Nov 30: Bonus-Tunes

It was a 13:30 Hangover Session today at the Platform Tavern. Foot Long Kelway were in residence and ended up playing for over 3.5 hours?!

Off the back of last weeks Seahorse gig, it was a a pleasure to lock straight back into a longer session. Rock and Jo were on good form, and given the length of the gig, it also meant that myself and Rick got to play a few tunes – excellent! The Hangover Sessions are a very different feel to evening gigs. Most folk are in for a slap up Roast or a cheeky lunchtime drink, and the music is a pleasant backdrop to proceedings…. However, sometimes things can pick up quickly if you can lure some of them into listening. Today was one of those! There were a few folks in who we see regularly at music in Southampton, and some folks who came down to have a listen with lunch…About half way through, the football crowd came in, and we suddenly had 40 people watching, just as Me n’ Rick cranked it up a notch – timing was ideal! I got to get a bit noisy and stompy, and JoJo rejoined us for some further jaunty foot-stamping tunes – Saaaweeeeeet! We played straight through the second break, and threw in an extra 40 mins of bonus upon request.

Foot! Long!

 I did get into it, and as is usual when I latch into that state, I start to…well….beat the shit out my guitar! Right Hand technique is an often under estimated weapon in the guitarist arsenal, and I’ve learned a metric Fu*k-Tonne of skills and tips from the mighty Donaldo on right hand technique: dropping in extra beats, slashing the bottom bass note, syncopating and pulsing (I know already – INNUENDO!!!), and all this comes to bear when one gets into the zone… There are occasional casualties unfortunately, that kind of passion will take it’s toll somewhere;

Just couldn’t handle the POWAH!!!

 My pleccy got a fierce pounding, and ultimately, gave out… At least it died in action!

All those funtimes, and we get a complimentary roast?! Not bad at all 🙂

Nov 29: Head-phone

I have a few sets of headphones. I am also in a relentless search for a pair that will satisfy my more recent criteria… I know, it sounds bonkers, but I don’t yet have a pair of cans that will enable me to pause/play/shuffle music on my phone, but also allow me to take calls. The heavyweight search starts today…

I’d not really migrated to using my phone to listen to music. I have fully embraced many aspects of the completely brilliant Smart Phone, from Galaxy S thru HTC One M8, I’m in! But I have always had a niggle about using up the battery, and also the faff involved in moving music around devices (I’m not fully Apple….yet…just love dem ‘droid devices!), so stuck with an iPod. My consumption of music has changed in the last few months. I’m now a fairly heavy Spotify user, and as a delightful consequence, find myself plugged into headphones wherever I go on my tod.

It’s fantastic! Almost a fully soundtracked life (NB: This is my choice of superpower – to always be playing out loud the most appropriate music as I go about my daily life!), and the ability to share playlists with other folks. I can also listen to tracks I hear about/hear on the radio straight away, then buy the CD for ‘proper’ HiFi consumption at home. And I’m doing this on my phone…

From a sonic perspective however, the current format is less than ideal. Essentially, and in deference to their adequate form so far, my headphones sound like tin cans with a piece of wet string, and I find this irksome.

1st World Problem? Yes.

Still need to change headphones? Yes.

I’m not proud, but it’s going to bug the shit out of me, which means additional ‘Grump’ where additional ‘Grump’ can be avoided. But truth be told, I adore music and to lose any avoidable note or expression from the experience is sacrilegious.

So alongside a new car, headphones!

It was a stunning day today, and for once I actually spent some time appreciating the vibrancy and colour of Autumn. I bimbled around a park in Southampton for a while this afternoon, it looked like this;

A walk in the park Kazanski…

Worth a moment if you get a chance tomorrow. Be outside, and stop… Take a moment to enjoy the atmosphere of The Fall, slightly chilly, bright but cold sunlight, that scent of Winter on the edge of the day… Yeah, heady stuff 🙂

Nov 28: Grump-itude

My brain has melted, therefore I am diminished in my capacity to offer any meaningful discourse.

The week has been long, and and not a little bit draining. I’m hoping for a splendid lie in tomorrow, because I need that.

However, for now, a new game has landed – Dragon Age: Inquisition. Hmmm, in and of itself, that game title is pretty crappy huh?! However, the game is not….which is nice…

The single player aspects are pretty straight forward, and as I’m not really bought into the story, I’m just kind of playing around. So far it’s an open world style game where you can roam around slaying bad guys/bad creatures, seemingly taking whatever you want from whomever’s house you want, and generally getting into trouble. This is interesting to me because I’m not a fan of open world games, they are sprawly and take ages to complete. I also have a tendency to stray from the path of the plot and end up confused as to what I’m actually supposed to be doing… I’ll see how I get on with this one, but the single player was always a secondary reason for playing this game, the true gem lies in the Coop Multiplayer, yeah dude! The ME3 Multiplayer was truly epic, and this game is made by the same folks… So far, the multiplayer is great fun, really tough, and evidently has some deep customisation options. It’s also brilliant to play with other people, which is the point, but still, proper sociable gaming 🙂

Hopefully, it will have a little more longevity than Destiny, lets see…

In other news, I have a few plants around the place, but this particular plant has been with me for over 15 years!

Dave the Dracena

 When Dave arrived, he was a mere slip of a tree, barely 1 foot tall… Now, he’s a hefty 4ft and rather pleasant to observe. They say that before pets, one should successfully keep a few plants alive. I’ll take 15 years as confirmation, I’m ready for pets!

 Sooooooooon 🙂

Nov 27: Pond-are-us

Phew – Brain Fry!

This time of year is a usually very interesting if you are a Manager. It’s heading toward the end of the year and as such, large organisations start the process of assessing performance across the year. From what I understand, the techniques and processes for how ranking/assessments are done differs quite largely. With smaller distributions of people, one can spend the time to assess individuals, and with a smaller business, contributions toward the overall business performance can be more visible. In larger scale organisations (Corporations) the difficulties of assessing contributions based on more nebulous business performance and against many hundreds and thousands of other people becomes quite different…

That in part, is what myself and colleagues have been wrestling with today.

It is tiring! I do get to work with a superb team of experienced managers, and I’m always particularly pleased that we make sure the debates and robust assessments don’t get personal, but they do get heated, and keeping things focused on facts after talking through 60+ performance assessments is pretty hardcore!

Coffee and cake keeps heads in the game, but once it’s done….Come down is a bitch!

Sadly, my lack of ability to sleep through the night continues. It’s really odd. I seem to get enough to function OK, but it’s quite hard work keeping mood swings in check and concentration levels up. In terms of a positive approach, it’s quite good for creativity?! I put a nice chord sequence together when I got home tonight, and I also have a reasonable melody to go with it. Of all the aspects of songwriting, I am least comfortable with, it’s the melodies…

It

Takes

AGES!!!!!

….for me to complete a decent melody. I’m not even sure that I complete them to be honest, but that’s another subject. It’s the toughest part of songwriting for me, but in my slightly abstract shape today I had a different thought. I’m going to try and think of a melody first, then write a chord sequence around it… Well, gotta be worth a try, so I tried it. I think it’s working, but I ran out of steam before I could complete the song… I’ll report back!

On that note (see what I did there), I snapped a nice pic of 2 Vince Hockey guitars the other day;

They sound as good as they look…

 Right – time to try and implement a ‘Get to Sleep’ plan.

 Over n’ Out.

Nov 26: Long-est Day

Dayum! It’s been a long ass day.

Started at 7ish this morning, swiftly followed by a short stay on a chilly Bedminster train platform;

Foggy Bristol!

 Actually had a really good time visiting a Dev team in Bristol. Learned a shed load and met some fantastic people. The world of IT is definitely undergoing a significant shift. The growth of technology is allowing the storage and sharing of massive amounts of data. The capacity for content is pretty limitless, and if one chooses, virtually (see what i did there?) none of it needs to be on your actual device?! Not only that, but apps can sit in the cloud environment as well, just executed from your device… We are perhaps just beginning to understand the implications from a technology perspective. I’m actually quite excited to see where the use of this tech takes us. I do remember a time when there was no internet, and we can all appreciate how the ‘net’ has changed our lives, I wonder if The Cloud will offer a similar paradigm shift in how we live?

 It’s possible…

 The world changes, ask the Germans – it could be Goodbye Lenin all over again…

Nov 25: Pub-quiz

Quick blog tonight – family bidness…
I’m down in the the homelands for a cheeky work visit, and have taken the opportunity to catch up with my Bro.
This is the short version of events;

What could possibly go wrong?
Actually, great to catch up over a couple of cheeky Bath Gems, we haven’t chatted since July, but apparently, I need to watch ‘Life is Toff’, it’s my homework before Christmas.
Right then… Tally Ho I say!

Nov 24: Alf-redo

It’s gotten cold quickly round here. 11 degree’s yesterday evening turned into -1 overnight. Bit of a cold snap by all counts, and whilst I’m fairly immune to it (I respond better to the cold than the heat as a rule), there are those around me suffering. I feel for you, using coats as leg-rugs in the office – so harsh! It really is a little bit odd that the office is freezing cold?! Maybe it’s part of a cost saving strategy, would not surprise cynical me, but I’m more inclined to think that the cold snap has caught the heating systems off guard… Hopefully it will be restored to nominal tomorrow…

Anyways – cold feet! My feet were cold whilst de-icing the car this morning, and I thought to myself “I could use a foot warmer…”. It reminded me of Alfie!

Alfie is Mum’s Dog – full name; Alfredo Bonso Dogisimo;

Alfie “Foot Warmer” just before a Sunday morning nap…

Alfie “Foot Warmer” during a Sunday Morning nap…

 Ahhh – I could use an Alfie right now to be honest, I wonder if Mum is due any holiday soon…

Nov 23: Swan-ning around

It was a very mellow start to the day, in fact, I kinda just went from bed to sofa in one smooth movement…Yep, I even took the duvet with me. I then proceeded to remain horizontal for a few hours. I can’t remember the last time I did that on a Sunday. It was nice, as you can probably imagine. Central Heating and duvets, tremendous inventions.

To continue with the musical theme of the weekend, I moseyed on down to Alvestoke/Gosport to play a gig with Rick and JoJo. It was a thoroughly enjoyable affair, with a couple of new tunes thrown into the mix, all kinds of chilled out – was a splendid counterpoint to the bonkerness of Friday’s choon fest. I do enjoy the Sunday afternoon gigs, they always have an experimental feel as most folks are enjoying lunch, a chat or a hangover so it’s less a ‘Performance’ and more of a background thing…we leaves the door wide open for trying out new ideas and trying out new arrangements/songs.

Now, Swans. When I was a kid, I was told to avoid them because their beak was strong enough to BREAK YOU ARM!

Seriously, that has to be bollox right?

They are however, aggressive birds! These two were making sure they were front row for any bread related throwing action yesterday;

A dog expressed the usual dog-like interest….much hissing was returned…

 I was also presented with ‘Comedy Swanning’. Swans are famous for gliding around on the water, and they always look graceful when floating about the place. However, this is not true when they leave the water and start stomping around on the mud. The waddling is all-time comedy hour. I’m sure these two knew I was laughing at them on some level, they threw me a couple of proper stink-eye glares (Swans are also excellent at glaring!) as I struggled contain my mirth…

 I was also laughing at the tracks they left behind;

It might have been the recent lack of sleep, but those tracks are still cracking me up!

Ahhhh nature – you are fickle in your allocation of grace and awkwardness!

Nov 22: Fee-erss

Dayum! The Choons were pumpin’ last night!!

It all got fierce. You can’t have musicians of that caliber in the same room for long before things start to simmer. My first experiences of Trad Irish folk were tentative at best, I really didn’t get it. It sounded like a lot of fiddling with no hooks to me. After a while, and a few hours listening to Broderick (Band of Don, Claire, Luke, Rick and Colm), I began to understand the structure a little, if not the motivation – really wasn’t my kind of music at the time.

It wasn’t until I attended a Mill Session with Don and Donal that I really began to understand what all the fuss was about. Once you have heard fiddles, pipes, Bodhran’s, flutes, whistles, mandola’s and guitars belting into a reel you kinda don’t go back?! The energy is infectious, and with the quality of musicians at the mill you can’t help but get uplifted – amazing stuff.

It’s taken a while to even begin to understand what’s going on musically. I get it at a simplistic level, I know a few tunes and with Donaldo shouting the chords out for the bits I don’t know I am chuffed to be a part of the ‘Circle’ of players. The tunes were epic last night, and were followed by late night/wee hours drinking and singing of songs with other players. It was proper good! A heady mix of alt country, trad, folk, rock, classics – all sorts! Phil played his first tunes, Elaine slayed, Don and Claire ripped it up, Tad blew everyone away – it was immersive and fantastic stuff , and there was a Keg of Doombar as well?!!!

Uhm, this also happened, but I actually can’t remember the context;

Really not sure, but it looks like crabbing became an Agenda item.

 I think we finished around 04:30 this morning, think, can’t confirm, was a bit completely battered to be honest. This morning was not especially pleasant I have to add, but it got better quickly with a brisk walk in the windy weather and a couple of coffee’s at PO41 in Yarmouth. Still buzzing a bit, and I kinda have to pinch myself to believe the shit I get to do! This was a goodun – huge thanks to Don and Donal for the invites 🙂

 An additional bonus was hanging out with young Will, Don and Meg’s youngest. Will is a partner in crime of mine, and a magnificent ‘straight man’ to my idiot. I’m not sure I’m especially popular today however, I might have been helping Will with his now burgeoning Parkour/Freerunning career;

Good times!

Nov 21: Choon-hup

I’m off to the Isle of Wight for Donaldo and Donal’s collective Birthday tune fest.
This will likely mean very little to you, but it’s become a yearly tradition that Don and Donal, both being fierce Trad Irish tune players, invite some of their instrument wielding friends to the island to join in the playing and singing of songs/reels/jigs/airs and all the rest of it… Oh, and drinking, there’s some of that too.
Considering its invite only, I’m pretty honoured to get a nod, especially considering I barely know an A section from a B section, let alone which key the tunes are in?! Yep, I will mostly be singing!!!
I left work later than expected, and had an awful nights attempted sleep last night so I aim to drink through the tired barrier and get fully involved. Firstly however, I need to get there!

Hopefully, there will be a boat at the end of that ramp soon…
I’m not a fan of ferries, and having just coughed up £75 for a return ticket I like them even less, but the promise of good company and tuneage at the other end makes up for it…
Tally ho!