An up and down, weird month. Highs included my birthday and some nice meals out. I was given a subscription to Private Eye, which I like very much and find more pleasant to read than doom-scrolling online. Lows were seasonal – some crappy weather, lots of assessment, start of a new semester. I’ve fallen behind on a couple of habits; still struggling to kick regular coffee drinking and didn’t play as much music as I’d have liked. I think the latter was related to the busyness of marking and a brief cold in the middle of the month. It may also be related to the recent release of new material, after which I feel like taking a break for a bit. On the positive side, I’ve been editing a documentary recently. Getting back into filmmaking has been a long term ambition, so I don’t mind too much if it is at the reduction of some music practice.
Elsewhere I had a spring clean and eBayed some stuff. Brought a bit of extra money in. I decided to sell the Tascam Portastudio that I used to make the last album. I had it for 25 years and didn’t enjoy the experience so much that I felt it warranted more time in my life. I love that I got to use it properly for a project, but I have never been an analogue sentimentalist. I remember editing the Abyss film on an SVHS linear video editing suite in college, and it was a pain in the arse, especially if you missed a shot and had to ‘punch’ one in. There are people who love that retro experience, but I’m not one of them. I agree that GarageBand can be an endless fiddle and a different kind of arse-pain, but I still prefer it to the analogue experience.
Amazon Prime got the chop this month. I’m going to stop linking the Read list to Amazon titles. I’ve also logged out of LinkedIn, so it is on notice…
READ: Of Love and Other Demons – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Big Screen – David Thomson, The Twilight World – Werner Herzog, The Ashtray – Errol Morris
WATCHED: Morocco from Above, Loving Vincent: The Impossible Dream, State of Grace, I Used To Be Funny, Algeria from Above, Blow Out, The Truth Illusion, Betty Blue, Letters From A Killer, Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, The Paleface, The Haunted House, My Wife’s Relations
