Week 127, Little boxes

What a beautiful day for not thinking.

Thinking is hard.

Thinking is tiring.

Thinking means finding out that your assumptions are wrong - generally.

So I've decided I'm going to join the herd.

To believe every half-baked idea.

And retreat to a protective box.

Hide from every challenge.

Repeat phrases devoid of substance or meaning.

Set fire to my trousers and blame someone else.*

It's the only sensible thing to do.

Become an ignorant article.

Then it's always someone else's responsibility.**

* Before taking them off.
** Trim the box hedge, prepare the box trellis, clean the box glass panes on your listed Georgian box.

For official/internal use only:

7777

0-9

Week 126, Sound man

Sound man - Said in the manner of a Scouse wannabe Manc living on the Manchester side of the Salford and Cheetham Hill border, putting on that nasal twang that's completely inauthentic to the area.

You're twisting my melon man, etc.

Hard at work in the sound archive, fiddling with the already archaic four-track Tascam 244 Portastudio.  Probably bouncing down some backing from a jam session to give space to overdub.

At the time the Tascam seemed fully featured and with a bewildering array of controls, on reflection having used various digital audio workstations it now appears pretty basic.  However it was possible to do some pretty cool stuff if using a little ingenuity.  We fed a guitar through a vintage analogue synth to produce some very peculiar sounds, returned via the effects loop on the Tascam, and many other things which did and didn't work most of which involved the effects loop...  At no point did we attempt to recreate musical instruments using sellotape.*

Although we did what we considered to be interesting stuff the reality is that it was only really of interest to us, and it is worth considering that The Beatles recorded the Sergeant Pepper album a quarter of a century earlier using two four track recorders.  Using twice the technology, and an infinite amount more creativity, The Beatles did a pretty good job.**

* Some have tried and then bailed - Pink Floyd.
** Obviously they did an excellent job - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

For official/internal use only:

7777

0-9

Week 125, Sleep then

How long.

Only two or three days.

A cross town escapade of shallow engagement and unsatisfactory consumption.

No cat, who would think that the difference between a serene, structured life and a perpetual lost weekend.

No responsibility, but back nonetheless.

Slide into the glassy bed, mid-morning, stagnant cold from the unoccupied flat.

Recovering from highs, lows, a washing in and out of alcohol.  And unwashed.

Hollow bones sing an astringent squeal and echo the feel of ice water forced through glacial microfractures.

Dispersed minerals and electrolyte leave a body depleted, in need of artery clogging food and sweet tea.

Teeth clenched, a distant migraine, a knot of constipation, a shattered bag of too many words.

Sleep now.

Now.

Do it.

While a lowering sky tells you an empty story.

For official/internal use only:

7777

0-9

Week 124, Blackley, Crumpsall, Harpurhey

Blackley,* Crumpsall,** Harpurhey.***

The endless quest to tidy and dispose of the past turned up a collection of writing by Michael Bracewell.  Interleaved between returned Open University assignments and tablature harvested from old guitar magazines was a photocopy of some pages from The City Life Book of Manchester Short Stories published in 1999.

The start of the story at the top of the pile was missing but it is about adolescent boys and the dubious activities they engage in.  It mentions Boggart Hole Clough, a large area of parkland which a friend of mine lived near to in Blackley, and some other places familiar to me from my childhood.  Me and my friend once attempted to stay in the park all night, demonstrating a spirit of adventure and lack of fear of the boggart - we each claimed to be staying at the other's house to enable this daring exploit.

We made it until about four in the morning by which time it had become too cold to stay out any longer without ending up deceased or learning a strong lesson about frostbite.  We retreated to a small Wendy house in the garden of my friend's mother's neighbour's house.  This was the garden of the friendly neighborhood Glaswegian armed robber and drug dealer.

It was still bloody freezing.  

I then completely failed to return home at a reasonable time and the subterfuge was discovered.

Useless.  Adolescent boys huh?

My friend and his half brothers will all either be dead or in prison now.  One at least is the latter.  Those weren't the only options on offer but, given the closest adult role models available and the examples they set, at least they were achievable.

Not an advert for growing up there.

* Blackley: Blake as in William, Lee (almost) as in Laurie.
** Crumpsall: Crump as in minor car incident, Saul (almost) as in the first king of Israel and Judah according to the Hebrew Bible.
*** Harpurhey: Harper as in Lee, Hay as in David, the retiring boxer.

For official/internal use only:

7777

0-9