Halfway through the semester, halfway through Bee’s visit to Iran, just over halfway through the recording of a new album. Lots going on, nothing finished yet. I’ve had some work in Ireland this month, which was nice because I got to see old friends and spend some time with my Mum before her 70th birthday. Good times all round, apart from missing Bee a lot. But she’s having the same experience seeing old friends and family etc., so it’s cool beans for us both.
I’ve been posting about the music elsewhere, but general update is that I’m recording stuff on a 4-track tape machine. Hating it and loving it in equal measure. Definitely a different beast from what I have been used to, and although I can’t say I like what I am coming up with, I do think it is interesting.
Elsewhere in life I have to say that I am sick of US election, Middle Eastern war, freakish rain events. It’s so hard to engage with news when there is so little light, literally and metaphorically. I am also growing tired of the last thread of social media that I still engage with; LinkedIn has been a useful tool for keeping in touch with graduates across year groups and institutions, but it is such an overwhelming circle jerk of AI, humble bragging and the schizophrenic duality of industrial filmmaking (everything’s ruined/ isn’t this latest thing great!) It’s always been this way, but my threshold for bothering with it has really diminished, and like Netflix/Facebook/Spotify, it is on the thin ice stage. It wouldn’t surprise me if I snap at some point next year and switch it off. Meanwhile, I have been more appreciative of films, books, nature and music in this turbulent time.
READ: The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien, The Psychology of Money – Morgan Housel, Amok – Stefan Zweig, The Dawn of Everything – David Graeber and David Wengrow
WATCHED: Taken 2, Classic Albums: Who’s Next/ The Who, Atonement, The Way, Mulholland Drive, Ghost in the Shell, Red Road, Classic Albums: Machine Head/ Deep Purple, Threads; The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover; Bullets Over Broadway, The Art of Grieving, The Man Who Definitely Didn’t Steal Hollywood, Sian Phillips at 90, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, A Bunch of Amateurs, The Aviator, Halloween, Split
