Filthy McNasty's - 68 Amwell Street, LONDON, EC1R 1UU

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From about 6:30pm

I am going to be so happy when Nexty and Nephew get it on. He's really screwing it up though. I mean - I don't want to make any excuses for the guy, but he's just been through a really tough time.

Gig tonight: should be interesting. I'm going to use my wheely suitcase and bring the mic and bugle for token gimmickery. I just wrote the skellington of a new track. It's very cheerful, in 7/8, and it's called "Nexty And Nephew Get It On".

[part 1 is here ]

[updated Sunday 18th Feb]

'You never gave up, Nephew' said Nexty, her voice wavering gently.

'How did we get onto this subject?' snapped Nephew 'I told you I don't want to talk about it'.

'Sorry' said Nexty. There was a silence.

Nephew sighed angrily.

Another silence.

Nexty opened her mouth. She closed her mouth and looked into her coffee cup, making zig-zags in the froth with the handle of her teaspoon.

'God, I just thought..." Nephew choked, his eyes welling up again 'I just thought if I kept..' and Nexty began to sob. 'Oh god, don't cry, please, I'm sorry, I didn't want to talk about it, I didn't want you to cry'. He leaned across the small table to hold her by the shoulders and knocked over his tall cup of black coffee - still too hot, the way black coffee comes, and the coffee went onto her lap, and she jumped up and her cup and saucer fell to the floor and smashed in a mess of china and foam.

'Let's get out of here', she said, taking Nephew's paw and tugging urgently, 'I need a drink', and they walked out with mumbled apologies to the waitress who sighed 'look at this mess' when they'd gone.

The short high street with the café was had a church at the top. They walked through the churchyard with its lines of crooked mossy gravestones. It was still morning and the pub would be open any minute. They came quickly to The Crown, Nephew's paw sweating with prolonged contact with Nexty's that he hadn't wanted to break for fear of not knowing how to re-establish their connection. The young barman was reading the paper at the end of the bar. They both asked for a pint. 'I'll bring them over' said the barman. They sat at a table round the corner from the other end of the bar.

Nephew gulped down a quarter of his pint in one go, looked at Nexty, who had done the same, and managed to clearly and directly tell her "I'm really glad you're here. I didn't mean to snap before. I feel really bad about that. I know you're trying to help, and you are, honestly.". Nexty breathed deeply and said "Don't worry about it. I just wish I knew the right things to say. I thought I'd be able to help" and Nephew looked into her eyes and said "You've said exactly the right things, I'm really lucky you're here", then he looked down, embarrassed. He picked up his glass and shyly clinked it with hers.

"Cheers."

The alcohol eased the flow of conversation and Nephew began to tell Nexty about all the different things he'd tried over the last few months. He still couldn't bring himself to say Stemley's name, always wording sentences in roundabout ways so that he wouldn't have to. By the end of the second pint, he felt he had got a lot off his chest. They had even laughed a couple of times.

"We'd better get back to work, I suppose." said Nephew. "Really?" said Nexty. "How about we don't." So they decided to see a film instead. "Nothing violent though." said Nephew. "And not a kid's film". "And preferably with no sad bits", he laughed. "I don't think there's that much to choose from!" said Nexty, smiling, so they decided to see the latest super hero film and hope for the best.

-----

The superhero film was called "Squirrel Zero" and had an asinine conceit at its core that is typical of second rate super hero stories. The protagonist got his super powers as a result of an implausible genetic experimental mishap, causing Nephew to feel a twin-pronged pang of frustration at the scientific ignorance and inability to research of these second-rate science fiction writers, and the still searing memories of  his own very real experiences with Stemley. Squirrel Zero got the girl at the end by effortlessly saving the planet using his various zappy-looking super powers (it was revealed towards the end that he could, in fact, fly backwards in time, rendering most of the dramatic tension of the earlier parts of the film fairly inconsequential). The fundamental misconception was, as Nephew explained to Nexty after it was over, that using your super powers doesn't get you girls.

"I've always been pretty good at stuff," said Nephew (Nexty nodded vigourously in agreement with this statement) "but nobody ever seems to be watching, or to understand. It seems I have the same chances with women as any other guy who has never put a fraction of the effort into mastering a vocation the way I have. Sometimes I think all that matters is a shameless ability to enter into meaningless smalltalk with anyone and everyone you meet. I can't do that.

"Squirrel Zero got his powers for free, and he used them lazily. He didn't seem to have to learn how to use them. I don't know... surely people like that - I suppose the equivalent in real life would be somebody with extremely rich parents - are in the worst position to be able to help other people, or to care about other people. They have no drive, no understanding of what it is like to work for something you care about.

"And when he kisses the girl at the end it's just a trade: 'I saved your life, therefore you are in love with me'. That's not how it works. That would work if she was a prostitute."

"Calm down, it was just a stupid film!" protested Nexty. "I sort of see your point - I mean, the way I see it, I find it difficult to trust men who are very talented or intelligent or good looking  - they don't know their own strength - I suppose because, like you, they think nobody can see their powers."

"Do you find it difficult to trust me?" asked Nephew, hesitantly...

"Of course not!" spluttered Nexty. She saw Nephew's face drop and looked at him quizzically

"So you don't think I'm good looking, int.."

"Oh please, " interrupted Nexty, "I think you're all of those things and more!"

"But you just said.."

"Oh I don't know! There's just something about you, okay?"

Nephew's face darkened.

"You feel you can trust me because I am so weak right now."

Shock washed over Nexty's face, "what? how can you.."

"You saw your chance, you saw I was weak, that's got to be it. I shouldn't have.." he stood up angrily and pulled on his coat while Nexty stared in confusion "Thank you for today, I had fun, I really did, but I have to go." Nexty choked in weak protest, but he wasn't interested. He turned around and left.

..to find me a beat that is heavier than this beat ;)

THE FATTEST BEAT EVER

(from my set at planet wonk last year - full thing - blemishes intact - is downloadable here)

Wow - I don't know what's come over me but I seem to be playing twice this month.

First on is MAVRYX at Corsica Studios - Sunday 18th - I expect I'll bring along a bugle and a wireless microphone for that one. http://www.mavryx.co.uk/

Then I'll be doing Installation(2) in Filthy's - Tuesday 27th - my own 'not a gig' project where I sit in the corner and compose tracks live in front of your ears as if by majick.
Filthy McNasty's - 68 Amwell Street, LONDON, EC1R 1UU - from 6:30 to 10pm


You should probably come to both ;-)

You can add me to your google calendar, should the fancy take you. subscribe to calendar

Got my Doepfer Pocket Electronics delivered this morning, I'm very excited. It's a make-your-own MIDI controller module. This weekend I will be soldering potentiometers and buttons to this thing and drilling holes in a bit of aluminium to make my very own knob-having-bastard.


Here's some of the stuff other people made: http://www.doepfer.de/pe.htm

Walking past the Oh! Bar in Camden this afternoon someone said 'hey, do you like hip hop?' - he was holding some CDs - looking legit, I slowed down but prepared to say 'sorry mate' in a 'not got any spare change' way (a way that got me in trouble in Brixton last night - I was too hasty with the 'no' - said it before he'd asked for anything and then he decided to take the 'I'm so offended, you were rude to me, I'll end up assaulting you if you're not careful' stance that is very difficult to wriggle out of). Anyway - I'd slowed down enough for him to tell me he had this CD that he was selling cheap and you could get it in HMV. I stopped, asked him about his influences. He said 'you know much uk hip hop?' and I said 'well - my brother's Foz - he beatboxes with Foreign Beggars' 'I'm on some Foreign Beggars stuff' he replied and we had a little chat. I bought a CD in the end. Support your local musicians etc.. Rang up my brother and asked him if he knew Supar Novar and he said 'yeah, he's sick, wow - that's weird'.

I just found this version of Anger Belly I was working on before xmas - it's much longer - goes pretty scary towards the end - needs mastering (which will be a nightmare -it's patched together from an old mp3 and combined with  the new stuff that's all reverse-engineered from memory...) Whaddyathinks? Anger Belly Download (damn box.net - doesn't let me link directly to the file - it's at the top of the list though, by virtue of the title beginning with an 'A')

Went as well as I could have imagined it going really! They want me to do it every month now. It's amazing what you can do when you know what you want. I played from about 6:30 to 10pm with a 5-10 minute break every 40 minutes or so. The room stayed crowded throughout. It is strange playing a gig like that - lots of my friends were there but I was too busy to talk to them most of the time! I was surprised by how exhausting the experience was - I suppose if you engage your total concentration for such extended periods of time you're burning a lot of energy! Next time I'll probably follow the same sort of format. I'll probably do a little more organisation on my preset library, but even that is not particularly necessary.

It's February. Phew. I did not enjoy January. Good riddance January 2007.