Monday 2nd of April, 2001
I start the day with a declared intention to finish the Nick thing, which has dragged on longer than I'd hoped (and a lot longer than the designer can bear...). All the bits are coming together (it's sort of like a ship-in-a-bottle - for along time you only have a jumble of tiny pieces of wood and thread and then with a tug, they assemble themselves properly. Or so one hopes).
I finish Maskerade over breakfast (and begin Men at Arms over lunch). there are twenty five of the things to get through, twenty-six in about a month, and when I get to the end I can start again. I may never have to read another author again.
When I call Walker's to speak to the designer, I discover that she's not in on Mondays. So.
There was an April Fool joke on the Scott Walker list - someone claiming to have rough mixes of the Scott/Eno sessions and offering them at £120 apiece "to cover my costs". This is a reference to someone on the list who was selling CDRs of some of Scott's covers albums for £20 apiece recently. Some people fell for it. Ha Ha. He said hollowly.
I manage to find the odd half an hour to do picking practise on the Ovation (note that I'm calling it an Ovation now rather than an Applause, which is the "budget" korean-made version and what I actually have, hoping that you'll think I've got a rather better guitar than I do). It seems to be going more smoothly.
The Floorspot calls to apologise again, wondering if he can do a spot in a few weeks. Why not, I think. Then there could be eight of you.
Patrick calls about the Mystery Guest for the Kamel Klub. I tell him that it looks like there might be competition, and he agrees that noow is probably not the time for it. Perhaps later in the year. He also suggests simple but basic strategies for advertising the club (like actually telling people that it's happening). "Work smarter- not harder" he says. I can sympathise with that, but there is also an element that if we exert so much effort, it could work as a sacrifice to some kind of Small God of Showbiz. Like sacrificing a cow, but less of a waste of beef. Which would mean nothing to me now that I'm a vegetarian.
The Nick thing comes, if not to a conclusion, then to a hiatus.
Pa calls to say that he has received a Peculiar Device from the far East, which he's passing on to me. He reads me excerpts fom the manual, which have been literally translated from the Chinese, probably via Dutch. Apparantly the peculiar device is complex enough that the manual might help, so...