Schrodinger's Cat

Utopian weekend

I made some progress this week, so am feeling a lot better than I did at the start. Last Saturday was one of my low points when I went to two parties in a depressed state, moped around a bit and left early. I have three main things on the go at the moment:

1) Shorthand. I had a minor breakthrough on Thursday where I was writing shorthand and for the first time it felt natural. I’m still slow and have a high error rate – so still nervous about passing – but from here I can probably use it to write just about anything. It almost certainly helped that I went to see a really good local band, The Flower Orphans, and shared a joint with them then wrote stuff down on my pad while they played. Maryjane has its uses once in a while. Shorthand could have potential for poetry etc distinct from normal English. Because most of the vowels are left out and some of the letters are nearly identical shapes, some words can be enigmatic eg ‘get’ and ‘good’ are written the same way. I also talked to the bass player Maree and got a quote from her to finish off the chapter on the Space I wrote near the start of the year – I’ve been meaning to get around to the second draft for ages.

2) I made a great discovery with the investigative piece I’m working on. It’s a secret which I can’t tell you (yet), but my head was spinning all of Friday. There’s a substantial story in there, but unfortunately I won’t be able to write it in time for the course.

3) Got an Ascension Band jam scheduled for Tuesday. Since I’m heading south for a while in a fortnight it’s not aimed towards a gig but just for its own sake. I’m happy with the band – it seems to be the solution to my frustration with getting The Winter organised, and it offers a way to move on from Loose Autumn Moans. Because the AB doesn’t have a fixed lineup, if someone can’t make it we can still continue. It’ll be a different band every time, and so the big group is actually easier to organise than the trio. And LAM was deliberately stripped back and acoustic – this is my chance to crank up the electric guitar, and to play with a whole new range of instruments and colours. Nigel Patterson is a local keyboard player who I’ve known for a couple of years. He finished his degree in jazz at the end of last year. He’s always been a good player, but since finishing his studies he’s been really branching out and finding his musical voice. He conducted the AB at the gig and seems pretty keen on the whole concept, so he’s a good guy to have on board. There’s talk of doing a Fringe Festival show in February, making an album, taking the group on tour… watch this space.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spring’s definitely in the air, and the days will be longer than the nights from here on. After getting the above done, the weekend I can only describe as utopian.

Saturday a friend Ian came over for a jam and brought his video camera to record it. He showed me his footage of the Ascension Band gig – looks good, worth releasing in fact. I could put it out on DVD? We played guitars for a bit, and did an improvised music/theatre/comedy/dishwashing piece in the kitchen, which climaxed with Ian spreading molasses over his face. Then by coincidence the Mormons arrived, so we brought them in for a videoed conversation. Ian was hilarious with his long rambling questions that took ages to get anywhere (and the molasses not completely washed off). And I was impressed by how afterwards he told them very earnestly that the church should be taking a stand against sweatshops, and gave them some websites to look at. I’m not sure if they’d heard of Noam Chomsky before, hopefully they do take it to heart. It was all very amicable.

Then in the evening I went over for another jam with Jesse & Nigel from the Ascension Band. We recorded it on dictaphone, and it was pretty anarchic – moving from room to room, lots of instrument swapping (several guitars, organ, piano, drumkit, violin, harmonica, bass guitar, kitchen utensils, wind chimes) etc. And after that I went over to Happy to see the Elephant Men play, and Nigel was opening for them – doing his first solo performance, on the grand piano.

Sunday the weather was fine and warm, t-shirt and shorts weather. I sunbathed on the patch of roof outside my window, then went for a good long bike ride around the bays. The view of the South Island from the south coast was the best I’ve seen it, with snowy peaks on the sounds. Must be freezing in Otago still, I’ll have to take my woolies. But here people were out swimming (and not just in wetsuits), a sure sign that winter’s gone.

In the evening as I was cooking dinner a flatmate’s friend turned up with some fresh paua he’d been given, so that made a great addition to the meal. I hadn’t had paua in over a year. And after that I went to Jeff Henderson’s place in Island Bay where he gave a performance with the Dodecahedrons (3 double basses, synth, sax and drums) and laid on a delicious curry. I’d already had a great meal but it was worth having a small taste.

It’s hard to imagine a lifestyle more idyllic than I had this weekend ( and finishing off Sunday night with a bit of blogging by candlelight). Does it mean I'm about to be hit by a bus? It’d be churlish of me to complain that things could still be better with some female companionship. And there was the Will Oldham review that I was supposed to write today but didn’t. Oh well, tomorrow. I have to get up early and go to class for shorthand testing – talk about contrast. Maybe I should have a cold shower to get in the mood?

http://fiffdimension.tripod.com

PS Another good thing that happened is that my albums are now also available from Eclipse Records in America (though it's still cheaper to just get them from me)

Posted by fiffdimension at September 26, 2004 10:55 PM | TrackBack