back into work again after very quick break contending with the usual winter illnesses and fevers.
-which are still messing with things.
jonnys stepping over guitar leads and pedals and laptop as we
demo
yet another new tune added to the blackboard called Rubbernecks.
at the moment its a demo. when is a demo not a demo? when its in time. whats in time?

HEY!
KEEP AWAY!


im asking jonny to lay off the sweet rock and stick to the sticklebrick licks. more-

their dotting all the tees
and crossing their eyes
welcome to the future
it opened up my eyes
its creeping up the car park
its coming up the drive
rubbernecks with cameras
petrol and bonfires(heres the loud bit)

we need to keep away the rubbernecks
we need to keep away the rubbernecks
me me my my



i met with George Monbiot.
another person who thinks a bit like me (only faster),
its a relief sometimes, i dont feel quite as crackers as i did.

thm

oh yeah and this house is haunted. feel like your beingwatched..
yes its another normal day in the world of radioheadski

so now we have..
lots of loose ends.
or starts.
two weeks sketching things.
chipping away at structures.
making polyphonic sweeps.
mountains of words.
the blackboard is filling up.

satellite not working

rain rattling down the chimney. windows buffering.

not got th e words to PAY DAY yet.

but today i got the words to BURN THE (WHITE?) WITCH.. thats a good un. jonny has losts of orchestration tasks now including this..('oh good' says he exiting stage left)

blackboard filling up with ideas. lots of things happening all over the studio at once.. which i always like.. although i keep having to remind myself to sit down occasionally.

night night

right now colin is reading that strange devarahi synth book.

stanley is hammering and making greetings cards which may or may not be for christmas.

im working on something that i think is called PAY DAY. im gonna lay the lyrics line by line on the floor and shuffle them. and im having to play gentle fingerpicking over furious beat.

ed is sick as a dog at the moment poor guy. he is feeling very sorry for himself and keeps sending us sad little texts.

in the distance there is a cloud but as im in an ok mood i can keep it away
........friends of the earth have asked me whether i would meet Tony Blair at downing street to discuss what our government is not doing about climate change..i dont know if this will ever happen for certain.... it is rattling around in the back of my mind and concerns me a lot.
i have no intention of being used by spider spin doctors to make it look like we make progress when it is just words.
id love to know what you think but i cant ask.
youd say oh ther e he goes again interfering and meddling in politics why doesnt he get on with the music and shut up.
perhaps because i feel like a hypocrit if dont do anything, and equally feel like a hypocrit if i try getting involved.
nobody wants to know. none of u s do, me included id love to forget about it like your average Times reader. wed all like it to go away. turn to to the rising sea and say come back later im busy right now.
Blair has been uttering nonsense lately about kyoto and such, real la la stuff... looks like th eamerican right have finally eaten his mind... blah blah why on earth would i meet this man? o r perhaps that is exactly why i should. but i dont have powers of persuasion, i just have temper and an acid tongue.

trust me i find this as dull as you do... politics is poison..
what do yout think i should do?

speak to you later

http://www.preoccupations.org/2005/09/911.html

post 9/11 article with lowell quote from 66

this site is an amazing blog done by a friend who teaches english in Oxford.

did an interview last week, very good, oh yes, especially bit about getting out more....
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,1572394,00.html

We're back in the studio, and all is fun and well. Stanley's here too, or at least in the shed out back, painting again. The rats have got in and eaten all his blue paint, and there's blue rat shit everywhere: but at least he's got a good dub cd to listen to while he's working. At least, I think it's good. Let me explain.

There is loads of great music out there that you’ll never have time to find out about. I’m always saying this - boring the arse off someone about this. Partly to make me sound like I know loads of great music that they don’t, and partly to justify why I’ve never heard a note of, say, the Stooges (though I really must, I know, I know...how can I claim to be a an Iggy Pop fan if I've never even heard 'I wanna be your dog'? etc. etc.)

I often glibly add - ‘you could spend 6 months listening to just dub reggae, and it would all be worth hearing.’ I realize that sounds patronising, but I choose reggae because I know so many people who collect this kind of music and no other - which fascinates me - and because it’s mostly unknown to me. Not any more....I’ve just done it. Six solid months of nothing but Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Ken Boothe, Junior Byles, Marcia Aitkin and hundreds of others. It’s to make a compilation which may or may not ever be completed - I hope I’m not just proving a point to myself - but either way, there’s been nothing else on my ipod since April.

There’s something exciting about coming to musicians when they’re just names, when you’ve no idea who Derrick Harriott looks like, or what his reputation is - considered naff by real dub fans, maybe ? Derivative ? Or maybe ground-breaking ? I know the Stooges were ground-breaking - maybe that’s what has been putting me off. The weight of knowing already how good it’s meant to be. With this compilation, I’ve just ploughed through all these faceless names, liking things I probably shouldn’t (covers of soul songs! Spanish guitar solos!) and maybe finding nothing I like by the supposed classics (some of the very empty dub stuff is kind of....tedious) - or nothing I really like on the records I already have. Although Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry seems to me to deserve all respect he gets. His records are just magical. Ditto Linval Thompson, Sly and Robbie, and Scientist.

(Interesting how making a compilation for someone makes you listen to your music completely differently. Endless moments of 'do I really like that track, now I'm actually listening to it for someone else?' It's a great way to get rid of records that you only think you like.)

So it’s great music. If you don’t know any, it’s really worth getting into. There’s more than one speed, one rhythm, one mood - more than one gender, even, than you might suspect. Marcia Griffiths was a revelation. If I ever finish this thing, I’ll put the list up, and invite you to check it out. And disagree. "Ken Boothe ? Theat's not real reggae....Robbie Williams of his day.....might as well put 'I come from a land down-under' on... "

everybodys wasted. expended i mean. energy wise i mean.
all in need of bowl of coco pops.
colins i s playing sleaz bass on mornin' mi lord..
its sounds very heavy. err phat. ..like a freight train...
'the speakers ar e cracking'
ths is the last day of the session.. we start again in a couple of weeks
good,
i need to get away,
six days straight from 11 till late is enough for an old man like me.

need energy!

i dont know. what do people write in blogs normally?
i could write about how im finding it difficult to finish lyrics.
that there are giant waves of self doubt crashing over me and if i could allieviate this with a simple pill ...
i think i would

although it is a necessary part of the procedure. but that would be dull wouldnt it?

i could write about watching V festival.. how i thought Dizzee Rascal stole it..

or ponder the imminent energy crises that awaits us even before our governments get their arse in gear over climate change.

or how amazing the sky is outside with the moon hiding behind fast moving clouds and the bats swooping close to your head.

which? hmm

i have absolutely no idea what i am talking about