1 August 2026

Good morning on the first day of a new month.

It is 5:20 am and I am up.

The back of my legs are aching and the pain behind my eyes is something fucking else.

I've been like this for the past few days.

It is work related of that I am sure. The intensity of writing and setting the magazine and the posture of my arse on my very unergonomic chair staring at the huge 43" monitor, which I have managed to set back a couple of inches, this morning.

It seems a bit better.

Julie managed to get us on a plane out to Cyprus on next Sunday (I think), but only for six days.

As I said yesterday, flights are not only expensive during the school holidays, they are hard to get.

Whilst booking our seats yesterday, the payment kept getting declined on the WizzAir site...

"Well, all the details are right," Julie exclaimed. "And there's certainly enough money in the account."

The problem?

Someone had bought our seats a few minutes earlier, therefore, payment had been cancelled.

Julie books the flights on her phone, so what you can view is minimal, but I could see on the monitor that there was a notice saying: These Seats Are No Longer Available.

Seats 1A and 1B. Gits.

Anyway, we are booked.

Today, I'll probably finish the magazine.

I was intending on doing some 2D Extras yesterday, but I never got around to doing it.

I may do some later.

Stopping the traffic?

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Opposite and above is more Abbey Road photographs - this time of the Gaynor Mellor character.

Very 1960s.

I always said that Matthew Weiner's Mad Men had nothing to come compared with the style of The A's.

I do have some good animation of this.

Music.

I've just added another track to the music player, which sort of goes with yesterday's addition.

It's not really my type of music - hip hop / house, but there is no denying, that both today's and yesterday's tracks are quite good, and hopefully, at some point, I may be able to use them.

Possibly a scene in The Metropolitan (The Met) in Hammersmith or The Knight's Templar in Notting Hill.

Dark, busy and noisy, eh?

Day 577

Gaynor Mellor

(Series 1) Gaynor Mellor in her 1960s Dolce & Gabbana red and white striped mini dress

Music

Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack (ft. Shara Nelson)

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Unfinished Sympathy (not Symphony as I said yesterday) by Massive Attack — is the classic 1991 trip-hop landmark track from their album Blue Lines.

The title is a deliberate pun on Schubert’s unfinished Symphony No. 8. 

Robert Del Naja has said it started as a joke during a jam but fitted the track perfectly, so they kept it.

It was released 11 February 1991 as the second single from the debut album (under the temporary name “Massive” to dodge potential Gulf War radio bans).

Written by the core three (3D, Daddy G, Mushroom), Shara Nelson and co-producer Jonny Dollar.

The song, although it only got to No. 13 on the UK charts, is widely regarded as one of the defining tracks of early-90s British electronic/soul crossover and a foundational trip-hop piece.

The contrast between the lush, classical-leaning strings and the chilled hip-hop/trip-hop foundation is what makes it hit so hard. It still sounds way ahead of its time.