renaissance man
Ever since I picked up a free copy of Edward Lear’s Nonsense Verse, fairly recently, I’ve been continually drawn back to him.
It was a surprise to me to learn just what a great artist he was, in terms, for example, of his natural history illustrations.
I found this excellent piece online today. Well worth a look! And I’m keen to get a copy of this, if I can:
It’s a gorgeous sunny evening. British Summer Time is about to end. I was feeling kind of empty, brittle, and, frankly, shitty. I’ve pulled up, parked facing the sunset. And I’m listening to Arthur Verocai’s sublime 1972 recording.
I find it astonishing that albums like this, and Shuggie Otis’ Inspiration Infornation, have taken so many years to find their audience. But I’m glad they have resurfaced.
I just read a nice piece from 2022, in the Guardian online, interviewing Verocai about his late-blooming music career. Read it here.
Track seven, Na Boca Do Sol, just finished. I don’t know Portuguese, despite a lifetime listening to Brazilian music. So I translated the lyrics. And – no surprise, frankly – they’re beautifully poetic.
Now it’s Velho Parente. Every single track is brilliant. What an album!
I’m not a massive fan of much modern music. And sometimes I hate rap/hip hop, for stealing from truly great artists. I’ll be honest, the hip-hop crowd being into Arthur was something I’ve blissfully ignored, up till now.
I still don’t know what I might make of that connection. But I have to confess I love the above MF Doom piece – called Orris Foot Powder(!?) – because it simply takes Verocai’s magic, and bathes in it.
Ah, me… the Simple Things.
I ordered two sets fitted bed sheets, yesterday. They arrived today. That’s triffick, ain’t it? A pair of beige, and a pair in white. So we now have – where before we had none – four super-king size fitted sheets.
I’ve also ordered another yellow and white ‘pomelo’ super-king duvet set. I don’t like the blue and pink version we have so having two white n’ yello means we can use one whilst washing t’other.
All is not quite fully peachy yet, tho’. Because I’d really like, either 1) all the pillows to match, or 2) at least the non-pomelo ones should all be the same. And they should enhance the vibes. The current mixed grab bag just don’t cut it.
Whilst re-making the bed today, I also took all the sundry other sheets, and either stuck in the dirty linen pile, or – if clean – stored them in our ‘new’ tall boy-ish chesty o’drawers. I’m not a fan of that material that’s made of plastic fibres – I dislike it so much my brain refuses to recall its name!
Ah… ‘fleece’. That’s the hideous and very untrue misnomer it goes by. In the drawer and out of sight with you. Begone, foul dwimmerlaik!*
Blah…
In other equally mundane and unglam’ news, I did a double shift delivering today. And unlike the last time I did the same (Friday the previous week), survived alright. In part that may be cause I managed to do my second (and longer) shift in just half the time allotted. But it must also mean I’m not quite so ill as I was, right?
*I love that line, in LOTR. I looked into the etymology of the word, and it seems Tolkien was poss’ adapting ‘a Middle English word for occult practices or magic’, dweomerlak.
Not done any fresh work on the model today (not yet!). It took these three pics, to try and capture the ‘glazing’ I did yesterday.
The roof needs ‘felting’, for which I’ve got some 150 grit sandpaper. And three doors need building.
I love the upward pointing arrow look of this aspect. That wasn’t an intentional thing. It’s arisen serendipitously out of the design and build evolving organically.
More Wallace & Gromit Goodness. At long last.
*Literally… ordered straight away. Prob’ should’ve gone on my new wish list. But instead I pulled the trigger on it, as soon as learning of its existence. Love these guys and their music.
Here’s a wee listicle.
Things I’d like, either for Yule or my Birthday. The stuff I want most is up at the top. The stuff at the bottom I’d like, but not as keenly.
If anyone were to use this list to get me anything, it’d prob’ be wise to confer with other folk, first. So nobody accidentally duplicates stuff (it’s happened before!).
And maybe let me know, so I can cross it off? … Or not? Surprises can be nice!
NT Professional Mat Cutter, Red, 45 Degree Bevel Mat Board Cutter, 1 Cutter (MAT-45P), Aluminum Die-Cast Grip.
Looks a bit dull for the top of my list. I know! But it’d be very useful, for framing/mounting pictures. Roughly £35-40 (on Amazon), at the time of posting.
This is something I’m very keen to get/read. I have volumes one and two of this ace naval history. Volume three came out very recently. Cheapest place (I’ve seen) is, surprise, surprise, on Amazon UK.
I’d love one of these T-shirts. I’m a bit of a Furze fan-boy. Mostly on account of his whole underground tunnel stuff.
I love Edward Lear. The above book is on Amazon, here.
The above is an enamel plate, which can be bought online, here. I’m thinking of calling our art studio ‘The Owl & The Pussycat’, because it’s a beautiful pea-green! And I love Edward Lear.
The above might be interesting? I’ve read another book by the author. And it was very good.
This, below, I would dearly love:
Be careful with the above. We already have the feature length animated movie, by Cosgrove Hall (the same team). What I’m after, and is pictured above, is the complete TV series.
It’s currently approx/just under £50 on Amazon, and more or less exactly the same (both w free postage) on HMV. It’s a few pennies cheaper on Amazon, and delivered next day. HMV fractionally more, price wise, and 7-9 days delivery.
HARDER TO FIND…
Down here at the bottom is stuff I really really want, but isn’t all that easy to get hold of.
They recently had this HMS Victory model in a shop in Peterborough, for £25. But it’s gorn… So I s’pose this one might be a bit too much of a hassle for now?
I’d love this classic 1980s English Civil War drama, pictured below, on DVD. But it is a bit hard to find/dear:
More old Riff Pilchard might be fun? I’ve been living Wired For Sound. This is his previous album:
Sadly Rock ‘n’ Roll Juvenile, which contains the classic ‘We Don’t Talk Any More’, seems quite hard (and costly!) to get hold of, on CD. I’d prefer the 40th Anniversary reissue as well… So prob’ best save this one for when it becomes easier/cheaper to buy, I guess.
Next I’ll need to start working on the doors and windows…
As mentioned in a previous recent post, I’m rebuilding a better roof, for my 1:30 art studio model. This time it’ll only have four, not five A-frames.
I also did some work on the walls, to make them cleaner, flatter, more in square. So the roof will be sitting on a stabler base.
Below, a gallery of images showing work in progress. The horizontal members – only on the two inner frames, are suggestive of a potential internal roof. Or do I leave the roof space open? I tend towards the latter.
Amazingly (or not?) this second attempt failed, yet again. So I had to find the problem and fix it. I made some spacing doodads, and did just that. It took ages, measuring, moving, checking and re-checking.
Eventually I got everything relatively well aligned, and deduced that one particular A-frame was sending everything out of whack. A bit of trimming, of said A-frame, finally got me – I hope – where I needed to be.
I’ve only kind of ‘tack-welded’ along the top of the roof, for now. I’ll let that dry. And then I’ll fix the lower ends of the roof sheets to the lower ends of the A-frame joists, along their bottom edges.
Hopefully the whole roof will be much better aligned, more ‘square’ to itself. And I can glue it all up, and then trim the roof panel sheets as needed. We shall see!
One thing this has thrown up is the way long overhanging eaves will overshadow some of the windows. Particularly those along the upper rear (south facing) fence side.
What do I do about this? Shorten the overhang of the eaves? Make the windows deeper? Situate the windows slightly lower down the wall?
Hmmm? It’s for such problem finding and solving issues a preparatory model is such a good idea. In addition to the sheer fun of building!
