Around the streets of Brecon today, no fixed agenda. I’ve told my agent I’m not gonna run off to any deserts in the near future just because it’s always good to be available. But the industry has changed. We all hated self tapes when they first started but with all the tech that’s sprung up around vapid people wibbling on about themselves on social meedja, it actually makes it possible to do things like be in Brecon and still respond positively when you get a commercial casting due the next day. I would have driven back to London first thing tomorrow in the old world, swearing all the way. As it is I think I have a little phone tripod in the car, so I can just set up and throw things around in the morning until I’m happy. Brave New World. I’m happy to have the casting – it’s a CD that I haven’t seen for a while, perhaps since I switched to my lovely agent, but some years ago they were a genuine lifeline and I’m always happy to turn up for them as I feel a kind of loyalty to the people who helped keep me going through the hardest years.
Today was calm. I didn’t know about the casting until just after 5pm so I could just enjoy the stoney streets of Wales. I pottered about, found good coffee, and stopped at the confluence of the river Usk and the Honddu. The sun was out, but not so many people. A man in a little booth at the top of the promenade sold me a generous portion of ‘Japanese style fried chicken” which I ate outside with a can of Lilt – Hot damn! Fanta bought it and call it Fanta Pineapple and Grapefruit, but it still exists. I was a happy sunny boy.
When Lou finished her driving we went to church, up at the cathedral, just to catch prayers. It was just Stephen the vicar, the two of us and an Irish lady with a bag of fish and chips. We did the collect for the day, we all read the magnificat cos she gets annunciaterised tomorrow, that Mary. Then Steveyboy read a bit of Galatians off of his phone cos we live in the modern world now. It was about working in mines. Getting in touch with the earth, working hard under a yoke, remembering to trust in the lord. I haven’t been to church since Christmas. I’m always happy to clock in for a bit though and do the thinkings. Can’t promise I go along with all of, can’t state I support how it often gets used, but monolithic and corrupt or not it is better to have some sort of spirituality in this mess of a world than to just worship money or yourself or some demagogue. None of them are right, all of them are right. Go pick a belief, pick three, pick ’em all, but don’t use them as the excuse you’ve been looking for to be a dick about things. Apart from the ones that required mass sacrifice, most of them came from a good place, and certainly now around the world some of the best places for calm peaceful contemplation in a world that is getting noisier and noisier – they come under the frame of these belief systems.
A lovely chilled day. Nice to have the structure of a tape tomorrow, but I’m happy it was tomorrow and not today. I was feeling pretty ropey yesterday, thrashing around all night, now the weight has fallen off a bit. Another quiet night or two here. Back to the fray on Wednesday.
AlBarclay 