S*T*U*F*F* Reloaded

Saturday morning, and a right stormy one it is too. I love these northern skies, especially with the view from my mum’s house where you can look right out over the town and the sea… Christmas is over, and I always feel a bit weird in the days that follow - like no-one quite knows what to do, just waiting for something, counting down to New Year. I have a fire lit, and am working on my iMovie of the Air tour - full of stop-motion videos JB and I made when we were on the road… it all goes well until you find that iMovie can’t put a subtitle on anything less than 2 seconds long. Sigh. So much for fast cuts of multiple photos of countries.

Luka is glued to his new “In the Night Garden” (ITNG) DVD. We don’t let him watch much TV in the day - usually a session in the morning to help with the blur that happens in a parent’s head trying to cope with the early start. ITNG is bonkers, so I think we’ll keep it that way. I didn’t know that Derek Jacobi was the narrator of ITNG - dear me… I once saw him in a play in the West End, “Becket”, where he was magnificent playing the lead as Thomas Becket, so it seems a little odd to hear him talking about how everyone loves to ride in the Pinky-ponk and counting Pontypines. It makes me wonder (on a serious note) whether he just looked at the paycheque and thought - “Yes, I’ll have a bit of that”, in which case, are we crazy to try and consider any kind of artistic integrity? Or did he REALLY want to do it?

I want to do more music next year. Its been so inspiring working with Air this year. I’m hatching plans to work with loads of people… but the main problem is that its now so difficult to make a proper living out of music, especially if you don’t want to tour. I don’t want to go away in 2008, apart from the swan-song (where does that phrase come from?) tour to Australia with Air, so I guess I’ll stick with my usual mix-and-match of graphic design and music that has made the last 7-odd years so fascinating - if for no other reason than it means I can work on music projects for free. I do want to do some good things this year and generally be more creative - though on the 31st December, that sounds strangely like a New Year’s Resolution so I’ll stop right there.

I am considering selling a guitar for the first time since I sold my first ever guitar - only because I want to buy a vintage Guild guitar I saw up in John Dickinson’s workshop the last time I was there getting my Telecaster set up. (So, does anyone want to buy a Lowden LSE-II (LSE 2 for sale)? Spruce top, rosewood back and sides, some magnificent inlay work and generally a cracking sparkly instrument. Amazing for pop rhythm tracks. I’m using it on the Air tour at the moment, but only for one or two tracks per show, and I think I’ll sell it once the tour is over.)

Even now I’m not sure I should part with it, but I have already have another old Lowden that used to sit in the common room of the factory in the late eighties (hence the 3-digit serial number 206), which by insane chance came to me, and is without any shadow of a doubt the most magical acoustic guitar I’ve ever played or heard. I would gladly give every other instrument I possess away if it meant I could keep that beat-up old guitar. Guitars sometimes find their owners… and this Lowden wants to find someone else for some reason. In days gone by, I would just have kept it and just bought the Guild as well, but as I’ve found over the past few years, families are expensive things to keep and my one-time £5000 per year instrument budget doesn’t exist anymore, finding its way into sofas, cars, Lego and other sundry items. Including Pontypines.

Hope your 2008 is absolutely amazing. A friend of mine was telling me that she managed four achievements this year, and listed them - sure enough, for her life they were great milestones which made me very happy for her. Maybe that’s a better thing to do… just resolve to say how many achievements you want on your list next December. I’m going for three.