Twist Restaurant, Phipps Plaza, Atlanta, Georgia.
The Rapid Acculturation Program is underway. Rob dropped me off outside The AMC Multi-Screen House Of Wonder, Trash & High Explosions around 10.30 and I have been wandering around since. Backtracking --
Wednesday 27th. August; David left at 04.00, bed around 04.30, rising at 07.00, and we left for London at 08.00. We were booked into a recommended mastering room that specialized in surround sound. The recommendation was, in American, a bum steer - it applied to the owner's former premises. The studios in his current building, following acquisition by Sanctuary, are utterly useless for mastering quality audio. The facility is used for film & tv, and perhaps acceptable for that function, but the suites are sonically unreliable. The mastering equipment available is not even at the standard of DGM SoundWorld. But we had our files transferred into formats that we can use, and then ToneProbe returned to Broad Chalke after lunch, David configured SoundWorld for surround, and then left for an "early night". In bed at 10.00.
Thursday 28th. August; A day of mastering. David left at 01.00.
Friday 29th. August: Another day on the Double DVD that is without end. My computer arrived in the afternoon, collected form the computer doctors in Poole by Alex. It came with Good News - Bad News.
A wonderful omen: during the afternoon, a pigeon landed on the window sill of SoundWorld, settled down, went to sleep, and stayed for a long time. I have not seen a pigeon settle here before. My maternal Grandfather, Granky Joe Green, was the pigeon racing champion of Wales for three consecutive years (1935-37 I believe) with Lily Of The Valley. My Mother would rise 30 minutes before dawn to get Joe his breakfast as he rose to train his pigeons. So, for my Sister & myself, a visiting pigeon is well received.
Yet another long day. I left for Bredonborough at 23.40 arriving at 03.00 and to bed around 03.30.
Saturday 30th. August: Rising at 08.00, shopping on the High Street in the morning followed by a visit to the dentist. My gums are in 98% good shape, he says.
Sunday 31st. August: At home with the Luvvie. To a garden center in the afternoon to buy garden furniture for B&B - their birthday presents for October - and then to their riverside cottage to put it into place as a surprise for their returning home.
Monday 1st. September: A large delivery of shelving & filing cabinets arrived just before 09.00 at The Annexe on the High Street. Alex came up from DGM HQ to assemble them. Meanwhile work continues on the cellar of World HQ. Overall, a day of getting-into-place. A joy - lunch with T before she set off for London & Calamity Jane. Practising in the evening.
Tuesday 2nd. September: To London, accompanying Toyah to a physio to treat her back, injured in the Monday Calamity.
Wednesday 3rd. September: Rising at 04.45, to Heathrow & then flying United to Atlanta via Washington. The first was light & comfortable, the second full & uncomfortable. On Heathrow>Washington we had two, maybe three, Air Marshalls on the flight. This is (knowingly) a first for me.
"A discipline that does not lead to a compassionate practice may be said to have failed."
