A slow day yesterday.
I wanted to download my Yamaha SY-85 sounds and discovered that the floppy drive had stopped working, which is a common (actually, inevitable) fault because it's band driven and the band gets more slack over time. This is not easy to fix. It's not essential to fix for two reasons; the data is generally stored internally anyway, so the 128 (or is it 256) presets are remembered without being stored. You can buy non-volatile memory for it so that even when powered off, the sample and sequencer memory is retained too, AND even then you can store and restore these data via MIDI, so the keyboard is 100% functional without the floppy drive, but it would be nice to have it working, and ideally, future proof it for a few more years, so I've ordered a replacement (vintage) drive and an adaptor for the connector... this last part might be problematical.
In other ways it was a slow day. I felt isolated and unsupported as an artist. This has always been the case with my family who do not show any interest in my work of creations, my key childhood emotion was being ignored, which results in a mix of very introverted and self-analytical behaviour, and, conversely, occasional flamboyancy designed to grab attention; like many artists, perhaps. When my parents note my creations, they tend to be critical and dismissive from the '[expletive deleted] row' of my piano practice onwards; though an alternative of praise isn't useful either, but it would be nice to have, or have had, some feeling of encouragement or, perhaps more so, some practical help.
This melancholy was caused my a reminiscence of a happier and progressive time in late 2014. Of course now, in times of Covid-19 lockdowns and imposed isolations, many forms of help or interaction are impossible. This and my geography are, I think, larger factors for feelings of isolation and un-support than anything psychological. Most people have no social groups now, or very limited ones, and I've only rarely had any, the few years when part of a weekly art group perhaps. Now I have Deborah who is wonderfully supportive.
The best antidote to emotion is to behave rationally; list actions and enact actions.
Today marks the digital release of The Myth of Sisyphus, so I've been doing various admin duties. I've posted on Twitter and Facebook about it, a basic marker, with links to the album. I've set the album as a highlight on Spotify. Sent out an email newsletter. Prepared the artwork for CD printing. Registered the album and the two edits of each track with PPL (this is my first album to feature different stream and CD versions of the tracks). I've updated my website and the Cornutopia Music websites, and the links to the album on those sites. This is a basic setting of the links out there to point to the new release, useful for those who are specifically interested and looking for the work.
Over the coming days I'll do a few things to talk about the music and the album. My favourite tracks, the ones I'm happiest with are the unusual and experimental ones. Deb liked Light Blue Evening and I Care most at first, the two most accessible tracks, the low slope of the ramp. Of course, I think they all work together, and the ideas and themes, even musically all mesh together in the way that I like.
Onwards we roll our rock. Every day we must strive to be a little bolder.
