stone brdge over the stream that you can see in the picture below... very ordinary dream but very pleasing to get there, i've wanted to go back in my dreams since...so this morning, after dinah had got up and reluctantly brought me a cup of tea i was dozing in and out of sleep, i had a dream (you know how your dreams are more vivid if you've woken up and then go back to sleep again) that i was in a group of people and we were walking down a stone, spiral staircase, somehow i knew that it was another way down to this place, we were dancing to a 3 rhythm...
i woke up at exactly the right moment for the tea to be the perfect temperature and once i'd arisen i programmed a beat in fruity loops to this same rhythm...
it's become about a minute long so far and i love it... entirely instrumental so far but i have a good feeling that a vocal part is just around the corner...
x
Friday, May 26, 2006
old tunes
i think because i did my tax return way early and without the usual frantic finding of pieces of paper my life has decided i need that frantic experience...
and so, right at this time when my room is at it's maddest, the composition whirlwind having left it's mark, i have to find a piece of paper with some marks written on it for written work and for performance work completed by certain of my students several months ago...
things like this end up being like archealogical digs, sifting through artifacts, dating them, finding a vein of stuff that is close in time to what i want to find, following it...
so of course i'm procrastinating, i've been ridiculously productive what with the music for the play so i'm allowing myself a little more space...
and i'm listening to some of my old tunes, an albums worth of music that i collated and then gave out to a few choice friends (with ears) for their opinions a few years back... by the time i'd got the opinions back i'd moved on from making music in that way (computer - cubase) and was more and more doing music directly with voice & piano so the album project fell away,
i was wondering what music to put on my myspace and i realised to my dismay that i no longer had the tracks from that album, P has kindly given me them in the format i gave them to her back when i was wooing her and now i'm eager to find them in proper uncompressed format... they sound lovely...
so the physical search for the marks is balanced by a search in my computer for these tracks (most of which are inexplicably missing) which throws up some interesting finds... (as does the physical search - in fact, about an hour ago i found a piece of paper with feedback from one of the friends with ears about the album)...
so far my myspace is pretty barren, with a picture and 2 tracks, one of them being harbour walls and the other the intro to This to This which i'm tempted to go and see tonight, (but i'll have to get my skates on if i'm going to)...
so... laters...
x
and so, right at this time when my room is at it's maddest, the composition whirlwind having left it's mark, i have to find a piece of paper with some marks written on it for written work and for performance work completed by certain of my students several months ago...
things like this end up being like archealogical digs, sifting through artifacts, dating them, finding a vein of stuff that is close in time to what i want to find, following it...
so of course i'm procrastinating, i've been ridiculously productive what with the music for the play so i'm allowing myself a little more space...
and i'm listening to some of my old tunes, an albums worth of music that i collated and then gave out to a few choice friends (with ears) for their opinions a few years back... by the time i'd got the opinions back i'd moved on from making music in that way (computer - cubase) and was more and more doing music directly with voice & piano so the album project fell away,
i was wondering what music to put on my myspace and i realised to my dismay that i no longer had the tracks from that album, P has kindly given me them in the format i gave them to her back when i was wooing her and now i'm eager to find them in proper uncompressed format... they sound lovely...
so the physical search for the marks is balanced by a search in my computer for these tracks (most of which are inexplicably missing) which throws up some interesting finds... (as does the physical search - in fact, about an hour ago i found a piece of paper with feedback from one of the friends with ears about the album)...
so far my myspace is pretty barren, with a picture and 2 tracks, one of them being harbour walls and the other the intro to This to This which i'm tempted to go and see tonight, (but i'll have to get my skates on if i'm going to)...
so... laters...
x
Thursday, May 25, 2006
oh yes... the rest of my life
ok, so the music for This to This was delivered earlier this week, the last CD i gave to them yesterday, after seeing the opening night and changing the mixes slightly...
press night is tonight, i'm going to go again to see it on friday night, then maybe once a week for the remainder of the run, it's good, i'm looking forward to seeing it without worrying about the music...
i got my bike back from the menders, it's not quite what it was before the accident but it's much better than afterwards...
and now i'm gradually picking up the rest of my life that i've let drift while the whirlwind of this composition project has swept about me,
i'm marking, and i'm locating previous marking, than i'll be thinking about my longcat trio, getting back in touch with the piano movers who seem to have faded away, getting back in touch with that part of me that plays in nippy's band, (we've got a gig in finsbury park a week today)...
resuming normal service
x
press night is tonight, i'm going to go again to see it on friday night, then maybe once a week for the remainder of the run, it's good, i'm looking forward to seeing it without worrying about the music...
i got my bike back from the menders, it's not quite what it was before the accident but it's much better than afterwards...
and now i'm gradually picking up the rest of my life that i've let drift while the whirlwind of this composition project has swept about me,
i'm marking, and i'm locating previous marking, than i'll be thinking about my longcat trio, getting back in touch with the piano movers who seem to have faded away, getting back in touch with that part of me that plays in nippy's band, (we've got a gig in finsbury park a week today)...
resuming normal service
x
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
structures done
ok so the play opens tonight, the scene change pieces were handed over yesterday morning, (i was on my back from the theatre when the accident happened), so that they could do the tech rehearsal,
the first dress rehearsal is in about an hour and i intend to deliver these 2 last pieces (intro & outro) in time for the second dress rehearsal this afternoon, then go to the dentist and see about this fatlip/tooth business, marking essays while i'm waiting...
i didn't cycle in to work yesterday, i wanted to, but the force of the collision had bent my left pedal out of shape so that it doesn't go round anymore... i'm taking it to the bike shop now, she's going to pay for the repair... when i saw that it was broken yesterday i had a flash of anger that was bouncing around in me all day thereafter...
& i had trouble getting to sleep, a nameless fear wrapped around me in my almost sleep kept making me wake up again...
but physicaly i'm fine, i was wondering where the force of that collision went (she was driving really fast) and it now seems that my pedal took the brunt of it... amazing that that much force was bending my pedal out of shape centimetres away from my foot... my left shoe is looking slightly scuffed...
anyway, i now have the structures of these 2 tunes sorted out, just have to arrange properly within those structures and then pay attention to the sound...
it's been a strange journey, going right in to write these 10 - 15 second pieces all weekend and then having to pan out again to deal with 3-4 minute tunes...
x
the first dress rehearsal is in about an hour and i intend to deliver these 2 last pieces (intro & outro) in time for the second dress rehearsal this afternoon, then go to the dentist and see about this fatlip/tooth business, marking essays while i'm waiting...
i didn't cycle in to work yesterday, i wanted to, but the force of the collision had bent my left pedal out of shape so that it doesn't go round anymore... i'm taking it to the bike shop now, she's going to pay for the repair... when i saw that it was broken yesterday i had a flash of anger that was bouncing around in me all day thereafter...
& i had trouble getting to sleep, a nameless fear wrapped around me in my almost sleep kept making me wake up again...
but physicaly i'm fine, i was wondering where the force of that collision went (she was driving really fast) and it now seems that my pedal took the brunt of it... amazing that that much force was bending my pedal out of shape centimetres away from my foot... my left shoe is looking slightly scuffed...
anyway, i now have the structures of these 2 tunes sorted out, just have to arrange properly within those structures and then pay attention to the sound...
it's been a strange journey, going right in to write these 10 - 15 second pieces all weekend and then having to pan out again to deal with 3-4 minute tunes...
x
Monday, May 22, 2006
hit by a car
my first time,
i was on my bike, i had the right of way on highbury corner roundabout... she didn't see me, & although i did see her it took me a little while to realise that she wasn't going to stop... she had a green light and culd see no cars coming round the roundabout, she saw no reason to slow down...
but i did eventually realise and she did eventually see me so we both took evasive action, which meant that i was shocked, pale & slightly bruised while she drove me home instead of not getting up in a hurry...
i feel well enough to cycle to work now...
highbury roundabout is a dangerous place, i'm going to find a route to work that avoids it...
x
i was on my bike, i had the right of way on highbury corner roundabout... she didn't see me, & although i did see her it took me a little while to realise that she wasn't going to stop... she had a green light and culd see no cars coming round the roundabout, she saw no reason to slow down...
but i did eventually realise and she did eventually see me so we both took evasive action, which meant that i was shocked, pale & slightly bruised while she drove me home instead of not getting up in a hurry...
i feel well enough to cycle to work now...
highbury roundabout is a dangerous place, i'm going to find a route to work that avoids it...
x
Sunday, May 21, 2006
20/22 fat lip
ok, that's all the short ones done... just the intro and outro now... no clue as of this moment but i'm sure something will come...
i woke up this morning with a fat lip, as though someone had punched me... related to the sore front tooth i've had since friday night... still no idea where it came from...
the scifi part of my brain wants to believe that someone stopped time and attacked me at some point on friday night, then cosmetically fixed my face so i wouldn't notice but forgot about the effects of healing that the body does... started time again and put me back in front of my computer writing this music... then gradually i became aware of my front tooth hurting and my body gets to work fixing me, giving me this fat lip and the continuing pain of the tooth...
the scifi part of my brain is but one of many voices trying to make sense of this toothache, i guess i'll be dentisting early next week once all this is done...
x
i woke up this morning with a fat lip, as though someone had punched me... related to the sore front tooth i've had since friday night... still no idea where it came from...
the scifi part of my brain wants to believe that someone stopped time and attacked me at some point on friday night, then cosmetically fixed my face so i wouldn't notice but forgot about the effects of healing that the body does... started time again and put me back in front of my computer writing this music... then gradually i became aware of my front tooth hurting and my body gets to work fixing me, giving me this fat lip and the continuing pain of the tooth...
the scifi part of my brain is but one of many voices trying to make sense of this toothache, i guess i'll be dentisting early next week once all this is done...
x
Saturday, May 20, 2006
14/22
and i'm about to go to the dry cleaners to pick up 4 of my shirts that have been pressed... one for tonight, and 3 that will be ready to wear whenever i wish to...
of the remaining 8 pieces to finish 6 of them are voice ones, tomorrow now for them, and the last 2 are the longer intro and outro pieces... so far all the finished ones have been less than 20 seconds long, the intro & outro will be 3 - 4 minutes long and i'm going to write them tomorrow once i'm done with the short scene change ones...
i'm loving the sound, i'm gradually getting on top of it all, just those scary voice ones tomorrow...
i'm off tonight to see F, whose invited all of us that used to live in kensal rise together (5-6 years ago) to hers... she's getting married in june and i'm playing something at her reception... weddings...
the wedding in sorrento was just beautiful... dress for a spring summer wedding on a terrace in italy... said the invite... hmmmmmmm... x what a place that terrace was...
x
of the remaining 8 pieces to finish 6 of them are voice ones, tomorrow now for them, and the last 2 are the longer intro and outro pieces... so far all the finished ones have been less than 20 seconds long, the intro & outro will be 3 - 4 minutes long and i'm going to write them tomorrow once i'm done with the short scene change ones...
i'm loving the sound, i'm gradually getting on top of it all, just those scary voice ones tomorrow...
i'm off tonight to see F, whose invited all of us that used to live in kensal rise together (5-6 years ago) to hers... she's getting married in june and i'm playing something at her reception... weddings...
the wedding in sorrento was just beautiful... dress for a spring summer wedding on a terrace in italy... said the invite... hmmmmmmm... x what a place that terrace was...
x
8/22
my right ear & my right front tooth are hurting... possibly related... mapped out the major voice ones and they scare me... i love the hammond... still short on sleep since sorrento so i'm going to bed, maybe rising @ 11 for more of the same...
i'm afraid this weekend will look pretty similar to this, a ratio out of 22 and a brief status report... expect several more...
x
i'm afraid this weekend will look pretty similar to this, a ratio out of 22 and a brief status report... expect several more...
x
Friday, May 19, 2006
this to this
being the name of the play...
i've probably lost Hcello for this project... a small possibility that she'll make it round tomorrow afternoon but i have to assume that she won't and then it'll be a pleasant surprise...
and whilst this was a bleak thing this morning, i've managed to rearrange my plans to include a hammond organ instead of her cello, wouldn't have been my first choice but actually it's sounding real nice...
it being a whole different acoustic world to the cello, but a good acoustic world, my voice remains in there, a little more vulnerable without the cello but there none the less... and the hammond being a virtual instrument has led me down an easier path to the piano and i'm currently using my REALPIANO module...
...bizaare aside, the written note that came with my module from the previous owner is currently lying on the floor beneath my keyboard stand - the iceburg effect of my room - it says: R... HAVE FUN WITH THIS BABY, ALL THE BEST, J...
if i have time and if i can i will rerecord the piano parts using an actual piano but this way i have more control and it's great to hear my little module within a whole sound like this one...
so, of the 22 pieces of music i have to write/record, i've finished 3, actually i haven't even finished them, some mastering things to be done when the whole project is recorded - but for the sake of my looking back and organising my present... 3/22 done...
it's going to be a long weekend...
x
i've probably lost Hcello for this project... a small possibility that she'll make it round tomorrow afternoon but i have to assume that she won't and then it'll be a pleasant surprise...
and whilst this was a bleak thing this morning, i've managed to rearrange my plans to include a hammond organ instead of her cello, wouldn't have been my first choice but actually it's sounding real nice...
it being a whole different acoustic world to the cello, but a good acoustic world, my voice remains in there, a little more vulnerable without the cello but there none the less... and the hammond being a virtual instrument has led me down an easier path to the piano and i'm currently using my REALPIANO module...
...bizaare aside, the written note that came with my module from the previous owner is currently lying on the floor beneath my keyboard stand - the iceburg effect of my room - it says: R... HAVE FUN WITH THIS BABY, ALL THE BEST, J...
if i have time and if i can i will rerecord the piano parts using an actual piano but this way i have more control and it's great to hear my little module within a whole sound like this one...
so, of the 22 pieces of music i have to write/record, i've finished 3, actually i haven't even finished them, some mastering things to be done when the whole project is recorded - but for the sake of my looking back and organising my present... 3/22 done...
it's going to be a long weekend...
x
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
sorrento baby
in about half an hour or so i'll be in bed, and then 5 hours later i'll be getting up again... another one of these stupidly early planes...
so a nap or two through the day would be good...
the wedding is at 4...
we have a hotel for the night and then we're flying back late on thursday...
director B came round and heard through the music as it now stands, he's also under alot of pressure, 3 more weeks would have been good he says...
hmmm... maybe i'll take this opportunity to advertise the play... hang on...
there you go... fancy huh?
this is what i'm slaving over right now, converting everything i've done to mp3 so i can take it to italy tomorrow and think about melodies...
x
so a nap or two through the day would be good...
the wedding is at 4...
we have a hotel for the night and then we're flying back late on thursday...
director B came round and heard through the music as it now stands, he's also under alot of pressure, 3 more weeks would have been good he says...
hmmm... maybe i'll take this opportunity to advertise the play... hang on...
there you go... fancy huh?
this is what i'm slaving over right now, converting everything i've done to mp3 so i can take it to italy tomorrow and think about melodies...
x
Monday, May 15, 2006
at it
deep in this busy week now... i've got tonight and tomorrow to write the music, (for the play), wednesday at the crack of dawn we fly to sorrento for the wedding, getting back late on thursday night, teach on friday morning then Hcello is coming round on friday afternoon to record the music, which i then have two more days to finish/record whilst also going out with old friends on the saturday night, to hand the music over on sunday/monday and the play opens on tuesday...
it's taking shape...
i started it in ernest on saturday, the day that i saw sinatra in the evening, to celebrate felinity's birthday, surprising great actually, really nice to see the footage of frank, mostly from that golden period when he was great (the 50's with capital) but a couple of surprises later on, such as a great send in the clowns which must have been 70's...
an obscure bono bit that went on far too long but even that was funny more than it was irritating (particularly afterwords in the pub. felinity's flatmate E really is very funny) so satisfying all in all... lovely to see felinity and her crowd (her G, her flatmates E & K)... dinah came out at the end of the night to have a drink with us too... that lovely girl of mine...
then on sunday, me & dinah had our customery roast @ the amazon and then i set to work once more, biking over to P's for a haircut midway through the afternoon... nice to see her in her new place, right by the river lea,
cycling back i passed abney park cemetary that i'd loved when i first moved to london, my first flat being on the corner of green lanes and stoke newington church street...
i couldn't resist cycling into the cemetary and i drifted around for half an hour or so, taking pictures... really fantastic place, overgrown and centurys old...
and then today i read yet another great short story in manolis's, from that same anthology, this time by kazuo ishiguro, before going to work and now here i am, petting my cat and pondering the play...
x
it's taking shape...
i started it in ernest on saturday, the day that i saw sinatra in the evening, to celebrate felinity's birthday, surprising great actually, really nice to see the footage of frank, mostly from that golden period when he was great (the 50's with capital) but a couple of surprises later on, such as a great send in the clowns which must have been 70's...
an obscure bono bit that went on far too long but even that was funny more than it was irritating (particularly afterwords in the pub. felinity's flatmate E really is very funny) so satisfying all in all... lovely to see felinity and her crowd (her G, her flatmates E & K)... dinah came out at the end of the night to have a drink with us too... that lovely girl of mine...
then on sunday, me & dinah had our customery roast @ the amazon and then i set to work once more, biking over to P's for a haircut midway through the afternoon... nice to see her in her new place, right by the river lea,
cycling back i passed abney park cemetary that i'd loved when i first moved to london, my first flat being on the corner of green lanes and stoke newington church street...
i couldn't resist cycling into the cemetary and i drifted around for half an hour or so, taking pictures... really fantastic place, overgrown and centurys old...and then today i read yet another great short story in manolis's, from that same anthology, this time by kazuo ishiguro, before going to work and now here i am, petting my cat and pondering the play...
x
Friday, May 12, 2006
crazy
gnarls barkley... just stumbled across him on youtube... that tune... crazy... just fantastic, i hope the album's as good...
brings godma G to mind, somehow,
felt a little scared today, just a tremor, to do with feeling manic, a hangover from attacking dinah in my sleep the other week...
really didn't want to leave dinah this morning in bed but i managed to, raced into work for my 1.5 hours of teaching then headed up to pointblank to sign a contract... getting home with no real clue as to what to do...
not unpleasant, very hot day...
hmmm
not much to say to y'all, i am a cat...
x
brings godma G to mind, somehow,
felt a little scared today, just a tremor, to do with feeling manic, a hangover from attacking dinah in my sleep the other week...
really didn't want to leave dinah this morning in bed but i managed to, raced into work for my 1.5 hours of teaching then headed up to pointblank to sign a contract... getting home with no real clue as to what to do...
not unpleasant, very hot day...
hmmm
not much to say to y'all, i am a cat...
x
Thursday, May 11, 2006
the Day of the Cat
actually the day after the Day of the Kat but i'll let that go...
i saw felinity tonight after my work, she who had been drifting around not working while i was working.... reversal of things...
we met in green park by the canada memorial, the second time in the last month or so that i've shared it with other people, (the first time was that great cycling day with hilda & spski), and we dipped our feet into the rippling water, something that it has never occurred to me to do...
i set my camera up for another of my slowing bicycle wheel videos and went off to buy lollies while she lay down and gazed at the trees... altogether utopian... her birthday was yesterday and she very sensibly took these two days off work...
we eventually ambled up to waterstones on picadilly (the simpsons building) where we had tea & cake (although not in such high style as claridges where her & G had been yesterday) before idly looking for books for her present... eventually i got her the virgin suicides (her choice) and kitchen by banana yoshimoto (my choice) and i couldn't resist i am a cat by soseki natsume for myself... which came to more than her two together - which is often the way with buying presents... and which provides us with the title of todays post, taken from this line:
For surely even human beings will not flourish forever. I think it best to wait in patience for the Day of the Cats.
it is my next book, having finished amanda & the 11 million high dancer last night, oh and i read a great short story today in manolis's, the lotus by jean rhys... that collection of shortstories he has in there is stuffed full of good ones...
anyway back to tonight, we ate in Getti's just along from the back entrance of Waterstones, quite pricey for not much food, but tasty...
after i dropped her at the tube i went over to somerset house to check out how easy it is to get to that high place i mentioned before... whether it was a fluke of that day or whether the way is open all the time...
which meant that as the light gradually bled out of the sky i was sat on a rooftop overlooking the fountains of somerset house... somewhere i'd like to take dinah - also felinity -
oh and what a joy it was today to have a functioning bicycle... i got it fixed up this morning after yesterday... as i was cycling from here to blackheath... just as i got to the bottom of the isle of dogs, about to go under the grenwich foot tunnel... i got a puncture... and no stuff with me to fix it...
a friendly passing cyclist pumped up my tire for me but it was dead by the time i got to the other side of the river, it just meant i had to walk through grenwich park to blackheath, fortunate that it happened so late in the journey and probably paying for the luck i had last month, getting that drawing pin in the tire and not getting a puncture...
grenwich park was heavenly, this was 6ish and the day was glorious (as was today) and there were so many smiling people strolling along... i felt it even through the slight funk i was in (joycean funk rather than james brown funk) as not only had i got a puncture but i'd also lost the batteries to my camera... it was dangling from my handlebars as i raced down the canal and the battery lid bit had worked it's way open and those batteries flew out before i even noticed... losing recharchables and polluting the canal all in one fell swoop...
and of course once i couldn't use my camera the visual world erupted in perfect pictures... a warehouse frame that was psychedelic, a path in grenwich park lined by trees that give off pink blossom... the path dusted with pink...
i met uncle filmo and we saw a modern classical concert given by ian pace, an excellent pianist, playing stuff by xanakis and finisee (i don't know how he spells his name the second one)... very good, more than a little mad... filmo said a piano string snapped in the xanakis, there was also a piece involving some technology with the piano written by the woman presenting the night - eva... somebody, based, it seems, on the novels of juan rolfo... whose pedro paramo i read a few months back... good stuff, less to filmo's taste but i liked it, intriguing use of technology... the pianist was a kookie guy, strange concert hall mannerisms...
oh and talking of concert hall mannerisms i met skinnyman in the bike shop this morning, he of the conscious lyrics UK hiphop... often does stuff for the stop the war demos... certain of my students have told me he's great, nice fella, council estate of mind is his latest album, he said to download it and then if i liked it to give money to wateraid...
groovy cat...
x
i saw felinity tonight after my work, she who had been drifting around not working while i was working.... reversal of things...
we met in green park by the canada memorial, the second time in the last month or so that i've shared it with other people, (the first time was that great cycling day with hilda & spski), and we dipped our feet into the rippling water, something that it has never occurred to me to do...i set my camera up for another of my slowing bicycle wheel videos and went off to buy lollies while she lay down and gazed at the trees... altogether utopian... her birthday was yesterday and she very sensibly took these two days off work...
we eventually ambled up to waterstones on picadilly (the simpsons building) where we had tea & cake (although not in such high style as claridges where her & G had been yesterday) before idly looking for books for her present... eventually i got her the virgin suicides (her choice) and kitchen by banana yoshimoto (my choice) and i couldn't resist i am a cat by soseki natsume for myself... which came to more than her two together - which is often the way with buying presents... and which provides us with the title of todays post, taken from this line:
For surely even human beings will not flourish forever. I think it best to wait in patience for the Day of the Cats.
it is my next book, having finished amanda & the 11 million high dancer last night, oh and i read a great short story today in manolis's, the lotus by jean rhys... that collection of shortstories he has in there is stuffed full of good ones...
anyway back to tonight, we ate in Getti's just along from the back entrance of Waterstones, quite pricey for not much food, but tasty...
after i dropped her at the tube i went over to somerset house to check out how easy it is to get to that high place i mentioned before... whether it was a fluke of that day or whether the way is open all the time...
which meant that as the light gradually bled out of the sky i was sat on a rooftop overlooking the fountains of somerset house... somewhere i'd like to take dinah - also felinity -oh and what a joy it was today to have a functioning bicycle... i got it fixed up this morning after yesterday... as i was cycling from here to blackheath... just as i got to the bottom of the isle of dogs, about to go under the grenwich foot tunnel... i got a puncture... and no stuff with me to fix it...
a friendly passing cyclist pumped up my tire for me but it was dead by the time i got to the other side of the river, it just meant i had to walk through grenwich park to blackheath, fortunate that it happened so late in the journey and probably paying for the luck i had last month, getting that drawing pin in the tire and not getting a puncture...
grenwich park was heavenly, this was 6ish and the day was glorious (as was today) and there were so many smiling people strolling along... i felt it even through the slight funk i was in (joycean funk rather than james brown funk) as not only had i got a puncture but i'd also lost the batteries to my camera... it was dangling from my handlebars as i raced down the canal and the battery lid bit had worked it's way open and those batteries flew out before i even noticed... losing recharchables and polluting the canal all in one fell swoop...
and of course once i couldn't use my camera the visual world erupted in perfect pictures... a warehouse frame that was psychedelic, a path in grenwich park lined by trees that give off pink blossom... the path dusted with pink...
i met uncle filmo and we saw a modern classical concert given by ian pace, an excellent pianist, playing stuff by xanakis and finisee (i don't know how he spells his name the second one)... very good, more than a little mad... filmo said a piano string snapped in the xanakis, there was also a piece involving some technology with the piano written by the woman presenting the night - eva... somebody, based, it seems, on the novels of juan rolfo... whose pedro paramo i read a few months back... good stuff, less to filmo's taste but i liked it, intriguing use of technology... the pianist was a kookie guy, strange concert hall mannerisms...
oh and talking of concert hall mannerisms i met skinnyman in the bike shop this morning, he of the conscious lyrics UK hiphop... often does stuff for the stop the war demos... certain of my students have told me he's great, nice fella, council estate of mind is his latest album, he said to download it and then if i liked it to give money to wateraid...
groovy cat...
x
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
more videos this world
ok, so a couple of videos today, one more of mine from the elephant on friday... shorter, less steady of the hand but more cheering which frankly is the only thing that i didn't like about the elephant experience... that the great, wet, british public just don't know how to properly cheer a spectacle like that... this being one of the few cheers and that whoop at the beginning being my whoop... (oh how i love my whoop):
2nd elephant video
and then this one which my sister felinity took, presumably on sunday after we'd left, (hurrying back to london to show the elephant to Wfloopy shaman):
spinning bears
these same spinning bears that have been on top of the piano in blewbury for the last 5 or so years... they were on top of the piano when i was performing on saturday night, i sometimes was conscious of them and tried to keep them spinning through the music, other times i let them be...
i've just watched the video i took of the first half of my saturday gig, sadly i forgot to turn the camera on for the second half... the sound is surprisingly good, although still rubbish, for some reason the s's don't come out right and i sound as though i have a lisp... i'm half tempted to put a tune up on youtube put i'm also scared...
my tax rebate came through so yet another briefly poor few days comes to an end... (that is a rubbish sentence)... i may get another camera...
i went over to pointblank today to check out work and i did alot of videoing from my bike, the camera dangling from the handlebars or from my arm... a particularly mad genre of footage gathering that may prove just too damn mad to use, but i'm gathering it anyway...
so anyway i was cycling along the canal and i passed another cyclist who put out his hand just in front of my face then took it back... to scare me i guess... dumb behaviour... i started muttering to myself about how it takes both kinds of people to make this world and gradually, over the course of my journey (which included picking up my new trial contact lenses... wahey...) that sentence became the beginnings of a song...
so that was nice...
x
2nd elephant video
and then this one which my sister felinity took, presumably on sunday after we'd left, (hurrying back to london to show the elephant to Wfloopy shaman):
spinning bears
these same spinning bears that have been on top of the piano in blewbury for the last 5 or so years... they were on top of the piano when i was performing on saturday night, i sometimes was conscious of them and tried to keep them spinning through the music, other times i let them be...
i've just watched the video i took of the first half of my saturday gig, sadly i forgot to turn the camera on for the second half... the sound is surprisingly good, although still rubbish, for some reason the s's don't come out right and i sound as though i have a lisp... i'm half tempted to put a tune up on youtube put i'm also scared...
my tax rebate came through so yet another briefly poor few days comes to an end... (that is a rubbish sentence)... i may get another camera...
i went over to pointblank today to check out work and i did alot of videoing from my bike, the camera dangling from the handlebars or from my arm... a particularly mad genre of footage gathering that may prove just too damn mad to use, but i'm gathering it anyway...
so anyway i was cycling along the canal and i passed another cyclist who put out his hand just in front of my face then took it back... to scare me i guess... dumb behaviour... i started muttering to myself about how it takes both kinds of people to make this world and gradually, over the course of my journey (which included picking up my new trial contact lenses... wahey...) that sentence became the beginnings of a song...
so that was nice...
x
Monday, May 08, 2006
Sunday, May 07, 2006
sultan's elephant
No words...
pure poetry...
video of the elephant
i so wanted to shake each of these performers hands..
x
pure poetry...
video of the elephant
i so wanted to shake each of these performers hands..x
Thursday, May 04, 2006
spaceship
so much cycling in the last couple of days, down to clapham to see felinity last night, (back via chelsea bridge, heavenly in the dark)... 
then to work in hammersmith today, back via town to see the spaceship... getting fit it seems.. the spaceship is on waterloo place... where the elephant will be showing itself @ 1 tomorrow...x
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
self assessed one of two things
this is the future...
today being the 2nd of may, i've just completed and submitted my tax return... online... (as i did just over 3 months ago for the first time)...
and yes, that is right, i did last years tax return only 3 months ago... and yet here i am doing my tax return now?
it has been my practise over the last... i don't know, 5 years or so, to do my tax return at the absolute latest moment... jan 31st...
it has always represented a deeply stressful week or so...
but NO... not now...
this IS the future... oh yes ladies and gentlemen i have struck out into the new...
short of cash you see, and i need my refund now...
and also this online business is so much more straightforward...
anyway, reluctant DIYing aho... (the other thing)
x
today being the 2nd of may, i've just completed and submitted my tax return... online... (as i did just over 3 months ago for the first time)...
and yes, that is right, i did last years tax return only 3 months ago... and yet here i am doing my tax return now?
it has been my practise over the last... i don't know, 5 years or so, to do my tax return at the absolute latest moment... jan 31st...
it has always represented a deeply stressful week or so...
but NO... not now...
this IS the future... oh yes ladies and gentlemen i have struck out into the new...
short of cash you see, and i need my refund now...
and also this online business is so much more straightforward...
anyway, reluctant DIYing aho... (the other thing)
x
Monday, May 01, 2006
beltane bluebell vistas
it's quarter to three... there's noone in the place... just you & me...
me & dinah at 2:45 last night, listening to frank sinatra just before bed...
waking up & breakfasting @ manolis's before getting the train over to kew gardens...
going to kew on or around may 1st has been something i've done or thought about doing for years now, (as documented in this post after last may's kew visit), the bluebells are in their element right now...
i'd left my camera at home by accident and i like the freedom this gave me, and the more direct experience of kew, though i'd like to go back with a camera... much to take pictures of...
it's such a visual experience, happening on one of the vistas, suddenly the trees open out and form a wide channel... beautiful... i really love the way it's planned out, vistas...
shortly after we arrived we decided to take a ride on a cart pulled by working horses... drey horses if you will, heavy, big fella's... it turned out we were the only takers so we had a private trip, just us in the back and the couple up front, another guy shovelling the occassional shit... the sunlight just beginning to break through the clouds... my beautiful girl and me...
we found the bluebells, swathing the ground, and we wandered about gazing at the trees... it turns out you can go up the pagoda these days, not today, but in the summer, we went in the palm house, 1840's designed and built,
our meanderings ending with tea/mocha & cake, dinah leaving to go to work and me remaining... producer G had emailed me a recording of last weeks gig and i'd put it on my shuffle before we left today... once dinah had left i put it in my ears and wandered...
good to listen to it, my performance ropey where i thought it had been ropey but good in general, good to lay to rest the fears i'd had about being terrible, whilst being realistic about my shortcomings...
i stayed @ kew for a good couple of hours after dinah had gone, just the perfect place, by now the sun was out, casting long shadows, warming... my shuffle in my ears, listening to all kinds of music, salif keita remixed, miles davis remixed, (a spacey version of in a silent way while i gazed at the temperate house and it's geometric perfection... made me want to get hold of the original album)...
walking aound and experiencing that visual world that has built up over the last 200 years or more, appreciating the layout of some designer hundreds of years ago...
a temple high on a mound, surrounded on all sides by undergrowth, unreachable...
a strange building with only one room, full of graffiti, really made me think of the leopard, burt lancaster and the faded glory of his once vibrant aristocratic life...
oh and my curtains almost fell down, more reluctant DIYing ahead...
x
me & dinah at 2:45 last night, listening to frank sinatra just before bed...
waking up & breakfasting @ manolis's before getting the train over to kew gardens...
going to kew on or around may 1st has been something i've done or thought about doing for years now, (as documented in this post after last may's kew visit), the bluebells are in their element right now...
i'd left my camera at home by accident and i like the freedom this gave me, and the more direct experience of kew, though i'd like to go back with a camera... much to take pictures of...
it's such a visual experience, happening on one of the vistas, suddenly the trees open out and form a wide channel... beautiful... i really love the way it's planned out, vistas...
shortly after we arrived we decided to take a ride on a cart pulled by working horses... drey horses if you will, heavy, big fella's... it turned out we were the only takers so we had a private trip, just us in the back and the couple up front, another guy shovelling the occassional shit... the sunlight just beginning to break through the clouds... my beautiful girl and me...
we found the bluebells, swathing the ground, and we wandered about gazing at the trees... it turns out you can go up the pagoda these days, not today, but in the summer, we went in the palm house, 1840's designed and built,
our meanderings ending with tea/mocha & cake, dinah leaving to go to work and me remaining... producer G had emailed me a recording of last weeks gig and i'd put it on my shuffle before we left today... once dinah had left i put it in my ears and wandered...
good to listen to it, my performance ropey where i thought it had been ropey but good in general, good to lay to rest the fears i'd had about being terrible, whilst being realistic about my shortcomings...
i stayed @ kew for a good couple of hours after dinah had gone, just the perfect place, by now the sun was out, casting long shadows, warming... my shuffle in my ears, listening to all kinds of music, salif keita remixed, miles davis remixed, (a spacey version of in a silent way while i gazed at the temperate house and it's geometric perfection... made me want to get hold of the original album)...
walking aound and experiencing that visual world that has built up over the last 200 years or more, appreciating the layout of some designer hundreds of years ago...
a temple high on a mound, surrounded on all sides by undergrowth, unreachable...
a strange building with only one room, full of graffiti, really made me think of the leopard, burt lancaster and the faded glory of his once vibrant aristocratic life...
oh and my curtains almost fell down, more reluctant DIYing ahead...
x
Sunday, April 30, 2006
curtains magic cafe
first i was going to partially cover the bay window in my room with calico... which i have some of...
then i was going to take the things which attach the rail to the wall from the curtains on the small window, spread them out and use them for the bay window, cover the small window in calico...
i was stood on top of my bedside cabinet, screwdriver in hand, beginning to unscrew the first of the things when it struck me that i could just go to the shops and buy more of these things...
such is the reluctance with which i put on my DIY head...
so i began the process of refixing the curtain rail to the wall yesterday and i completed it today... i can't remember how long i left it last time, i could only find one reference to it in this blog... but this time we had dinah's bed to sleep in... no rising with the dawn like it was back then...
wednesday night to sunday afternoon... half a week, that's fair enough...
reluctant DIY...
so yesterday i went into the amazon and there was uncle filmo... we chatted and then i helped him get a TV/DVD player from argos, a completely new shopping experience for him, it's like shopping in a dole queue, he said...
i love how daft it is in there, finding what you want in a catalogue, writing it down on a piece of paper, going to someone else & paying for it, getting another piece of paper, going somewhere else & waiting for it, collecting it...
reminded me of old fashioned civil service caricatures... like the nightmarish world portrayed in brazil the gilliam film...
funnily enough another gilliam film was mentioned on the box of a DVD that we watched on the TV/DVD back @ filmo's, the one we watched is called la jette a film told entirely in still images... very beautiful, it was made in 1982 and inspired one of gilliam's films from the 90's... (i won't say which one, the DVD box told which one it was and it slightly spoiled the film for me)...
we also watched an ornette coleman film and a roland kirk/john cage film...
lovey to see the filmo...
i left there and cycled up to Wfloopy (shaman)'s for a game or three of chess and some great talk... he bringing out his dead... said he was glad to, most people snigger when you say you're a dead head... (as gillian welch was it seems)...
then today me & dinah went into the amazon only to find M & L of instant flight, it took a little time for all three of us to get on the same page, M knew from the off who i was, L remembered with the line oh... you're chet (baker) and it crystallised the night for me...
it was back when i used to play tiny gigs @ the effra in brixton, something i'd forgotten about, precursor to the vibe bar gig... M & L are going to meet moje later, a great old friend from that era, maybe 3... 4... 5? years ago...
wonderful to have bumped into them, somehow symbolic for my musical journey, reconnecting my current performance aspirations with that time and those performances...
x
then i was going to take the things which attach the rail to the wall from the curtains on the small window, spread them out and use them for the bay window, cover the small window in calico...
i was stood on top of my bedside cabinet, screwdriver in hand, beginning to unscrew the first of the things when it struck me that i could just go to the shops and buy more of these things...
such is the reluctance with which i put on my DIY head...
so i began the process of refixing the curtain rail to the wall yesterday and i completed it today... i can't remember how long i left it last time, i could only find one reference to it in this blog... but this time we had dinah's bed to sleep in... no rising with the dawn like it was back then...
wednesday night to sunday afternoon... half a week, that's fair enough...
reluctant DIY...
so yesterday i went into the amazon and there was uncle filmo... we chatted and then i helped him get a TV/DVD player from argos, a completely new shopping experience for him, it's like shopping in a dole queue, he said...
i love how daft it is in there, finding what you want in a catalogue, writing it down on a piece of paper, going to someone else & paying for it, getting another piece of paper, going somewhere else & waiting for it, collecting it...
reminded me of old fashioned civil service caricatures... like the nightmarish world portrayed in brazil the gilliam film...
funnily enough another gilliam film was mentioned on the box of a DVD that we watched on the TV/DVD back @ filmo's, the one we watched is called la jette a film told entirely in still images... very beautiful, it was made in 1982 and inspired one of gilliam's films from the 90's... (i won't say which one, the DVD box told which one it was and it slightly spoiled the film for me)...
we also watched an ornette coleman film and a roland kirk/john cage film...
lovey to see the filmo...
i left there and cycled up to Wfloopy (shaman)'s for a game or three of chess and some great talk... he bringing out his dead... said he was glad to, most people snigger when you say you're a dead head... (as gillian welch was it seems)...
then today me & dinah went into the amazon only to find M & L of instant flight, it took a little time for all three of us to get on the same page, M knew from the off who i was, L remembered with the line oh... you're chet (baker) and it crystallised the night for me...
it was back when i used to play tiny gigs @ the effra in brixton, something i'd forgotten about, precursor to the vibe bar gig... M & L are going to meet moje later, a great old friend from that era, maybe 3... 4... 5? years ago...
wonderful to have bumped into them, somehow symbolic for my musical journey, reconnecting my current performance aspirations with that time and those performances...
x
Friday, April 28, 2006
soft hard blurred clear
last night at around 10pm i finished the milk, i'd better get some more before the shops shut or i'll have to go out in the morning before i have my tea... being something like what i thought...
i'd been out with felinity @ eat & 2 veg and i was very well fed... i didn't go out again last night, i settled in front of the tv and watched six feet under on more4 intending to watch the larry sanders show on itv4 after...
so this morning when i woke up after not enough sleep i knew that i had to go out to the shops or forego my morning cup of tea... i put on my big coat and went to the shops before my shower, before anything, it was wierd...
before i set off for work i tried to pump up my bicycle tires but failed to... i've been failing to pump up my tires for weeks now, i just don't get how that pump works and spski's out of the country, he'll be back on sunday to answer my questions...
they were getting too soft...
near the end of my bicycle journey to work this morning i could see that something was stuck to my front tire, making a sound with each revolution, i thought it was a piece of paper but it turned out to be a drawing pin, stuck all the way in... so i took it out and was thankful that it was the end of the journey, got to work before the tire deflated...
then after work i cycled to a bike shop to have it changed, only it didn't seem to be deflating... the drawing pin had been sticking right into the tire... it didn't make sense...
so the man in the shop checked the innertube and it wasn't punctured... he said as my tires had been so soft the pin hadn't had enough resistance from the inner tube to pierce it... so he pumped up both front and back tires for me and i went out onto the street again...
cycled over to the bookstall under waterloo bridge and played G the bookseller at chess, he was playing someone else when i arrived so i cycled all the way to vauxhall bridge and back to kill time... really hard tires... no bounce... i felt every imperfection in the path... my bike rattled and my fingers holding the handlebars had to cling on really hard...
anyway he beat me and then i beat him, i've been meaning to play him at chess for a few weeks now, i'll be returning for a rematch in the near future, i cycled home to get a couple of things then went out again to the opticians, a sight/contact lens test with someone there i hadn't met before, P, very nice...
he gave me some daily lens's to keep me going until a trial pair comes for me next week, some new kind that allows my eyes to breathe more... these ones he gave me are stronger and i had that wierd attention to detail/almost too much precision thing going on... he told me that one of his customers doesn't like to have a properly clear prescription, he asks for it to be blurred a little,
i got on my bike with my too hard tires and my almost too precise eyes and i cycled up to manolis's where i read a ted hughes short story over my lunch, the rain horse was very good, it's in a collection of short stories he has in his cafe, edited by malcolm bradbury,
then since i've been home i've done almost nothing, just lain on my bed amongst the curtains and read and dozed, the not enough sleep catching up with me, dinah waking me up just before she went to work, a little love & affection perfectly suited to my just woken self...
strange day all round then for me, i still can't believe i went out to the shops before i had a tea this morning...?
x
i'd been out with felinity @ eat & 2 veg and i was very well fed... i didn't go out again last night, i settled in front of the tv and watched six feet under on more4 intending to watch the larry sanders show on itv4 after...
so this morning when i woke up after not enough sleep i knew that i had to go out to the shops or forego my morning cup of tea... i put on my big coat and went to the shops before my shower, before anything, it was wierd...
before i set off for work i tried to pump up my bicycle tires but failed to... i've been failing to pump up my tires for weeks now, i just don't get how that pump works and spski's out of the country, he'll be back on sunday to answer my questions...
they were getting too soft...
near the end of my bicycle journey to work this morning i could see that something was stuck to my front tire, making a sound with each revolution, i thought it was a piece of paper but it turned out to be a drawing pin, stuck all the way in... so i took it out and was thankful that it was the end of the journey, got to work before the tire deflated...
then after work i cycled to a bike shop to have it changed, only it didn't seem to be deflating... the drawing pin had been sticking right into the tire... it didn't make sense...
so the man in the shop checked the innertube and it wasn't punctured... he said as my tires had been so soft the pin hadn't had enough resistance from the inner tube to pierce it... so he pumped up both front and back tires for me and i went out onto the street again...
cycled over to the bookstall under waterloo bridge and played G the bookseller at chess, he was playing someone else when i arrived so i cycled all the way to vauxhall bridge and back to kill time... really hard tires... no bounce... i felt every imperfection in the path... my bike rattled and my fingers holding the handlebars had to cling on really hard...
anyway he beat me and then i beat him, i've been meaning to play him at chess for a few weeks now, i'll be returning for a rematch in the near future, i cycled home to get a couple of things then went out again to the opticians, a sight/contact lens test with someone there i hadn't met before, P, very nice...
he gave me some daily lens's to keep me going until a trial pair comes for me next week, some new kind that allows my eyes to breathe more... these ones he gave me are stronger and i had that wierd attention to detail/almost too much precision thing going on... he told me that one of his customers doesn't like to have a properly clear prescription, he asks for it to be blurred a little,
i got on my bike with my too hard tires and my almost too precise eyes and i cycled up to manolis's where i read a ted hughes short story over my lunch, the rain horse was very good, it's in a collection of short stories he has in his cafe, edited by malcolm bradbury,
then since i've been home i've done almost nothing, just lain on my bed amongst the curtains and read and dozed, the not enough sleep catching up with me, dinah waking me up just before she went to work, a little love & affection perfectly suited to my just woken self...
strange day all round then for me, i still can't believe i went out to the shops before i had a tea this morning...?
x
Thursday, April 27, 2006
curtains tunnel theatre
i tore the curtain rail (with the curtains) off in my sleep last night... a nocturnal disturbance violent enough to upset dinah... the strange circumstance of waking up to a crying girlfriend, then comforting her as i'm acclimatising myself...
when i woke up i was fiddling with the window fitting, i looked down and there was dinah, so i attended to her, looking up at the window and the lack of curtains and wondering if i was dreaming or not...
no memory of the dream that did the violence...
cycling in the rotherhithe tunnel under the thames i was truck yesterday by the lights reflecting off the tiles... the tunnel was built in 1908... at points along it there are 2 spiral staircases leading upwards, i suppose that they must be at the banks of the river... there was fresh air coming down the one i had a closer look at... locked of course... i wonder what evidence of those staircases there is on the surface...?
kind of panicky down there, partly to do with the polluted air, partly the cars rushing past (you have to cycle on the pavement, there are hardly any pedestrians) and partly the enclosed space... i was glad to get out of there...
i was on my way to my last schools visit of this year that was just south of the river... i was pleased to find that it only took me 40 minutes to get to the school, half an hour from my front door to the bottom of the regents canal (via victoria park) then 10 minutes under the rotherhithe tunnel and i was there...
i had one of those lazy, aimless journeys back afterwards, along the canal all the way to angel, then 20 minutes reading and filming one of the slowing bicycle wheel films, then a jaunt down to dinah's theatre to meet her between shows...
and then this morning, well, early afternoon, after the curtains, after dinah had gone off to work, i was woken from my half sleep by B (director) ringing me to ask if i could do some music for a theatre production he's doing... he who directed bash, my first theatre music thing (this one will bring my theatre music experiences to 3)... really nice to talk to him and great to be asked... no money... i can't wait...
x
when i woke up i was fiddling with the window fitting, i looked down and there was dinah, so i attended to her, looking up at the window and the lack of curtains and wondering if i was dreaming or not...
no memory of the dream that did the violence...cycling in the rotherhithe tunnel under the thames i was truck yesterday by the lights reflecting off the tiles... the tunnel was built in 1908... at points along it there are 2 spiral staircases leading upwards, i suppose that they must be at the banks of the river... there was fresh air coming down the one i had a closer look at... locked of course... i wonder what evidence of those staircases there is on the surface...?
kind of panicky down there, partly to do with the polluted air, partly the cars rushing past (you have to cycle on the pavement, there are hardly any pedestrians) and partly the enclosed space... i was glad to get out of there...
i was on my way to my last schools visit of this year that was just south of the river... i was pleased to find that it only took me 40 minutes to get to the school, half an hour from my front door to the bottom of the regents canal (via victoria park) then 10 minutes under the rotherhithe tunnel and i was there...
i had one of those lazy, aimless journeys back afterwards, along the canal all the way to angel, then 20 minutes reading and filming one of the slowing bicycle wheel films, then a jaunt down to dinah's theatre to meet her between shows...
and then this morning, well, early afternoon, after the curtains, after dinah had gone off to work, i was woken from my half sleep by B (director) ringing me to ask if i could do some music for a theatre production he's doing... he who directed bash, my first theatre music thing (this one will bring my theatre music experiences to 3)... really nice to talk to him and great to be asked... no money... i can't wait...
x
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
overwhelmed
so firstly, let's all breathe a sigh of relief that that advert for the gig is no longer at the top of this blog...
it happened... it was alright, sound man not really on the ball and a large group of loud men at the back shouting all the way through my set meant that i didn't enjoy it much at first, but as it went on i found a way in and it was good...
the second tune i played was a song i've been trying to write for weeks now and still haven't... the chorus is grace's name repeated, the verse on monday night was about me being in brighton the day she was born, before josiah even wanted to live in brighton, improvised in the way that i said it... i had a second verse idea about the melody to harbour walls but i only did the one verse... it was interesting, the first tune had gone down alright but i felt i needed to stake a claim to the space, in my own way, that second tune did that somehow for me...
improvising lyrics is something i like the idea of a lot... i'm thinking of not finishing that song anymore than it is now and doing it at gigs, using the verses as an open letter to grace, improvising but probably knowing the themes...
felinity was there with her flatmate E & her boyfriend G, P (poet) came with J, three lovely people i meet randomly in cafe's on or near the holloway road came... L from work came with a friend... dinah made it somewhere in the middle of my set, i looked up at one point and i could see her... raised a smile...
producer G was fairly dashing in a suit jacket over jeans, Hcello also fairly smart, me in the paul smith suit and one of the shirts i'd bought at gresham blake's on saturday...
the night was lovely, both M (cameron) and S who run the night were lovely... i was a social butterfly once i'd played, so many different people to see...
and it was the first of many such gigs that i hope to be doing with this trio... much to learn still... eager for experience...
since then i've been a little flat, or overwhelmed at times... funny the focus and energy that went into that gig and then the time afterwards...
cedric nash came round last night and we had a meal together with people in this house, very nice too, he is such a good energy to have around and we got on really well as a house for the first time in awhile...
i was up chatting to cedric & dinah until the early hours, quite trashed, a tiny absynth with cedric when he arrived, my share of 2 bottles of wine and then some smoking, we closed the evening listening to van morrison's common one album, very close to both mine & cedric's heart... he cycled off into the night and me & dinah played cards and laughed alot until we were a little straighter... even then it took me a long time to get to sleep, combined effects of getting trashed that night and the overwhelmed/lostness i was floating in anyway...
then today the rotherhithe tunnel... which i will tell you about sometime when i haven't told several days worth of stories...
x
it happened... it was alright, sound man not really on the ball and a large group of loud men at the back shouting all the way through my set meant that i didn't enjoy it much at first, but as it went on i found a way in and it was good...
the second tune i played was a song i've been trying to write for weeks now and still haven't... the chorus is grace's name repeated, the verse on monday night was about me being in brighton the day she was born, before josiah even wanted to live in brighton, improvised in the way that i said it... i had a second verse idea about the melody to harbour walls but i only did the one verse... it was interesting, the first tune had gone down alright but i felt i needed to stake a claim to the space, in my own way, that second tune did that somehow for me...
improvising lyrics is something i like the idea of a lot... i'm thinking of not finishing that song anymore than it is now and doing it at gigs, using the verses as an open letter to grace, improvising but probably knowing the themes...
felinity was there with her flatmate E & her boyfriend G, P (poet) came with J, three lovely people i meet randomly in cafe's on or near the holloway road came... L from work came with a friend... dinah made it somewhere in the middle of my set, i looked up at one point and i could see her... raised a smile...
producer G was fairly dashing in a suit jacket over jeans, Hcello also fairly smart, me in the paul smith suit and one of the shirts i'd bought at gresham blake's on saturday...
the night was lovely, both M (cameron) and S who run the night were lovely... i was a social butterfly once i'd played, so many different people to see...
and it was the first of many such gigs that i hope to be doing with this trio... much to learn still... eager for experience...
since then i've been a little flat, or overwhelmed at times... funny the focus and energy that went into that gig and then the time afterwards...
cedric nash came round last night and we had a meal together with people in this house, very nice too, he is such a good energy to have around and we got on really well as a house for the first time in awhile...
i was up chatting to cedric & dinah until the early hours, quite trashed, a tiny absynth with cedric when he arrived, my share of 2 bottles of wine and then some smoking, we closed the evening listening to van morrison's common one album, very close to both mine & cedric's heart... he cycled off into the night and me & dinah played cards and laughed alot until we were a little straighter... even then it took me a long time to get to sleep, combined effects of getting trashed that night and the overwhelmed/lostness i was floating in anyway...
then today the rotherhithe tunnel... which i will tell you about sometime when i haven't told several days worth of stories...
x
Monday, April 24, 2006
Vibe Bar 24th April (blog below)
where i'm at
woke today after 9 hours sleep with only 10 minutes before Hcello was coming round...
9 hours is alot but i clearly wanted more this morning... i guess i got 5-6 hours on saturday night and today is a big day...
rehearsed with H for the last time before tonight, singing this soon after waking up was interesting... by the end of the rehearsal my voice was suffering a little... much care to be taken through today, long enough day to sort it out before the gig... i'll be trying not to shout at all and i should achieve that...
so now i'm about to gather my self together and go eat with dinah, manolis awaits, we who ate in such style last night...
the conservatory restaurant, which i thought was originally built on 1791, (actually 1709 so the maitre'D told me) was absolutely the perfect environment for my suited self and dinah's elegantly be-frocked in a 30's style self... the food was really nice, although small, and was ridiculously priced, but it was perfect... largely for the place itself and for my beautiful girlfriend... we'd speculated for awhile exactly what an amous bouche was which we'd read somewhere they had in there and we were disapointed not to see it on the menu...
so when our waiter turned up by surprise with an amous bouche from the chef we were almost beside ourselves...
for now i'm clambering back into my adult self... once i've eaten at manolis's it will start to come in to focus... looking forward to wearing the suit for the second night in a row and soooo looking forward to playing my tunes with Hcello & producer G...
a few friendly faces in the audience will include felinity & dinah... maybe a whole heap more...
can't wait...
x
9 hours is alot but i clearly wanted more this morning... i guess i got 5-6 hours on saturday night and today is a big day...
rehearsed with H for the last time before tonight, singing this soon after waking up was interesting... by the end of the rehearsal my voice was suffering a little... much care to be taken through today, long enough day to sort it out before the gig... i'll be trying not to shout at all and i should achieve that...
so now i'm about to gather my self together and go eat with dinah, manolis awaits, we who ate in such style last night...
the conservatory restaurant, which i thought was originally built on 1791, (actually 1709 so the maitre'D told me) was absolutely the perfect environment for my suited self and dinah's elegantly be-frocked in a 30's style self... the food was really nice, although small, and was ridiculously priced, but it was perfect... largely for the place itself and for my beautiful girlfriend... we'd speculated for awhile exactly what an amous bouche was which we'd read somewhere they had in there and we were disapointed not to see it on the menu...
so when our waiter turned up by surprise with an amous bouche from the chef we were almost beside ourselves...
for now i'm clambering back into my adult self... once i've eaten at manolis's it will start to come in to focus... looking forward to wearing the suit for the second night in a row and soooo looking forward to playing my tunes with Hcello & producer G...
a few friendly faces in the audience will include felinity & dinah... maybe a whole heap more...
can't wait...
x
Sunday, April 23, 2006
from terrible 2's to dead posh
the only way i survived this morning, being woken @ 7, staving off waking up until 8 by putting her in front of the telly... (she asked for it... she asked for it all day in fact..) playing with her most of the morning until 12 when i agreed to let her watch a little bit of cbeebies again... the set top box... only for 15 minutes this time... then fun & frolics until her mum arrived around 3, only an hour late...
the only way that i managed to remain equinamible (if that's a word) was that i knew the food i would get at the amazon cafe once josiah got here... that vegetarian roast... oh yes ladies and gentlemen... oh yes...
grace was mostly a joy, we had a few tantrums today but i dealt with them amicably...
and now, having seen them on their way, and helped our neighbour with a childs trampoline that she needed putting up... i'm wiped out but i'm about to start getting my arse into gear for the posh dinner me & dinah have got coming... the lanesborough don't you know...?
x
the only way that i managed to remain equinamible (if that's a word) was that i knew the food i would get at the amazon cafe once josiah got here... that vegetarian roast... oh yes ladies and gentlemen... oh yes...
grace was mostly a joy, we had a few tantrums today but i dealt with them amicably...
and now, having seen them on their way, and helped our neighbour with a childs trampoline that she needed putting up... i'm wiped out but i'm about to start getting my arse into gear for the posh dinner me & dinah have got coming... the lanesborough don't you know...?
x
Saturday, April 22, 2006
grace
she's asleep in my bed, my dinah is taking this opportunity to stay away, also because her mum is away so her & Wfloopy shaman are having a lads night in as they call it... generally involves playing hogs of war, smoking, deriding keyboard players...
my journey to brighton was productive... partially marking the essays i need to mark, working out the groups for the composition task they start on monday... oh this part of the module, splitting them up to write and then just leaving them to it... drifting around resolving issues if necesary... sorting out equipment... drinking tea & eating cake...
sadly my apprentice J won't be there to share the experience, trying to persuade me to watch battlestar galacticor, opening both our minds to the learning of teaching, which he's near the beginning of & i'm a little further on but still with much to learn...
picked up grace just as josiah was about to sing in her gospel outfit, led by gospelK... they were great, although i spent too much time worrying about the girl to really get into more than a few moments... i love having her, but mixed in with social situations like that today is not so nice for me...
we drank a bit of wine after while grace ran around with some new friends... got chatting with R, R who had driven josiah's stuff away a few weeks back... i'd love to get drunk with that lot some day, they are a lot of laughs...
then josiah took me to gresham & blake where i picked up a couple of nice shirts for sunday & monday nights... (had to get two because we didn't back to london quick enough to catch the dry cleaners where my intended shirt for tomorrow night is)
after which grace and me swanned back up to london, no tantrums yet... played with the magnetic theatre again, started a wall marking how tall she is... ate, bathed... bedtime stories...
and now i've got a pizza on its way from la parma somewhere north of here.. unknown quality... if only la porchetta would deliver... just like jai's, such good quality food but steadfastly collection or eat in only...
x
my journey to brighton was productive... partially marking the essays i need to mark, working out the groups for the composition task they start on monday... oh this part of the module, splitting them up to write and then just leaving them to it... drifting around resolving issues if necesary... sorting out equipment... drinking tea & eating cake...
sadly my apprentice J won't be there to share the experience, trying to persuade me to watch battlestar galacticor, opening both our minds to the learning of teaching, which he's near the beginning of & i'm a little further on but still with much to learn...
picked up grace just as josiah was about to sing in her gospel outfit, led by gospelK... they were great, although i spent too much time worrying about the girl to really get into more than a few moments... i love having her, but mixed in with social situations like that today is not so nice for me...
we drank a bit of wine after while grace ran around with some new friends... got chatting with R, R who had driven josiah's stuff away a few weeks back... i'd love to get drunk with that lot some day, they are a lot of laughs...
then josiah took me to gresham & blake where i picked up a couple of nice shirts for sunday & monday nights... (had to get two because we didn't back to london quick enough to catch the dry cleaners where my intended shirt for tomorrow night is)
after which grace and me swanned back up to london, no tantrums yet... played with the magnetic theatre again, started a wall marking how tall she is... ate, bathed... bedtime stories...
and now i've got a pizza on its way from la parma somewhere north of here.. unknown quality... if only la porchetta would deliver... just like jai's, such good quality food but steadfastly collection or eat in only...
x
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