Twin Peaks (….cos I couldn’t think of a pun).

With tracking for the album nearly finished we used our day off yesterday to visit the place where twin peaks was filmed (about a fifteen minute drive from the studio). Our A and R guy Jay is a huge fan and it was very much his idea to go there. Still, the site itself, even for a twin peaks virgin like me, is completely beautiful. An intense waterfall arises from a huge cavern of green and grey and sprays Spanish tourists with fine, fiddly rain. It was a great place to see, and a real help to get out of our little bubble, even if my legs were stinging in the American cold.

Today all are relaxed and ready for the final push before mixing. I have a few background vocals to punch in and a few little percussive fiddly bits to do as well, but on the whole stuff is really taking shape. I’m at a stage with the record where I think that the things that Im not so sure about at the moment will become things that I accept and warm to in the future, rather than constant niggles. That‘s a good stage to be it, I reckon.

As soon as this record‘s done and dusted, incidentally, I think I’m going to use this little corner of the internet as a space for my essays as well as an online journal. I’ve set myself the task of writing 5 essays before Christmas, one of which will be an edited version of the piece I wrote on approaching moral situations a while back. I’ll post the topics as soon I‘ve decided them.

My chess idea, by the way, is for two teams of two. Let us call them team A and B. First, team A and team B decide if they are white or black. It is important to note here that in this variant of the game each team can be white or black, that is can fight for the victory of the white or black pieces respectively, but do not have to have both players controlling the pieces of the team that they are playing for, that is team A, even if white, do not have to have both players controlling white pieces. So, let us say then that in this game team A are indeed white and team B are black. Then, and here it gets interesting, each team sends one player to play with the white pieces and one player to play with the black pieces. So, on a standard chess board, the white pieces are controlled by player one from team A and player one from team B (who take alternate goes to move a piece), and the black pieces are controlled by player two from team A and player two from team B (who also take alternate goes to move a piece).

As team A are white in this game, player one from team A, who is playing with the white pieces and is white, is trying to win with each go he takes, but player one from team B, who is also playing with the white pieces, but is black, is trying to lose with each go he takes. The same applies, but vice-versa, for player two of team A and B, who are both playing with the black pieces but are on different sides (white and black). Player one and two from each team must work together and frustrate their opponents, even though they are playing with different sets of pieces.

White and black pieces still move in succession, rather than white following white etc. So the play would move, in this game as the example, with player one from team A, moving a white piece, then player two from team B, moving a black piece, then player one from Team B, moving a white piece and then player two from team A, moving a black piece.

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT….!!!

That’s a days work done already….