1st blewbury, the whole of our immediate knight clan met up over there yesterday, because felinity & her G were planning to go down & pick up some plants...
i met felinity & G down @ the BFI IMAX @ some ungodly hour of the morning for Avatar... the 2nd time i'd seen it there and with slightly better seats, although still not perfect...
3D cinema really does require some extra brain work, small parts of my mind constructing the 3D world from the 2 visual sources, and we all found this a bit hard after 3 hours, but it's a great film, i loved it until the last hour and felinity could have lost the middle hour or so... if only G had really disliked the 1st hour we could have all had separate hour breaks...
then off we drove across to blewbury, where D&M&C had also landed, i got to sing a little bit of charlotte's song to charlotte just before they left, got an appropriate leaning in my direction from her as a response...
mum & dad both well, D&M on good form & felinity & G their lovely selves... charlotte the star...
got home last night and i've woken today with nothing to do...
not the worst sensation in the world... i might ring up le fam pevo & see what they're up to, i have been invited to a barbecue by someone i met last weekend, but i'm not sure i'm ready for so many strangers @ once today...
G came round on wednesday night to finish watching the leopard (visconti) & whilst he was here he showed me a few ableton tips, so i'm curious about that little world, music making in a different way... also i've got charlotte's song to finish writing & begin recording, a tune of HK's that i said i'd find a bassline for which i've had the idea for, but not followed through with the recording...
so there's a few things i might do... or again i might do nothing at all, smoke a little & play the rhodes all day x
listening to YMCK - family genesis, it's beautiful... i find their songs pop into my head at odd times... lovely music...
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
finches portal dance
currently queuing for the finches... the 2nd monday in a row... after me & felinity came here for her 30th x
these days i'm playing portal... a game that's become free on steam (i heard about it on charlie brookers twitter)... it's great, it stretches my little computer...
i took a really slow train back from brighton last night, after a truly lovely weekend with grace & josiah, also catching a bit of mr dance, and a great actual dance/movement piece called expresso that josiah's downstairs neighbour was in... fantastic...
so i was on the train that took 2 & a half hours to make the hour or so long trip... i was a bit spangled (mark turned up just before i left & we piped a little before getting into a large one about israel/palestine) and i spent some of the time gazing at the fieldlines thing, some time reading, although i only had the new scientist with me & i was having trouble taking it in...
so i spent quite a bit of time in portal... it works better when @ home with my larger monitor, but it works ok with this little screen just so long as the character doesn't go into any really large rooms... i'm not sure if she can go into large rooms alright @ home, but for sure my little computer starts slowing right down when the distances get bigger with the little screen...
so for example i would be puzzling over this massive room right now but i know it would just frustrate me... hence blogging...
.............................................
ok, finches done, sat out in the dazzling sunshine after having eaten a pasta dish served up by the waterside cafe... thought i recognised a woman in with the funches as felinity's friend... with her daughter, who would be felinity's goddaughter if it was them... but i didn't make contact...
also a few finches landed on me a few times... put me in mind of the rilke poem about the birdfeeder...
very pleasing all round... and now i think about it.. i got a text yesterday from felinity showing me something she made from a book i made her get last monday while out for her birthday and she might be offering it to me...?
or she might be making another one for me... pictures when it arrives...
happy day x
these days i'm playing portal... a game that's become free on steam (i heard about it on charlie brookers twitter)... it's great, it stretches my little computer...
i took a really slow train back from brighton last night, after a truly lovely weekend with grace & josiah, also catching a bit of mr dance, and a great actual dance/movement piece called expresso that josiah's downstairs neighbour was in... fantastic...
so i was on the train that took 2 & a half hours to make the hour or so long trip... i was a bit spangled (mark turned up just before i left & we piped a little before getting into a large one about israel/palestine) and i spent some of the time gazing at the fieldlines thing, some time reading, although i only had the new scientist with me & i was having trouble taking it in...
so i spent quite a bit of time in portal... it works better when @ home with my larger monitor, but it works ok with this little screen just so long as the character doesn't go into any really large rooms... i'm not sure if she can go into large rooms alright @ home, but for sure my little computer starts slowing right down when the distances get bigger with the little screen...
so for example i would be puzzling over this massive room right now but i know it would just frustrate me... hence blogging...
.............................................
ok, finches done, sat out in the dazzling sunshine after having eaten a pasta dish served up by the waterside cafe... thought i recognised a woman in with the funches as felinity's friend... with her daughter, who would be felinity's goddaughter if it was them... but i didn't make contact...
also a few finches landed on me a few times... put me in mind of the rilke poem about the birdfeeder...
very pleasing all round... and now i think about it.. i got a text yesterday from felinity showing me something she made from a book i made her get last monday while out for her birthday and she might be offering it to me...?
or she might be making another one for me... pictures when it arrives...
happy day x
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Richard Ford & me
@ 8 last night i was getting changed in A's car... (A is the bass player in the Spanner Jazz Punks), listening to Richard Ford on the World Book Club...
i got the suit on by around 10 minutes in & then A came back down & we went up to the stage... got caught in the speech being made by Ab who was having her birthday party & had drunk a little bit...
then A was moving bales of straw for me to sit on & i was setting up my keyboard, whilst a salsa thing was going on...
the band who had played before us were leaving so 1stly i had to take the drummers place in the salsa line (men remain stationary while women move along the line, very odd), and then just before playing our set the same drummer found me & i had to tell both A & P (tenor sax) to move their cars so the other band could leave...
then we played our set to a small but perfectly formed audience... (aliens)... lovely time had i think...
we got out of there quite swiftly... P driving me & M (bari) back to london... i got in to mine around 2:05am...
i very quickly transferred myself into bed and was drifting ever closer to sleep when P rang me & told me i was on Radio 4... he'd just heard me ask my question to Richard Ford...
the world service popping over to Radio 4 in the night...
i did indeed make it onto the show, i can be found asking my question @ around 14:53 - 17:12... but you can also hear my chuckles, laughs, a "yeah" @ all kinds of moments in the whole show...
it was a lovely afternoon spent listening to him talk, and aside from my relentless need to self publicise i think it's a great show, he gives good radio...
x
i got the suit on by around 10 minutes in & then A came back down & we went up to the stage... got caught in the speech being made by Ab who was having her birthday party & had drunk a little bit...
then A was moving bales of straw for me to sit on & i was setting up my keyboard, whilst a salsa thing was going on...
the band who had played before us were leaving so 1stly i had to take the drummers place in the salsa line (men remain stationary while women move along the line, very odd), and then just before playing our set the same drummer found me & i had to tell both A & P (tenor sax) to move their cars so the other band could leave...
then we played our set to a small but perfectly formed audience... (aliens)... lovely time had i think...
we got out of there quite swiftly... P driving me & M (bari) back to london... i got in to mine around 2:05am...
i very quickly transferred myself into bed and was drifting ever closer to sleep when P rang me & told me i was on Radio 4... he'd just heard me ask my question to Richard Ford...
the world service popping over to Radio 4 in the night...
i did indeed make it onto the show, i can be found asking my question @ around 14:53 - 17:12... but you can also hear my chuckles, laughs, a "yeah" @ all kinds of moments in the whole show...
it was a lovely afternoon spent listening to him talk, and aside from my relentless need to self publicise i think it's a great show, he gives good radio...
x
Thursday, April 29, 2010
deflea... jethro tull... mad men
ok, so 1stly i found a flea earlier today... so i've just (5 minutes ago) deflea'd her ladyship...
she took it... she didn't like it... but she took it...
she'll be back in a bit and i'll be forgiven... i hope
i'm currently listening to jethro tull... (lastfm me if you don't believe me)... to do with the shadow of the moon & to do with L @ core arts...
the film had michael collins talking about (amongst other things) how it felt to be left out of the walking on the moon thing in 1969... and there's a tune on benefit called "for michael collins, jeffrey and me"... so i had to listen to that tune in the brief break i took in the middle of the film...
then L @ core arts and me have been talking about jethro tull and it's really nice to talk with him about it... he's a wonderful musician himself...
so today i listened to the whole of benefit, while cycling about town... including the song "cry you a song" which i want to do an arrangement of for the SJP's... i'm now listening to the album before it (stand up)...
and earlier i watched the last episode of this season of madmen... which came to me in a very nice serendipitous way...
on saturday me & E popped over to meet spski in spitalfields market... we were watching the lodger the 1927 hitchcock film... with live soundtrack from minima... it was heavenly... and something in the film brought madmen to mind...
which was odd because i hadn't thought of madmen for several weeks... it's been a bit nutty you see...
about 3 or 4 weeks ago josiah was here... we watched the 2nd to last episode of the season together on BBC4...
then on either the following wednesday or the one after that i was @ the sun ra gig with N & R... didn't even think about madmen...
last wednesday was E's birthday & i was showing her a good time... no thought of madmen...
so by saturday it had been a few weeks since i'd even thought about the program & it seemed likely the season had ended...
but what worked well for me, was that BBC2 was at least a week behind BBC4 and that episode me & josiah watched together was only on BBC2 last week (i guess there must have been something to interrupt it, you know how BBC2 is)
so the last episode was on last night and i-playable tonight... and it was perfect... deeply satisfying... didn't quite make me cry but it was close...
oh good telly... thankyou x
she took it... she didn't like it... but she took it...
she'll be back in a bit and i'll be forgiven... i hope
i'm currently listening to jethro tull... (lastfm me if you don't believe me)... to do with the shadow of the moon & to do with L @ core arts...
the film had michael collins talking about (amongst other things) how it felt to be left out of the walking on the moon thing in 1969... and there's a tune on benefit called "for michael collins, jeffrey and me"... so i had to listen to that tune in the brief break i took in the middle of the film...
then L @ core arts and me have been talking about jethro tull and it's really nice to talk with him about it... he's a wonderful musician himself...
so today i listened to the whole of benefit, while cycling about town... including the song "cry you a song" which i want to do an arrangement of for the SJP's... i'm now listening to the album before it (stand up)...
and earlier i watched the last episode of this season of madmen... which came to me in a very nice serendipitous way...
on saturday me & E popped over to meet spski in spitalfields market... we were watching the lodger the 1927 hitchcock film... with live soundtrack from minima... it was heavenly... and something in the film brought madmen to mind...
which was odd because i hadn't thought of madmen for several weeks... it's been a bit nutty you see...
about 3 or 4 weeks ago josiah was here... we watched the 2nd to last episode of the season together on BBC4...
then on either the following wednesday or the one after that i was @ the sun ra gig with N & R... didn't even think about madmen...
last wednesday was E's birthday & i was showing her a good time... no thought of madmen...
so by saturday it had been a few weeks since i'd even thought about the program & it seemed likely the season had ended...
but what worked well for me, was that BBC2 was at least a week behind BBC4 and that episode me & josiah watched together was only on BBC2 last week (i guess there must have been something to interrupt it, you know how BBC2 is)
so the last episode was on last night and i-playable tonight... and it was perfect... deeply satisfying... didn't quite make me cry but it was close...
oh good telly... thankyou x
Monday, April 19, 2010
richard ford
it turns out he was just like old friend DR... (PD to some)...
i woke early, went over to beneath the trelick tower...checked out the lesson i'll be teaching in a few weeks, the man who's currently teaching it is off touring by then...
perfectly nice...
then home, found the sports writer which had been missing for a little while... got on my bike, went down to aldwych... bvsh house...
had a fine old time... asked my question.. which i think has a better chance of being aired on the show than last time's question... because it drew an interesting bit of conversation...
he signed my copy of the book, i had a glass of wine, played the thing i often end tunes with on the steinway grand in the room...
then once outside i bumped into him again, he was waiting for his car to take him to the hotel, i offered him a backy, but he said his prostate might give him trouble, he said my prostrate might start giving me trouble too...
i asked him how old he was, hoping he'd say he was 72... because i met the 18 year old me on the train down to brighton on friday night & it made me realise i was surely going to meet the 72 year old me as well fairly soon...
(18 years old (ish), half my age, doing mechanical engineering (mathy) @ university, plays piano, has a stud cat... (we had a female stud cat)... so the 72 year old i'm going to meet will have been doing roughly what i'm doing now... 36 years ago...)
he said no he was 66... oh well, nobody's perfect...
it also turns out that there's a 3rd book to the frank bascombe books (the sportswriter, independence day...) called the lay of the land, which he was writing just as i started reading him... back in 2002...
so that's very exciting... i've got independence day ahead of me, then the 3rd...
so i was totally high on life as i cycled away from bvsh house... went over to le fam pevo to deliver some books josiah wanted them to have (baby stuff)... had a gradually calming down evening with those lovely folks...
it turns out EQ is just about to pop... by friday apparently...
now i'm home & i've got my 1st huge tuesday since the holidays ahead of me...
oh & i met a nice woman on the tube... as you do... (in the 1st half of the day, the 2nd half all bikey)
x
i woke early, went over to beneath the trelick tower...checked out the lesson i'll be teaching in a few weeks, the man who's currently teaching it is off touring by then...
perfectly nice...
then home, found the sports writer which had been missing for a little while... got on my bike, went down to aldwych... bvsh house...
had a fine old time... asked my question.. which i think has a better chance of being aired on the show than last time's question... because it drew an interesting bit of conversation...
he signed my copy of the book, i had a glass of wine, played the thing i often end tunes with on the steinway grand in the room...
then once outside i bumped into him again, he was waiting for his car to take him to the hotel, i offered him a backy, but he said his prostate might give him trouble, he said my prostrate might start giving me trouble too...
i asked him how old he was, hoping he'd say he was 72... because i met the 18 year old me on the train down to brighton on friday night & it made me realise i was surely going to meet the 72 year old me as well fairly soon...
(18 years old (ish), half my age, doing mechanical engineering (mathy) @ university, plays piano, has a stud cat... (we had a female stud cat)... so the 72 year old i'm going to meet will have been doing roughly what i'm doing now... 36 years ago...)
he said no he was 66... oh well, nobody's perfect...
it also turns out that there's a 3rd book to the frank bascombe books (the sportswriter, independence day...) called the lay of the land, which he was writing just as i started reading him... back in 2002...
so that's very exciting... i've got independence day ahead of me, then the 3rd...
so i was totally high on life as i cycled away from bvsh house... went over to le fam pevo to deliver some books josiah wanted them to have (baby stuff)... had a gradually calming down evening with those lovely folks...
it turns out EQ is just about to pop... by friday apparently...
now i'm home & i've got my 1st huge tuesday since the holidays ahead of me...
oh & i met a nice woman on the tube... as you do... (in the 1st half of the day, the 2nd half all bikey)
x
Friday, April 16, 2010
Bean Juice? Human Bean Juice
@ some point in the night i was looking at the book about Sun Ra that N gave me on wednesday...
it's a headpress book, i ended up with about 5 copies of it for some reason, which are going back, but i also have my own copy of it...
it's got a picture of sun ra on the cover - with a blob of perhaps sunlike stuff over him... maybe on his costume, although it's a black & white picture & the blob is in colour...
anyway, i'm asleep... and i'm looking at the cover, and i realise that the blob is my own blood, not much of it, just a little tiny sphere that been squashed between two surfaces...
so i'm about to give the book back, but something stops me... and i realise how i should hold onto that copy, because i've made it my own, it's got my blood on it...
and i feel special...
many hours later i wake up and look at the sun ra book & laugh...
.....................................................
i have all these copies of this book because on wednesday night, me, N & his R... (who he met in thsiland, lovely woman) went to cafe oto to see the sun ra arkestra, led by marshall allen...
it was one of the most inspirational gigs i've been to...
influences from throughout the history of jazz, from the 40s onwards...
able to go to some very scary 60's free jazz type places, which felt like an opening out of the heart... play a chopin piece which was the most beautiful thing i've ever heard... play some old jazz standards in a swinging fashion... (stars fell on alabama).... do lovely vocal melodies with lyrics to do with freedom & peace & love & losing your mind... they ended on a few outrageously cheerful tunes that might have been disney tunes... he did a few arrangements of them apparently...
in particular there's a kind of sun ra tune i've come to love, where parts of the band are doing complex, but rhythmicly working things... african type rhythms & cuban type rhythms... like the guitarist wil be gently plucking a rhythmic pattern... sometimes very quietly... and then gradually, some of the horn players will start playing a slow and aching melody over the top, more & more horn players join the melody... in sometimes strange & beautiful harmonies... the rhyhtm also grows...
just perfect x
also hafa was there - hafa who N has kept in touch with over the years, who i know/knew, back when i knew N the 1st time around... (hafa's blues was a tune we used to do in the cops, one of the few i produced... with hafa's voice...) - in fact, it was only on wednesday morning that i found the minidisk i'd recorded hafa's voice onto, which i'd sampled from...
hafa used to talk about sun ra back then... he knew him...
hafa (from wednesday): if you want to talk about music go & talk to marshall, i never talked about music to sonny, me & sonny used to talk about "the ascension of the name"
this was in the break between sets & me & R were talking to hafa who was a little irate to begin with...
i took me leave and crossed the room to use the toilet, and on my way i bumped into marshall allen and i shook his hand and told him how happy i was that he was there and that the spirit of sonny was alive in that room... he told me that it was what kept him going (he's 80 odd)...
then on my way back from the loo somebody yelled for me and i had a little chat with a guy i've met over in homerton, bass player (very sharply dressed that night)...
it was a truly lovely night... aided in part by a little tickle of something which might have a name but i don't know what the name is...
3 different T's combined.. very pleasant...
x
Saturday, April 10, 2010
life worth living
sometimes i am so glad that i live in this city...
met up with felinity to go check out possible venues for her 30th
it will be taking place 2 days before her birthday in a secret location...
there will probably be a facebook event relating to it for those of you interested in coming...
so anyway, we started in angel, got a bus down to holborn,
popped into conway hall where an old fashioned dance was taking place...
we crept into the balcony and looked down on the dancing partners...
stopped in on G, out drinking in the place where it will be taking place... as it happens...
then got another bus down to the southbank... sat in the royal festival hall for a couple of cups of tea... dropped her off @ waterloo,
lovely to spend time with her, nothing quite like being with someone you've known since you were 7...
she got on her train, i was about to go down to the tube...
but something in me wanted to walk for awhile...
so i popped on my comedy over sized headphones, listened to julian joseph's version of "the other side of the tracks" for the 7th, or 8th time today (loving that tune) in fact you can find out exactly how many times i've listened to that tune today over on my lastfm...
should you want to...
then just south of the river i started listening to my lovely herbie hancock playlist..
butterfly,
sun touched,
bubbles,
people music,
gentle thoughts,
it carried me over the north hungerford bridge, up passed charing cross, passed trafalgar square,
walking up charing cross road...
down onto the picadilly line @ leicester square...
& in fact it carried me all the way out to turnpike lane, starting to repeat the 1st tune again as i arrived at my door...
lovely to walk in london, over the river...
met up with felinity to go check out possible venues for her 30th
it will be taking place 2 days before her birthday in a secret location...
there will probably be a facebook event relating to it for those of you interested in coming...
so anyway, we started in angel, got a bus down to holborn,
popped into conway hall where an old fashioned dance was taking place...
we crept into the balcony and looked down on the dancing partners...
stopped in on G, out drinking in the place where it will be taking place... as it happens...
then got another bus down to the southbank... sat in the royal festival hall for a couple of cups of tea... dropped her off @ waterloo,
lovely to spend time with her, nothing quite like being with someone you've known since you were 7...
she got on her train, i was about to go down to the tube...
but something in me wanted to walk for awhile...
so i popped on my comedy over sized headphones, listened to julian joseph's version of "the other side of the tracks" for the 7th, or 8th time today (loving that tune) in fact you can find out exactly how many times i've listened to that tune today over on my lastfm...
should you want to...
then just south of the river i started listening to my lovely herbie hancock playlist..
butterfly,
sun touched,
bubbles,
people music,
gentle thoughts,
it carried me over the north hungerford bridge, up passed charing cross, passed trafalgar square,
walking up charing cross road...
down onto the picadilly line @ leicester square...
& in fact it carried me all the way out to turnpike lane, starting to repeat the 1st tune again as i arrived at my door...
lovely to walk in london, over the river...
Sunday, April 04, 2010
joss fucking stone
me & dinah came back here last night after the gypsy hotel gig...
a way station on her way home... a smoke to take the edge off the adrenalin...
& we were listening to al green... when suddenly "how do you mend a broken heart" came on, but with joss stone singing over the top...
most unnecessary...
& now here i am, having recorded a couple of minutes of piano through the new mics, watching eragon, and who should turn up as a shabby looking fortune teller?
indeed yes, joss f*cking stone...
(because i can't spell that word in the content of this post, but strangely i allow myself to spell it properly in the title...?)
the gig was triumphant, a bit like that gig down in bristol... great crowd...
put me back into a good place... went to bed around dawn...
x
a way station on her way home... a smoke to take the edge off the adrenalin...
& we were listening to al green... when suddenly "how do you mend a broken heart" came on, but with joss stone singing over the top...
most unnecessary...
& now here i am, having recorded a couple of minutes of piano through the new mics, watching eragon, and who should turn up as a shabby looking fortune teller?
indeed yes, joss f*cking stone...
(because i can't spell that word in the content of this post, but strangely i allow myself to spell it properly in the title...?)
the gig was triumphant, a bit like that gig down in bristol... great crowd...
put me back into a good place... went to bed around dawn...
x
Friday, April 02, 2010
april fool
so, the long weekend stretches out in front of me... it must have been a full moon recently (or perhaps in the next couple of days) because it's easter...
spski & the family are meeting me tomorrow @ the ICA... we're going to see the billy childish exhibition...
i drank last night without eating properly, and i woke quite hungover... got out of bed around 7:30 to wait for the new microphones to be delivered... i was lying on a blanket near the front door napping when they arrived @ around 9:45...
i left for work about an hour later...
so a bit short on sleep, and although i was intending to start testing the mics tonight i found myself watching "the dark is rising", here through love film, and i was dropping off near the end wondering if it really was as bad as it seemed of if it seemed that bad because i was so tired...
it's been a night in front of the TV, i woke up a bit and watched madmen from last night (very good as ever)... then i started watching "this is england" which was looking great, but i realised after awhile that i needed to eat and didn't have food in the flat so i gave up on the film (which will be on my lovefilm list any minute now) and went out to lava's for a takeout,,,
then came back and watched wallander (swedish one) which was also great...
(incisive reviewing you get here - such great descriptive words as - great... and... bad... oh, hang on, maybe it's bad reviewing... oh...)
so anyway, slightly reluctant to be going out tomorrow, as i really do want to start recording that piano with those mics, but k-wo, baby bird & spski are some of the best people in the world so once i'm there i'll be perfectly content...
gigging on saturday night with the SJP's, seems a long way off but it's not too far...
oh dear, largely pointless post... just wanting to mark how foolish i feel on april fool's day x
spski & the family are meeting me tomorrow @ the ICA... we're going to see the billy childish exhibition...
i drank last night without eating properly, and i woke quite hungover... got out of bed around 7:30 to wait for the new microphones to be delivered... i was lying on a blanket near the front door napping when they arrived @ around 9:45...
i left for work about an hour later...
so a bit short on sleep, and although i was intending to start testing the mics tonight i found myself watching "the dark is rising", here through love film, and i was dropping off near the end wondering if it really was as bad as it seemed of if it seemed that bad because i was so tired...
it's been a night in front of the TV, i woke up a bit and watched madmen from last night (very good as ever)... then i started watching "this is england" which was looking great, but i realised after awhile that i needed to eat and didn't have food in the flat so i gave up on the film (which will be on my lovefilm list any minute now) and went out to lava's for a takeout,,,
then came back and watched wallander (swedish one) which was also great...
(incisive reviewing you get here - such great descriptive words as - great... and... bad... oh, hang on, maybe it's bad reviewing... oh...)
so anyway, slightly reluctant to be going out tomorrow, as i really do want to start recording that piano with those mics, but k-wo, baby bird & spski are some of the best people in the world so once i'm there i'll be perfectly content...
gigging on saturday night with the SJP's, seems a long way off but it's not too far...
oh dear, largely pointless post... just wanting to mark how foolish i feel on april fool's day x
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
large emotional gradient important me is interviewed
the 1st of several mental days today...
and i didn't know it was going to be this mental when i woke up,
in fact, when i woke up, i felt quite desperate, not sure why exactly, but then about 12 hours later, cycling up kingsway, i felt like i was floating on a cloud...
because, whilst i was @ work, i got an email from someone @ the BBC, asking if i could be part of a trailer for the world book club event coming up in about 3 weeks... the one where richard ford is coming to talk about the sportswriter...
the one that i'll be attending,
the email i sent to ask whether i could come was very enthusiastic...
that's why they asked me to be part of the trailer, because i was so enthusiastic...
and i was so enthusiastic, not just because richard ford is such a fantastic writer, but because i'd started rereading richard ford a few months back, well, further back really, 6 - 8 months... in an effort to connect with the version of myself who existed before i was with dinah... a getting over dinah kind of thing...
that book that i'd left down in brighton in the house of a man i barely knew, and got back a month or so later...
that was "just a little piece of my heart", it was great, and it was very good timing for the world book club to decide to bring him over...
anyway, la la la...
i finished the sportswriter over the weekend and again, very good timing to be asked today to do the trailer thing...
it turned out that the best time to do it was this evening after work, (because the next few days are going to be mental) and i cycled over to bvsh house in the rain around 7ish, floating through the barbican highwalks along the way which i love...
met with a lovely guy called B who led me through the plush old parts and into the not so nice newer parts, sat me down beside a neumann mic and asked me questions about the book, the writer, myself, my thoughts...
it was lovely... just to have a chance to talk about something i care about, and be listened to...
i left there just after he turned up the microphone on big ben for the 3 chimes of 8:15.. (so cool to have that mic on big ben all the time, live, so when you hear the bongs for the news it is actually big ben bonging...)...
and i cycled home high on life... stopping off in muratori's cafe, full of cabbies, for a largish roast meal... while mum & dad were probably eating down in earlsfield with kat & her G, celebrating the new flat, which is on my itinerary for tomorrow...
the trailer will be made by next tuesday and there'll be an extended web version around too, B's going to send me a link when it's around and it will make me very happy to hear myself on the BBC, or at least on the BBC website...
ok, bed, big day of travel tomorrow, biking it down to whitechapel for a meeting and to drop the bike off for a service in the one bike shop i trust in london (bicycle magic, greatorex street)...
then public transport down to earlsfield to see kat & the new flat...
then up to ladbroke grove for another meeting,
then the science museum for their science museum lates night, a core arts staff do type affair...
covering all 4 corners of this great city i'll be...
x
and i didn't know it was going to be this mental when i woke up,
in fact, when i woke up, i felt quite desperate, not sure why exactly, but then about 12 hours later, cycling up kingsway, i felt like i was floating on a cloud...
because, whilst i was @ work, i got an email from someone @ the BBC, asking if i could be part of a trailer for the world book club event coming up in about 3 weeks... the one where richard ford is coming to talk about the sportswriter...
the one that i'll be attending,
the email i sent to ask whether i could come was very enthusiastic...
that's why they asked me to be part of the trailer, because i was so enthusiastic...
and i was so enthusiastic, not just because richard ford is such a fantastic writer, but because i'd started rereading richard ford a few months back, well, further back really, 6 - 8 months... in an effort to connect with the version of myself who existed before i was with dinah... a getting over dinah kind of thing...
that book that i'd left down in brighton in the house of a man i barely knew, and got back a month or so later...
that was "just a little piece of my heart", it was great, and it was very good timing for the world book club to decide to bring him over...
anyway, la la la...
i finished the sportswriter over the weekend and again, very good timing to be asked today to do the trailer thing...
it turned out that the best time to do it was this evening after work, (because the next few days are going to be mental) and i cycled over to bvsh house in the rain around 7ish, floating through the barbican highwalks along the way which i love...
met with a lovely guy called B who led me through the plush old parts and into the not so nice newer parts, sat me down beside a neumann mic and asked me questions about the book, the writer, myself, my thoughts...
it was lovely... just to have a chance to talk about something i care about, and be listened to...
i left there just after he turned up the microphone on big ben for the 3 chimes of 8:15.. (so cool to have that mic on big ben all the time, live, so when you hear the bongs for the news it is actually big ben bonging...)...
and i cycled home high on life... stopping off in muratori's cafe, full of cabbies, for a largish roast meal... while mum & dad were probably eating down in earlsfield with kat & her G, celebrating the new flat, which is on my itinerary for tomorrow...
the trailer will be made by next tuesday and there'll be an extended web version around too, B's going to send me a link when it's around and it will make me very happy to hear myself on the BBC, or at least on the BBC website...
ok, bed, big day of travel tomorrow, biking it down to whitechapel for a meeting and to drop the bike off for a service in the one bike shop i trust in london (bicycle magic, greatorex street)...
then public transport down to earlsfield to see kat & the new flat...
then up to ladbroke grove for another meeting,
then the science museum for their science museum lates night, a core arts staff do type affair...
covering all 4 corners of this great city i'll be...
x
Monday, March 29, 2010
garden mixer
last week, one of the items i've recently bought arrived, it's an active monitor, (speaker) and it's lovely...
one more thing to carry to gigs and i probably won't always, but it's good to know i will be able to hear myself if i do take it...
this afternoon i decided to clean up my mixing desk, it's been in a bad state for a little while, gathering dust even when i was using it every day...
so i got my can of servisol 10 & i set about squirting it into various bits of the mixer, (a mackie, same brand as the new speaker)... after having done 4 channels (of 16) with a lovely advancing cleanness visible... i decided to heed the advice on the can and not do all this in an enclosed space...
i took the new speaker, plugged my phone into it and put it on my window sill...
a de la soul album pumping out which i've been enjoying very much for the last couple of weeks,
i took the mixer and the can outside into the garden and i had an enjoyable 45 minutes, cleaning up the rest of the mixer... in the best way i could think of, which hopefully is the proper way...
the album lasted exactly the right amount of time, i was a little aware that i might have been being antisocial with my loud music, but it was only an album, in the middle of the afternoon, and had anyone raised their head over the fence i would have turned it down...
anyway, it's such beautiful music, i'm sure all my neighbours appreciated it anyway...
i haven't yet tested the mixer, that's a task for tomorrow, but i'm glad to have done it...
x
one more thing to carry to gigs and i probably won't always, but it's good to know i will be able to hear myself if i do take it...
this afternoon i decided to clean up my mixing desk, it's been in a bad state for a little while, gathering dust even when i was using it every day...
so i got my can of servisol 10 & i set about squirting it into various bits of the mixer, (a mackie, same brand as the new speaker)... after having done 4 channels (of 16) with a lovely advancing cleanness visible... i decided to heed the advice on the can and not do all this in an enclosed space...
i took the new speaker, plugged my phone into it and put it on my window sill...
a de la soul album pumping out which i've been enjoying very much for the last couple of weeks,
i took the mixer and the can outside into the garden and i had an enjoyable 45 minutes, cleaning up the rest of the mixer... in the best way i could think of, which hopefully is the proper way...
the album lasted exactly the right amount of time, i was a little aware that i might have been being antisocial with my loud music, but it was only an album, in the middle of the afternoon, and had anyone raised their head over the fence i would have turned it down...
anyway, it's such beautiful music, i'm sure all my neighbours appreciated it anyway...
i haven't yet tested the mixer, that's a task for tomorrow, but i'm glad to have done it...
x
Monday, March 15, 2010
highs & lows
proust's on hold, because richard ford is going to be on the world service's world book club and i'm going to be there to ask him a question...
so i'm rereading the sportswriter, the book of his that's going to be discussed...
judging from the cinema ticket stub that is the bookmark, i last read this book in 2002, the film (from the ticket stub) was Ivans XTC, which i might put on my lovefilm list to see again...
the sportswriter is wonderful and it has made me laugh out loud (not lol) several times already, made me smile many times and brought me quite close to tears...
richard ford isn't wholly responsible for the almost tears, i've been quite low recently... lonely...
bubbles, the downstairs cat, meows mournfully all day when they're not in down there, i feel for her, and try and show her a little attention whilst at the same time assuring balthazara that i'm not cheating on her... i'm a one cat man... even if that one cat wakes me up in the morning by touching my face with her paw...
i'm very glad to have her, i think it's true to say she's very glad to have me...
other highs have been:
true blood season 2, which i've had for a little while, but was holding off because it's on the telly (FX), but since last friday's episode i've been hungrily devouring the whole season, and it is better without adverts, the only thing is sometimes my copy of the episode doesn't have the closing tune, which changes each episode and is generally both fantastic in and of itself, and funny, in relation to the story just told...
one episode left and i'm trying to hold it off, but i won't be able to hold off for much longer...
my piano, tuned a week or so ago and in a wonderful place, no downstairs neighbour conflict, possibly side to side neighbour issues to come but i'm not being rude about it, if someone can hear me that way...
i'm writing a synth thing that currently has piano playing on it, i've ordered a couple of niceish mic's that i intend to have setup on the piano fairly constantly, my nice condenser mic would have been recording that piano by now, but it's still in the hands of T who i used to make music with... he's dragging his heals to an extent... glad to have ordered the other ones, they'll be here in a couple of weeks or so, coming from america, i wonder if i'll have my stuff back off T by then?
all this piano playing has given me a renewed interest in my GEM piano module, that may surface at a gig some time soon...
my tetra, my space echo, both of which met my gigging keyboard last night at the spanner jazz punks rehearsal in the venue for next saturday's gig... my keyboard which is so slim the mopho fell off it many times, and last night the bari player knocked the tetra to the ground and i lost the plot a tiny bit, it's partly my fault, i haven't yet invested in the bluetack necessary for the purpose...
on the way back from the rehearsal, keyboard on my back, a drunk polish man (i think he was polish, and he was definitely drunk) told me he needed someone to make music for him, him being a rapper, he wrote his number on the brickwork by where we were standing with a bit of chalk from the ground and proceeded to sing a really long and loud tone into the wall to prove to me that he could sing... i left him there...
x
so i'm rereading the sportswriter, the book of his that's going to be discussed...
judging from the cinema ticket stub that is the bookmark, i last read this book in 2002, the film (from the ticket stub) was Ivans XTC, which i might put on my lovefilm list to see again...
the sportswriter is wonderful and it has made me laugh out loud (not lol) several times already, made me smile many times and brought me quite close to tears...
richard ford isn't wholly responsible for the almost tears, i've been quite low recently... lonely...
bubbles, the downstairs cat, meows mournfully all day when they're not in down there, i feel for her, and try and show her a little attention whilst at the same time assuring balthazara that i'm not cheating on her... i'm a one cat man... even if that one cat wakes me up in the morning by touching my face with her paw...
i'm very glad to have her, i think it's true to say she's very glad to have me...
other highs have been:
true blood season 2, which i've had for a little while, but was holding off because it's on the telly (FX), but since last friday's episode i've been hungrily devouring the whole season, and it is better without adverts, the only thing is sometimes my copy of the episode doesn't have the closing tune, which changes each episode and is generally both fantastic in and of itself, and funny, in relation to the story just told...
one episode left and i'm trying to hold it off, but i won't be able to hold off for much longer...
my piano, tuned a week or so ago and in a wonderful place, no downstairs neighbour conflict, possibly side to side neighbour issues to come but i'm not being rude about it, if someone can hear me that way...
i'm writing a synth thing that currently has piano playing on it, i've ordered a couple of niceish mic's that i intend to have setup on the piano fairly constantly, my nice condenser mic would have been recording that piano by now, but it's still in the hands of T who i used to make music with... he's dragging his heals to an extent... glad to have ordered the other ones, they'll be here in a couple of weeks or so, coming from america, i wonder if i'll have my stuff back off T by then?
all this piano playing has given me a renewed interest in my GEM piano module, that may surface at a gig some time soon...
my tetra, my space echo, both of which met my gigging keyboard last night at the spanner jazz punks rehearsal in the venue for next saturday's gig... my keyboard which is so slim the mopho fell off it many times, and last night the bari player knocked the tetra to the ground and i lost the plot a tiny bit, it's partly my fault, i haven't yet invested in the bluetack necessary for the purpose...
on the way back from the rehearsal, keyboard on my back, a drunk polish man (i think he was polish, and he was definitely drunk) told me he needed someone to make music for him, him being a rapper, he wrote his number on the brickwork by where we were standing with a bit of chalk from the ground and proceeded to sing a really long and loud tone into the wall to prove to me that he could sing... i left him there...
x
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
retrograde
just watched dogma, which i've been meaning to do for ages...
it was great, bless kevin smith...
alanis morrisette is a weird looking lady, she looks like she belongs in a circus... and she's god...
anyway, i just turned on voyager, the star, sky software thing that i like, that i've got set up like a astrologer would have it, the planets and the sun (but no moon for me, she moves too quick) arranged around the ecliptic...
and i see that mars is right on the border between cancer & leo, my sign and my brother's sign...
i'm curious which direction it's moving in so i press forward in time, and it drifts into leo proper, i press backwards in time and it drifts into leo proper...
which means it's balancing, right now, between moving backwards and forwards.
it turns out that it's been moving backwards (retrograde) for almost 3 months, and in almost 2 hours it's going to stop moving backwards and start moving forwards again...
it didn't quite make it back into cancer, it's teetering right on the edge...
dinah & her mum & dad are astrology people and all i know about astrology comes from living with dinah, she used to speak of mars being in retrograde as being a difficult thing... so i'm all for an end to a difficult thing...
ok, the talented mr ripley... which now i remember is based on the same book that plein soleil is based on, and i think i didn't which this one when it came out because i felt i should watch the older, french one 1st, alain delon...
which i never did, and now here i am watching the talented mr ripley... and i might have read that book...? and mars will reverse it's direction (relative to the earth) in less than 90 minutes... and i've got to be up for work in the morning... i'm a fool x
it was great, bless kevin smith...
alanis morrisette is a weird looking lady, she looks like she belongs in a circus... and she's god...
anyway, i just turned on voyager, the star, sky software thing that i like, that i've got set up like a astrologer would have it, the planets and the sun (but no moon for me, she moves too quick) arranged around the ecliptic...
and i see that mars is right on the border between cancer & leo, my sign and my brother's sign...
i'm curious which direction it's moving in so i press forward in time, and it drifts into leo proper, i press backwards in time and it drifts into leo proper...
which means it's balancing, right now, between moving backwards and forwards.
it turns out that it's been moving backwards (retrograde) for almost 3 months, and in almost 2 hours it's going to stop moving backwards and start moving forwards again...
it didn't quite make it back into cancer, it's teetering right on the edge...
dinah & her mum & dad are astrology people and all i know about astrology comes from living with dinah, she used to speak of mars being in retrograde as being a difficult thing... so i'm all for an end to a difficult thing...
ok, the talented mr ripley... which now i remember is based on the same book that plein soleil is based on, and i think i didn't which this one when it came out because i felt i should watch the older, french one 1st, alain delon...
which i never did, and now here i am watching the talented mr ripley... and i might have read that book...? and mars will reverse it's direction (relative to the earth) in less than 90 minutes... and i've got to be up for work in the morning... i'm a fool x
Sunday, March 07, 2010
before time 1980 techyness dream eating
on friday morning i just missed a call from a student... i knew roughly what he was going to say...
sorry i'm late, or, sorry i'm not coming...
anyway, the answerphone message he left remained unlistened to until this morning...
also on friday i finally got my windows 7 computer to sync up to my HTC Hero phone...
which means that:
a - i could install the new ROM that came out for the hero (on orange) a few weeks back
& b - i could back up all my text messages that would have been deleted by this process..
they all got backed up onto my gmail... which is really odd, seeing text messages in gmail...
so anyway, it all happened, it all works, which is pleasing...
i woke up this morning and looked at my phone, and it told me i had an answerphone message from june 22nd 1980, this being the answerphone message from friday morning,
from before my phone got it's ROM changed and therefore before my phone's current conciousness came into being,
like imagining events from before i was born...
anyway, i like the fact that it chose june 22nd 1980... pleasing x
but while i'm talking about things working, i have a few positive and one negative "things working" stories to tell,
1stly the negative, the mopho is not responding to treatment, or at least, not the last bout of trying to fix it that i gave it, with the arrival of the soundcard with it's MIDI in&out i can now talk to the mopho, and i've tried a few different ways of getting it back on it's feet but it's resisting...
but in a positive way, i was able to take the sound i use in an SJP song, put it into the computer, then load up the Tetra sound editor and manually program that in so i have the exact sound now... and all the original mopho sounds i programmed are all similarly in my computer now, in code, so i can get them into the tetra slowly... and maybe someone @ DSI will tell me how to load them onto the tetra in a much easier way...
but sad for the mopho, i can't help be struck by the fact that it broke (or i found out that it was broke) on the day i ordered the tetra... to anthropomorphise my mopho a little, either it knew it's old age was coming and it just managed to hold on until i had a replacement, or it saw that i was getting the tetra and it broke itself in a fit of anger..
so, fantastic that i have the tera now, but what would i have done if i hadn't been buying the tetra when it happened?
my other (partial) success concerns the tetra and the spin doctor... the spin doctor being a purple object with 16 knobs on it that you can plug into any MIDI device and set those knobs to controlling the device, i got it from D (moog drummer D) on thursday...
i'm currently plugging it into the tetra, which is a beautiful synth, but it doesn't have that many knobs on it, you can assign 4 of the knobs to whatever you want, which is great, but i want to be able to control more than just those...
so far i've been able to set up 11 knobs on the spin doctor to control the tetra and it's lovely...
there are many, many more settings i might want to change yet, and also i need to do a bit of learning as to how to speak in NRPN MIDI messages, but it's a really nice and intuitive way of interacting with a synth and i'm really digging it...
ok one more thing, i dreamt of bass player A last night - well - this morning, and it was the end of a long day, moving things, and suddenly he came out with this amazing veggie indian food... and offered half to me - by saying "well, you're not going to get a quote on it", which seemed to me to be inviting me to eat...
and i ate, in my dream...
x
sorry i'm late, or, sorry i'm not coming...
anyway, the answerphone message he left remained unlistened to until this morning...
also on friday i finally got my windows 7 computer to sync up to my HTC Hero phone...
which means that:
a - i could install the new ROM that came out for the hero (on orange) a few weeks back
& b - i could back up all my text messages that would have been deleted by this process..
they all got backed up onto my gmail... which is really odd, seeing text messages in gmail...
so anyway, it all happened, it all works, which is pleasing...
i woke up this morning and looked at my phone, and it told me i had an answerphone message from june 22nd 1980, this being the answerphone message from friday morning,
from before my phone got it's ROM changed and therefore before my phone's current conciousness came into being,
like imagining events from before i was born...
anyway, i like the fact that it chose june 22nd 1980... pleasing x
but while i'm talking about things working, i have a few positive and one negative "things working" stories to tell,
1stly the negative, the mopho is not responding to treatment, or at least, not the last bout of trying to fix it that i gave it, with the arrival of the soundcard with it's MIDI in&out i can now talk to the mopho, and i've tried a few different ways of getting it back on it's feet but it's resisting...
but in a positive way, i was able to take the sound i use in an SJP song, put it into the computer, then load up the Tetra sound editor and manually program that in so i have the exact sound now... and all the original mopho sounds i programmed are all similarly in my computer now, in code, so i can get them into the tetra slowly... and maybe someone @ DSI will tell me how to load them onto the tetra in a much easier way...
but sad for the mopho, i can't help be struck by the fact that it broke (or i found out that it was broke) on the day i ordered the tetra... to anthropomorphise my mopho a little, either it knew it's old age was coming and it just managed to hold on until i had a replacement, or it saw that i was getting the tetra and it broke itself in a fit of anger..
so, fantastic that i have the tera now, but what would i have done if i hadn't been buying the tetra when it happened?
my other (partial) success concerns the tetra and the spin doctor... the spin doctor being a purple object with 16 knobs on it that you can plug into any MIDI device and set those knobs to controlling the device, i got it from D (moog drummer D) on thursday...
i'm currently plugging it into the tetra, which is a beautiful synth, but it doesn't have that many knobs on it, you can assign 4 of the knobs to whatever you want, which is great, but i want to be able to control more than just those...
so far i've been able to set up 11 knobs on the spin doctor to control the tetra and it's lovely...
there are many, many more settings i might want to change yet, and also i need to do a bit of learning as to how to speak in NRPN MIDI messages, but it's a really nice and intuitive way of interacting with a synth and i'm really digging it...
ok one more thing, i dreamt of bass player A last night - well - this morning, and it was the end of a long day, moving things, and suddenly he came out with this amazing veggie indian food... and offered half to me - by saying "well, you're not going to get a quote on it", which seemed to me to be inviting me to eat...
and i ate, in my dream...
x
Saturday, March 06, 2010
jazzers meeting by chance
a week ago i went to see my friend J (JtJP) play a gig over in ravenscourt park,
playing with J that night were - R, student of mine, lovely singer, F a wonderful drummer who i've played with once, when i played one of those sunday jazz gigs in camden... and the guitarist who i've met but can't remember his name, lovely player, and a bass player...
on my way out there, i got off the tube and was walking up the road when a man asked me if i knew where the polish centre was...
i told him i didn't but that i had googlemaps on my phone and that i might be able to help...
a short while later i had directed him back down the road he had been walking along, and i made my way up that road towards the gig, where i met lovely D, (who sold me the moog all that time ago and who drums in many of the improvisations)... the gig was wonderful... all of them were marvellous, i had a rocking time watching them play...
also the pub saw fit to show Top Gun projected massively behind the band from film4... it started pretty much as they started and it finished almost exactly when they finished...
me & D drunkenly shambled back down that road to the tube and were waiting for a train when the man who i'd directed to the polish centre earlier came onto the platform...
it turns out he's a sax player, he was going to see a bigband, run by a man who fixes and sells saxophones, in fact at least one of the SJP's have got a sax from that man...
so we chatted awhile, talked about the musicians life... sax players... music...
got on the train when it came and before we knew it me & D were getting off and he was staying on...
so that was that... he goes by the name of BP... and it was nice bumping into him x
playing with J that night were - R, student of mine, lovely singer, F a wonderful drummer who i've played with once, when i played one of those sunday jazz gigs in camden... and the guitarist who i've met but can't remember his name, lovely player, and a bass player...
on my way out there, i got off the tube and was walking up the road when a man asked me if i knew where the polish centre was...
i told him i didn't but that i had googlemaps on my phone and that i might be able to help...
a short while later i had directed him back down the road he had been walking along, and i made my way up that road towards the gig, where i met lovely D, (who sold me the moog all that time ago and who drums in many of the improvisations)... the gig was wonderful... all of them were marvellous, i had a rocking time watching them play...
also the pub saw fit to show Top Gun projected massively behind the band from film4... it started pretty much as they started and it finished almost exactly when they finished...
me & D drunkenly shambled back down that road to the tube and were waiting for a train when the man who i'd directed to the polish centre earlier came onto the platform...
it turns out he's a sax player, he was going to see a bigband, run by a man who fixes and sells saxophones, in fact at least one of the SJP's have got a sax from that man...
so we chatted awhile, talked about the musicians life... sax players... music...
got on the train when it came and before we knew it me & D were getting off and he was staying on...
so that was that... he goes by the name of BP... and it was nice bumping into him x
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
under the sea
in a couple of hours i'm going out to meet with felinity, we're seeing micmacs....
i'm feeling a bit under things today, a sore throat and a cough/sneeze thing...
i'm about to smoke a tiny bit, which won't be very pleasant but it will produce quite a nice feeling, upon which i'll sit down at my rhodes, with the MIDI keyboard on top, the rhodes going through the BlackStar valve thing, the MIDI keyboard controlling the hammond and the tetra, and everything going into the space echo...
and i'll play for an hour or so...
still not recording because i'm still waiting for delivery of a USB sound thing, it turns out the Edirol one i ordered (and paid for) was in between names, being rebranded, and i wasn't going to get it until the end of next week...
so i cancelled it and tried to get it from someone else, phoned a few people, one man told me he wouldn't be able to get an edirol for a little while and anyway, the last one he'd sold (a year ago) had blown up...
so he persuaded me that in fact i wanted an M-audio thing, newer, for £100 less...
i was persuaded, and tomorrow morning, possibly before i leave for work, i shall receive it in the post and then it will all start to slip into place...
i will also be able to start mending the mopho, or at the very least recreating the mopho sound i was using in the SJP's in the Tetra...
x
i'm feeling a bit under things today, a sore throat and a cough/sneeze thing...
i'm about to smoke a tiny bit, which won't be very pleasant but it will produce quite a nice feeling, upon which i'll sit down at my rhodes, with the MIDI keyboard on top, the rhodes going through the BlackStar valve thing, the MIDI keyboard controlling the hammond and the tetra, and everything going into the space echo...
and i'll play for an hour or so...
still not recording because i'm still waiting for delivery of a USB sound thing, it turns out the Edirol one i ordered (and paid for) was in between names, being rebranded, and i wasn't going to get it until the end of next week...
so i cancelled it and tried to get it from someone else, phoned a few people, one man told me he wouldn't be able to get an edirol for a little while and anyway, the last one he'd sold (a year ago) had blown up...
so he persuaded me that in fact i wanted an M-audio thing, newer, for £100 less...
i was persuaded, and tomorrow morning, possibly before i leave for work, i shall receive it in the post and then it will all start to slip into place...
i will also be able to start mending the mopho, or at the very least recreating the mopho sound i was using in the SJP's in the Tetra...
x
Monday, March 01, 2010
just listening to this, being another time i was playing my rhodes through a space echo, but that time, my rhodes was in full working order and it was a real 70's space echo...
this time, my rhodes is still broke, the amp part is in need of some specific love, but the upper, harp part is currently wired into my Blackstar valve overdrive pedal, which is wired into the brand new (to me) Boss Space Echo, a seemingly faithful digital reproduction of the original...
similar therefore to my hammond organ module - the Creamware B4000, a lovingly researched and recreated digital version of an analogue classic...
week 24 of the weekly improvisation (because that's what it is i'm listening to) was recorded on the 5th of December 2006,
ok, it's just finished, and now i'm listening to week 34, from the 10th of february 2007, the day that landlord E popped over to pick up his space echo after a few months of it living with me...
i'm sharing these links with you because my old computer is dead and until my brand new Edirol USP sound thing arrives i can not record anything just yet... but when i can ladies & gentlemen you will be drowning in the deluge of music i'll be making...
earlier on i felt so completely at home playing the rhodes through the space echo (with that lovely bit of valve overdrive), i tweeted with joy, and tomorrow i'll be taking both the space echo and the brand new tetra to the SJP rehearsal, we'll see what the hammond sounds like through it...
we're practising up for a big showcase type thing that will feature dancers (including dinah):
be there or be square folks x
this time, my rhodes is still broke, the amp part is in need of some specific love, but the upper, harp part is currently wired into my Blackstar valve overdrive pedal, which is wired into the brand new (to me) Boss Space Echo, a seemingly faithful digital reproduction of the original...
similar therefore to my hammond organ module - the Creamware B4000, a lovingly researched and recreated digital version of an analogue classic...
week 24 of the weekly improvisation (because that's what it is i'm listening to) was recorded on the 5th of December 2006,
ok, it's just finished, and now i'm listening to week 34, from the 10th of february 2007, the day that landlord E popped over to pick up his space echo after a few months of it living with me...
i'm sharing these links with you because my old computer is dead and until my brand new Edirol USP sound thing arrives i can not record anything just yet... but when i can ladies & gentlemen you will be drowning in the deluge of music i'll be making...
earlier on i felt so completely at home playing the rhodes through the space echo (with that lovely bit of valve overdrive), i tweeted with joy, and tomorrow i'll be taking both the space echo and the brand new tetra to the SJP rehearsal, we'll see what the hammond sounds like through it...
we're practising up for a big showcase type thing that will feature dancers (including dinah):
be there or be square folks x
space echo
my heart is full of music making love...
i currently have AT tuning my piano, and i also have, by my side, the Boss RE-20 Space Echo pedal which i picked up from the post office this morning...
so i've got my lovely DSI Tetra, going into the Space Echo, and it's just heaven on a stick...
my cup runneth over...
i am, if you haven't guessed already, going through an acquisitive month or two, what with the laptop, DSI Tetra, Space Echo... and indeed an Edirol USP Sound unit currently waiting to be sent off from liverpool...
it's all come from the marking that kept me underground for ages recently and also the fact that the very reputable company that i bought the tetra from mistakenly charged me too little for the beast...
so for once i find i have money, but of course it won't last long...
anyway... the space echo, i hit the Push It button on the tetra and turn the Cutoff control, giving a short burst of synthy loveliness... it goes into the space echo and repeats, i turn all sorts of dials on the space echo and the synthy loveliness turns mad and nutty and even more lovely to my electro loving ears...
all to the background sound of my KNIGHT upright piano being tuned by that lovely man...
x
i currently have AT tuning my piano, and i also have, by my side, the Boss RE-20 Space Echo pedal which i picked up from the post office this morning...
so i've got my lovely DSI Tetra, going into the Space Echo, and it's just heaven on a stick...
my cup runneth over...
i am, if you haven't guessed already, going through an acquisitive month or two, what with the laptop, DSI Tetra, Space Echo... and indeed an Edirol USP Sound unit currently waiting to be sent off from liverpool...
it's all come from the marking that kept me underground for ages recently and also the fact that the very reputable company that i bought the tetra from mistakenly charged me too little for the beast...
so for once i find i have money, but of course it won't last long...
anyway... the space echo, i hit the Push It button on the tetra and turn the Cutoff control, giving a short burst of synthy loveliness... it goes into the space echo and repeats, i turn all sorts of dials on the space echo and the synthy loveliness turns mad and nutty and even more lovely to my electro loving ears...
all to the background sound of my KNIGHT upright piano being tuned by that lovely man...
x
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Tetra
it arrived on wednesday, while A was here trying to fix my rhodes (to no avail, although he brought us closer to knowing what is wrong)...
i took it into work on thursday and played with it after teaching, with old friend D on the drums... lovely to play with him again, and lovely, if new & a bit odd to be playing with the Tetra...
it's basically 4 mopho's in 1, and in protest at being outmoded my mopho has been behaving strangely ever since i ordered the new beast...
i booted up the old computer, to speak to the mopho, and i think i can fix it... but it will take a bit of time, and of course my old computer died the very next day so i have to wait until i get some MIDI going in & out of my laptop before i can do the fix on the mopho...
once upon a time i would write bits of tunes or sounds on the mopho and dream of having just a little more control and sound possibilities and using the mopho live to give me a rhythmic pattern to play over... in particular i was frustrate by the notion of being able to set up a lovely groove on the mopho, but being unable to change to the next groove (verse => chorus) during the song...
the tetra is currently balancing in my mind between being clearly much more able to deal with that dream of performing with it, but perhaps not solving that specific problem... not that i know this, and i'm going to try and get it to work how i want it, i just have to think quite a lot about the situation and what i now have at my disposal...
loving the possibilities x
Sunday, February 21, 2010
early morning
late notice cover asked of me today, for tomorrow, so i'll be rising @ 6, leaving the house around 6:45...
nuts... for me of all people...
but at least it means i won't sleep in on tuesday, something i was a little concerned about,
it's for M, M who i mentioned a post or 2 ago, who's been round to look at my rhodes & my moog...
it'll all be over by 2.00, and although that would be stretching it a little, on a normal monday i could sleep until 2... alhtough generally i'm up by 1...
i committed the error of supermarket shopping while really hungry earlier today, and now i have loads of food... i'm sandwiching tomorrow, and probably tuesday as well... i packed tomorrow's lunch & it's 2 chicken sandwich's, a cox's apple and a cookie...
in theory, in order to get 8 hours sleep, i should go to bed in 10 minutes... but i can still feel the food in my stomach and even if i went to bed, i don't think i could go to sleep very easily, however i will be in bed by 11... and hopefully i won't spend hours tossing and turning...
oh and i started writing another tune today, based on 2 notes from my moog that have been playing since thursday, quite possibly it's for baby bird, who officially has a name now, courtesy of a text from Kwo earlier (they told me and josiah on friday, and once josiah knows, it's safe to assume it's not long before everyone knows)...
Robin...
hence baby bird...
x
nuts... for me of all people...
but at least it means i won't sleep in on tuesday, something i was a little concerned about,
it's for M, M who i mentioned a post or 2 ago, who's been round to look at my rhodes & my moog...
it'll all be over by 2.00, and although that would be stretching it a little, on a normal monday i could sleep until 2... alhtough generally i'm up by 1...
i committed the error of supermarket shopping while really hungry earlier today, and now i have loads of food... i'm sandwiching tomorrow, and probably tuesday as well... i packed tomorrow's lunch & it's 2 chicken sandwich's, a cox's apple and a cookie...
in theory, in order to get 8 hours sleep, i should go to bed in 10 minutes... but i can still feel the food in my stomach and even if i went to bed, i don't think i could go to sleep very easily, however i will be in bed by 11... and hopefully i won't spend hours tossing and turning...
oh and i started writing another tune today, based on 2 notes from my moog that have been playing since thursday, quite possibly it's for baby bird, who officially has a name now, courtesy of a text from Kwo earlier (they told me and josiah on friday, and once josiah knows, it's safe to assume it's not long before everyone knows)...
Robin...
hence baby bird...
x
Saturday, February 20, 2010
baby bird
7 days have passed since it ended with me & emivore and i'm trying to slightly ritualise this moment, kiss the memories as they pass so as not to be haunted by them...
i saw baby bird yesterday, i didn't have to work over in homerton so after CM in the morning i went over to SP of stepney and Kwo's to meet with the 2-week old...
grace, josiah & M came up as well so it was quite a big visit, grace was irrepressible and i found myself bearing the brunt of her while the grown up's talked...
the baby is wonderful and sp told me a story that i love - that perhaps one day i'll retell here, but not yet...
me & dinah are in communication again, i don't have a huge amount of space for her in my head just now but at least we're talking...
and the sons of anarchy are in my life... i got hold of the 1st season, thinking that the series currently on 5 USA was the 2nd... i was going to catch up with them and then watch them weekly...
they arrived on thursday and i've watched everything but the last episode now,
just checked though, and 1stly the 5 USA thing is this 1st series, so i've already over taken them, and it's shown on wednesday's @ 10, which is when madmen is shown over on BBC4, so that's not going to happen, it looks like i'm going to get hold of as much SOA as i can and consume it madly...
it has helped me this week, what with my small but definite heart break...
also i'm buying the thing i wanted... retail therapy which for once i can afford... but won't be able to afford anything else for a little while...
x
i saw baby bird yesterday, i didn't have to work over in homerton so after CM in the morning i went over to SP of stepney and Kwo's to meet with the 2-week old...
grace, josiah & M came up as well so it was quite a big visit, grace was irrepressible and i found myself bearing the brunt of her while the grown up's talked...
the baby is wonderful and sp told me a story that i love - that perhaps one day i'll retell here, but not yet...
me & dinah are in communication again, i don't have a huge amount of space for her in my head just now but at least we're talking...
and the sons of anarchy are in my life... i got hold of the 1st season, thinking that the series currently on 5 USA was the 2nd... i was going to catch up with them and then watch them weekly...
they arrived on thursday and i've watched everything but the last episode now,
just checked though, and 1stly the 5 USA thing is this 1st series, so i've already over taken them, and it's shown on wednesday's @ 10, which is when madmen is shown over on BBC4, so that's not going to happen, it looks like i'm going to get hold of as much SOA as i can and consume it madly...
it has helped me this week, what with my small but definite heart break...
also i'm buying the thing i wanted... retail therapy which for once i can afford... but won't be able to afford anything else for a little while...
x
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
the fog
& lo & behold,
TV let me down, then the BBC came to the rescue...
i watched the fog on the iplayer just now and it almost made me cry...
it really is very good TV...
& i am sad, as my screensaver tells me...
last week it said "i am in love"...
the day before valentine's day it said "i have my eyes open"
and today it says "i am sad"
and although i am a bit sensitive to the thought of a certain ex-girlfriend of mine reading this and being pleased by it... i hereby announce, once more, that me & emivore are no more...
it happened on saturday, the day before valentine's day...
one of the 2 reasons i had for not going to work yesterday was in order not to see her... and as it's halfterm and weirdly, that place respects half of halfterm, (i should have worked yesterday, i'm not expected to work on friday), i don't now have to see her until next tuesday...
i began this current period of singleness quite relaxed and remarkably calm, but, unsurprisingly i am actually quite angry and sad...
at the rehearsal last night there was drum stool right next to me, covered in dust (the drummers studio where we rehearse is constantly shedding dust, it is below a railway track and stuff is shaken from the ceiling all the time...)
anyway, at a certain point i drew my initials into the dust on the drum stool and then i wrote "is sad"...
a bit weird because the youngest SJP (G - trombonist) was walking up to me just as i was doing this, in order to look at the lyrics i had on my music stand, and he might have seen it, i considered rubbing it out straight away but i realised that i wanted it to be said so i left it there...
later on M (baritone) sat on it, rubbing my sadness out with his arse...
at one point in this episode of madmen a character says to another character:
"you're a house cat, you're very important and you have little to do"
x
TV let me down, then the BBC came to the rescue...
i watched the fog on the iplayer just now and it almost made me cry...
it really is very good TV...
& i am sad, as my screensaver tells me...
last week it said "i am in love"...
the day before valentine's day it said "i have my eyes open"
and today it says "i am sad"
and although i am a bit sensitive to the thought of a certain ex-girlfriend of mine reading this and being pleased by it... i hereby announce, once more, that me & emivore are no more...
it happened on saturday, the day before valentine's day...
one of the 2 reasons i had for not going to work yesterday was in order not to see her... and as it's halfterm and weirdly, that place respects half of halfterm, (i should have worked yesterday, i'm not expected to work on friday), i don't now have to see her until next tuesday...
i began this current period of singleness quite relaxed and remarkably calm, but, unsurprisingly i am actually quite angry and sad...
at the rehearsal last night there was drum stool right next to me, covered in dust (the drummers studio where we rehearse is constantly shedding dust, it is below a railway track and stuff is shaken from the ceiling all the time...)
anyway, at a certain point i drew my initials into the dust on the drum stool and then i wrote "is sad"...
a bit weird because the youngest SJP (G - trombonist) was walking up to me just as i was doing this, in order to look at the lyrics i had on my music stand, and he might have seen it, i considered rubbing it out straight away but i realised that i wanted it to be said so i left it there...
later on M (baritone) sat on it, rubbing my sadness out with his arse...
at one point in this episode of madmen a character says to another character:
"you're a house cat, you're very important and you have little to do"
x
things
things are bad...
mad men is right now on bbc4, but in the 1st 11 minutes it froze up about 5 times, each time lasting a couple or perhaps 3 seconds... tiny bits of dialogue lost that in a lesser program i might not mind, but in mad men?
i had to turn it off...
also my internet has been a bit odd recently, i put it down to the cheap wireless router i bought, and it still could be that, but it's still a bit rubbish even when i plug in directly, still plugged to the router, so it could just be that...
(still using that still word)
but if my TV is being weird too then maybe it's virgin?
anyway, i'll catch mad men tomorrow on catchup whilst i'm not working over @ hammersmith - it being halfterm...
and in other news, the mobile phone money came through, and the RAM has been bought and installed and i can see no clear evidence that anything's improved...
it's always the way, when i installed the new ROM in my phone i wanted to see an immediate improvement but it just seemed the same...
i trust in both cases that it is better...
my studio is coming on... slowly but surely... A from the SJP's (bass player) is coming round next week to have a look at my rhodes... possibly fix it... another lovely man in the tradition of MM who's been round several times to look at the rhodes... the moog.. etc.
and i'm developing a longing for a Tetra, a small box of heaven... like my mopho but 4 notes at once... chords possible...
& i love my cat
mad men is right now on bbc4, but in the 1st 11 minutes it froze up about 5 times, each time lasting a couple or perhaps 3 seconds... tiny bits of dialogue lost that in a lesser program i might not mind, but in mad men?
i had to turn it off...
also my internet has been a bit odd recently, i put it down to the cheap wireless router i bought, and it still could be that, but it's still a bit rubbish even when i plug in directly, still plugged to the router, so it could just be that...
(still using that still word)
but if my TV is being weird too then maybe it's virgin?
anyway, i'll catch mad men tomorrow on catchup whilst i'm not working over @ hammersmith - it being halfterm...
and in other news, the mobile phone money came through, and the RAM has been bought and installed and i can see no clear evidence that anything's improved...
it's always the way, when i installed the new ROM in my phone i wanted to see an immediate improvement but it just seemed the same...
i trust in both cases that it is better...
my studio is coming on... slowly but surely... A from the SJP's (bass player) is coming round next week to have a look at my rhodes... possibly fix it... another lovely man in the tradition of MM who's been round several times to look at the rhodes... the moog.. etc.
and i'm developing a longing for a Tetra, a small box of heaven... like my mopho but 4 notes at once... chords possible...
& i love my cat
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
rescued by the 1930's and 2009
missed work today, for a couple of reasons, and i was feeling low...
and i was listening to the album nuclear war by sunra on spotify...
and the song "smile" came on, written as an instrumental for the 1936 charlie chaplin film, modern times, words written for nat king cole's version in the 50's,
it very much helped me, i've learned to play it on the piano and i may well do a version of it, in the same kind of way as stardust effected me back then and the plan i had for that tune, i don't know if i'll ever get to where i wanted to get to with that tune (it only got some of the way...) but this one would belong with it...
and then i watched moon, the 2009 film, which was really good... made me feel good...
so, thankyou, 1stly the 1930's, 2ndly the year 2009, and 3rdly, my day off, which is costing me money, but which i clearly needed...
spanner jazz punks rehearsal later...
x
and i was listening to the album nuclear war by sunra on spotify...
and the song "smile" came on, written as an instrumental for the 1936 charlie chaplin film, modern times, words written for nat king cole's version in the 50's,
it very much helped me, i've learned to play it on the piano and i may well do a version of it, in the same kind of way as stardust effected me back then and the plan i had for that tune, i don't know if i'll ever get to where i wanted to get to with that tune (it only got some of the way...) but this one would belong with it...
and then i watched moon, the 2009 film, which was really good... made me feel good...
so, thankyou, 1stly the 1930's, 2ndly the year 2009, and 3rdly, my day off, which is costing me money, but which i clearly needed...
spanner jazz punks rehearsal later...
x
Monday, February 15, 2010
no tits please
evony...
it advertises on chess.com so i've seen many of their adverts, and i've always thought they're a bit breasty for a gaming website...
but yesterday i was on chess.com and an evony ad came on which was a picture of a woman with large breasts wearing a tight white shirt, that scrolled down so that only her breasts filled the frame, then back up to her face, then down to her breasts...
to be honest, i could do without breasts being pushed into my face... i am a man and as it turns out i don't mind looking at breasts if i've chosen to do so, but whilst playing chess?
it's a bit page 3 and i'm not after it x
it advertises on chess.com so i've seen many of their adverts, and i've always thought they're a bit breasty for a gaming website...
but yesterday i was on chess.com and an evony ad came on which was a picture of a woman with large breasts wearing a tight white shirt, that scrolled down so that only her breasts filled the frame, then back up to her face, then down to her breasts...
to be honest, i could do without breasts being pushed into my face... i am a man and as it turns out i don't mind looking at breasts if i've chosen to do so, but whilst playing chess?
it's a bit page 3 and i'm not after it x
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
old phones for sale
one of the things this current cleanout is doing, is bringing old things into the light of now...
so here are my 3 last phones, the most recent, the motorola v8, on the left, (£22)
the one before that, in the middle, the motorola v3i, (£7)
& the one before that, the motoralo v500, (£1)
along with their SIM cards and the memory card from the v3i, which i have taken out because the people i'm selling them to don't want these things...
the picture was taken with my new phone - the htc hero, and the old phones are resting on my lovely new laptop - the asus eeePC 1005H...
assuming that it all goes through, i'm going to use the £30 selling these phones will get me, to buy most of the new RAM i want for my laptop... (£35ish)
ok, techy, named things post over... x
so here are my 3 last phones, the most recent, the motorola v8, on the left, (£22)
the one before that, in the middle, the motorola v3i, (£7)
& the one before that, the motoralo v500, (£1)
along with their SIM cards and the memory card from the v3i, which i have taken out because the people i'm selling them to don't want these things...
the picture was taken with my new phone - the htc hero, and the old phones are resting on my lovely new laptop - the asus eeePC 1005H...
assuming that it all goes through, i'm going to use the £30 selling these phones will get me, to buy most of the new RAM i want for my laptop... (£35ish)
ok, techy, named things post over... x
frank sinatra
young at heart is on film four, i'm eager to play my piano, i would really like to know when frank sinatra is going to sing a song...
he just sang someone to watch over me...
i've heard of websites which tell you at which moment in which films you can see some flash of female flesh...
what about a website which tells you at which moment in which films you can see & hear frank sinatra sing a song...?
this film was made in 1954, at the height of frank's capital recording period... doris day is in the film too...
i've got an observation tomorrow (someone observing my teaching) and i have a little paperwork to do also today...
the tune i'm writing got a possible tap in a different direction yesterday when C (silver fox to some) was playing the chords with me, but said it sounded to him that it started on a different chord than i had it starting... it made me think of it as a 4 chord thing in a 6 chord pattern... the 4 chords repeat 3 times, and 2 different 6 chord phrases go over it...
as chance would have it the melody i wrote the other day breathes in naturally after 6 bars, the remaining 2 bars are lovely and i wouldn't want to lose them, they'd probably come sometimes later...
anyway, a cup of tea and some piano playing...
x
he just sang someone to watch over me...
i've heard of websites which tell you at which moment in which films you can see some flash of female flesh...
what about a website which tells you at which moment in which films you can see & hear frank sinatra sing a song...?
this film was made in 1954, at the height of frank's capital recording period... doris day is in the film too...
i've got an observation tomorrow (someone observing my teaching) and i have a little paperwork to do also today...
the tune i'm writing got a possible tap in a different direction yesterday when C (silver fox to some) was playing the chords with me, but said it sounded to him that it started on a different chord than i had it starting... it made me think of it as a 4 chord thing in a 6 chord pattern... the 4 chords repeat 3 times, and 2 different 6 chord phrases go over it...
as chance would have it the melody i wrote the other day breathes in naturally after 6 bars, the remaining 2 bars are lovely and i wouldn't want to lose them, they'd probably come sometimes later...
anyway, a cup of tea and some piano playing...
x
Monday, February 08, 2010
a tune
i suppose it could be a baby tune, either for spski & Kwo's little one or for charlotte... but it's got a sadness to it, so it might not suit the baby project...
i started writing it in the runup to B's gig @ core arts on friday night, B being the artist who was having his opening view thing, and the singer who was fronting the band made up of mostly staff & volunteers...
i was on stage playing around with some chords, i'd taught the devils interval that morning over @ CM and i was checking out beginning the tune with a chord jump with that interval...
B came over and starting singing a gentle jazz thing over it... it was lovely...
so i've been playing those chords on my piano today and they're starting to work in my brain, a melody has come which works over 2 times round the chords...
it could be a spanner jazz punks tune... it could be a me tune...
loving the piano where it is x
i started writing it in the runup to B's gig @ core arts on friday night, B being the artist who was having his opening view thing, and the singer who was fronting the band made up of mostly staff & volunteers...
i was on stage playing around with some chords, i'd taught the devils interval that morning over @ CM and i was checking out beginning the tune with a chord jump with that interval...
B came over and starting singing a gentle jazz thing over it... it was lovely...
so i've been playing those chords on my piano today and they're starting to work in my brain, a melody has come which works over 2 times round the chords...
it could be a spanner jazz punks tune... it could be a me tune...
loving the piano where it is x
Sunday, February 07, 2010
piano moved
emivore & me, over the last two days, began work turning this flat into something lovely again...
when me & dinah moved in we (well, i say we, it was largely her) made it lovely... then after me & dinah broke up and she moved out a little later, it drifted back down into something i loved, but let's be honest, it was not lovely for anyone else...
i had been letting it drift down, partly to do with getting over dinah in my own way...
anyway, the move to get it lovely again, (partly to do with me wanting to have grace here, and making it nice for her, partly for emivore), began this weekend...
and part of it for myself was getting my beautiful piano out of the room where it's been since it moved in (that day a couple of years back, when landlordE, spski (now dad), floopy, dinah, me... movingM & his sidekick... struggled for many hours getting it up the stairs and round that corner)...
getting it from that room, which is above my downstairs neighbours living room and therefore not a very friendly place to play my loud piano, through the seemingly very thin floor boards and straight into their TV watching room...
into this pink room which dinah used to use for her uni work... which is above my stairs and their front hall...
emivore left a few hours ago, after much work clearing, sorting, cleaning... we ate @ lava's and i took her to the tube,
i phoned spski (now dad) on the way back to the house and i had a lovely chat with him, he's in great place, sad not to be with KWo & the little one, (she's in the hospital still, nothing dangerous, just resting after the birth), but drifting in the clouds in a hallucinogenic, childish way as he described it to me...
30 minutes on the phone with him, then i put on Aja, the Steely Dan album,
there was a little preparatory work to do still, and i set to it, moving lesser things, dinah's (now my) wardrobe, with all kinds of floopyness on top, clearing a path...
then i started moving the piano from there to here, shedding clothes as i did it... a mad energy within me as i pushed it, pulled it, shoved it, lifted it, many trips from one end to the other, midway through doors so the only way was over the top of the piano...
balthazara watching in cat bemusement...
after the album finished the spanner jazz punks demo came on, (i'd forgotten that i'd accidentally put it in the same playlist in itunes, before noticing and putting it in the right playlist but obviously leaving it there also)...
at this point the piano was half in the hall, half in the living room, having turned about 10 degrees and was about to change direction, heading into dinah's (now my) room...
so the last part of the move came with the 1st 2 tunes on that demo (which may or may not have made it's way onto the SJP's myspace by now...?), and as the last 2 tunes played i smoked some and sat at my freshly moved piano, not playing it, just sitting @ it, smoking...
when Punk Jazz Spanner came to it's nutty "band going mental but being slowly driven away" ending and gradually faded to nothing i was left with a lovely silence, as i contemplated the piano in it's new place...
still no playing of it, it is the middle of the night and i don't yet know for sure it's not going to bother somebody...
naturally, midway through the move i thought i should have set up a camera, filming the whole thing, speeding it up afterwards... but it was too late then, so no visual record remains of that mad dash...
strange, i just got a skype phone call from someone in russia, strange but kind of nice... not someone i know (i don't think) perhaps he found me because maybe he calls himself longcat as well...? not sure but... anyway...
my piano moving story is told, i still have the post moving settling back from the chaos to deal with, but maybe that's tomorrow now...
ok, laters x
when me & dinah moved in we (well, i say we, it was largely her) made it lovely... then after me & dinah broke up and she moved out a little later, it drifted back down into something i loved, but let's be honest, it was not lovely for anyone else...
i had been letting it drift down, partly to do with getting over dinah in my own way...
anyway, the move to get it lovely again, (partly to do with me wanting to have grace here, and making it nice for her, partly for emivore), began this weekend...
and part of it for myself was getting my beautiful piano out of the room where it's been since it moved in (that day a couple of years back, when landlordE, spski (now dad), floopy, dinah, me... movingM & his sidekick... struggled for many hours getting it up the stairs and round that corner)...
getting it from that room, which is above my downstairs neighbours living room and therefore not a very friendly place to play my loud piano, through the seemingly very thin floor boards and straight into their TV watching room...
into this pink room which dinah used to use for her uni work... which is above my stairs and their front hall...
emivore left a few hours ago, after much work clearing, sorting, cleaning... we ate @ lava's and i took her to the tube,
i phoned spski (now dad) on the way back to the house and i had a lovely chat with him, he's in great place, sad not to be with KWo & the little one, (she's in the hospital still, nothing dangerous, just resting after the birth), but drifting in the clouds in a hallucinogenic, childish way as he described it to me...
30 minutes on the phone with him, then i put on Aja, the Steely Dan album,
there was a little preparatory work to do still, and i set to it, moving lesser things, dinah's (now my) wardrobe, with all kinds of floopyness on top, clearing a path...
then i started moving the piano from there to here, shedding clothes as i did it... a mad energy within me as i pushed it, pulled it, shoved it, lifted it, many trips from one end to the other, midway through doors so the only way was over the top of the piano...
balthazara watching in cat bemusement...
after the album finished the spanner jazz punks demo came on, (i'd forgotten that i'd accidentally put it in the same playlist in itunes, before noticing and putting it in the right playlist but obviously leaving it there also)...
at this point the piano was half in the hall, half in the living room, having turned about 10 degrees and was about to change direction, heading into dinah's (now my) room...
so the last part of the move came with the 1st 2 tunes on that demo (which may or may not have made it's way onto the SJP's myspace by now...?), and as the last 2 tunes played i smoked some and sat at my freshly moved piano, not playing it, just sitting @ it, smoking...
when Punk Jazz Spanner came to it's nutty "band going mental but being slowly driven away" ending and gradually faded to nothing i was left with a lovely silence, as i contemplated the piano in it's new place...
still no playing of it, it is the middle of the night and i don't yet know for sure it's not going to bother somebody...
naturally, midway through the move i thought i should have set up a camera, filming the whole thing, speeding it up afterwards... but it was too late then, so no visual record remains of that mad dash...
strange, i just got a skype phone call from someone in russia, strange but kind of nice... not someone i know (i don't think) perhaps he found me because maybe he calls himself longcat as well...? not sure but... anyway...
my piano moving story is told, i still have the post moving settling back from the chaos to deal with, but maybe that's tomorrow now...
ok, laters x
Saturday, February 06, 2010
imbolc
being a pagan festival to mark the 1st signs of spring...
and although people generally place it on the 1st or 2nd, i have seen the odd thing putting on the 4th...
yesterday, being the day she was born, was a lovely spring day, unlike the day before or indeed the day after, a rare glimpse of spring...
the festival is a fire festival, out with the old and in with the new, and what is newer than a baby's birth..?
the name is as yet undecided and i'm going to try and find a fire related name for her imbolc nature...
grace says she should be called violet or indigo, (although she also says that if she's called violtet she might turn into a blueberry)...
barbara or bridget maybe...?
x
and although people generally place it on the 1st or 2nd, i have seen the odd thing putting on the 4th...
yesterday, being the day she was born, was a lovely spring day, unlike the day before or indeed the day after, a rare glimpse of spring...
the festival is a fire festival, out with the old and in with the new, and what is newer than a baby's birth..?
the name is as yet undecided and i'm going to try and find a fire related name for her imbolc nature...
grace says she should be called violet or indigo, (although she also says that if she's called violtet she might turn into a blueberry)...
barbara or bridget maybe...?
x
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