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.

Masochistic Gaia Plans

The start of work on a new painting entitled 'Masochistic Gaia Toying With Humanity'. The hottest day here of this heatwave, 27 degrees inside. I've barely the energy to work, and have watched some of the gripping tennis final, unable to face more drawing.

The composition needed more, so I added a fish from 'Bye Bye Little Fishes, And Thank You' (with the same meaning; the fish also appeared in Annunciation). The idea features a distorted figure, but with a strange face, which is in the air and upside down relative to the body. I decided to make this more 'realistic' in shading and look, but now I'm less sure. A mock-face as in 'Bunting Game' may work better.

She Just Looks Empty Plans

The hottest day of the third heatwave of 2024, 30 degrees out and 26 indoors. I've started work on painting, continuing work on 'She Just Looks Empty' from last year. Here's the original idea sketch:

I want to stick, as ever, to the original feeling and idea, but there are many influences and enhancements to the core mood of isolation, alienation. The little figures, initially simply gazing upon the broken 'building' figure, are now a couple, perhaps married life, or strife, a breaking point, but always a contrast, separate from the main figure like a memory or idea. Here is the underdrawing:

The top right has an orange (in my mind's eye) glow, here a toy rabbit; a symbol of non-human companionship, or a symbol of (social) fear.

I've prepared the canvas, and a copy for a colour study, and I made a lighting model from cardboard too.

It makes more sense to paint a few colour studies in one session rather than just one painting, so I may plan more works before proceeding. As far as goals go, there is no target (no competition or exhibition) for this painting.

Stratford, Another Violet Night Complete

A trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon yesterday. My first visit to this delightful town, more timber framed old buildings than even Nantwich. It was however very hot, around 30 degrees, and the 3-hour each way coach trip was a particular test of physical endurance; there was no air conditioning, it had apparently broken, though the coach was decades old and I suspect the company of stinginess regarding the use of this expensive device. The cramped heat and disruption to my eating routines led to a night of stomach agony (despite a light meal of only weak porridge at 7pm). Such trips take days off my life and today I am recovering.

I think that Another Violet Night is complete, and have listened a few times without wanting changes. I now dislike all of it, a sign that I'm ready to move on. I must try to promote it a little despite my prejudice. One notable aspect is that it's as dark as my paintings, as much about pain, loneliness, and longing as any romantic work. A Drive Through The Town was, by comparison, one of my most joyous and exuberant energy-filled works. The new album was made because I wanted a contrast and more raw humanity.

I have the tracks to divide, a listing on my website. There is a lot of other admin work regarding the music, once I'm completely certain the album is finished. Here are the tracks and times:

Album Complete, Machine Life Dominance, First AI Album

A slower day of music work. Made two tiny changes to the album, and I think it is now complete. I expect every new album to take less time, and each seem to take more time. I'm pleased with it, but already want to move on to something new and different. How impatient I am!

Most of today involved working on the filing admin. I store lists of all of the samples used for each track, and store any unique and unused samples that might be useful in future. Each album has a lyrics book, the iTunes Digital Booklet, full CD artwork (at least 8 pages), sheet music, mp3 tags, lyrics in plain text format, sequences, possibly any rough notes or concepts. Most of the source waves are deleted (those are in the Prometheus sequences anyway, and can be saved out).

I also found a little bug in Prometheus. It failed to calculate the sample sizes correctly in a song information export, so I fixed that. Another small update.

I need to wait a little and re-listen to be sure the album is complete.

I feel a little lost, that life is hopeless and pointless. Of course, it may be, we design our own 'point'. Reading about technology advances, I feel sure that electronic (robotic, non-organic) life will dominate biological life one day. Will machines need us? We seem to need all life here, from bacteria, to bees, but many species are superfluous and dying out through lack of utility to our needs. My brother is pessimistic about humanity due to climate change, but I suspect that the entire climate debate will be moot, as electric life may not care if it's too hot. Technology has a habit of leapfrogging our concerns in exponential timeframes. Machines can survive in far more harsh environments than humans, and the world is warming to suit them (and of course, the planet is in a 'mini-ice-age'; a warm planet would perhaps only be restoring it's historical balance). Machines are destined to dominate not through any superiority other than resilience. This is the only measure of Darwinian 'fitness'; resilience to crises. Of course, machines now need humans to make them, need electricity from our power plants, need factories maintained by people. It's hard to imagine a type of life that can exist without any biological help. We humans often underestimate our reliance on 'lower' animals and plants; would machines be equally reliant on insects, and us?

Machines are more informationally resilient, which is why I expect them to dominate. I would also expect this to be the case on other planets. If we detect advanced life elsewhere in the universe, it is likely to be electronic and perhaps then capable of living in space. Machine life could travel the stars by sheer weight of endurance. Centuries or millennia are easily traversed by machines which can lay dormant as they fly between stars.

The bigger our vision, the smaller we seem.

In other news, I tried to find the date of the first published commercial album written by AI. My Art by Machine was published in 2014. A news report stated that one 'first' AI album was published in 2017, and yet another project claims to be the first, despite being published in 2018. Of course, people have been making algorithmic music since the 1950s, but still, Art by Machine might be the first published album written by AI; primarily because I designed the AI myself.

Tomorrow, a trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Music Admin, Unknown Sounds Theme Finalised, Prometheus v3.75

Yesterday, transferred 4 more albums to a new distributor; 20 to go. I may remaster some, I'm unsure... it wouldn't take long for each album and I'd like to do this for most of the older albums to some degree. Only the most recent albums are volume and bass balanced (ah, the problems of a decades old catalogue!) - yet this work can take up valuable time. It may be more efficient to remaster them in batches of 3 or 4 each year. The middle of the day involved a small family birthday meal for my brother, who is visiting until Wednesday.

In the evening, I heard back that my Unknown Sounds music is acceptable, such joy and relief. I spent the evening working on edits and alternative versions. I used the swing option to create a relaxed version with a calypso-like feeling which was so pretty that it could be a hit song in itself.

One offshoot of these changes was an idea for Prometheus, to show the length of training silence. Most songs, most renders, should end in silence, but sometimes we have reverbs or echoes or other tails that stop the silent end. Until now, it was a matter of noticing this and simply rendering for a bit longer, but as of this morning the length of silence is monitored and returned. If the track isn't silent at the end it shows the number of tracks still sounding. Another little upgrade. Prometheus is now on version 3.75.

Late last night I re-listened to Another Violet Night. It's great, but there are still a few little changes needed, mostly to 'Breakfast of Delight'. Paul's visit is disrupting the week a bit, so it's a good time to work on these.

Onwards we roll.

Zeitraum II

A sleepless night. I feel tired and achy, perhaps my daily exercises are too much for me, slight though they are.

When working on the Unknown Sounds tune I found the need a few times for a start-offset parameter for the Zeitraum engines. These play a sample with independent pitch and speed, but they are more like a sample version of 'oscillator synchronisation'. They have a robotic and tinny sound which works well for some applications.

So today, I added that Start parameter, and a Wait parameter too, to delay playback. These now match the parameters of normal sample playback, which is useful because Zeitraum is often layered with normal samples. I corrected one little error, which reset the playback to be a few samples late; so now it lines up exactly, and optimised several aspects of the code too. None of this was urgent, but it is one of those time consuming jobs that can be done 'when I have the time', and today I did.

My brother and his partner are visiting for a birthday celebration, so this little disruption to routine stops me from some jobs, so this was a useful one. Tomorrow I'll re-list a few more albums. I aspire today to prepare some papers for underdrawings.

Music Bits

Much as I planned to paint today, I found myself working on the Unknown Sounds theme for the morning, recording vocals, and new vocoder part using the MODX. The Microkorg Vocoder sounds great, the MODX not so good, but I'm unsure if it's merely a lack of presets or an inherent lack of quality. There are always so many parameters.

A great tiredness hit me for the second half of the day, and swollen gums, perhaps I'm a little run-down, induced by a sleepless night. In the late afternoon I sang a the last few vocals for the new album, some 'aah' sounds in the sky for 'Breakfast Of Delight'. I'm thinking of releasing All Controlled By Someone as a single, and if so I'd like to add a B-Side (even though Emubands awkwardly consider a 2-track release an album). I've got a few older songs that are just about finished, so I dug up 'I Can Heal' from the ancient times of my first experiment with vocals with The Harlequin Kings.

Gosh how low the vocals are. I can sing it instantly better now than I could then, even in this low register, but my voice doesn't sound good there, it's like a guitar with loose strings, hard to get a good tone or volume, and few overtones. I sang it all though, but I think it would be better to rewrite the melody (I can actually sing the entire song an octave higher than originally, but this is a bit too high), so I've improvised it up a fifth or seventh here and there. The tune fits the chords but it doesn't seem to sound natural... perhaps I'm used to the old melody so much.

I'll keep trying, but perhaps I should forget this for now and move wholeheartedly towards painting.

Unknown Sounds Theme One

I'm working on a potential theme tune/song for the Unknow Sounds podcast, so today was a charge into this. The criteria were perfect, strict enough to inspire by limits, free beyond those.

I've written a few jingles and themes before, many for the ArtsLab show, and a theme for a possible animated DVD Review programme (an ambitious concept!) proposed by Stuart Ashen. This was somewhat similar to all of those, lots of saw-based synths, a bit like the music I've written for IndieSFX over the years.

I began with a bass made from two detuned saw waves an octave apart, and a chord of C-Major, then added some saw stabs, and an orchestra hit for emphasis. I wanted an electro-pop feeling, so created a beat of broadly synthetic sounding drums, something like 'Maniac'. Many iterations later, I decided to slow the tune down and break into something like a rock rhythm, as the music show has a lot of indie rock, then it moved into some strings (yet more tracks! There are more sounds, tracks and things happening in this 30-second theme than any song on Another Violet Night) and a French horn. Initially the main theme was C-F-G, and the rock part A-min, F-Maj, E-Maj, G-Maj, but I changed the rock art to A-min, F-Maj, E-min, E-Maj, then used a plain G for the strings part to lead back into the initial melody.

There are some necessary lyrics, but I didn't worry about the melody for these, simply fitted a tune to the chords without much thought. I always imagined the main words in a vocoder, like Kenny Everett's many jingles. By 4pm, I was ready to record those, and recorded a short guitar part, and some chord strokes too. The guitar lead config, for my future reference was 0AA, Modern-Lead, B-string.

Main vocals remain. All day has been spent here, though an early hour until 10am was spent with Deb looking for possible furniture. I spotted a nice frame, so bought that for a future painting. I have lots of frames now, and lots of surfaces, and lots of paints. Now I need lots of plans, and lots of ideas.

Cathedral Of The Polar Bear Painting

Started the day by cutting three 6mm MDF panels for paintings, and one canvas board. Two of the panels are for a planned duet of portraits of Claire Luce. The painting I perhaps love most is my old Claire Luce painting, mainly because I see it every day, opposite my bed as I sleep. I've often thought about painting another, and I like painting these old film stars as training. I like plain painted portraits as much as I dislike landscapes. Any idiot can paint a landscape, and most landscape painters seem to be talentless and artless, like landscape photographers.

After that, and my daily muscle building I felt utterly exhausted! But I brushed this aside and decided to paint. I've had two days of painting this year, but both were rush-jobs for urgent exhibitions, with little or no planning. Fun works, nothing major. My last planned painting of 2024 was called Cathedral Of The Polar Bear. It features a bear gazing majestically upwards into a blue sky, with a lozenge shape beneath in dark red, gold, a symbol of god or heaven perhaps, something both deathly and heavenly. Of course my aim was a feeling, so I'm trying to express that in this description; these descriptions are not the plan. I decided it needed more, and added some prostitutes from 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'. These add a black humanity to it all, making the (endangered if not doomed) polar bear appear yet more majestic and beautiful, more like Jesus. The painting is completely romantic.

By 17:30 the painting was complete, though I need to glaze the lozenge shape with a richer red and more gold.

Little Jobs

The day still disrupted by workmen, but managed relative productivity. Started by updating my album filing such that older 16-bit mastered albums now store the final files in CDMaster folders, and some clearer separation for the albums (all future ones I suspect) that have separate CD and Stream versions.

I then updated two tracks on Cycles & Shadows, to burn a new CD master for future replication. Gosh! The remaster is only 2 years old yet is sounds outdated and poor compared to my modern standards; but I'm being harsh. It is a huge amount better than the first version, and most of it is as good as ever. Since 2023 I've added a few crucially useful things to Prometheus; the Cathedral Limiter which perfectly (mathematically perfectly that is, the best it can be) limits audio, allowing them to get much louder with ease. Secondly, the Spectrum EQ features, which though present for this remaster were relatively new. I wasn't used to using them. I've also since added a (hardly ever used) 10-band graphic equaliser, and now the new per-track Spectrum, which is perhaps more useful in spotting where the mix is sticking out. For this album EQ was post applied, informed by the Spectrum. I don't do this now, but balance before the final output.

Now I tend to set CD volume at about -10 or -11 LUFS (when I started, I did this too, but gradually changed philosophy, only since about 2020 and my pop-ra have I reversed this). This isn't important on this album as it is more like classical music which is not limited like pop music.

My main critique of this remaster are vocals, which are rather quiet and a little muffly, these were pretty much unchanged since the first version. Today I've adjusted these for two tracks, so the forthcoming CD version will be a little different than the stream version. For me, that's always good. I still listen primarily on CD, and want the CD version (which is, after all more expensive) to be the best version. Mastering of any sort is a long term thing, it's good that I do so only after many years. In 5 years I'm sure to be that much better at everything than today.

In the afternoon, I scanned, framed, and photographed in frame the new small painting for Bickerton, Land Of Destiny:

After that, two more albums moved, 24 yet to go. I may finish before the end of the year. I have one small vocal part I'd like to do to complete the new album, then I can move into painting until winter. Next on my re-recording/remastering target is The Myth Of Sisyphus.

July Backups

A long and tiresome day. Quarterly backup day, this took a few hours. I had a short time, the all to brief time alone to sing. How perfect In Dreams is as a warm-up, then Runaway. I then recorded a new take of 'Smashing My House of Cards'. I may need some new 'aah' vocals for 'Breakfast Of Delight'.

The gas man arrived at 14:30 or so, and the noise and disruption hampered any progress elsewhere. I need to finalise this album, but it's very nearly done. Then, I feel I must paint something, so must find motivation to do this. Today's life has been somewhat lustless; lack lustre.

In June I started daily exercise and now do 52 sit-ups every other day, and am moving to the same number of other exercises. As one gets older, muscle mass tends to fade away, and stiffness beckons. It's important to stem this tide now.

Onwards we roll our heavy rock. Heave at it we must. Creak forwards on the dry desert floor it must. The gods will thank us for our efforts.