do you dream in colour
Hello again.
It’s citrus season and as you might imagine, I am getting right in amongst it with the blood oranges.
I urge you to do the same and get your fix before the window swings shut for another year.
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The Riser:
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Thelonius Number, 2019. Chase Hall.
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On the project, cktrl says: “‘Robyn’ at its core is heartbreak and is just really sentimental. It’s a journey of losing a love but it ends with optimism as you find strength to love again.”
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This album continues to be a very valued companion and I am glad to keep seeing it talked about warmly in different corners of the internet.
It is called ‘Silver Ladders’, it is by Mary Lattimore and it was produced by Neil Halstead of Slowdive. I think I recall seeing that it was all recorded in Newquay, Cornwall - but please don’t hold me to that. Though it would be a funny thing for you to try to hold me to.
(A quick aside: In 2017, Slowdive made a song so perfect ~ assuming you like slow rock (lol) ~ that I became absolutely convinced that I used to hear it on the radio while strapped to a carseat somewhere towards the back of my first childminder’s white volvo estate. Circa 1994.)
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& while I am sharing music that has meant a lot to me in recent times. Please do yourself a favour and spend some time with Laura Groves. All my data suggests that you will feel better for it.
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This is one of the places I have been going to for laughs in recent months.
I have also just been drawn in by a massive ~ but fairly tasteful ~ banner ad for this and while I now have to sit with the sad and rather shameful fact that the advertising got me (my eyes are usually militantly focused on the content), this does look like it could also be a good destination for laughs.
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Directed by Josh and Benny Safdie.
I.e. the brothers who brought you Uncut Gems and Good Time.
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(coventry’s finest) Pa Salieu x Tokyo James
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I Wish I Loved Lawnmowers
by Mark Waldron.
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I doubt that I am alone when I say that I find it a little overwhelming to listen to too much Adrianne Lenker in one sitting.
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My rabbit Moti (Pearl) that the cats are up a few days later, 1999. Dayanita Singh.
From ‘Myself Mona Ahmed’.
Further (recommended) reading.
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Close A Door To Open A Window, 2020. Maxwell Alexandre.
More here.
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New-ish Kojey Radical progression freestyle
Sidenote: I held off sending this for so long he’s also just dropped this and this
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Ilyes Griyeb - one of my favourite photographers on this fine earth - has his first photobook out. It is called ‘Morocco’ and as he recently put it in an interview with I.D. - it is his attempt to ‘re-establish a certain truth’ about the country and its people.
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The Closer:
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Some other things:
blockchain chicken farms, or rather, a review of a book that touches upon them. (The book is part of a series of books that Logic Magazine are doing in conjunction with FSG.)
Anu did an amazing diwali mix for Dummy Magazine. Worth it just for the first selection. I am still thinking about it.
Short stories in Granta by M. John Harrison and Chloe Wilson - here and here. - I can’t honestly remember reading these but I know I bookmarked them to share and at this point, that has to be enough.
Turn your spotify playlists into bandcamp wishlists - And yes. I will both build my playlists in Spotify AND try to convert you to other platforms at the same damn time.
Adam Buxton podcast with Benjamin Zephaniah. Still not 100% sure who Adam Buxton is but this was a very nice chat to listen in on.
George Saunders on a podcast called ‘How to Proceed’. I try never to go too far with out the gentle steer of his words.
Ladj Ly interview with the Guardian to support release of Les Misérables ft. Victor Hugo quote - “Remember this, my friends: there are no such things as bad plants or bad men. There are only bad cultivators.”
'This is British history': the radio series preserving the nation's south Asian past
A review of fiction / non-fiction writer Jenny Diski’s ‘Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told’ - "it is possible to live a life full of meaning and attention and deep concern for the world, without pretending that you’re enjoying yourself while you’re doing it"
Be Holding. A love letter to Julius Erving -
the oaks dappling the oldheads and their discourse
(the best line of verse I will ever write),<<sorry we are going slightly long here as i attempt to clear my surfaces>>
"It is only in sleep, El Wardany argues, that an arrangement with reality can be rebrokered. And if we do not sleep, the hopeful awakening will never come." A review of The Book of Sleep by Haytham El Wardany.
"At the moment, it seems that we have to wait about forty years after a threat is scientifically recognized before culture gets to it." - New Yorker article casually discussing just how close we all are to ‘the edge’
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& lastly, another playlist of some of the music i’ve been enjoying recently
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Love to you all x