Today I got up with plans and succeeded in achieving none of them, sometimes the day gets away from you. So what do you do when that happens? Simple, make new achievable plans and execute those instead – hopefully. It was cold, grey, rainy and a trip to the Chinese shop to get some plastic containers became achievable, it’s across the road from the flat, down a block and always open. Typically I picked a container with a missing lid but settled on another – some horrible, cheap plastic crap to put mic leads in, power plugs, guitar leads, speaker cables, computer cables. You have to do it, how else are you going to transport these things, store them, make them accessible, keep them tidy so you can find what you need, it’s a necessity despite dreaming of ornate carved wooden trunks and chests saved from a 19th century steamer.

High quality costs, whatever you’re doing and for most people, your life depends on your budget. Not to say money brings happiness but it certainly brings choice. Having said that I imagine that getting the black or red Ferrari might be a difficult decision, haha. I’m constantly weighing up the cost of records for the archive, the contemporary ones are often so limited on vinyl and the older ones might be seldom seen or ridiculously expensive. I gave up drinking to buy more records.

I have two large piles of magazines here that I need to transport to the new premises. It’s tricky to move them loose because they fall all over the place and if you put them in something they’re really heavy. First-world problems. I subscribe to Shindig! and MOJO but the bulk of them are the Wire magazines from yesteryear that I’ve been picking up from Emanuel fortnightly at the Marquês market, 1€ each and always a weirdo on the cover, great material for the archive and someday, someone, somewhere will be glad of the material for research or pure 21st century left of centre entertainment.

Carolina and Pedro are going to help us again tomorrow with the car for all the boxes but how are we going to get the desk down there, big with the legs and looks tricky to dismantle. So there’s a thing called Bolt Van which we will try tomorrow. Is it actually a van or a passenger van? Is a desk going to fit? Hmm, if we get boxes down there tomorrow we’ll have Monday/Tuesday to figure out the more oversized items – there are only three more, two chairs, a vinyl shelf and the desk being the biggest. All this practical stuff, when all you want is to have everything up and working from the kettle to the studio to the electricity and the water, the organisation of everything and getting the damn collection here.

Music today has been Olivia’s choice from the other room, Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits (1972). Memorable melodies and words and remember that the ex-band recorded a version of I Am A Rock. It was the first time I’d put my 1965 Rickenbacker 12 through a Leslie speaker cabinet, what a sound, have a listen.

Music Of The Daze