The Ropes of Art, The Modern Game 4 Complete

A long sleep of many dreams and such languid laziness interrupted by spurts of waking. I became sad and worried about the toothache which has been with me for about two weeks, knowing I have no NHS dentist.

I listened to a moving and inspiring radio programme about Lancashire artist Michael Ashcroft. It made me somewhat melancholy and feeling like a failure as an artist, yet I was being romantic. I've had ups and downs, won prizes and now have work in two museums, counting the music from the Salomé project. I've never managed to find an art gallery interested in selling my work, and rarely sell a painting; yet I am able to continue to live and work as I do. I regularly exhibit, passing the jury in open competitions; have received the occasional commendation and exhibited in a few venues of prestige, though I usually feel that my best work is not selected and that the most mainstream and pretty works are favoured over the powerful paintings I feel convey something new and arresting.

Yet, I keep trying without compromise. My many artworks vary hugely in style and depth. The 'Will You Be My Snowflake?' song is a world away from the painting 'The Angels Musing Over All That Is Left Of Rachel Hudson', yet I try to make both the best they can be in their fields. Artists can only make what our passions instruct, and we can only pursue those passions and interests, whether good or bad. We grip the rope and must hold on until the journey ends, whether it pulls us under the waves or to heaven.

After such musing I started work on the list of the day, and today's rope pulled my limbs a little upwards.

I sang new vocals for 'All The Broken Flowers', and these were instantly better than the 2018 vocals. I mixed them and the album was complete. The rest of the day has been spent working on the huge job of preparing the album for release; breaking up the tracks, submitting the music for distribution, listing on Bandcamp, burning archive CD copies, compiling the final videos, archiving the Argus and Prometheus files, registering the music with some of the many different music authorities, and lots of other paperwork, half of which is still pending.

I have a sore throat and upper chest. Deb is ill with a cold and I probably have the same virus.

I started The Modern Game remaster on Nov 3rd, and now it's complete. I'm pleased with it, and pleased to complete it. Once done, I can work a bit on the Will You Be My Snowflake? videos, and prepare for next week's live events.

So many ropes pull me in different ways... which will win?

Modern Game Videos Complete, Sheet Music Updates

Another full day. Completed compiling all of The Modern Game videos. I made a small change to the mix of 'Looking For A Lover'. Here's a video still:

All audio and videos are now complete apart from 'All The Broken Flowers'. This uses my original vocals, which are emotional even if out of tune. They may suffice, but it's horrible to be in a situation of 'I can to better' with anything an artist makes. Sometimes this must happen due to time or budget constraints. Ken Scott often mentioned his dissatisfaction with the claps in 'Life on Mars?'.

I was unable to record new vocals today so I charged into updating my sheet music listings on my itch channel. I've distributed this in a variety of ways, but now have some that is free (generally at least one version of each track) with sold versions for a small fee on itch.io, with more complex parts. The majority is free. Much of the older albums didn't have this arrangement (I have 25 albums worth listed), so today I updated it all.

So much more to do this month. Of immediate concern after The Modern Game; three videos for the Will You Be My Snowflake? single release, rehearsals for the 4 tunes I'm performing next Tuesday, and the social work of Christmas gifts and cards.

Backup Day, Modern Game Video Work

Much of yesterday was spent on videos for The Modern Game, including a new video for 'Looking for a Lover', and improvements to most of the others. I found a bug in Argus, so fixed that too. When I find any bug in my software I won't rest until it's understood and fixed.

A super busy day today. Started with monthly backups, and other routine jobs which apply on the first day of each month. There were a few Christmas Tails sales to process.

Then charging into work on the video for 'The Trees'. Most of the videos for The Modern Game 4 are relatively simple placeholders with lyrics, but in several videos there are elements which play along to the music or make dramatic changes to follow the musical drama. 'The Trees' begins as a sort of drift through mist, a bit like the video to 'Ultramarine'. It then swirls dramatically when the musical drama hits. I also added a per-note ring for the piano notes. This is a common motif throughout this album.

At 13:30 I dashed out for a few hours of shopping, which included buying a new frame for the painting I want to enter into the Nantwich Museum Open this month; then back to work on the videos. I rendered the full videos for all tracks. This takes a lot of processing, though oddly, rendering and saving in Argus takes less time than the video creation and compression using FFMpeg. Then, I made up a few test videos, and prepared the FFMpeg scripts and YouTube text.

So, a first draft of all of the videos is now complete, including the 'Masculinity Two' single version and its B-Side.

There may be slight changes needed, but I haven't much time to tweak or change much. I remember taking weeks to make one music video, now I make 8 per day; but of course these animations are very simple. Content always takes time, and I focus my time on one or two showcase tracks and videos.

In contrast to a few days ago I find myself filled with enthusiasm and positive energy. I reminded myself that if we can't change something, we can always change our attitudes towards it. Swarms of ideas ran to my electric brain in the night, and I submitted my proposal for a regular art performance at Platform. I also proposed a Digital Cultural Archive, something I've already proposed to Nantwich Museum. I think that such an archive is really important for culture at the moment. So much cultural content is digital now, but so much of it insecure and easily lost due to the highly ephemeral nature of the internet.

I have many other ideas too... these can perhaps wait.

Onwards we charge.

CD Player Failure, New Gallery Opens

Sold 4 Christmas Tails CDs as presents to relatives, so began the day by burning these and assembling the artwork. My 7-year-old Marantz CD player seemed to complain about some discs, and it appears that the player is failing. Confusingly, some discs are more susceptible than others, but they seem to play elsewhere so I'm sure it's a fault with the CD player. Such hi-fi separates, once common and even cheap (CD players were usually the cheapest item, the amp the most costly) are now expensive and rare, around £300 to £400. This amount may be trivial to most people but is 3 or 4 months of my income.

I've spent much of the day trying to diagnose the fault and repair it. Most discs seem to play, and as yet, only CD-Rs seems to fail, but this includes, for example, our professionally manufactured Salome albums, so it's a recently developed fault with the player, not a fault with my CD-R stock.

In the afternoon I went out to to opening of the new Crewe community art gallery, 'Platform'. Chief driver of the project, Jamie, is ever friendly, encouraging, enthusiastic, though I remain frustrated, aghast, and depressed that David Jewkes always has paintings there yet, years into the so-called Crewe community art gallery project, I can't seem to get a single painting exhibited. This small exclusion so exasperates me that at times I hate the entire project.

I have an idea for a performance event there. Performance seems to be the box I've been placed in so it seems to be my only option for any sort of participation here. When a place feels unpleasant or unfriendly it becomes a hurdle just to think about doing something with them, never mind doing something for them. It's a great space for the town, there's an energy and drive behind it, and it's an important new space; yet for me it's an uphill struggle to interact at all. I know I must try. The world, most of the time for an artist, is all up hill.

I returned home and assembled two more copies of Christmas Tails, this time for Deborah.

Christmas Tails Release Day

Christmas Tails is released today on Bandcamp and will be on sale for a limited time until January 31st. All of these new Christmas songs can now be previewed on Bandcamp, and all profits from sales will go to RSPCA Stapeley Grange Wildlife Centre, Nantwich. I (and other of us 'Sprout' artists) will making up a few hand-made CD copies for those who prefer CDs to downloads.

The next events for the Electric Sprouts will be attending the Christmas Fair at Stapeley Grange on Sunday 7th December, and a fund raising performance of the songs in Crewe Library on Tuesday 9th December at 2pm.

After the launch, most of my day has been taken up with working on videos for The Modern Game remaster. I'll probably, at some distant point, make a video for my Christmas song too. Just need a few more hours in the day...

Good Vibrations, The Modern Game 4 Work

A full day yesterday, with an early start for the Good Vibrations event. The Microkorg is a great instrument for this, working well as either an organ or a bass in a sea of guitars. After that, wandering around many shops, seeking and collecting Christmas presents. Money is short. I found a terrible CD collection in a charity shop, saxophone love songs, but their great merit is that this 3 CD set unusually came in CD Single cases, so I used these for the Kate Bush CD single King of the Mountain (which originally came in cardboard) and another CD of waltzes. I printed off more CD art for my classical music. Of my music collection, I have about 200 pop/rock CDs and about 100 classical albums - though maybe 150 CDs; complete symphony cycles can take up many discs!

Today began with printing the last of this art, the track listings and artwork for the two Wagner operas I have, then a tiny update to Prometheus. Then, adding the new vocals to the climax of 'The Trees', and making more tweaks to The Modern Game 4 mix. The changes are fewer with each listen.

Then more work on the videos. 'The Trees', 'House of Glass', and 'Love in a Hopeless World' don't have lyric overlays yet. The 'Masculinity Two' video has some white screens, so I need to mask the letters to make them visible. Making the lyrics is a tedious matter of photoshopping each line of text, making lots of single images. With a mask that's 2 images per line, so 42 images for 'Masculinity Two', for example.

Most of this is done. I've broken up the album as it is into tracks, so I'm now ready to charge into making music videos proper for the entire album.

CD Shelves II Fitted

A sleepless night. Finally drifted off past 7am. One night thought was a plan for 2400mm track for the router to enable me to rout picture framing from plain wood. Not difficult, but I don't have an immediate need for new picture framing, and the storage space and cost of these long twin tracks make them undesirable at the moment.

Woke at 10 and dived into CD Shelves II work. Glued the central support, then after an hour screwed it into place, did a final bit of spray paint touching up, and fitted the shelf to the wall in the afternoon.

The time since has been spent organising my old CDs. I so hate cardboard CD sleeves! These, to me, are an excuse to save money; they can scratch the CDs, and look ugly as well as being impractical. Alas, many CDs ship like this now. I also had CDs with partial (or no) artwork from my CD book, where I've long thrown away the art and retained only the disc, so to solve all of these problems I've designed new templates for the cover and rear tray, and have today printed lots of new track lists, and created new covers. Now, for the first time in years, my copy of Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane have jewel cases. The same goes for Ha!Ha!Ha!, and many other discs.

Today I've printed and cut 22 such cases, and, apart from a few classical sets over which I must muse, my CD collection is now all on the wall in one place.

I listen to music almost exclusively on CD, I don't stream, so these shelves are part of my cultural engagement, but also my inspiration and reference library. The disorder of the last month has disrupted me for too long but now I can ignore such things and get back to art. At times I despair at the paralysis of my painting, but I remind myself that this is due primarily because I charged into music in 2020 and have made huge strides there. My plans are huge, and on track.

Onwards we stride through the viscous wind. Tomorrow, a 'Good Vibrations' event.

Prometheus v3.79, Shelves, New Tails Overture

Another full day. Started with a fix and update to Prometheus. It's possible to delay output for a specific time (render hold) then add that time to the end. This is used for look-ahead engines, specifically the Cathedral Limiter, which has an internal delay. I realised that stats were calculated for the whole render including the first delayed bit. A tiny thing, barely a bug, but it's best that the actual output is that which is analysed, so I made the changes for this. Along the way I fixed a few potential division-by-zero errors which was a far more valuable change and something I'd not noticed.

Then, the next step of CD Shelves 2. I unclamped the base, then drilled and screwed it. Then, glued and clamped the top. Then, for the Box Shelves, de-clamped and sanded the new central 'leg' and spray painted that. Spray paint is so much better than my water-based black. Then, fitted this, straightening these shelves at last.

Then wall drilling to fit a new bracket for new CD Shelves above. One of the holes was at a brick edge and impossible to drill correctly, so I filled this and inserted a short (25 or 30mm) screw into the filler, primarily for cosmetic reasons, but it might have some tiny structural benefit.

The bracket was not totally level, which can't be helped; wall drilling is never exact. Only a few fractions off, 1cm at 500mm, so I made a wooden wedge to correct it by sanding a 3mm board; then attached felt which will also mould to the weight and self-level to some extent.

So, all is on track. When the top is dry I'll test it to fit. Then I should be able to fit all shelves in one go, then fit to the wall.

Two other little jobs; clamping and internal staining yesterday's picture frame (the inside edge needed staining), and changing the Christmas Tails overture, making Deb's contribution louder, and adding Scrabble's purr to the end.

Obsessively fun though the shelf project is, I've spent too much time and money on this. I must finish The Modern Game, I expect this will take the rest of the month. My income is pitiful, my beloved Deborah is not well at the moment, and much can feel bleak, yet my skills are as good as ever. I have plans, even if my outlook is stubbornly long term when I could really do with a short term boost. What can we do but our best each day? This I do.

Barring extraordinary feedback from the artists, Christmas Tails is complete. The shelves will be finished very soon, and The Modern Game too. All good.

Onwards we fly.

Shelf Work, New Frame, TMG4 Mixing

A day of technical challenges.

First I clamped and glued the base and sides to the new shelves. The base was placed flat, with a spacer, then the loose top, this made a sandwich wide enough for the band clamp. The sides (after first drilling and countersinking pilot holes for future screws) were then placed vertically and band clamped to the base. The advantage of vertical assembly like this is that the floor is very flat, but the sides needed temporarily holding up before the clamp was tightened. When tight, everything was laid flat and the angles checked, with slight adjustments made to the tops of the verticals to make them exact right angles as it all dried. This may be overkill for mere shelves, but it will be as accurate as any other thing in the house.

Only this joint is glued, the rest will be done, joint by joint, in contrast to the first version of the shelves when everything was glued and clamped at once.

Then, removing the old shelves from the wall. On the floor they didn't sag, so the wood was not bent, but heavy under its own weight alone. My error was using wood which was too thin for the length of shelf; I made my priority a low weight, not strength. For the box shelves below, I've decided on the simplest solution of a leg to the floor. These shelves appear to be bent, rather than merely sagging, so I've applied a wedge to gradually bend back up to flat. I still consider these a first version to be replaced one day.

Then, work on a picture frame which must surround a stretched canvas. A rare job, I don't often use stretched canvas, and have hardly ever made a flush frame like this. The frame is cut, about 1 or 2mm larger than the canvas. I'll pin then staple it in place I think.

In the evening, more mixing on the new Modern Game. These songs were not written with my voice in mind and from the outset this has complicated everything. Still, this iteration will certainly sound better than any of the others.

Prometheus v3.78, CD Shelves v2.00

Started the day with more updates to Prometheus. Fixed the peaking filter, which didn't work when Wet was less than 1, and created a new Peaking Filter II, with separate post-amp. Then I updated my website, adding the Electric Sprout albums there, and putting the new album on the front page.

Back to programming. I thought of making the Cathedral Limiter a track as well as a song engine, which would make Prometheus useful for CD mastering (yet with hi-res audio); but it has a problem in that silence of one second in a track causes it to shut off until a note is played, and the look-ahead delay would create that silence. I can disable or extend it, but remembering to do that is a tad awkward. It took me hours to work out that the failure of this effect was due to this! The program also crashed once, which is worrying. It's not crashed in years. Crashes when experimenting with half-compiled plugins may be due to overlooked mistakes in that code. All I was using at the time was a Saw Wave, Peaking Filter, Cathedral Limiter.

At 13:30 I charged into woodwork on this, the last dry day forecast for weeks. With my mum's help I routed the joints and slots for CD Shelves Iteration 2. The Bosch bit is exactly 12mm, a fraction too small to create slots for 12mm MDF, so I needed to rout each joint twice, the second by about 0.2mm wider. This was enough. Then, masking, and at 15:10, spray painting. Even at 5 degrees, the paint dried quickly, perhaps because I kept the paint can inside at a cosy 18 degrees. By 16:20, the shelves were painted. A record time. Spray paint is much faster than my water-based stain.

It's Friday and I've not done a thing on The Modern Game this week. I may charge to finish the shelves first. My mood is low to despairing, but what can we do but ignore such animals and work at our best. Fate plays its hand and we must accept our cards. All we can do each day is try our best, and try to learn as we go.

Onwards we roll our heavy rock.

Woodwork Postponed, Painting Repair and Restoration

I'd hoped to rout new shelves, but it was too cold and I feared the dampness of my visible breath. Tested the new 12mm bit. The channel was too small for 12mm MDF, I wondered if the cold made the channel smaller, but perhaps not enough to make a difference. I'll aim to do this tomorrow afternoon, a still cold 5 degrees due, but better than a week of rain also forecast.

Then, work on painting restoration. After the first patch, a second yesterday to level it, and today a first application of paint.

This evening, an update to Prometheus to return the amount of pre-start silence at the start of a song; then a migraine on the left side of my head which continues agonisingly. I want to sit in the dark.

Fame at Last

Begun with singing some quick vocal for 'The Trees'. I had only about 20 minutes spare, so made the most of the time.

Then, a full day of admin on Christmas Tails and the new single, Will You Be My Snowflake? Time was when I'd finish an album and move on, now the finishing stage is full of work, which at times seems never ending. I filed Christmas Tails and sent out an email to all of the artists with a vital update. I noticed that today's Crewe & Nantwich Chronicle has a huge story about the album, so I thought this was the best time to list the album.

So, I did this, and added all tracks with lyrics, credits, ISRC and ISWC codes, and other details. This will be invisible to purchasers for now, apart from the first overture track, but it's still vital. Then, sending a preview to all artists.

Then, work on the Will You Be My Snowflake? single. Transcribed the sheet music for the two other tracks, this took a few hours. 'Heaven's Day' had to be entered manually. After that, registration of the music in various places. Musicbrainz should now (or should eventually...) list all of the tracks and artists for both albums. This meant creating the first official listings for many of the contributors, such as The Forrest Dick Band (Mick Dick and Mortimer C. Forrest, both of which are aliases).

I also had time to test the new router bits. They seemed to fit but I didn't give them a spin. I now have an urgent need for new shelves. The old ones are sagging millimetre by millimetre each day. Last night another DVD fell over due to shelf droop. We live and learn. I've removed all of the contents now. I've decided to get 5th wall bracket to ne fitted below and in the centre to reinforce everything. There is something inherently unstable with holding a rack or cabinet by the sides rather than underneath. I'll do both for iteration 2.

This evening I see that the miniature that David Lawton has painted of me is currently on exhibition in The Royal Miniature Society exhibition at Bankside Gallery, London, not far from Tate Modern. I feel famous today. Photo by Tom Mulliner.

Christmas Tails Overture, Will You Be My Snowflake Single

A super day of music work.

Started by creating an overture track for Christmas Tails. I needed a track that would be free to pre-buyers of the album, and one that acts as the free preview for browsers. It's an impossible choice to choose one of the tracks, which I consider equal, so this solves the problem. Like before, it's a medley which includes all tracks, but I with a church organ blasting out some festive sounding chords behind, where every chord seems to be suspended with Catholic cadences until the joyous C-Major at the end.

Then, work on a cover for my 'Will You Be My Snowflake?' single (with newly added question mark to the title). I'd already formed a sort of small album, with three tracks, and had thought about expanding it into 4 or 6, but then it wouldn't be ready until next year, by which time things may have changed and these may feel out of date. Up against a time wall I've decided to release them in mid-December.

The cover started with a photo of myself and some experiments with a snowflake fractal. That didn't work, so I tried a leaf brush acting as a negative mask and that looked rather pretty. Then text choice and placement. The whole thing took a couple of hours. The final touch was a star/snowflake sort of shape made using Genetica. Here is the finished cover:

After that, creation of the iTunes Digital Booklet (complete with lyrics), dividing the tracks, sending them for distribution, and the start of listing them in my catalogue. I still need to work on the sheet music and many other details; but that completes my 12th release of 2025, with The Modern Game already planned for the first month of 2026. A bumper year for new music.

In between I've worked on Christmas Tails a few times. This evening Andrew sent in a new version of his track, so the album is now complete. I'm awaiting a few small details for the filing process, and lots of background admin now needs to be done. Last time I filed it all with Musicbrainz, and will do the same here.

A last job of the evening was a two mile walk in the rain to collect my new router bits.

Christmas Tails Assembly

A full day of work on Christmas Tails, so much work. First working out the track order, setting the basic per track details and filing all of this. Then setting the master levels, and dividing the album into tracks. Plus, the visible track lists and lengths for the CD artwork, checking the lyrics. Lots of jobs.

One snag is the need for one 'free' track or one 'showcase' track, which is a key feature of Bandcamp. This was the reason I created a medley last time, a sort of overture. I may have to do the same here.

I listened to each track and checked the lyrics word by work as I listened. Amazingly (apart from my track, and Deborah's, of course) only one track, John Lindley's, had the completely correct lyrics. Each had at least one mistake, but one song clearly had 'first draft' lyrics with whole lines being different.

Here, exclusively for you good people, is the track list and order so far...

It may yet change. The release date is set for November 28th but people can pre-order it now.

Shelves Foiled, Mostly Modern Game Work

Awake for hours, ready to charge with great energy into routing my new shelves, on this, the warmest (well, mildest, at 11 degrees) and driest day for a few weeks. I woke early, assembled the wood, the hoover, rulers, and everything... but hit s snag. I'd not used the 12mm router bit, and the two that my father had used imperial shaft sizes - how I hate inches! The router comes with a few collets, but none would fit either of these, which is even more stupefying as almost all router bits come in a limited range of sizes. I sighed and was resigned to buying a new bit with the correct 8mm shaft. B & Q didn't have any (the very limited ones on offer, again stupefying, were also in inches. If I were prime minister I'd tax every device that features inches, pounds, pints, miles; it would raise money and help engineering). I ordered a set online, so must wait days, and now, my shelves which could have been completed today will take weeks. I should have tested the 12mm bit far earlier.

After that, a productive day of music. First, updating the cover artwork, and creating the 14 page iTunes Digital Booklet.

Here's the final cover (ta da!):

Then mixing the album again. In the night I thought it would be a good idea to release my Christmas song, and it's fellow two songs, as a single or EP now, rather than wait a year, so I've manically worked on mastering this. A single today has 3 tracks at most, but an EP 4 to 6, so I've toyed with making a new one. I looked at some existing songs and found a sequence inspired by Matt Gray's theme to Dominator on the Commodore 64. I quickly wrote some words on what this time of year is like; currently entitled 'Burn Me Cold':

Burn Me Cold

Dark dark November
Frigid in my bones
Everybody needin'
Money running low
It's a black white season
Don't I know

Windows are a leakin'
Saving up the mould
Give me some salvation
Dear dear Lord
And the screens that I stare at
Burn me cold

Later on, some initial mixing and track ordering for Christmas Tails. Work on that will start tomorrow.

Onwards!

The Modern Game 4 Continues, Shelf Marking

A full day of work on The Modern Game, 4th version. Created a new edit of the 'Masculinity Two' video for the longer album version, and new lyric overlays for 'The Games Played As Children', and added the new (much better!) vocals for this.

Then more work on the cover, small changes. I've mirrored the 'stave' image, placing it on the left. Then created the CD surface artwork, and more on the rear. Then small updates and fixes to the lyric booklet. Most of the artwork is now done in draft, though the images for the iTunes booklet remain.

Then final volume setting, for mastering, and lots more mixing and adjusting. 'Beyond Mars' gets brighter and brighter with each edit. The pianos are now brash and tinkly compared to the original mix; but they need to be, there are so few high frequencies here. There's more mixing to do on all tracks.

I still need to work on new videos for everything, though I hope that I can use the little animations I've created as Spotify Canvases. I expect it'll be 2 or 3 days work to make 10 or so videos, so this simple remaster will still take 3 full weeks, almost all of November.

Also today, work on the new shelves, marking out. The weather is set to rain and be very cold, so I must work on shelves tomorrow. Only 8 degrees, but still the warmest day, and so the best for spray painting. I have very limited resources here, and must pull the semi-dry work inside to dry after spraying. Steps: routing, spraying, assembly joint by joint, fitting to wall to mark and drill, final fitting.

The Christmas Tails tracks are all in. I need to organise these and master the album next week. This must, and should, take a day.

Just watched a documentary about Richard Burton. Inspirational, at any age, even as I approach the age at which he died.

Painting Repair, New Modern Game Cover, Deadlines

A busy day, as well as an angrily miserable one due to the dark weather, persistent rain and dark outlook. I was told yesterday that I was doing fine, as I had a legacy. For whom, exactly? I seem to be terminally obscure. From games, books, paintings, music; nothing is remotely popular or remotely valued. Well, all I can do is keep creating and trying to improve in my creations.

Started today by printing some photos from 2024 events. Then some work on a painting restoration job. I need to patch a torn canvas and repaint to cover the damage. It's a cheap cotton canvas, barely stretched and the wedges were not correctly used. I thought that a very thin cotton patch would be best, almost like silk. I found a white cotton handkerchief for this. I considered two main options for glue, either Paraloid B72 resin; an acrylic resin which is solvent based and archival, or PVA. Acrylic medium is possible, and stable, but it becomes waterproof and hard to remove. PVA remains soluble, and forms a hygroscopic relationship with the canvas. PVA can become mouldy.

I has a spare small canvas of the same material, so performed a test.

The B72 was my primary choice. It was difficult to apply as expected, with a mix of resin and acetone. The resin seeped through the canvas and left a thick hard gloss finish where visible. The patch was somewhat stiff when dry. The PVA discoloured the area with its water, but I expected that this effect would be minimal on a painted surface, and the result was a lot less messy. I chose PVA, using a 1:1 PVA:water mix, less water than in my test, then added a layer of Golden GAC400, an acrylic stiffening agent.

The result was good, though the tear in the painting remained concave, mirroring its shape from the front, as though the canvas was stretched and dented by an impact. This may be difficult to fix; removing any dent in semi-rigid fabric like this may be impossible, it's a bit like removing a dent in a sheet of tin foil. However, I plan on adding a thicker and stiffer patch over this, made from the test canvas.

After that work, I got to work on The Modern Game artwork. I like the Marius cover, so the main job is changing the name. As with Marius, I drew the name by hand. Here it is so far:

Then, work on the vocals for 'The Trees' and 'The Games Played As Children'. They are adequate, certainly better than the old ones, but I didn't feel in the mood and felt tired and restricted. I may re-record everything.

Throughout the day I've also worked on a new music pack for Flatspace, one for Another Violet Night.

It's now one day until the deadline for the Christmas Tails tracks. All of the tracks bar one were sent in weeks ago, and I'm still waiting for one. I have zero tolerance for people who miss deadlines. Deadlines are an excellent test of honesty and reliability. Not one minute's grace will be offered.

Singeth Sheet Music, CD Shelves II Begin

A slower day today which included a nice visit from a friend.

Several hours were spent working on the Fall in Green sheet music for our Christmas Tails entry, 'Singeth To The Body Winter'. It's a simple tune and took far longer than expected. It is in essence a string quartet, so it is scored as such. There's a clarinet in there, I may add that later.

Then, sawed some wood for 'CD Shelves II'; a second, hopefully improved, version of the first rack, which are too weak. These will use 12mm MDF throughout, have a vertical spine which runs from top to bottom, be spray painted before assembly, and have each joint fixed and glued once at a time over several days rather than all at once, with the aim of greater angle accuracy and less internal stress. The next step is the 12mm routing. I did the sawing today outside as today looks like the only dry day within the next two weeks.

Nothing else done, yet my to-do list is bigger than ever.

Another Violet Night Review

First album review:

“With Another Violet Night Mark Sheeky stands like an Easter Island head on the Cheshire Plain, a conduit of the passing ages but placed in the 21st century here and now. Songs to see you through, a flood of media and gadgets which define the now, to whistle defiantly as the familiar powers that be play on our paranoia.

On that windswept Cheshire Plain the sounds of Syd Barret, Depeche Mode, the Penguin Café and John Taverner, travelled the airwaves to the stone edifice of Mark Sheeky who was listening and absorbing nuances, gathering, mixing and adding his own identity.

Here are tunes and words to give courage in the predicament of a cruelly evolving world where defence comes in the form of show tunes and music hall with synth beats to accompany the disco of disaster.

In this instance the show tunes are an insight into the creative process where this is, the Mark Sheeky show.”

Peter Lilley, Nov 2025

Good Vibrations, Remasters

A nice singalong at the fortnightly Good Vibrations event in the library. I felt somewhat weak and exhausted and didn't play well, but the joy of these events is that it didn't matter, the music is part chaos but all joyous. Mike's leadership of each song is so vital. The after show lunches are becoming special events in themselves. We had a table of nine today, a record. We may need to start to book.

After that, lots of shopping for various winter related oddities like presents, spray paint, Japanese foodstuffs, old CDs.

As I've said to an interminable degree, I had hoped to complete a remaster of The Myth Of Sisyphus this year; with my plan of remastering one old album for each new one, but the change of distributor meant remastering a lot along the way for various reasons, so Sisyphus must wait! This should be no surprise, as I found out today that I've released a new (or remastered - which for me means partly re-recorded) album every month but one this year:

2025 Releases

Jan - Fear Of The Thing Itself
Feb - The Dusty Mirror
Mar -
Apr - Letters From A Square Spoon [new]
May - The Arcangel Soundtrack
Jun - Flatspace (The Official Soundtrack)
Jul - Finnegans Judgement
Aug - The End And The Beginning
Sep - All Controlled By Someone [new]
Oct - Another Violet Night [new]
Nov - Christmas Tails [new]
Dec - Tree Of Keys

Modern Game 4 Lyric Videos, Argus v1.61

Yesterday, bought more wood for shelves part 2, plus some for a future wardrobe.

Mixed the new Modern Game a little, making important changes. Most of the changes are movements from the bass, adding or enhancing higher frequencies. I also prepared for more vocals, for the last track 'The Trees', although today I realised that I'll have to re-record the vocals for the B-Side to 'Masculinity Two' too, a strange and fear-laden song called 'The Games Played As Children'.

Today, a long and often frustrating day creating the overlay text for animated lyric videos for these songs. I wanted to get the basics of the subtitles for every track. It's past 7pm and all are just about finished, apart from those two tracks that need new vocals. The subtitles were complicated by the fact that the three extant music videos are 30 FPS, when I now typically animate (and create the subtitles) at 25 FPS, so three of the videos had different timing and different frame numbers. A change I made to the last version of Argus also stopped my ability to split up the Set Modulator events, so I re-added the feature and therefore updated Argus to v1.61.

I've generally felt cold, weak, ill and anxious to the point of despair; yet used this as an incentive to work as steadily as ever. I like these songs more and more, even though I've heard them thousands of times, and it's important that the words and meanings, their art, is shared as best I can. So, the job of making the videos is, I think, necessary, so the faster I can complete this necessary job the better.

Other jobs on this album are those new vocals, and the lyric overlays for those; new cover artwork; updating the lyric booklet (one word has changed in the lyrics, and some capitalisation, I even spotted a glaring error); a new iTunes Digital Booklet; mastering and final balancing; dividing the tracks; admin and registration of the new works; final videos created, compiled, uploaded.

The last of the Electric Sprout songs should be coming very soon, so I must also master that. My hopes of remastering or re-recording The Myth of Sisyphus this year are perhaps overly ambitious, especially as I need to transcribe the sheet music for that. I must also complete the new shelves this month, and perhaps a painting for the Nantwich Open Art Exhibition... and I'd hoped to record some audiobooks and perhaps work on a new book.

Onwards we battle.

Binary Quantum Gravity

I've been thinking about some issues regarding gravity, and the need for gravity to be quantised, not for reasons of unifying any current laws of physics, but due to philosophical problems with classical gravity.

For gravity to operate, the curvature of space at every point needs to be stored. Mass shines out its existence at the speed of light with a ray of communication. Some points of space are more curved than others, depending on the strength of the gravity, but in essence this 'strength' is a simple result of the density of the rays emitted from the massive object. Let's assume these rays are streams of particles, the so-called graviton.

In classical gravity, this curvature of space can vary smoothly; sometimes shallow, sometimes steep. I presume that in a place without mass, space would be flat.

Space must be divided into tiny cells, grids, which store information like this. If not, there would be no sense of scale, no root, things would slide to infinity. Classical gravity has this problem, quantum mechanics does not; and the quantum must be correct. There are no infinities in the universe. One infinity would create another, and quickly and infinite number of infinite everything. If we find or need infinities, we, I submit, are wrong.

So, space is divided into cells which store information on the curvature of space into time. What sort of value is this? We may imagine it's a variable quantity, a 'steep' curve, a 'shallow' curve, no curve, an 'infinitely steep' curve. If this were the case then what value is the curvature of space on the boundaries between cells?

Thinking of this reminded me of the problem of dithering a sound wave into a low-bit resolution. I've written another piece here about audio dithering and quantum mechanics but I'll recapitulate. When digitising a smooth wave, we can assign a value to the nearest number that the wave amplitude corresponds with, sort of like fitting the wave into a series of boxes and choosing the nearest box to the current amplitude. See here:

Were are converting our nice smooth wave into 8 bits of digital, the 8 boxes on the right. Value 1 is exactly in the centre of the box, so that's perfect for the top box. Value 2 is not in the middle of a box, but it has a nearest box, so we put it there. Value 3 is on a boundary though... which box do we put it into?

We can choose top or bottom consistently, but there's something not quite right about it, because the reality we are trying to represent is that the sound is half way between, not in one box or the other.

The solution to the problem is dithering. We choose a random value, roll a dice so to speak, and 50% of the time we choose the top box and 50% of the time we choose the lower. For Value 2 we choose the upper box most of the time, but sometimes choose the lower box. This random value doesn't add 'noise', it makes the results more accurate; and quantum mechanics does the same thing. Dithering in this way is how and why quantum mechanics can be both accurate and random, and how it can avoid infinities by using random values in a digital arena.

Gravity must do the same, because without it any storage of analogue information on a cell-by-cell level would create inaccuracies across the cell boundaries. So, the curvature of space must not be a variable quantity, but a binary one. At each cell of space, space is flat or infinitely curved; that is all. What do we mean by the curvature of space, and flat and infinitely curved when we have already railed against infinities? General relatively shows that spatial dimensions are curved into the time dimension. Objects move fully in space, and the faster they move, the slower they move in time. At the speed of light, an object is moving fully in space and not at all in time. Stationary objects are not moving in space but moving fully in time. As an object accelerates, its movement through time decelerates.

This seems like a smooth, analogue process, but I postulate that it is not, that it is merely two extremes. At every point we either move fully though space at the speed of light, or move fully though time and are stationary. These are the only two values for the curvature of space: zero and one. Thus the map of the spatial curvature of our solar system is not smooth, analogue, and 'greyscale', but black and speckled with white. Compare these two photographs:

The latter is a binary image of the former, it uses only black and white dots, yet from a distance, the level of grey can be inferred due to random scattering. It is in this way, I postulate, that the curvature of space is stored. Objects which move though this space move, on a per-particle basis, fully through space or fully through time, but on average, it appears that the whole object is gliding through space-time in the correct proportions.

Problems regarding infinite spatial curvature in the centre of black holes vanish; objects are either stationary or moving at the speed of light. Everything on a quantum level is only doing either of these, and in our macroscopic experience changing rapidly between the two to produce the illusion of something in between.

Looking for a Lover Version 4

Two days of work mostly on The Modern Game. Recorded new vocals for 'Looking for a Lover' and 'Coming Back to Earth' yesterday, as well as Deb's vocals for our Christmas song, and have added all of these today. 'Looking' was always a bit of a production struggle. I always thought of the song as a Thriller-era Michael Jackson song, so I wanted some staccato-style vocals, but these carry a limited tone. The first two versions of this song used relatively normal vocals throughout. Version 3 used band-limited vocals with a scratchy telephone sound, which sounded rather nice. The new version uses a bit of both, and the fourth verse doubles up the vocals in octaves for a time, then breaks into the higher pitch before the chorus.

'Coming Back to Earth' by comparison is very similar to other versions, but does benefit from new, richer vocals for the plain verses, and better bass balancing.

I've also tweaked the mixes on all tracks. 'Beyond Mars' has higher pianos. I have a book on mixing. The most useful tip, the only useful tip in the book, is that all mixing desks have a high pass (bass-cut) switch and that most tracks are high passed. They cite a piano as an example of what not to high pass, which is terrible advice. Pianos and vocals are almost the only things that are always high passed. Every piano on a rock or pop song is twinkly and pushed into the high frequencies. A natural classical piano is quite muffly most of the time, and fits very closely within the frequency range of a voice, which is why it's best moved up, even the bass notes are high passed; if not especially so because they can so easily boom.

All songs are now finished apart from 'The Trees', which needs new vocals, and the final mixing and mastering. This is only the first half of the remaster; the new art and new lyric videos will probably take longer than the music.

I'm unhappy with my CD shelves, which are drooping in the middle by about 9mm. A shelf should be considerably heavier than the weight of the objects on it; this rule is one I've only just made and discovered after making these. Well, version 1 of everything is always, and should always be, about learning. I can re-use the screws, fittings, and everything apart from the wood, so a second version of the shelves is now in planning.

Modern Game 4 Recording

Things feel bleak at the moment. The economy seems to be depressed, even considering this is a traditional annual low. I feel hounded by requests and favours. I expect things come in waves, so can hope for some glimmers of success. Christmas Tails is getting some nice publicity courtesy of local journalist friends, so this is one positive. Andrew send me his tune for the album today. On the face of it it's a simple rendition of 'O Little Town of Bethlehem', yet, as in all of his music, he's managed make it full of fun and joy.

Another glimmer is my singing. The most recent, third, Modern Game re-recording was at the start of 2022. I recorded new vocals for 'Love in a Hopeless World' and 'House of Glass' today and am astonished at how much easier I found the process than before, and how much instantly better the results are than those of a mere 3 years ago. So, 3 years can be a long time.

I will keep some of the old vocals. The distorted rock vocals in 'Coming Back to Earth' are fine. The hard part now is the general mixing, which is down to the complex and non-standard arrangements with many of the songs. 'Two Kinds of Animals' has huge quiet bits, then an explosion of sound effects, vocoder megaphone speech, and other things which can't be 'mixed' in a true sense, so these sections can throw off checks of global balance. The pop songs like the two I recorded today are much easier; most were broadly fine but benefitted from less bass and a few more high pass filters.

In bleak times or times of plenty we must work just as hard, steadily heaving our rock.

Last night was the television joy of Celebrity Traitors, a rare example of a contemporary programme I've watched. In this case, Deb and I watched it all together over the weeks. It was a gripping series, and genuinely moving to see Alan Carr win.

Tonight is the preview of the Castle Park Open Art Exhibition and Colin from Galleria Balmain should be there, which will be nice. I must sell a painting here, and if so it will be 'Song of Experience'...

Now, I must attend to my outfit.

The Modern Game 4, Phone Irks, Aldora Britain

A day of work on The Modern Game remaster. It's amazing how much my voice has changed and improved since even that 3rd recording of it. Some tracks didn't really benefit much from new vocals, so some are more or less complete. 'Masculinity Two' was remixed a little. New vocals for 'Beyond Mars' and 'Two Kinds Of Animals'. Mars is a complex mix, it's largely piano, strings, vocals; a lot of mid-range sounds, not much bass, and even fewer high frequency sounds.

I had a message that my phone is not 4G compatible; hugely annoying as my mum bought this phone a couple of months ago from a phone shop with the specific aim of buying 4G phones for myself and herself. It seems that neither hers nor mine is 4G and that she was mis-sold. I did suspect my phone wasn't; the little '4G' symbol wasn't on screen, and my phone is full of bugs and doesn't appear to be a UK phone (the only city available in the time zone settings is Beijing). Similar (but again hopefully 4G) phones are now in short supply and expensive, so two for £70 have been ordered, with a long wait and a hope that these will work.

Aldora Britain published my interview, then asked for payment, which was explicitly stated as not necessary beforehand. Despite that, I of course expected this. Aldora Britain have something of a nagging and scamming reputation, but it's a good enough article, and I am, at very least, in a small group with the other artists in the issue. If I had an interview in a magazine I'd buy the magazine, so I made a voluntary payment. I will wait to see how far they promote their magazine.

Music Dream, Christmas Tails Cover Reveal, Prometheus v3.77

I watched an episode of Tracking Sounds  on YouTube, featuring 'Madam Who?' last night. What great pop songs she writes and produces. After the hour of listening, I listened to many of her singles. Pure pop, great melodies, intelligent lyrics. I can hear the Go-Go's influence.

I slept badly. I dreamt that I was set to meet Pete Saxer, for a long stay of some sort. While all packed and ready I'd set my watch oddly, and confused the alarm time and the actual time so I missed the bus in great disappointment. A second dream featured myself and Deb, playing in a music performance. A band of 4 or 5 young men, boys to us, were playing as a band too. I discussed synthesizers with them. Their instruments were simple, amateurish in their way, but they had youth and the joy of naïve mistakes.

Today, I completed a text interview today from a music zine and record label called Aldora Britain. I noticed that I am (rather than 'we are') in the local press with a Christmas Tails story written by Jonathan White. This was sent out before the cover creation day, a second story was submitted very recently with photos from the day, including photos of the artists.

It's also the public 'cover reveal' for the album. Here it is:

Most of today was spent fixing a bug in Prometheus, a rare thing now. The program can set an parameter in a playing instrument, track, or the whole song. Since v2.20 in 2010 these can slide from one value to another, so I can, for example, gradually fade down the volume of a track, or turn up the reverb wet. In all this time I've never faded two different parameters over the same space of time. This is quite legal and was designed to be possible, but the logic of what to fade to was a bit scrambled and didn't work. In fact I can start a fade of, say, pitch, and end the fade as, say, amplitude and, until today, the second value would be considered pitch! In all of the years I'd not noticed this obvious bug.

So I spent today fixing this. I also added the feature to automatically name a track by the first instrument played on it. So, now Prometheus is at v3.77.

I'm feeling very musically inspired. I've started the basic admin of the remaster/re-recording of The Modern Game. Listening back, there are some vocal elements that I can do much better today. Some of the first version vocals, the weak but emotional 'All The Broken Flowers' will be kept. I want to get this all out of the way, and the next one, so I can work on new things.

Fall in Green Production, CD Sorting

Today, finalised the music for the Christmas Tails Fall in Green track. Deb wrote the words a couple of weeks ago. I started by experimenting with keyboard sounds and modified the 'Tron Flute' to be something like Tron Strings, a sort of crackly and band limited string quartet. I played a few chords while mentally running though the words. The melody was largely in the bass, the music was essentially some chords which shifted majestically.

Today I experimented with a few layers, but this fundamentally live piece worked largely as played. I've added a deeper bass for some parts, and added an alien clarinet sound here and there. One final thing was adding some ambience, some live scenery, so I took a live recording. I think all is ready for Deb's vocals.

Everything was complete by 1pm.

Most of the day was spent updating my old CD collection, those 'second rate' discs without cases. I've created, printed, and cut new artwork for the CDs which lacked it and assembled many with new cases, including the 9-discs of Daniel Barenboim playing the complete Beethoven piano sonatas. A lot of these 'second rate' discs are best-of discs. I'm unsure what is worth keeping, though some are decades old and hold a special memory, rather than being good quality music. I can re-buy some, like 'Heart and Soul', the T'Pau album. Some, like Bucks Fizz' Legends (I can hear you applaud my taste) are out of print. I always preferred actual albums rather than anything best-of.

I may bin a few. Lots of discs have already been binned today. Aphex Twin (boring, a gift), even a Missa Solemnis; I don't need lots of versions of this. I'm wondering whether it's worth keeping my 9 CDs of the complete Bruckner Symphonies, when I found them forgettable. I'll keep Sibelius and Mendelssohn, and probably the Wagner Operas. My aim should be to create a palette, a wide gamut of quality. I'll keep Punishment of Luxury, and The Mothers of Invention album for now. I'll ditch Abba Gold, and all of Yes with joy. 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' is an interesting production, but even that, their only hit, is hardly a good song; and everything else Yes ever did is massively worse. I don't have that Trevor Horn album anyway.

Frodsham, CD Shelves, Winter Party Poster, Au Revoir Distrokid

Frenetic days. A trip to Frodsham yesterday to deliver my three paintings to Castle Park Arts Centre, then back home and a quick type up of Wednesday's event to form some sort of press release.

Then, putting up my CD shelves, which was exhausting. Drilling the wall and fitting the rawl plugs wasn't not too difficult, but the screws did not want to go in, they entered half way and spun like crazy, until forced. I half think that the speed of the screw was causing the plug to melt or twist somehow. After this, a trip to Deb's for some more tweaks, mostly aesthetic to the alcove shelves.

Today I moved by CD collection from one set of drawers to the new shelves. I now have the sort of CD shelves I could only have dreamed of in the 90s, and perhaps even then secretly wanted.

I love jewel cases, and often throw away CDs which ship in those horrid cardboard cases. My old theory was to amass 100 CDs, and cast away any that were worse than those 100, thus evolving the best 100 CDs evet; but I found myself wanting more than 100, so I kept some. These were mostly filed, disc only with minimum artwork, in one of those books where the plain discs can be slotted in. That book now presents a problem, I want to remove those discs and put the discs back into CD jewel cases.

This will take days. I want to make and print my own artwork for each disc, I at least need to see the spine. I already feel overwhelmed at the work.

I had news that my talk at Macclesfield College due this week, in planning since July, has been magically cancelled yet again. This date has already been set three times. I can't afford to waste more time on this.

The album cover is finalised, the big public reveal set for Wednesday. Another job done today was the design of the poster for the Crewe Library Winter Party, and the final cancellation of my remaining Distrokid releases. I must, therefore, get working on the fourth recording of The Modern Game this month. My priority though, is finishing the music for the Fall in Green Christmas Tails track. This is becoming urgent.

Onwards I dart.

Shelves, Another Violet Night Released

Slept for nearly 12 hours and awoke at 10:30. First attended to a few changes and some feedback from the album cover design. I've added Andrew's cat 'Scrabble' to it, nice to have Andrew included on the cover, even if by proxy!

Most of the day was spent putting up my shelves, the lower set. First, these were put against the wall in the right place, then the brackets marked and attached. The screws were a tiny bit too long, 1mm or so, so very slightly caused some barbs inside. Then, the shelves were held to the wall. They were slightly trapezoid; perhaps inevitable because of the way they were assembled. I corrected this then marked the wall holes. These were drilled twice, with a 3mm then 7mm bit. This was the easiest wall drilling I've ever done, all due to these new bits!

The rawlplugs were fitted but some of the 50mm screws got stuck and kept spinning. I removed them with difficulty, then used the thinner 3.5mm diameter screws rather than 4.5mm. Those worked, though I'd prefer the strength of the 4.5mm. It may be that the rawlplugs simple expanded too much at the bottom end. I keep feeling the desire to remove the thinner screws and replace, but 12 50mm screws should hold the shelves. The length is perhaps more important than the width, screws much more commonly fall out than snap.

I marked the top shelf, and had the idea of using M4 washers to stop the bracket screws from being too long, this worked brilliantly.

Then, at 5pm, Deborah reminded me that it was the release day of Another Violet Night! I did some basic release duties on Bandcamp, made a few social media posts. The first video goes live tonight.

Christmas Tails Cover, Snowflake Sheet Music

Today, working on the Christmas Tails cover. Photographing the plain artwork, then working on the digital version. It's a similar look and idea to last time, but the colours here have a a green rather than blue base, so the letters have more blue. Here is a comparison between the first album and the draft-in-progress of the new album:

Then, work transcribing the sheet music for my song, 'Will You Be My Snowflake'. The song is fine and fun, but I wrote it two years ago, and it's not pushing any limits, not showcasing any brilliance, and it can't really be said to be like my music except that it's wild, unpredictable, and utterly different. I may even write another, but my musical priority is working on the Fall in Green track. I've played a few improvised chords and will use that MIDI sequence as my basis for that. This, at least, will be an unusual and expressive Christmas song.

Much of this month has been spent on woodwork. I'd hoped to remaster two or perhaps three albums. In the end, I managed just Tree Of Keys, but that at least was certainly improved.

After the Fall in Green track I must remaster The Modern Game, as it will soon be taken down. A few days ago I sold the first ever copies of The Modern Game book and Deep Dark Light.

Onwards we roll our heavy boulder.

Shelves and Cover Creation Day

The main job of yesterday was painting and staining my shelves. I was lucky that they fitted down the stairs, to carried outside, and stained black. The floor is now full of black marks. I have a solvent based black stain, but Golden Fluid Acrylic, Carbon Black, with water makes a much better and more even stain than the solvent black. That paint makes a superlative stain, but works best for the finest particle colours like this one, the phthalo's, dioxazine.

I also upgraded Prometheus with a new audio effect, a random filter/amplitude/pitch effect, which unifies all three values. This is useful for a degree of realism, as louder, brighter sounds often move a bit higher in pitch in natural instruments.

In the evening, I did a bit more of Deb's alcove shelves. Two problems appeared which were solved. Firstly, the side columns fell away. These rest on the floor, so I didn't think the joint to the top (lintel-like) part needed to be strong, but I hadn't anticipated torque force of the swinging doors. This was considerable, and the joint broke due to that, not the door weight. This was fixed with glue, then two 50mm vertical screws. They were in the plans from the start, but I'd hoped to avoid them for aesthetic reasons. A double dowel inside may have mitigated the torque force, but would have complicated the hot-melt glue system. The left door in now fitted well. The second problem was slight shelf sag, which was fixed with a hook-eye in the back 'wall' below the shelf, to take the weight; the shelves are now fitted too. The next step is fixing the whole thing in place with long (over 100mm) screws, then fitting the right door in place, which will mean removing and moving its hinges.

Today, a busy cover creation day in Crewe Market Hall for The Electric Sprout Foundation album. Creative Crewe kindly tagged me on to their event and supplied a few pens and felt tips. Carol Wilkinson has always been hugely encouraging and supportive to me and my art, since the beginning, offering me my first exhibitions in her beloved shop The Cubby Hole. But, she is encouraging and supportive to all local arts, she's a special community asset, like Mike Drew is, like John Lindley is.

All of the artists bar two came to today's event. Paul Parish arrived first, the man who came up with the album title.

I created a square of cardboard as the background and quickly painted it green. The plan was a sort of forest with the artists and animals hiding behind trees. There weren't many animals, but Charlotte from the RSPCA came along with some animal photos, perfect! Most of the creation was a matter of visitors (mostly children, though most of us music artists had a go too) colouring tree or leaf shapes, then me sticking them on. Deborah came before noon, then the people from Congleton; Mike Drew, Pete and Andy, John Lindley, John Miller, Glyn Roberts; and later Steve and NatalieGrace from Nastee Chapel, and Mike and Rona from We Are Nomad.

Photographer Peter Robinson came and took lots of great photos of the day (the photos here are Deb's, the first I have to hand). Peter's a mainstay of the local press, a press which today relies on volunteers to write and produce local news.

There wasn't a time where all of the electric sprouts were present at once, but there were lots of group images. One album was sold there, and the total raised so far is approaching £100. Next, I must finish the design, photograph it, then add details like the title text. I can't wait to share the album with everyone.

Back row: Glyn Roberts, Charlotte from Stapeley Grange, Peter Lilley. Front row: John Miller, Mike Drew, Mark Sheeky.

More Will You Be My Snowflake Production

Lots of production work on 'Will You Be My Snowflake' Today.

Changing the synth clarinet for a sampled one sounded much better, so I decided to sample some of the new waveforms. Most of the day then was taken up with sampling lots of clarinets.

After that, more time consuming changes. The middle instrumental section needed a solo of some sort, so I played the keyboard with lots of instruments and feelings. A ragged old upright piano was the first thing in my mind. In the evening, I tried a strange sound of synth 'jazz' voices, something like robot scat singing. This sounded suitable futuristic and old fashioned at the same time, so I played a live solo. The sounds in this preset are triggered at random, adding further to the chaos.

Then I experimented with some choirs, which remarkably hymnal. I played the theme as an intro, and faded up a powerful sound which included strings and an immense pipe organ. This became a perfect intro. This leads into the jaunty intro, the echo and nod to Sixty-Four. It seemed to cry out for a bell, like a full stop there, so I added one, and suddenly the bell called for a typewriter, so I swapped the cowbell of the song for a type writer there, as though the protagonist was typing a letter.

So, the song is approaching 3 minutes and has had about 3 weeks of little changes.

Christmas Tails Preparations, More Shelf Work

Another power day of work.

First, lots of Christmas Tails admin, contacting the artists and managing the first sales. The album is available to buy now, for those who certainly want a copy of this musical exclusive. 6 sales so far, with something around £40 raised for the RSPCA.

Then my first Christmas present duties of the year. This always takes lots of time.

Then lots of preparation for the album cover creation day on Wednesday. Packing everything, preparing promotional slips (with a link to the album), permission slips, and printing the risk assessment. Finding a card backing board for the whole thing, cutting 50 tree and sycamore leaf shapes. These will be coloured in. The general design (in my head) is a forest, with animals and the artists hiding here and there. Then printing the artist images.

John Lindley wins the coolest photo award.

I managed a little work on Deb's shelves. I shaved off 2mm from each edge, actually using a jigsaw, the tool I command best. 2mm is the width of the blade, but it managed to cut amazingly accurately. I also did a test regarding the reattachment of hinges. The ultimate reason the hinges were misplaced was that the right side was not fixed firmly enough to the top. Some hot-melt glue bled from the dowel hole and glued the top. This glue sticks well but only a tiny amount of glue was present, and it's very viscosity stops it sinking into the wood. Glue must really penetrate the wood to stick well. It was glued firmly enough so that the side didn't pull out when tugged, but not so well that it didn't wobble; a worst of all worlds to some extent. I'll have to pull it apart and glue that joint correctly as a first step.

Then it's a complex process to fit the doors perfectly. First, the doors need to be held firmly but temporarily in the exact place. The hinges are then glued in their exact place with superglue, then the wood drilled through the hinge hole. If this partly impinges on another hole then drilling can be tricky, but the firmly glued hinges should stop the drill from slipping sideways. If the hinge hole is shared with another (old and inaccurate) hole (which I expect) then, a tiny amount of the holt-melt glue (acting here as a filler) can be squeezed into the hole, then screws attached while it's soft. I tested this today and it seemed to work. If the hole is all-new in virgin wood then I don't need that glue. The glue is there to stop the screw slipping into the old hole. The hinges should then, in theory, be firmly fixed where they lie.

Before Wednesday I really need to finish my Christmas song, and compose one for Fall in Green. Less urgently, I need to cut the supports for my other shelves, paint them and fit them to the wall to get that job out of the way.

Framing For Castle Park 2025

Framing three paintings today for the Castle Park Open.

Framing is, assuming you don't need to make the frame:

1. Marking and cutting a spacer from mount board. Done by marking each inner edge while comparing with the frame, and using a craft knife to cut to exact size. Cutting and checking the fit, then marking the inner edge, depending on the rebate; 6mm is common, then cutting. Marking and cutting the backboard in a similar way to the spacer, then marking and cutting the glass. Marked in a similar way, using fine white-board or OHP marker. The glass should be wiped clean before scoring, I tend to wipe with meths. Then scoring, flip the glass over and press on the scored area to extend the crack along the length. At that point the glass will fall apart rather than anything as risky as a snap. Cutting acrylic glazing is best done with a craft knife, but I always hate that process.

2. Assembly of the artwork (frame, glass, spacer, painting, backboard). Bits of dust commonly get into the painting so the finished picture needs constant checking. White dust shows up worst so working on a black background works best. A piece of masking tape or some blu-tak is good for removing dust. A blower can work, combined with a vacuum cleaner. A ball of cling film is a good choice for acrylic glazing, it's sticky but far less so than tape.

3. Fitting it all together. If the painting fits in the recess you can use panel pins to hold it, or 'points' and a special point-insertion tool. I prefer 20mm panel pins as they are easier to remove in future and cause less damage to the frame. For paintings without a recess, those level with the frame, spring clips will hold it tight. At a pinch you could use mirror plates, bent to act in a similar way.

Then taping a dust seal around the edge (done first for when using spring clips). I apply tape sometimes, sometimes not. The tape can be messy and difficult to remove, so it depends on how permanent I consider the framing.

4. Labelling, all artwork should be clearly labelled. Drilling and fixing mirror plates. Drilling and fixing hangers or D-rings for the string.

5. Measuring and weighing; important if the painting is ever to be shipped and it hugely saves time to do this now.

6. Photographing the painting in frame and tidying that photo.

7. Wrapping and packing away.

Compose Yourself, Argus, First Cabinet Finalised, and More

Most of yesterday was spent preparing for the 'Compose Yourself' event. A great night, my first return to The Electric Picture House since my freezing Spiral Staircase performance in 2016. It's moved venue since.

9 musicians performed 3 original songs each: Mick Lomas with Chris Wood, David Fray; Dave Boothroyd; Electric guitarist Chris Wood with John Miller, David Fray, Phill Swindells (jazzy and bluesy these); Lennie Munday (who sang unaccompanied folk tales); Glyn Roberts with Chris Wood, John Miller and Phill Swindells; Mick Dick (Mike Drew) - with myself on keyboard and John Miller on vacuum cleaner (yes!) for one track; John Lindley and The Poachers (Chris Wood, David Fray, John Miller, Phill Swindells); myself; then John Miller with Chris Wood, David Fray, Phill Swindells to finish the night.

I performed 'More', 'The Parents in the Walls', and a piano version of 'Incomplete Version of the Writer', which had something of 'Candle in the Wind' about it in this form; but of course better I think - despite my love of that brilliant song! Now I think of it, I coincidentally mirrored Elton's dress sense with my glitter suit, its first outing. Each attendee paid £15 to be there, and a quick head count indicates that we raised over £500 for Médecins Sans Frontières.

There were many great songs and performances on the night. I always find it more inspirational, encouraging, to hear new music. Mike Drew sounded better than ever, and paid a nice tribute to John with a setting of one of his poems to music. The sound mixing and quality was exemplary from John Miller, as were his exacting performances.

Today, filed yesterday's event, and updated Argus to v1.60 with new features to enhance the track separation.

Then, work on the alcove cabinet. The four doors were papered as a solid mass, so that they would be seamless when closed. These were laid on the frame, and the outer hinges marked and fitted. Then the doors flipped and the inner Z-bend hinges marked and fitted, only then the wallpaper sliced with a sharp knife to reveal the finished doors.

They may need adjustment as the actual placement of the hinges will vary when the frame is locked in place. I have a plan for this if required.

Another event from yesterday was that Nastee Chapel sent me their track for Christmas Tails, which is now on pre-sale. The next event for me is the public album cover design day next Wednesday in Crewe Market Hall, 11am to 3pm. Several of the acts from last night will be there, plus I hope Nastee Chapel, Andy Stubbs, Mike Aitchison, and a few others.

Another thing was that my missing parcel turned up. Not only did the driver not try to deliver it here, he delivered it to a different address than the one he stated, and by coincidence, they had an identical front door and porch as the wrong address, so the delivery photo was no help. A community group on Facebook came to the rescue and connected me with the actual recipient.

Today, I heard that my three paintings have been accepted into the Castle Park Open Exhibition, which opens next month. None are framed, so I have a week to frame them. The exhibition opens on Nov 7th.