On my incredible journey to the recycling today I crossed the road, offloaded and returned, it all took two minutes but when I got back to the front gate, I noticed that an evil cult originating from the Dark Ages had left its mark on the wall, two black crosses, one inverted. I couldn’t figure out if we’d been playing too much Black Sabbath or not enough. I immediately went inside and looked in my ‘book of a**holes’ and there they were under the heading ‘unimaginative d****’, with the subheading ‘too stupid to be evil’. Over the next half an hour, I rubbed the mark of the cult of fools off the wall. Olivia texted me and said she’d seen the same scrawl on another building down the street, an example of animals marking their territory, luckily the paint didn’t smell, although there was certainly an aroma of rotting brain in the air. Well, at least we don’t have guns.

Sessioneers today were Artoush in Austin and Jed in Minneapolis, Jed being the very first sessioneer and Artoush the latest. To think of Jed’s journey that went from the beginning to the release of the Space Summit album, to the 21 new tracks we are working on for the next two albums, compared with Artoush who will send me the first of his songs between today and next week’s sesh. Everyone has the potential to do something good.

The US Tennis Open began today, there’s always something. I wonder if it would be better to be distracted by a Truffaut film or a Dickens novel, but these days, the athletes are so skilful, the games can be so engrossing, the oohs and ahhs, the ups and downs, the impossible shots, the effort, the passion, Alcaraz/Djokovic in the Wimbledon final was exhilarating. Newcastle/Liverpool – captivating, as is Captain Beefheart’s Clear Spot (1972).

We talked to the electrician today about the costs of getting the electricity sorted out. He gave us a quote of €1150 on four of the rooms. The renovation costs continue to rise, so we are going to have to do it in bits, it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and money doesn’t grow on trees, haha.

Boba Fett survived over dinner, and Obi-Wan Kenobi came out of retirement before the last fork fell. I seem to be enjoying the Star Wars TV series more than the films, especially as Star Trek has become part relationship soap opera in space. It made me think that you could even make the shopping channel interesting if it was hosted by Avi Loeb’s clever aliens, we need more challenging alien plots in Star Trek and less goo-goo-eyed Spock.

Music today has been King Crimson’s fifth album with its gross title Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, released in 1973. The band has changed again, welcoming Bill Bruford who left Yes after the classic Close To The Edge (1972). John Wetton left Family and came in on bass and vocals. Jamie Muir joined as percussionist and David Cross gave a whole new angle, joining on violin. A new adventure, as King Crimson should always be.

Music Of The Daze