Thursday, October 15, 2009

booker done tv heaven

read the last booker book this morning in bed...

j m cootzee, summertime, badly named, badly written, occasional bits of good writing but all kinds of unsatisfactory writing...

when he's writing as women I find him pretty rubbish...

so, definitely ended on a low, those 6 books I read...

also I watched monday's flashforward which was distinctly average... just like lost, take the smallest amount of storytelling you can, wrap it in the thinnest drama you can find, pretend it's fantastic...

but the day was rescued by channel 4's HBOfest from 10... trueblood & generationkill...

just wonderful...

and then there's hung.. josiah mentioned it over the weekend... any good?

my cup runneth over...

x

Saturday, October 10, 2009

review of FlashForward, True Blood & Generation Kill

in the last week, i've seen the opening episode (or 2) of 3... just 3?... yes, 3 i think...

3 new tv things, all american, 2 on channel 4, one on 5...

Flashforward
True Blood
Generation Kill

flash forward first:

it's the only one of the 3 programs that hasn't already been shown in america...

this is nice...

i watched it on the internet, because demand5 is not yet on virgin V, unlike all the other terrestrials, (4 on demand, BBC i-player, ITV...thing)...

demand5 delivers adverts, at a few points in the show, which you can see as dots in the line at the bottom, also they have adverts before the show starts...

the 2 adverts at the beginning are repeated at least once in the show...

this is shit...

and to think i could be downloading this nonsense and not watching any adverts...

so to the show itself... it's made by the makers of lost... and i remembered this midway through the 2nd episode and i laughed at myself for watching it...

it has a good premise, and the story looks promising, and it good in it's way,

but there were a few too many moments where the cheese got grated a little too much... the main male character, whose wife saw a future in which she was loving another man... keeps giving her a hard time about this... he's dumb therefore... his side-kick / another important male character, spends ages being down on our main characters theories because he didn't see anything in his future and therefore might well be dead...

so already, within the 1st 2 episodes, drama is being inserted with no good reason to insert drama...

in this current world we live in, too often we are expected to sift through flaws in TV shows to find the good that is in them... i don't know if i have the patience for flashforward...

ok True Blood:

which i watched on the TV as it was broadcast, with dinah, after our turkish resaurant/police with large guns event earlier...

HBO made which counts for alot...

great so far, but a little too much "local colour" here and there, something heroes did with it's new orleans characters...

not only from black characters, but mostly from them, larger than life, sassy, performances which distracted a little from the story i found... not that i'm faulting the acting, it's the writing i'm unhappy with,

but not too unhappy, this is a smaller complaint than i had with flashforward and i think it'll be worth sticking with true blood... the magic, the sense of real connection the main woman feels for the vampire... and already a good story...

i loved buffy the vampire slayer and so i was always going to like true blood anyway,

it's quite explicitly rude for TV which is nice... the characters are coming along nicely, no 1 dimensional people as far as i can see, although there's time...

so to Generation Kill...

watched last night on catch-up, on the TV, after a mental few days of not enough sleep, a few pints and some smoking (which is exactly the right idea after a mental fews days on not enough sleep)...

then watched again this afternoon, again on catchup, after a lovely night's rest..

made by the team that made the wire... and just fantastic, no flaws to speak of... (as indeed the wire was flawless)... a huge cast of characters that it's quite hard to follow, and no easy explanatory TV, which is a strength in my world...

i'm curious who wrote it, as in, which character is the writer, it's from a book and it seems likely that the reporter in the story wrote the book... but not for sure...

it shows a side to the tank loving boy audience, lots of hummvees... in formation rolling through the desert... a nod towards the glory of the mechanisms of war... while showing the stupid choices of the military...

just as in the wire there are people in the military world of this show who are willing to do a good job, and there a people who are motivated by other things, greed, power, and for many different reasons do not do a good job...

a great character who wistfully pisses on the desert while talking about the destiny of the white man... a curious mix of racism in a seeming lovable character...

a seemingly true account of what it was like in that unit... with porn magazines, chewing tobacco of some kind, drugs, well almost drugs... homophobia, racism, comradery, stupidity..

hasn't put a foot wrong yet...

so that's what i think x

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

from bed

hmmm... a sedintary life for me, the booker prize all done... the last one I read won it, the great wolf hall... I got through 5/6 with the 6th now in my possession, I don't know if i'll read it... we'll see...

blogging from my phone, in bed, just to check it out really...

not working Wednesday but if I can i'll pick up my fender rhodes x

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Friday, September 04, 2009

my friend (with yr4wk10)

the weather today was very appropriate for my emotions...

these days i can go from feeling really low to feeling great and back again in such a short space of time...

and today's weather was doing exactly that... i left the house to go & do some errands and it started raining, so i put on my waterproof trousers, but took them off again by holloway road because the sun was out again...

my friend GM, the guitarist came round in the evening, he's just left, we had a lovely time, playing music, eating @ lavas, (turkish place near me), playing music, talking...

we're performing together at the core arts gig tomorrow night, just a couple of tunes, walk on by, and one or 2 of mine... one of which is so new it's as yet unwritten...

the main line is written, and i'm fairly sure of where the chords are going, but there's a whole load of lyrics that need writing before tomorrow night, and i'm working all day...

in fact, tomorrow is the beginning of my mental weekend, i'm covering for GM in the morning, running my regular jam in the afternoon (which will be largely taken over by the needs of the evening gig) then gigging in the evening...

tomorrow i'm being picked up around midday, we're driving down to bristol, we're gigging as the spanner jazz punks, stripped down... then i'm being dropped (i hope) in bath where my mum & dad are celebrating their ruby wedding anniversary with all us kids and partners and grandchild...

makes me a little sad, not being with dinah no more, but then dinah would have tried to get out of going anyway, not a huge socialite when it came to my family that woman...

so i'm basking in the family celebration until monday, then limping back to london...

and i haven't done my improvisation this week...

oh - that reminds me, last week's improvisation is here:

yr4wk10, voice & hammond improvisation from longcat on Vimeo.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

5 year return

i'd been talking to someone about the 27 year saturn return, when it became clear that i had a kind of 5 year return going on...

a week ago - on the wednesday - i get a text message from josiah marking the 5 year anniversary of grace's naming ceremony...

@ which i played the piano & sang...

a week ago i was on my way to a small gig in brick lane, promotional thing for CM, lovely H was there DJ'ing and he dropped a few choice textures behind my playing...

i was videoing it with the idea of using some of it as my improvisation...

so, two piano playing events in the open air, exactly 5 years apart...

back in 2004, midway through my version of the song for grace (wild is the wind i think...?) some of witchy godmother's kids came and started messing about on the keyboard as i was still playing...

2009 - i had, 1stly a small group of asian kids, playing the odd note on the keyboard, then a small child, playing notes on the keyboard, but this time i'd invited them to play and i was happy with the situation...

in 2004 i was a bit flustered by it...

now please bear in mind that i had no conscious thought of this link while i was doing the gig, although my subconscious could see what was going on i'm fairly sure...

anyway, it was on friday/saturday when it became apparent, i like it, i don't know what it means beyond me moving more towards acceptance, but i like it...

just to say, friday/saturday/sunday i was in brighton and i had an old fashioned weekend, with more than a little bit of indulgence... which i'm still paying for a bit...

x

Thursday, August 13, 2009

yr4wk7 overdrive heaven

yr3wk7 mopho, hammond & blackstar overdrive from longcat on Vimeo.



thursday... very late, no good... but don't you just love this overdrive?

fixed my puncture yesterday, had a fine day of cycling as a result...

went down to an odd fete in a park in poplar for work, met a few nice kids...

then back to whitechapel (although to be fair this was all taxis' from whitechapel to poplar and back)... a lovely chat with G & H @ CM's office...

then into town to see felinity, no cinema but some food & a few gin & tonics, a lovely night, much laughing... walked her to waterloo, then sat in the royal festival hall for awhile using their wifi for my phone... then a cycle home with herbie hancock in my ears, magnificent, foolish yes, but beautiful... i love that bike..

x

Saturday, August 08, 2009

sometimes a hero comes along

what is that song?

no, not that song, this song... "i'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me"

anyway...

(unrequited's for losers...)

now, many years ago, i did my 1st ever tax retun, and it scared me, and i rang up a helpline...

a very nice man, very calmly told me what i had to do, what numbers to put in which boxes...

all very easy...

i love that man...

on thursday i was in brighton with grace & her mum & her 2 cousins...

my phone had stepped up it's irritating behaviour and i'd been threatening it for awhile (you're days are numbered, i'm getting a smartphone)...

so on thursday, this entire troop of people, large & small, went into the orange shop in brighton, and a very nice man gave me a new smart phone...

all very straight forward... i love a good bit of customer service...

these people are heroes...

but not only that...

my new smart phone is a hero...

i'm teetering on the brink of the smartphone way of life, just as soon as orange text me that they've enabled my internet...

x

Sunday, August 02, 2009

nothing for nobody

i'm taking some time off...

i've got 2 weeks off from my work, and i'm also taking a break from all the rehearsing, recording, mixing i'm doing for other people...

off down to brighton on tuesday to see my glorious god daughter & her lovely mum...

dinah's in poland,

my time is my own...

got hold of a BlackStar HT-Drive overdrive pedal this week... i'm just listening to the improvisation i recorded tonight with the hammond & the mopho going through it...

valve distortion... it's a beautiful thing... of course whether anyone else other than me will like it is another matter, but right now i'm in a pretty much - it's all about me - zone anyway...

x

yr4wk6 moog & voice

yr4wk6 moog & voice from longcat on Vimeo.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

yr4wk5

yr4wk5 rhodes improvisation from longcat on Vimeo.



recorded last saturday night, just as the pub was getting going,

the last bit of recording i did with the rhodes before TC broke it on monday... x

Thursday, July 23, 2009

books & notes

but 1stly, just a quick note to say, although those 4 songs do indeed capture some of my emotions... it is not only through their lyrics, it's largely through their music & sound, and where the lyrics are reflecting how i feel it is not that the lyrics reflect how i feel about dinah, necessarily...

i know... quite odd to start with that, but me & dinah are in a note writing phase, and i don't have access to her kitchen work surface to leave my notes on...

she's not sleeping here at all now, it all happened quite quickly, one minute she was here, the next minute she was gone and the only way we communicate is through notes she leaves me when she pops in to pack when i'm not here...

odd... but you've got to do what you've got to do...

anyway books...

i popped into my friendly, neighbourhood bookshop yesterday to buy the next book by mark leyner... this is after a morning spent crying intermittently, something i've been wanting to do for weeks and that i've got a lot more of in the post...

the lovely S, on asking him which book to get next, told me they didn't have it in stock and couldn't get hold of it... so he went home to pick up his copy of this book to lend to me...

he went out of his way to not sell me a book...

this morning i noticed the book tokens that mum & dad had given me for my birthday poking out from my john sinclair book... and i knew the universe was looking out for me...

x

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

peter green

"i can't about help the shape i'm in,
i can't sing, i ain't pretty and my legs are thin,
but don't ask me what i think of you,
i might not give the answer that you want me to..."

so it's difficult, this whole breaking up with dinah thing...

funny that...

anyway, all kinds of different emotions are floating around and popping up to the surface these days...

and a surprising number of them are reflected in 4 songs by peter green from the late 60's...

so of course i'm listening to these songs a fair bit...

oh well,
albatross,
man of the world,
the green manalishi with the two pronged crown,

now, peter green was away from the music scene for long time but as i understand he's back...

and how much would i dearly love to do a weekly improvisation with peter green?

x

Sunday, July 19, 2009

yr4wk4 mopho & revelation

yr4wk4 mopho & revelation from longcat on Vimeo.



i announce it in this video i made in the early hours of my birthday, so i announce it here & now...

me & dinah are no more... not as a couple... friends still... always will be i hope, and still living together - at least until august...

it's difficult, for both of us... a sad time...

x

Monday, July 13, 2009

36



i was reading in bed yesterday afternoon, dinah had brought me tea, toast, berocca & cake in bed and life was good...

i'm currently reading et tu, babe by mark leyner, and it pleased me no end when i read that he was 36 was he wrote it...

the night before i'd done my improvisation @ 2:34 am and i'd opened the card my brother sent me, telling me that 36 was a square number, a triangle number & a 13-gonal number...

sunday night i was in a pub with felinity & dinah & i arranged 36 mini-cheddars into 1st a triangle, then a square, but failed to arrange them in a 13-gonal shape...

this afternoon i took 36 pennies arranged them into a triangle, a square and a 13-gonal shape, although the 13-gonal is a bit rubbish...

Sunday, July 12, 2009

yr4wk3 juno 6

yr4wk3 juno 6 from longcat on Vimeo.



just my voice and the juno...

while it was uploading i did this week's improvisation, just hours into my birthday, G out there in the world drinking to her drummers birthday x

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Mark Leyner

so i was in my favourite bookshop and lovely S recommended a book to me - even while saying he knew it was dangerous recommending books to me...

the book was - my cousin - my gastroenterologist,

i started reading it late on wednesday night and i finished it late on thursday night...

it was out there, laugh out loud funny (and please note that it wasn't lol funny - it was laugh out loud funny), well written...

a bit of a rollercoaster of a book...

x

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

yr4wk1 hammond

yr4wk1 hammond organ from longcat on Vimeo.



the 1st one of the 4th year... just hammond x

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

yr3wk52 rhodes & cymbal

yr3wk52 rhodes & cymbal from longcat on Vimeo.



again getting to the wednesday before i've done the improvisation chores... slack...

this working lark really does take it out of one...

x

Monday, June 15, 2009

yr3wk51 moog & juno

yr3wk51 moog & juno from longcat on Vimeo.



i really love the canal video that's in this improvisation... it was a lovely sunny day coming home along the regents canal last thursday... my camera sat just on the waters edge, rush hour on the canal, in the 15 minutes i left it filming there were many, many people, walking or cycling past...

x

Thursday, June 11, 2009

john berger sleeplessness

yesterday (tuesday) was such a long day on so little sleep that today (wednesday) i was very glad to sleep in and do very little...

i watched the 2nd half of the miniseries battlestar galactica... it had a tiny bit of not very good television in it, but largely it was very good...

the 1st series is arriving fairly soon...

i have high hopes of it...

but before i watched the thing i watched today, i made it over to jai shri krishna for the lunch time special, 12 - 2, i arrived @ 1:58...

whilst there i finished the book i've been reading from A to X by john berger - which was beautiful...

around about 2 they put the radio on in jai shri krishna, i think it's to get rid of the customers so they can close...

i finished the book with the radio on and whilst it was great, i felt i had to reread a bit of it... so i did, around 6ish, lying on the sofa with balthazara curled up beside me,

i'm going to lend the book to dinah's mum, i think she'll be interested in some of it, maybe she'll read the whole thing - although she reads an awful lot -

x

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

yr3wk50 bass clarinet & rhodes with Dan Spanner

yr3wk50 with Dan Spanner from longcat on Vimeo.



it really did take just over a day to render... it finished just before i left the house for my mental day of work yesterday - 9:30 - 9 in 2 different places...

so, wednesday, late for an improv but finally it's here x

Monday, June 08, 2009

1 day

woke up this morning (bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom)


and i was half hoping the video would be rendered...

but was not ready for the news that...

it's going to take (current estimate) 1 day...

24 hours...

that's big...

my mum in town... x

brief check in

i've just finished editing my weekly improvisation...

i've set it rendering and i'm going to bed... it'll probably take 10 hours or more to render... then tomorrow i'm going to check it out and re-edit it if necessary...

a little late but not the end of the world...

i'm playing chess online again, as of the 1st of june... it's been a few months without it and i'm enjoying it again...

also i'm watching big brother again... this time all the way from the top... me & dinah watched the 1st eviction today and we were both sad that it was B...

oh well...

also i've started work @ a new place, just 1 & a half days a week but it'll really help my finances...

ok... anyway... just checking in... sleep now x

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

yr3wk49 rhodes alone

yr3wk49 rhodes alone from longcat on Vimeo.



no words for quite some time...

i guess i'm just not in the habit of it...

x

Sunday, May 24, 2009

yr3wk48 tonematrix & moog

yr3wk48 moog & tonematrix from longcat on Vimeo.



if you haven't played on this tonematrix i heartily recommend it, (you need the latest flash)...

enjoy x

Monday, May 18, 2009

yr3wk47 rhodes thru mopho

yr3wk47 rhodes thru mopho from longcat on Vimeo.



the music from a week & a half ago on a wednesday, the sky video from last week... monday...

x