Shocking Blue
I’ve decided for the time being to resume writing these pieces with pen and ink instead of using my iPad and Apple Pencil, primarily because I have a really nice Sailor 1911 fountain pen with a 14k gold music nib which needs to be used, but also because I found one of the nicest music books I’ve every seen, hardbound, made by Beechmore Books of London.
Not that I have any illusions of any of these pieces having some kind of permanence, but the fact is barring any accidents the book full of pen and ink music will still be readable centuries from now while everything that I’ve tediously posted here is gone the instant Substack ceases operation.
The title comes from the ink I’m using, Shocking Blue by Akkerman, a dark blue ink that has a pronounced pink sheen. The ink is wet and vibrant but the Beechmore book doesn’t care, it has such fine paper there is no ghosting or bleed through when I lay it down. Nice!
And the reason it’s called Shocking Blues is Akkerman is based in The Hague, Netherlands and they traditionally name their inks after local Dutch phenomena and cultural touchstones, so they named this ink after the legendary Dutch Band Shocking Blue which you might remember from their 1969 hit, Venus, and if you don’t remember that song you should probably look it up, it’s worth a listen.
Long time listener Dave responded favorably to yesterdays playback patch on Blossom Rot. I’ve been using an electric piano patch for most of the time because it adds little color and has nice sustain, but I’ve switched it all over to “Piano” here to let everyone listen and compare. Would be interesting to see which one is favored.
Shocking Blue re-patched