Friday 29 December 2006

In this age of internet shopping, local shops are a good thing. The nice people at Sound Control and I have taken it in turns to be patient with one another this week: first me with them, after they sold me an Edirol UA-25, which if you turned the mic inputs up sounded like a sewer, and then they with me after I completely failed to make any sense out of the E-mu 0404 they replaced it with. Various pieces of equipment around me are now gradually thinking about talking to one another, in very simple terms for the time being. I'm hoping that eventually, this long drawn-out and tiring process will result in me making some music. But that still seems a fair way off yet. 

Meanwhile, could this be the beginning of our first sponsorship deal? Normally, I'm wary of these things as quite what we can usefully offer the usual corporate arts sponsors I really do not know. But, I'm going to enthuse here about the joys of Williams Bros' wonderfully fresh-tasting hoppy beer (they're the people that make Fraoch heather ale as well) partly because it really is excellent stuff even in bottles - haven't found it in cask yet - but also because Scott Williams turned up on my doorstep a few days ago with 12 bottles and said 'Merry Christmas', which cheered me up immensely. Their Roisin tayberry ale is something else, actually: quite inspired, not like a Belgian fruit beer at all.

The other thing that cheered me up immensely was receiving in my email tonight some drawings from Joe Davie, as the first stage in the quest for our next album cover.  The Scottie from Mungrel Stuff, who also appeared on the sundial in Fiddler Tam, is back with a vengeance ...