Echoes of Flavio's Ghost Dreaming

Bits I don't like so much about the summer:

- the heat. Yes, it is absurd, I grew up and lived half my life in a place that is probably hotter than here. All the same, I find it difficult to function when it's hot, I get slow and lethargic.

- the much reduced income. This has, surprisingly, not been so bad this year; almost enough of my pupils have stuck around having lessons through this time for me to pay my bills. Almost enough.

Bits I do like:

- being able to get up at 9:00 am. I'm not a morning person.

- being able to spend a lot of time reading and mucking about with guitars. Have a few books on the go at the moment, mainly 'Rivers of London' by Ben Aaranovitch (set reading for the next bibliogoth meeting), which is not the deepest book I've read, say, but is a lot of fun, thus far. Also slowly making my way through Melwyn Bragg;s The Adventure of English (a history of the English language) and the Apocalypse Codex by Charlie Stross.

Yesterday I took my guitar to the Heath and had done a good hour, perhaps hour and a half's practice when this guy stopped by and asked whether he could listen and asked a few things about my guitar. A guitar teacher. The long and the short of this is that he might start taking lessons with me. All is not bad -or, in any case, a much needed boost for my at times rather small self-esteem.

Last night went for pizza across the road at Delicious with a friend... and it was very good. We shared some affettato first and then a pizza and it all was lovely. There's some interesting eating places around here, although some (like Pizza East) are a little bit over-hyped. In any case, a lovely evening catching up with friend.

Today, busy with lessons and not enough time to do proper guitar practice, which is not so good given that I'm playing in six days, but hey, I'll manage.

I'm currently reading, for the next bibliogoth meet-up, Holly Black's "The Coldest Girl in Coldtown". What follows is a short review -or, rather, first impressions (since I've only read a third or so of it) of this book:

It's utter, utter rubbish -at least for me, to me, E&OE, &cc. I get the feeling the author can actually write but either chooses not to (maybe because teen-age vampire books will sell more), or is in the situation of an orchestral composer who ends up doing commercial jingles. Not sure whether I'll bother finishing it.

Another week goes by. Half term week so didn't have to get up at obscene hours. It brought a very good rehearsal with Verity with some plans to get a few gigs when we have a programme ready (soon), lunch with K in Regents Park with a little wander looking at the geese and the ducks (there's a couple of pictures elsewhere), a good bout of dancing last night at The New Dusk at Aces and Eights, an unexpected revival of `Livejournal with a lot of old hands showing up and posting, in some cases for the first time in six or seven years. Wondering whether mermaidlala found her password in the end, presumably not since she hasn't posted.

Plans for the summer include two gigs (need to get a few more), one of which again at the Rustique Café at the end of July. Also going to Infest and may have a visit from very far away that I'll be looking forward to but not sure whether to expect as it is getting late to get plane tickets and she hasn't yet done this. Birthday celebration will again be together with lovelybug at a Wetherspoon pub in Holborn on the 12th and you are invited.

The news continue to be their appalling, depressing same old as always and the EU election brought back the shadow of old forgotten terrors.

Still haven't resumed watching GoT, stopped half way through the second series. Any explanation about this would be a spoiler, but, as Lennon said, 'having read the book....

.. and a couple of lessons later today. Not a lot more to do, so thinking of several possibilities. Won't take my guitar to the Heath to practise as it is in all probability too full of people. Too lovely outside, though, to spend what I have free of today indoors practising -although practise I should.

Yesterday went to a birthday picnic (does Sasha have a livejournal?) in Regent's Park. Lovely afternoon with interesting conversations on various bits of geekdom, including a long one over the 'new' and 'old' Battlestar Galactica. Last night I had a two hour + Skype conversation with a friend far, far away -far away enough that she was wrapped for winter, with a portable heater next to her, while here I was shedding layers and putting the air conditioning on.

Previous entry moaning about LJ changes: as so often, I should check and verify before I complain in public about anything. That, alas, is true for most of us. And I tend to rush and overlook essential bits of information that are there in front of me.

Today, lessons, guitar practice and, in the evening, the Tuffguitar meet-up -my pupils meet to play together at a café in Tufnell Park.

This is something I should have got going a long time ago but, as with so many things, the weight of previous experience had prevented me from doing it. I had been part of the board of the Venezuelan Classical Guitar Society in the '80s, helping organise concerts, scripting a weekly radio programme and doing other things of that sort. I found that very few people helped but everybody had an opinion on exactly how bad I was running things. So, I was as bit reluctant to start anything remotely like a guitar society. At the initiative of a pupil, my adult pupils started meeting around once a month sometime last year. They just talk guitar a bit, I give them some ensemble music and conduct a bit, we have a coffee. It works, it has, I beieve, made the guitar learning go from a solitary endeavour to a shared hobby (yes, for pretty much all of them it is a hobby, not something they may aspire to get money or make their living from), to bind with people with similar (albeit never identical, which is part of the fun) interests.

Now, the pupil that started the whole thing has decided she no longer has time or energy to run this thing so it is me doing pretty much all the work. It's worth the while and it is not too much, but inner flavio from the '80s keeps telling me 'I told you so....'

Maybe I'm slowing down, it may finally be happening, like my hair is finally going grey and I'm becoming increasingly cantankerous. Didn't go to Whitby Goth Week-end, haven't been for perhaps three years now. Didn't go to any of the main gigs there were this long week-end, either. Now, what did I do?

Apart from walks down the South Bank in the rain, that is, and reading bits of the three or four books I'm reading... well, did go to Big Red on Thursday for a friend's birthday drinks. And to Invocation at the Minories on Saturday, although didn't stay there more than two hours. And to the Slimelight after that. Caught up with a few people I wanted to see (although may still want to do in a less noisy place where one can have a conversation without straining to hear what the other party, bah, humbug, see first paragraph), like robot_mel and beluosus . And did practise the guitar a fair amount, which needed doing , bringing back a couple of long pieces that I intend to play this year. All in all, a productive week-end, perhaps, after all. And there were those walks down the South Bank in the London rain.

Today: only one lesson done, some guitar practice, some social coffee at two places, lunch at Mario's (great local social in Kentish Town) , car tax sorted, a cpl bank errands done, one more lesson in a bit... the world still going round. And so, alas, am I.

A sunny morning, the warmth of the sun on your skin, a carpet of flower petals on Bartholomew Rd, a chance encounter with an old friend...

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

A sunny morning. Got the train on time. I'm reasonably caffeinated but didn't have any breakfast. Today, teaching at school in Watofordo, then a couple of private lessons, including a new pupil.

Those tracks I've been putting in SoundCloud... I think I would like to re-record them all. Need better microphones, what I have is really rubbish. And I may also need an audio interface for the Mini that's slightly better at least than the built in sound. But, as always, have little money. Any recommendations, you musos/audio peeps out there?

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPad.