Tuesday 9th June
No two days ever go the same. That's how I like things: no chance of things becoming tedious or boring, no time for tasks to feel repetitive, minimal constraints, as few rules as possible; enough cups of sweet black tea and plentiful snacks in the cupboards; plenty of smokes, obviously. That feels like a choice work environment that doesn't feel like work.
That covers the output that I'm intending to achieve, but besides that general life is also constantly adding things to my in-tray. Often it's things that must take priority over those that can be described as 'creative', so the creative flow is constantly being pushed back to accommodate more pressing needs. I suppose a creative project would have to be something of obvious high value to keep its position at the spearhead of my priority. And that hasn't happened yet. It's much more likely that, whatever it is, it can usually be paused or saved and held until needs press less.
Once the tasks-at-home list is completed, and assuming no social engagements to attend, up goes the lid of the laptop. It's my hub. It holds the software architecture that allows for all my current creative adventures: audio-production, image-creation, 3D anims/short video making, and of course writing tools.
Friday 12th June
Today though, we do have an appointment to attend. We are going to see Eat Static playing at Guildford's BoilerRoom venue. We have previously seen all manner of musical excellence performed there, from an MC driven neurobass set to Dirty Disco, Epic Beard Men (Sage Francis & B Dolan) and more recently it was good to see the current incarnation of the great, multi-generational Gong, whose original founders are mostly now dead, but passed their batons to younger, upcoming members before leaving, giving us a band which was first playing together way before I was born. And yes they're still really good, with a sound undeniably Gong and still bringing much joy and pleasure with their trademark blend of psychedelic movements with French jazz diversions. Driven by the welcome, familiar saxophone sounds. If you've heard Flying Teapot then you'll know the sound I mean. If not there's still time - find it, it's a really worthwhile listen.
So tonight, the musical outfit formed when The Ozric Tentacles dissolved into its component members and two of them went on to become Eat Static. Now just one of the pair continues as Eat Static, Merv. Although there is another pairing now - Merv is joined by Shpongle (Simon Posford) with their most recent release being under the name Shpongle Static.
Saturday 13th June
Awesome show last night, thanks to Boiler room staff for helping to bring us an evening of decent listening/grooving. They raised the room temperature enough that the metal casing of the air-vent was soaked with condensed sweat, enough to be dripping back down on some of the punters enjoying the show, but unluckily positioned under the line of the air-vent. That's getting really communal. Anyway a great show locked in memory.