so last night i travelled down to tooting to see felinity and also to be there at 6:45am when i woke up so i could get to tooting bec common for 7:30am...
felinity and me had a nice quiet night sipping beer and going through her pictures of the wedding, also catching an episode of a bit of fry and laurie which was great, particularly hugh laurie's legs...
her G rolled in around 4am, really drunk and unable to lock the door behind him,
i rolled over and did indeed rise @ 6:45, making it to the park on time, meeting K, followed by T & M, with O rolling up 45 minutes late...
we had a good morning taking shots for the band, K with his fancy camera and me videoing with my little one, which i'm tempted to make into a scratchy video for one of the tunes that T has recently finished mixing, i'm listening to them now and they sound amazing, it's the recording we did ages ago with the strings we added later, and the other little bits of sessions we did over the last few months,
i think T has put some of them on his myspace,
after the shoot and a lovely green lentil soup from the cafe in the park i went back to felinity & G's for tea and much hanging out with felinity & hungover G, making it back to my ends in time to eat our customary veggie roast with dinah then straight off to the islington vue to meet with felinity (again) for the angel film festival which was truly great,
it was the final of the festival and the quality was very good, we laughed a lot at a very small ahaaar, we were moved by a sad tale of saving suicides on beechy head, we were frankly amazed by a film called surprise...
altogether an inspiring day, just a bit of work for teaching tomorrow and fixing a puncture for dinah then i can go to my well deserved bed x
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Saturday, September 29, 2007
yr2wk15 rhodes & synth
recorded yesterday and beset by wierd little problems, but it came out good in the end x
Friday, September 28, 2007
synth frustration
so dinah got the advert job and i didn't, they didn't want any keyboard or piano players, they wanted synth players, 8 of them, they had 5 synth players and there was a possibility that i could have been one of the 3 keyboard players synthing themselves up but it didn't happen, which bummed me right out yesterday...
i worked this morning which was great, search & reflect with the production course @ CM, always interesting...
it's a bleak rainy day and i was going to do my improvisation only my batteries are low, charging them up now and i guess i'll try again in an hour or so, or i could just go buy new ones, it's just that it seems like such a waste buying non-rechargeables...
i did begin the improvisation before my camera died and i'm using rhodes, voice and synth, daring the world to accept me as a synth player, a strange new experience, and once again it makes me want to have access to these great sounds in my computer at gigs...
so i'm a little frustrated what with the improvisation all set to go and then the waiting and in a broader sense what with the not getting the advert, although dinah is doing it and it's much better one of us doing it than neither...
x
i worked this morning which was great, search & reflect with the production course @ CM, always interesting...
it's a bleak rainy day and i was going to do my improvisation only my batteries are low, charging them up now and i guess i'll try again in an hour or so, or i could just go buy new ones, it's just that it seems like such a waste buying non-rechargeables...
i did begin the improvisation before my camera died and i'm using rhodes, voice and synth, daring the world to accept me as a synth player, a strange new experience, and once again it makes me want to have access to these great sounds in my computer at gigs...
so i'm a little frustrated what with the improvisation all set to go and then the waiting and in a broader sense what with the not getting the advert, although dinah is doing it and it's much better one of us doing it than neither...
x
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
sore
well, the wedding was great, we had a great time, i got some french laughs and some english laughs for my bestman's speech, me & felinity lindyhopped on the dance floor after dinah tutored us for a little while, i forgot my shoes which i discovered an hour before the wedding, but for some reason my dad had brought 2 pairs so it was all alright...
he wears a lift in the left shoe so i spent the day very slightly higher on my left...
the father of the bride crowed like a cock on the hour, every hour of the meal, at one point i was getting the laces off the grooms shoes while the sister of the bride tried to get my laces, so i pushed my feet all the way under D's chair whiich didn't stop her, once i had D's laces i made my way back to where they were taking a chair away each time with E still sitting on my legs extracting my lace...
my tunes went down alright, but of course they were background music for the wedding so it was a touch anticlimactic for me after all the work i did on them, but they were perfect for the event... dinah sang her tune really well on mum's guitar while they signed the register and it felt just like being in a film...
cousin M bought me a cigar which i hated but i tried to smoke a little of before giving it to felinity's G...
the bride was beautiful, me & dinah cut a dash or two (outfit change midway through the day), felinity was lovely and my mum was looking regal, me, felinity's G, trave & dad were all in matching mossbros suits which apparently looked ok, i was much happier in the paul smith suit later on...
dinah and her mum had swore at her dress for weeks to get it right and made and she was absolutely gorgeous x
he wears a lift in the left shoe so i spent the day very slightly higher on my left...
the father of the bride crowed like a cock on the hour, every hour of the meal, at one point i was getting the laces off the grooms shoes while the sister of the bride tried to get my laces, so i pushed my feet all the way under D's chair whiich didn't stop her, once i had D's laces i made my way back to where they were taking a chair away each time with E still sitting on my legs extracting my lace...
my tunes went down alright, but of course they were background music for the wedding so it was a touch anticlimactic for me after all the work i did on them, but they were perfect for the event... dinah sang her tune really well on mum's guitar while they signed the register and it felt just like being in a film...
cousin M bought me a cigar which i hated but i tried to smoke a little of before giving it to felinity's G...
the bride was beautiful, me & dinah cut a dash or two (outfit change midway through the day), felinity was lovely and my mum was looking regal, me, felinity's G, trave & dad were all in matching mossbros suits which apparently looked ok, i was much happier in the paul smith suit later on...
dinah and her mum had swore at her dress for weeks to get it right and made and she was absolutely gorgeous x
Friday, September 21, 2007
reprieve
on monday i reorganised a couple of things to make way for the advert that i still might be in...
it meant that i had to teach this afternoon which wasn't ideal but it had to be done because of the advert...
so today i woke up and i knew i had an awful lot to achieve before i went to work in the afternoon and by midmorning i was motoring along but it was beginning to look a little tight, the 3rd piece was beginning to come together but i still had to get to muswell hill to pick up the suit for tomorrow, write the speech, get it translated in places...
anyway, M from work rang and told me the class today had to be cancelled due to lack of space... so i actually had all afternoon in the end which was a relief...
i got the track into a good state to leave it and went up to muswell hill for the suit and i stopped off in manolos's new place on the way back... by chance his new waitress is french...?
so i qiuckly set her to worktranslating a few choice phrases for me which i recorded into my minidisk and i hotfooted it back here to complete the track - which i have now done... and it sounds great...
dinah has just cut my hair, we have a few more things to achieve and then we're out of here x
it meant that i had to teach this afternoon which wasn't ideal but it had to be done because of the advert...
so today i woke up and i knew i had an awful lot to achieve before i went to work in the afternoon and by midmorning i was motoring along but it was beginning to look a little tight, the 3rd piece was beginning to come together but i still had to get to muswell hill to pick up the suit for tomorrow, write the speech, get it translated in places...
anyway, M from work rang and told me the class today had to be cancelled due to lack of space... so i actually had all afternoon in the end which was a relief...
i got the track into a good state to leave it and went up to muswell hill for the suit and i stopped off in manolos's new place on the way back... by chance his new waitress is french...?
so i qiuckly set her to worktranslating a few choice phrases for me which i recorded into my minidisk and i hotfooted it back here to complete the track - which i have now done... and it sounds great...
dinah has just cut my hair, we have a few more things to achieve and then we're out of here x
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
yr2wk14 longcat piano improvisation
18 minutes long, with the piece i'm writing for the wedding guests sitting down very much in my mind, and in fact that piece will probably be made up out of bits of this improvisation... mix of composition and improvisation...
just went to see 3:10 to Yuma with spski... very good x
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
wedding tunes
i started and finished (mostly) one of the tunes for the wedding on saturday today...
i hope the happy couple like it, i'm still scared because i have most of the speech and 2 more pieces of music to write...
arrrrgh x
i hope the happy couple like it, i'm still scared because i have most of the speech and 2 more pieces of music to write...
arrrrgh x
Monday, September 17, 2007
sleep stories
i've watched ovingdean so many times now i have no idea if it's any good?
so, grabbing a couple of minutes to tell you the sleep stories, 1stly:
some night last week balthazara came into my room while i was asleep and jumped on the bed, demanding stroking...
in my dream i was stroking a cat and i slowly started to realise that the cat i was stroking was just like my own cat and this surprised me... what was balthazara doing in that strange dream place?
the 2nd was just over a week ago, on a friday night, i woke up holding down a chord on my piano, i'd played a few notes, really loudly, and this had woken me up... dinah was saying something like: it's not the time for piano playing now...
x
so, grabbing a couple of minutes to tell you the sleep stories, 1stly:
some night last week balthazara came into my room while i was asleep and jumped on the bed, demanding stroking...
in my dream i was stroking a cat and i slowly started to realise that the cat i was stroking was just like my own cat and this surprised me... what was balthazara doing in that strange dream place?
the 2nd was just over a week ago, on a friday night, i woke up holding down a chord on my piano, i'd played a few notes, really loudly, and this had woken me up... dinah was saying something like: it's not the time for piano playing now...
x
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Saturday, September 15, 2007
yr2wk13 rhodes & voice
recorded yesterday early evening, me & dinah shaping up to travel down to brighton today for grace's birthday - a few sleep stories i wanted to tell you but they'll have to wait x
Sunday, September 09, 2007
GRRRP new cycle maps
i had just numerically ordered my old cycle maps from 2002 and 2004 as part of the GRRRP and i thought, wouldn't it be great if they'd updated them by now, i was expecting an update in march 2006 but it hadn't happened...
imagine my delight when i found these brand spanking new cycle maps that were made in august 2007...?
i heartily recommend you order yourself some if you live in london with a bicycle... they are excellent and they are free.... you can order 6 at a time...
i was cycling around fulham the other day following one of the 2004 ones and it led me the wrong way down a one way street and i thought, you know they should update these... AND THEY HAVE!!!
the numbering system has changed, we used to live on 5 and get the 10 out when we got to town but it's all changed now, can't wait to see them...
and yes, the GRRRP...
being the Great R's Room Regeneration Project, (R being the 1st letter of my real name), me & dinah, although much more her than me, are undertaking it... if i was doing it on my own i'd have moved everything how i wanted it by now and there would be a huge pile of random stuff in one corner of the room that i would then cover with something and forget about for a couple of years, but no, we are boobelahs now and dinah has a way with these things,
all the stuff is being gone through carefully, much, much recycling and throwing out, order is being returned to this room of mine... it's amazing, she's amazing, i have no real stomach for it but she's a trooper, just how long it stays this way is another matter but it is a miracle in the doing...
so the big objects have yet to move but the stuff is diminishing...
more as the GRRRP continues...
x
imagine my delight when i found these brand spanking new cycle maps that were made in august 2007...?
i heartily recommend you order yourself some if you live in london with a bicycle... they are excellent and they are free.... you can order 6 at a time...
i was cycling around fulham the other day following one of the 2004 ones and it led me the wrong way down a one way street and i thought, you know they should update these... AND THEY HAVE!!!
the numbering system has changed, we used to live on 5 and get the 10 out when we got to town but it's all changed now, can't wait to see them...
and yes, the GRRRP...
being the Great R's Room Regeneration Project, (R being the 1st letter of my real name), me & dinah, although much more her than me, are undertaking it... if i was doing it on my own i'd have moved everything how i wanted it by now and there would be a huge pile of random stuff in one corner of the room that i would then cover with something and forget about for a couple of years, but no, we are boobelahs now and dinah has a way with these things,
all the stuff is being gone through carefully, much, much recycling and throwing out, order is being returned to this room of mine... it's amazing, she's amazing, i have no real stomach for it but she's a trooper, just how long it stays this way is another matter but it is a miracle in the doing...
so the big objects have yet to move but the stuff is diminishing...
more as the GRRRP continues...
x
yr2wk12 piano & tenor sax longcat with Simon D'Souza
part of my trip to brighton, playing with this wonderful saxophonist, more stories to tell but a little drunk & tired now x
Thursday, September 06, 2007
yr2wk11 longcat with tony cannam & gareth mitchell: voice, guitar & keys improvisation
about to get on a train bound for brighton, go see my lovely grace and josiah, just waiting for last week's improvisation to upload, recorded last wednesday and only just got hold of the audio last night...
then tomorrow i'm going to see S d'S to talk about a course of his i'm taking over, and also to do this week's improvisation...
i was up this morning as ever filming the dawn project, beautiful day... then i travelled to W(floopy)shaman's new abode, as i always do post dawn project, only now he's a little further off... but only 15 minutes on the bike so nothing too strenuous...
ok, there it is x laters x
Sunday, September 02, 2007
just before bed blog
repacked my keyboard just now, from the chaos of post gig, freeing up the stage for the next band, no dressing room to sort it out... got it home and now it's waiting by the door for the morning...
switch my head back from T's band to the reluctants over the course of the night and the long drive up to sheffield...
apparently we will be on T4 (channel 4), although probably not tomorrow, it turns out the singer is from sydney so i'll be getting information from her about where felinity and her G can go to when they're over there next easter...
very tired and no dinah to rest my weary head against in the night... oh well... the rock'n'roll life x
switch my head back from T's band to the reluctants over the course of the night and the long drive up to sheffield...
apparently we will be on T4 (channel 4), although probably not tomorrow, it turns out the singer is from sydney so i'll be getting information from her about where felinity and her G can go to when they're over there next easter...
very tired and no dinah to rest my weary head against in the night... oh well... the rock'n'roll life x
Saturday, September 01, 2007
nuts
i'm about to go to my first rehearsal with the reluctants, a band i joined on tuesday, then straight from that rehearsal to a gig with T's band, then home tonight, only to be picked up tomorrow morning @ 9 by the reluctants to travel to sheffield to audition for mobileact...
it's all a bit nuts x
it's all a bit nuts x
Thursday, August 30, 2007
wedding text
it's been a mad day, my last meal @ manolis's (god only knows what i'd do without you playing on the radio as i left), scratching (as mentioned below) and reading...
yesterday i realised that to the wedding was not in my possession... i think i lent it to dad one day because he had a train journey ahead of him and no book... anyway i was convinced that i'd find the reading for D & M's wedding in that book so i took my remaining book tokens and bought it (again) along with the english patient because the writer is appearing in the world book club's 5th anniversary recording at the end of september...
read the wedding book (by john berger) in two days but didn't find an appropriate reading...
so:
over a few hours i had a look in many, many books before deciding to do the reading as the lyrics to a song, which i'm not going to tell you about, in case you come to the wedding...
x
yesterday i realised that to the wedding was not in my possession... i think i lent it to dad one day because he had a train journey ahead of him and no book... anyway i was convinced that i'd find the reading for D & M's wedding in that book so i took my remaining book tokens and bought it (again) along with the english patient because the writer is appearing in the world book club's 5th anniversary recording at the end of september...
read the wedding book (by john berger) in two days but didn't find an appropriate reading...
so:
over a few hours i had a look in many, many books before deciding to do the reading as the lyrics to a song, which i'm not going to tell you about, in case you come to the wedding...x
Manolis's letter
To all my customers - old and new
Just to let you know that I shall not be operating after this coming Thursday 30th August so I would like to thank you all for your support throughout all these years.
- No need to be told you are going to be missed
- Not for improving my bank balance
- But for being you.
You can look forward to new food experiences like I shall look forward to a different kind of life.
If my manner or my cooking was, on accasion, not to your liking, please don't take it too personally. I have meant well, at least, in most times.
So on that note I would like to thank you all sincerely and wish you the best of luck in whatever you want to do.
Thanks
Manolis
P.S. If any of you wish to see me again I shall be performing my cooking tricks at:
No.3 Stroud Green Road,
Finsbury Park
Just to let you know that I shall not be operating after this coming Thursday 30th August so I would like to thank you all for your support throughout all these years.
- No need to be told you are going to be missed
- Not for improving my bank balance
- But for being you.
You can look forward to new food experiences like I shall look forward to a different kind of life.
If my manner or my cooking was, on accasion, not to your liking, please don't take it too personally. I have meant well, at least, in most times.
So on that note I would like to thank you all sincerely and wish you the best of luck in whatever you want to do.
Thanks
Manolis
P.S. If any of you wish to see me again I shall be performing my cooking tricks at:
No.3 Stroud Green Road,
Finsbury Park
bitten again
bram stoker was probably suffering like i am when he wrote dracula... it's such a sensual thing, knowing that you shouldn't scratch but scratching anyway... the momentary release before the nagging need begins again...
it's as though my bites were independent beings, calling to me...
a couple of nights ago we slept in dinah's room and a mosquito bit me in 4 places...
i was awake when it was happening and i could feel it, i've suspected for awhile that there is at least one, if not a family of them in her room,
anyway, i pulled anchor and relocated back to here with dinah in sleepy tow and have been dealing with those bites since...
i was fairly good yesterday, there's one on my neck and i was wearing a T'shirt which rubbed against it all day, so that was hard, but i only succumbed once or twice,
then we slept again in her room last night, after she'd burnt citronella in there to clear them, in fact i'd cleared one the night of the bites, possibly the only one that was in there...
it had bitten my left elbow where my arm had been around her and my right shoulder... then i'd moved, trying to cover up completely but with my hands were by my neck and it had bitten my right hand and my neck...
so when i decamped i found it on my shirt, patiently waiting for me to settle down again, so i grabbed it in a tissue and flushed it down the loo...
last night i don't think there were any in there but there were some in my brain, i would almost fall asleep and then automatically scratch one of the bites, before scratching all of them... leaving me in a state of nervous/anguished/half-satisfied wakefulness...
my right hand is looking a little better today but around the bite a sea of red has expanded, taking over at least half of the back of my hand, and a trail of red snakes it way down my wrist almost to my elbow... very strange, i might get some antihistamine tablets...
anyway, long and rambling and i haven't even got to the main thing which is manolis's letter... i'm going over there in an hour or so for my last ever meal in that cafe, this is the letter he's put on the window of the cafe... actually i think it deserves it's own post... x
it's as though my bites were independent beings, calling to me...
a couple of nights ago we slept in dinah's room and a mosquito bit me in 4 places...
i was awake when it was happening and i could feel it, i've suspected for awhile that there is at least one, if not a family of them in her room,
anyway, i pulled anchor and relocated back to here with dinah in sleepy tow and have been dealing with those bites since...
i was fairly good yesterday, there's one on my neck and i was wearing a T'shirt which rubbed against it all day, so that was hard, but i only succumbed once or twice,
then we slept again in her room last night, after she'd burnt citronella in there to clear them, in fact i'd cleared one the night of the bites, possibly the only one that was in there...
it had bitten my left elbow where my arm had been around her and my right shoulder... then i'd moved, trying to cover up completely but with my hands were by my neck and it had bitten my right hand and my neck...
so when i decamped i found it on my shirt, patiently waiting for me to settle down again, so i grabbed it in a tissue and flushed it down the loo...
last night i don't think there were any in there but there were some in my brain, i would almost fall asleep and then automatically scratch one of the bites, before scratching all of them... leaving me in a state of nervous/anguished/half-satisfied wakefulness...
my right hand is looking a little better today but around the bite a sea of red has expanded, taking over at least half of the back of my hand, and a trail of red snakes it way down my wrist almost to my elbow... very strange, i might get some antihistamine tablets...
anyway, long and rambling and i haven't even got to the main thing which is manolis's letter... i'm going over there in an hour or so for my last ever meal in that cafe, this is the letter he's put on the window of the cafe... actually i think it deserves it's own post... x
Sunday, August 26, 2007
back home
glad to be back, but it was lovely being away...
visiting greenclementime & trave & chatoille...
felinity came too, just lovely hanging out with family, all us brothers and sisters, me with my dinah, trave with his clementime, but felinity without her G...
very tired now,
had a notion that we could make it the 30 miles or so beyond leamington to where an old, old friend was celebrating his 40th birthday but it was a very car centred place and the taxi was going to be too much...
anyway, too tired even to link to these folks... bed now x
visiting greenclementime & trave & chatoille...
felinity came too, just lovely hanging out with family, all us brothers and sisters, me with my dinah, trave with his clementime, but felinity without her G...
very tired now,
had a notion that we could make it the 30 miles or so beyond leamington to where an old, old friend was celebrating his 40th birthday but it was a very car centred place and the taxi was going to be too much...
anyway, too tired even to link to these folks... bed now x
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
transformers
oh... piracy...
so me & felinity saw transformers a week or so back and since then i've been itching to find a pirate copy of it so i can get all the early desert battle bits that i like and put them together...
and now i have achieved exactly that... it's 5 minutes long and i've put miles runs the voodoo down to it... i'm tempted to put it on youtube but it's definitely copyrighted material...
for now i'm just happy to watch it myself...
oh that scorpion robot transformer thing... i can be such a geek sometimes...
about to go out to the piano job, thinking of taking W(floopy)shaman's camera tomorrow and getting some footage for prospective work hunting...
x
so me & felinity saw transformers a week or so back and since then i've been itching to find a pirate copy of it so i can get all the early desert battle bits that i like and put them together...
and now i have achieved exactly that... it's 5 minutes long and i've put miles runs the voodoo down to it... i'm tempted to put it on youtube but it's definitely copyrighted material...
for now i'm just happy to watch it myself...
oh that scorpion robot transformer thing... i can be such a geek sometimes...
about to go out to the piano job, thinking of taking W(floopy)shaman's camera tomorrow and getting some footage for prospective work hunting...
x
Saturday, August 18, 2007
yr2wk9 rhodes & voice
recorded last night after my week of work...
but the other thing i want to briefly mention is the mediatheque @ the BFI, where on thursday and friday night's after work i sat and watched great things...
thursday night was my 1st visit and i foolishly only asked for 30 minutes at 1st, which ran out and i had to ask for more time... in particular i really enjoyed Les Bicyclettes de Belsize (1968), which i watched all of, and We Are The Lambeth Boys (1959), which i watched some of on both thursday and friday night's, also on friday i saw hitchcock's blackmail (sound version - 1929)...
all for free... what an amazing resource ladies and gentlemen, check it out if you are london based and with a bit of time at your disposal...
x
Thursday, August 16, 2007
tuned heaven
still short on sleep and i've just returned from a lovely night's work playing the piano...
only 2 nights next week now and this 6 week stint will be over, still haven't found myself anything else...
they had the piano tuned today and it was heaven... i started playing @ 8 and after some gorgeous improvising i started playing my first tune... when that was over i looked at my phone and i'd already been playing for 30 minutes...
that's how lost i was in the sound of that beautiful instrument...
funny how last night's gig was fraught with worry of one kind of another and tonight's was so lovely...
this sleep business has something to do with it probably,
i haven't caught up since sunday night's lack... monday night watching the cloudy sky for a gap and a meteor... in bed late and up in the morning, last night piano playing, tonight piano playing... every day this week i'm working during the day, tomorrow morning i'm up super early for the dawn project...?
so... my bed now, and my beautiful girlfriend...
x
only 2 nights next week now and this 6 week stint will be over, still haven't found myself anything else...
they had the piano tuned today and it was heaven... i started playing @ 8 and after some gorgeous improvising i started playing my first tune... when that was over i looked at my phone and i'd already been playing for 30 minutes...
that's how lost i was in the sound of that beautiful instrument...
funny how last night's gig was fraught with worry of one kind of another and tonight's was so lovely...
this sleep business has something to do with it probably,
i haven't caught up since sunday night's lack... monday night watching the cloudy sky for a gap and a meteor... in bed late and up in the morning, last night piano playing, tonight piano playing... every day this week i'm working during the day, tomorrow morning i'm up super early for the dawn project...?
so... my bed now, and my beautiful girlfriend...
x
Monday, August 13, 2007
sun on unmade bed
short on sleep and if the sky is clear tonight i'll be up until about 3 looking at the meteor thingy...
i'm into this summers weeks work, going well, with lovely J who used to be my apprentice...
cycled into town early to accompany dinah but also to check out the BFI's archive thing and it was shut (as it is every monday),
then after work i went to the same place and lost two games of chess to the bookseller...
short on sleep... off now, enjoy the film,
x
Friday, August 10, 2007
yr2wk8 rhodes, voice & bongo paul crawford
the 4th collaborative improvisation features bongo fella himself...
x
dawn project videoblog week 21
this is from last week's dawn project, i had decided the week before to stop doing them, but it was such a beautiful morning...
as it says in the video this will probably be a monthly affair, or more likely, whenever i think it's worth doing...
x
Thursday, August 09, 2007
short on sleep
i worked last night instead of tonight and by chance my dad is watching the cricket today so me & felicity are meeting him for dinner tonight... i forgot to remind dinah to record heroes for me last night, and i wonder if she did it anyway?...
2 nights ago i slept badly, worked all day yesterday and then gigged in the evening...
i was pretty fragile by the 2nd set but then i played the opening to gymnopedie no.1 (i can only play the opening so far, but then that's the bit everyone knows - dinah knows it as bom ching... bom ching... from the amount of times i've called it that but claims not to actually know what it is...) and i heard a voice behind me say... oh how lovely - i must get a piano... and as i improvised over those 2 chords (with the leaping left hand) the room gradually quietened and i think i'm right in saying i brought a hushed silence to the room (just for a moment)...
not that anyone clapped or anything, that's not what you get in this kind of gig, i've had it once in the 8 gigs i've done there... after my last tune - which generally is april in paris at the moment...
anyway this revived me and i felt a little less like i was being eaten by flesh eating beetles...
i came home and foolishly fell into watching TV with dinah gradually curling up and sleeping on my shoulder, in the middle of the night i saw that the skulls was just over an hour in and i'd been vaguely wanting to see it for a little while, so i found ITV2 + 1, and watched it, and it was pretty good, it's got that guy from CSI in it as a senator...
then immediately after that the larry sanders show was on over on ITV4 so i couldn't not watch it... it was fantastic...
crept into bed around 3:30... was up @ 8 for the dawn project...
so still very short on sleep...
think i'm going to skip over to a mossbros in muswell hill to book my suit for trave & clementine's wedding...
slow but nice day...
2 nights ago i slept badly, worked all day yesterday and then gigged in the evening...
i was pretty fragile by the 2nd set but then i played the opening to gymnopedie no.1 (i can only play the opening so far, but then that's the bit everyone knows - dinah knows it as bom ching... bom ching... from the amount of times i've called it that but claims not to actually know what it is...) and i heard a voice behind me say... oh how lovely - i must get a piano... and as i improvised over those 2 chords (with the leaping left hand) the room gradually quietened and i think i'm right in saying i brought a hushed silence to the room (just for a moment)...
not that anyone clapped or anything, that's not what you get in this kind of gig, i've had it once in the 8 gigs i've done there... after my last tune - which generally is april in paris at the moment...
anyway this revived me and i felt a little less like i was being eaten by flesh eating beetles...
i came home and foolishly fell into watching TV with dinah gradually curling up and sleeping on my shoulder, in the middle of the night i saw that the skulls was just over an hour in and i'd been vaguely wanting to see it for a little while, so i found ITV2 + 1, and watched it, and it was pretty good, it's got that guy from CSI in it as a senator...
then immediately after that the larry sanders show was on over on ITV4 so i couldn't not watch it... it was fantastic...
crept into bed around 3:30... was up @ 8 for the dawn project...
so still very short on sleep...
think i'm going to skip over to a mossbros in muswell hill to book my suit for trave & clementine's wedding...
slow but nice day...
Monday, August 06, 2007
goodbye piano
went into work today a little hungover, to hand in some marking that i toiled over this weekend. while i was there somebody told me that some men had come to meet me today to pick up the piano...?
and i realised that the piano i picked out many years ago to hire for work must be leaving, being as that work is shifting to another building - so i'm assuming the piano is going back to the people we hired it from...
i swiftly nipped upstairs to say my goodbyes to the piano and video'd it for posterity... i finished playing - i've been practising this amazing piece of music called lushlife recently - and went downstairs to leave, only to find the men had come back, so i showed them to the piano, watched while they carted it away, played it a little in the alley outside work - in transit -
it was very sad, seeing that piano go, i've played many things on it, wrote more than a few tunes on it, sang songs to people, to classes...
i will miss it...
x
Friday, August 03, 2007
Thursday, August 02, 2007
i have been ignoring facebook for awhile now and today, particularly after speaking with felinity yesterday... i gave in...
did the dawn project this morning and i did do a videoblog, even though i'd told myself i wasn't going to... at least not every week... but i've been knee deep in marking all day and haven't had a chance to edit it...
felinity met me yesterday to buy me my birthday present, a ritual we began on her birthday, (or was that last year?) and she got me the birth of the cool music, scored out for 9 musicians...
i can't wait to get my teeth into it and get an arrangement for my piano...
we almost went to see transformers... it looks like that'll be saturday night now... and we did eat in the chinese place we eat at and drank in the salisbury... awfully nice as ever...
and earlier on during the day i'd been to the BFI, largely to play chess with the bookseller there (although he didn't have his board with him) & i took the opportunity to check out the new back bit...
and it is lovely...
it has a media centre there where you can search the BFI's archives... some day soon i will be perusing randomly...
anyway, still marking and i've got to get myself ready to gig tonight so i'll leave it @ that x
did the dawn project this morning and i did do a videoblog, even though i'd told myself i wasn't going to... at least not every week... but i've been knee deep in marking all day and haven't had a chance to edit it...
felinity met me yesterday to buy me my birthday present, a ritual we began on her birthday, (or was that last year?) and she got me the birth of the cool music, scored out for 9 musicians...
i can't wait to get my teeth into it and get an arrangement for my piano...
we almost went to see transformers... it looks like that'll be saturday night now... and we did eat in the chinese place we eat at and drank in the salisbury... awfully nice as ever...
and earlier on during the day i'd been to the BFI, largely to play chess with the bookseller there (although he didn't have his board with him) & i took the opportunity to check out the new back bit...
and it is lovely...
it has a media centre there where you can search the BFI's archives... some day soon i will be perusing randomly...
anyway, still marking and i've got to get myself ready to gig tonight so i'll leave it @ that x
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