All of us who were in this issue — I did a gig with the brilliant Becky Cloonan therein – were sent this presentation box. Apparently Past Me took a photo, probably in full knowledge that Future Me would not remember this, nor would he remember where he put the box. Past Me was quite correct. Wasn’t that a lovely thing, though?
For the next five or six days I am basically Pressing All The Buttons. I am also faintly angry about everything and wish to Scheme, but I need to clear the backlog first.
ON DECK: Outline, newsletter, script, consult document, script. Also, something in this page’s theme has popped loose, and I have to chase that down at some point.
INBOX: 112. Planning to clear the inbox out at the weekend.
LISTENING: Night Tracks
READING: finished THE STREET OF CROCODILES last night
ALIVE: 7hrs 42 mins. My Fitbit insists I am at “100% readiness.” Also I am 66% stressed and have burned 1200 calories just by being alive. I am skeptical.
OUTSIDE: Walking just 4000 steps a day can reduce the risk of dying, apparently.
SHIPPING FORECAST: I had a weird craving for Kendal Mint Cake last night, so that’s what’s being shipped today. Shackleton used to eat it while out on expeditions. It’s basically solid sugar, which I generally avoid. But sometimes you just want a bit of mint cake.
2012, I think. The magnificent Gianni Nunnari took me out to dinner and gave me a couple of glasses of this, the first and last time I tasted Pappy Van Winkle whiskey.
And that’s the notes done for the raws of DEPARTMENT OF MIDNIGHT, now it all goes to post for full assembly and FX.
Fell behind again yesterday. Lots to do today.
ON DECK: Everything I had to do yesterday plus final notes on DEPT MIDNIGHT 103-106.
INBOX: 114. Gmail seems to be having issues this morning.
LAST WATCHED: Started Ralph Fiennes’ CORIOLANUS over breakfast.
ALIVE: 8hrs 4mins sleep. Forced myself to make breakfast before noon for the first time in ages, so now I have two fresh eggs, a minute steak and some smoked sea salt inside me. Experimenting with a vape pen to try and cut down on the cigarettes. Hoping to roast some coffee at the weekend. I have to start working on hydration again. So much gets forgotten or ignored when I’m in a time crunch.
OUTSIDE: “Booklash“
Onsturicheit is a project by modular sound wizard Peter Moorkens. The name is derived from a Dutch word from the Dark Ages that means turbulence, noise, unbridled, wildness, etc…
And that perfectly describes his musical approach: Electronic, chaotic, random, noisy, improvised… and never the same. Think soundscapes, samples, sequencers and textures.
Find more music via: onsturicheit-chaos.bandcamp.com Ashtoreth is a solo-project in search of a shamanistic perspective, channelling at times minimal, meditative drones with layers of meandering guitars and at others a catharsis of doom, drone,ambient, folk, metal, noise and experimentation. Always in a free and improvised form.
Together they weave a web of shamanistic psychedelic dark ambient, guitar-drones interspersed by modular synth-loops, creating a fascinating sound-collage for an outer-body experience.
Thing I learned today: Onsturicheit is a Dutch word from the Dark Ages that means turbulence, noise, unbridled, wildness. I love that. This is a good night music record.
I was once hired by David Heyman to work on an adaptation of someone else’s graphic novel, and this ended up with me spending a day locked in a large room with the attached director to try and work out a mutually acceptable shape for the piece. It took me a little while to notice that the knickknacks framed on the walls of this room were all props from the Harry Potter films. I seem to recall the day ended with me marching the director up and down Denmark Street while I generally railed at the poor sod. Lovely guy.
(I also have a feeling I bumped into Joanne McNeil on my way to the meeting, whom I read has a new book out later this year.)
(Finally going through the photo archive I downloaded from Flickr when I closed my account there last year!)
This would have been, what, 2011? Billy Bragg showed up out of nowhere and played “Between The Wars” and I nearly cried. Because I’d bought his work since the earliest EPs and had never gotten to see him live. And then Laurie Penny showed up, said we should go for coffee, and grabbed Billy Bragg and told him we were going for coffee, and Billy Bragg grabbed Tom Morello, and I was just fucking speechless. There are a lot of reasons why I will always think of Laurie fondly, but that one is top five.
