I get out for a paddle but my drone footage misses the sound!
OUR pal Tom drops in for a coffee after my first online guitar lesson…we chat for a while then I go back to the studio for another lesson.
Next I upload my playlist and radio show to Mixcloud and spread the info round my socials.
The weather’s not great but there’s very little wind so I go for a paddle and take the drone to film some stuff to promote this evening’s WIldcats’ livestream.
I discovered that I can’t use a Bluetooth mic when using the Hoverair app unless I use the mic receiver too…which makes everything a bit clumsy. I find a wired lab mic and use that but despite successful testing before I go out, all but one tiny clip have no sound.More investigations required. At least I get some exercise.
My afternoon guitar student and her mum arrived – Violet and Laura. Violet’s only 11, but one of my star pupils and we always have a good session and a laugh. I start to feel a bit queasy tho’ and have a nap after they’ve gone.
I don’t feel much better when I wake but have to get everything in place for the Wildcats’ Facebook livestream at 8pm.
Despite feeling like shite, the livestream goes fine and when I get back to the house Margaret’s done a chicken in the oven with onion, rice and some kinda herbs and spices. It’s really (REALLY!) good and I enjoy despite my feeling crap. I take some ibuprofen and head off to bed.
AFTER a lazy morning I prep for dinner - lemongrass chicken. Duncan and Irene are coming tonight.
I trim the chicken and put it in marinade then make the nuoc cham sauce before heading to the studio to edit some social media content for upcoming shows and add an appropriate landing page to my website.
We’ve a busy day tomorrow (Sunday) so I get some more prep for tomorrow’s radio show before going back the house to get stuff ready for our guests. A grand evening follows with lots of chat, food and drink….
I GET my blog and various admin stuff out the way before a local hydro society board meeting. It’s online so not too big a deal.
After the meeting we go to the village for a swim and a few things from the shop then home for lunch.
A courier drops off some aluminium pop up card wallets. The prototypes I did a while back sold out really quickly the. I had a problem trying to find any more blanks!
The colours are very slightly different but close enough so I get ‘em all engraved and back in stock in my online store.
Once again I’ve not kept on top of music submissions coming in for potential radio play so I spend some time going through stuff then it’s time to go to the local church for a fundraising film show…
MY EARLY guitar student arrives and we have a good session with a couple of ‘eureka’ moments and she has lots to work on until her next lesson.
In the studio I edit a vertical format version of the intro/showreel video which I’ll share on YouTube shorts, socials etc over the next few days.
After a late lunch I jump on the bus to the village - I need more garlic for tonight’s pasta and figure I have time to walk back before my afternoon guitar student arrives. I make it back through rain and shine with five minutes to spare!
Margaret goes to Betty’s to build up a new outdoor storage box and I get back to the studio and run some software updates and play guitar before going back to the house to make dinner.
AN EARLY guitar lesson gets me started at a decent time. These early lessons are good for getting me up at a decent hour!
Next I start running some recovery software on both the Osmo Pocket and the Mac to see if I can find the missing bit of video from the bottleneck engraving process. I leave it churning away while I go back to the house for a late breakfast.
While the scans are running I post the new introduction/showreel video to YouTube and round my socials….then edit up a vertical version to share later in the week.
None of the recovery scans throw up the missing bit of video and I’m still confused about how I managed to delete or loose it from both the computer and camera in the first place.
Ah well…nevermind - I edit something up with the video I have and am quite pleased with the result.
I’m not really feeling like it but I make myself go a walk up the lochside which I end up enjoying.
Back home I mess with some guitar ideas in the studio…when I go back to the house for dinner Betty’s dropped in so joins us for something to eat….
AFTER an early online guitar session I get last night’s radio show uploaded to my Mixcloud and post links –– and my playlist – around my socials.
Then another online guitar student before we go to the village for a swim.
After lunch I get busy with news releases for the Kilmaronock Old Kirk fundraiser gig on 3 October. The national and ‘monthly’ media were all serviced a while back and have come up trumps – hopefully third local and regional press push will work too.
I have an afternoon guitar student at the house then back to the studio to prep for tonight’s WIldcats’ livestream on Facebook.
There’s a wee window of extra time before the livestream so I start to edit the bottleneck engraving video footage…except the main bit of unreal video is missing. I go through the files, the camera swiftly and everywhere I can think of. Nowhere to be found. I must’ve accidentally deleted it. And any ‘spare’ time I had to do the edit has been used up searching instead of editing. Bah.
The livestream goes to plan tho’ and by 9.30pm I’m back home for dinner.
Margaret grillin’ at the community picnic on the island
UP EARLY to get all the food and other supplies ready for the ELLCT-organised community picnic and loaded into David’s van. He’s taking all the stuff to Port Bawn at the far end of the island in his wee boat…and also gonna be ferrying the folks that wouldn’t be able to manage the 20-minute walk over the island from the ferry drop-off at or Balmaha end.
The first ferry boat of folks is leaving the boatyard at 10.30am – I’m gonna paddle to Port Bawn and meet David there to help unload the boat before he goes back to pick folks up.
All goes to plan and the picnic is a huge success….everyone seems to have a grand time and it’s nice to catch up with some local folks we haven’t seen in a while. I grab some video footage for the ELLCT socials and paddle home early afternoon to get stuff ready for tonight’s radio show.
Once I have the radio show stuff all ready for later I edit the footage form the picnic ready to post on the local WhatsApp and Facebook groups later. You can hear the radio show on ‘listen again’ via my Mixcloud.
Pretty pleased with my DIY engraving on the bottleneck slides…
AFTER breakfast I go outside and wash the black spray chalk off the bottleneck slides I engraved yesterday.
Once cleaned, I fill the engraving with silver jewellers’ paste, wipe ‘em down and give them a polish…documenting the whole process on video for some socials content sometime soon.
Next job is prep for tomorrow’s (Sunday) radio show. There’s a whole week’s-worth of music submissions I wanna go through and I’m busy with the community picnic on the island for most of the day tomorrow.
In between times I spend some time colour grading the new introduction video and dump all the slide engraving footage onto the computer.
Fingers crossed I’ve done enough prep to ensure tomorrow’s radio show goes without any hitches!
I nip out to film the ‘talking head’ shots for my new introduction video….
A FEW things on the to-do list today. While Margaret makes up a shopping list for Sunday’s community picnic on the island I set up a makeshift spray booth outside and spray the glass bottleneck slides with black chalk.
A UV laser would be the ideal choice for engraving glass. Alas, way too expensive and the only way to get my diode/fibre galvo laser to work on anything transparent is to coat the material with black paint or something similar – chalk spray, while inherently messy, is best as it gives a nice uniform coverage that’s easily washed off after engraving.
My CO2 laser works well on transparent material and glass, but won’t take a rotary attachment.
Margaret heads into Glasgow and I finish my spraying session. I capture on video to make a reel later. All the dads makes for good social content.
It’s a fairly decent day – no rain and not too much wind so while the chalk spray dries I gather some camera stuff and take a walk up the lochside to film the talking head sections for the new introduction video.
I choose the relatively quiet Manse bay as my location and things for relatively smoothly other than the incredible ignorance of passers by. Despite having five or six hundred metres of the bay the decide they are going to pass by, hang out and take photos right beside me despite my obvious filming and talking to camera. I’m particularly irritated by a guy who stops on the path right beside me to talk loudly on his phone for five minutes. Unbelievable.
Once I have my shots int he bag I carry on a walk out to Milarrochy then back home. After a late lunch I go through the rushes form earlier and focus the first edit on the intro video.
Once done I forget engraving the bottleneck slides and am just finishing the batch when Margaret gets home with the shopping and the supplies for the community picnic. We get everything put away then wander along to Betty’s for an aperitif. Needless to day it’s late when we get home and Margaret makes dinner.
I’M UP early to get sourdough in the oven…and Margaret has an early start to go and meet Les in Edinburgh – hairdos and lunch.
Good to get an early start in the studio as there’s still shitloads of footge to go through for this new ‘introduction’ video.
A batch of glass bottlenecks arrives but I can’t put them on sale yet. I need to engrave them first. Long lead times and ‘availability’ issues led me to start inducing the damn things myself. Hopefully I’ll get time over the next coupla days.
A last minute idea to have pizza tonight means I have to make an emergency batch of quick pizza dough. My usual dough recipes need at least 24 hours…and 48 if I’m doing a pre-ferment like biga or poolish.
Back in the studio I finish ID-ing bits of video and first thinking about any talking head and voiceover. I’m going to keep it to an absolute minimum as my theory is that bookers, promoters and festival organisers want to see the performance and audience reaction – not hear a list of accomplishments or biog info. That all belongs on my website.
That means I only need some very short clips to camera but I want to do them by the loch and it’s wet and windy, so won;t be happening today.
Instead I try and narrow down the border clip shortlist and start pulling various bits into an edit.
Before I know it it’s 6.30pm and my evening guitar student arrives. We have a good session then I go back to the house, Margaret arrives back and I make pizza,,,,
