Busyness

I haven't written a posting for what seems like ages. It's been a busy time- I had prints made of six of my drawings for the exhibition at The Pelirocco in Brighton that I'm having with Gaye Black and Charlie Harper. They have come out very well. Then I had to go and buy frames, and I'll be framing them tomorrow.

I've been contributing ideas to one of Gina's songs, which is turning out really well. Every time we work on it, it gets better, and that's really fulfilling. I'm also supposed to learn three Asbo Derek songs on guitar before next Friday. They are very short and not hard to play at all, even though they are thrashers and not finger-pickers, but at the moment I can't tell which song is which! I'm supposed to learn a Piranhas song to sing but they haven't sent the lyrics yet so that may be impossible, because I'm learning my own songs for the album launch in April.

Naturally, my fingernails have all snapped. They can never be relied on to support me, the little buggers.

I've drawn some illustrations for Robert Halcrow to use for one of his songs. I did four of them, but I'm not going to post them here until he has filmed them for the video. He's done a cover version of A Good Life With A Bad Apple in a genre that I described as 'wobbly lounge', on which he's playing sax. It's very different to my song, but it's very good. Or maybe that's why it's good! Ha!

It's possible I'm going to sing some backing vocals on Kenji's solo album, but I'm not sure if they can wait until after my launch. Robert has written the songs, I think; but I've had to wait to see if I could still sing after quite a drastic operation at the end of last year. I hope they wait. It would be such an honour to contribute to that.

Funny, isn't it? I left my lecturing job and felt very upset by that. I felt as though I was living a lie: the University was not abiding by its own Equal Opportunities manifesto, and by working there I was helping them to be dishonest. Plus, I was effectively working full-time and being paid as a part-time worker. As a consequence, I have a tiny pension, so instead of going round the world on a wonderful holiday like many of my contemporaries, I've had to just have a holiday in my head, and get on with art and music.

Part of that wonderful holiday would have involved visiting Vermont, San Francisco, and New York again. Naturally, I can't even do that in my head. The situation in the USA is the stuff of nightmares: wannabe Roman Emperors in their new clothes, strutting about celebrating their own vanity. What horrible specimens of humanity, or rather inhumanity, they are.

Maybe I'll get to Cuba and listen to some wonderful music! A day in Paris wouldn't go amiss, either.

Until then, I'm art-ing and musicking like mad. The Pop-Up Chefs EP will be coming out in about a month's time (I hope). It's just being manufactured. I hope to get my brother James's music up on Bandcamp shortly too. Let's have a bit of Chefs energy out there in the mix!