i went overboard in my affability
No grand vision statement here I’m afraid…
Just some things that I have been enjoying that I wanted to share without all the small talk that would undoubtedly come from sending them to you on whatsapp.
*
Douglas Dare - who up until sometime in a sad january, I had never heard of - has a new album of work out. The singles have been much valued companions for those gloomy January, February….. March… days that expire before you’ve even had a chance to really look them in the eye.
*
The Surrey Canal, Camberwell, 1935. Algernon Newton.
*
Mabe Fratti, a cellist, vocalist, synth player, field recorder and producer from Guatemala also has an album out and it is very late junction.
*
I think I read about Jasper Lotti on one of those lists that neatly tells you just who exactly is about to blow in the forthcoming calendar year. And while I can’t offer any pointed commentary on why this may or may not be accurate, I do really like this song called ‘Ur So Vague’.
Probably, almost certainly related: A crush in secondary school once told me I was vague and I thought it was just a sophisticated way of saying I was deep and mysterious. I probably, maybe even adopted it as an MSN Messenger status for a while.
*
Proud to announce my new conference call entrance music.
And yes, I don’t speak until the full 8.26 minutes are up.
From the Uncut Gems soundtrack by Daniel Lopatin aka oneohtrix point never.
*
“Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon.”
Akira Kurosawa
[and this (^) is only 12 minutes long so perhaps the easiest way to rectify it]
*
^ “Pueblo del Rio: Concerto” Noah Davis
^ “Pueblo del Rio: Arabesque” Noah Davis
+ for reading: this, on the community role of the Underground Museum he founded before his death.
*
Reading:
Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara.
Child *detectives* coming to terms with the harsh realities of the world they have been born into, with lines like:
‘Believe me',’ the badshah says, ‘today or tomorrow, everyone of us will lose someone close to us, someone we love. The lucky ones are those who can grow old pretending they have some control over their lives, but even they will realise at some point that everything is uncertain, bound to disappear forever. We are just specks of dust in this world, glimmering for a moment in sunlight, and then disappearing into nothing. You have to learn to make your peace with that.’
‘I’ll try,’ I say even though I have no idea what he means.
Short stories from a small town in Ireland that doesn’t actually exist, with lines like:
“Matteen was up against Killian Weir as Tansey beelined our way, flanked by a couple of big units; ask the gods for henchmen and this is what they would send, twin slabbed stacks of the densest meat, their breezeblock brows unworried by any worm of cerebration”.
*
Thus far my 2020 household chore anthem.
*
Two really fantastic pieces of music recently beamed out from the leaving records mother-ship.
Feelings definitly maximized with headphones.
*
I haven’t listened to the last SiR album for exactly the same reason that I never finished the last season of ER: I struggle with scarcity.
But I’m trying to do better and the more I watch 3:04 minutes onwards the stronger I feel.
*
Monsoon Rains, Monghyr, Bihar 1967. Raghubir Singh.
*
The delivery of the lines -
I’ve joined a gym,
I’ve joined a gym close to the office
I’ve joined a gym,
I’ve joined a gym close to the office
I’ve joined a gym,
- in this might just make it the best critique of ‘I am from now on defined solely by my employment young professional-ism’ I have ever heard.
*
& since you asked, here are some other jangly, satellite town, driving aimlessly round and round the ring road guitar tunes that I have overplayed in recent weeks in an attempt to try and reconnect with my youth:
The Mysterines - Loves Not Enough
*
Some other things:
1. Free e-book library courtesy of Archipelago Books
2. Long-ish profile of Mark E. Smith by Ben Ratliff that I consumed in one sitting (I found that knowing next to nothing about Mark E. Smith or The Fall was not a limiting factor to my enjoyment)
3. An excerpt from Deborah Orr’s memoir Motherwell
4. The very funny Elnathan John recommended this Chuma Nwokolo short story on twitter a while back and somehow it continues to live a joyful and vigorous life outside of the LRB paywall
5. Koir TV - “Koir is a place where musicians and fans can connect through livestreamed performances.”
6. A Moment To Rethink How We Support Music
7. Vivian Gornick Doesn’t Get The Hype - ‘Meaningful work, Gornick writes, “makes flare into bright life a sense of inner expressiveness that is incomparable. To feel not simply alive but expressive is to feel as though one has reached center.”’
*
The Closer:
My recommendation for the last notes you should hear before you give yourself up to sleep.
*
And is it really even 2020 if I don’t package this with a (Spotify) playlist too.
*
Love and joy to you all
x