My old leather jacket

Matthew

Matt's drawing of Matt, me and Gustal the dog in Denmark

Matt picks some kale

for a vegetarian risotto

The wonderful wonderful Sound Art Radio

Thank you so much Sound Art Radio for hosting the first ever World News Vision hour! Matt is setting up my studio so I have a good working area for the next show, which I'm going to record - Thursday maybe? This time I might record it in two halves as one hour is an awful lot of stamina - but then there's something good about that - I think - the natural rhythm of an hour's improvisation ... running out of stamina is a bit like a long breath in Gaelic whistle - when you run out of breath but keep blowing the note wavers and breaks beyond human control, giving a frailty to the sound which is very attractive to me.

Matt taking photos - my sketches

Solly at Shoreham

Had a lovely day in Shoreham with Matt and Solly, walking in the woods, driving our London cab, sketching ...

Here's Solly!

Mitch and Jude and The Boilermakers

Matt and I have just had a wonderful evening listening to our Boilermaker's improvisation (I haven't told you about this yet - check future posts) and doing an arrangement of the new Mitch and Jude theme song which has an Addams Family flavour. The lyrics, so far, go:-

Come into our parlour
Cold and stark
Out of the sunshine
Into the dark

Boll weevil cake
Cockroach tea
Pet bats squinging
squeak squeak squeak

Perhaps you'd like to play
a little parlour game
Miserable Families
or Trivial Shame

Or if you find
charades a bore
we'll wake the monster
that lives under the floor

Scooby doo bah
Scooby doo way
Scooby doo wop wop
Scooby dooby dooby

Our butler
is English
He'll let you in with a bow -
But if he sees
you try to leave
He'll trap you here somehow

Sound card

Grrrr the Yamaha firewire sound card has really been annoying Matt. I wish we'd never bought it. It just doesn't work. It just doesn't work. What a waste of his time.

Wintry walk - snowy abandon

Wow, so deliciously tiring walking in the park with Solly and Matt. Had a wonderful winter afternoon trudge followed by hot apple cider with cinnamon. That's what everyone's drinking in New York apparently. Followed by a lovely comforting later afternoon sleep zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The boot of the new cab

We've got a little problem with the starter motor. This is where it's lucky Matt is a mechanic. He's going to fix it at the garage we got it from.

Here's Matt and myself reflected in the shiny black boot during our day out in Shoreham.

Matt at Shoreham

Fountain pen sketch of Matt and Solly

Doing the bar at the Monteverdi

Matt and Scotty did the bar at the Monteverdi concert. Blanaid took a photo of the glasses.

Windsor Calypso

I'm listening to the lovely tunes of 'The Windsors' a band in progress. Unfortunately I can hear myself talking some crap in the background which is rather putting me off. Oh good, Matt is talking now and he's talking more than me. What a relief. I hate it when I realise I am going on and on and on and on ... but somehow, I just can't stop myself. I suppose the music is a form of chatter anyway, the notes and lines, and it's beautiful.

Bonny Prince Billy

Ah - just seen BPB is at the Shepherd's Bush tonight and there are tickets left ... wonder if Matt will want to go.

I'm watching BPB and the Cairo Gang do 'Troublesome Houses' on Youtube. I admire the way he fits the text over the music. It's a blindingly good example of how to make prosey lyrics match a musical arrangement. And in delivering it with compelling physical and vocal style.

Gosh I'm quite gushing. I love it when you get a thing for a song. It's so all-consuming for a little while.

If you want to know the version I'm on about it's at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyfnDNUP6Do