Video Filing, Castors, Owl Restoration, Billy Squier

Started the day by making updating the new videos on the Cornutopia Software YouTube channel, then filing the newly converted videos.

Then, fitted castors to my father's chair. It needed a height extension, and we had some spare castors with an M8 thread, so I ordered some M8 rivnuts, and these arrived today. I needed an 11mm drill bit for these; 11mm! This is such an unusual size, most drill bits over 6 go up in twos. I used a 10mm drill an shifted the bit around to enlarge the hole, this worked well. Then glued the rivnuts into place with viscous super-glue (cyanoacrylate). Then screwed in the castors.

After this, worked on the repair and restoration of the owl oil painting started in November. This required thick paint, more like a paste. Oil paint will not gap-fill easily, so I added chalk, an ancient solution. The results were good, this restoration is complete. While working I listened to a new album acquisition, Billy Squier's Don't Say No. I thought I might like it because it's a 1981 album (my favourite year), was produced by Reinhold Mack, and was a hit in America at the time. Billy Squier is pretty much unknown in the UK, but sure enough, I like the album, it's so like the rockier Queen of the era that if Freddie Mercury sang these, people would assume it's an unknown Queen (or at least Brian May) album. There are however some Americanisms in the riffs, bluesy/country sounds, such as the riff in 'Too Daze Gone' which wouldn't be in a British album. It's a very good album, will definitely be an inspiration and remain part of my collection.

In the afternoon, a dash to shops to buy some essentials and important luxuries.

It's time to consider new creations. I must work on the Strawberry painting and on audiobooks. Things feel somewhat cluttered and untidy, but I've made progress here. With each new thing, something old must be cast out too. Sometimes growth is cutting back.

Onwards we charge!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Christmas Tails Launches, Yet More Woodwork

Filed Argus after a small update yesterday, then charged into two jobs. First an update for Christmas Tails. The album is now live for pre-sale. I set up the sales spreadsheet and reminded artists about next week's cover creation day. It will be half a day's work preparation for that, and the full day of work on it.

Then, much work on the shelves, which have taken far longer than I anticipated. The CD shelves are complete, apart from painting and fitting to the wall. Glued the top and bottom sections to the box shelves, then marked new spine/columns to reinforce the shelves and sawed them into two 50mm (ish!) sections, which look a bit like 1M long rulers of wood as a result. The width is approximate because the wood is an off-cut. Then, drilled for the hinges for Deb's door, though I can't drill and fit the other half of the hinges until the doors are closed and in place, thus I needed to wallpaper the doors next.

These four doors are to be wallpapered in a seamless way, so needed to be stuck as though one huge door. I laid them flat and stuck the wallpaper with PVA, which was somewhat tricky as the glue doesn't allow easy movement. I should have glued (with roller) only the top third or so, placed the paper accurately, then glued the rest. I trust and hope that the doors themselves are not now glued together, but if they are a little, it may help as they need to remain as one block for a while, while I fit the hinges.

I'm exhausted from so much running about. Other jobs to do: routing the slots for those new spines, and cutting little notches in the back of the shelves to fit them. Screwing the newly-glued top in place, and fitting the central vertical spine. Then these shelves will be done, apart from painting and fitting to the wall.

In Deb's shelves, trimming the wallpaper, marking the other half of the hinges with the doors in place, then fitting those, then fitting the inner hinges (these are Z-bend doors), then slicing the wallpaper with a scalpel (which I could boldly do at the end after fitting the doors if I wanted. Then, fitting everything into the alcove, and possibly gluing the shelves (they will work without glue, but glue will attenuate sag). That would be it!

I'm still annoyed at my delivery. There must be some process when a neighbour simply takes an item when a delivery is left with them. I'm blessed that this item was £5 not £50.

Tree Of Keys Videos, Delivery Exasperation, Hinge Screws

First, listed Tree Of Keys on my websites and linked to the sheet music, then created animated subtitles for the 3 Tree Of Keys videos, then recompiled them with the new audio and set them up appear in December.

Was annoyed in the morning as a Yodel delivery, due today, did not arrive, with no sign of a courier or attempt made to call at the house. All I received was an email that it has been successfully delivered to a 'neighbour' in a different street. After 10 minute walk to that address, they had reported that no delivery had taken place. I complained to Yodel, and was sent a photo of the item being pushed through the letter box; it was clearly the neighbour's front door. I went back and showed them the photo and, this time the mother of the man I'd spoken to earlier, said that item photographed half way through the box was not proof it had been pushed through, and claimed that the driver had taken it back after taking the photo. This, in my opinion, seems unlikely.

I've started the complaints process.

I set up a future Steam sale, then glued the shelves for the second cabinet, doing the gluing in stages this time to make things easier. When testing the lift hinges for Deb's cabinet, it became clear that the holes were too small for 3.5mm screws, 3mm were the largest which would fit, yet the only 3mm screws I had were 20mm long. These are too short for the heavy work of holding a door, so in the dark evening I went to buy some 3mm L40 screws. I've planned on using 4 hinges, but these double doors are heavy, so I'll upgrade to 6; 6 here, and 6 for my future wardrobe project.

Tree Of Keys Filing, Shelf Woodwork

A broadly sleepless night interspersed with strange nightmares.

Today, another full day, starting with essential Tree Of Keys admin. The CD and download track sizes were slightly different as I'd included the between-track gaps in the downloads. This isn't correct; there are not separate CD and download versions of this album, and ISRC codes are shared. The same code should point to an identical recording, not have different lengths. So, I first unified the track lengths by adjusting the CD project. Then filing the album across various music authority databases. I can't do more until I have the EAN-13 code.

Then, a full day of work on the shelves. I unclamped the CD shelves, then drilled 3mm pilot holes and screwed the top and bottom. Screws are needed as these are key load-bearing parts. I used the 4.5x50mm screws intended for the wall, thus needed those somewhat large holes (I normally use 3.5mm diameter screws, I chose the bigger ones partly because they were golden and pretty).

Then, marked the new central supports, cut these, and routed out 6mm slots. For the 12mm slots, needed in the assembled shelves, I did some experiments. In the end, I clamped 12mm MDF each side of the 6mm shelf, then used a 16mm forstner bit to drill sideways into the shelf. This created a slot wide enough to fit the 12mm spine, my 12mm bit didn't (in tests) make a slot wide enough. It wasn't perfect, but sufficient.

I made one mistake in cutting slot in the top shelf when I didn't need to. So I fixed this with a plug. It's at the back, not serious, and will practically be invisible when painted. Mistakes, in life, are inevitable.

For the other shelf unit the spine is 6mm wide, necessary because the width is designed explicitly for 'Really Useful Boxes' and the size is tight. To strengthen that all, I'll also be adding flat pieces to the back, to act a bit like columns, or a fake back-board. That will (should) be the last of the sawing. I'll do that another day.

Tree Of Keys is now done, a necessary reworking because this album was not listed or present anywhere. Next I need to remaster The Modern Game for the same reason, then The Myth Of Sisyphus, but that as part of my regular upgrade process. I aim to remaster one old album for each new one, but this year I've remastered or re-recorded a lot of albums, partly because of the switch of distributor gave me this opportunity, and partly because of upgrades in my mixing and singing skills. I can't wait to rework Nightfood, my favourite album, but each must wait their turn.

I also have books to write, and paintings to work on... yet everything feels like fixing what is old. I'm working to death, yet feel I'm not making progress. At some point, some point, I'll have time to create new things, which all artists should be doing. I've said it before, creativity is about digging tunnels, then shoring them up, both activities are valuable and necessary. Those who charge ahead without shoring up the tunnels may get lucky and find a cave of gold, or they may end up suffocating due to a tunnel collapse. Good luck (or bad luck) never lasts forever.

Onwards we roll our heavy rock.

Tree Of Keys Admin, Shelf Plans, Rehearsals

A lighter day. Completed some essential Tree Of Keys admin, filing the album, updating the lyric and iTunes booklets, creating artwork and the listing for my websites, and adding the album details to the Cornutopia Music Catalogue. Then burning an archive CD, and registering the album for release on December 12th. There is more to do on the admin side, perhaps half a day, but I also need to update and upload the music videos. I've not created any Spotify Canvases for this. This is possible too, but it can be a slippery slope that leads to making full videos for the whole album, with little return but the satisfaction of my neatness obsession.

I've (mentally) solved the shelf problem. I'll add a central support to both units. The larger (box) shelves are so tightly designed that there is barely room for a 6mm vertical, but I think there is. I'll cut a spine from 12mm and 6mm wood for each unit, and cut slots into it to slot between the shelves. After trying today's final cabined, this should work fine. Even a heavy box barely sags the 6mm shelves. The box shelves need to take more weight though, so I'll add extra supports to the back too. I could do the same with the CD cabinet but I don't think it's needed.

I also stained Deb's shelves brown, and the back of the doors, but the results there were somewhat patchy. I used dilute Golden Fluid Acrylic Raw Umber. I'm very used to using dilute black, which is a superb stain, but the brown is a little more difficult. I should have used yet more water (more than 1:1) and yet more coats. It is adequate considering this is for the dark inside of the doors, but the imperfection still bothers me.

I also managed three full rehearsals of Thursdays performance. I must do this every day until then to master it. I need to decide on an outfit... this might be the first outing of my gold glitter jacket, suitably Elton John for this special occasion! I perhaps need a gold hat-band for my bowler.

Onwards to glory we fly!

Tree Of Keys Finalised, Shelf Work

A tiring if not exhausting day. Started by finalising the Tree Of Keys remaster, breaking apart the tracks, deleting most of the former album and preparing for the release. There is much more to do.

From 10:30 the rest of the day was filled with woodwork, I needed to take advantage of today's dry weather. Things went according to plan, but I'm worried that the plans were flawed. First, here are Deb's shelves.

You can see the little 'tabs' on the edges of the shelves. These enter the slots, but leave the rest of the shelves out, as seen. These will be in the recess of the alcove, this 'frame' fits over the front. This went to plan and seems to be on track.

When making the bigger shelves however, I became aware just how long and shallow they are. 1 metre is a big stretch for 6mm MDF, and I'm worried that the shelves will sag alarmingly. I simply didn't consider this. It's possible that tension will hold the shelves in place like a suspension bridge. Here's the assembled CD shelves:

The shelves are slotted into 6x6mm grooves. The whole thing was incredibly difficult to clamp and took a lot of time and frustration. Ideally, I'd need about 3 sash-clamps capable of over a metre stretch, but perhaps these band clamps are the most efficient way. It was not easy to get everything to hold in place when only glue is stopping it all collapsing. The other shelf unit is larger, and so will be more difficult. After today's experience, I plan on fitting the shelves first, band-clamping horizontally, as the slots make those easier.

There are many ways to address potential shelf sag, apart from making a whole new set of shelves with 12mm MDF. I could support each one above or below, at the back perhaps to emulate a back-board. I could add a central support (or other verticals), or brackets fitted to wall; though all of these will impinge upon the area usable for objects. The first option could at least be made to look pretty. I could cheat further and fix the middle of the shelves to the wall with a hidden dowel or bolt. This has appeal for its elegance and invisibility. When these first set of shelves are set I can test them to see what is required.

Tree Of Keys Scores Day 2

Transcribed 'The Darker Matilda' today, plus 'Underground' and 'Paradise Lost', which are little more than spoken word with various sounds effects, so a template for those is useful. It was interesting to discover the obvious that this sheet music makes these strange pieces performable.

After that, Deb and I went to Stapeley Grange for a meeting about the Christmas Tails project, then bought the wood for the three shelf units I'm working on. The cutting option at B & Q is brilliant. It would be great if they had laser cutters, CNC machines, 3D printers, and other similar tools to allow fabrication to order. This could be a new type of shop, a retail manufactory.