22 February 2012
Different vibe after Monday’s journey through the asteroid belt! On Tuesday music became secondary to domestic demands although I’d hoped to listen to at least one or two live shows during the course of the day.The hours were to be herded in other directions.
The “Fellini” hard drive left for London by carrier on the wings of a prayer and Chris K phoned to say he was starting the “Crows” remix that afternoon.The Putney cell is now operational! :-)Signed a bunch of “Scripts” and “13th Star” vinyl albums that are steadily moving out through the mail order and are surprising Elspeth and I with their rise in popularity since the beginning of the year.After the weekends exploits dealing with the various ages of technology and the complications involved in the never ceasing development and advancement against solid creative statements made in time on audio recording devices there’s a lot to be said for a spinning vinyl disc!
Spare room bed stripped and transformed back into Tara’s study couch. Billowing steamy sheets and towels exiting the tumble drier for the airer in the beams above the glowing wood stove.Home made Duck soup,lentils,carrots, swede and a few of the last straggling leeks from the garden.Guaranteed hovering fuel for the evening on the couch.Three loads for the washing machine interspersed with general housekeeping before a photo shoot in the afternoon for “Classic Prog” magazine to supplement the “Brainstorm” questionnaire and give them a new set of images for future use.
Thirty mins of shoot turned into a couple of hours but the results were worth it.
Photographer Martin Hunter, who’d come over from Glasgow, left with some wonderful images and to be honest it was about time there were some new shots in the gallery.I’d contemplated going down the Polish barbers earlier on but relented and the beard is resplendent giving me the look of a “Scottish laird”. Reminiscent of the “Exile” cover in some ways which had a certain resonance after events of the previous day. Appropriate.
In between the lighting set ups I was researching soil types, planting spacings and berry varieties for the area the Fruit cage was going to dominate.
The weed suppressant membrane had appeared that morning and all we needed now was the cunning plan to bring it all together.
Decided to go for 6 Blueberry bushes across 2 varieties (Bluecrop, Ozark Blue)
3 varieties of raspberries (Glen Moy/Glen Ample and Joan J.) that’ll give a total of a 13 metre run across a grid with 2 “Black Butte” Blackberry bushes holding a 4m wire supported section parallel to the garage.
A bunch of fruit indeed and crops that should all lay off each other and supply berries over a long season!
And all protected from those pesky birds by the new cage, sitting on a weed suppressant membrane covered in bark chippings, basking in the sun and sheltered from the worst of the winds.
All I need now is a few ton of ericaceous compost to mix in with the existing topsoil to take the ph down to a pleasant 5.5 and we’re dancing!
I was up for hours going through the design of the fruit area and then ordering all the seed we were going to need over the season.Big Mac the gardener had delivered me an order line so I was punching in the data online raising an eyebrow at his adventurous decision to opt for Melons in the greenhouse!
It’s a wide array of vegetables and I admit to pining hugely to get out there and spend a couple of months in my garden rather than here listening to stereo mixes on the Pro Tools of gigs gone by that are increasingly frustrating as “musical indiscretions” shoot down the highs of expectation and as they are stereo and not multi track I just can’t jump in and fix them.
It’s sometimes soul destroying when you put up a gig on the studio speakers and what you hear is not how you remembered the night. as the out front sound doesn’t appear in the mix and only the lines from stage are reflected in the mix on the Marantz recorder.
Ironically, for example, the Cork show that had a “limited” audience delivered about 4 possibilities of songs for final inclusion from a gig that was a “loss leader”. Dublin,well attended, one side of the stereo is lost,Ballymena,you wouldn’t think there was anyone there; it was close to sell out; Carlisle , destroyed by a hum throughout. Carlisle was actually marked on the master as the last gig and I nearly had a heart attack thinking it was the Edinburgh show that we were going to lose because of the signal interference.Turns out I only seem to have only a section of the Edinburgh show for some reason and the Carlisle gig cleans up after 45 mins and delivers a fine “Jigsaw”.
I’m hoping we find another section from the last show at the “Caves” somewhere on the hard drive as the beginning is storming!
Now you realise what I am dealing with here!It’s like throwing dice every song on every gig and hoping I pick a winner from somewhere.
It’s a hell of a lot of listening and some days I feel like I am in search of an elusive Holy Grail, a quest that’s really all about testing my character and spirit and what I learn on the journey rather than about a prize.
Spending so much time looking backward over a venture trying to find something that’s going to help me move forward to the next project seems ludicrous sometimes especially sitting here in the control room listening to the last year while staring out the window at the blank,black raised beds in the garden.
If I could have combined the 2 activities then great but difficult to focus on pruning a pear tree and dissecting an “Incubus” guitar solo at the same time.
There’s a metaphor here somewhere I haven’t yet realised, or maybe ignoring or denying the existence of.
There are moments when music seems to intrude and other things seem so much more important.
I didn’t watch the Brits last night for similar reasons. Although it’s seen as a celebration of the British Music Business in all it’s shallow corporate glory I just don’t relate to it anymore.
My only post Brit experiences came on U Tube and the rude intrusion on Adele’s speech kind of summed it up for me.
Wins her Grammies, comes back to rake up the awards here and on her night of glory an overestimated currently hip comic turn,acting as compere, butts in probably because of advertising schedules and steals her curve of the moment away.A fabulous, Internationally acclaimed singer, about whom award ceremonies like this are supposed to be about, denied and becoming secondary to the “event”. I was glad I spent my time in an online gardening catalogue rather than having my senses soaked in the equivalent of musical MSG and garish TV disguised as “must see” entertainment.
It’s too similar to the plot of “Invasion of the Bodysnatchers”!There will be no pods appearing in my greenhouse!!
I Pods!!!! Oh god , how did I miss the link!!!!
They are here already!!!
beware!!
Onkel Fish 🙂