Small Jobs

A million small jobs today.

Created a new poster for Deborah's second poetry book launch:

Fitted the new strip light; it was a dream to do, the connectors were push-in. Photographed the 1M Corn Dolly and added it to my website. Finalised the risk assessment for the Electric Sprout album cover creation day, this will be on October 29th in Crewe Market Hall. I checked the leads for the MODX for the Morecambe Poetry Festival event. We now know it will be at The King's Arms at 9pm on Sep 11th. We were advised to being long enough leads. I have one 3M lead, on 6M and connectors to join the two; so we have a 10M limit!

I researched routing, for my shelves. This might be useful, though difficult, as at least 8 very precise grooves would need to be cut. I made a foot pedal holder for my custom piano bench, so now the new M-Audio pedal is held still in the correct place. I copied over the new waves for the new performance, and packed for Chester tomorrow, and checked train times, lest we travel that way.

I typed up lyrics for Christmas song number 5, but won't be recording this one (Three Two One, Bounce My Sprouts) any time soon.

And more, including research on Okapi, Nostoc Communes and cellular fission...

Refuge Day 3

Final underpainting day of 'Can There Be A Refuge From Terror?'. Lots of detail here, so glazing should be limited. A painting of this complexity would have taken me 6 or 7 days a few years ago. Alas, my busy schedule for the next 12 months will limit my time to paint (as well as the lack of any actual incentive bar the glory of art; though that was good enough for dear old Vermeer, though he did have one patron).

Two other jobs done this evening, more to charge into.

Can There Be A Refuge Day 2, Electric Spouts, Plate Spinning

A full day. First, painting the angel figure and hands, bone hands, small teeth, red mouth, butterfly, and heaven insert of the Refuge painting. In the evening, some quick work on the Electric Spout project with another artist coming on board, and contacting the amazing Carol at Creative Crewe with regard to a public cover creation day. Our small part in the Morecambe Poetry Festival opening is confirmed, so we need to work on some publicity for that, and Deborah now has two dates for her poetry book launch and readings (which need posters). So, a day of spinning four plates.

Of course, I am spinning more at the moment. 'All Controlled By Someone' is released on the 26th, and the album on Oct 31st, so I need to make 13 music videos in 6 weeks, and I have three songs to rehearse for John Lindley's charity performance event too. I must list this! I also have a painting to collect from Chester Museum soon, and three to enter into Castle Park; plus 3 wall cabinets to build (design work complete), a ceiling light to fit in the storage room, and new camera pedestals to design and build for my art photography rig. These are not urgent.

It will take at least one more day of work to complete my current underpainting. Onwards we charge.

Can There Be A Refuge Day 1

First day of underpainting 'Can There Be A Refuge From The Terror?'. Why do I paint these complex mixes of objects? They can be tedious and awkward to paint or paint around. I have a butterfly which defies perspective, so it must be symbolic. Also, more work on Sprout 2. If I include myself and Deb, we have 5 confirmed/interested artists.

Backups, DIY Plans, Sprouts Assemble

A productive day. Monthly backups completed, then designed some CD and box shelves for me room, and some for Deborah. All would use two large sheets of MDF, so it's optimal to design and build all three structures at once. Much was planned here, and I realised I needed a new, 80mm long, 2mm drill bit for precision drilling pilot holes for the 6mm shelves, so I ordered these.

In the afternoon I made soem initial enquiries about a new charity Christmas album, a sequel to the 2023 Electric Sprout Foundation project. No replies as yet.

Then, collected a second M-Audio expression pedal. The keyboard has two pedal inputs, one for volume, one for super-knob, so I thought two wouldn't hurt, and it would give me the chance to see if a second pedal would also range 0 to 125 rather than 0 to 127 as it should. Alas, it does also range 0 to 125, and requires, ideally that it remains at maximum at all time, so if connected I'd really have to keep it at the annoying 98.5% of maximum at most. Well, at a mere £11.50, I don't regret the experiment, and it's good to have a backup, so I'll disconnect it, and keep it as a backup.

New new album requires a new song and time spent organising, and I have paintings to complete, Morecambe to attend and perform at, and a music video to make this month alone. I must work and rest efficiently to manage this. I've decided to enter the, as yet unseen, Descartes painting into the Castle Park Open, so I'll need to frame this month, as well as frame and photograph the other two entries. Ideally I would upgrade my photography stands too... I must observe and note wood and bracket options when I visit B & Q.

Hello Yellow Brick Road Glazing, Box Of Love

A slower day yesterday. I wanted to slow down and rest for a day. I wrote the draft of a Christmas song, although it changed from Father Christmas desperate to deliver a present into a love song of sorts. The melody is fast rock in the manner of 'Jamie and the Magic Torch', but it needs work. I'll leave it.

Also, framed the Lost Boy painting, which is being collected today, and painted a little more of 'Hello Yellow Brick Road'.

Box Of Love

I got a broken box of love
And I gotta give it you by midnight
The forest is a maze of twilight
The fog is closing all around

I know that you are far away
But I gotta get to you by midnight
I gotta tell you things are alright
I gotta lay your worries down

And I see a silver trail go by
Like a star lost in the sky
Lost in the sky

A blizzard is about to fall
And I worry did I miss the midnight?
Will I comfort you or kiss you tonight?
Will I ever see your face again?

I never was a man to pray
but I'm praying for another midnight
Praying for another midnight
Praying for another when

And I see a silver trail go by
Like a star lost in the sky
Lost in the sky

Pedal Test, Some Glazing

Tested the new M-Audio expression pedal, it works, so the problem was the Yamaha pedal. It has less range of motion than the Yamaha pedal and ranges 0 to 125 (annoyingly) rather than 0 to 127, but it feels stiffer and generally nicer to play. It costs £12 vs. £75 for the Yamaha, but I think is about as good. I may be able to extend the range to 127 by shaving down the plastic stopper at the end of the pedal; of course that is a destructive modification.

I also cut some rags for painting and wierd two new lights for the art photography rig, making it another 1% more efficient.

In the afternoon, glazed more of 'All About Eve'. This is unusual in that my glazing was somewhat haphazard, not doing all of it, buts parts here and there as I felt, or as I thought needed. I also glazed 'Hello Yellow Brick Road' a little, though it could use more. The days feel too short, my energy too low.

Painting Designs, All About Eve Glazing, Music Critique

Felt so weak and tired yesterday, perhaps due to doing so much the day before. I updated my website, adding the new paintings there, and prepared an information pack for the new album. I also worked on designs for new stands to help with my art photography, and other small jobs. Late in the day, I drew out a painting idea, currently called 'The Empty House'. I've had an idea called 'Wilderness Of Calcified Ovaries' in progress for over a year, but decided to split it into two; 'Love And Fragility In The Age Of Perfection' which is about mortality and immortality in love, and this one, 'The Empty House', about the procreative drive.

Today, drew out Love And Fragility; it will be about 33x40cm. In the afternoon I worked on the first glazing layer to 'All About Eve'.

Music while painting consisted of Amarok; an album remarkable for containing so much hatred, an emotion rarely expressed in art, and especially instrumental music. I wish Margaret Thatcher wasn't in it, and wish that the climax lasted longer. Like many of Oldfield's works, it cycles between many instruments, and several moods (including the lively jig, the romantic Spanish guitar; Oldfield tropes) and a few musical themes. I think that structurally it works well, and suits its 60-minute single-movement format. Then, Atom Heart Mother, which is also largely instrumental and epic, then The Story Of I by Patrick Moraz, which is ear-splittingly high pitched at times, but always too frenetic, too manic and unfocused. It should be called The Story Of Mania (or The Story Of ADHD in contemporary parlance). The intermezzo attracted me, and is the best part of the album.

Tarporley Collection, Broken Pedal, Wallpapering, Painting Scans

Two busy days. Painted a little yesterday, completing the Lost Boy painting and adding to the first Claire Luce portrait of 2025, now entitled 'Song Of Experience'. Then, a trip to Tarporley to collect my paintings there, and restoration of one of the frames back to perfect condition. Just about every exhibition requires a bit of restoration after the show. The Love Affair frame now perfect once more.

We rehearsed the Morecambe Fall in Green show but - curses! The so-called ruggedly indestructible £75 Yamaha expression pedal seems to be broken, a particularly unwanted expense. It was often unreliable. Plugging it in needed some wobbling to the connection to make it work, and last night the range was about 85% at minimum to 100% at max. This morning I dismantled it and cleaned the potentiometers with contact cleaner, but it seems to be completely dead. I can't be sure if it's the pedal or the MODX which is at fault, but the MODX has two pedal inputs and both behave in the same way; both worked when the pedal worked, both broken when the pedal is broken, which indicates that it is the pedal, but, of course, both circuits in the synth are next to each other so that could equally be a cause. Ideally I need another synthesizer, and/or another pedal, to test.

After the pedal repair, I wallpapered part of the hall, which had a damp patch which needed mould removal and new anti-damp paper. The drain outside is the probably cause, so this was sealed. How much of life is repairing. In the afternoon, I scanned (photographed) three new paintings. The photography takes a lot of work; setting up the lights on my custom stands, setting up the stands for the camera rail, setting the flatbed, the camera. I have ordered more wire to make 2 new lights, it would save time if all of the lights were ready with bulbs attached. I could also replace the tripod-rail system with custom built wooden stands which could fit the rails exactly and at the right height.

The Masochistic Gaia is therefore complete, and I've entered it as planned, plus the vegetable Oliver Cromwell, and the hugely relevant Theresienstadt painting into the ING Discerning Eye, all at £5000 or £7000. This is likely to be my last entry there for a year or two, though who can say. My last success there was with the Facebook painting.

Luce Underpainting

Woke early and decided to underpaint the new Claire Luce painting.

Mouse Lamp, Claire Luce 3, Blockx Mars Red and Natural Umber

A slow day yesterday. Confirmed submission of Another Violet Night, this will release on October 31st, and painted a mouse lamp to look like an actual white mouse. The plain lamp was an ugly black resin. I also shaded a study for the cat in 'Can There Be A Refuge' painting.

Today, re-drew a Claire Luce portrait, with shading this time. It seems that a shaded outline works well, and my 0.5mm pencil seems better for this than my usual 0.3mm line drawing pencil. The likeness is much more easily checked and adjusted this way.

Was happily helped to deliver two paintings to Tarporley for the weekend community exhibition there. New paints arrived. Blockx Mars Red is instantly beloved. A fine and powerful red, more violet than Venetian Red, but much redder than Mars Violet. Mars Red and Mars Yellow Orange would make perfect flesh I suspect. Oddly, I use mars violet and light red, and rarely ever involve venetian for flesh, using the still beloved venetian for other 'general red' use (often for my signature). I can see the Mars Red replacing this, especially as the Harding Venetian Red is very fluid, almost watery, like many of his paints. Blockx Natural Umber is indeed a raw umber, rather neutral and green-shaded compared to the Michael Harding version I use in every painting. Blockx Natural is very close in hue to Winsor and Newton Raw Umber Green Shade, though more opaque and a little more granular. I'm less certain if this will replace my invaluable Harding Raw Umber, but I will give it a try when my Harding tube runs out. Every Blockx colour I've used has proved to be lovely, they make the best oil paints.

Also signed a new contract with Galleria Balmain today, and heard that I have at least one poem accepted in the Morecambe Poetry Festival Anthology 2025.

Another Violet Night Submission, Good Vibrations

Submitted Another Violet Night for release yesterday, but it appears there's a problem with some of the content. Time will tell. Also affected some repairs on the house regarding a damp patch, and adjusted and standardised the volume levels of MODX backing tracks, an important step towards more live performances of my recorded material.

Today, a music and social session in Congleton Library.

Hello Yellow Brick Road, Palette Knife Dies

Woke early for a long day of painting 'Hello Yellow Brick Road'. Everything was difficult today, things kept breaking or not going to plan. I needed to be agile.

First, my Winsor & Newton No. 26 Palette Knife broke at the weld. It would probably last forever as one cast piece, incidentally. I bought this knife wen I started painting, perhaps in 2004, perhaps 2005. I knew this was a good shape, as my father (also a painter) used this shape. Halfway though painting I had to diver to buy a replacement. At first break I made a repair with Polymorph (it held well!) which meant I could continue.

Underpainting was completed by 17:45.

Drawing vs. Art

Drawing is about copying what you see, not what you think you see. Making art is about copying what you know and how you feel about it, not what you see.

Louis Wain, Hello Yellow Brick Road

Slept well, after an evening of dancing and singing. I watched The Electrical Life of Louis Wain which brought me to tears with many affinities and sympathies. I was reminded how much I miss Cat, the kitten who appeared in my life on the year I started painting, and left in 2020, the year I stopped, for a while, as I turned my focus to music.

After that, I prepared the panel for 'Hello Yellow Brick Road', and transferred the drawing. The stormy sky needed some preparation, there are no source images or objets for this apart from the lighting guide, so more preparation is required. I think the colours should be simple enough, so I've skipped that stage.

I've also worked on a black mouse lamp I was gifted. I've painted it white and will paint to the look like a real mouse. This is very much a hobby project. Plus, some work re-cataloguing album cover artwork. I file the covers as artworks too, and some of these were not quite right. The day is done. How fleeting each day is.

Hello Yellow Brick Road

A slow morning, then started work on a stallked painting idea from 2023 called 'Hello Yellow Brick Road'. Here is the idea sketch:

Like many such sketches, these are as much a mnemonic to me as compositional guide. The area on the right is blue sky, an ironic joyous destiny, so perhaps the painting is a satire on an emotional level. I set up a simple scene as a lighting model:

Then blew up the idea sketch and enhanced it a little, this time shading some parts in pencil. This will be my ancient typical size of 234x336mm.

Other things done today include recoding the 2nd and 3rd version central panels for 'Love Is Dead' to G575, like the original 1st version. These versions were painted years later, but are part of this artwork, so should be coded with it. Another job was revising the poster for John Lindley. With sadness I noted that The Little Street Cellar is to close this weekend, the venue where our monthly music nights take place.

Claire Luce Portrait 2, and the Two Mona Lisas

Spent today glazing the second Clair Luce portrait (G1460A). My first was painted in 2005.

The smoothness is good, and colouration, but the likeness is poor. I'd mastered painting a panel with smoothness by 2007 and the 'Untouchable Strawberry' painting, even if perhaps some techniques such as glazing with opaque colours, and how much detail to add during underpainting have improved since. My colouration too has been good for almost as long, though again some improvements are constantly being made, and I was certainly not confident at colouration until recently; yet for the most part, it felt today that I've hardly improved at all technically in 15 years.

At times I've painted portraits directly to the canvas, like the Telly Savalas painting, the recent portraits of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and David Lynch. This is a relatively recent development, and something I'd not have tried before. Perhaps the lesson is that line/edge drawing is a more difficult discipline than body drawing, primarily because it's more difficult to check and adjust a likeness in line, because we're not copying a line drawing but a solid form. At one point I made shaded pencil studies, but generally don't do this now. These were sometimes were done as tone studies, but also as tests of likeness in portraits.

Perhaps it would be better to draw portraits as tone drawings rather than outlines from the outset. I don't want to paint a portrait on the canvas in the way most oil portrait artists do/did because the correct colour in the correct place first time is the ideal for the perfect finish I desire. Any paint on the canvas first will muddy the result. A third option is the way some artists, like Steve Caldwell, paint, creeping a high quality image out, rather than working on the whole, but this limits blending or makes it impossible (in acrylics that is not an issue). Painting in layers is vital for actual beauty, as well as giving a power of colour effects impossible in other ways. Intricate though acrylics are, they look flat and poor in real life compared to oil paintings.

My glazing today was very smoky, sfumato. This technique can come from an obsession for smooth 'perfection', or an insecurity, not knowing where the lines are, not wanting to find them. I became convinced that Leonardo painted like this for the latter reason, that he was, unexpectedly, insecure about his drawing ability. This makes sense, because he was brilliant at drawing, and we only become brilliant at something by insecurity about it, and fighting yet harder to improve. My line drawing woes reminded me of the two Mona Lisa paintings (I have no doubt that the Isleworth Mona Lisa is a genuine Leonardo, and a first version). They are the same person, yet not quite the same, the likeness is different.

Strawberry Assassinated

Underpainted my 'Strawberry Assassinated' painting today.

Also repaired a broken globe of Deborah's which required a fine drill. The repair was adequate, invisible and it's stronger than before because the broken joint was thin plastic and liable to break again. I inserte a metal pin. The movement is not as smooth though, this was very hard to avoid, but I have an idea now of how I could have done it better. After each job, I consider how it could have been done better, for a future next time. A few tools I need are a tiny drill chuck, a good quality 25mm forstner bit, and a digital inclinometer.

Masochistic Gaia Glazing, Cycles 2024 CDs

A full day glazing 'Masochistic Gaia Toying With Humanity' in the heatwave. Progress was frustrating. I'd hoped for a restful and pleasant day of optionally glazing a painting which was already smooth and well finished - of course this never happens, I find panting an exhausting battle, as fun as an 8-hour arm wrestle). The glazing smoothed things so beautifully that I needed to glaze it all. Each section; flesh, red storm, bone floor, blue sky, fish, was glazed, although the upper blue sky remained as underpainted.

I was unhappy with the results. This painting is unusually lacking in depth - this is the core reason, so it's something of a 'narrative abstract' work, and not representing a three dimensional 'reality', but a two dimensional one. Each part is starkly separate from the other parts too, adding to this sense.

The new Cycle & Shadows CDs arrived as I painted. They look beautiful, and I played one as I painted. This process was a little annoying, as the recent 2024 version is not up to my new standard, particularly and explicitly the vocals in the Shadows part. Perhaps, if I'd have proofed the entire album, I'd have re-made a 2025 remaster; I'd have re-recorded the vocals, as my voice has changed hugely, and balanced the bass on the vocals better. But, of course, yet another remaster is more work and there must be a time when I move on. The aim is to learn by doing, not forever try to 'perfect'. When and if these few CD copies are sold, or in 5 or 10 years, I can remake a third version. My opinions on my vocals aside, the album is excellent, and all aspects of the balancing are hugely better than the first version.

I stopped painting at 5pm, and packaged the new CD versions:

At 8pm I took the painting out and attacked it once more. I painted new eyebrows on the figure, and added an eye and crescent moon to the apocalypse scene, and some lighting to the bent, burnt trees there. These changes improved things markedly.

I'd hoped to do much more today. Onwards to tomorrow with alacrity.

Memory Of A Lost Boy, Practical Projects

Overcame extreme weakness to painted 'Memory Of A Lost Boy' yesterday. After that, a painted colour study for the new 'terror' painting.

Today, lots of practical projects on a day of heatwave. Created a new poster for Deborah's forthcoming poetry book launch:

Then, upgrading the huge corn dolly so that it can stand vertically. I made a wooden block fitted with a tripod nut, this glued to the back of the dolly with wood glue. Then a 90-degree adapter for the tripod to fit into the dolly. Everything took longer because I wanted to try fixing these things with my experimental Paraloid glue. It was too thin, too much acetone, so I evaporated it for a few hours. It tended to form a skin, which is not good for a glue (although, I note that UHU does this). I needed less acetone in the first place. As glue, it is sticky and must be quite strong. It almost seems harder with chalk than without.

I contacted a friend and sold the new Lost Boy painting, instantly spending the money (before the painting is yet finished or dry, though it is mostly complete) on many new paints which have been on my want-list for some time. I note that Blockx now make a 'natural umber' colour; raw umber I presume. This is welcome to me, will it beat my favourite Harding umber? Over the years I've grown to dislike Michael Harding paints. Advertised as buttery they are more like olive-oily, and very yellowing. I wonder when Blockx started to produce natural umber? I've also ordered their Mars Red. I've loved all of their mars colours, and look forwards to trying this one. Perhaps it will be like Venetian, or perhaps Terra Rosa (a more neutral red). I love and use their Light Red a lot. It is notably more scarlet than Winsor and Newton's (theirs is more orange and fleshy, closer to Blockx' Mars Yellow Orange). Blockx' Light Red is also notably weaker in tint than Winsor and Newton's.

I've also designed a CD cupboard for Deborah, it will have Z-fold doors with 'invisible' joins when closed, giving the impressing of a hidden cupboard, and should hold about 420 CDs. The new Cycles & Shadows CDs are due to arrive tomorrow.

Painting Development

Steady work, mostly on paintings. Prepared study panels and drawings for 'Can There Be A Refuge From The Terror?', and a new tiny panel for a new idea involving a strawberry, then went out with Deb. I found an old frame, and started work on a new idea 'Memory Of The Lost Boy', photographing lighting guides and drawing it out.

Today, de-framing and restoring the old frame. Removing and cleaning off old tape and other things. It had visible gaps at the corners, so I glued them tight with a syringe of glue, then clamped the frame to dry. Projects like this are as much inspiration as practical work, there's no better incentive than a blank canvas and an empty frame. Then, preparing a panel and tracing over the new 'boy' drawing. I think that a solvent-based wood filler might be useful, so I've started to experiment with mixes of chalk and acrylic resin in acetone. This can make a very strong glue/filler, but I'd prefer something softer and sandable. Pure chalk and water is almost enough (this flakes away to dust if knocked), so I need to work out how little resin to use, and how little or how much acetone for the best consistency.

This, plus today, the transfer of the last two albums to my new distributor. I'll leave the last couple of albums, those that demand remastering, for a few months. The admin work of music is never ending, and over time it grows, making a back catalogue take up a huge amount of time. Today I discovered that Bandcamp now have per-track ISWC codes, so that's something new to add to the 37 albums on there. Half an hour each would be a half a week's work.

I think tomorrow I'll paint the new picture, it's such a simple idea that it doesn't need a study, and perhaps a colour study for 'terror'. Then, I need to glaze the 'Gaia' painting so that it's ready to enter into The ING Discerning Eye competition.

Here's the poster I designed for John's music event:

And here the new cover for The Golden Age. I was never quite happy with the first version, so I've tweaked it, and today, tweaked even more:

Onwards we march.

Compose Yourself Poster, Tracing, Album Re-cataloguing

A third day in a row of terrible sleeping patterns, awake at 3:30 until 6:30 or 7, then asleep until past 9, to awake groggy. I somewhat made up for this yesterday (and the email disruption) by working until 10pm, starting to trace over the new underdrawing. I completed this today; each stage took over an hour, there are a lot of lines here.

Yesterday, I also completed a poster for the future music event of John Lindley's called 'Compose Yourself'. In the night, I wondered which songs to perform, I think All Controlled By Someone, More, and Incomplete Version Of The Writer would be good choices, though I have many options. What is the aim? To please an audience with an instant catchy song? This is always difficult with new music. My most beloved songs are those which grew over time. Perhaps my aim should be to practice myself, push myself somehow in performance, or grow in other ways, or simply to promote the new album.

First thing today, after again waking late, I had time to do a little singing practice.

After the tracing, I made a small adjustment to my music filing. The Marius Fate Modern Game album had a separate code from the same album by myself (even though I AM Marius Fate). This had some logic, but at the same time, it is the same album, so I've re-coded The Modern Game as R32A, R32B, R32C for the three versions, and a similar change for the Masculinity Two single. This was done by 3pm, and involved quite a few changes, to my records, to my website, and to the various listings of albums.

After that I felt somewhat tired and lost. Whenever I feel overstretched, that I need to focus on one particular artform, another request appears and I find myself stretching yet again. In this case I'm now thinking of music performances, when I feel I should really be painting.

I must muse a little, but not pause for long. The rock must be rolled, but in which direction? There are certain needs and goals, some optional, and some future targets not yet imagined. Where lies my great future?

Forces of Chaos

It's been a hard day but sometimes the forces of chaos throw obstacles in your path. Every day you must fight, battle, wrestle through each obstacle and problem. You must impose order and stability on the chaotic universe, and sometimes all of your energy is spent doing only that, not charging forwards but frenetically organising, repairing.

I've sketched a few more lines and shapes on my painting, wrestling to make it symphonic, but imposing order and structure here is difficult. Ultimately, the painting is about childhood fears, but also genetics and circumstances, how the personality emergent at extreme youth imposes itself forever, it cannot be cast off, we are eternally trapped by fate. Yet, I talk of fighting.

I'll finish this idea and move on. You must think a little before you act, but not much. If there are corrections or improvements, they can be made on the next painting, and so on forever. There should be a certain amount of planning and reflection, but always action too.

Onwards we battle.

Composition Battles, Morecambe, Emails

Charged into painting yesterday, work on one of the three new ones currently called 'Can There Be A Refuge From The Terror?', but it was a hard fight. I continually disliked the painting, and threw out the design, only to come back to it, find or create more source material and try again for another battle.

We have heard that Fall in Green have the chance to perform at the Morecambe Poetry Festival this year, a last minute addition to the preview event on the Thursday; a day before the it all starts (and before we were planning to attend). Our slot will be 20 minutes, similar to the Nantwich Words & Music Festival performance, though much more difficult logistically. We're awaiting news on the technical details.

Today, an email bounce-back plunged me into worry. I've spent all day researching and trying to update domain verification settings. There are 3 verification protocols: SPF (IP Security), DMARC: (General Mail & Domain Security), and DKIM: (Email Security). The first two are relatively simple. The third requires two codes; one half tied to the email service, one tied to the domain; when both match identity is confirmed. This seems like a good solution, except that each email service creates or assigns the DKIM differently, it might even be there, but unseeable or uneditable by us mere users. I've spent all day trying to fix the problem. I've made some experimental changes, but they apparently take 72 hours to work. Yes, even in these modern days of email it takes longer than an actual postal letter to activate.

It's nearly evening. I must work on art as best I can.

New Painting Drafts

A sleepless night of nightmares.

Small jobs today, little done the day seems to have flown. I started work on three new paintings. All three needed paper of the final size preparing. For two of them, I scanned the idea sketch, blowing it up to final size, then tracing over the scant and very rough lines. In this way I can match the composition, balance, and feeling in the final painting. Tracing over is a matter of printing lots of A4 sheets; this is very rough tracing, very light outlines, loose guides. These will be hand erased and drawn again as I work on the final underdrawing. One of the paintings, 'Wilderness of Calcified Ovaries', is a montage instead, I'll hand draw that. That idea is at least 2 years old; time to finish it.

Little jobs between this. I listed Spotify Canvases for existing albums, and ordered 40 new Cycles & Shadows CDs, of the 2024 remaster (the 2nd Version).

Argus v1.58, I Was A War Baby

Updated Argus again today, with a few useful cahnges. First, the ability to set the speed of a modulator to one beat if a beats-per-minute values was entered, vary useful for music videos. Then, a complex calculation to split tracks into the optimal number. If I create a list of objects, say 1000 snowflakes, that appear 5 frames apart, and these fade away over 100 frames. How many snowflakes can be visible at once? 20, 100/5, so this list needs splitting (interleaving) into 20 tracks. The new routine calculates this by checking very object to determine the maximum distance needed, then every split to wrok out the distance between resultant events.

In between programming, Deb and I went to Bickerton to collect my paintings from the exhibition.

After that, did some painting, and added a layer to a paniting I started this time last year; now called 'I Was A War Baby':

LC Codes, Album Versions, Videos

Spent yesterday transferring 30 to 40 lyric reading videos from my YouTube music channel to my art channel. These have hardly any views, 1 to 30, but they usually have some, and are a unique art form. They're as much a historical document as anything else, and if they remind me how good these old songs are, they will remind others too.

After that, I started work on music videos for Another Violet Night, even though I should be painting at this time of the year. The music admin work is now overwhelming, with many albums to transfer, remaster, transcribe, update.

One thing I do is get better over time. This is a key part of my philosophy, and why I work so hard on older material. I'm a proverbial tortoise not a hare. Even my oldest games, like Radioactive, have changed hugely over their life-span, always getting better. This is achieved by working out what can be imrpoved, and after a good level of improvement, going back and making that change to older material.

My albums have many versions. In music there are 'remasters', where the source material is not re-recorded, or even remixed, but with some changes to the equalisation balancing, and changes to compression and loudness is applied. I've rarely, I think never, remastered an album like this. New versions always at least rebalance tracks to some degree because I don't apply EQ to whole tracks, that's done at the mixing stage in Prometheus. The new End And The Beginning remaster is an example of this. Very little was changed apart from adjustment to the bass levels, and loudness. This is a fuzzy borderline between remixing and remastering, but the relative loudness of the parts (vocals vs. instruments etc.) are unchanged.

I also re-record parts, often vocals. This is particularly common since 2020 and my charge into (and growth of!) vocal music, and was intended from the outset. For the Burn Of God 'remaster', I recorded new guitars too; yet most of the rest of the album is not re-recorded (everything will technically, on a byte-by-byte basis, be different because normally two renders in a row by Prometheus will be different due to lots of randomisation/humanisation, which I tend to use). Still, these are technically 're-recordings', and most of my new album versions fall into this category, even if 90% of the new recording will be identical to the old one. For some albums, like the second version of Tree Of Keys, almost all of the tracks are completely unchanged, but one or two are tweaked.

Finally, I sometimes re-make an album from scratch. The four versions of Synaesthesia are quite different. The first was recorded from my SY-85 synth, driven by MED Soundstudio. The second used Noise Station for most of the tracks (but some tracks were duplicated). The third was a hybrid, with some Prometheus tracks, some from older versions. The fourth (current, but not yet definitive!) version is a complete Prometheus version. Crucuially, sometimes the tracks and compositions were different. 'TV Hell' from the first version is loaded with unlicenced samples so will never be released officially, and the track is unique to that version. 'The Journey', the equivalent track on other albums, is comparable in feeling. I still consider each version the same album. They're more than re-recordings, but for me, it would be a stretch to consider each version a new album. Jean-Michel Jarre has similar issues with his many versions of Oxygene, but of course he may let his record label worry about the filing implications.

So rather than call albums remasters, re-recordings, or 'new', I'll call new versions of an album 'versions' from now on. Today I've updated my artwork templates so that CD artwork will now include the album code, the version number, and release date for this version. It will also include the German LC code for the first time. I technically should have included this on all CD album artwork, but as I make and sell my own CDs, and have never sold one in Germany (or rarely anywhere at all!) this is less vital. The code is used to allocate royalties to myself, which I don't need to do, but one day my music may explode across the planet, so it's time I started to include this code.

Another Violet Night will list version number, LC code, and release date for the first time. So, another small upgrade which will be applied from now on.

Backups, Engram High Pass Filter, I Can Heal Video

Backups today, and created a new, unique, audio effect for Prometheus. The concept of 'fast duck' amounts to turning down (and up) the volume of a track in real time relative to the contents of another track. This can be called 'riding the console' as volumes, like vocals, are turned up and down live to fit just where needed.

This is easy nowadays. In Prometheus I have things called 'Engrams' which store data from the track to monitor. This can be used as an import to a noise gate to turn down a track. I use it typically to turn down the backing (piano, strings) just a tiny bit when the vocals sound, so that the vocals are clearly audible. Today, I modified this concept by creating an effect which can set a new high-pass filter frequency based on a gate like this. Not sure if I'll use it, but it can, for example, add more bass to a vocal when the song is in a quiet moment, but cut higher when the song becomes loud.

After that, in the afternoon, I worked on a music video for 'I Can Heal'. It's taken an few hours, longer than normal, but is very pretty.

Subtitles Complete, Argus v1.57, How Lonely

Woke early, completed the remaining subtitle videos by 12:00, then moved to an update of Argus. I made a few small changes, and one bug fix where correctly imported values were reported as not imported. I added to feature to return the quantity of values imported, and added 'guide' tracks, which are not played or shown. They behave as though muted, but are not affected by soloing or all-tracks-on commands. These are useful for guide data, events to highlight key frames (in this case, the frames the vocals for each line appear). Guide tracks are one of the better features I added to Prometheus, so now added in Argus too.

After re-listening to my music when working on these videos, I decided to, yet again, tweak some mixing. In particular I've raised the high-pass on the 'How Lonely' vocals and it instantly made the song better. I think I need to generally set this higher than I typically do. It can depend on the type of song. Richer vocals work better on slower, or more intimate or more spartan productions, with higher frequency vocals for busier pop productions.

Violet Night Video Subtitles

I charged into music video work today. The animated subtitles in Christmas Smells and The Dusty Mirror tracks are a definite step up compared to previous videos, so I aim to add these to every music video now. I must at least create subtitles for the 13 Violet Night tracks, plus some for the new video for 'A.I.' from TEATB, and the new B-Side 'I Can Heal'.

First step is to save out the structure of the song, then place a note at the start of each line, so that the frame when the lines are sung can be calculated. This list of frame numbers, one per line, is then saved. This can be used in Argus for a per-note import. Then, to create bitmap images for each lyric line. These are saved with alpha in DDS format. Each video needs 10-30 such lines.

Today I've created over 150 such images for the 7 music videos worked on today (this is the most tedious part of the process). These look much better than cheap automatic subtitles added by YouTube. The font and style match the album, but more than that, the words appear just before the line is coming, then prettily float away when the line is gone. My subtitles are useful as well as pretty.

After that's done, I create an animation in Argus of the full music video, and set each line to appear at the specified frame. It's all a lot of work, one or two days can do all of the subtitles on an album. Any other animation can easily be added at this point.

The new video for the old song 'A.I.' used an 'addition' effect, so there's no black line around the text, but it's still readable.

Money is such a struggle at the moment. Everything is such a struggle, and I'm making things with little goal other than an obsession to make things as best I can. This is at least something. I should be able to finish these basic subtitles tomorrow, all ready to add some sort of proper video behind them, as and when needed.

Sisyphus

A listless day. The few paintings I had planned for the few open exhibitions and competitions are painted to some degree. I have album work to ideally do, new videos for the new album, but that can wait, and it feels artless; the unsatisfying medium of film in a world where video is ubiquitous and even the most fantastical video effect passé. Music work should wait until the darker months.

I'll remaster and partially re-record a few albums within the next year: Tree Of Keys, The Modern Game, The Myth Of Sisyphus, and Gunstorm. I need new CDs for Another Violet Night, and Cycles, and maybe some of those new albums too. This can all wait for now.

Today I made small changes to the 'Parents' song again, slightly backing off on some of the changes from a few days ago, then burned the final archive copy and filed Violet as complete. I also filed another half-complete album, The Light Bulb sonata. This too can wait. It may never get completed, it feels too dark and introverted. I made perfect little circular box, like a mini hat box, to store my CDR discs in. An outer box for the plastic cylinder box, to keep the virgin discs in darkness and coolness. I cut two new canvas panels for some of the empty frames I have.

I watched An Inspector Calls, the Alistair Sim film, which I'd never seen. All Alistair Sim films are good, and it was indeed wonderful.

I need new CDR discs, new paints, new resin crystals, money to enter the compeitions; yet have no money. I remind myself that in the twilight of life, the things done for no money feel the most valuable. I'd like to think that my old software and the things I've spent many years on will feel like that to someone one day.

Let us roll our rock up this hill, upon this track, just a little more in this harsh wind. The next bend may reveal some new magic.

TV Aerial, Masochistic Gaia

Submitted 4 more albums yesterday, but spent much of the day repairing the TV aerial. The signal had started to fail, and the cable at the connector was clearly frayed and rusted. I unscrewed it and it was very damp, and when I cut the cable, lots of water dripped out! The inner casing is hollow, so it appears that rain water is somehow getting inside. This created a conundrum. We can't really replace the (ancient) cable easily, although a new aerial is always possible. Ideally I'l water-proof it. My first attempt was to inject some resin into the hollow cable with a syringe, but this repeately oozed out as it dried. In the end, I filled the end with blu-tak, which made a water tight plug. Then, bought a new connector and fitted that. It's much better than before.

Spent today painting 'Masochistic Gaia Toying With Humanity'. I seem to be better and faster than ever at painting. The plan hope for this unusual piece is to enter into the Discerning Eye exhibition; chosen not for the idea but for its size as that exhibition has a strict size limit.

Claire Luce Underpainting

I decided to underpaint the new Claire Luce portrait today.

I'm less used the painting on smooth panels these days. There are pros and cons to each surface. The pro of a smooth panel is that it's easier to smooth shading, to polish the pure paint to 'perfection', but the paint can slide about. You need to apply more paint, about one hog-hair thick (yes, for me this a lot). This gives you enough to blend and move the paint into it's final place. Painting works in two stages; apply the paint, right colour in the right place, then blend, feather and smooth it to slightly move it into an even more correct place! After that, more, very delicate amounts can be applied.

The likeness changed with tiny changes to the jawline, tiny changes to the eyes, nose, mouth. Here's a close up to reveal the detail level.

The colours are muted. The face shines the yellow of the toned layer, and the shadows look grey-violet rather than alive and warm. This is painted from a monochrome photo. I rather like that, it gives more options to colours, but of course can't be 'realistic' whatever that means. I can't realistically paint a long-dead woman from a black and white photo, unless I paint a black and white copy of the photo.

Donovan Night, More Mixing

Wednesday started with the delivery of three paintings for the annual Bickerton Village Hall Art Exhibition, then later the Donovan night, which was a lovely evening as John's events always are.

I performed 'Donovan Before I Was Even Born' and 'Superman Sunshine' as planned. Both songs are a little similar, having simple two-chord riffs for the verses and a few single-strum chord changes for a chorus of sorts. The melody is generally monotone and tracks the chords. This is a symptom of my writing for guitar. Next time I'll write as I do normally, at piano, and work out the melody, then try to adapt it to guitar. I was unhappy with my performance of the first song. Deborah fortunately video recorded this, allowing me to coldly analyse my performance. I needed to take more time. My few fumbling mistakes were due to rushing, and the feeling I needed to rush, when this was not at all needed. A pause to get it right was required.

The second song fared better, though I was somewhat unhappy with all of my vocals. My throat was tense all night. I felt thrown in at the deep end to perform 'Colours'. I'd volunteered to help with the vocals, only to find myself asked to sing AND play guitar. Due to these events and the library strums this year, I've played guitar chords and sung about 4 or 5 times this year, this for the first time in my life. On my recordings, my guitar is predominantly melodic lines, very rarely chords. I still find it quite a challenge to sing and strum at once. I suppose it's a compliment that others want me to do both, it must appear that I can easily do it. 'Colours' was also 2 semitones lower than the official recording, starting on F# and moving down to a low A; an ugly range for me, the A is the very bottom of my vocal range. I could manage the high F# perhaps better, except that John, who sang alternate verses, sang low, so I'd have to leap an octave up as I followed him. All in all, it was a bad song for me. I volunteered because it was stated as an ensemble piece (I imagined a group of us all singing), but it turned out to be John and I (with help from John Miller and some in the audience!). I didn't expect to have to play too, and it was a lower key from the song which I'd practised. All tricky challenges to navigate!

Yesterday was spent recovering. I sent Tor details of the new album release, and sent off an email about a Fall in Green performance at The Little Street Cellar. I also promoted a little sale of SFXEngine, sent off my new single to Pete Saxer, then watched the latest episode of his YouTube show, The Flip Side.

Listening to the indie music on The Flip Side made me reconsider my mixes on Another Violet Night. I was hit by a sudden paranoia about the mixing of the 'parents' song. So, today, I made a few adjustments. The changes were raising the high pass filter on the vocals, and lowering their overall volume, adding a high-shelf to the strings (the whole song needed more sparkle), and lowering the bass a little. I made more changes, but gradually rolled back on almost all of them. I ended by comparing the mix to 'Hello Earth' by Kate Bush, which is somewhat similar in feeling. Kate's sounded mid-heavy and far more like my mix before I made the changes! This made me feel more relaxed. An odd thing about raising the high-pass on vocals is that it seems to make them louder, clearer, despite technically making them quieter.

The other tracks were fine, but I decided to add Zeitraum effect on the 'Daytime Teevee' vocals. They weren't too bad before, but this made them a tiny bit more interesting. This was because I listened to one of my favourite songs, 'Kinda Outta Luck' by Lana del Ray, and I noted how many of the vocals were layered.

Between mixing today, I toned a panel and traced over the underdrawing for the Claire Luce portrait.

Slam,. Superman Sunshine

Took part in a poetry slam in the brilliant space of Percy's Bar in Whitchurch. it was nice to see a few old faces from the Nantwich poetry days, a time shortly before 2020 and Covid struck. I've barely met with poets since, and barely written much poetry, but songs have become a new focus. The 'slam' element, the competition was not relevant really. Winning such things are a matter of writing jokes or other happy and simple rhymes to please an audience; never dark, deep, thoughtful, or quiet; but for me this event was an open mic, a chance to hear new poets and perform on a good stage, with a delightful 3-minute limit (oh that all open mics were like this).

I felt like an outsider there, a distant moon to the planet of the Nantwich poets. Sometimes nothing more than the simple circumstances of seating and occasion prevents partaking in the social.

My sleep was long and shallow until nearly 10am. I completed more audio admin work related to yesterday's new releases, and created a new artist listing on a Japanese website called Top Music Japan.

The day has flown. I've spent too long trying to get Superman Sunshine to work as a song. I've re-written the words and changed the chords, but it's still not as good as the other Donovan song. I'm highly unlikely to ever record this, or any of the songs I've written especially for these special live nights (I may already have a full album's worth!) yet I still want to make these songs the best I can, so I'll try try to work on it. Of course, I have less that 24-hours to the performance day...

The words so far:

Superman Sunshine

Sipping from a coffee cup and wishing night away
Goodbye stars, see you yesterday
Here's a new hero carving up a line
Giving me a sign
Telling me it's gonna be fine

It's superman
It's superman sunshine

making a flight
hotter than a beam of kryptonite
harder than a diamond stone
he cannot be broken

Standing on a broken beach and staring at the sky
See that ray, all alone and high
Is he like me or is he divine
Giving me a sign
Telling me it's gonna be fine

It's superman
It's superman sunshine

making a flight
hotter than a beam of kryptonite
harder than a diamond stone
he cannot be broken

Superman
I'm superman
Superman sunshine

Music Admin, Poetry Slam

A day of music admin. Transferred 3 more albums, plus the new 'All Controlled By Someone' single, and the 2025 remaster of The End And The Beginning for a 22 August release. I'd prefer a longer pause before that major relaunch, but the new album and its single also clutter up the release line. I really need to finish transferring the remaining 16 albums or so to clear everything, and I'd perhaps like another new EP about war. I wish I lived near Tor so we could collaborate and communicate more on such things.

About 50% of my albums still need sheet music, and I need to reorganise the sheet music I have. Many albums lack videos of any sort. It would at least be nice to have more for The End And The Beginning. The only tracks with videos are two instrumentals and the song 'A.I.', which has my 2009 vocals. The videos do not at all indicate the sort of music on the album, which is 80s electro-pop filled with Tor's amazing (and Alison Moyet-esqe) vocals. I feel I can't really make high quality videos without Tor being in them, but perhaps I can make some animated videos of some sort, something that is better than nothing. That would at least help showcase his considerable 2009 talent (I'm certain he's an even better singer today).

'Challenger' took 45 minutes to compile today using FFMpeg. Argus could probably animate it much more quickly. I may have even been able to duplicate and re-animate the entire video in one day, and make it better looking to boot, but it's interesting to see what is perhaps the origin of this sort of 'lights matching the notes' video. There's an old blog post on here all about the making of this video using AviSynth.

Tonight I'm taking part in a poetry slam. I don't really write 'slammy' poems, which are typically amusing and full of rhymes, more like stand-up comedy than literature, but with even more of a 'look at me' cry of desperation. I must remember that if Shakespeare were to enter, even with his 500-year-old poetry, he would certainly win. It's nice to be invited to a poetry event. I've neglected poetry since 2020, that year of a shift in my art. This might be my first participation on a poetry event in 5 years.

Superman Sunshine

Spent today rehearsing some poems for tomorrow's slam in Whitchurch, and finishing the music for Wednesday's Donovan night. I've written a second song for it caller 'Superman Sunshine'. These melodies are different than those I'd compose for a recording. The need for acoustic guitar feels limiting to the chords, and I tend to work out a lead melody on the piano. The song was originally about welcoming the sun itself, but I added a dark subtext. Here are the words:

Superman Sunshine

Sipping from a coffee cup and wishing night away
Goodbye stars, see you yesterday
Here's a new hero carving up a line
Giving me a sign
Telling me it's gonna be fine

It's superman
It's superman man
It's superman sunshine
Making a flight
Hotter than a beam of kryptonite
Harder than a diamond stone
Richer than a diamond mine
It's superman
It's superman man
It's superman sunshine

Standing on a broken beach and staring at the sky
See that ray, all alone and high
Is he like me or is he divine
Giving me a sign
Telling me it's gonna be fine

It's superman
It's superman man
It's superman sunshine
Making a flight
Hotter than a beam of kryptonite
Harder than a diamond stone
Richer than a diamond mine
It's superman
It's superman man
It's superman sunshine

The jobs never end. I also burned the archive copy of the All Controlled By Someone single, and made a slight mix change to it (yes, even at this last stage). I need to register it with many different authorities, and prepare the Claire Luce painting, as I may enter this into the Castle Park Open, due at the end of this month.

She Just Looks Empty, All About Eve

Underpainting complete today.

It's come out to plan and, for an idea I've been toying with since 2018, has come out better than I thought. I listened to songs by the 80s band All About Eve as I worked, and the songs of doomed romance seemed to resonate with the figure in the painting somehow, so I've decided to rename it 'All About Eve', in homage of the band (not the Betty Davis film; though perhaps I could paint Betty Davis one day in further homage to homage!)

It could be called finished but another layer will make it look at the smoother and yet more polished, so I'll glaze it in a couple of weeks.

Rik Mayall Dream, She Just Looks Empty Underpainting Day 1

I dreamt that Rik Mayall wanted to publish a magazine. I advised that he needed and 'SSN' number for it, a magazine equivalent of an ISBN (in actuality, an ISSN). I became annoyed that he didn't seem to care about this, yet that it was holding up the publication of the magazine. I found a laptop and located the website for purchasing SSN numbers and tried to persuade him to use it, but to no avail. He lazily didn't care.

I awoke feeling so unexpectedly tired and ill, weak, and almost feverish. Still, I pushed on with my plan of painting today and underpainted part of 'She Just Looks Empty'.

All went exactly as planned. The colour study is so massively helpful as a guide here. No matter how I'd have painted it, there are so many options that without a guide I'd be uncertain if this is the best choice. One hour spent painting a colour study potentially saves days of repainting.

All Controlled By Someone Cover, Claire Luce Sketch, and Other Jobs

I feel too slow and am struggling with motivation, yet am getting things done as planned.

First, sized some paper for the large panel primed yesterday, this was annoyingly 10mm bigger than an A1 sheet, so rather than using the larger paper rolls I have I glued a small extra part to it. Then, finished the scoring of the 'I Can Heal' music, which is now in 5 versions, including two simplified piano versions.

Then, did some artwork for that single release (All Controlled By Someone; I Can Heal is the B-Side). Made an iTunes booklet for this too, 7 pages including all lyrics.

Then spent some time, too long due to the way many websites work, organising my email addresses. After that, sketching out a new Claire Luce portrait. One problem I can envisage is that now I can paint more 'realistically' than back then, which means less dark eyes. My sketch already seems to have a better likeness than the old portrait; yet, perhaps I already know that I can't love any new painting more than a beloved old one.

This took 90 mins or less. I expect that the first portrait took days to sketch out. That took 3 days overall and used a flesh mix of Magenta, French Ultramarine and Olive Green, all in one layer.

I Can Heal Transcription, She Just Looks Empty and Masochistic Gaia Studies

Today, started the transcription of the sheet music for 'I Can Heal'. There are very slight differences between the repeat of the second version and first, only because the bass piano comes in a bit later on that second repeat. I've ignored that here, and ignored the idiosyncratic timing of the vocals (the odd note is a half in the vocals, the melody is somewhat robotic in timing). There mark a few little compromises that are sometimes needed for efficiency when transcribing.

After that, I cut a moderately large (80x50cm) MDF panel for a new painting, and primed it with GAC100 each side, then Lascaux Primer. Lascaux Primer is the most expensive gesso, but it is perhaps the best I've used. It has the consistency of single cream. Then, two colour studies for 'She Just Looks Empty' and 'Masochistic Gaia Toying With Humanity'.

I Can Feel Vocals, Donovan Before I Was Even Born

Sigh, a slow a frustrating day, disturbed at night by the annoyances of so many injustices in the world. My main job of the day was to write a song of some sort for the Donovan evening, so I managed this by putting together a few words. This took rather long time; I came up with a few options and didn't want too much repetition with previous songs. I did repeat the same words a few times, because Donovan seems to repeat lines a lot in his songs. My words:

I'm reading up and down
like the colours of the rain
I'm typing up a memoir
of another you again
and the sky is black and white
like yesterday and the yesterday
you saw
In that long ago before
I was even born

And the words are all a flutter
like a butterfly of type
and the flowers in the rain
are moving to the hype
and the sky is sudden yellow
like somebody in a summer field
of corn
In that long ago before
I was even born

And now you're painted mellow
Funny how that goes
Funny how ambition
Dies but never grows
And the stars are all around us
like yesterday and the yesterdays
before
In that long ago before
I was even born

It's also Tuesday, so my only few minutes of free space to sing, so I practiced a little and sang words to the new version of I Can Heal (an old song, previously recorded with a much lower pitched melody for The Harlequin Kings album). I layered the chorus with a main lead plus 2 duplicates, and 4 duplicates of harmonies; all good. The song is certainly much better than before. I wish I had more than an hour a week to sing, but perhaps a regular hour per week is better than lots of time in a rush every few months.

This is all I have given the world today. Too little.

Dentist, Music Transfers, Gaia, Donovan Speculation

A visit to the dentist in the morning. I used to enjoy such visits, seeing them as a challenge of stoicism, particularly if something potentially painful was due. I don't enjoy these so much now; the price is very high, the treatment very scant.

Then, some of my regular music transfers. Just 16 albums remain, perhaps I can mange 4 per week. Some won't need transferring, or must wait a little... I'll need to re-record The Modern Game yet again, for example, as I can't use the Marius Fate name.

Then, a little more work on the Gaia painting, though too little! I've completed the tracing, photographed the underdrawing (it always amazes me how the tiny delicate pencil lines can be photographed) and then printed and prepared a small copy as a study.

Tomorrow I must write some music for the Donovan night. Donovan's music tends to be one note, and the lyrics always about being half-asleep in a stupor. Perhpas I can comment on this in the words, but I have no idea at all what to write. So far, my songs have been attempts to emulate the style of the artist I'm paying tribute to, but here I may have try something different. I have a self-imposed 24-hour deadline for this.