The lesser mabinogion

I’m making this post from Konqueror…runing on a new install of SuSe linux…and I feel so much better for it ;)
It’s been too long since I’ve had linux installed…It was my desktop operating system of choice for 5 years..and still is, but various different circumstances have conspired over the last year to prevent me from running it on anything other than my servers. But today, when discusing audio applications with some of the guys at work, I did some browsing around, and discovered that the Linux audio scene appears to have advanced significantly from where it was a few years ago when I last had a serious look at it.
Applications like Rosegarden, Audacity, JACK, and the LADSPA project, as well as quite a few others, seem to imply that I might actually be able to do some serious audio work in Linux. So this evening I managed to juggle a few hard drives around so that I could put a second drive in Awen – my music workstation, and rather than just installing Debian again, I figured I’d give SuSe a go, since it has a pretty good reputation, and I’d never used it before.
So far, I’m in two minds about it…I think it’s definitely a huge improvement over RedHat from an end user usability point of view – the configuration tools are excellent and very consistent….but it’s still a big bloated desktop distribution like RedHat, which was evident when I was unable to get a base installation with X under 1 gig.
With Debian I would have been able to install a much lighter base from which to work…it’s just a pity I’m kind of fed up with the mess that is Debian’s X install….particularly the font configuration.
I might have to give Gentoo a go when I’ve got some time to sit down and go through the installation process (I’d do a stage 1 install, or there’d be no point), but that’s for another day…..

I’m currently in the process of compiling Rosegarden….and I’ll probably post my thoughts on it and a few other tools I try once I’ve given them a fair go.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about music and me lately..about how much I miss really playing an instrument and being able to call myself a musician, to play in public, to be part of a band / group / ensemble / whatever..
The stuff Nick and I have been doing with Cumulo-Nimbus has been ok…but we only get together once a fortnight..if we’re lucky, and then we just tend to go over a little part of someting, maybe adding some keyboards, or we’ll be experimenting with a new piece. We never actually play all the way through a piece, and it’s kind of difficult to do so anyway.
Tessa’s been playing her violin a lot now that I got it out and tuned it for her, and it’s pretty much strengthened my desire to learn Cello…I’ve been tentetively peeking around for prices on used Cellos and seeing if I can find somewhere that I could hire one from. If I can hire one, I’ll almost certainly do it…but if I’ll have to buy one, then I’ll have to think about it some more – they’re around $800 – $1000 for a used student quality cello, so I’d have to figure out where it sits in my priorities.
I’m also probably going to obtain a Flute at some point which will be fun – I haven’t played flute for 10 years, and then I only really did 6 months lessons, but the fingering is similar to Sax, so it’s an instrument I can mostly just pick up and play to a certain level…then it’s just a matter of practice. A real flute could add some interesting elements to our music.
We’ve also decided to look for a female singer to join Cumulo-Nimbus. I’m hoping that if we find the right person, that it could completely revitalize us. Lyrics and vocals are the parts that bring us down the most, so having a real singer should be a real bonus, also the possibilty for male / female duets, and most importantly having a third source of creative input are things that I really look forward to.
Hopefully this will shape up to be an excellent year for music for me.

Well, this week wasn’t as hot as last week….partly due to being back at work in air conditioning, and partly due to it being actually not as hot….Hopefully we won’t have too many more weeks like that one. I can handle a single day or two getting hot, but a whole week of temperatures approaching 40 is a little more than I can stand.

I’ve decided to try to spend more time on music this year…try to get things finished and start making some real positive progress. We’ve got some good stuff just sitting on my hard drive that needs to be finished, but the last couple of years I’ve been very un motivated. I’ve ordered a new microphone to hopefully remove one aspect of my troubles with vocals – practice should hopefully remove the others – but it’s taking a long time to turn up, which is a little depressing, since I don’t really want to try any more vocals until I have it.

I got out Tessa’s violin the other day to experiment with – It was kind of bugging me that we had an instrument in the house that I don’t know how to play. I tuned it and messed around a bit, but I think that it’s probably not my thing…too small for a start, and I’m not sure if I have the patience for a frettless instrument, but I still wouldn’t mind learning Cello one day…..but then there’s a lot instruments I’d like to learn, and it’d probably be better use of my time trying to improve my guitar and singing skills, or even reaquainting myself with my sax.

I’m sitting in near darkness…illuminated only by the light of the monitor and what little evening light that makes past the partially opened curtains of the screen doors….
This time of year we tend to shut all the curtains and turn off all the lights because light brings heat…and there’s more than enough of that to go around right now…

Tessa and I spent the first day of the new year, hiding in darkness, playing games, and watching X Files episodes, too hot to move from the couch…

Now the sun is setting, that evil firery ball of heat…we are preparing to venture forth into the night….to feed….