Shirt

'Extraordinary!', I thought, but decided not to mention to the new student that I had a duvet cover in exactly the same fabric print as his shirt.

Wednesday

I have just had my nylon-strung guitar set up by the guys at LA Strings in Whetstone; they are really good luthiers and they are full of stories.
Today they said that Ivor Cutler had heard them talking on Classic fm, and had called up and asked them if he could visit them to soak up the atmosphere of their workshop. While he was there, he wrote a poem and gave it to them.
McMum and McDad raised us all on Cutler's subtle digs at genteel Glaswegian society and its manners and customs, and I used to see him cycling round South London when I lived there. They said that he arrived on his bicycle with cotton buds sticking out of his ears to cut out the noises of the world as he rode through it.
He was an eccentric but very observant man!
LA Strings' website is http://lastrings.co.uk/index.html
and Ivor Cutler is here http://www.ivorcutler.org/
(I think McDad rather admired Cutler's sartorial style!)

Downgrade: moan-a-minute

Now, how has this happened?
I updated my iPhone with what I thought would be 'up' graded software only to find that the photos I take are now so low-res that I can't use them on my blog.
How useless is that? I used to be able to take a pic, email it to myself, and post it without faffing about with the iPhoto software.
I am not amused, Apple.
Grrr!

Daniel Coston's Interview with Douglas Adams

http://danielcoston.blogspot.com/2011/09/douglas-adams-interview-1996.html
I never knew he wrote for Doctor Who- I wonder what he would have made of the new incarnations?

Guilt-free Word for Person Who Does Too Much Shopping

Buyologist.

Bowie Night at the Boogaloo

Steve Beresford Squeaks and Bonks

From the launch at the Jazz Servant's Quarters earlier this month.

Painting

I have just spent the most relaxing afternoon in months painting one of the living room walls white.
I can't do them all at once because there is too much furniture, but just doing one was amazing.
I am still in the zone; the smell of emulsion is a bit irritating but it will have gone by tomorrow and the room seems 50% lighter.
Roller for big sweeps, paintbrush for top and bottom, artist's brush for corners, lots of newspaper and old rags for wiping up the mess and a bar of chocolate afterwards!

Energy, Lack Thereof

Had a great morning with the Songwriting and Production students at the University of the East: what a lively and interesting group! After doing two songwriting workshops and a lot of troubleshooting (some troubles still to shoot after an afternoon's work, but my computer won't let me open the files with their email addresses in it), I am well and truly whacked out.
It would be nice to be out in that cool evening sunshine- what a beautiful day! Instead, I am nursing a very welcome cup of tea and looking forward to an evening of TV watching.
Years ago in Brighton, our drummer Rod and his friend Robert (who later went on to play bass guitar for King Kurt) got over their lack of spondulicks by sitting at the kitchen table drinking tea and going through a New Musical Express, gig by gig, saying things like, 'We could go to see The Fall at Manchester Free Trades Hall tonight, but we haven't got any money and we're not in Manchester'.
They could keep going for a whole evening like that.
For your information, I could have gone to the 12 Bar on Tuesday but I didn't. I could have gone out last night, but I didn't; I could go out tonight, but I'm not going to. A couple of weeks ago I went through a spontaneous going-out-to-gigs phase, but now it is resty-time and time to answer the emails I didn't answer back then, play a few chords and of course, drink multiple cups of tea.
Ahhhhh!

The Joy of Old Boxes

At work, I have just found a box of cassettes: old Helen and the Horns songs I'd forgotten about in demo form, my ex-husband's sister's band Igor's Night Off, multiple portastudio demos of songs I wrote for a children's musical 20 years ago (anyone got a portastudio?).
What I'm wondering is whether one of the blank ones has the recording of Debbie Harry rapping an Edith Sitwell poem, part of a (possibly aborted?) brilliant project by Alannah Curry to get rappers to do Sitwell's poetry over Alannah's backing tracks. I did one but I'm more of a crapper than a rapper unforchly: I just don't have it in me.

A Song Doesn't Have To Be Long

When I work with people who are writing songs I find that it is common for them to write long, long songs whose impact disappears as they get deeper and deeper into the song; by about verse 27 they have lost the listener altogether. I asked Offsprog One to make a little pop video of the shortest song in the world and I nipped down to Brighton today to do it with her. She is going to make an edited version of it for me to use in the studio, which I will post here when it is done. Meanwhile, here is the raw material, just for a laugh.
I took her for lunch at a snazzy place called Bill's and I ate so much that I am having to bend backwards to be comfortable, then we went and sat on the stones on the beach and watched the sea for a while. The sky was as blue as... well, the sky, and the sea was a lovely translucent turquoise colour. It was hard to come back; Barnet's OK, but even on a sunny day it's rather grey-looking.
I noticed that the Nazi dress shop has closed. Good riddance. But Brighton is still chock full of nutty shops- there is a shop that sells everyday groceries, and Hip-Hop clothing. Bless.

Airplay

Gideon Coe played I'll Go Too by The Chefs this evening on his chow on BBC6.
I have sent him You're So Nice, which was never released but which will be on The Chefs compilation.

Bitsanpieces

I am still reading Desmond Coy's autobiography, which is a lively and sometimes rather rude account of his life between the UK and Jamaica. He has a really good way with words: his visual descriptions are amazing and I am imagining the Jamaican mountains and 1960s Carnaby Street with equal colour and vitality. I am hoping to find a publisher for it.
Speaking of which, the paperback edition The Lost Women of Rock Music has been delayed until next year. If you were thinking of buying it, please could you order it? This would stop it from slipping to the back of the queue. Ironically, I had just agreed to do a reading in Letchworth in a bookshop after being asked on Friday at the Daintees gig, and was arranging to put a little piece about it in the cover artwork for The Chefs CD.
Work at the Universities is about to start again; we are rolling up our sleeves, spitting on our palms and rubbing our hands together.
I even did the ironing last night.

Ignite Music

I have been invited to speak at an Ignite Music night, on the history of women in punk.
Speakers talk for 5 minutes with a projection changing every 15 seconds behind them- should be adrenaline-fuelled fun!
At:

Concrete
Under Pizza East
56 Shoreditch High StreetE1 6JJ London
United Kingdom 

Monday, October 10, 2011 from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM (GMT)

Register here:

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2058341555

Degas Song

This song didn't make it on to the CD Take One (and nor did Summer Days which may possibly appear on  The Cafe of Tiny Kindnesses that Martin and myself are doing together). I dug it out last night and played about with some harmonies, largely because there's a Degas exhibition on at the moment and I love his work: it's stunningly beautiful, even if the artist himself was a bit of a prat.

www.reverbnation.com/helenmccookerybook