As Good As Black Dog

Listened again to the session on the drive to work. If anything, it sounded even better today! About 20 minutes into it things really worked for a solid 30 minute block. Sounds moved in and out of the mix, fitting smoothly or jarring interestingly. I'd previously talked about this kind of composition / structure but my attempts had come up short. This though is the real thing. Like strands of a story going off in all directions. Like a splintered image. I'm reminded of Black Dog and it sounds every bit as good.

Picnic In The Park

Went to Weston Park today and meet up with Jacqs sisters. The kids had an amazing time together playing on the adventure playground. Lovely picnic under dappled shade of a huge tree in the grounds. Although there's not that much there to do, we spent a good seven hours there which everyone seemed to enjoy. I hope we all do it again sometime.

Stoked

Listened to the first half of the session on the drive to work this morning and finished off the rest on the way home. Absolutely amazed at how good some of it sounds. I'm really not sure where these completely spontaneous pieces came from. The way sections start up, end and another emerge completely knocks me out listening back. I want to do some more. If feels like it's an endless potential energy that I want to plug back into. Stoked.

Sessioned

Session over. Just dropped Mike back home. Up too late now for a weekday night, but still buzzing from the session. Every bit as good as expected. Just throwing loops and sounds for 90 minutes. No talking, just the occasional nod. Recorded the whole thing so now I have a rather large mp3 to listen to on the journey to work. Looking forward to hearing it.

Had a nice idea today for a completely un-cynical title, 'Good Luck With Your Life'. I like it, not sure if it's suitable for anything we did tonight but it's worth noting down.

Had my temporary crown fitted today. Needles in the roof of the mouth don't half hurt!

Locked Out

Had to dash home from the office lunchtime today as t'Wife phoned to say she had locked herself out of the house! Suprised we haven't done this before really. We must get some contingency plans in place. So I got home and worked for a couple of hours before visiting Jim.

After Jim we popped into Pauls to pick up my Lacie drive that he'd borrowed to download his videos. He's done a good job on his NYC trip. Reminds me to sort out our tapes and get some DVDs made. Spotted in his garage my old Muddy Fox bike. I had to give it to him simply because I had no room for it. And I still don't. Bah! Another reason to wish I had a garage.

Tonight I got some more samples done in preparation for the Thursday session. Sweet.

Awarded

In the office today I was presented with my A&D Silver Award. So I've got a framed certificate on my desk and apparently some gift vouchers to come but I don't know for how much yet. It's a silly business really but I suppose it's nice to be recognised occasionally so I'm not complaining.

Even nicer, a postcard from Phil arrived today from his holiday in Pembrokeshire. Excellent photo of Picasso. It was really nice of him to think of us. I was very touched. Top bloke.

Tackling Tasks

Today was a good day for doing jobs around the house. Little DIY tasks that have been on the list for a while. It helped that Jacq was on my case, leading me from job to job. I'm right pooped now though.

Positive Mindset

Today was the most productive day in the office I've had for ages. Probably down to the fact that I was the ONLY person in my department! Had a chat with my boss about some improvement proposals I've recently made and he seemed to be quite enthusiastic about the ideas. This was quite cheering and I'll have to monitor things closely to see if he really does progress things as he promised. So quite a positive work mindset at the moment and with next week full of meetings with German colleagues it should continue.

After work we went up to the Bullring for me to pick up some photos I'd had printed by Jessops. I selected the option of delivery to store as I don't trust the mail to not damage things. I'd rather fetch them myself. Also went round the Selfridges food hall and picked up loads of interesting goodies. Yum.

Birmingham Tornado

There was a tornado in Brum today. How mad is that? Looked like it made quite a mess in Kings Heath from the local news. Nasty. No session tonight with Mike as his shoulder/neck is giving him pain. Hopefully we can re-schedule for next week sometime if he's up to it. I'll continue my efforts to prepare some fresh material for the session.

Suprise Ourselves

Back in the office this morning after working at home yesterday. Dave left his skateboard under my desk for me to borrow while he's on holiday. Real nice of him and I'm looking to having a good go on it. Had a quick go tonight at Jims place with Dylan on it with me and he loved it. After Jims visit we picked up some paint and stuff for upcoming DIY action on Harriets room.

Hoping to add some more samples tonight to the batch I've recently saved in prep for a session with Mike on Thursday. Need to make sure I've a respectable number of sounds ready so hopefully we can generate something completely new and fresh. I'm really hoping that we can suprise ourselves.

Fantastic Film

Took the kids to see Fantastic Four today. Splendid comic book superhero family fun. Dylan was excited about it, asking me questions about the plot all the way through. The dialogue was really smart and funny and the action rocked. Can't fault it really. It really needs a sequel to build on this first film. They need some baddy with plans for world domination to battle against.

Toy Day

It's 'Toy Day' at school today. The last day of term and the kids are so pleased. We dropped them off this morning and I worked at home for a while. Later I went with Jacq to see 'War Of The Worlds' which was sound. Enjoyed it. Top effects, really impressive. Back home I did a bit more work and Jacq fetched the kids. Dylans teacher asked to go into class before home time and they presented her with a bunch of flowers for the aal the help she has given to the school this year.

Coventry Borders

Quite a full house in the Coventry office today. Bodies everywhere. Nothing special going on just lots of people passing by, having meetings, etc. On the way out of Coventry I spotted a huge new Borders store with a Starbucks inside it. Looks like a much better venue for an after work drink than the local pub. Must mention it to Phil when he's back in the office. The other plus point is the Paperchase stuff in store, perfect for picking up a suprise for the wife.

Weekend Roundup

The kids did great at swimming on Saturday morning. Harriet even got extra praise from Keith during Dylans lesson! Even though they both have the odd moan about going, I'm so proud of how well they're doing.

Saturday afternoon spent moving shelves and stuff in Harriets room so as to make room for a bigger desk for her. Need to give the room a lick of paint before we purchase the furniture.

Sunday has been a lazy day and very pleasant for it. We hid inside from the sun all day with all the windows and doors open trying to get a breeze through the house.

Jacq and I have been snatching the Potter book from each other all weekend. She's ahead of me of course. I've too many other things I like to dabble in. An ongoing task this weekend is the management of my mp3 archive ID3 tags. I did a big batch by hand within the limits of the Windows properties dialog, but by Sunday had upgraded to an mp3 tag editor to try and automate the process a little. It took quite a few downloads to find an editor I was comfortable with. Hopefully I'll get the task completed in the next few days and then I can move onto another item on my list.

Room Temperature 2

Received a CD in the post yesterday from Fergus. Another on his 'Room Temperature' label. This was was titled 'Unmoor'. The music was impressive collage of industrial drones and scrapings. Intense listening. The music packaged in a cute 3" CDR in jewel case. Nice presentation. Inspiring. Wish I could channel that inspiration and generate some outputs of my own.

The Potter Has Landed

Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince has just arrived via the postman. The doorbell rang and there was a scramble for the door. I was doing the washing up at the time so I didn't stand a chance. I did however manage to sneak a read of the first paragraph before t'wife got hold of it. We're going to be running two bookmarks this weekend!

High Street News

Good news for the Bearwood Hight Street. It's rumoured that Tesco will be getting the keys for our local Safeway at the end of July readying for an October opening. Safeway has lain empty for months bringing the whole area down. We need our supermarket back and I'm glad it's Tesco.

Even better news is that Subway is opening a store on the high street just 5 mins walk from my front door. Yummy! I'm looking forward to chowing down on them there Veggie Delite sandwiches!

Exploring Mount Everest

Been enjoying some more sightseeing around the mighty Google Earth. The Google Earth Hacks site provided this cool link to the 7 summits. It's really been an eye-opener to me being able to zoom and rotate around something like Everest. I've never been into geography much but it's brought more to life for me. Looking forward to even higher rez bitmaps in the years to come.

1 Thing

Bigging up a track that I'm into right now. It's not that new apparently, even the wife has heard it before me. The track is 1 Thing by Amerie. Check her site and you'll find it on there available for listening. A superb clash of tumbling go-go drum loops and guitar stabs with a repetitive vocal over the top. I always loved the Washington Go-Go scene but it never fully delivered its promise. Trouble Funk rocked hard for a while but unfortunately the scene mellowed out as soon as the world noticed it. The rest of Amerie's stuff seems pretty bland but this one track stands out for me. Have had it on repeat play all day on my iPod. Tripping.

Picnic In The Park

Picnic In The Park,
originally uploaded by Tingy.

What a nice weekend that was. Weather was good, in fact too hot on Sunday. Got the usual domestic routine sorted and spent the spare time just relaxing. Can't claim to be too tired after last week. It was quite a cushy number really. I'd feel a little less tired though if I could ever get myself to bed a bit earlier. Sunday we went round the corner to Warley Woods to the annual Picnic In The Park. Some of the bands were a bit dodgy but all in all a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.