Developments

The last night of the performance went OK. I managed to wear my shades for the rock number towards the end which went down very well with the pupils. Need to find some time to work on the recording now.

I then went to Winchester to record the two teenagers, taking Vicky with me to be their accompanist. Having been told to expect 6 jazzy numbers we ended up recording 13 a mixture of classical and modern with only one jazzy number. The two girls had, however, beautiful voices and I hope I have captured them adequately. I expect there will be some problems, however, as I was also acting as page turner and I think we have some distortion on at least one of the mics. I used a new preamp – a focusright- I think I need to spend some time with it, as it wasn’t quite as I had expected.

Developments – I have at last received a reply from an organisation I have been chasing on a new business idea agreeing to meet up to discuss it. They have offered me a date next week which I cannot do, so I have asked for an alternative. Wish me luck, as this could be the start of something (which song was the signature tune of a dance band I us to play in).

Playing and recording together

I have been asked to play bass and record a school production. We had the dress rehearsal on Monday evening - this was the first time the band had seen the music (though in truth we had been given the music some weeks before, but none had had the chance to look at it). The music was pretty straightforward for me, with a couple of tricky bits and once piece in 6 flats. Bt mostly it is just about getting to know the music and being able to put it all together. There are c. 50 pupils taking part including two of my children. I am lucky enough to be seen as the cool one on the bass.

For recording I am using my Neumann mics at the back of he hall with the two mics about 10 feet apart pointing slightly away from each other towards the edges of the stage. This gives me a good stereo image, though I thought I had timing problems (speed of sound) which was actually just the fact that I had moved one track slightly in the software, so that they were playing an eighth of a second apart

The recording quality is great (24bit 96K), the only issue I have is that I cannot ride the gain levels as I am playing most of the time – I have to set the input levels so that it won’t distort.

Dress rehearsal and first night recording seem OK – let’s see if they are better tonight for the last performance.

On Friday I am due to record a couple of teenagers singing some classical and a little modern stuff – different issues there – more anon.

Back on the road

But not in a musical sense. Today I have just got back onto my bike after 4 weeks' lay off through injury. It felt sooooooo good to be outside. My ankle was OK - a few twinges and a little aching if I tried too hard, but it is GREAT to be able to do something again.

I would post a picture of my ankle but the camera seems to be a little defunct at the minute.

I received a call from the Vodafone woman again trying to sort a date out for the recording of her daughter and a friend. I will aim to do the date or I might miss the opportunity. Also I have been asked to come up with a tune for a song from a brilliant up and coming duo - one of my daughters and a friend of hers.

I love music!!

What a weekend

What an amazing weekend. I could divide it into a number of sections:

1. Birthday
2. Entertainment
3. Home Improvements
4. Work
You’ll notice there is no music in there. The only music I managed was as part of number 1 – Birthday.

1. Birthday
It was middle’un’s 10th birthday on Saturday. Must be a lucky day – 07/07/07.

She had breakfast and presents and then had a ballet rehearsal for next week’s show. Her favourite present was, I think, her horse t-shirt, though the “make a tardis and cyberman’ Kit and Doctor who DVD came close.

After ballet we took her into Town to buy her new bike, which we chose, and had a big sandwich for lunch in a churchyard where a pretty girl and handsome boy were getting married.

Then we went to the church hall to set up. I meant to mow the lawn, but didn’t get the chance. The grass is about 9 inches long at the minute and makes the house look even more terrible than ever. After setting up we came back, Jen cooked pizzas and cakes and I found a way of suspending a piñata from a pulley in the church hall, having to take my ladder.

At the part there were about 25 children, and we were really worried they were going to riot at the beginning. You would think balloons would be harmless enough, but they were vicious. I got ballooned by this little dot of a girl who had a balloon punch like Frank Bruno. We calmed them down with the first game (balloon bursting) and then some formation dancing (Cha-cha slide seemed to work quite well). The party went well after that, though I disappointed 2 girls by naming someone else the winner of the girls’ dancing competition, and Jen had to put that right with chocolates. For he boys’ competition Ed and Jordan shared first prize with a sort of hip-hop tango. The piñata eventually broke, after everyone had had a shot with the blindfold on, and in the melee to get sweets one poor girl was given a bloody nose by a stray elbow.
We were finished and out by 10.00 pm and had some champagne back at home. And the music bit was that I was D.J. and Karaoke-meister (or is it sensei?)

2. Entertainment
My mum came to help with the party. A long-lost godmother to one of my other children also came to help, but needed picking up after the party had started – difficult when there was a riot going on with balloons. Mum went to get our friend, and afterwards we drank the champagne while the house settled into post-fiesta-chaos. The next morning I got up early to make sure our friend got back on a train to London, then came home. Mum left an hour later and we breathed a sigh of relief. Not that we hadn’t enjoyed having our overnight guests; we had. But it had been a long day and a quarter. I had a lot of work to do and I still hadn’t cut the grass.
The phone went. Jen’s brother, sister-in-law and still quite new nephew were coming for lunch! We had no food to speak of (other than left over-pizza). It was great to see them. We had lunch, talked, played “Cashflow” and looked at Jen's brother’s new trumpet. We had tea. Hey left at about 8.00. Again it was great to see them, but we were both exhausted.

3. Home improvements
I was determined to mow the lawn. Eventually on Sunday while the others walked the dogs I mowed the lawn. It only took 45 mins and I only jarred my ankle on the dog-burrowed, uneven, poop-interspersed surface once.

I also was determined to wood stain the front door fame. I and given the front door a second coat of paint after Uncle Jack and Aunty Anne’s visit during the previous week, and the frame looked tatty and un-loved. Trouble is it needed three coats. I got 2 done, as the weather was warm. About 3 hrs total, after mum left, including a trip to a DIY shop to buy the woodstain and a couple of add-ons. The second coat just before mowing the lawn while the others were walking the pooping doggies. Didn’t manage to get the third coat done.

I also managed to take a car load (Volvo estate mind!) to the dump, where I had to queue for 15 mins as everyone has the same idea as me.

4. Work
I also had a day’s worth of work to do (not music). I started it while Cashflow was being played, peppered it with door paining and lawn mowing, and stayed up until 1:30. I didn’t finish it, but got quite close and sent it out to some people.

Epilogue
While doing all of this, I managed to see significant bits of the British Grand Prix (Lewis Hamilton third), the Wimbledon men’s singles finals (Federer beat Nadal in 5 sets to take his 5th consecutive Wimbledon title) and the Mixed doubles final (Murray and Jankowic won).

I went to bed dog tired and thanking my stars for the enjoyable weekend and the fact that I could lie in until 7 a.m., as I only had to go to Cambridge today.

Further Fysical Frustration

Back to the physio this morning. She did further ultrasound on the tendon over the top of the ankle bone and then started working on the one behind. Her face dropped, as she asked “does this hurt”. I don’t know whether she was prompted by her feeling of the tendon or the fact that I had recoiled in agony to the corner of the couch, but either was I confirmed that I did, indeed, feel that. After a little more prodding and thinking she said that she thinks I may have ruptured the sheath around the long tendon that comes from the calf muscle around the underneath of the ankle bone and that it would therefore take a while longer before it was healed.

That appears to mean that running for the next few weeks is still out of the question, which in turn means I will put on even more weight.

So let’s think of something positive (apart from the fact that, really, this is not a major problem for thee world). I have been dreaming up a business idea for the last few days and I think it may be viable. There seem to be a lot of other people trying to do the same thing, but do you know what? that makes me happy. VCs appear to have thrown millions at these start-ups, but I don’t see anyone yet aggressively marketing it to the target market I think might buy. Also, I came up with this idea independently, without any knowledge that others were doing it. That’s a good feeling as it makes me think maybe my ideas aren’t as cr*p as I sometimes fear. I’ll think about it a but more and decide over the next couple of weeks whether it is worth pursuing it seriously or not.

Separately, someone else wants me to record them for a demo CD. All in all, life’s not that bad after all!

Love

What's the alternative?

Ok, so Saturday will have been 4 weeks since I injured my ankle, and I am really frustrated with not being able to get out and run. I'm sure I have your sympathy, as I know I'm not the only one to have gone through this sort of thing. I'm putting weight back on, feeling sorry for myself all the time and generally lacking energy. What can you suggest I do instead of running? At this stage I would be happy with serious sports / exercise suggestions or indeed not-so-serious suggestions which might be very far away from the closeted world of running?
In frustration!
Yours
Phil

It gives me no pleasure to have been right

So there was another car bomb that failed to detonate and then a car driven into the passenger terminal at Glasgow airport.

How callous and arrogant to assume that your lives and beliefs are so much more important than those of others. I think I must be turning right wing – they say it happens with age – What is it? If you are not an anarchist at 16, communist at 20 and Tory at 40 there’s something wrong with you?

On the music front, I’ve been asked to record a school performance for sale to parents. About 150 double CDs is the estimate. Must get back in contact with my CD printer acquaintance and see what can be done.

The foot is still sore. It swells up on the join between leg and foot on top of the foot at the end of each day. Getting around London is no fun, but today, when Kings Cross was closed for overcrowding, I was let in. Vivan los crutches!
Love and peace