January 19, 2016

8.30 am. A survey of incoming mail, a review of my diary, a thoughtfulness about the day ahead, and, then, on with the meat of the morning … with expectation: ‘thou knowest not what a day may bring forth’. 9.00 am:

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I pressed on with the second conspectus for the book while, at the periphery of my focus, making tentative notes towards a presentation on working with sound; this will be delivered as part of the university’s postgraduate research training provision, in early March. Once ideas are objectified in writing, the mind can see, and think beyond, them:

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By 11.00 am, I’d developed a firm sense of which topics the presentation should embrace and, tangentially, how I should break into the conspectus with all guns blazing. And it was to this that I turned my attention next. The intent is to distance the book’s conceptual approach from that of its rivals. Every publication needs to justify its existence and appeal to the market. Publishing is business after all.

1.40 pm. I removed the Moog Analogue Delay effector from the handboard and, in its place, inserted two TC Electronic delays after each of the Electro-Harmonix synth engines. I’ll test my intuitions regarding the change mid afternoon, over a cuppa. Meanwhile, back to the notebook:

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This book poses a significant challenge. I need to break into a subject which I’ve already dealt with at length in a recent publication: The Bible as Visual Culture. To do so, will require a new methodological approach and framework for discussion. By mid afternoon, the faintest glimmer of an alternative began to make its presence felt. 4.30 pm. I tested the new handboard configuration. As I’d anticipated, the addition of the two delay effectors enhanced my facility to sustain samples from, and vary the decay rate of, the modulated output. Back, then, for a final stint on the conspectus before the close of the afternoon.

6.15 pm. Practise session 1. 7.15 pm. One thing I do know …  As I move towards the third and final stage of my career, my activities will become less diverse, although my interests and enthusiasms may not. Instead, they’ll converge on one or more preoccupations. In order to bring this about, I shall need to prune. Inevitably, this will be an uncomfortable and, perhaps, unpopular, process. Some fruitful branches of endeavour will have to be sacrificed in order for the most fruitful ones to thrive. Needs must!

7. 30 pm. Further teaching admin was disposed as I worked my way up the years through to the MA and PhD levels.

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