blogging hiatus

Just back from a week away in Bristol and SW Wales...

Friday 19th September, just missed The Evil Us's (Leon, Dan and Lorenzo from Rae with guitarist friend Conrad Singh playing psychedelic jazz rock), having been a stonesthrow away at the Dowsing For Water exhibition opening at The Island. I arrived as they were carrying their equipment out, ended up assisting and then being given a lift to Easton via Leonie's place in Montpelier (a loft full of instruments, analogue gear, vinyl and interesting objects, as you'd expect). This brought me to Hannah's 30th birthday party, a cheery affair that involved dancing til 3a.m. to Curtis Mayfield, The Beatles and... (can't actually remember much about what got played).

Sunday 21st September, took part in the latest Sondryfolk event, "Allez Allez Plonge", which involved a surprise feast in the middle of a busy roundabout near St. Mary Redcliffe church. Music was provided by an Arlet trio (Aidan, Rosie and Owen) and later Leonie with some clarinet accompaniment from Owen. This was the first SF event I've experienced from the outside (rather than as an organiser), and it was even more enjoyable as a result. I was seated at the feasting table next to Kim of Katie and Kim's Kitchen (which has developed a cult following during its relatively brief existence in Bristol). She was telling me about their recent gigs as "Autobitch" (bad drumming and tantrum vocals, kind of ultra-raw post-feminist performance/noise art) and how Channel 4 is interested in launching a Katie and Kim TV series!

The next day I was off to Carmarthenshire for a few days visiting Stef and Penni. Glad to hear they've got The Mordekkers back together. They did some rehearsing with a folksinger friend Lynn while I was there (for an upcoming village hall gig involving Anne-Marie Summers too), and Stef and I got into listening to and discussing some interesting, chilled dubstep he's been getting into lately — but my saz didn't get played during the visit, too busy deep in conversation about the usual range of cosmic and earthly topics.

And now, back in the CT, I've decided to throw myself into a temporary regime of book promotion (my self-published Secrets of Creation trilogy has been picked up by a publisher, should be out in a gleaming new edition in a few months). This might involve some science/maths/philosophy/"big ideas" blogging, a Professor Appleblossom video channel, various other ideas in the pipeline. But if I'm going to do this properly (and I'm not likely to get a second chance with this series of books), I'm going to have to bracket a few things out of my perpetually busy existence, including this blog, the Canterbury Sans Frontierès podcast (after the coming Episode 20 in early October) and my Soundcloud "track of the week" series. All of these should be resumed at some point in the Spring of 2015. I might chuck up the odd YouTube clip of some amazing music if I get the chance, but if you're wondering why no new blogging activity, that would explain it. The more that people help to spread the word about the books, the sooner I can get back to musical activities...

See you later!

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And if you've got nothing better to do, check out the archive of DJ Stashu's recently suspended Dance With Me, Stanley programme on freeform WFMU out of New York. She's similarly had to take a break from broadcasting, but the last dozen or so episodes are nothing short of broadcasting genius in my (admittedly peculiar) opinion. Tuesday mornings won't be the same again, but fingers crossed the mighty Stashu will be back in some form before too long.