Well there is stuff happening alrighty. Turmoil possibly. I float along though unperturbed as if in a dream. Amazing. The weather has turned and is now doing spring stuff finally, so that’s a bit of a boost to the system at least. I still as though I haven’t slept for a week at present. I do hope it will wear off. Talking of which being a glutton for punishment I submitted a song to a song contest and just got a rejection as I didn’t get listed. It was one for oldies. Thank goodness I have other outlets. There were 3000 entries, so to be honest I can’t imagine how much of a listen anything could get? I certainly would not have had the patience to do it. Curiously the song I had rejected was a track BBC local radio were thinking about playing. Though I do stress the “Thinking” element. I have borrowed a friends bass as I used to have one to play on a couple o f recordings rather than using my usual keyboard ones. I am seeing if it inspires me to anything different by virtue of the different playing technique required. I am feeling a little jaded creatively and would like something to give my creative spark a bit of a lift.

I just looked in on a forum I use, it’s a social space and there is a Brexit thread. It’s like a religious cult with the leavers, they blame everything on Europe but none of them have any understanding of how the EU parliament worked. they stil bang on about sovereignty. No point in putting forward any facts, they are basically like the Trumpers. It just annoys me. Blaming the EU for the fact that the UK government did not invest in the north. It’s not investing in the north now either. You cannot put forward any counter arguments without being told to leave the country if you don’t like it. Positively Homearian levels of discourse and rhetoric LOL.

So sad to hear that Tina Turner has checked out at 83. She was great. In fact the best.

On the brighter side, I now have a new passport and a old folks bus pass. Go me. All I need is a bus now. it would help 😂 That’s all the news that’s new. Band rehearsals are continuing holiday breaks and personnel issues notwithstanding.

A Piano Tune for you.

Comparing last year with this one in May there is a lot more going on. Strange but I am a little jaded and bored as I type this.

Dreams. I used to have wild fantastic adventure dreams, or jeopardy dreams or alien invasion apocalyptic dreams. They were somewhat exhausting but not too frequent. Recently though my dreams are very different. Dear departed friends in ordinary situations and much like waking life in there flavour. I have had a lot of those recently. Perhaps it is a subconscious wish that things were the way they were again? They are more tiring though than the fantastical adventure movie type dreams and rather more disturbing. Perhaps they are simply a different manifestations of anxiety dreams? I have some concerns about things at present. I have always been prone to expecting things to go wrong, and still tend towards a mildly pessimistic outlook which is difficult to shake off. I am not an intellectual/academic or aspire/have pretensions to be one. I write and play music, mine and other peoples. I actually don’t want to pontificate too long on the woes of the world. Particularly as I get older I find.And the world is getting more woeful just at present it seems.

As I write this its a very quiet Sunday afternoon. I have worked on a piece of music I am recording for an hour but not much else. My various band projects are still a little stalled but moving forward slowly but they are still happening at least. I do miss the routine of regular gigs I used to have, but as they say that was then but this is now. I do find the loss of that regular pattern of weeks and weekends has drained my spirit more than somewhat now. The adrenaline flowing from playing and performing is not something I have experienced for a while except in a couple of odd and fleeting moments. So at present I am drifting around feeling permanently half asleep and have been the last couple of weeks. I feel as if I have used up all my supplies of adrenaline. Also I have virtually no motivation to do anything. Mostly I am not anxious which is good at least, but I do feel fatigued. Maybe something is out of kilter, though it could just be bad sleep?

I tried Dolby re-mastering on a song I recorded 2 years ago and I am pleasantly surprised with the result:

The sound is a bit more immediate and popish, if that’s a word? I have tried mastering plugins before a couple of times but results are definitely variable as they say. This time it has worked well.

England’s dreaming. Yes, bits of it certainly are, it must be said. I think I saw it today. There is a lot of very pleasant countryside to see here. Its all looking a bit disneyland olde England in the sunshine today. Appropriate I suppose as the king has got his hat on now. I had a brief trip out to to a local village (Felmersham) as I was suffering from cabin fever somewhat. I love visiting churches, I think it’s because I need redemption it helped a little, but as I write this the gloom has set in again. For the last few years we have had bright and very warm springs but this years been a slow starter all round. And whilst I have been busy things have not quite gelled as i would have hoped. Various band projects are progressing slowly at least. Perhaps a bit too slowly though for me. writing my thoughts down helps me keep perspective on it all though at least.

An unusual happenstance to get a track played several times in Vietnam as it is not a place people listen to my stuff a lot. Japan and Korea yes. But hey its progress I guess. My stuff is played world-wide as its distributed on over 35 different streaming platforms including chinese ones, but sadly not played enough…. Getting played in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi today is a novelty though. When I was a child those names were associated with newsreel footage of bombing on the TV news..

As I write it’s the end of the coronation weekend at present and a dull day in every regard. It’s raining outside and it’s raining in my head too.
So here is the song for you.