Images from a new book about the Japanese folklore of the yokai.
Wonderful essay by David Milch on his language choices in DEADWOOD.
Great longread Mark Pilkington piece on Joe Meek through ten tracks, which does not use Telstar but does, blessedly, use the transformative I Hear A New World.
Forgive the big quote, but this whole piece from Venkatesh Rao is good and useful and I want to preserve this bit for myself:
We increasingly respond practically to the world without even attempting to make sense of it.
One mental model for this condition is what I call ark head, as in Noah’s Ark. We’ve given up on the prospect of actually solving or managing most of the snowballing global problems and crises we’re hurtling towards. Or even meaningfully comprehending the gestalt. We’ve accepted that some large fraction of those problems will go unsolved and unmanaged, and result in a drastic but unevenly distributed reduction in quality of life for most of humanity over the next few decades. We’ve concluded that the rational response is to restrict our concerns to a small subset of local reality–an ark–and compete for a shrinking set of resources with others doing the same. We’re content to find and inhabit just one zone of positivity, large enough for ourselves and some friends. We cross our fingers and hope our little ark is outside the fallout radius of the next unmanaged crisis…
I think this is a valid observation. I’ve seen it in others, and I’ve seen it in myself. If there’s any difference in my state, perhaps it’s that I spent a couple of decades hyperconnected and processing large amounts of global information streams, and now, to preserve my ability to think and create, I’m rebuilding my garden instead. Maybe that’s no difference at all. Maybe I don’t care.
This is warrenellis.ltd, the personal journal about storytelling, knowledge work and culture by Warren Ellis, New York Times-bestselling author of GUN MACHINE and the Amazon Top 100 2016 author of NORMAL, co-creator of graphic novels including TRANSMETROPOLITAN, PLANETARY, TREES, FREAKANGELS and RED, and the creator, writer and co-producer of CASTLEVANIA on Netflix.
In public, I write this journal and a free weekly newsletter, ORBITAL OPERATIONS, which can be sampled and subscribed to at https://orbitaloperations.beehiiv.com.
I haven’t had the time this site really needs to have devoted to it over the last few months, as I’ve been creating and writing a slate of audio-drama podcasts which will be launched soon. I need to figure this out, so I’m starting by testing the old computer channel/chronofile model for this week. Your indulgence is appreciated, reader.
The horizontal waveform has become a ubiquitous visual signifier of audio. It was popularized in particular by SoundCloud, but existed long before that in various digital audio tools, and can be tracked back further to the height of the multi-band stereo-system equalizer in the 1970s. The waveform’s deployment in a New York Times feature story this week (about intercepted phone calls home from Russian military personnel carrying out the campaign in Ukraine) turns the now generic symbol into an urgent harbinger — part surveillance sigil, part ethereal lifeline, part literal cry for help.
Amazing images from a photobook by Christian Spencer:
I have spent all day sawing, pruning and cutting. I am tired and covered in scratches and I am entirely happy. In my little patch of darkening England, out here on the Thames Delta, there is new light. It feels really good. I feel young.
Also I couldn’t do work because I got whipped right in the eyeball by a wisteria vine but what the hell
Newsletter goes out as normal on Sunday. Otherwise, I seem to be resolutely away from internet engagement; working on podcast-slate pre-production, doing admin with publishers, starting autumn garden prep, starting to plan work and life design for next year. Back soon. I meant to experiment this week with returning to a computer channel model, but I guess that’ll have to wait.
Inbox: 112, apparently. Huh.
Listening:
I was lucky enough to get in fast – only 8 copies of the CD left as I type this. But you can stream the whole thing for free through the magic of Bandcamp, which remains a pure joy in the murky misery of 2020s internet. The middle tracks clinched it for me: perfect early autumn sounds.
Message from Ourobonic Plague reads:
over the last few weeks I’ve been working out something of a live show that doesn’t require a computer.
I thought I’d share one of my favourite sessions so far, for anyone interested.
it’s a ~25 minute improvised, one take, ambient/drone/noise type of thing.
Lovely noises.
