Thanks to everybody that has queued up for, fought off aliens for, drove through acid rain for, asked questions of glowing globes for, hibernated under dense bushes for, dressed as policemen for and found oneself naked in a stolen fawn Porsche for – in order to get a copy of Nightjar, yes, thank you. Ooh, that red vinyl looks tasty. It’s matching the eyes of that strange creature on the cover, half moth, two parts bird, quarter gothic goat skull and two thirds drawing. The nightjar, by the way, is a bird that doesn’t like to fly and nests on the ground. It’s like a tall person who doesn’t want to play basketball or a rabbit that doesn’t want carrots. This is why we simply cannot judge a book by its cover. Frankenstein was a kind-hearted fellow and have you ever been faced with an angel-faced assassin? A clown with a machine gun? On that subject have you heard about the phenomena of clowns scaring people in American forests? What is that all about?

Olivia alerted the FB and Twitter audience to the upcoming MOAT – Poison Stream campaign through Indiegogo. We’ll be talking more about that as it gets closer. But the start date is October 7th, just 9 days away. On that date, we’ll be releasing another song from the album, Acid Rain, for your listening pleasure. One hopes that this company doesn’t go down like the last one did. Another difference with this one is that if you don’t make your target then you get nothing. I’m not sure what that would mean exactly except everyone would then have to contact us or Schoolkids directly but let’s hope that doesn’t happen as we attempt to recover the costs of making this record and getting it to you. I suppose it’s a different time with all the problems in the universe right now. I hear the Russian planets are having difficulties getting those high peaked caps sent up from Moscow and on Venus, in particular, they have put in a request for more vodka. The American planets are still furiously trying to figure out how to get a massive flag to waft where there is no wind and wig wearers have been flocking there.

But seriously, today I had an early sesh with Tim in Newtown in Sydney, picking up those tunes super fast. The rest of the day had me attempting my latest hobby, catching up. New Jersey Chris sent me a video to watch, Indian Billy lent me a book about Stax, Brian sent me Neil Peart’s Traveling Music, Stefan in Germany and Noel in England asked me about open sesh dates. Ahad from Istanbul told me he’s arriving tomorrow. I wrote the last of the present illustrated lyrics for Olivia to – illustrate. Dare and I agreed to meet tomorrow afternoon to listen to Sydney Tony’s latest demo and brain on it. Phew, busy.

I did manage to write down some of the records I’ve been playing this month but not anywhere near all of them. I had a sesh with Paul in New Orleans but I was so distracted with a three-dimensional carving of a Portuguese rabbit’s knee (not foot) that the whole sesh slipped my mind and when we did speak we only spoke in Latin…or was it lapin?

I managed to watch Liverpool beat Arsenal today (3-1) and go second in the league between Leicester and Everton on goal difference. The French tennis players are complaining that it’s too cold for the tournament as they have moved it from its usual cosy spot to the autumn. In Germany, Hoffenheim were experimenting with having a socially distanced crowd, it seemed to work, they beat Bayern Munich, the European champions, 4-1 (their first loss in 32 games). In other sports news go here, Extreme Ironing – a particular favourite.

It’s getting colder out there, the trees are shedding, I saw a horse in the sea, I saw a see-saw and a C chord and as today’s post has been a mixture of the absurd, the truth and reality that I’m too busy to be sensible, I have decided to start again tomorrow.

Music today comes from the French icon Juliette Gréco who died last Thursday at the age of 93. She was known as “la muse de l’existentialisme” and was befriended by Sartre, Camus, Prévert and Vian. She trained as a ballerina, appeared in films including Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus (1950) and became a popular chanteuse. She was Miles Davis’s lover and The Beatles’ Michelle was inspired by her. The queen of Bohemia, she is so important in French culture that it’s impossible to write about her because I’m English.

Song Of The Daze