The BBC Model B was the first computer I wrote music on. In fact I wrote my own sequencer and made my own midi interface. Now the Science Museum have made an exhibition about it. I don’t know why this makes me feel so sad.
Monthly Archive for March, 2008
Recently I’ve been getting a bit disillusioned with spending loads of time trying to compose complicated tracks that I’m often tired of before they’re even finished. A couple of days ago I remembered something I once read about a writing course where the participants were encouraged to keep a journal and write in it every day. I thought I’d do the same thing with music.
I had a look and the tuneaday domains were mostly free or not being used, so I went ahead, snapped them up and made a site. It’s at tuneaday.org and the tracks are also available as a podcast at the iTunes store.
I’m hoping that having to come up with something new every day will push me towards being less concerned with fiddling and tweaking and will make me more spontaneous. The tunes might be recorded in my studio or just with my phone or on whatever I have to hand when I think of something.
I’m not going to use any old ideas, everything will be posted on the day that it’s recorded. If anyone is interested in collaborating with me on something, that would be interesting, but it’s all got to be new material, not a reworking of something you came up with ages ago.
I have no idea how long I’m going to be able to keep it up, it’s an intimidating prospect, but I’m aiming for some significant period like a hundred tracks, or a year, or something like that. If it gets too painful I’ll just make up a new target. We’ll see how it goes.
I was feeling pretty low yesterday. Stuck in the newsroom on my own on a Saturday night, thinking about things. When I finally got out of there I couldn’t decide whether to throw myself down the stairwell or jump into the river. But when I stepped out into the car-park to get my bike everything changed. It was absolutely pouring with rain. Really tipping it down and I didn’t even have a coat. Usually I would have hummed and hawed, trying to decide whether to leave my bike at work and get the train home. But last night I was very happy to embrace the void, I leapt into it.
The rain was hard and it hurt my face. I couldn’t see much because my glasses were immediately covered in water. The roads were running like rivers, the cars couldn’t see me and my brakes didn’t work. As I cycled onto Waterloo bridge the rain got harder and someone pulled over right in front of me, I was inches away from hitting her. The view from the bridge was indistinct and fantastic. Immediately my depression disappeared and I felt exhilarated and full of manic energy.
All the way home I was riding as fast as I could, swerving and swearing to avoid the nearly blind drivers and the deepest puddles. The music was loud and good and I felt like I couldn’t possibly survive.
I started thinking about how there’s no point worrying about the past or about what might have been. Now is where I have to live and there’s no choice in that. The rain can only make you unhappy if you don’t embrace it. I was already so wet I couldn’t get any wetter. I didn’t feel cold or tired, I felt wonderful and alive. By the time I got home the depressing day at work seemed like it belonged to somebody else’s life. If only it would rain every day.
Speaking of poets I love, Mairead Byrne is so sweet. Look.
I’ve been listening to Ivor Cutler a bit lately and, let’s face it, he doesn’t get played on the radio as often as he should be, so I decided to infringe the copyright and put some on here because there are plenty of people in the world who would love him and who don’t know about him. This track is from Jammy Smears.
Am I being a curmudgeonly crosspatch? I expect so. The RSPB has this kitchen compost crock in their Reuse and Recycle section. It is for putting your peelings in on their way to the compost heap. That’s fine. I wouldn’t buy one but if you’ve got a Georgian kitchen it would probably fit in very nicely.
The only problem is that it has an added feature. To keep your kitchen smelling fresh the crock has a carbon filter inside the lid. It’s a disposable plastic filter that can’t be recycled and will be regularly replaced. So now you’re actually creating more landfill waste than you were before you bought the thing.
I’m tempted to think that this is pretty characteristic of certain rural greens. They want to be eco-friendly but they also want things to be ‘nice’. So they object to wind-farms when they spoil the view and they love living in splendid isolation where public transport isn’t an option and we city dwellers must subsidise their local Post Office. But of course that’s very unfair, it’s just a bit of thoughtlessness on the part of the RSPB and I’m sure they’ll sort it out as soon as they can.
Thanks to Giles for pointing out to me the excellent collection of humorous and political comments that are collecting on the Amazon page for this Playmobil Security Check-Point. Here’s an example:
Thank you Playmobil for allowing me to teach my 5-year old the importance of recognizing what a failing bureaucracy in a ever growing fascist state looks like. Sometimes it’s a hard lesson for kids to learn because not all pigs carry billy clubs and wear body armor. I applaud the people who created this toy for finally being hip to our changing times. Little children need to be aware that not all smiling faces and uniforms are friendly. I noticed that my child is now more interested in current events. Just the other day he asked me why we had to forfeit so much of our liberties and personal freedoms and I had to answer “well, it’s because the terrorists have already won”. Yes, they have won.
I wonder if Amazon will allow this commie protest to continue. It’s supposed to be a super-store not a community centre!
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