Baking

Hello everybody, how is everything?

Recently I have enjoyed baking, so I first of all made some triple chocolate cookies...

In truth I bought a couple of tubs of triple chocolate cookie dough from work for a very cheap price, and followed the instructions.  I know, that is cheating, but it awoken a desire in me to do it without cheating sometime.

Cookies on a plate

Some cookies on a tin.

After this, Louise suggested that I try my hand at making a loaf of bread actually from scratch...  Yes, from scratch!  No bread-maker or anything for cheating.  

Mixing the ingredients - strong white flour,
salt, butter, yeast, and warm water.

Kneading the loaf for ten minutes.

Dough kneaded and ready to prove.

Covered with a clean damp towel to prevent
the dough from drying out.

Voila! - that's the proven dough, which is then
"knocked back" to let the air out.

The "knocked back" dough is then placed
into the loaf tin.

Then placed into the oven for thirty minutes.

And then it came out like this - rustic
perhaps, but still a loaf!

Happy Marv!

Still happy and proud! :-)

Cutting a slice.

Yummy, that looks great!

Taste test..

So, as you can see I had a lot of fun making the load.  I had fun eating it as well! ;-)

I will be making bread again, and maybe get to baking more things.  It is a good experience and I was so happy about it.  Louise took some great photographs as well, obviously.

Thank you for reading.  Please take care.

October 31st 2013 (42 years, 11 months, and 5 days old).

The world today

Hello all.  How is the world treating you?  There are things going on all over the place aren't there?!?

Over here in the UK, the government continue to take more from those less off, and big corporations continue to put up the cost of electricity, gas, and fuel, so that those less off have to basically decide whether they can afford to pay to keep themselves warm during what has been predicted to be the coldest Winter in the country in over twenty years,and that is bloody cold because I can remember nights where it's gone colder than -10 degrees Centigrade before now (that is 14 Fahrenheit by the way).  Of course, the rich millionaires who happen to run the country don't really give a shit because to them it's peanuts...  Drop their pay to minimum wage and see how things change then the greedy so and so's (I'm trying to not swear so much - let's see how long that lasts...  Oh, I already said shit... Well, that's allowed isn't it?)...

Anyway...  I suppose that I should say that that is "in my opinion"?  Yeah well...

Elsewhere in the world I see that the US government have decided to close up shop after spitting their dummies out - boo hoo, go and get back into your cots. :-(

October is now more than half way through now, and it is flying by.  I am enjoying this Rocktober idea of recording cover versions, which I thought that I wouldn't.  I remember back in the day I used to get sick of the chats about what covers to include in set lists, because I was always writing something which would be worked on with the others.  I can see the thinking behind it now, but back then I just wanted to be seen as original, which covering others artists seemed to me to be showing something completely different.

It's also giving me the chance to look at the not-so-obvious choices as well.  When looking at The Bee Gees, I thought "why not pick a sixties pre-extreme harmony style song?"  From there I picked the very little known song Spicks & Specks from 1966.  The songs I have chosen are from all over the spectrum hopefully.

I actually had fun coming up with a new arrangement for the "not great" Paul McCartney song Pretty Little Head, which I enjoyed working on!  I think that I have done a good job there.

As I said I've picked all sorts, and my ukulele interpretation of Come Together by The Beatles has been enjoyed by many, whereas I was just doing it to see if it worked more than anything else.  That plus it's a damn fine song and gave me the choice to try and get my vocals into action.

I did a version of Sean Lennon's lovely song Parachute, and I think that the cover version I did of Julian Lennon's Too Late For Goodbyes is quite possibly the best cover version I have ever recorded!

Anyway, it's adding to the fact that in some ways I need to get out there and gig.  I could possibly put together a fairly decent set list - six originals and two cover versions to make a short set with maybe?  Change the set each time slightly as well to keep potential frequent giggers interested and surprised?  The idea is there, but then so are the nerves, the laziness in me that says "oh it's a lot of hassle getting the vocals and playing perfected", and the fact that I mainly work night shifts, which pretty much screws up gigging in the evening...  Like I said, the idea is there!

What else is happening then?

Well, the One Day album seems to be making it's way to iTunes for some time during November, which is a nice thing, although not absolutely as I'd have liked it to sound for the most part.  I just can't afford the time and money to sort it out - it's been about seven years for crying out loud, which is a long bloody time!

Anyway, surprisingly I think I will leave it there.  Check out my Rocktober page if you like, and there is still the 5090 page up where you can check things out, and my challenge album is available on Bandcamp to buy or stream!  What can I say, I like to sell music because I want to give up my job and work on music full time - that is the dream in truth!

Thank you for reading.  Take care.

October 19th 2013 (42 years, 10 months and 23 days old).

Quick catch-up

How are you? I know, I know...  Everyone's having trouble these days.  I'm not discussing that today though...  Well, I don't think I will.  Who knows where my thoughts will take me?

It's been a while hasn't it.  In my defence I've been very busy. I've been busy with the 5090 songwriting challenge, with 132 songs eventually finding their way onto my page there.

During September I took part in the on-site challenge to write, record and release an entire album during the whole month. I think I wrote the first piece for it on the first and the whole album was up on Bandcamp completed and ready to buy. 

I know - I'm materialistic in that I like earning money through music. What can I say but that I'd happily give up my job if I could love off music. Who of us wouldn't?

Album link - http://projectmarv1.bandcamp.com/album/seasons

Anyway...  Seasons, as it's called, is available in all of it's disjointed glory. Don't get me wrong. I think there is some good on there, but the restrictions therein caused it to become much more of a mixed bag genre wise and quality wise.

I enjoy all styles of music, and I find it difficult to stay to one area when it comes to writing. Previously I've been able to cherry pick material from a larger body of tunes I've written and give sets more time to avoid such a wide chasm of styles.

I do know that I intend to revisit some of what's on there in the future to expand on. I will be looking at somehow joining some of the "theme" pieces together into a single song somehow. By "theme" pieces I mean Autumn Leaves Fall, Leaves Are All Around and possibly Withering Away, although the latter works well as it is with being joined to Dawn Breaks.

There are other pieces I thought were good - My Sweet And Lovely Girl would be great by another artist.  I think Spellbound is fantastic, although it could possibly be longer, but there is something about it as it is. Always is beautiful in it's succinctness and simplicity.  Withering Away/Dawn Breaks is a great piece, albeit possibly better if I took it into a studio and got +Dean Leivers or someone else to sing on it.  Running is a fantastically funky piece of instrumental cool.  Walking In The Park With My Louise and Rain Outside My Window are both great lo-fi ambient pieces.  Some of the "Machines Suite" is cool as well, but made up of short incidental pieces.

All that I've just said explains the quandary of the album.  There's good in there, but there is so much in there that it could possibly put people off.  If I possibly split it into two halves and expanded on each then there could possibly be two good albums there.

I did have two songs written but not recorded in the shape of The Summer Is Here and Seasons, both of which were intended for the album.  If they had been finished, then perhaps I'd have left off the "Machines Suite" of songs (songs 12-19), and rearranged everything else into a more conventional set of mainly actual songs.  It's all simple in hindsight isn't it!  I'm not sure if what I would have been left with would be long enough to make an album though. It's all questions in my head.  Why not go over there, spend the five pound on the 22 titles on there, and make your own mind up? ;-)

My big thing at the moment is with the release at last of One Day, the Project Marv album that's been years in the making.  That's going to be available, I think, in the second week of November.

That is a more rounded set, and possibly more accessible for people.  I'm looking forward to that being out there for all to hear at last.  I know the others involved in it's creation are excited by it.  There are some incredible pieces in there for people, such as the full length versions of Good Morning World and Daydreamer, a different version of Breakfast Song, and other stuff.

Anyway, I'd best leave this here.  You know where I am now.  I'll be cleaning this blog post up in a bit - blogging on my phone is trickier than on the laptop.  I can't insert links the same, and pictures need to be placed better.