Is your stereo horizontal or vertical? I’ve always preferred horizontal but as I’m planning how to make the best use of space in The Archive, I’ve come to the conclusion that vertical might be better for a more practical use of that very valuable spot in the corner. But then there are the components; turntable on the top, amp, cassette player, CD player, tuner. So you need four shelves, I suppose that’s possible, sounds like another trip to IKEA. I intend to have more than one stereo station in The Archive and speakers need to be installed in each room, otherwise, you put a record on and go for a dig and you miss the album you were supposed to be listening to as you forage between Fruupp and Rory, kinda defeats the object of the place.

So I went out today to look for something in the large second-hand furniture store, purely because it was near and it was a good excuse to get out of the house. I got there and it was closed on a Thursday afternoon, no rhyme or reason. Then I realised it was hot and headed back home almost immediately but via the supermarket because I’ve discovered the concept of the air fryer and needed some potatoes, things I didn’t eat in Texas, who knew potatoes were exotic? It may be hotter in Dallas, but at least you can A/C hop.

I’m slowly moving pieces from one room to another as walls are completed and trying to work on music, but it’s hard with all the hoo-ha. Over the weekend I need to move the studio (which in normal speak means the iMac, the interface and the speakers, the keyboard on one side and the desk and keyboard stand it all sits upon). I’ve been trying to keep it active without getting in anyone’s way and the room it’s in will be worked on on Monday, so I need it out of there. It’s probably good because where it is, the mains socket doesn’t work and there’s only one.

A sesh with Brian today from his RV in Massachusetts, his musician daughter is at a flute camp, fantastic that she’s doing so well with the instrument. I commented that Brian has more facilities in his RV than I do here. Olivia is in Germany preparing for Night Of The Prog, Friday headliner Nick Mason, I’ve seen the show, they look terrible, but the songs are great, pre-Dark Side Floyd only, played by the Ferrari Owners & Yachting Club.

I have one eye on Wimbledon, more because I can’t get into music land on a building site, plus I know my mate Biggles and Colleen keep on getting tennis balls in their garden in New Malden. I was thinking how in sport there’s no second prize but in music there’s success all the way because it’s not a competition, it’s an unveiling.

Music today has been Duke Ellington’s soundtrack to Otto Preminger’s film (or picture as they often called it then, a term no longer used), Anatomy Of A Murder (1959). I was on the planet when it was released, I’d just been beamed down a year earlier.

Music Of The Daze