MySpace and my birthday

I have spent a lot of the last week setting up and establishing a Tim Burness MySpace site, yes I gave in eventually! I have to admit it has been quite fun so far, and actually putting the thing together was a nice little project in itself. It had been on my mind for a while, and when an unexpected London gig came up (16th June, The Peel, Kingston, supporting Strangefish) it felt the obvious thing to do. Mick Lloyd has already begun serious internet promotion for the gig and this has brought a good number of people to the new site. I’ve put some fairly strong tracks up that give a fair cross-section of my music and am looking forward to putting new stuff up from the next album later this year.

I had a nice birthday with a day off work, and in the evening Lin and I went down to the local Indian restaurant which does an excellent Salmon Tikka Madras. Yes you read that correctly, salmon curry! Very nice, I like the occasional bit of fish in what is mostly a vegan wholefood diet.

The weekend just gone has been a couple of very heavy shifts on a geriatric hospital ward with a severe outbreak of diarrhoea and vomiting going on. Really quite unpleasant at times, but a few of the patients were very appreciative of our work and told us so.

Back on track with the album

After a few false starts over the last 18 months, the last week has finally since a big step forward towards finishing the new album. Excellent! Julian and I should be looking at final mixes in the next few days of studio time in the next couple of months, there is still quite a way to go however.

After a lot of pre-production work away from the dayjob for a couple of weeks beforehand, finally returning to Church Road Studios and some serious hard work was like coming home. With my brain exploding with lyrics, keyboard and guitar parts, possible small edits here and there, possible new tracks, I went in for the four days. This time I was absolutely determined to use the time as productively as possible, and Julian commented on how much more we were getting done compared to many of our sessions on the last album. Sometimes preparation is everything. By lunchtime on the final day I was totally exhausted so we went for some rough mixes and finished slightly early.

As a result of the sessions I now have a fairly clear idea of the tracks that will be used, although in theory this could change again. Two completely new tracks have presented themselves from all the new ideas over the last year or so. One of these has elements reminiscent of minimalist composer Terry Riley, maybe a bit Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel too. The other one is some simple chords on a spacey Korg Triton setting that Monty has added a rippling solo to. Of the tracks I’ve decided to drop, the songs “Barriers” and “Living Without Love” could well crop up again, maybe on the next album, if there is one.

Laurence (Monty) came in for most of Friday and played some great stuff. There are more keyboards from him and myself than on the last album. Also some dirtier guitars here and there, stronger songs, Fudge and Keith put down some great backing tracks back in August 2005. I feel confident that it will again be my best body of work so far. Broadly speaking there is a similar mix of styles to “Finding New Ways To Love”: some pop, some progressive rock, some ambient textures.

Rock on!

Tony Blair’s astrological birth chart

With the immanent departure of the British Prime Minister, I thought I’d have a quick look at his birth chart (6.10 a.m., 6th May 1953, Edinburgh in Scotland). Like many astrologers I remember first seeing this around about the time he won his first landslide election in 1997. It’s interesting to see how he has played out the possible strengths and weaknesses, as we all do.

Although Tony is an Earth Sun sign Taurus, Air is the strongest element, with a clear emphasis on social development and communication. At first glance, an obvious strong feature is a powerful Mars very close to his Gemini ascendant or rising sign, with Jupiter in Taurus close behind. Some interpretive guidelines for Mars in Gemini from my favourite astrologer Stephen Arroyo: “Asserts self flexibly, verbally, cleverly, communicatively, through a wide variety of specialized skills”, “Decisiveness is influenced by momentary situations and immediate perceptions”, “Action and initiative are directed toward making connections and expressing a wide-ranging friendliness”. These characteristics dominate Blair’s whole personality. Jupiter expands and exaggerates the mental energy, bringing an air of confidence, good luck and natural leadership ability.

In common with many ambitious and successful individuals, Tony has a close square between his Sun and Moon, Taurus and Aquarius respectively. This shows a conflict between a conventional playing-it-safe side and a more experimental, even eccentric side.

The Aquarian Moon is close to his North Node in his 10th house, a sign of someone with genuine humanitarian instincts driven to make his mark on the world. The Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Libra and his 6th house is also a sign of being committed to putting ideals of harmony and fairness into practice through hard work. This is an excellent combination for a diplomat.

However, a poorly aspected Mercury indicates some of the criticisms that many people have made of Blair, namely in the area of “spin” and dishonest communication. With Mercury opposite Neptune, ideas and words are not what they seem, and not surprisingly this combination can be seen in the birth charts of other politicians. Tony has a prominent 12th house too, which which while being good for private spiritual inspiration, may not be so good for “living in the real world”. Tony’s love of money and power (Taurus planets square Pluto in his 5th house) has arguably contributed towards his political downfall, being obviously at odds with his idealistic Aquarian side.

The Prime Minister has chosen to step down while Saturn is hovering around Pluto in his chart, an indication of powerful and ruthless change to power structures for anyone. The final pass happens during the first two weeks in June, peaking in the week up to 15th June.

Now where is Gordon Brown’s chart?!