It’s been a cathartic week but one that has seen progress after the horrors of work and a dismal Pride. A visit to the doctor on Tuesday restored my faith in GPs and hopefully secured a lasting relationship with a good one, and support if I need it. And then there was my new hen, a statuesque Blue Haze hybrid who I’ve called Joni after the great lady. She has joined Patti and already they seem as close as sisters just like PJ & Bracket were. It’s lovely to see and I really hope they both live a happy life and start laying some eggs!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151009812141507.415224.619501506&type=1&l=707d3bbb50

I’m sitting here immersing myself in every morsel of Mark Eitzel’s musical cannon before seeing him live on Saturday and thinking about questions if the interview actually happens. Chris from Decor Records has not responded to my emails but there’s still hope and maybe I’ll manage to corner him before or after the show. I still can’t quite believe this icon of the alternative music scene is playing a pub in Brighton. Of course he must love it here because ‘Marine Parade’ the musical he co wrote with Simon Stephens is set in a Kemptown guest house. Perhaps that’s why? He’s also been known to prop up many a bar in his time so maybe a pub feels like home.  

Saturday morning waiting with the others
listening to Messiaen waiting in the dark
at the sacre coeur the future doesn't matter
nothing lasts but the dark
where we feel love
track me down and I'll give you
my pomegranate heart my throwaway heart
track me down and stop me
I'm ripe enough for the terror
that lies at the center of my heart's desire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUldk__Ihrc

Playing everything I have by an artist is one of my pre gig rituals these days, and one made far easier by means of an iPod playlist. I love the way songs emerge as gems whilst others recede. It’s usually a line that hooks my ear & Mark has the lyrical aplomb of Joni Mitchell. Anyone who has allowed the genius of records like Hejira to engulf them will know what I mean. Whatever your state of mind, that record has an answer and it’s one that nails love and loss like no other.

There's comfort in melancholy

When there's no need to explain
It's just as natural as the weather
In this moody sky today
In our possessive coupling
So much could not be expressed
So now I'm returning to myself
These things that you and I suppressed
I see something of myself in everyone
Just at this moment of the world
As snow gathers like bolts of lace
Waltzing on a ballroom girl

There’s also no sweeter sound than the bass of Jaco Pastorious. He was to the bass what Jimi was to lead guitar. It is such a tragedy that he died young in an LA street after a brawl; broke and enslaved to drugs. An all too familiar story amongst the supremely talented it would seem. Janis, Billie, Amy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sf_6Pqa2eE