the things we do for life

New wave/punk band from Boston, MA 1978 - 1982.

I just discovered they opened for Ultravox at the Paradise Theater in March '79 while reading a blog. I read a lot of blogs.
There are more than several useful anecdotes you can pick up from these, to colour in the framework of the story.
The reasons for and intentions behind the Static Gallery VJ set, for instance, and the technical difficulties experienced before that gig.

You'd never guess would you, as I am so crap at my own...!

Turns out this lady and I have been to many of the same Foxx gigs.

Today I booked a ticket and a date - not with this anonymous woman, however, but another sympathiser - for the Futurist Exhibition in the Tate Modern in the afternoon before DNA

A few days ago I received four new press pieces for the Media Archive, which I shall set about transcribing in due course.
Four - an excellent response to a rather generic request for material from the UK press relating to The Golden Section.
So far, all that I have managed to locate (well, the vast majority) has been Australian, and very postive.
These UK pieces - from MM, NME and Record Mirror - are all scathing in their criticism of the album and the artist, describing TGS variously as "over-ripe" and "claustrophobic" and Foxx himself as having "produced little of any real merit" and "desperately in need of a more varied setting". Sharon Machala in Record Mirror is particually cutting - "a thin coat of gold plate is never any substitute for the genuine article".

What's interesting about these views is that they do exemplify my own opinion of the album at the time of its release. I felt it was very much an over-produced 'sell-out' album, with Zeus B Held drafted in by Virgin to polish up a desperately needed hit single. They'd dismissed the songs a year or two earlier, and Foxx himself ditched most of them, but obviously felt there was some potential there given a dose of sparkle and some thumb-slappin basslines a la Level 42.
Your Dress came close, and is one of the best songs on the album, but was never in any dange ro fthreatening the Top 40.

I have redefined my opinion since, having heard these 'original' songs without the brasso, and with a much deeper understanding 25 years on of what Foxx was all about and a maturity to apprecaite the song-writing craftmnanship of tracks like 'Sitting At The Edge of the World' and 'like a Miracle'.

I got to see The Golden Section tour twice - Dominion and Lyceum - (both recorded for future release) and at the time I was blown away. First time seeing my favourite artist live, travelling to London, student circumstances etc etc. Subsequently realised, thanks to several superb bootleg recordings - neither of these were great gigs and the sound quality was pretty poor.
This is expressed too well by Neil Tyler in NME, who suggests the show was a "pretentious display of musical nothingness".

It's fascinating as an archivist to collect together ALL the critical opinion of the time, because its so easy as a fan to regard everything as shiny and wonderful.

Well into the third folder of material now, and keep having to re-organise when this excellent 'retro' material turns up.
No wonder the clicky lever-arch things get buggered every six months

Dear Life,
You know, sometimes
When we asked to do this - or that
Or be somewhere without
Well, anyone?
Those times are times when I begin to feel
That all the things I’ve done are being judged
And that I have been delivered to this place
This co-ordinate of time
To feel something.
To realise
That sometimes all we have is sand,
And all we are is sand,
And out there
Just beyond the things we can see and those we love and all the things we own
beyond that
is The Sea
And The Sea is big - and always

Tonight I walked across a bridge
Upon which the sound of cars made waves
Above the silent water
From there
I came to here.
From then - to now.
The sunset beach exposed
Against a tide-line of roofs, cranes and treetop fears
In which rock pools of light
Host tiny creatures,
Blinking in their haste
To pull the seaweed curtains.
There is no point in time
That we can say is ‘now’, or ‘then’
There is no point.

In time we come to understand
How we regress
To become the silhouettes.
That peer from behind themselves,
Watching me across the bridge.
They pick at food
Throw away all that which is good
Taking time only because it’s there
And does not belong to them.
I could so much have used that moment better
But it is gone
Invisible among the lights
Upon the water
To be washed up on some other shore
And lived again
By someone else.

Woah - seems I can post again now. For the last week or so I have had no 'save' button on this page, and thus been unable to post anything.
firefox maybe not as good as I first hoped.

Or perhaps just a friendly voice in the silence this evening hit the spot.

Now of course I've forgotten what I was going to write anyway.
reading too much Eliot lately, who in turn has lead me back inot cummings.

Re-reading poets after many years is like going back to a place you once loved.
There are particles of you in the dust, in the essence of the place.

And listening now to Emblems was not wise, but the pain is a blanket and fills the house.

What is not music
This name?
Haunting and pierced
Penetrating and haunting
Without ghosts
Yet no more real
Than everything else that happens
Repeated over
And over until it becomes unfamiliar
Different only from before because of
the time that has passed
Since anxiety
Since Golgotha
and whatever dreams have flown
since Annie sang
That which is not song
Her voice
Rising and fallen
Collapsing and risen again

Why do I care?

This fascinating subject has come to my attention via posting by the HOS county recorder.
It's about BIRDs, right?

In order to be eligible on your GARDEN list,is it YOU or the BIRD that has to be in your garden??
Personally, I say that anything you can see FROM within your garden counts. Thus I have species like Oystercatcher, Redshank and Osprey on my GARDEN list - I have seen all these species while I myself have been in my garden - even though the birds themselves are some distance away.

Contrarily, I have seen a Treecreeper in my garden (climbing up the shed door!!) while I myself was OUTSIDE the garden so does this count?

And what about birds you hear?? Surely that's just as good, although the BBRC and BOURC would disagree,
i have never seen a quail - but I have heard many.
Yet none within Hampshire.

I have heard Quail in Berkshire from vantage points within both Oxfordshire and Hampshire - which county list should Quail be on?

Who actually gives a f*ck??

Moved forward with more college work today by handing in the last of the three assignments.
That only leaves me with a 'Business Analysis Project' to complete. I mean 'start'. The course tutor has informed me that the BAP is actually NOT a requirement of the CMI certificate - instead it is something the college has added! I do think it is a good idea, but should be more substantial and better taught - his revelation does rather explain their apparent lack of interest in it.
And I am also now aware that if my recent submissions return the same kind of marks I have had on the other eight, then I have passed the course.

What next?

I am considering next year starting on the path to becoming Chartered. Easier than I thought with the CMI's new approach to an Experiential route.

I've learned so much from the course - it's been a real insight to the ways I should, and henceforth will, be running the company.

This evening, I have picked up the big red box that is (some of) the church accounts, to begin my new role as treasurer.
Its a lot to learn, and I'm not entirely convinced the way my predecessor has done it is the best way for me.

Finished the Media Archive last night also - nearly 400 pieces now. It's an impressive body of 'stuff' and is now up to date and in order.

For Mrs Birdsong, the first of three cardiology appointments for 'tests' this afternoon - an ultrasound.
Tomorrow she has a monitor fitted for 24 hours, and then on 17th some other thing.
The last two weeks have been good weeks - maybe she is just simply outside more.

Two nights ago I saw an amazing stag beetle flying around the garden.

Architect says 'go' for the house extension with a daring new plan to extend both rooms at the back and fit a downstairs bathroom inside the dining room. We have made the mistake that everyone makes - knocking down external walls is the easiest and cheapest option, far better than anywork around. Cool - seems his ball park figure is well within our budget also.

Some days just turn out beautifully.

I am taking this week away from the office on self-imposed 'study leave' in order to complete the three assignments I have outstanding, and make serious progress on the Business Analysis Project due in on June 17th. I should realistically have started this in February...
This work has loomed for a while, and been the subject of much prayer and procrastination in recent weeks.
The assignment on Marketing was done by lunchtime, and I followed this up by completing the assignment of human resource management before 3 o'clock. Which gave me time to meet the kids form school.
And work up a little more of the Media Archive.

Tomorrow, my prayers in the old church - ten minutes or so after the school run - will be devotional and full of thanks.

Not only have I made great inroads to the course, I have also circulated the PR for Bob Pearce in the church on June 20th AND re-designed the posters for Yazz. Yazz - how cool is THAT??
Working on the computer all day like this frees up my evenings, so I was able to go and join in with the tree pruning and general maintenance session over at the Church. A good turn out tonight - eight volunteers.

I still wait to become Treasurer. Though voted in and given the badge, I still have no files, or cheque book, or paperwork....

Wednesday evening. Apparently.

Returned home on a balmy spring evening to a bottle of 'Fursty Ferret' in the garden. With Mirrorball, and bats. And live accompaniment from Mr Blackbird. Perfect.
Achievemet is a wonderful thing.

OK, so I'm anxious about the office, but I remain determined to shift the focus this week. Aside from the coursework which will take up most of my days, I might even manage to get some thinking time. The college work always makes me think how little directional and strategic management I actually do. My role and skill base is essentially organisational and facilitating - I have so much to learn and so many ideas to implement.

Running a company is so not the same as steering it

I have a vision of you
Locked inside my head
It creeps upon my mind
And warms me in my bed
A vision shimmering, shifting
Moving in false firelight
A vision of a vision
Protecting me from fear at night
As the seasons roll on
My love stays strong

[i]Let me live in your life
For you make it all seem to matter
Let me die in your arms
So the vision will never shatter[/i]

I dont know where you end
And where it is that I begin
I simply open my mind
And the memories flood on in
I remember waking up
With your arms around me
I remember losing myself
And finding that you'd found me
But the seasons roll
And my love stays strong

Be my child, be my lover
Swallow me up in your fire glow
Take my tongue, Take my torment
Take my hand and don't let go

[i]Let me live in your life
For you make it all seem to matter
Let me die in your arms
So the vision will never shatter[/i]

As the seasons roll on
Still my love stays strong
Let the seasons rolls on
For my love stays strong

© Peter Hammill

[i]I knew I should not have played this tonight...[/i]