I woke at 05:30 and rose early on this solstice day and went out into the darkness. How lovely mornings are before dawn.
I uploaded a painting onto Facebook and prepared some notices for a forthcoming Steam sale. Then explored some guitar sounds for recording new guitar parts for the Sisyphus music, and recorded a new lead for 'I, Sisyphus'. My new amp sounds so very different, more like a 'real' guitar now, rather than the strange tinny sound I've thus far recorded. This said, I'm unsure if the new sounds are better or worse.
I had a call from Ian from Chester Visual Arts, a great charity which stages contemporary art exhibitions. It sounds like just the sort of non-commercial, 'pure art' venture I love and I hope I can work with them somehow in future. I put together some images for them.
Then more guitar work, all new parts for 'I Care', using the 'Special' setting on the amp, which is a bit more distorted than the 'Lead' setting. Then fitting the new hot tap in the bathroom, cutting some new silicone washers from a non-stick baking tray using a bladed circle cutter (how useful my art equipment can be!) - sadly the new spanner was the wrong size so I needed to tweak it.
I did 50 minutes of singing training in the evening, my longest session yet. My voice doesn't feel particularly tired though, so perhaps I'm training correctly, or am simply stronger now. I certainly didn't sing loudly to any extent but managed a few tentative high C notes. I'm searching for the pathway to that note, it seems to be in a new register. Well I'm also simply drilling for the lower notes. My goal is, at least now, to instil in my nerves the key to the head voice so that I can enter it easily without thinking. If all feels well tomorrow, I can start training at this level and eventually increase the time spent.
I wrote a poem too:
Winter Solstice 2020
The sun cries low
to a copper god,
the breath of dusk
flavoured with winter's bones;
an uneasy broth of crows
and the distant stars
of a lost home.
The mood of the country is bleak and the news just made me stressed and unhappy, so I switched it off. I've still no access to my bank which also causes me stress. How I wish the mail would speed up! I had a happy moment when an unexpected Christmas gift arrived from my dear friend Andrew.
I'll keep training in singing and guitar at least this week. I might enter the Ruth Borchard competition. If so I'll need to start in January, and fully commit to that. I also want to start and finish the new Infinite Forest re-recording, The Jabberwocky video, order the final Apocalypse of Clowns CDs, and then recording the Sisyphus album vocals at last. The sooner all this is done the better. Life is short.
