Category Archives: whatever

Stuf that I can’t fit anywhere else…

The Spirit of 67

So I am 67 years and tears and fears old today. The world is looking very dangerous and unstable again.
Will we be in a 3rd world war by 2027? I could see it happening. Grim.
I am just sitting here feeling extra special crazy today.

Be that as it may at least for today life goes on or rather some lives do for the lucky ones.
I have been putting a lot of effort into working on various musical stuff in the last month and today my concentration is completely gone. My brain feels a bit fried as in more so than usual to be honest.

  • Diana Stone Musician & composer Violin Piano Guitar Vocals
    Diana is a performing composer and muscian playing Piano Violin & Guitar. She currently plays with the Rock/Roots band Elephant Shelf and also the Delta Ladies who mix roots acoustic music and electronica. She composes in a variety of styles from pop to rock to Jazz and and classical music.Diana is also expert in multi-media recording and music production.
  • What I am doing today
    Well apart from installing word press, a few other things. I am just off to visit Wilton’s Music Hall in E1 which is becoming very popular at the moment.
  • wit and wisdom!
    > Few can wear white except Brides & sacrificial virgins>> > Its not so lonesome in the saddle since I ‘came out’ on the range>> > Due to my vegetarian diet of beans they called me Loathsome Cowboy Joe>> >You can take a horse to water but its quicker crossing in a boat >>
  • Leaving the Comfort Zone >>
    Date Posted: April 2 2008 I did my last day at the office on Friday and had the obligatory leaving drink and presentation which was embarassing but I was also quite touched as I had not really expected it.A lot of folks turned up and I do feel a tinge of regret as I was … Continue reading Leaving the Comfort Zone >>
  • Birthday blues
    Date Posted: 15th January 2008 Current mood: quixotic January and my Birthday approaches. I shall be making efforts to ignore it as much as possible in the vain hope that it will go away, as time seems to be passing very quickly now. I am still up to the usual rubbish. Its a great relief … Continue reading Birthday blues

January and all that

Well its arrived again, I am sure we had one only 12 months ago. Dull, Cold and Grey like a Dickensian firm of solicitors. I have been clearing out old papers, bill and similar in the feint hope that the place would look less of a mess, but its hasn’t worked. So far I have 2 gigs in the book for next year. Not a lot but at least its not zero. The world is a complicated and contradictory place at times. Particularly the human condition and the strange, wants needs desires and impulses that arise from our fleshy being. Many of us are left with itches that are far too dangerous to scratch. Its hard not to succumb. The temptation is there though trying to pull us off our true compass heading and straight on to the rocks. Or perhaps that is just me….
Trying not to go mad in winter. It ought to be a self help book really.

Here is a new song. I bet you never saw that one coming 🙂 What’s it all about. As usual only you the listener can decide of course. There may be clues in the lyrics of course.
Its Called “I Am So Easily Lead”

I often find getting started each day very difficult, but by the evening I am usually quite lively and this used to work in my favour when I was playing gigs as I would often get home at 03.00. Now I am so often just watching YouTube. Times have really changed a lot for me. At the moment I am watching the Avengers (Steed and Mrs Peel) that is, not the Marvel crowd. Its a great looking show but very much of its time of course.

Theoretically I could do some music recording and production at any time of day almost. If am recording it might take a day or a week depending on what it is. So I might do an hour one day and 5 the next. And not at any particular time, so I could be doing something at midday or not start till the afternoon. It al depends on the day and what I am working on. Sometimes I may just stop and do something unrelated for a while. I don’t have any hard and fast rules. Sometimes you need to be inspired and you just get stuck of course. I do have motivation aplenty a lot of the time. Stuff gets done but not too any particular timetable or order though.

Here are my most recent tracks:

What’s Going On?

Christmas is lurking, Santa’s getting fat
Please leave the lights on whilst we sort out this crap

Yep. This weeks been a very mixed bag. I had a visit from my sister to help her sort out a few things with regard to her recent move to London. Also get her phone back to normal after her cat managed to turn on the Android disability suite and screen reader by walking over the phone. We could not get it to switch off though despite following the instructions. We persisted though and victory was attained eventually. Paradoxically this was achieved by performing the same commands many times over and over again until finally the phone admitted defeat and allowed us to get to the appropriate menu in the settings. I helped sort out a few other things which needed doing too.

What do I miss. What do I really miss? On a Saturday or Friday night. Proper gigs, a drive and a chat about putting the world to rights. Setting up the gear. Doing a stonking set and getting booked back again. Getting home at 03.00. I really do miss all that. Its seems like a remote and far distant dream now. But it was my life for many years. Not much but enough to give me a sense of achievement. That’s all gone now….

I have made progress socially in lots of areas really, but this time of year is hard going for me and I doubt that will change. I was sociable with the folks I worked with at the Civil Service to an extent. So although I was never deeply into pub culture I did have drinks with workmates. Then after I left I spent a lot of time playing music in pubs. But I was never good at going it alone. In those days though I was never on my own though of course.

What did the spider do when Robert the Bruce saw it?

One day, when he was hiding in a cave, Robert the Bruce saw a spider trying to spin her web. The spider tried six times to make her thread stick to the wall of the cave. It would not stick. On the seventh time, the thread stuck to the wall.

Meanwhile back in the haunted toy shop, the fiddling and twanging and piano bashing continues unabated of course. What else is there. A new instrumental tune below.


Its time for indulgence and cracking up I guess. Sometimes I want to try and walk in to the picture on the wall. Looking for something mythical just over the next hill towards the setting sun. That hidden land where everything is fine. Somewhere over the rainbow perhaps? I am still trying to get there, but will I know when I have arrived. I feel like I am vicariously living other lives via YouTube video’s at present.

In the 70s apart from my mates, nobody would have heard my music or songs except perhaps one or two in the local pub at best on on cassettes or late CDs passed around. Now in the last since about 2010 somewhere north of 150,000 plays have taken place on various websites and streaming services, so for me personally its better now as I have an audience and some of them are the mystery Facebook friends in far flung places so I get actual feed back about what I do.
In other music matters, I note that my most played tracks predominately are:

#1 Rock style songs (which tend to sound a bit late 60s/70s unsurprisingly considering my age and formative influences)
#2 Singer Songwriter/ Folk
#3Trance (EDM) with violin.

Other stuff gets played less, so strangely whilst I am not a fan of the sound of my own voice others apparently are. Occasionally I will do a world Jazz thing that people like a bit. But it seems the human voice (even mine is still popular).

I was always about recording stuff, making up tunes and creating arrangements, playing at making records if you like. So I sort of started from a different place. I was asked to join bands in my 20s (by student types that lived at home or often full time squatters on the dole), but I had just got a mortgage so there was no way I could go and rehearse with no gigs or money.

Sometimes though when I get to thinking too much I have hit the off switch for a while. I don’t have any musical outings till after Christmas. A mental reset is useful, semi-recluse mode can be a help in some respects.

I just found an old bit of studio kit I had forgotten about (vocal processor) that I had which may be useful. It still works after the dust was cleaned up so that might be fun.

Mend a quarrel
Search out a forgotten friend
Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust
Write a love letter
Share some treasures
Give a soft answer
Encourage youth 

Manifest your loyalty in a word or deed
Keep a promise
Find the time
Forego a grudge
Forgive an enemy
Listen
Apologize if you were wrong

Try to understand
Flout envy
Examine your demands on others
Think first of someone else
Appreciate, be kind, be gentle
Laugh a little more.
Deserve confidence

Take up arms against malice
Decry complacency
Express your gratitude
Worship your God
Gladden the heart of a child
Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth

Speak your love
Speak it again
Speak it still again
Speak it still once again….