A-ha!
I now have a website with my name all over it. Great stuff. Let the promotion begin…
This will now be the home of my painted artistic output, i’m very pleased with how it has turned out. The wonderful Verity has done a grand job making it for me, hassling me just the right amount… it’s a good thing she’s very proficient at dealing with children, that’s all I can say. patience is a virtue. etc.
GO HERE -
Jeez louise, Holy Crapola, Unnnngghhhh… they’ve gone and done it haven’t they… made a pretty astounding and amazing piece of work. yeah. “80 minutes of rabbit influenced post rock” or something… it’s not a record you can just put on in the background, it’s pretty draining to be perfectly honest but it’s well worth it. I’ve listened to the whole thing about 4 times in the past week which for me is quite telling of it’s intrinsic “goodness”… i mean it’s nearly an hour and a half long! There are many notable moments on the album but for me it has to be the finale of The Sky Suspended/Warren Of Snares… phew, you’ll just have to hear it. Which is lucky because barely a week after they’d finished recorded it they made the whole thing free to download… marketing geniuses.
So say we all lads.
A recently completed commission. Liz’s cat Louie… he’s a real sweetheart. I forgot to get the exact measurements, but it’s around 4′ x 3′ (I will amend this asap.) It was fun to do, wary of my first foray into ‘pet portraiture’, it’s a tricky one to do without it ending up being tacky… however i’m real pleased with the results and Liz was too. Also, cats are amazing.
Wacky pictures alert… my excellent photo skills have made some pretty crazy angles on the canvas somehow. Just use the brain to correct & make look perfect. thanks.
Louie
Louie (detail)
Alternative title – one. hundred. / re-occurring themes
My friend Martin posted me his new zine, 100 or 1
Javelle from the Create This! course wrote and recorded a song with me called 1 to 100. It’s one of my favourites that we did over the year. He programmed the drums, played keys and did all the vocals. I played bass. He’s a first take master.
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In other news i’m not very good at scrabble and i’m also a bad loser. Suduko > Crosswords
I’m a fan of kite ballet.
I need a camera as I can’t always rely on Rosie. Got one spare?
…and everyone’s welcome.
Hello all you people looking for a picture of Dawson crying, how’s it going? It’s a pretty funny picture, I agree. ha ha ha.
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So, one of the things that has been occupying a lot of my time in the past couple of weeks has been the finishing up of the second year of the Create This! music course, mixing songs, getting everything finished, paperwork, blah, blah… It’s now over and i have my friday nights back after 2 years!!! my word… what am i going to do?
I know, i’ll write a blog about it…
Create This! for those of you that i haven’t talked/punished at length in person about it, was an accredited training course (the only one of it’s kind) for young people with a learning disability… We supported them to write and create their own music, form bands, record their own music, in groups and as individuals, and also write and record soundtracks to films. Whilst also having learning disabled tutors, including members of Beat Express. It’s hard to fully describe what we did over the course of 30 sessions in the year, I think if i tried here it would become beyond rambling and it would detract from how amazing it was.
It’s the first big project I worked on after joining Carousel and it has been, not wanting to sound too dramatic, a life-changing experience and I have learnt A LOT. I’m proud to say that over the whole 2 years of it running I didn’t miss one session, I was at (in one mental state or another!) all 60. I’m sure if you ask any of the people i’m in bands with then they could attest to how annoying it’s been hearing, “Nope, can’t do it, it’s friday night… working”. I’ve missed countless gigs, parties, festivals, holidays for the course. I did play up the fact that sessions might not be able to run if I wasn’t there, but in reality I just didn’t want to miss any of it. When I talk to people about the friday nights I do focus on how much fun the sessions usually are… often making a ridiculous amount of noise, writing some of the most insane songs ever and spending the majority of the time smiling and laughing. There have been a few moments though, talking with parents and carers especially, when I realised what may appear as arsing about and having fun for a couple of hours a week is actually one of the most important things in a person’s life… a genuine chance to express themselves and communicate with others. It made me re-think a lot of what i think about playing music, the people on the course and the environment have been so inspiring… to get to be somewhere so creative and free. I know it sounds wank but i feel lucky that i’ve witnessed and been a part of some pretty incredible things, just down to music.
Luckily the work with all the graduates of the course is continuing in various forms after the summer and i’m sure i will keep you posted on all that jazz (or heavy metal). For now though you can check out Shut Up and Listen! – the new website that we’ve just launched, which is going to help promote and shout about learning disabled music. you have been warned! oh and tell your friends :)
SUCK IT!
There’s a metaphor in there somewhere…
Sorry, busy. No time. ever. Check failedrockstar again, 2 new interviews… holy crap! One being a very old, dear friend, Richard Ardagh, the other being a man who once shaved the side of my head… then stole my hat in the street and laughed.
Plans. Schemes. Brainache.
