mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Autistic musician.
Film nut.
Culture nerd.
Comics and cartoon scribbler (Motorhead, etc).
Retired training and L&D consultant.
https://headfirstonly.bandcamp.com/music
(That thing in my banner pic is my Chapman Stick. I've been playing it for more than thirty years and it's the coolest instrument ever made.)
I'm seeing a lot of very bleak messages here at the moment from people saying "I just can't take any more." As someone who has suffered depression and burnout for the last half-century (thanks, #autism ) all I can say is: you are not alone. Don't give up. Those feelings mean that you're a decent person, and the world needs people like you more than ever right now.
My credo, as ever, is simple. When things fall apart, make art. It helps. It really does.
Happy #DogsAtPollingStations day to all of you who celebrate. Keep 'em coming!
Most of the time I wouldn't want to change my #neurodivergent brain for anything; it's given me abilities and insights that would otherwise be totally beyond me. I see the world from an altered perspective, and it's never boring. Overwhelming, sometimes, yes. But never dull.
But when it's ten to four in the goddamn morning and my mind absolutely will not switch off, I find myself wishing I could be a bit more normal, with a sensible sleep schedule.
#insomnia sucks.
The Star Trek TNG episode "The Royale" was on TV this evening and I'd forgotten the one thing that dates the show for me more than anything else: for Picard and Riker, Fermat's "last theorem" was still unproven.
Andrew Wiles did just that the year after the show ended, formally publishing a proof in 1995. It earned him a knighthood and the 2016 Abel Prize.
#BandcampFriday is over, and it's been one of the best I've ever had. Bandcamp even gave me a new power-up, hooray! If you bought or streamed the album, or favourited or boosted my posts about it here, thank you. It means a lot to me knowing that I'm not just screaming into the void.
The third track on the album saw me trying to emulate the work of Dixie Dregs and my hero Steve Morse. IMO I didn't do too badly getting there, either.
The first track on my new #album was written as a theme tune for the sentiment against AI slop in the #FAWM Slack channel, where (for reasons which will remain obscure) tools like suno are referred to as cupcakes. Hates them, we does.
For the #entomologists out there: the buzzing noise that shifts from right to left and back is a slowed-down sample of a Death's-head hawkmoth, acherontia atropos. Because of course it is; that's how I roll.
If ever there was a metaphor for the state of things at the moment, America yeeting "Integrity" into outer space has to be a front-runner #Artemis
The second track on my latest #album features two budget guitars that I absolutely love to bits: a Squier Strat and a Squier Custom II Telecaster as well as a rather more high-end Parker Fly Mojo MIDI (my precious!) Throw in emulations of a Fairlight CMI *and* a Synclavier, and I ended up with a sound that's steeped in 80s pop sensibilities...
The fourth track on the new album owes a lot to Heavyocity's amazing piano VST, Ascend. But there are also five stereo tracks of guitar, my trusty Fender Jazz, and a whole bunch of synth stuff as well. The result is a gentle pause, a change of pace, and something (I hope) that's entertainingly cinematic. It was great fun to write.
Happy #BrubeckDay to all who celebrate it.
Track number five on the new album really motors along, even if I say so myself. I was delighted with the bass line, and the idea to drop in a synth solo or two over the double-tracked guitars worked a treat. (I never, ever hard-pan stereo tracks all the way left and right; for me they work better if there's a little bit of space for them to sit in).
