A long day of music admin, updating the 400 or so music tracks registered with various authorites. This is day four of slowly correcting data, a tireless grind. I'm reminded that nearly all of the work I do is unrewarded and unnoticed, the end marked only with a relief that it is over.
But such is life! I also managed to back up the presets on the Microkorg for the first time using MIDI-OX. The Sys-Ex messages didn't receive at first, I tried lots of things, even locking out the computer, but then tried again as before and it simply worked. Also transcribed a few more of the Salome tunes. I have some costume ideas for the performance, but we'd need something for the performers to actually do. Only one of the 12 scenes involves them as yet, and there is the cast themselves.
Everything feels poor, unsatisfying and nowhere near my potential at any stage.
We watched the Eurovision Song Contest last night, so much awfulness, the sad state of music now. The presenters too were wooden, the Tony Blair-like Mika by far the best of the three mannequins, and his music was by far the best part of the night too. Even Måneskin, an act of great musical blandness, outshone the entries. Many of the subjects were dark and about personal loss and isolation, either a deliberate or coincidental Covid-19 reference, but also a consequence of the self-absorbed nature of popularity today. Many of the acts seemed to be pitch corrected or overly electronic in vocal processing, another negative trend of this era.
It seems that popularity on social media is now the only criteria for success in life in any area. The United Kingdom act was chosen in this way. It was, as heralded, among the best, but perhaps this was luck. The hard work of mastery in any area is as absent as fairness in a world which rewards a minority so arbitratrily and so richly.
I'm tired today. I miss Cat and remember how she was present during all of my life as a painter. I've painted hardly anything since she died. I'd like to paint more, I feel I'm only just at the start of painting in terms of technique, subject, only just trained, and that everything before is inferior; an ideal feeling for an artist. I feel this in every media. Oh for more time, money, security, peace.
