09.20
Hotel Modesto Acceptable, Exeter.
Oh no!
Rising at 06.00 on the morning of the 6th. day of the 6th. month of the 6 year!… 6666. This means - it’s Exeter.
Room Modesto in Hotel Modesto (but which aspires to its former grandeur) is in the modern extension of a handsome Edwardian building. Once, this hotel would have been called the Railway Hotel: the station is directly opposite. Much Edwardian architecture (c.1900-1914) is solid & reliable, and mostly suits my eye. This modern extension, however, looks cheap & nasty. This is because the construction of the extension is cheap & nasty. It is devoid of care in design, construction & materials.
The walls between rooms are thinner even than US motels. When retiring, I did so with the adjoining room’s television as accompaniment to my recapitulation of the day (in reverse order). In modest accommodations, as in dealing with most forms of sonic pollution, the Happy Gigster takes careless & unintentionally generated sound (noise) as a given. What is not acceptable is constant disturbance during the night. In this case, a loud snoring person next to my head, albeit on the other side of (what purported to be) a wall. At 03.30 the character was honking so loudly, and rapidly, with snore-vibrations carrying through the cardboard partition between our heads, I realised that sleep would not return without a bold initiative to counter the noise. A simple solution presented itself: I telephoned the room, allowing the ‘phone to ring twice. This woke the person & snoring ceased immediately; they went to the bathroom, returning to bed and (eventual) snoring, but at a much lower decibel level.
In the early morning, loud coughing began from behind the other wall.
A light & extended breakfasting experience with Jason Elliot’s Mirrors Of The Unseen.
20.10 DGM HQ.
This lunchtime performance (13.15-14.00) was in the Chapter House of Exeter Cathedral I…
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Exeter Cathedral I…
II…
Why are the figures so damaged?
III…
IV…
Coffee & Food That Way…
Yer Tiz!…
The Chapter House at Exeter Cathedral is not a church, nor chapel, nor cathedral. As a small performance venue, it was superb. As a sacred space, it lacked the presiding spirit that I have relied upon these past few days in Bishop’s Cleeve, Pershore, Sutton & Worcestershire.
Subjectively, this felt like a conventional performance in an unconventional performance space. Nothing “bad” or “wrong” with that, but a different quality of event: primarily an act of music, rather than an act of worship. This refers to how I felt the event, not the music.
21.40 E-frenzy of heroic proportions is underway, to reduce the inbox to manageable.
23.08 Enough.
"In popular culture, the musician calls on the highest part in all of us.
In mass culture, the musician addresses the lower parts of what we are."
