Friday 11 December 2009

I'm enjoying being out of a performing phase for a while, and using the time for what seems like a lot of civilised lunch (or occasionally cup-of-tea) meetings to allow future projects and collaborations to take shape. Not having immediate concerts to prepare increases the likelihood of some of my worklist actually getting achieved. I hadn't thought of myself as a meetings type of person: at one point when I was working at BBC Scotland I stopped turning up to any meetings whatsoever, as all they seemed to achieve was a room full of people not doing any work for an hour and a half. Short, sociable gatherings get more ideas generated and decisions made. Unfortunately, you have to do the follow-up too - a quick half-hour's chat on Wednesday morning generated more than two hours of emailing later in the day to keep everyone concerned in the loop.

This week's work-related socialising included a morning with Marie Fielding comparing notes on in- and out-groups in different genres of music, a bibliographic tea with Karen McAulay at the RSAMD, lunch with various trad luminaries in Edinburgh for Distil, then a 10 minute  symposium today with John Butt and Barnaby, followed by a much longer lunch with B which hatched a number of intriguing possibilities arising from the first of our Edinburgh concerts in August. And today Alison also showed me her new flat, hooray. What's more, four days of next week are already earmarked for friendly meetings of one kind or another. No doubt by then I will have become completely over-socialised and will revert to type as a reclusive misanthrope, growling at passing 4x4s as they speed past, and shouting at the radio.  

Meanwhile, my new iPhone is living up to its reputation as a really wonderful pocket computer and a pretty lousy phone. Basic things like decent outgoing audio quality when using a bluetooth headset, or being able to choose your own SMS alert tone, or a visual repeating SMS alert, are notably absent. Just not there at all. You called it a PHONE, Apple people! How about including some of the functions we expect from PHONES these days? I swear it radiates smugness too. I did wonder before I got it, if it would gradually transform me into a Mac-head (like most musicians) but if anything it's pushed me the other way. I don't like some self-satisfied Californian dudes telling me how to live my life because they say their way is cooler. It's all beautifully elegant, until you find something it won't do. Then it mocks you: 'Why do you want to do that? Be cool. Like us.' No thanks.