Spent Saturday tidying my room and making sense of the all the mess. On Sunday, went to the local dump to offload an old monitor and printer that was no longer needed. Both of these items were too old/heavy to be sold on eBay.
The heavy head that came on me late yesterday remains today. It’s like a headache but not. Just a dull ache that’s causing me to frown and making hard to focus my eyes on anything. I’m sure it will pass.
Did some more recording yesterday afternoon and transformed the recent demo into this:
The new album has around 15 minutes already glued together with another 10 minutes in the box marked “shall we bother to include this?” I’ve been enjoying recording. It’s nice to get back in the saddle again, as it were.
A lot of people visit this website courtesy of Google looking for information about the Ashbory bass guitar. Seeing as I own one and there wasn’t a dedicated page before, I thought I’d cobble some information together for all you weary web travellers. Firstly, I got turned on to the Ashbory bass in 2000 when I saw it being used by Trey Gunn at a King Crimson concert. Expecting the instrument to cost thousands of pounds, I was surprised that you could pick one up new for around $200. At that time, there weren’t that many stockists in the UK selling the Ashbory Bass, but luckily I was visiting Los Angeles for my birthday in February 2001. A search on the web, brought up the details of Highland Park Music & Pawn. I got in touch with Doug the propreitor and arranged to pick one up on my visit. So for $200, I got myself a little bargain in black.
The Ashbory itself is a unique instrument. It is around half the size of a standard bass guitar, fretless and uses silicon rubber strings. It is the combination of the strings and the pickup that makes the unique sound – it is supposed to give you a similar tonal range to that of a regular upright fretless bass for a fraction of the price. I like the tone of the guitar, but there are issues that make it difficult to play. Firstly, it is the tuning. My instrument is always slipping out of tune, especially the “G” string. The “G” string is always the first one to snap too and it can be expensive to buy replacement strings. Luckily, I found a man on the net that sells replacement “G” strings for a fraction of the price.
Here are some pictures of my instrument:
Here are some sound samples I’ve recorded using my Ashbory:
Every year I tune into the freak-fest that is Big Brother to see how Channel 4 has degraded the format. The very first series was an interesting social experiment, but now they tend to fill the house with people who are just too media-savvy for their own good. However, the really great thing about Big Brother is the betting culture that’s grown up around it. Every Friday, you can have a flutter on who is going. Every series there is at least a couple of good chances to make some money when the bookies get it completely wrong. Where else in a two-horse race can you get odds of nearly 5-1? Even if you do lose, the odds are too good to turn down and there’s always at least one eviction that catches the bookies out. I’ve been biding my time and waiting and last night, I took my chance. I had a flutter on Kemal getting the boot and my horse came in. I made a nice £50 out of the show. So who says that reality TV is rubbish? Not me. You’ve just got to find a way to make it work for you. 😉
Why o why o why o why do rock stars feel it necessary to cover the classics. This time it is Justin “I’m only 54, you know” Hawkins from the Darkness slaughters “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us”. Ha de har har…it’s so funny. And so post-modernly ironic as both Russell and Ron Mael appear in the video. This balding chipmunk should be taken out, horsewhipped within an inch of his life and then made to personally apologise to everyone who’s ever had the misfortune to hear one of his goddamn awful novelty records.
Apart from that little outburst, it has been a quiet day. 🙂
So anyway, after calling her insurance company, The Missus was told that she needn’t worry about being sued. She should simply forward the County Court claim forms to the insurance company and their solicitors will deal with the matter. It seems that the claimant hasn’t given our Insurance people all the details of the damage to her car and so they aren’t willing to pay out. They are like us: they can’t understand how a £10 cracked number plate on the Missus’s car could result in this giant claim from damages. Also, reading the claimant’s version of events was very interesting. It seems she is saying that the accident happened at speed with her moving and the Missus trying to overtake. It didn’t: it happened in stationery traffic with the Missus rolling forward into the back of her. Oh well, we’ll have to see how this all pans out. At least, I won’t have to visit The Missus in prison just yet. 🙂
Yesterday, Sony released a patch for the PSP which allows uesrs to the surf the Internet. Boy – I must admit, it’s the cleverest thing I’ve seen in a while. The browser is lightning fast and works with most of the websites I’ve visited. It also means that if you are travelling, you can check your email/surf from a wi-fi hot-spot (like an airport or Starbucks). It means that if I am ever going away again, I can keep in touch WITHOUT taking my laptop. Hurrah! I love technology.
In the post: the last set of VDGG remasters. I am not that familiar with “The Quiet Zone/Pleasure Dome” as I always found it one of the tougher VDGG (or should that be VDG?) albums to get, mainly because of the line-up change, but I am looking forward to getting reacquainted. I had a brief listen to the restored live album “Vital” and it sounds good. There’s still the issue of David Jackson’s sax in the mix but that problem will/can never be fixed. But they’ve done a good job anyway.
Crisis, what crisis?
We are not rich people. We have a modest salary and like the majority of people in this fair isle, we get by. The last thing you want when you are treading water is to be sued. Today, in the post, legal documents arrived announcing that the Missus is being sued. How comes?
Well it all began on a dark January night this year. The Missus was driving back from work when she hit another car. Don’t worry, it wasn’t a smash. It was a gentle tap. The cars were in near-to-stationary traffic, when the Missus hit the gas when shouldn’t. Such was the impact that the damage to the Lockmobile was a cracked number plate which I repaired for a cost of £10. The lady in front suffed a bump to her car, but the damage was minor, and she immediately complained that she was recovering from a previous whiplash injury. Details were exchanged and the Missus went on her way and reported the incident with her insurance company. Because it was such a small incident, we didn’t think much of it. Hardly any damage, the Missus saying she did it, pay out and good night.
The insurance company investigated, but it wasn’t like most claims where everything is settled really quickly. They came around and took pictures of the Lockmobile and things just took a long time to process. Well it seems that our insurance company isn’t paying this woman and as a result of this, the Missus is now being privately sued for damages.
The claimaint wants upto £5000 for personal injury and another £600 for the damage to her car. This is from a 75-year-old woman who has no employment and who spends her days being a “housewife”, according ot the legal documents. £5500???? (That’s about $10,000 for US readers) Where the heck are we going to get that money? We’ve never been sued before and while the Missus will admit to damaging the car, the whiplash injury seems a little hokey to me.
It reminds me of the time when the Missus got rear-ended by another motorist at high speed. It caused over £700 damage to her car and the whiplash was minor. This was 1996 and she got about £500 for her injuries. But this is different…this is worrying. In her decade of motoring, she’s never had an accident in her life before this, is an unbelievably safe driver and pays her car insurance with gusto. I’m really scared that we are going to get taken to the cleaners for an accident that happened at about 5mph in stationary traffic. We’ve never been in any kind of trouble before and I actually feel sick to the stomach.
Any advice from anyone in the legal industry would be helpful or anyone who’s been through the small claims court. Any links/URLs will be gratefully received.
Recently…
During the week, some youngsters were out leafletting and they were wearing very smart apparel. The Missus remarked about them, I glanced out of the window and automatically said: “They’re BNP”. And I was right. A nasty little, hate-filled leaflet capitalising on the recent bombings fluttered through the door. I should have let Alex the Wonderdog rip it up, but not even he wanted to go near it. It made me very angry, but the Missus managed to convince me not to run out and confront these nazis. Instead, she took the leaflet, screwed it up and threw it in the bin. It made me very angry indeed.
On Saturday, while working in the front garden, the Missus noticed a familiar figure knocking at our neigbours. It was the little Chinese guy who frequents the local pubs in the area selling counterfeit DVDs. Money and goods were exchanged on the doorstep. It seems the pirates are making deliveries now. In the past, it was milk and bread that got delivered to your door, now it is fake DVDs and cigarettes. The mind boggles…this is the measure of the society we live in.
In the post recently: Dead Like Me – Series 2 DVD Boxset. This is one of my favourite TV series of recent years. It is original. The dialogue is superb and actually uses the same kind of language we all use and it features a great ensemble cast. The sad fact is it got cancelled on US TV during the second season. Oh well…we’ve still got the DVDs, eh?
Decided that I needed to start recording at the weekend. I’ve had a little break for a while, just noodling, but now it is time to pick up the guitar and finish that other CD. I recorded a little sketch last night for a track and it sounds like this:
Of course, it’s only the bare bones of the track at the moment and it will probably all change. That’s the wonder of music… 🙂
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