Woke reasonably late. Took initial photographs of the Jabberwock model but the lighting was too strong and too intense. Later took some daylight photos with the PC monitor behind showing an image of trees, and those worked better. Then started on lots of variations of cover designs. I wanted to include image of us, if possible, and I added some text too... in all things there is a balance between the raw and organic, and the perfect and digital. If things look too digital, artificial, things need to be roughened.
I'd like to get this over with quickly. Other jobs are to do the covers for I, Sisyphus, and Apocalypse of Clowns.
Sang daily exercises for 40 minutes or so. Progress is evident, but slow, and often needs to start from scratch again each time, yet I can feel new muscularity, as well as reach new notes. I can reach a high C now in falsetto. This note seems like another new register almost, like new guitar strings, which is interesting. I am not aiming to expand my vocal range. This expansion is a natural part of strengthening a normal voice so there is no need to, and no benefit from, pushing for these things.
My mood remains stoic. I feel so much more capable of painting better than before. I'm amazed that I painted the Dadd painting a whole eight years ago. It feels like the majority of my work was done before then too. Now that I can paint better than ever, I've almost stopped; perhaps the challenge is gone, but also I want to learn and master new things. Perhaps this is my flaw, yet, many artists excell soon and then slowly decay, I'll never do this. I must work, logically calculate and record my techniques and progress, and improve, improve. I will paint great masterpieces one day, if the gods grant me the time, and the same with music, and books. I can spend each day doing the best I can, growing, creating. Perhaps I'm getting too focused on these little details like album artwork; yet, isn't that too part of art?
I watched Tim Burton's dreadful Alice in Wonderland last night, a rape of Lewis Carroll's story. Most American films become an Apocalypto-Christian battle of 'good vs. evil' and the 'good' people 'win' by violently killing the evil side. It is also filled with noise and about 100 characters who do just about anything to get attention. The whole film is like a tartrazine-fuled epileptic seizure designed for people with 'attention deficit hyperactivity disorder'. The only emotion in the entire film came from the knowledge that star Johnny Depp has recently been shown to be a 'wife beater' in court, this fact gave the film its only pathos. The computer imagery was universally poor and very artificial looking but it was, however, very pretty and had good sound - like all contemporary films.
One other thing struck me; that Dickens' A Christmas Carol has been made countless times for film and television and always tends to stick very closely to the story. Alice in Wonderland has also been made countless times, but almost never sticks to the story, and The Looking-Glass, which was (I think) even more popular as a book, has hardly ever been made at all.
