The Stapled Brain is my 60-year comprehensive collection of aphorisms, poems and stories,
true and fantastic, funny, serious, provocative and outrageous,
scribbled on anything that would hold a pencil mark
and in anything from trains, buses, toilet and bed.
Hardback; 176 pages; 23 colour illustrations; 29 monochrome illustrations.
In American Royal format: 6 1/8th" x 9 1/4" (166mm x 235mm).
Get it here, signed of course!
Just discovered - two overlooked pieces:
PERPLEXED OF TUNBRIDGE WELLS (1991/07/10)
I saw a man upon a train
de-wax his ear into his brain
and flick the fluff from off his suit
and eat the bits from off his boot.
He tugged at cuffs and fiddled tie
and even swatted unseen fly.
I tingled warm with watchful eye
to see him poke and tweak and pry.
Stepping up examination,
unrelenting exploration,
grinding teeth in concentration,
led him up his nose in station.
You know what B. R. is like:
when journey's vital, it's on strike;
when mug is full and seats are taken,
you hit floor - well-stirred and shaken!
Digital manipulation
came within this train's fixation,
so it lurched in pure delight
and jammed his finger out of sight!
The moral here is plain to see
(except for he who sat near me):
"When there's too much stress and strain,
man with twitch poke hole in brain."
SLIMMER (1991/07/10)
When you get thinner,
you'll want a good dinner
to stoke up the boiler
and be a good sinner.
Sneaking out for a damn good bit of dinner - and not telling the Chinese Virus - an electronic keyboard was produced from a back room. I gave it some exercise, while realising that I'd never sat so low at a keyboard - truly astonished to have made a wee piece = short work = doodle.
My very last fully-committed live performance - at the Cardiff Arts Centre, 7th February 2020: solos on piano, banjo, bass marimba, voice and percussion; readings from my new book 'The Stapled Brain'; ends with my interpretation of 'Bassoon' by Vassily Kandinsky and includes yet another short discussion on my immersion in Pink Floyd's 'Atom Heart Mother'. Edited by Paul Machliss from three audience members' videos.
Surprise! Nothing to do with organised noise or performance, except perhaps through the tenuous link of structure and form.
This book is the fruit of some 30 years of original research - and collecting. There was no history, so I wrote it. Published: March 2016 by The Crowood Press.
! SEE THIS, SEE THAT, SEE THEN, SEE NOW !
Ron Geesin: An Improvised Life was first shown on Sat 3 Oct 2015 in London, followed by a Q&A with the Director Tom McInnes and chaired by Robin Denselow. It has now been shown on Sky Arts several times since 2018.
This multi-source sound work grew from my lasting admiration of blackbird song and its resemblance to the syncopated phrasing in jazz.
The eventual octophonic composition ran at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexill-on-sea, UK, through October to November 2014.
This was projected to be my last live performance - Recital Room, City Halls, Glasgow, 29th March 2014 - due to arthritis now affecting my left hand, but I rallied!
The performance was filmed and may be issued later.
The story of my staggeringly fraught collaboration with Pink Floyd to create Atom Heart Mother (suite) is now published by The History Press.
Already into its second printing (2013/08/26). The only place to buy it signed is here, well, there.
See the complete performance, most faithfully captured by Lucida Productions at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris on the 12th January 2012.
Yes, I went and did it! RonCycle1 - the journey of a melody was finally mixed at Mark Ayres' Studio in the Summer of 2010 and is out on Tonefloat in CD and LP (+CD) forms.
Since it is a continuous work in 16 sections, I was not going to artificially split it for vinyl, but there was a natural silence that fell just right, so you've got it. I can do no better than give you the Notes in full. Get it from HEADSCOPE now.