December 5, 2020

Career (definition: ‘An occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress’).

Career (definition: ‘To move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way’ ).

Friday, December 4. 8.00 am: A communion. 8.30 am: There was some residual admin and preparations to complete before I returned to studio work. There was still much to do in terms of rationalising sound cables and electrical supplies around the studio:

In between bouts of dismantling and boxing, I reviewed ‘The White Bow’ composition. It had not yet settled. I created a reverse version of the final mix, and ran it in parallel with the forward version. The result was a sonic symmetry: an appropriate analogue for the shape of the bow of white cloud that Jones once saw spanning two mountains. A simple solution that, nevertheless, fully optimised the sound. A cold wind blew without.

1.30 pm: I took an early walk in between the periods of driving rain, returning via the Buarth.

2.15 am: Admin catch-up. 2.30 pm: Back to the furniture- and cable-slinging. The focus of the next few hours would be work-desk #3. A rethink, and procurement. A good deal of under-desk, head-banging, cable-kneeling (Ouch!), humping, and bumping work was done. By the close of the afternoon, there was wasn’t much to show for my efforts. But then again, that was the whole point of the enterprise: to simplify, extract, and reduce, to the end of making a more efficient workspace.

Saturday, December 5. 8.00 am: A communion. 8.30 am: This would be a patchy day of studio work and domestics. I re-opened ‘John Williams’; an idea needed to be tested. I was unsure about the results, because they were unfamiliar and unexpected, rather than deficient necessarily.

11.00 am: The movement of equipment around the room had implications for the set-up of the main mixer outputs. I reset the mid-field monitors either side of the desk, and established a line out to the new monitors and subwoofer system situated at my rear (as it were).

11.30 pm: A little online Christmas shopping. The couriers were lining up at the door to take a photograph of me and the delivery on the step. Studio equipment had arrived. 3.00 pm: ‘Treeing’:

Is there not something vaguely ridiculous about bringing a 7-foot pine indoors? (‘It’s not Gothic, is it?’) Then there was the usual lifting (heavy), rotating, spiking to the stand, cutting-off branches from the base of the trunk to achieve a snugger and more secure fit, wobbling, clamping, and hoping the thing was still perpendicular … and would remain so. 4.00 pm: After the vacuuming was done, the beast was allowed to ‘settle’, or else keel-over and smash into either the TV or coffee table. Back to the studio for further sourcing.

5.00 pm: ‘Esc!’

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