Tuesday 20th of March, 2001
I am waking up earlier and earlier - today I was awake at 6:00am, and had the wonderful feeling that I had another hour to lie in before I had to get up. Luxury!
Ben has successfully sent me some organ banks for the FMHeaven VSTi. I'll try those out tonight - I've gained a lust for organ sounds that my single VSamp hammond sample doesn't really satisfy.
I write a long post on the VAC forum about how I dont believe in constructive criticism.
I forget to e-mail the cover to Ness before I leave for Walker's. so Ill have to come back at lunch to do it. Bum.
The morning is spent doing the Secret Project - a lot of fun, real Photoshopping, with trompe l'oeil and everything. There is a point when the trompe l'oeil starts to come together when I can't stop giggling.
I call my father and ask if he can pick up a USB keyboard for me to use to get round my "O" problem. He relishes good works.
I come back and dispatch the cover to Ness. My phone rings - it is Dan Buzzo calling from Hong Kong where he is at a Deep Purple concert. Apparantly the last time he heard Deep Purple was when he was ten (except, I remind him, I may have pulled the vinyl out and played it once when we were in Newport - in fact, now I come to think of it, I'm convinced I did).
I put on some bread before I leave.
I get back to Walker quite late - I have to stop at the sandwich shop to get myself some lunch (I always seem to end up getting egg- mayonnaise sandwiches... why?), and then carry on working on the trompe l'oeil, alternating with amends to the artwork I did yesterday.
I blag a lift home with my pa, who is passing that way at 6:30 (and it's cold out there - it's snowing for goodness' sake), which also allows me to collect the keyboard and give him a cheque for it.
As I arrive in the living-room I hear Simon Seligman saying "...so I'll call you on your mobile" into my answering machine and then hang up before I can find the handset. So I wait for the mobile to ring, tell him to call me back on the land-line and wait for that to ring. we discuss times and details for rehearsing/playing on Saturday night at the Soundwave. I will be doing a bass groove for him, and it appears that this will be an interesting performance - a sort of epic bassline will be required. I'm quite looking forward to it.
When I get the keyboardunpacked I'm struck by that truism about Apple products - that they may be more expensive (hell, they certainly are), but they are amazingly beautiful and you can feel the higher spec. The keyboard - G4 style - is made of transparent plastic, almost crystal. Although I'm not a design fetishist, this is one of those things that really is worth the extra money (what? £10, £20) for the beauty of it. It also has a Û key marking on it (alt-shift 2, fact-fanciers).
Have cheese sandwiches with the fresh bread for dinner. Check e-mail, write replies (another archaological expedition into the depths of my inbox is required). Check the Corpses, and find a link to quite a depressing history of the Rutles. We must all leap to Neil Innes defence now!
Am writing this with the new keyboard. It is quite quite lovely.
Those FMHeaven banks don't work - perhaps I need instruction.