ergo shortform

Agreed Roj - cyber will have to do, mostly because distance is a factor. Having said that, mate, we saw very little of one another when I could see your house from mine! It is more that life is a busy place; especially when kids are a feature. I really do get homesick - of course I do. The NW is what I know; it's where my support network is; and it is often hard without it. I haven't found anyone here to 'replace' the creative friendships I have in NW. But then those friendships evolved over years and years. It is generally enough, however, to be happy at home, and to live that life. That's far and away the most important thing in my life. Yet, I am an artist and I really do need to have that outlet for my sanity and well-being. You know what I mean, I know. I am trying hard here in the Midlands - but the people I have come into contact with locally are not up to it socially, art-wise, brain-wise. I want all three in my friends; it isn't worth it otherwise. That said, it is generally those superficial types one encounters first, isn't it?! I remember that from university. They make the biggest din; but are usually, as the saying goes, empty vessels! They have their counterparts in St. Helens, as we know! I remain stubbornly optimistic, as ever, though. One idea I have is to re-organise what I do musically so that I can do it or something like it on my own. I cannot let the problem of finding someone else stop me forever. I have the laptop now, also; so a lot of the programming and processing I did with ad-hoc electronica can be shunted onto that. I am warming to this idea actually; and I am working on it in a roundabout fashion. In that sense, I know exactly what you mean about the oddness of making art collaboratively, music included. I, like you, have made paintings - that being an art activity almost always done alone. I do like the group interplay, and I love and enjoy the social side of being in a group very much. But, artistically, it may not completely suit me. I've liked working in the various groups I've been in. But they are always a compromise; they have to be. And whilst I might like that politically - being a steaming communist! It doesn't always make for great art. I still have not found that person with whom I totally fit - is the bottom-line. Maybe I never will! If so, got to move forward despite that! We'll see... Re e-bow: don't get me wrong, Roj! - a great device...in the right hands! Hope Evs enjoys his. It's basically a magnet; placed over a pick-up and over a given string it 'excites' the pick-up and produces a long, sustained single note; the one fretted or an open one. The guy in PS was just useless and insensitive all round - the e-bow awfulness just being part of his lack of facility; as he showed when he got down to the supposed 'found' percussion of kitchen utensils! One has to laugh, I suppose. But it is awful to see someone so in-his-own-bubble as that; and the results can be massively annoying. Glad the radio-meets-guitar thing appeals. Glad I introduced you to it. Curiously, mate, you're using the radio like one uses an e-bow! You and Evs will have a type of symmetry! Pick-ups are only types of microphones; so any thing they can pick up, as it were, can be processed as if played into them. There are lots of things like this. But I can't tell you all my tricks! Take it easy, mate. Anthony ----- Original Message -----From: Roger Litherland To: Anthony Donovan Sent: Saturday, November 26, 2005 3:57 PM Subject: FW: ran out of fuckin credit So you could be arsed. Nice one. Well I guess the guitarist you witnessed ran out of credit too. evs is supposed to be getting an “e-bow” for Christmas. I’m not familiar with them. what are they like? (apart from the negative vibe you got from his) That radio trick you showed me has come in a treat though; used it no end ; I sometimes plug in, turn the radio on and just play with my effects with the radio firmly held to the strings, for ages. Fantastic! edited down, you can come up with some amazing shit when you start layering and sequencing it. Been working on a couple of compilations of the work (musically) I’ve been doing with jack and evs. I’ll be sending you some stuff through soon. It’s so different working on something creative with other people, than working on something creative by yourself. It’s interesting to me. That is what jack and evs find unusual about my approach. they find it natural to collaborate on the birth (or excretion) of a piece of art; whereas I find it unusual (but interesting) to share the process. I treat what we do together with the same idiosyncratic gusto as I do a painting for myself (or for money). It makes for an interesting tension. It’s like working with a couple of ‘Spoks’. (