Out and down

Looks like I got out of SongFight at the right time. It's descending into new levels of bickering, backbiting and bullshit. It won't implode, but it will shrink as newbies are shouted out and those not in the inner coterie get pissed off.

I'm still up for the SF-UK meeting/gig in October, and I may return to SF in a few months. It depends on whether the atmosphere improves. In the meantime, there's some songs to write for The K Twins. My mind is empty of lyrical ideas at the moment. but I always try to keep my promises.

Paul B, an old friend, has started keeping a new weblog. http://www.livejournal.com/users/_adversarial_/

I've started copying my cassettes to mp3. The first was the 'Das Boot' album of U96. After getting frustrated trying several different cassette machines, and finding they all wowed or chewed up the tape, I lost my temper and pounded one of them with my fist. This was the Aiwa, which had severe tracking problems.

My fist broke the perspex cover of the top-loading deck. So that the cracked perspex wouldn't press down on the cassette, I played it with the cover up. And the tape played perfectly.

I have mixed feelings about this little incident. On the one hand, I have got what I wanted by serendipity. On the other, the casual and pointless violence - even directed towards an inanimate object - is troubling.

I have only ever used my fists in anger on one person, and the circumstances were extreme, but it worries me that I might unthinkingly do the same to a person who frustrates me at that moment what I did to a tape machine.