Sense of doubt...

Playlist
Jaymay – Autumn Fallin’
The New Odds – Cheerleader
Tangerine Dream – 1970-1983 (CD-R)
Marillion – Happiness is the Road
Nels Andrews – Off Track Betting
Tim Scott – Rarely Fall
Brian Eno – On Some Faraway Beach (CD-R)
Fabian Kallerdahl – Galore
Music Music Music – MacBeth
Music Music Music – What’s A Good Boss Anyway?

While it’s good to have a diary, it’s sometimes a huge chore to keep it up to date...

So will I keep this up? In four days’ time the blog will be four years old...

If it stops, the most disappointed person will probably be me...

Looking back through my old diaries from the seventies and eighties recently, there was a sense of having been let down by my younger self when I stopped writing – leaving me with only a vague idea (based on other records, such as my lists of LPs/CDs bought or my music projects or my jobs or our record shop) of what I was up to...

But so what, what’s the point of recording the minutae of your life if it’s stopping you from watching a bit more TV without having to write about it?

I’ve so far uploaded over 1,500 posts – even if the average time spent writing and posting each one was only, say, 20 minutes – that’s 500 hours – the equivalent of over 40 twelve hour days spent doing this...

If the average is 30 minutes, that’s nearly two months of the last four years spent writing this blog...

I’m sure I could stop now and say “right, there’s four years of your life on the internet – that’ll do – now get on and do something more interesting”...

But I'll probably keep going - however, as regards the podcasts and the tracks of the day introduced last month, well I'm just putting them on hold from today...

While I get plenty of hits here (sadly, probably mostly search engines attracted by items on my daily playlists), the number of plays the tracks and podcasts get don’t really warrant the extra work involved in putting them together and uploading them...

So, while I may put up a podcast or two at some point if I keep this diary going - there's still over six hours of music uploaded in February for any passing readers' enjoyment..

So, a rather large sense of doubt today but, anyway, here’s what happened...

Up at six, wrote up Thursday, Friday and Saturday, burned a disc of files of a capella vocals, guitar lines, synth lines etc etc to give to collaborator Craig to produce some remixes for the new LP...

Had a nice breakfast with Anne...

Listened to some music – during which I fell asleep...

Drove out to my sister’s in Penicuik where we met up with her and her son Andy, his girlfriend Tori, his son Kerr and my mum and the two dogs, Ben and Smudge...



We had lunch and a chat before heading round to Craig’s for another chat and to hear what he’s up to remix-wise and to glean some tips on PC use...



We hatched a new plan for the next CBQ LP so what’s in the sidebar may be scrapped – we’ll see

Back home by 4:30...

Anne went off with chums Lynn and Ross to visit Saughton Prison (where Ross works) on an open evening, while I headed into town around 7 to meet up with Dr Prog for tonight’s Assembly Jazz gig at The Lot by Fabian Kallerdahl...

The music was brilliant – the audience probably fewer than 25 counting the promoter, the sound man, the barman and the lady in charge of the merchandise desk...

Dr Prog and I were, however, privileged to be amongst that small audience to witness the superb display from the three young Swedes who make up Music Music Music and we each purchased one of their albums...

Here's the one I got - listening to it now as I type...



Had a good post gig chat with Roger Spence, erstwhile 5-a-sides colleague and brains behind jazz promoter Assembly Direct for over 30 years...

We discussed the state of jazz, what ought to be in this year's jazz festival programme, and radio and how it could be better...

I surprised Roger by knowing that trumpeter Red Nichols (one of his favourites) was the subject of the film "The Five Pennies"...

I knew this because my dad had the 33 and a 1/3rd RPM 7" EP of the soundtrack of this film (starring Danny Kaye and Louis Armstrong) and that record, including "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "Lullaby in Ragtime" was one of the first I used to play regularly...

Our farewells said, I gave the doc a lift home then made my way back to Crispycat, where Anne had tales of how impressive the facilities in the prison were and how horrible the cells are – only right I suppose – it’s not a holiday camp after all...

Finished this off while Anne watched the ice skating...

Highlight of the Day : Music Music Music live at the Lot...