Seb Palmer

10 August 20228 February 2024

HOME/DiY: Shed!

Yesterday I got the two back panels of the shed roughly in situ’. I kind of wanted to go further. But I didn’t have the right fixtures (coach-bolts!). So I ordered some from Screwfix.

They arrived today. So it was on with the show… This shot shows how the tree at the back of the Arden overhangs this newest shed.

Note the little brace, on the left panel. I had a few others in different places, just holding stuff roughly in plane. I did all this assembly on my own. It was quite tricky!

All the panels needed the bottom framing element – at the furthest end, above – replacing, as the shed was pretty old, and the bottom was a bit rotten in places (very rotten in some!). I did all that before assembly, except for this final panel.

I moved a few bits inside the shed, so I could work on it internally.

Got the larger of the two side doors in place. I’m not sure about retaining the doors in the long side, as that doesn’t suit our long narrow garden too well. I’ll come back to this later!

The longer and lower side of the shed, running along Sean’s – our northern neighbour’s – fence.

Note how the panel on the left has five verticals, whilst the one on the right had just four. Evidence of this being a self-build project, perhaps, by whoever made this shed originally?

This panel, originally the left of the shed, is what’s now the back, facing the far end of our long garden. I’m thinking about putting a pretty large window in. So we can see to the back of the garden, enjoy evening sunlight, and see the big old tree that’s only feet away.

This larger opening has two smaller doors that go in it. Again, I’m thinking I might change the layout a bit, in the fullness of time. These two doors are the last major components of the shed walking ‘as is’ that remain to do. Then there’s the roof and floor!

One of the new timbers is very obvious in the above image. Also worthy of note is that the window in this photo survived transit and re-assembly unbroken. Whereas the other window – below – didn’t!

Note another supporting brace, in the above picture. This was the right end, but is now the front facing aspect of the shed, that you see as you come down the garden. As can be seen in the next pic’, below.

There’s another highly visible new bit of timber along the bottom of the above panel. Plus the lowest piece of timber cladding on this face was rotten, and fell off/to bits! That’ll need replacing.

The whole shed might want shifting, about three or four inches towards the fence. I’ll defola need help doing that! But in the meantime, there’s a bit of a gap here.

The neighbours fence is falling down in places along this part. Is there sufficient gap, I wonder, to allow for minor repairs and weatherproofing painting/treatment?

The strip of garden south of the shed, ‘twixt the shed and Ruben and Anne’s garden is pretty narrow! If I can shift the whole shed towards Sean’s, we’ll gain a bit more space here. Albeit only three or four inches!

Teresa arrived home whilst I was chatting to Chris and his partner, our relatively new neighbours, at no. 66. She was really impressed that I’d ‘got it up’ all by my own! Not that you can tell that from this pic’.

Looking into the shed interior as we go down to the rear/far end of the garden.

Teresa’s approbation of my efforts is more visible here, methinks. Also visible here are the two doors yet to be affixed to the larger side openibg.

Looking back towards the house. My what a tight passage we have! If we can shift the whole shed back a few inches, it’ll help ease our passage…

This is the view, sat in our deckchairs, behind the shed, looking up at the venerable aulde tree, around 7pm this evening. What a beauty, eh!?

So, sometimes it really does pay to be a scavenging hoarder! This old door, a Freecycle acquisition going back four or five years, perhaps, is going to be ideal – with some judicious trimming – as the new front door, probably roughly where I’ve leaned it in the above picture

4 August 202218 December 2022

MUSiC: Rainbow Goblins, CD

I’ve glistened to this album (it’s like normal listening, only better) several times a day since discovering it. And when I bought the CD, probably about a week ago now, the Amazon purchase came with a free download/stream option.

But there’s a sense of satisfaction, for me at any rate, in owning a hard copy of the music I love. For one thing there’s all the packaging, and artwork, and sometimes liner notes. Anyway, it’s off to bed(fordshire) with a decent pair of headphones to bathe in the rainbow…

Many (most/all?) of the images from Ul de Rico’s book are used on this spread!

There’s something a touch psychedelic in all this.

For me this is unquestionably the most beautiful artwork. Sublime!

As you can see, having the physical object to enjoy, as well as the sounds – these latter being the main attraction, naturally – is quite something.

2 August 20228 February 2024

BOOK REViEW: Stick Control, G L Stone

The first part of today’s post is essentially a version of my old Goodreads and Amazon UK review of Stick Control, only I can update that and expand upon it here.

And because this is my own blog, I can also give more nuanced star ratings. In this instance I give Stick Control the rare and coveted six-stars, which, on my normal 0-5 ratings system, means off the chart brilliant.

Anyway, for starters, here’s the augmented Amazon review:

Jazz legend Joe Morello studied with George Lawrence Stone. That alone is recommendation enough! Morello was Stone’s star pupil. And thanks to Morello’s precocious work on Stick Control, we also have Stone’s follow-up, the snappily titled Accents and Rebounds.

I’ve been dipping into this for over two decades now. Although, to my everlasting shame, I’ve not completed it yet.* I use it in my drum teaching all the time. And I tell all my students it’s THE foundation book, ie essential.

A great tool for developing better reading, and – of course – stick control. Starting with such simple building block as singles, doubles, and groupings of three or four, per hand, the numbered exercises take you though a huge variety of combinations, leading with both right and left.

Stone says play everything 20 times. And play with a metronome at various different speeds. This is terrific conditioning practice on a pad, and fun to transfer to the snare. Of course one can then take it to the kit, and orchestrate it there in endless ways. All of this makes this book a lifetime investment. In a way, you can never truly ‘finish’ Stick Control!

Used regularly, and with the appropriate doses of discipline, this book can impart strength, stamina, speed, control of dynamics, and much much more. Definitely one of the most essential non-gear (ie not the instrument itself!) bits of kit in the drummer’s training arsenal.

* UPDATE: Since first posting this review, I am, now (summer of ‘22) making a concerted effort – not for the first time, mind you – to complete a continuous run through of the entire book. At the time of updating this, I’m about one third through the whole volume, getting heavily into the flam section!

Some further thoughts…

So, that’s my Goodreads and Amazon UK review take on Stone’s classic work. In the latest update to that review I allude to what I’m calling elsewhere my Stick Control Summer Challenge. That’s going pretty well. One week into my summer hols, and I’m already just over a third of the way through the book.

This seems like a good time and place to add a few further thoughts on taking a deeper dive into this aged but illustrious tome.

For starters, having gotten further into the book than formerly – I did occasionally dip into later sections, but I’d only ever systematically done the first five or six pages previously!) – I’m encountering stuff I’ve not tried before. Some of it easy, some very challenging (for me at any rate!).

But there are also more fundamental issues, such as stick motion, and the exact ways to interpret certain notation. This is where a teacher from the Stone-Morello lineage would be very handy. I intend to explore this online, as I’m sure YouTube will provide some answers.

Morello looking very cool as an ambassador for Ludwig.

I won’t get into massive detail here, as this is an area for more exact exploration later/elsewhere. But taking just one aspect of the core subject, ie ‘stick control’, I’ve been practicing the material in this book sat at a practice pad, and using strokes that range from fairly full to ghost or grace note level.

And sometimes I’m leaning more towards French or German grip, but mostly I’m using American grip, somewhere in the middle. Stick height, grip, rebound, all these aspects start to come into focus more as you dive deeper into the book.

Another thing I’m finding myself fascinated by is, again, like much of what comes from studying this work, nuanced and multifaceted, and that’s how these exercises can become like meditative grooves. If one is playing 20 reps of a two bar exercise and then up to 24 or so different sticking variations of essentially the same (or very similar) rhythms, it gets quite hypnotic!

And one starts to hear the music or the groove in even these quite potentially dry exercises. And it’s fascinating how regularly locking in to a metronome pulse for 20-30 minute chunks throughout the day starts to build better time.

And if you set the metronome volume just right, there’ll be moments where you think it’s stoped, so you stop… only to hear the metronome still going. At those moments you’re achieving nigh on perfect time, as you’re covering the metronome so exactly you’re effectively masking it!

* The Guardian, rather cruelly, perhaps, used this shot of Joe for his obituary!

That opens the door on an aspect of this kind of study that I’m definitely falling in love with; the routine of regular practice is, it seems, like we’re told physical exercise is, or should be, both pleasurable and perhaps even somewhat addictive.

Now to lean into the ‘nuance’ aspect a little. I’m finding that the exact position of my hands and fingers on the sticks is coming more sharply into focus: if I find the right spot – esp’ noticeable the higher/harder and louder the strokes are – I can locate a zone where I can minimise the ‘shock waves’ that sometimes reverberate along the stick.

This must be the ‘fulcrum’, I guess? And it’s slightly higher up the sticks than I usually hold them. At least on the Vic Firth 2Bs I’m currently favouring for pad work. this actually coincides with another train of thought I’ve been having about modifying (or better yet making my own) sticks. But I’ll save that for another post.

Anyway, the ‘practice what you preach’ aspect of studying Stick Control over this summer is proving to be both pleasurable and beneficial. And the associated YouTube surfing has lad me to discover yet another meister-drummer, so I’m adding some of his stuff to my practice work-outs, such as this doozy:

31 July 202222 January 2023

FiLM REViEW: No Time To Die, 2021

Myeah… Not great, to be honest. The Bond Franchise is, like so many these days, flogging a donkey carcass that died a long time ago.

What this means is that it’s kind of lost, and all that remains is a collection of accessories: exotic locations, action sequences, the movie stars employed for it, and labyrinthine plots that are ultimately the most disappointing element of the whole collapsed soufflé.

I don’t buy Craig as Bond. At all. I like that he’s ruggedly odd-looking. But, aside from looking pretty good, he has zero charisma. The best Bonds – Connery and Moore – literally exuded charisma like sweat.

Like so much modern cinema, it becomes a series of set-piece action scenes that are impressive on the technical and adrenaline fronts, but utterly bereft of emotional involvement. I simply don’t care about anyone, as nobody seems either remotely real, nor even pleasingly cartoonishly intriguing.

So ultimately I simply don’t care about the story, or the ‘characters’, and all that’s left is the hi-octane stuff. And that’s just not enough, is it?

And now I’m coming to the biggest problem of all. This is a gutless, neutered version of a vision of masculinity that was born in another era, and whose charm lay very much in lots of assumptions that simply don’t get past the guardians of PC who make this sort of ‘by committee’ pap.

I guess this conclusion also shows up my demographic? If you’ve ever read any of Ian Fleming’s Bond novels, you’ll know that the movies with Connery and Moore, whilst different (esp. with Moore’s more comic take), do capture the preposterously presumptuous macho visions of Bond’s creator, whose creation is sick with self-love.

I don’t need to be a privately educated scion of a self-appointed aristocracy, or have that Tory sense of self-righteousness and entitlement that Bond and the ‘establishment’ he serves have, and represent, nor approve of the multilayered series of assumptions that underpin the whole ‘Cold War’ worldview in which most of the old stories unfolded, to enjoy the real ‘vintage’ Bond. In fact the daftness of it all is part of its period charm.

Rami Malek as Lyutsifer (!) Safin. Ugly is evil!

Ironically, for all the limply emasculated Bond-age, and the ‘empowered’ females, of whatever ethnicity, some of the most toxic and unattractive ideas of modern culture (present in the ‘real’ Bond, as well), esp’ around casual, even comical, violence, do pass the moral filters that rob this version of Bond of any balls.

I kind of want to say that the only actor who comes off even half decently (or should that be indecently?) – and that’s only speaking relatively – as he isn’t given much to work with, is Rami Malik. Who does, almost, make a Bond villain worthy of the original lineage. But even that claim is, in reality, too weak. Look at how Bond eventually offs him. Turns out Lyutsifer is a pathetically easy push-over!

And Cristoph Waltz, who I liked in Inglorious Basterds and The Hateful Eight, is really pretty lame here, as Ernst Stavros Blofeldt. And pretty much all the other characters, from M and Q to Moneypenny, and the many supporting characters, are just blank cyphers.

I like long films if they’re good. But this is way too long. And both very dull and very disappointing. But, truth be be told, it’s exactly what I expected. In fact, the best – or at least the most attractive – character in the movie is the Italian town of Matera, also recently featured in James May’s Our Man In Italy.

30 July 20228 February 2024

HOME/DiY: ‘Clent Wiston’ is Dirty Hairy, in Sleepers in March

Diggin’ in th’ doit, like a doity dawg!

Further work on the railway sleepers, raising them up out of the dirt on gravel. Which I should’ve done from the off. Making a rod to beat myself with there, eh!?

Wearing a mask due to the dust raised whilst doing the work. It’s hard heavy work. Back bent as I dig or rake the soil out of the way. Then raising the sleepers, then putting three bags of gravel down, and raking that lot that flat.

I actually quite the aesthetics of the speckled dirt on my skin, with the hair over it all! Am I weird!? In real life – at least as I perceive it – qin the sunshine and dappled shade, my skin is more bronzed and hair more golden than in these photos.

Anyway, all six sleepers are now an inch or two higher than before, with gravel underneath each of them. They’re still level (enough for my satisfaction, and hopefully enough for keeping the shed square?) in both directions.

The whole lot seemed to move a couple of inches eastwards, towards the house. Actually that’s alright. As the final sleeper was a bit further apart than all the others. So having them shuffling along a bit has wound up with them all better spaced.

One annoying thing is that I’ve referenced a the sleepers off a splash-board on the neighbours (very dilapidated) fence. If this is misaligned, as it probably is, then all my sleepers are as well. I was actually aware of this from the start. But couldn’t be arsed trying to remedy it.

Just went and got more Facebook/Gumtree free gravel! Yesterday I went to Bourne (Lincs), twice, and got twenty bags. From a nice Latvian chap. And today I got two big plastic tubs full, plus one bag, from Upwell area, a little closer to home.

I decided to scoop aside the earth along the sides of the sleepers and infill more gravel, so they’re not just sat on gravel, but in gravel. Hoping this’ll better protect them form moisture, to some extent. Will it? I really don’t know!

Gravel along the sleeper edges. House end view.

Anyway, that’s enough work on that lot for today! Yesterday and today have been, for me at least, pretty hardcore, in terms of exhausting energy sapping hard physical labour. So, to end, one last ‘go ahead, make my day,’ Dirty Hairy moment…

28 July 202218 December 2022

MUSiC: Seychelles, Masayoshi Takanaka, 1976

More musical fabulousness from Japan’s Masayoshi Takanaka. Track one, Oh Tengo Suerte, is also the first track on All Of Me. A number I love so much I want to get both of those albums!

A little later…

Well… Holy guacamole! Just listened to the entire album, in one pass. And my goodness, it’s amazing! First off the range is very wide. It’s all tinged with a ‘70s fusion vibe. And being predominantly instrumental, there’s a definite jazz aspect.

But it’s also all over the map in many ways. Perhaps the single best example of this is the pretty bonkers final piece, which starts and finishes with layered vocal harmonies and barely audible acoustic guitar, before barreling off into a Japanese prog-fusion wonderland both very like some kind of CTI thing, but also unlike anything else.

The musicianship is absolutely stunning. Unsurprisingly Takanaka is the star, on prominent display here. But, everything, the percussion, the drumming, the keys (other stuff: vocals, strings, horn solos, whatever), and very notably the bass, are all stunning.

28 July 202218 December 2022

MUSiC: An Insatiable High, 1977

More Masayoshi Takanaka, this time 1977’s wonderfully titled An Insatiable High.

I’m trying to buy these albums in the UK, but they’re largely ludicrously expensive (over £20 per album, and then some, with added shipping costs!). So in the meantime, YouTube is my saviour.

I’ve only listened to track one so far, but I loved that. So I’m hoping I’ll enjoy the whole thing. We shall see, I guess? I’m still totally sold on Rainbow Goblins, which I’m part way through my third listen to at present!

28 July 202218 December 2022

MUSiC: All of Me, Masayoshi Takanaka, 1977

What a cool picture!

Sometimes a single track is so good it’ll make a whole album essential for me, and this is a case in point. The opening number on this 1979 compilation, Oh Tengo Suerte, is just sooo awesomely good, I simply must either track this album down on in some form, or find whatever album the track itself comes from. It’s my idea of musical perfection.

Some time later…

Ok, so having listened to more Takanaka, I’ve discovered Oh Tengo Suerte is the opening number on Takanaka’s 1976 solo debut recording, Seychelles. Which, it transpires, is an absolutely superb album. Def’ one for the collection!

28 July 202218 December 2022

MUSiC: Brazilian Skies, 1978

Partly recorded in Brazil, Takanaka’s fourth album has lots of names I don’t recognise, and a few I do: Abe Laboriel, James Gadson, Jeff Porcaro, Greg Phillinganes and Paulinho da Costa amongst others.

Not listened to this one much yet. Just had a quick skip through to get a flavour. Very Brasilian… but I’ll return to it properly in few coarse!

28 July 202218 December 2022

MUSiC: Rainbow Goblins, Masayoshi Takanaka, 1981

A beautiful cover that really does convey the magic within.

I’ve always loved discovering new music. New to me, that is. I don’t care how old it is. And often I find I like older stuff better than contemporary stuff anyway.

Well, today is a blessed day, that way, as I’ve just stumbled upon the amazing 1981 album Rainbow Goblins, by Japanese guitarist Masayoshi Takanaka.

I only found out about it today. And after listening to a few tracks on YouTube, I decided I had to buy the CD. I’ve ordered a copy via Amazon, and it was a bit pricey for a skint skinflint like me, (Jap import, over £20!). But it’s totally stolen my heart.

The vid’ that took me over the Rainbow.

Indeed, from the little else of Takanaka’s stuff I’ve heard since discovering this, I think I’ll be buying more of his music. But I’ll get to that later. For now I just want to testify to how much I dig this incredible album.

Apparently the album is a concept double album – very prog! – based upon a Children’s’s story, about seven ‘rainbow goblins’. The story, by an Italian (poss a Count!?), Ul de Rico, is where the cover art comes from. I’ve ordered a copy of that as well!

I have to give an honourable mention to arranger Katsu Hoshi, for the strings, and – presumably? – the incredible orchestral Prologue, which sets up this dreamy album perfectly. Is the album credit, in the name ‘Katz’ Hoshi, a sly reference to Steely Dan’s Gary Katz, perhaps?

There’s even an English language spoken narration, by a chap called Roy Garner. For a Brit it’s particularly nice to hear an English narration from beyond these shores that isn’t an American or transatlantic accent. I feel right at home in rainbow goblin land!

The music has a childish and delightfully goofy innocence at times. But as it’s all played by top notch sessionistas and jazz fusion musos, it also has a beautiful late 1970s – think Creed Taylor’s CTI, but filtered through a Japanese Teletubbies filter! – sophistication.

Man, I totally dig it! The music itself runs an appropriately broad and colourful gamut, from the orchestral opening, to the twinkling ambience of Rising Arch, or the hard jazz funk of Seven Goblins or Plumed Bird to the rockier edge of Thunderstorm, or the totally out there fusion of tracks like Rainbow Paradise, which morphs through several genres, and yet defies any single categorisation, this album is quite a trip!

Regarding the last category – ‘all over the map’ – after the nutty ‘goberins, goberins, goberins, goberins…’ vocal intro of Seven Goblins, The Sunset Valley is almost like the kind of music and melodies you might imagine hearing piped into a Japanese shopping mall in the ‘80s! Elsewhere there’s a bit of reggae (Just Chuckle), some Latin vibes… and the whole lot is sprinkled with disco fairy dust, from occasional grooves to the vocoder’d vocals.

As I’ve remarked already… simply astonishing!

Some of Takanaka’s ‘70s recordings feature US players, like Abe Laboriel, Harvey Mason and even the Tower of Power horns. But this amazing album is, I believe, an entirely Japanese affair. And these Kitty cats sure can play!

What a truly sublime and astonishing recording. I’ve definitely found a new love. Oh, and the album artwork is perfect! And how cute is that Kitty record label logo!? I can see that I need to dive deep down the J-Jazz-Fusion wormhole!

FURTHER EXPLORATIONS!?

Takanaka produced a ‘prequel’ White Goblin album, many years later. Might that be any good? I have no idea! But having listened to some stuff from his earlier albums, I’m pretty sure that I’ll really dig them, so his Seychelles, Brazilian Skies, and the sublimely titled An Insatiable High all beckon, as does his 1979 compilation album All Of Me.