Old, Fat Tom

No no, its not a mistitle, I'm aware that it's called Robinson's Old Tom, I just have a very dear friend called Fat Tom and I thought I'd mix things up a little. Its a rich, syrupy ale at a princely 8.5%. About as heavy as a stout but none of the marmite-y nodes you get in Guinness or Mackeson's. If you like sweet beers this is a princely example of that tradition. It smells like jam and tastes like what you would expect molasses to taste like if it were brewed. It is rather nice.

No RE for CEP.
RE for Zombie Wedding.
Spent most of today working out an arrangement for "Cathy". It has to be a ballad, a rock ballad, but what else? Rock like Journey or like Europe? The Police or Bonnie Tyler? Well right now i'm not sure, I like it having the soft, clean guitar, but also the piano. Sigh, but then there's the synth strings.

This has been a terrible blog :(.

Mini beer post

Just had a Crabbie's Ginger beer. Marketed as a kind of Edwardian novelty like Pimms, this alcoholic ginger beer is currently undertaking a major marketing campaign, sponsoring the British comedy awards, TV advertising and reduced RRP at supermarkets. Now this little beer blog might seem a little trivial coming from a beer man so I'll give you a little Daniel Sturman history lesson. Before I discovered ale I worked in a horrible pub (I was about 17) that only served lagers, mixers and all the normal pub fair. Unlike the majority of lager haters who drink it anyway, or buy it and stare at it and wondering why they conform to this amber macho bullshit, I took the first step; other drinks. I still had to be the man so I couldn't very well have a screwdriver or Baileys-Amarula, but I wasn't about to let my glad eye leave the optic line just yet. I gave Whisky a run. Hated it. I disguised my distain for whisky by disguising in strong ginger beer (not ginger ale) and that suited my fine. Years later I discovered that it's an actual drink. I worked as a musician for a theatre group and one of the actors gave me the recipe to a really good cough mixture; some special honey that I can't remember the name of and "Rochester Dickensian Recipe Ginger Wine". It's non-alcoholic and its so strong it will curl your toenails. I still buy it to this day and drink like a "secret judge" sneaks tots of whisky. So yes I would say I know a little bit about the drinking of Ginger. So back to the beer in question. First of all Crabbie's isn't a beer I'm afraid. Don't quote me but I think there's something in the sugering process that qualifies this as a Cider, which is where I take issue. This tastes like cider. It tastes like cider with, I'd say, 5ml of ginger wine in it. That is not ginger beer. Ginger beer should, as everybody who is subject to the premise of the offer of an alcoholic ginger beer would expect, be beer first and foremost. And a heavy beer at that. Something more like a honey mead, and smelling like ginger-loaf. This smells like ginger wine, which isn't a problem in itself, but it's not beer.

If you like cider or if you're like Neil who doesn't like pint-drinks at all so takes his cider flavoured with strawberries and such you will probably throw it on the sweet-pile. I however will leave your ginger beer and continue my passive, meandering existence, occasionally and briefly awakening at the beckon of ginger drinks.

Try Rochester Dickensian Recipe.

Fryday

So called fryday because for breakfast I had scrambled eggs and pancakes, a bodybuilder's breakfast. It's my favourite plate-based pastime. Spent all night until late past bedtime tuning Surprise for a little demo recording. Then this morning I realise that I don't like riff and have composed a more down-key one (more like Prince and less like a musical theatre Swartzy impression of Prince). I'm taking on and improving on "Cathy" while R.C. gets back to me with Surprise and what he wants to do next, I'm worrying however that I'm going to end up tinkering with this stuff forever. However, forever. Cathy needs work though, it's boring and the lyrics don't work, they say what the character is thinking but they are a little airy and vague which is out of character from the other songs. It will probably need a new bridge, counter melody and arrangement certainly. Also it's too high for a Barry to sing with any strength.
(That was all about Zombie Wedding by the way)...

RE: CEP
Nothing today, although its only 11 so more will probably be done later. Tim hasn't got back to me yet about getting a meeting together with him.

When making curry

When making curry use tinned coconut milk, don't try and ground your own coconuts, it takes ages and doesn't work anyway. I am knackered today, and as for "woodern hand brewery's CORNISH BUCCANEER", bust beer I've had in devon, devilishly drinkable golden ale. Now where was I?
RE: CEP
Got some emil responded from an email solicit for views which were nice. Other than that, today has been my day of from CEP work. I've been doing...
RE: Zombie Wedding
Jesus H. Christ when will this song be done. It's 89% finished I swear... but then I still have to instrumentalise it :(. I cracked the choir writing- keep the Sops and Tens with the melody, and put the widest interval between the Sops and Alts, so the Sop would have the 8th in a quad (a four note chord). I'm up to the bit when Cathy squabbles for the broach (or whatever it will become. I think when I start the next song I should put a day marker on it so I can keep track of how much time i'm pissing away crafting this music.

My friend Michael is coming over tomorrow until Sunday so I have to get the song finished if I'm to spend any time with him. Beer will flow.

EMERGENCY BLOG

Okay I was fiddling around with some youtube.com touting. (It's when you comment on songs and people check out your page etc) and after doing it for an hour maybe (its not really work) my myspace views are up about 140 views. The play-count is the same (which tells you how annoying the play-counter is) but just mucking about on youtube has gotten me a good chunk of views... and about three more comments! Wicked!

Tuesmidday

It's actually not midday, its about quarter to two and I just had a possibly gone off soup and microwaved mexican "matter" that might have a few days ago been Enchiladas. I can feel the poos coming on, which is exactly not what I need right now. The bad lunch must have been potent because I had hard boiled egg for breakfast which usually sets any stool like a sword in stone. A chocolate sword.
RE: CEP
Some rather delightful news. Someone on Jack Lynde's myspace wrote this baby...


(Cool I'm responding on this for Indieforums)

not feeling thing this pseudo deep video and song with its californiay beachy words. Im gonna say posery. The websites pretty smart which only makes the song seem more dishonest.
on behalf of indiemusic forums, 2 stars


This is exactly the kind of information we are looking for and we got it! I guess the rubbish forums do yield (one) response. Neil and I have another plan to get the view count for the youtube pages up, it probably won't work though. Erm, a couple more myspace comments. I think Myspace is a bit of a dead horse really. 
RE: Zombie Wedding
Still on that f*ing "Surprise", It has possibly the best lyrics I've ever written but my inexperience in chorus writing is so clear. I don't know if you use arcs or build up your chorus until the end or not, or what inversion of a chord say, is the grander when sung in harmony. Is close harmony bigger sounding than 4ths and 5ths? I might actually have to do some investigating. The song has a bit where they wonder into a new strange store and I've inadvertently written what sounds like a little Holst-y moment. It could be the Neptune suite. 
Oh I feel sick :(

Monday, Monday.

Just had a nice bowl of porridge with cold busting honey; I have a chesty cough.

RE: CEP
Finally about eight comments, all banal so I'm going to definitely have to message each commenter and request that that leave a more detailed, biguous comment. Also had a couple messages in myspace from people who read the forum requests so I might post them on the myspaces to encourage others to give more specific comments. views are up too.

RE: Zombie Wedding
Still that stupid Surprise song. I think I'm just going to have to completely choreograph the scene to fit around the song, the book-writer probably wont write it but it will make better theatre. I need to learn how to write for choir, I'm being far too low-range dependent, probably Sibelius's fault.

RE: Life
have an interview today in Rick Rogers' office to discuss a little bit of online music promotion work, just a few hours a week I think but should be fun, and an education.

Just had come apple crumble and coffee

Yes you read correctly, I just emjoyed a delicous portion of microwave-fresh apple (and blackberry) crumble with cold, tinned custard. Perhaps I should explain. Saturday is fish'n'chip night. I have to make Neil a pudding once a week to avoid the afore-promised dead arm. Fish'n'chips sends me to sleep (alongside my weekly bottle of dark ale). I feel asleep as the crumble cooled. I had to eat my crumble for a very early breakfast rather than a dessert. And like all Americans, I cannot enjoy anything with sugar on and in it without a tall mug of black gold.
RE: CEP
We know have two, count um', two comments on the myspace. They are a little vapid but I'm not complaining. The forums have yielded nothing special but I can't say I'm surprised, the world of discussion forums is a closed world where nothing happens beside in-joking between nerds, nothing of outside discussion. Perhaps if the comments continue to be vapid I might write to the individual commenters and ask them to comment on how the music makes them feel. Yes, I might just do that.... (sly eyes).
RE: Zombie Wedding
Surprise is better, there is still that missing chord that's annoying me, perhaps I will just shoot myself with a minor 6th and admit mediocrity. It's a good song but when R.C. asked to hear it yesterday I quickly put together a recording with me singing all the choir parts and it sounded pretty poo, probably because all the parts where in the same register and the piano was down in the mix, but it inspired me to spend all day fiddling with the first minute of it. It will be good. ish.

My Precious Saturdays

Okay, have discovered Sketch-up and you can make houses in it, like the sims but actually grows with fun as you go rather than drags. I'm desperately going through google trying to find castle/theatre plans to make. Yes thats right, I'm a waste of dump.

RE: CEP
Got about three six new people but no comments from them, I did however get a message with the comment and the person said they couldn't be bothered to add as a friend (this is on myspace). Fair enough, maybe I will post it on the myspace page anyway. Yes, yes I will do that. Also about twenty or so new views overall. I have no idea how many people have visited the personal websites because it resets the counter every time I change something on the site but I think its in the few hundreds.

RE: Zombie Wedding
Just got an updated script with Surprise and scene six. RC has changed my title for the scene six song which will change the song but never mind, I didn't have any ideas for the song anyway. I've spent ages fiddling with Surprise today so I haven't looked at how the scene has been changed, I hope it has Cat being stressed and thus would appreciate a surprise. Oh my head. Oh oh, on no. I mentioned it yesterday (about Thrill Night).

Friday morning.

RE: Dartington CEP





So far a maximum of around a hundred views from the various pages and two youtube comments. Apparently online traffic multiplies rather than steadily expands, so two today might be four tomorrow and eight the next day. If it's true its good news. I not I might have to extend the yester-mentioned invitation to take part in the investigation knowingly to a wider public.


RE: Zombie wedding
Got the first post-first-reading revisions through for the first three songs. No manger changes but I'm majority overhauling one of the songs. Deb's verse of 'Dream Wedding' is now a kind of Madonna groove rather than bouncy pop groove, a little slower and a more original way to show a feisty character than dirty blues or rock or any other lazy musical theatre composer trope. I ridiculously spent a good eight hours on Dream Wedding today and it's noway near complete. Also had an idea about how to fix Thrill Night, put in a lead break then chorus rather than a third line of dialogue. The character can act in the break. My god it will be stupid.




RE: Daniel Sturman.
Considering, in fact drafting a how-to in putting together a piano score, it will be epic because it aint easy or fun. Also added a resources page to Danielsturman.com to post musical theatre related information, maybe i'll become a hub one day of good information. Or not.

Nothing Yet

Profile views are expanding but yet nobody has commented on any of the artist's myspaces' or youtubes'. I'm thinking that if i get a comment emailed to me, facebooked or messaged (because commenting requires friend adding and makes the whole rigmarole quite longwinded) then I will repost it on youtube or myspace respectively. I'm also going to (perhaps today) start oiling the wheels of this baby by actually being upfront about what we're doing. I will just do it on one forum to see if there are people who would be interested and maybe would get their friends involved, friends not under the guise.
Here's what I drafted...

An Indie Music Investigation?

Hey everybody,

I'm posted here as a shout out to see if anybody on the indie forums would be interested in being the eyes and ears for an investigation about the context of the artist in Indie music. If you would be interested it would take no more that ten minutes of your time. 

All I would need you to do is pick out one of the three artists below and listen to their song, check out their webpage and just get to understand what they are about a little bit. Then I would need you to comment about what you think of the song considering what you know about the artist. 

The conceit of the investigation is that the video and the song are the same for all three artists. Doing this will mean that any conflicting opinions from you good people about any of the artists' song will be a product of the context of the song in relation to the personality of the artist rather than the actual notes and lyrics; and that's what I'm looking into.

Cheers for reading this far already...

The artists are:

Jack Lynde who's myspace you can check out at www.myspace.com/jacklynde, his webpage at http://www.jacklynde.com and his youtube account at http://www.youtube.com/jacklyndemusic. 

Evan Drake who's myspace you can check out at www.myspace.com/evandrakemusic, his webpage at http://www.evan-drake.com and his youtube account at http://www.youtube.com/evandrakemusic.

And finally Vancouver who's myspace is over at /www.myspace.com/thebandcalledvancouver, his webpage at http://www.vancouver-music.com and his youtube account at http://www.youtube.com/vancouvertheband.

You can comment on the artist's youtube video, myspace page, myspace personal message or webpage email. Do check out at least the webpage before commenting as there is bio information and other business that might help you get to know the artist a little better. 

This is most sincerely not an inventive piece of spam or band promotion, this is a real investigation I'm undertaking for a university project. If you would like some more information don't hesitate to message me. 

concerning concerns

Concerns concerning my CEP

Okay so the sites are up and look pretty good. We have put made up three artists of similar musical genre, with contrasting non-musical personalities.

Jack Lynde is a confident, well marketed, well photographed singer with a site shop and an iTunes account. I would expect him to be met with either a distain for the commercial from people who like folk/indie and perhaps be more attractive to people away from that demo, people who might need a more commercial veneer to legitimise their enjoying the music.

You can check out Jack Lynde's website, his myspace and his youtube account.

Vancouver is a music project by a Canadian folk artist, its more low key and I imagine will be met more favourable by people interested in folk because it takes on the aesthetic. You can check out the website, the myspace and youtube account.

Evan Drake is a weird one. We don't really get information about the commercial/indie aesthetic of him, only that he's dead. I imagine the response to Evan will be supportive, emotive and maybe even a little spiritual. How that will inform our CEP I don't really know. You can check out Evan Drake's webpage, myspace or youtube account.

Any who, concerns at this early stage in the gestation period of the Cep are thus; what if people just don't write, listen or give us the information we need. I don't mean give us information counter to our expectations, just not tell us about the music. Would that be a bad thing? How are we going to write this up, how are we going to convert this anecdotal information we get from people into a talk about music in context with the context being the personality of the artist?

I believe that its easier to remember, enjoy and relay your feelings about a song when you know more about an artist. That much I think interests me most in the Cep.