Draft #3

 Tony has finished novel, enjoyed but thought the start too similar in style to old me - but that it changes to improved/what I wanted after a chapter or so. I'm actually happy with that as it will provide a  transition from first - although first still needs wading through. He thought the ending was weak, which is true and which I've been pondering myself. The new epilogue might give it a better sense of completion because I really don't want to extend it - actually, will be looking at ways to speed up narrative as I go, while also adjective pruning and repetition scrutinising. Will see what I can do as this resonates with my thoughts. Cool enough (Saturday) to get into studio at last!

https://soundcloud.com/smokyfrog/goblin-capers-80

Where I failed to get the audio working - for my livestream experiment. Recorded the above at the end. Out of frustration. Worked fine yesterday in front room!! Arse. 

Wasted Monday morning navigating the updates of Windows 11 on new laptop. Keep stalling, restarting and generally looking like a bag of shite, so that's nice. Wasn't available with Windows 10 sadly. Oh look, it's now rewriting the BIOS for the laptop. Still failing to get audio working from Zoom on new machine - would be tragic if I had to use old one after all! 

Continuing to struggle with Virginmedia - email buggered which means I'm not able to set up software, join forums or any of the things that require email id confirmation. Very frustrating, must sort out a change of provider ASAP. 

Wednesday and I just wasted another morning trying to get OBS to see both my Zoom's video and audio at the same time. I briefly managed to get it to see the audio by setting the onboard audio to disabled and making it the system default but that quickly stopped working again. I am totally fucked off with the whole thing. When I've cooled down I may try another audio interface and forget the Zoom audio after all - which rather negates the whole point of buying that fucking camera. I should find another app that can access it and see if that's any better but for now I'm pissed off. Doing Blencathra tomorrow in the blazing heat, what idiots!

Sunday, guess what, wasted time with OBS/Audio/Shite - this time trying to incorporate Tim's Motu M2. For a start the install/restart took ages - and I couldn't get the Moto app to recognise its own hardware and, of course, OBS couldn't see it. I later wondered whether it was because the Zoom was still connected. Removed that and audio was seen by the system - but still not OBS. What a pile of shite that is - still nothing from the forum. Next time (!) I'm gonna totally uninstall the Zoom drivers as I suspect they are some contribution to my problems - wish I'd never bought the thing, especially after support started talking about not guaranteeing it supported OBS. Actually wish I'd never started down this road at all - would have saved £1k on laptop and whatever the Q8n cost (£350?). Do I really give a shit about list streaming?

Still Scorchio

 Which means I'm not doing much. I got some Nurse With Wound recommendations to listen to and I'm working my way through - seems like it was a pretty serious head wound, probably on the way to art college with a rucksack full of items to make collages with. It's sorta mad but interesting, I guess. 

Have pretty much identified a laptop that should suit my needs, seems best price is bought direct from HP, which, soon, I might commit to. I have very little enthusiasm for the whole thing, as you can probably tell but blowing a grand appeals more than blowing two. 

Pat's latest thing is to replace the conservatory roof with some plastic tile stuff which will supposedly keep the heat out and warmth in, a bit like a thermos flash. I'll miss sight of the sky and for £6k we need to really know how much time we're losing to the heat - and add it to the time lost in the attic. Then we can see whether solar panels and air cond might be a better idea. 

Yesterday's walk was the same shit walk we did once before - steep initial climb followed by lots of other climbs and a very long walk back. Oh well, at least today I can faff around with the new laptop, or could if it weren't so hot I don't want to do anything. Again. 

Hot hot hot

 Yeah, positively scorchio so ain't in the studio today (Saturday). Listening through an album I bought and reflecting that a quick audition online ain't a good way to trust someone's recommendation. Anyway it's The Clandestine Gate by Bell Witch and, fuck, is it tedious. I'm praying for it to end but it's been playing for hours. OK, I checked and it's been playing for 59.5 mins.... ah, as I type it winds down, such power I have! The organ at the end sounds like the organ at the start that I'd liked. Just need to chop the 55 mins of overblown nonsense in the middle. Hey, this is why I don't review albums!

Contemplated doing some painting, choosing a Macbook to buy, clearing more of the garden... guess what I opted for? Yes, beer and a good book. Just need something decent to listen to.

Thursday and got some studio fun in the morning before it got too hot. https://soundcloud.com/smokyfrog/ck-inteza-126

Friday, Pat was away at her pal's so I took Broc for a walk. Too hot for studio later so Tim and I recorded a few pieces Al Fresco, which sound pretty good on first listen. Nicky in the UK early next month, quite near Cambridge too but too late to change her times to early August when it's Synth DIY. She suggested I go to New Zealand instead, yeah, can see that going down well!

Here's a couple of Tony's excellent pix of me from our travels

Watched Avatar: Way of Water - what a bunch of depressing shite! More than three hours (felt like six) of absolute nonsense you're meant to endure cos of the pretty pictures. Never again!

Still haven't chosen a new laptop but edging towards another HP Envy, assuming I can get some time to better test Reaper (so far it's good) which I hope to use for arranging some of the BB sessions one day. Seems it can do most of the things I do on Wavelab already but not easy on this small screen - hence new laptop may need to be 15" or 17" even. Should try out alt monitor and HDMI option too, although that less appealing. Still so darn hot that I'm doing very little of anything. Matt's party cancelled. Oh yes and I heard that while Pat and Marg away at Edinburgh tattoo, I'm loooking after both Broc and Benji. So that's nice. 

Haven't done any prep for this live online thing but, fortunately, I can just sit at Setup 1 and make shit up. 

Thirty Five Years

 It's our wedding anniversary today, I noticed when setting up my mum's new laptop (practically identical to her existing one but she insisted she 'hated it' and bought a replacement). Anyway, it's late now and Pat's gone to bed, I'm having a whisky. I did buy some flowers though so all good, plus we have William the next three days so if that doesn't get me brownie points nothing will. We both still weak with those shitty colds though so don't think it'll be a lot of fun. 

Half way through day 2. A little cooler today but no chance to get into studio. Haven't bought Mac yet, will have a look at Tim's when he's back and maybe try it out in an OBS realtime test to see how powerful it is. Could be that it would be a way for Headshock to do a few live performances too, prior ro any actual real world ones. Watched a Macbook go up by £200, looking at other ads now, heh. 

Friday, recorded another long track while streaming. https://paulnagle.bandcamp.com/track/the-late-jim-yiddles

Photos this week from old haunts. 

Live Streaming...

 Well, it's the reason I bought that camera after all - still need to get slick and going to talk to Virgin about updating my shitty router. Then I can agree a slot for Morphic Resonance and play them some live noodles. Just listening to some Headshock and thinking it'd be nice to slip in a surprise 'Rupert' or something - quite possible as it's all in BlackBox format. Will see what Tim thinks - would want him there anyway to maybe man a second camera, unless that makes it all too complicated. 
And that's the thing - doing anything with video/visuals always gets more complicated than just doing music and letting someone else sort the clever stuff. Anyway, it's something to work at.

Today I started hacking the garden, removed all the growth that gives easy ratty access to the bird table - I think Margaret has maybe not been going into the garden much and they've become bold. Broc useless so far in this respect. 

Friday. Tried streaming with my ice-cooled laptop. Seemed to work with only one person reporting dropout (Tim). Obviously more tests needed with a bigger audience but still, hopeful. Gonna sell the Tanzbar to raise cash for Macbook. Recorded what I did, in case it turned out OK, and I think it did. Only readers of Sheldrake will understand the title...

https://paulnagle.bandcamp.com/album/telepathic-dogs-and-easier-crosswords

Another sunny day, nice morning for a walk with Broc then back for a bit more garden hacking, or beer drinking. Too hot for studio. 

Sunday, last day of freedom before three days of William. It's cooler so you never know.. tuned in to last night's Morphic Resonance - I think there were 16 viewers at its peak but I suppose I've played gigs to fewer people, like that time I drove to fucking Ipswich to support Ian Boddy. If I'm going to perform anywhere it's best I do it from here, that way I can maybe get some good recordings. 

No interest on the Tanzbar yet, might need to advertise in other places.

Porto Santo

 No, I had no idea either. It's a tiny island off Madeira and we're here for 2 weeks. Meant to be a five star place but I'd give it a tentative four. Anyone who is afraid of AI's impact on music has never had to sit by a pool and hear the output of supposed human intelligence - hard to imagine anything artificial that could be worse. 

Seen some wildlife including an Iberian green frog, will try and record it croaking if I can. Got cold and ready for home well in advance of going.

It gets better and better. Email from TUI tells us the Portugese immigration are on strike on Monday, when we hope to fly home. No idea yet of the impact or how much delay it will cause but given we're ready to go and have been for several days, could be a frustrating time.
When I get home need to sort online performance thing as have agreed to do a Morphic Resonance. Yeah, I probably shouldn't have but perhaps it'll wake me up a bit. 

Home! Yay. Margaret has not burned the house down, Broc has survived...

May be

Yeah, it's May and you're maybe wondering if I feel bad for buying a drum machine from Evil Uli? Well,  would you feel bad if you'd bought a watercolour from Adolf Hitler? Or Rolf Harris? I mean, bear with me: suppose Adolf had been encouraged more and had gone on to carve out a nice little career painting and touring art galleries and whatnot... he'd have been a happy little chappy, true? Anyway, the RD-8 is even better than the RD-9 cos all its sounds are ace. The two together really are all the drum machine(s) I (should) ever need.

Well, Rachmaninov's 3rd symphony is just ending so I should stop typing this shit. His 2nd is my favourite BTW - and Dm, Em then Am seems a good running order for symphonies in general. (I'd follow with Gm and Bm).  

That was today (Saturday).