For a few weeks now I've been listening to a CD called Zymurgy by an old friend, and former ex-Riff Griffin, Ross W. McKay. It's fascinating hearing these songs, which are obviously deeply felt and give insight into circumstances I'm often only too aware of! Mostly, it clearly reminded me why I'd felt it so necessary to have him in a band - with his brilliant songwriting, distinctive vocal style and general charisma - and how sad I felt when he left, though we certainly had our musical differences :).

Anyway, the production on this CD is immaculate and I think it's a concept album of sorts, at least in the sense that something like Linda and Richard Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights is. In the past, Ross has had a predominantly bluesy sound, but people have rightly commented that he has a distinctly country feel these days, which led him to go to Tamworth last week. I hope to catch up with him soon.

On the Moth & Tanuki front, I am tremendously flattered that an Oztaku/Deviantart artist, known as ZombieToast, has done a sketch of my two characters, and is planning to work it up as a possible colour cover. That said, his style is very different to mine, as is his reading of the characters. I'm interested in people's thoughts, so please feed back to me. The picture is viewable at:
ZombieToast's Moth & Tanuki sketch

I'm meeting R. for her birthday tomorrow and have bought her some painting things (which she asked for) - sssh!

Tonight, I've been writing up some further research for a potential children's comic serial that I've been working on for some time. As it's historical in nature, there are so many ways it could go wrong! I discovered another one tonight, but managed to write my way around it :). So far I haven't started seriously drawing up the characters for this, apart from the main protagonist, and I'm not quite sure what the style will be - whether cartoony or serious, or somewhere in between. I'm learning heaps just in the research though.