FEELING a little better again this morning…no time to hang about tho’ – voting is open on the UK Blues Awards and I need to mobilise the troops!
I place appropriate cover images on my social media profiles and post accordingly to try and get the ball rolling with some votes.
Margaret goes swimming with Catriona and the kids. When they come back we have lunch and I finish off the batch of custom leather keyrings for Maggi who’s dropping by later to pick them up.
I do a little more promo work to canvas for votes and get an email out to the UK -based folks on my mail list then go back to the house and have a coffee with Margaret and Maggi.
Then it’s time to make our Helensburgh where we’re spending the night with our pals Alastair and Karen.
Despite being up against it time- and resource-wise, I’m quite pleased with my blues awards artwork…vote here.
A LITTLE better again today, but still not great.
In the office I put finishing coat on the leather key fobs and cut some ‘stuffing’ so Margaret can sew them later. Then I’ll need to edge them and add the rings.
I need some images for social media and to go out with news releases about the blues awards…I wanna build on the ‘flying the flag for Scotland’ idea and bought a wee cheap saltire flag from Amazon. Problem is we don’t have time to go out to a decent location and set ups flashes etc…plus it’s wet and horrible.
I get things set up in the studio – green screen, lighting, a fan to blow the flag… – and then get Margaret across to ‘push the shutter button’. It’s not working tho’, not least because we don’t have the space for the shot I have in mind.
We take some outside the studio then I’m out of time and have to head to school in Balloch where I have a couple of hours with some of the students.
I’m back home later afternoon and head straight into the studio to see what I can do with the pix from this morning. They’re not great, but I choose one of the outside ones, do a manual cutout then hunt down a suitable background.
The resulting image is passable and I make up some graphics for my socials and a landing page on my website.
After an early dinner we head to the village hall for a quiz night where we have a grand evening.
STILL feeling awful. Not as bad as yesterday, but crap enough to call my usual Thursday morning guitar student and cancel.
By midday I’m a little more like myself and manage to dye a bunch of custom leather keyrings and cope with an afternoon guitar student.
Once done I hit the studio and pull together a news release for my presence in the UK Blues Awards. I decide to try and leverage the fact that I’m the only Scottish artist in the finalists’ shortlists and use the upcoming local show (18 February) and release of Loch Lomond Home (acoustic) as news hooks.
I’m knackered by the time I go back to the house and have to have snap on the couch before going to make dinner. Margaret’s offered to cook, but it’s one of ‘my’ dinners tonight and although at one point I’m ready to throw in the towel and ask her to take over, I persevere…eat a little…then head to bed.
THERE’S been storms overnight and the high winds have wreaked havoc in and around the garden.
One of our fence panels at the side had blown down and was resting on the car when Margaret went away earlier, so I set about fixing it back in place.
There’s a load of custom leather key fobs to be made for a client…I’d been waiting on letter arriving and it’s now here, so I start engraving and cutting the leather.
My nose is running like a tap and I’ve got a weird ‘barking’ cough but work through it to try and stay on top of things.
After dinner, though, I’m feeling like shit. Early night.
THERE’S been a bunch of merch packages and press/media packs waiting to go to the USA for a few weeks now…Royal Mail suffered some kind of cyber attack and couldn’t ship internationally!
I check the website and find that they’re now accepting international packages so print the various postage labels and get everything off in the post. Phew.
After a Zoom session with one of my guitar students I take a look at Discord – it’s a kinda updated form of a forum/chat room that brings elements of social media – and set up a Dave Arcari server…you can join the server and find out more here.
After lunch I start spreading the word about Loch Lomond Home (acoustic)’s availability on Bandcamp then decide what I’m gonna do on. tonight’s Wildcats’ livestream.
I have an online meeting about potential tours in the USA later in the year then I go out for some fresh air and a wee walk. I’m still feeling pretty rubbed and it’s getting dark but I wander up the lochside a bit and promote this evening’s livestream.
The livestream goes fine, Margaret has dinner ready when I get back to the house and we have an early night.
The kids are enthralled when Grainne plays them a song 🙂
WE ALL have a long lie then, after a late breakfast, Margaret goes to the swimming with Catriona and the kids.
Grainne and I sit and blether then I tidy the place up while she gets her stuff together.
We all have some lunch when Margaret, Catriona and the kids get back then I walk Grainne to the bus stop in the village.
I’m surprise to have made the short list/final five artists in the UK Blues Federation’s UK Blues Awards best acoustic artist category so I spread the word a little. Having made the shortlist by selection of the federation’s committee and members, the final part is down to a public vote which I have mixed feelings about. Does it now become a popularity contest? A PR job? Begging for votes? I can’t really sort out my thoughts.
Ultimately, though, it’s an honour to be chosen for the short list…and any further success or recognition would undoubtedly bring some benefits…I’m uncomfortable canvassing for votes. I’d like to figure some less bullish way to create awareness of the awards and my presence…
Now that folks on my email list and in the Wildcats’ Facebook group have had first dibs, I spread the word more widely about the new version of Loch Lomond (Home)…then I settle on the couch and chill before making dinner. I’m still feeling a little fragile and tired…
Back in the fucking hospital…but my 10am I’m a lot better…
WE arrive at Forth Valley Hospital just after 2am and thankfully get into triage by about 2.30am…not that I’m much aware of what’s going on.
The triage nurse sends me straight to a bed and the nurse check me out, stick in a canula and take bloods before connecting me to to some anti-sickness stuff..then a big dose of……morphine!
I lift in and out of sleep…poor Margaret manages to dose a little on the chair side the bed.
Around 10am a student doctor stops by and is mid way through checking me out when I need to spew. A big bile explosion and I suddenly feel a hell of a lot better. Bizarre. A consultant comes next and is bit abrupt, asks me what’s been happening, takes the canula and sends us home.
Back home we drop in to the local comity lunch then. back home to prepare stuff for our pal Grainne who’s coming to stay this evening.
We go into Glasgow to watch her set at the Danny Kyle stage at the concert hall for Celtic Connections then we all head back home.
I grill the chicken and sip a beer…I take things easy and we have a good evening catching up and putting the music world to rights.
IT’S a wet, grey day outside so I don’t venture any further than the studio to edit up a video for my new version of Loch Lomond (Home). I’ve been pretty knocked out by the response to the ‘soft’ release on Bandcamp.
In between times I spend an hour or so on the phone with Cricut customer service about the subbed EasyPress…they’re efficient and thorough and when it becomes clear the unit is faulty, they undertake to ship a new one direct. Now that’s pretty good considering the one I’d got from Amazon was ‘used’ 🙂
Might take 10 days to get there but I’m in no hurry.
After I get the video finished I head to the local pub to catch some of Tom Urie’s set. Martyn comes along to join me and we enjoy a couple of pints, the music and wee bother too.
Back home, and after dinner though, I start to feel a bit dodgy..then the vomitting starts. Here we go again…
Not sure whether we need to go to the hospital or try and sit it out…when we did that at Christmas turned out just as well we went to the hospital as it was a lot more than just the ‘usual’ vomitting thing.
Around 1.30/2am after a Margaret speaks to NHS24 we head to Forth Valley Hospital…
I re-design my Bandcamp page to reflect the new version of Loch Lomond (Home)…
MY regular Thursday morning guitar student is away this week…so we have a long lie!
In the studio I create graphics for my Bandcamp page so that it reflects the ‘availability’ of the new version of Loch Lomond (Home)then send out a email to my mail list folks.
Rather than make a thing about the official release on all the streaming/download platforms on 3 March, I thought I’d quietly make it available on Bandcamp and Soundcloud and only spread the word amongst those in my Wildcats’ Facebook group and my mail list.
It’ll be interesting to see how it fares. Already I’ve had a fair number of sales with many folks opting to pay more than the £1 asking price for the download. It’s also been a catalyst for folks to buy my entire digital discography bundle 🙂
I need to get posters for the local gig out so I laminate some A4 and A3s and head out to put them on various noticeboards and places…Margaret’s going to the village and puts some round the shops and library.
Good to get a bit of a walk and I’m home in time for my afternoon guitar student arriving.
The ‘used’ heat[press I ordered from Amazon at 1am this morning arrives. I go to give it a whirl in the office but all I get is an error code then it switches itself off. Before returning it I decide to give Cricut customer service a call but they’re shut for the day now so it’ll have to wait ’til the morning.
I get some chicken breasts in to sous vide then we wander along to see Betty and have a glass of wine…then back home by 10pm for a late dinner…
