Yesterday was pretty busy as it was my mother’s birthday and we took her out to do some shopping. The mission was simple: to locate and purchase a new sofa. Luckily, things turned out better than I expected and the retail park provided an unlikely source of a sofa. The ILVA store at the Thurrock Retail Park was very expensive the first time myself and The Missus perused the labyrinthine structure filled with trendy Danish furniture and useless knick-knacks. I didn’t think we’d find a sofa for my mother, but lo and behold there was a three-seater that was the right size/depth/comfort for her. And it was half-price too! So a result…
The remains of the day was spent in the pub where we drank and generally chewed the fat. It was a good day and we all had a rollicking time. I returned home later and checked my email to find that I didn’t get the Assistant Editor job on Tunnelling News…despite them sending me a couple of copies of the magazine in the post and getting my hopes up. No problems, it would have been a boring job anyway. (That was a joke, geddit?)
With regards to “God Pays Debts WIthout Money…”, I have managed to flog a couple of copies already. If I manage to sell the remains of the stock, I would have covered the production/registration charges. I am feeling very pleased with myself. If you haven’t purchased a copy get, follow the likes of Yorkie (link to the right) and get one now. You’ll be doing me a big favour and swelling my ego at the same time!
Category: Diary
This video is a piss-take of those films on YouTube where the guy or the girl takes a picture of themselves each day over a period of time. Usually, nothing much happens and you sit there scratching your nuts wondering why you wasted three minutes of your life watching someone not get particularly older. Anyhoo, this is a really great work of comedy and it makes me chuckle. Pass it on.
A Picture Every Day
On Tuesday, we had one of those magical sunsets and The Missus prompted me to take a photo of it:
Yesterday, I managed to photograph the most evil looking mushroom I’ve ever seen:
And late last night/early this morning, I sat down and recorded a really raggedy-assed improvisation. I shouldn’t have done it because I was really tired, but heck, you even get to see my guitar soloing face. Not a pretty sight!
Not sure if my loyal reader is familiar with the workings of the web, but Microsoft have jumped on the bandwagon with its own video hosting site called Soapbox. Anyway, I managed to get on the site and test drive the service. The video quality is much better than YouTube & Google and the sound is stereo and sounds quite sweet. I really liked the user interface and the way Microsoft have thought this out. Anyway, here’s the last improv I viddied in beautiful Soapbox vision:
Yes, it is Mushroom season and I’ve been snapping the local funghi as I take Alex the Wonderdog for his constitutional drag. It’s funny because the same types of mushroom seem to appear at the same spots every year. Fascinating, eh? Oh, you’ve nodded off already. Well I think mushrooms are great and I like the way that they have a limited life span and are a step between the animal and vegetable world.
A joke:
Q. Why don’t goblins live in toadstools like fairies?
A. Because there’s not mushroom…
It’s OK – you can have that one for free.
A particularly miserable dream sets the mood for the day. I’m not telling the dream because, well, I’ve decided to “edit” what appears on this site. Don’t want certain things to be read by certain people. Mysterious stuff, eh? Anyway, this dark cloud that came down is hanging around me and has done for the past week or so. I try and lift it with music, dog walking, guitar playing, cider drinking, but it is deep at the heart of me. It can only be described as a combination of abject misery and apathy. I don’t like it, but I knew it was coming when I put the finishing touches on my “God Pays Debts” music box-set. Whenever a large project finishes, the depression comes along to fill the vacuum that was once held at bay by being creative.
But at the moment, I am just fed up with everything. Every time I try and do something positive and forward-moving, I get knocked back. Everything ends with nothing. I’m tired of trying. Maybe I am not trying hard enough. I don’t know. What I do know is that the decluttering continues and I have decided to sell the rest of my record collection – holding back certain titles that are dear to me. I look at all the CDs in the crates and think back to a different time, to a different Darren, a younger, more youthful, more optimistic Darren. I know I can’t be that man anymore, so the CDs and the past have to go. You can’t hold onto these things.
As I have said to The Missus, if the house was on fire I’d make sure she and the dog were safe first before running back into the house to retrieve items that mean something to me. Would I retrieve my record collection? No. Instead, I would probably retrieve my guitar and my own CDs. Again, I think the problem is that I am listening/creating my own music more and so I don’t really have the inclination to listen to anyone else’s. Maybe this is an insular view but it’s what’s working for me at the moment.
I need a new project to work on, but feel too tired to engage with my guitar or anything else. The remaining energy I have I have to put aside for work. This could be down to the onset of winter, I don’t know. Got to take the rough with the smooth, no? As a great philosopher said:
Got to pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues,
And you know it don’t come easy.
You don’t have to shout or leap about,
You can even play them easy.
Forget about the past and all your sorrows,
The future won’t last,
It will soon be over tomorrow.
I don’t ask for much, i only want your trust,
And you know it don’t come easy.
Got the confirmation last night from CDBABY that they had received 5 copies of “Sow’s Ears” and 5 copies of “Without Words” – so those titles are back in stock. I was surprised as we only posted them on Monday and they got all the way to Ohio, US of A in less than 3 days. Wowser! The new postal rates are frankly “doing my head in”. A small padded envelope containing a DVD now costs more to post to the UK than sending five CDs to America – this is thanks to the revised postal charges which take size and thickness as well as weight into account. Of course, it could be that we got overcharged. But the bottom line is that these postal charges are obscenely complicated to work out if you are a common or garden sprout like me. I expect some boffin with thick glasses is sitting in Royal Mail HQ shrugging his shoulders and saying: “It all makes perfect sense to me.”
I received two helpful emails from CDBABY today giving me direct links to my albums on iTunes and eMusic.
LINKS TO ITUNES
Darren Lock: Textures
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=4151131
Darren Lock: Without Words
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=18757324
Darren Lock: Sows’ Ears & Silk Purses
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=18757802
EMUSIC LINKS
Darren Lock: Without Words
http://www.emusic.com/album/10855/10855640.html?fref=700329
Darren Lock: Sows’ Ears & Silk Purses
http://www.emusic.com/album/10855/10855435.html?fref=700329
Darren Lock: Textures
http://www.emusic.com/album/10855/10855306.html?fref=700329