I love Beth’s haunting voice in the angsty love song, “It Could Be Sweet” by Portishead… “‘Cause I don’t wanna lose what we had last time. Your leaving this life ain’t fair. You don’t get something for nothing, turn back. Got to try a little harder. It could be sweet…”

It was starting to resemble summer again on this little island. Hot weather and bad ventlation could only mean one thing… Jamming with the volume a few notches shy of the “11″ setting. I hadn’t played my electric guitar for ages and every time I go back to it, it’s always a good feeling letting out the power-hungry musical megalomaniac inside of me. There’s something empowering about playing your own music at ludicrously decibeltastic volumes that almost everyone except for the tone deaf could relate to. I think this was the reason why people took up guitar in the first place; to be able at some point to show their disdain for peace and quiet by merging questionably anarchic schoolboy talent with a 100 Watt amplifier. The observation I’ve made over the years is that the electric guitar is generally considered a cool instrument. I too think that, but others may not agree with me when I also add that I think the violin is also a cool instrument. Playing guitar breaks down the barriers in the nerddom and geekdom. I was a bit geeky at school but playing the guitar was like cool currency. I couldn’t possibly be taunted for my appreciation of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and computing if I could hold a tune on an electric axe.

Anyone who holds an electric guitar and strums a chord through a neighbours-will-complain setting on an amplifier will feel this sense of empowerment. They’ll more often than not feel that surge of power rocking through their bones and will just become seduced by the electric beast in their hands. I think just about everyone I’ve seen who held an electric guitar and strummed a clueless and clumsy few notes on it for the first time came away thinking “I want to learn electric guitar.” God knows everyone I’ve let play my electric guitar thought that. It reminds me of one of the very few The Wonder Years episodes I remember where Fred Savage’s Kevin character befriends a guitar player in his school. He unknowingly strapped the guitar to himself and played a few chords and with each ringing of the chord, he felt the same thing everyone else who plays it for the first time felt… like a damn rock God. I’ve always said musicians are something different; a different breed of human and it’s always interesting for me to meet other musicians. You get all extremes of musician, from the introverted to the outrageously extroverted, but all are bond together by that one common love. I guess all us musicians want to be God in our own ways, but unlike God, we just want to be heard.

I got worried when I plugged in my guitar to my amp this morning to be greeted with a buzzing sound, similar to a really loud version of a bug zapper. Naturally I envisaged the worst case scenario, which was that either my amplifier had blown from the last time or my guitar had died from neglect. Luckily it was neither. It was my lead that died and luckily I had a spare, so the show went on.

Today I have decided to stay indoors (asides from contemplating a covert trip to the shops for ice cream) and work on my music. My dad generally doesn’t like the music I listen to unless it’s classical or jazz, so when I put on indie, rock, electronica or hip-hop, he’d turn his ears in unappreciation. But last night he came into my room and asked me what songs I was playing because he heard a nice piano piece when he was passing my room earlier. Flummoxed, I proceeded to play songs in my playlist so he could try to find which one he was talking about. I didn’t know what he was talking about because the only music I remembered playing was electronica that evening and none of them had any piano parts in them. Ah, but then I remembered I was playing back some of my own compositions earlier because I was trying to finish them. That was what he heard, and although I don’t personally think they’re that great, he still thinks I should try to find out how to sell them to production companies. He might be onto something though, because I think a lot of what I write can be classed as “music to score a film or an advert.” At the same time, I don’t know how to classify the genre I do because each song can be quite different. Although I currently put more emphasis on modern classical and electronica, in general we’re talking a meld of instrumental-classical-ambient-hip-hop-electronic-ballads.

I would have welcomed the rain today, but instead, mother nature decided it was to be wet yesterday on the very day I would spend an amount of time walking outdoors. The sky turned a grey and the loaded clouds loomed stubbornly overhead when I met A to go check out the final day of student exhibitions at the Architectural Association. I’d never been to an architectural exhibition, only art exhibitions. But to draw comparisons, architectural exhibitions are essentially just art exhibitions based on buildings, with added explanations and technical reasoning behind each creation. This makes them quite different to conventional art because how many art exhibitions have you been to where the artist explains exactly what motivated them to craft that particular piece of art and why that particular piece of art would work in a real life environment? It’s still art in its basic form, but I feel that sometimes the explanations and rationality take the beauty out of the art. It’s always best to experience something and feel for it what you do unbiased without someone suggesting how you should feel about it. Nevertheless, it was amazing to look at the design and test processes. An untold amount of time must have gone into constructing scaled down models of some of the intricate designs on show. I loved the meticulously detailed technical drawings and elaborate models. I particularly enjoyed the futuristic installations that utilised fibre optics and computer/mechanical methods. Yes, I’m a geek of sorts and that was the one day I should have packed my digicam with me.