First Post

Like many people, I suppose, I’m always a bit down in January, caught between the years, while usually things are only just moving towards being ready for a start-up state; the end of festivities for another season,  grey skies, sombre moods. This year has been no exception to the rule, but there are now only hours to go before we’re out of it now….

So far this year I’ve been out of my studio. Frozen pipes and burst connections led to a flood when the thaw came and the carpet was wrecked, the water heater blown, even the toilet bowl cracked by the formation of ice. In other words, it’s been a no-go zone. Thankfully all the equipment and instruments were out of harm’s way, although stuff in the garage below took a pounding when part of the ceiling collapsed and water flooded in there as well. The structural repairs were all done a few days ago and recarpeting remains followed. As of this evening all of the audio stuff has been plumbed back together and it seems to be working ok, although doubtless I’ll find a few wrinkles along the way, as always occurs when a system is taken apart and put back together again. Well, for once the studio looks really tidy and finally I can get on with whatever sonic adventures 2011 holds for me in there as we go into February.

There’s still more than a month to go till the next spate of VdGG activity but the preparations are well under way. Things are looking good on the Esoteric front with “A Grounding in Numbers” and all of our routings and organisation for the accompanying touring now seem to be in place. A few interviews await between now and then of course….

As promised in the most recent newsletter I now intend to put up journal entries every month, of which this is the first. You’ll have gathered, if you look at our URLs, that I’ve decided to put these up at a blog site rather than on the main Sofa one. It just seemed easier when I got down to it and I think it’ll encourage me to blather more regularly and quickly. All the posts will be archived, of course and biannual newsletters (summing up the six-monthly activity *should* continue to go up @ Sofa.

Among the instant available options on this site are the possibility for you to subscribe so that whenever a post appears you’ll be notified. It seems reasonable to make this available as a separate list to the main Sofa one. You won’t get bugged by any spam if you go for this, I believe.

The posting of comments on my entries is also on there. I’m a tad circumspect about this. We all know that mouths can tend to run ahead of brains on t’internet and I’m not sure that the biff and bash of forum comments is something I want to have on the site. (There are, after all, other places where healthy biffing and bashing can go on….) So at the moment any comments will be moderated before – if – they’re put up on the site. Er, I hope that’s how it’ll work anyway!

Well, it’s not exactly the beating heart of the cyber-world and I hope it’s still pretty much white paper but it’s something new, anyway, yes?

February, work, stuff, awaits….