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Blogger Takeover LXIV

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it’s the first Friday of a new month, as far as these things matter any more, so please check your headsets, unmute yourselves and re-join the zoom call to share with us all what you have been watching / listening to / reading / generally getting up to to get through the current circumstances.

any positives from the experience ?

any suggestions for the rest of the Massive ?

0

Comments

  1. I have been listening to less music than usual, because I have been making music instead – Quarantunes Volumes 1-5 are complete, 6 in under way, and Quarantronix Volume 1 is now out too. All here, pay what you like – https://tomrafferty1.bandcamp.com/

    A few things that I have listened to have stood out – the 2 volumes of Blue Note Spiritual Jazz are a balm for the soul, and I have also been enjoying Brian Eno – Discreet Music. (The last day that I was town before lockdown, I picked up a bunch of records in monorail, and the half-speed remaster of that was on sale. It is delightfully woozy). At the recommendation of @duc01, I bought the complete Nat Birchall / Breadwinners collection on Bandcamp – righteous reggae and dub sounds.

    I’ve not watched much TV – I did watch the first Bundesliga game on BT Sport, but it was very strange to see a game without fans.

    My reading has also been slowed – over the last few months I had picked at one or two books without any enthusiasm, with the only real enjoyment being a poetry collection – Poetry Please, the Nation’s best-loved poems, with an introduction by Roger McGough. But in May I got back into the groove, with Val McDermid’s A Darker Domain. A complicated tale that weaves together the impact of the miners’ strike in Fife, a cold case, and a kidnapping gone wrong. A page-turner.
    I also enjoyed Doug Johnstone’s Tombstoning – another book about turning over dark events from the past, but a zippy read. I have made it 3 chapters in to his book Smokeheads, about 4 lads going wild on Islay on a whisky tour, but it is not grabbing me at all (despite me being a big fan of Islay and of whisky) – the main characters are all unsympathetic, unlikable, and while I expect that they will end up in peril and/or harm, I don’t really care.

    I have been working a 4-day week, so Fridays have been a day of doing the big shop and cooking. My friend Michael has an online radio show on Fridays 4-6, playing His Favourite Things – including The Kinks, Ornette Coleman, Otis Redding, The Seeds, some Northern Soul – that’s a pleasant soundtrack for bopping round the kitchen while I am cooking. Archive of shows here : https://camglenradio.org/index.php?id=351 (and there will be a link in there if you want to hear it live).

    Of course I have been baking more, back in to making sourdough, and I made scones for the first time in a million years. Senora Malo and the Senoritas Malo made them disappear very quickly, which was satisfying.

    And I’ve been experimenting more with cooking – I’ve always liked ceviche but never made it until last weekend, as the starter for the fish tacos. Really easy, as long as you get good fish!

    Take care of yourselves, stay safe, stay sane

  2. Jings, coulda sworn it’s Thursday, but who can tell anymore, especially in this week off work.
    Still spending way too much time online, discovering yet more ways to spend money: yes, the usual amazon, fast being overtaken by Discogs and Bandcamp, reminding all its another fee free day at Bandcamp tomorrow (which, on checking, is Friday). Have bought a natty Cthulhu t shirt, some Islay malt and some beer, lured in by the wretched faecebook but not as rippy off as their usual ads can be.
    Telly has been the 3rd series of Killing Eve, still great IMHO, and, in a splurge, Normal People. Once you get past all the slurpy sounds and nudity, it is a superb observation of the frailties of self-worth and how we can destroy ourselves to assume what we are supposed to do rather than just doing.
    Still haven’t managed to finish, in books, Jonathan Coe’s Middle England, which, on reflection, occupies a similar psychology.
    After my splurge on Scottish folk/jazz hybrids, I seem to be looking at rather more obscure cover compilation albums this month: always a special interest of mine, but some recent goodies have been Box of Birds by the Church and Satisfied Minds by the Walkabouts. The 2nd volume of My Darling Clementine’s Nieve assisted Costello covers EP was released this week. As lucky enough to get an advance copy, it was pleasing to see the band liked my review. Awaiting delivery of the new Teddy Thompson and the new Blue Rose Code with some anticipation.
    Plus loads of other stuff I can’t recall.

  3. Looks like I slept through Thursday again. Note to self, no more midweek drinking….

    I have done nothing of any interest to anybody. Am sure nobody cares what TV shows I have watched or books I didn’t read and there isn’t much else to do.

  4. Mrs M and I watched Normal People too. She liked the bloke and I liked the girl. So I suppose we’re normal people too. Seriously it was great, excellent script. Oh to be that articulate at such a young age.

  5. We watched Normal People too and it was very good in fact excellent. Apparently the two main characters had to be trained by an ‘intimacy coach’. I often wondered how you can ‘act’ such intimate scenes without getting aroused.
    There must be a knack to it or they are injected with something.

  7. Maybe she actually was being injected by something? The wife, who knows/knew a number of the prominent luvvies who, now the seniors of the UK stage and screen, cited that most of them actually did, but more often in “private rehearsal” than under the lights.

  8. Meh, watched first episode of NP and thought it wasn’t going to be anything I hadn’t seen before so didn’t investigate further. Might just be this immensely grumpy period I am going through.

  9. Another month already? In terms of achievement, much like the last one.

    Heard: the usual patchwork of stuff. Been listening to lots of Bach, especially Angela Hewitt’s Well-Tempered Clavier and Partitas. Could listen to her all day, and do. Also been spending time with Sir Brian of Ferry’s perky Twentiesifications of his back catalogue, which I first came across in Babylon Berlin and find very congenial and amusing. Excellent cooking music.

    Seen: Killing Eve, right back up to scratch after the slight disappointment of Series 2. As bonkers as ever, and that’s just the clothes. Started but gave up on Normal People, Tiger King and that Netflix Jeffrey Epstein documentary series. All water-cooler tv, but none of them really grabbed me – the last one because it’s unspeakably sleazy and depressing. Caught up with Jojo Rabbit, which was fun but not a patch on Hunt for the Wilderpeople. I suspect Taka was having too much fun being Adolf. Otherwise, more from the DVD collection – Maltese Falcon, Big Sleep, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Help…

    Read: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles – one of those epic picaresque novels just seething with life that pop up occasionally. In 1924, a Russian aristocrat, instead of being stood up against a wall and shot, is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in a grand hotel in Moscow, and that’s exactly what he does. Endlessly inventive and amusing.
    Currently reading The Best of Gerald Kersh. Kersh is probably best known for being the author of Night and the City, the movie of which featured Richard Widmark’s scuzziest performance. But he was versatile; as well as crime, he was a whiz at fantasy, ghost and horror stories, all with unexpected twists.. The first I’ve read of Kersh, but I’ll be seeking out more. As the blurb says: “…vigorous, inventive (sometimes to the point of lunacy), and they can be read with the greatest of ease.

  10. The recent Best albums list has sent me scurrying to pre-Pet Sounds’ albums rather than “classics.”

    30 minutes long, mono, summery, poppy – Booker T., Miracles, Temptations, surf albums by The Beach Boys, oh, and a whole load of Elvis soundtracks.

    Films: Loads of 40s film noir.
    Saw a brilliant film about a housing project in Atlanta on PSB America.
    And Catweazle is on again on Talking Pictures!

    Mainly, though, I’ve been trying to keep under control my complete and utter contempt for the leaders of 2020.
    That alone is a full-time job.

    Cricket starts in 5 weeks.

  11. I haven’t contributed bugger all to this in years but what the hell it’s not as if anyone gives a hoot so why not.

    Music.
    I’ve been listening to music a lot more in recent weeks after a long period of only sparodic indulgence. These are a few of the things that have been getting multiple plays.
    The Complete Small Group Studio Sessions 1954 – 1961 – Johnny Hodges & Ben Webster.
    Afro-Cuban – Kenny Dorham.
    Alone Again, Naturally – Esther Phillips.
    Love & Hate – Michael Kiwanuka.
    Belladonna – Ian Carr.
    Dark Matter – Moses Boyd.
    Greek Variations – Neil Ardley.
    Live In London – E.S.T.
    The Spirit Music – Meshell Ndegeocello.
    Sounds Of Mirrors – Dhafer Youssef.
    Momentum – Muriel Grossman.
    Lots more besides but these have been the backbone of my listening during May and into June.

    Books.
    I read a lot across many genres. My reading in May…
    I Capture The Castle – Dodie Smith.
    Stranger In My Grave – Margaret Millar.
    Holy The Firm – Annie Dillard.
    The Remains Of The Day – Kazuo Ishiguro.
    Lanny – Max Porter.
    The Other Side Of Silence – Philip Kerr.
    Convenience Store Woman – Sayaka Murata.
    The Ringed Castle – Dorothy Dunnett.
    The Boy On The Bridge – M.R. Carey.
    I can ramble on at length about books so I won’t make any comments at all on the subject here for fear of boring the arse off anyone who bothers to read this.

    TV.
    Very little. I enjoyed Money Heist but I find my attention wanders when watching television nowadays. I start watching something then tune out. I get to the end of it and find I can’t remember anything about the programme at all. I prefer to read.

    A.O.B.
    I’ve been playing a fair bit of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and The Division 2 just for shits and giggles. Passes a few hours occasionally.
    Painting of course lots of hours spent in front of an easel or sat with a sketchbook. That takes up the bulk of my waking hours.

    Stay safe. Stay well. Be kind.

    • I also (re)read The Remains Of the Day last month. I hadn’t intended to – I’d bought an omnibus of that and An Artist Of The Floating World in a chazza for 99p. It was Artist… I wanted as I hadn’t read it before, but once I finished it I thought “why not?” and went on to Remains, which I read one sunny afternoon in a soft chair. It’s twenty years and counting since I last read it, and I am happy to report it is still a marvellous book, an outstanding evocation of a time and a place alongside an in-depth dissection of a fascinating character (all of which also applies to An Artist Of The Floating World).

      • I re-read An Artist Of The Floating World earlier this year and like you it prompted the thought I should re-read Remains Of The Day. I left a couple of months between them though. I’m planning on a re-read of Never Let Me Go probably in a couple of months time.
        I’ve got this itch to embark upon a complete re-read of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin novels but it’s a mammoth undertaking especially when I have a ridiculous number of first reads sitting there awaiting my attention. Still I am definitely up for it. I think.

        • Years since I read ‘Artist’ and ‘Remains of the Day’ and I thought they were both magnificent. I have ‘The Buried Giant’ and ‘When We Were Orphans‘ both unread on my shelf. Have you read them and, if so, any good?

          • I’ve read When We Were Orphans but remember very little about it tbh. I’ve not read The Buried Giant. If pushed I’d say Remains Of The Day and Never Let Me Go are his best to date. I doubt he’s capable of writing a poor book though so jump right in. I’d be particularly interested in reading your thoughts on The Buried Giant as it seems at first sight to be an unexpected sort of book for him to have written but then again maybe not surprising at all.

            • I’m a big fan of Ishuguro but will admit that I was a little apprehensive starting The Buried Giant, but thoroughly enjoyed it. Unlike any of his other books but still wonderful

                • “I doubt he’s capable of writing a poor book though so jump right in.”
                  Have you read The Unconsoled? I really couldn’t get on with that one at all. I love everything else he’s written (my ranking would be: 1. Remains Of The Day and Never Let Me Go 2. A Pale View Of Hills 3. An Artist Of The Floating World 4. The Buried Giant 5. When We Were Orphans 6. The Unconsoled – the latter being the only one I wouldn’t recommend or read again).

    • Thanks. Most kind.
      If it’s a programme I really want to watch I’ll watch it again on catch up and invariably I’ll tune out again. The only things that seem to hold my attention are documentaries especially arts documentaries.

      • Intrigued to see Meshell Ndegeocello in your list, glad too she has largely rid herself of extraneous apostrophes. I find her baffling to follow, such is the variety of styles she adopts, loving some of her work and finding a lot else completely impenetrable.

  13. … and Union Berlin.
    Three solid defeats and a slightly fortuitous draw into my support of a German side I hadn’t heard of four weeks ago, I’m beginning to regret the decision.

  14. Read
    Reamde by Neal Stephenson
    A 1,000-page door stop of a book, featuring Chinese hackers, Russian gangsters, British spies, and terrorists. Oh, and an online video game something like Warcraft. The story follows a finely detailed array of characters across the globe. Wonderfully entertaining if a little exhausting

    Autumn by Ali Smith
    A rumination on time, memory, love, art and life. The attempts to make it ultra-contemporary (it was released in the aftermath of the 2016 referendum) jar somewhat and didn’t fit that comfortably in the narrative.

    A friend is a gift you give yourself by William Boyle
    Sub-par gangster novel, centring on a boss’s widow and her misadventures after an encounter with a lecherous neighbour. Not as much fun as it could have been.

    So long, and thanks for all the fish by Douglas Adams
    This felt like meeting up with an old friend whom I had not seen in years (decades, probably). Always my favourite Hitch Hiker book, “So long…” is above all else perhaps, a love story. And although it’s sprinkled with the expected alien / off kilter observations it also has a sense of melancholy and introspection.

    Crime Song by David Swinson
    Ho Hum PI novel set in Washington DC, George Pelcanos’ stomping ground. It races along but Swinson is no Pelecanos (who is?)

    Seen
    Bought the first series of Better call Saul for a less than a fiver and have had to stop myself from binging the 10 episodes. Great script, acting, design, direction. Sublime television.

    I’ve tried to watch a few of the NT’s weekly theatre performances – but I do struggle with broadcast plays as I just can’t engage with them. I keep seeing actors on stages, rather than characters in locations.

    I watched a couple of short pieces (both on you tube, I think). Sea Wall is a play that takes the form of a 30-minute monologue performed by Andrew Scott. I’d also recommend a short film made by and starring Riz Ahmed called The Long Goodbye.
    I don’t want to say too much about either, except to note they’re striking pieces of work that have stayed with me since I watched them.

    Heard
    I took advantage of an offer of Spotify premium, free for 3 months. I’ve been binging, but can’t say any one thing or things have caught my ear.

    AOB
    Poetry
    Whilst sorting out some boxes of paperwork and extension leads, I cam across my copy of Nine horses by Billy Collins. Endlessly re-readable, it’s been lovely to reacquaint myself with these poems.

    Meanwhile, I chanced upon Frank Skinner’s poetry podcast. Skinner is engaging and enthusiastic as he provides a close reading of a poem or 2 during each episode.

    • @marwood Neal Stephenson’s books are awfully long, aren’t they? Anathem has been glowering at me from a top shelf for a couple of years, daring me to get it down, with no luck so far. Apart from anything else, if I fell asleep reading it in bed I might crack a rib.

      He’s one of those writers whose imagination I admire (I loved Cryptonomicon and actually published Zodiac back in 1988, but that was a mere 288pp), but somehow I can never quite summon up the energy.

      But if not now, when?

      • Reamde is the first Stephenson book I’ve read. It sat on my kindle for at least 2 years, biding its time. Well worth the wait, and well worth ploughing though 1,000ish pages.

        I have looked through his back catalogue, but nothing else has caught my eye as yet. And, as you say, his books are a commitment.

  15. So with all this lockdown ongoing, you’d think I’ve got a massive list of “stuff I’ve done”
    No – the same humdrum crumbs made up this month

    Heard
    Duncan Reid & The Big Heads – Don’t Blame Yourself is the RD Album Of The Month.
    If you like melodic punk-powerpop, this might be the album for you ..
    As if I didn’t have enough variants, I bought the Quadrophenia soundtrack on CD and woke the house up with that.
    Also listened to Frampton Comes Alive for the first time in a long time – its OK, not sure how it sold 500 million (or whatever the number is?)
    Husker Du have been played a lot – Candy Apple Grey is a standout

    New Sparks and Paul Weller platters expected at start of July

    Read
    David Hepworth’s A Fabulous Creation is a fabulous read. Like his other books, he does make a passionate argument for his beliefs, and there are a couple of new trivia nuggets along the way.
    I will take issue with 2 of his contentions: Never Mind The Bollocks is so much more than a triumph of packaging over content, and Derek and Clive Live IS funny.
    Nige Tassell – Butch Wilkins And The Sundance Kid – a memoir of watching TV sport in the late 70s/early 80s. He’s much the same age as me, and the references evoke much the same memories (missing Bryan Robson’s opening goal against France, staying in on a Saturday to watch Rallying highlights, the excitement (and ultimate let down) of Escape To Victory.
    Just started the Peter Grant bio Bring It On Home – interesting so far, and not (yet) playing up to the legend.
    (surprised to learn this is not the same Peter Grant that played for Celtic and Reading – you live and learn)

    Seen
    Charlie Brooker’s Viral Wipe was just the tonic in these locking down times. Irreverent, cutting, and downright funny. He even got Konnie Huq making a rare TV appearance (and not like her Blue Peter persona at all)
    Also saw 12 faces I vaguely recognise on a computer screen – I am no longer a Zoom virgin, and spent a portion of Saturday night drunkenly chatting to others of a similar conversational persuasion (a w*nky way of saying it was a (virtual) Mingle of the Thames Valley Chapter of the Massive)

  16. Have never contributed to this before but hey its Lockdown Thursday which is pretty much the same as Lockdown Monday, Tuesday etc except that Im allowed a drink.

    Music.
    Loving the new Khruangbin single ‘So We Wont Forget’
    Become a bit obsessed with Laura Marling and especially the new album and the previous one. Possibly the best singer songwriter in the country IMHO which is surprising to me as I really didn’t like her first few albums. She also does a really nice Tiny Desk from home thingy on Youtube with songs from the new album.
    Keep going back the Beck ‘Hyperspace’ album – it just seems to work for so many lockdown moods.
    Daughter trying to get me to like some of her ‘stuff’ and I have found one – Burna Boy ‘African Giant’. Its a nice mix of the hippity hoppity rappy whatever but with some real African rhythms and instruments.
    James Elkington – ‘Ever Roving Eye’ -if you like John Martyn or Ryley Walker you’ll maybe like this.

    Books.
    Two post apocalyptic novels ‘The Dog Stars’ by Peter Heller. Excellent – a bit Cormac McCarthy with that oddly punctuated style but you get into it pretty quickly. Beautifully written. He’s a great new find for me. Also ‘The End of The Road Running Club’ by Adrian Walker – again well written and a different take on the genre.
    ‘Northline’ – Willy Vlautin. Willy doesn’t do happy and this one is unrelentingly grim alleviated by a nice idea that the main character, a down on her luck girl, has Paul Newman as her imaginary friend who she talks to when thing get really bad. One of his earliest novels and not nearly as good as ‘Lean on Pete’ or his last one ‘Dont Skip Out On Me’ which are both heartily recommended.

    TV
    Not been watching much due to the lovely weather.
    Finished Homeland – the last ever series. A fabulous ending to round off one of the best box sets ever.
    Really enjoying The Eddy on Netflix which is based around a jazz club in Paris. Great atmosphere and beautifully filmed. It all revolves around the music through and it just works (for me anyway).
    Just started Homecoming Season 2 which looks promising. Series 1 was very good. 30 minutes episodes as well so can fit it in around other stuff.

      • I have read quite a few post apocalyptic novels, so you would think I was already prepared for a major pandemic. Unfortunately, almost all of mine have been zombie based and, as yet, I haven’t heard of anybody clawing their way back out of their grave. If zombie novels are your thing I can give you some recommendations.

        • Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel is both scary and beautiful. Scary in that the end of civilisation is caused by a pandemic, beautiful in that the book goes on to explore the solace of art and culture for the people that survive.

  17. Seen – Just finished watching all 6 seasons of Schitt’s Creek this morning. Really enjoyed it and I’m going to miss it. Every character was perfectly played. Also watched Normal People. That was painful at times, with me and the missus screaming at him to pull his finger out and tell her how he feels. But it reminded me of being that age and being just as stupid as he was at times. When someone invents a time machine the first thing I am doing is going back and having a word with myself as a nipper and telling myself to look after my teeth, followed by zipping forward 10 years or so and giving the teenage me one or two pieces of advice to stop me from being the gormless pillock I was. I digress…we’ve also watched the first series of Le Bureau, a French spy thriller, and have started the second series, which is apparently the best series of French TV there’s ever been.

    Heard – reggae, reggae, reggae, dub, dub, dub! And loads of it, solidly, all month. Which new (to me) artists am I enjoying the most? Where to start? There hasn’t really been anything that’s less than good. I’ve finally got into Bob Marley and wondered why I have thought he was rubbish for the past 50 years. Okay, maybe not the full 50, as I am pretty sure I had no opinions on Marley at 6 months old. Who else? Alpha and Omega, Prince Fatty, Hollie Cook, Max Romeo, Israel Vibration, Mungo’s Hi-Fi, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Black Roots…loads really, many of whom I’d never heard of till they were recommended to me on here, so thanks all! I’ve also been enjoying some good new albums by Ghostpoet, Elaquent, Damien Jurado and Boldy James and the Alchemist, as well as my new boxed set of 17 Chet Baker albums. My ears have had a very good month.

    Read – er, haven’t had much time for reading, so just a few magazines on Readly and The New European every week.

  18. Seen: nothing worth commenting on…
    Read: see above
    Heard: I seem to have been in an unusual place this month, in terms of listening – it’s been Ella Fitzgerald’s Complete American Songbook set on Verve – and practically nothing else…Ella seems to be the only thing that’s helping at the moment…

  19. Well quite a bit, but what can I remember without resorting to letterboxd and goodreads.

    SEEN
    Last series of Man In The High Castle. Difficult to end but general consensus is that they did not do too bad a job and Helen over the last 3-4 episodes played a blinder. She got there in the end.
    Summer Heights High – cannot recommend this Chris Lilley mockdoc on an Aussie school enough, currently on the iplayer. He plays Mr Greg the drama teacher, Ja’Mie the exchange girl from a private school and Jonah a troubled teen from the ‘islands’.
    Films – grim Swedish sci-fi generation starship epic Aniara. The polar opposite to Passengers. Inspired by a Swedish epic sci-fi poem of the fifties. I have DM’d @kaisfatdad about a niche query, and may need to call on @locust too if she has seen it. Free on Prime currently – but leave time for something uplifting afterwards.
    Also on our prime trial month – 808 – servicable documentary on the drum machine that changed music if you can get past the Zane Lowe narration; bonkers religious cult/porn/coming of age Japanese drama Love Exposure – 4 hours long!; Bicycle Theives – did not disappoint; and Booksmart – indeed it is, a whipsmart script and great acting.

    READ
    Tons as well. Standout – Olga Tokarczuk’s Nobel winner Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead. Not depressing, actually mordantly sly and witty whodunnit set in a magically real Polish/Czech border area.

    HEARD
    Grateful Dead (see Guardian digests posts); John Digweed’s Quattro is a delight @leicester-bangs – I am back on the Diggers train after losing it amongst the plethora of ‘Live In..’ Discs 2 and 3 are masterpieces in melodic prog house updated for today.

    • @moseleymoles – I haven’t seen the film but the poem by Harry Martinsson is one of my absolute favourite books! The film IIRC got OK reviews but some critique for changes from the original that were seen as unnecessary and not for the better, but I can’t remember what those changes were.

      • @locust is the poem as grim as the film, without giving all the plot of the film away the final section is entitled ‘Sarcophagus’ ?

        And does the enigmatic spear make an appearance in the poem – @kaisfatdad has helpfully pointed me to a reddit discussion which I think sets out some plausible explanations that are not however definitive.

        The spear is definitely the turning-point: after that no-one pretends to have any hope of rescue.

        • @moseleymoles – yes and yes. There is no hope for the passengers on Aniara, but the beauty of the poetry makes the grimness of the message sweeter; also it was written as a warning to humanity to act responsibly before it’s too late.

          The spear is in it, in poem no.53, a favourite of mine. It ends like this (in my own translation, not in any way trying to match his poetry but just translating it word for word):

          “…It just flew through the Universe
          The spear of emptiness followed its trajectory, meaningless.
          And still this sight
          had a power to change the brains of many:
          Three went mad, one commited suicide.
          And yet another initiated a sect,
          a shrill, dry, asceticly dull tribe,
          who quarrelled for a long time on Aniara.

          Thus we still were hit by the spear.”

          The mystery of that spear is never explained and it’s never seen again.

          • PS In the poem the spear isn’t the event that is the turning-point however, the spear appears in year 11, and the absolute abandonment of all hope takes place in the beginning of year 24, or for some in the years just prior to that…although after the loss of the Mima (just prior to the spear incident) and the knowledge of what has happened to their home planet, many despair and turn to all sorts of things to cope with that loss and keep their hope alive. But the hope is still there for most of the passengers, in some form.

            • thanks @locust and @kaisfatdad for all your illumination. Fascinating to think of one of Sweden’s most famous literary texts being a sci-fi epic poem. To the baffled rest then do seek the film out on Prime while it’s available. In the tradition of Solaris, Stalker and High Life rather than Star Wars.

              I think of this film quite a bit since watching. One of the saddest scenes – which you don’t realise until you’ve finished, is where the mimarobe attempts to teach the next generation science so they can work out a way to turn the ship round. She’s teaching them half-understood ideas from some pop sciene book that clearly are never going to work.

    • I absolutely love Summer Heights High, especially Mr G. Chris’s debut We Can Be Heroes is very good too. Ja’mie Private High School has its moments, but Angry Boys was pretty disappointing. Jonah from Tonga also got bad reviews. Doing “blackface” or “pacific islandface” not very acceptable nowadays. His last project Lunatics got about the worst reviews of his career!

  20. READ: Aleister Crowley In India – Tobias Churton
    SEEN: Hap & Leonard – Amazon Prime
    HEARD: Master Musicians Of Jajouka/Bachir Attar/Talvin Singh

  21. Here we are again, doesn’t seem like 5 minutes since last time.

    HEARD:
    The new Steve Earle Ghosts of West Virginia has a worthy subject matter -a mining disaster but if I am honest the songs are a tad disappointing. I expected they would be and I question why I bought without trying. Its Steve Earle – I guess it is what I always do but he is a long way short of his best even if the playing is great.
    Brian Eno Music for Installations – 6 cd box at a knock down price – covers the music made for his numerous exhibitions. Lovely gentle music but doubt will get substantial plays.
    Nadia Reid – Out of my Province – excellent young Kiwi singer – she has a great voice somewhat reminiscent of kd Lang.
    Jah Wobble – Maghrebi Jazz – Have been listening to a lot of Jah Wobble lately and filling in some gaps from his extensive back catalogue. As the title suggets this is music from the Maghreb and very catchy.
    Sam Doores – Sam Doores @Locust name checked this album last month and its perhaps my favourite new music that I have heard this last month. The last two tracks Nothing like a suburb and Chicago to Illinois are delightful – I love the guy’s versatility – incorporating New Orelans jazz and funk and a heavy dose of country. One to watch.
    Jess Williamson – Sorceress is excellent too.

    SEEN: Missing Cinema and Gigs above all else in this time of madness.
    On the little screen I have enjoyed Normal People, White Lines and final getting to watch The Joker.
    However what I have enjoyed most is Little Fires everywhere. A fantastic performance from Reese Witherspoon who just gets better with age. Really gripping and nicely poised for season two.
    Also enjoyed Unorthodox – the tale of a young pregnant woman fleeing from New York to Berlin to escape the shackles of Jewish Orthodoxy and being followed by elders trying to prevent her from doing so. Compelling viewing.

    READ: Graham Sharpe – Vinyl Countdown – 320 pages about Vinyl obsession sounds like a tall order but it flew past. Wry, amusing and interesting in equal measure. For me a better book than The Last shop standing.

  22. Heard
    This month’s prize acquisition has been ‘Unpentangled’ – a box set of 60s John Renbourn, with some Bert collaboration in there for good measure. Two of them I already had, but I am wallowing in the new-to-me CDs. Some of this came out before I had even started school, yet I feel a deep identification with the music and its times – older brother syndrome, for sure. Interesting to hear the shifts through contemporary influences, particularly Davy Graham, but inevitably Bert too, before developing his own distinctiveness. Dorris Henderson is fabulous too.

    A Martin Simpson recommendation led me to Hedy West and an uncharacteristic foray for me into Country territory, and one listen confirms why that should be! The voice is rare and rich, the playing makes me sit up; the British trad via Appalachia is great, but I just can’t do the Country material.

    Richard Dawson ‘2020’. What an extraordinary offering! I spent the first listen trying to imagine where this person sits on any kind of spectrum (not that kind of spectrum – I wouldn’t be so crass). It fascinates me that some consider him a folk artist, and he himself cites Mike Waterson as an influence, ‘cause I just don’t hear it. The ultra-prosaic lyrics and doggedly normal subject matter mark it as HMHB, but not as wry. On the one hand, it’s angular and quite hard work, so I can only take a couple of tracks at a time. Yet ‘Civil Servant’ is convincing as the sound of someone about to ‘go postal’, and I find that my folksinging-attuned ears have inadvertently learnt the song already, which for me is a surefire sign of a good song. Zoomed folk clubs of the NorthWest of England beware!

    Seen
    Chester Folk Festival Online. This was bittersweet. It worked almost too well. All the familiar faces were there ‘on stage’ (on YouTube now) and in Zoom singarounds. It was great to see everyone, but when archive footage of festivals past showed the venues, I actually wept.

    Read
    Embarrasing to admit, but while others are finding the extra time to romp through stacks of books, I am barely keeping up with my subscription magazines; fRoots clearly sold their database to Songlines and I took up a subscription. I shall compare and contrast some other time, but for now all I know is that the monthly publication cycle is markedly more frequent and I can’t keep up.

  23. Heard:
    There won’t be a better drum & bass album this year than Dom & Roland’s Lost in the Moment, which somehow manages to liquify the phat and evil sounds of techstep and confirms the fact that Dom is a genius, the best producer in the genre. Other than that it’s been the reissue of Dusty Kid’s A Raver’s Diary. Originally from 2009 it’s one of the best and yet most overlooked techno/electronica albums of recent times, full of long, epic, soundscaping tunes with Morricone-esque ambition. If you like electronic music I promise that you will like this. Promise.

    Read:
    Lots of noir. Brit-noir in the form of Ted Lewis’s GBH (brilliant, must read more Brit-noir, recommendations please!), classic noir with Double Indemnity (brilliant) and neo-noir in the form of Miami Purity (pretty awful).

    Seen:
    Polished off Schitt’s Creek, now ploughing through Better Call Saul, which I totally love. On the one hand I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to get round to watching it; on the other, I’m overjoyed I have five seasons to catch up on. Also, This Way Up, with Aisling Bea and Sharon Horgan (very good), Snowpiercer (film and two eps of the series).

    • Nah. Just so everyone knows – Better Call Saul is so slow it makes Brian The Snail look fast. “Oh look I’m being so deep and meaningful and oh my gosh some bad people are making meth”. Breaking Bad was superb superb, this is just supercilious tosh.

      • You make a good point there Lodey. BCS is a show that takes its own sweet time and if you don’t care for that kind of thing it may try your patience. But it does seem that most people who try it find it to be ace and don’t mind settling down for the journey..

      • I don’t agree that it’s slow, as such, but there are certainly scenes that seem to outstay their welcome. One thing that has also struck me is the montages. They seem to go on FOREVER.

        Still brill, though. I can see myself watching BCS and then going to rewatch BB.

        • I loved Breaking Bad.
          And I love better Call Saul.
          For me, the outstanding performance in season 5 was that of Michael Mando as Nacho Varga.

          Kim Wexler, of course, is nowhere to be seen in the Albuquerque of Breaking Bad.
          So something must happen to her in the next – and last- series of Better Call Saul.
          And I can’t imagine that that thing will be a very good thing …

    • I’m just coming to the end of GBH. It’s brilliant – in a grimy, nasty way.

      If you’re looking for some other brit-noir / hard boiled you could take a look at the Nick Sharman books by Mark Timlin. I’ve read a few and they’re bleak and nihilistic.
      I read Derek Raymond’s ‘He died with his eyes open’ ages ago and always meant to read some more.
      The Duffy books by Dan Kavanagh are unpleasantly entertaining. Funny and nasty in equal measure.

      If you venture back over the pond, I’d point out Charles Willeford’s Hoke Moseley series.

      I’ll stop now – before I reel off loads more…

    • I’d never heard of Dusty Kid, but now I can say I’ve listened to pretty much everything he has on his official YouTube channel (4 albums and a dozen EPs). Pretty much all I’ve done today and yesterday evening, so thanks for that @leicester-bangs !

      And FWIW, I really enjoyed Breaking Bad, but think Better Calls Saul is even better. Bob Odenkirk, Rhea Seehorn, Jonathan Banks and, in the early seasons, Michael McKean have been brilliant. It was great to see Mike again, as he’s one of the best characters I’ve seen on TV. I watched 48 Hours the other day (nowhere near as good as I remembered from the last time I watched it…35 years ago!) and it was funny seeing Banks as a younger man.

      • Just finished watching Stir Crazy for the first time in just as many years too. Whilst it’s home to a few stereotypes of the times, it stands up better than 48 Hours today. But…Jonathan Banks was in this as well. I recall seeing him in Airplane when I last saw that as well. Must have had a thing for comedies back then.

        Edit: Just had a look at his filmography, which shows he was in all sorts and not just comedies, but it appears he was also the voice of Jim Gordon in the Batman game my lad was playing on the XBox today. Seriously, can’t get away from the bloke.

  24. I have been very distracted this month (see AOB) and haven’t bought much music. I did get Gretchen Peters singing songs of Mickey Newbury The Night You Wrote That Song and just got around to listening to a track yesterday, one of my faves Frisco Depot. Extremely good and augurs well for rest of the album. Similarly have found a US duet new to me Pharis and Jason Romero. Here is the lovely title track of album Bet on Love. What a voice Pharis has.

    “Read” (on audiobook)
    Ladies of Grace Adieu – collection of short stories by Susanna Clarke, author of Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange. Fantastic collection of stories in world of Faerie.

    Heard (non music)
    Recent Great Lives on R4 featuring Victoria Wood, well worth listening to, nominated by her lodger.
    Pandemic 1918 also on R4, grim listening but also fascinating.
    An archive Desert Island Discs with Michael Crawford – intriguing and enigmatic. A recent DID with poet Simon Armitage, v good.

    AOB – Been v distracted so not on here much. As well as ongoing pandemic chaos, I got some bad news from a recent scan. Treatment had stopped working at some point and cancer decided to take up residence in liver. On a new treatment now, please keep everything crossed that it keeps things at bay.

  25. Re: upcoming Test Matches.
    There’s so much bad news at the moment, here’s some good news.
    Geoffrey Boycott has left Test Match Special.

    More and more over the years, I’ve found myself listening to the commentary on the radio and quickly turning on the TV when Boycott starts his stint.

    I also never quite got over the revelation that Mr. Yorkshire was a Manchester United supporter.

    • I’m on the other side of the fence here as I loved Boycott’s summarising – opinionated for sure but knowledgeable and incisive, and a great rapport with Aggers. I much prefer him to the current insipid interchangeable crop, Michael Vaughan excepted, and don’t get me started on the female commentators who have been shoehorned in over the last couple of seasons.

      • Yeah, women, what do they know about cricket? Boycott used to be pretty good, but has been a parody of himself for a while. He is 79 and has had recent severe health issues so he would be better off retiring in the current climate I think.

    • His brother’s a season ticket holder at Barnsley. I’m not sure that Sir Geoffrey* is that bothered about football really.

      Being from Yorkshire, any view I have on him might be slightly biased!

      • I was on the train from Liverpool to Leeds a few years ago (2008?), it was the day that Man U secured the Premier League title at Old Trafford. At Manchester I was suprised (nay shocked) at the number of Man U fans who got on who travelled on to Leeds, before causing some trouble at the station.

  26. Seen
    Two excellent Netflix dramas based on true stories, Unorthodox about a woman escaping a very oppressive US Jewish sect, and Unbelievable about the investigation to find a serial rapist in Colorado.

    And on Amazon Prime I watched Robert Altman’s Nashville. It knocked me for six when I saw it as a callow student and I was worried that seeing it now it would fail to live up to my memory of it. And indeed I found the first half an hour with all that Altman ‘characters talking over each other’ soundtrack thing, hard going. And Shelley Duvall’s space cadet groupie and Geraldine Chaplin’s posh naive BBC reporter, who I thought hilarious 40 years ago now just seemed irritating, patronising and sexist characterisations. But for all that, the longer it went on the more it worked its magic; it’s still brilliant if not quite as great as I thought it back then.

    Read
    Reading loads at the moment. Have started rereading Anthony Powell’s twelve novel series A Dance to the Music of Time. I completely understand why around 2,500 pages about a bunch of entitled public school educated
    upper and middle class types is a deeply unattractive prospect for many at the best of times and intolerable right now, but at their best I think they are brilliant and no more to be avoided because they are about a relatively narrow world than the novels of Jane Austen are.

    Heard
    Finding solace in a lot of instrumental music right now, from Paul Lewis playing Schubert piano music, to Bill Frisell, Ry Cooder, and Bill Evans. Not together you understand, but ye Gods that would some supergroup.

    AOB
    I don’t know if I have ever read or watched the news less. The utter incompetence and venality of our government and the insanity and obscenity of what’s happening in the US is just too much to bear.

    • Couldn’t agree more with you about A Dance To The Music Of Time. The world Jenkins and Co inhabit is not one many of us would recognise, but it is easy to get caaught up in it. And in Widmerpool you have one of the great, monstrous, comic characters in 20th century fiction. There was a TV dramatisation in the 90’s with Simon Russell Beale who managed to protray him as both a schoolboy and an old man. And was convincing as both.

      • I think it is almost a scandal that Simon Russell Beale has not done more TV and Film over the years. He is always brilliant on stage. Hopefully his turn in Death Of Stalin will open more doors for him.

    • @blue-boy I have just finished book 9 – the last of the WW2 novels of ADTTMOT and am in that bittersweet point in a sequence where I don’t want it to end and want to find out how it ends. The first one is a bit of a prelude, being set at school, and I found 2 and 3 a little tough. But from them on each one is richer than the last as the cast expands and deepens. Quite right that they are completely of their time as Jane Austen, but also as universal. It’s clear Widmerpool would be in charge of Track and Trace today and would be standing up offering barefaced lies and evasion at the daily briefing. ‘I must go to the briefing Nick, and have a word with Boris afterwards’. Nick saw him disappear into the health department, a brand new surgical-grade mask embossed with his name swinging from his hand’.

      • Spot on about Widmerpool, @moseleymoles that’s a brilliant observation. Classic case of someone rising to the top not on the back of genuine ability but rather a kind of crushing mediocrity combined with utter dedication to self interest, and sheer commitment to climbing the greasy pole that most of us just can’t be bothered with.

        • I read “A Dance to the Music of Time about 17 years ago. Overall, it remains the single greatest reading experience of my lifetime. More specifically, I would say….

          – Books 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 form a seven-volume block of such sustained brilliance of writing that I was left dumbstruck. How on earth did Powell do it?

          – Books 1, 2 and 10 were perfectly okay. It was nice to read them as part of the sequence, but they didn’t really capture my imagination as much as the 7 volumes at the core of the series did.

          – Book 11 (Temporary Kings) is an excellent novel, but it appears to exist in isolation, and hardly seems to fit in with the rest of the plot of the ‘Dance’ at all.

          – Book 12 (Hearing Secret Harmonies) was a huge disappointment after all that had gone before it, and, sadly, an unworthy finale to the series.

          I never re-read any books …… but one day I’ll make an exception, and re-read the Dance.

          • I’ve re-read the first three thus far and enjoying it hugely. Each novel is just four or five scenes in which often nothing much of any great consequence happens. But book by book it builds links, connections, memories, coincidences, relationships, acquaintances and friendships that drop in and out of our lives. That’s why, as Mosley says, it feels universal despite being about a social circle that most of us will rarely if ever have any connection with.

  27. Agree entirely with your AOB – I just cant bear to watch any of it. Not sure if our New channels are as incompetent as the government but they are giving them a good run for their money.

  28. A film new to screening seen last night. My opinion can wait until next month, beyond asking whether anyone else will forever more, on taking a slug of any particularly vicious sprit, will loudly exclaim: “monkey pump!!” As they slap their thigh. The most bonkers film I think I have ever seen.

  29. Seen: I’ve long been a fan of binge-series, and to prove it I’ve just ‘done’ series 4, the very very final one, of 13 Reasons Why on Netflix. At times clunkier than the Vulture Squadron’s chief designer and pilot (one for the teenagers there), shoehorning in every stripe of ‘woke’, throwing in ‘ghost’ characters who criminally overstayed their welcomes, failing to keep our sympathies with any character for more than a few minutes…..I nonetheless loved it in the end, even (no spoilers) the hospital bedside tragedy it kind of ended with. Except that it kept not knowing how and when to end: the final episode had 40 minutes left when it seemed to me that all ends had been tied up. As I say, though, I loved it, partly because for once there was a good psychotherapist/counsellor whose role wasn’t to serve as an indirect voiceover/provider of expository plot. Mainly, though, despite everything, the casting of actors old enough to be teachers rather than high school students blah blah bah, I’d hitched my wagon and had come to have time for the characters and the fucked-gearbox plot.
    On the other hand, in the one-episode per week old paradigm, I’ve struggled with the latest series of Killing Eve. If it was all available now, all in one, I’d go for it, but I find weeks go by and I’m not up to date. Maybe I’ll leave it until it’s complete. Great locations, great clothes, excellent acting.
    Celebrity SAS Who Dares Wins (I’m wagering that’s the first and last time it’ll be mentioned here) was a weekly broadcast, though, and I committed to it and liked it. Again, no spoilers, and of course the ‘former social forces’ instructors are becoming a bit laughable (like they wouldn’t know who celebs are now that they’ve all got Twitter accounts themselves), but there’s a good presentation of humanity under all the barking and bluster.

  30. Holy moly this is a long thread! (Phew!)

    I only have two things to report.
    Slotbadgers podcast about Bowie with Guy Pratt and Guy Pratt’s YouTube videos. That Man is funny and entertaining. Also I just discovered his dad was ‘Randall’ from ‘Randall and Hopkirk deceased.’

  32. SEEN:

    “The Changing Times of Ike White” is worth a look on iPlayer – a tale with plenty of twists and turns of a convicted murderer who released an album of slinky blues soul while inside and his subsequent adventures on release. Dreadful exploitative series of the month is “Love after Lock-up” – tracking the misadventures of various newly-released ex-cons and the relationships they formed online while inside with members of the public. Tragic but strangely compelling.

    READ:

    Couple of things: dipping into “The Complete Gary Lutz” – a collection of short stories of small-town American lives where nothing much happens. They’re a sort of “wordy” Raymond Carver, who he studied with apparently, but their brevity make for ideal late-night reading.

    Otherwise, “Guardians of the Humber” by Jeffrey Dorman – which details the history of military defences along the Humber including various gun batteries and the two forts which still stand mid-stream. Brought back happy memories of family days out to Spurn Point – the sand spit that snakes out into the estuary – and exploring the large complex of derelict concrete buildings which are gradually disappearing under the sand.

    HEARD:

    Good news for jazz harp players. For decades – nothing – then suddenly everyone goes all “spiritual” and you’re booked solid for months playing suitably modal music with mystical titles. Chip Wickham’s follow up to his decent jazz fusion release last year is very much in this vein and enjoyable enough. Trouble is whenever you hear jazz flute it’s hard to get the Anchorman club scene out of your head.

    Lakecia Benjamin’s “Pursuance” is better – all sorts of jazz veterans including Ron Carter, Gary Bartz and Reggie Workman joining her to explore John/Alice Coltrane tunes. Bit disappointed in the new Maisha set – also with Gary Bartz involved – which descends into tepid jazz funk a little too often. Probably need to give it more time – likewise the new Hania Rani album. Last year’s solo piano set was sublime– and there’s a little of that here – but she’s also introduced an electro pulse and fey vocalising to some of the tracks that aren’t really doing it for me.

    For contemplative solo piano, Benjamin Moussay’s “Promontaire” is a gem – very much in the ECM tradition but a lovely listen nevertheless. Also on ECM, the new Vox Clamantis recording of the work of Estonian composer Cyrillus Kreek – “The Suspended Harp of Babel” – is providing ideal Sunday morning spiritual balm.

    • Morrison:

      Thanks for mentioning the Grégoire Maret album “Americana” last month. I bought it on your always-reliable recommendation. IT’S A WINNER!

      I was going to buy the Benjamin Moussay “Promontaire” album as well, but then I read a scathing review of it on the amazon Germany website, and that rather put me off!

      Hmmmm … I suspect I will have to go for the Vox Clamantis album as well. Am listening to the audio samples now. They sound right up my street…

      • Agreed @duco1 on the “Americana” album – play it very regularly. I’d be tempted to give “Promontaire” a go. It isn’t spiky like Craig Taborn or Paul Bley quoted in the Amazon review – tending towards lyrical calmness that, for sure, strays into Einuadi territory but it’s just the kind of stuff I need these days. Be interested to hear your views on the new Hania Rani when you have a moment – warming to it after several listens but still not sure about the singing.

  33. have been watching

    watched ‘normal people’ with the girlfriend who loved it. i thought it was pretty good but possibly dragged out a bit – it could have been cut by a third. the tv production was in my opinion equal and different to the book which i read after watching the first couple of episodes and in some ways better. we watched it on the i-player in our own time when we had the time and energy (she is furloughed, i work shifts) and seemed to watch it at roughly the same rate it was shown on the telly.

    listening to

    decided to check out jimi hendrix – as i have a bit of a blind spot about him due to hearing ‘are you experienced’ for the first and only time in early 1979 as a 15 year old gang of four fan – and being put off by the hippy drawling voice and guitar histrionics. i decided to give him another chance with it a punt on a £3 second hand cd from music magpie. i can recognise its genius but its still a bit too rockist for me however contained inside the cd case, probably mistakennly, was another cd electric ladyland which i find much more dreamy, eclectic and fun – so i am kinda getting there with jimi. 2 listens of each so far and i plan some more – but not really my go to music.

    reading

    due to charity shops being shut and hoping to do some cycle touring later this year i decided to satisfy my book reading craving by splurging have £100 on a kindle – a move into the e world which i have so far resisted. read broken greek as it was so cheap. i liked being transported back to late 70’s i am 4 years older than this guy but was listening to the same stuff – ie the charts, special, madness etc. also from second generation immigrant background (polish) so some of it strikes a chord. i felt it ended a bit abruptedly and i would be interested to know more about his mid 80’s.

    apart from that have ‘purchased’ but not read a one of the many middle aged cycle touring memoirs and art sex music but mostly have downloaded samples of either music or cycle touring books – i seem to be reading lots of these without wishing to then purchase the book itself.

    generally getting up to get through the current circumstances.

    since lock down eased – i have been meeting up weekly with a couple of friends, one for socially distanced 5k run and a bit of chat/co-counselling and the other for chat/jog and focusing therapy – a peer to peer talking therapy that i find the most useful therapeutic technique that i have come across – and i’ve tried a lot. these two have been life savers.

    still going to work. working full time as a nurse in a secure mental health hospital. since covid and lock down which still applies to our patients, work which i normally say is about 80% easy going/fun albeit busy and 20% manic /stressful/challenging is now 75% stressful/challenging with only short bits of fun thrown in.

    what else
    next month i will be moving to a three bedroom privately rented property with a garde with my girlfriend and her 14 year old son. presently i rent a room in a friends house and she is in a two bedroom flat with no garden. since lock down i am at her place 24/7 (previously to lockdown i was there over 25 nights a month) and have been paying half of someone’s (albeit a friend) mortgage for what is basically storage of one room’s worth of possessions – clothes, books and music. the majority of possessions ie books, cds, vinyls, cassettes are secreted in various ex girlfriends attics. i hope to be re-united with all my cultural ephemara some time in my retirement

    positives

    obviously work is stressing me and colouring my cultural experience – ie feeling somewhat anhedonic and not finding as much pleasure in the cultural pursuits – reading, music, films – as i normally do.

    the two positives are my regular weekly meet ups with friends. i plan to get another one in, possibly based around tennis and also to try to go for a socially distanced walk with differetn friends at least once a week.

    also, on days off i have been going on long cycle rides and/or walks to the local area and in solo lockdown mode have discovered some new and wonderful areas – am looking forward to sharing them with friends. although note to self – do not think you can do a 4 hour walk on your first day off , followed by a 50 mile cycle ride on day off 2 and then return to work and do a 13.5 hour hospital shift. you are now 56 years old and need more recovery time

    future plan
    i have booked 7 weeks unpaid time off work in august and september. the plan is to attend some hippy camps in august and go cycle touring in scotland in september. i am hoping this will go ahead. if not, i need a plan B

  34. I’ve been catching up on here. Finally rejoined (member of the old place, joined the new site then got a bit lost). Just like the old days and it’s great to see some familiar names again.

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