I can’t think of anything witty to write now but I don’t mind just yet. For it could be so that I couldn’t think of anything to write at all and it isn’t, so I still might write something unwitty, or half-witty or whatever they call writings with increasingly decreased amount of added wit. Halved wit for halfwits, I’d call it if calling things thusly wasn’t uncalled for.

The reasons for being unable to write anything witty are
a) it’s Monday, and Mondays are not famous for sparking divine inspiration,and
b) I already forgot what the other (probably halfway witty) reason was. It could have had something to do with strict limitations I’ve imposed upon myself and particularly upon my modestly excessive showering habits (of which I’ve excessively talked about earlier) after having received the bill for my recent usage of warm water. When the outrageously unfair total amount I’m expected to cough up for my wee attempts at personal hygiene dawned on me, I theatrically fainted and fell on the floor like a wingless brick would fall from the sky. But to no avail. The bill remains the same and woe is my name.

Therefore, no relaxing in the shower, no Thinking About Things in the shower and no wittiness, not in the shower nor anywhere else either. Only serious pondering upon the subject of Re-recording Previously Released Material And The Perils Thereof. I’ve been listening to the new, self titled Aeon Spoke album, released on a bigger label than their previous cd “Above The Buried Cry” and containing three new songs plus seven re-recorded ones lifted from the debut. Some of those songs originally touched me in that special place where only very good music can reach out to touch, and now, listening to new versions of them all I feel is disappointment. They’re still beautiful and emotional, but compared to original versions also somehow watered down, as if lacking of soul and spirit and the magic that made them special to me in the first place.

Recently, when discussing what we want to include on the next Sinisthra album, we wondered if it might be a good idea to re-record one or two songs that originally appeared on our first album. We’re expecting a wider and more powerful distribution for our next one so why not bring forth a few songs from the one that’s getting increasingly hard to acquire these days? Probably won’t be a good idea though and I’m rather certain we will not do it. Even if the song is played perfectly note-by-note to the original, the path still has all kinds of holes to stumble into when trying to recreate something emotional and fragile. We’ve experienced this in the past, “Innocence..in a sense” from the first album is our third studio version of the song and we still didn’t get it right. Now we have plenty of new songs we feel will turn out pretty good, but we’ve already made several demos of some of them during the past few years and it will be hard to surpass the demo versions and make the final versions stand taller. I’m very much looking forward to it though, even if we fail to live up to expectations aroused by earlier recordings.

Of course this doesn’t concern the casual listener as much as the people who’ve created the actual music and lived with its’ turns and phases. I’m sure I’d like the new Aeon Spoke much better if I had never heard “Above The Buried Cry” and appreciated it so greatly. But I did, and I don’t. And that’s a shame.

THIS WEEKS’ SOURCE OF FRUSTRATION:
Ordering new parts to my electronic drum kit in a whim from USA. Enduring the usual hassles and frustrations with the customs only to find out I hadn’t bothered to properly check out whether my Roland TD-6 module really supports four tomtoms and three crash symbals or not. Turns out it doesn’t and come to think of it, doesn’t need to, either. It’s just, now that I have the pads and whatnot it would be nice to be able to put them all to use because, as everyone knows, the bigger the drums, the better the drummer.

THIS WEEKS’ SOURCE OF DELIGHT:
Finding from YouTube an old Marillion live TV performance I had never seen before and didn’t even know existed. And it’s “Cinderella Search” of all songs, one of my all-time favourites and a solid choice to put on after coming home alone from the bar at 4 AM back in the days when such things still used to happen to me. Blushed a bit at Fish’s dodgy costume, moves and make-up but enjoyed the music immensely.

THIS WEEKS’ BOOK OF CHOICE:
“Bible Stories For Adults” by James Morrow. Slightly blasphemous short stories and slightly forgettable as well. To me, Morrow’s ideas seem much better than their execution and I was disappointed with his novel “Only Begotten Daughter” but I still went out and bought this book. Won’t be buying any more of his novels in a hurry. Of the slightly blasphemous short story collections I’ve read recently Mark Twain’s “Letters From The Earth” was a much more enjoyable experience.

THIS WEEKS’ BOTTLES OF CHOICE:
Santa Ana Reserve Malbec Shiraz. This a lovely red wine from Argentina. Looks like I’ve found something that I’ve been looking for. Everything from Argentina and with malbec grapes has been great and this is the best one I’ve tasted so far.
Zenato Ripassa Valpolicella Superiore was nice too but at almost 20 euros a bottle it has to be nice now doesn’t it? Overpriced I’d say because “nice” was the strongest term I could think of.