26may25

It’s a bank holiday here, but this week is a crunch week for me, where I need to file at least 60 finished pages by end of play Friday. Might roll into Saturday.

🌐

• Ghost woodlands
• The people who think AI might become conscious
• Nearly Half of Young People Wish the Internet Had Never Been Invented
• pair that last one with Sunday’s newsletter

OPERATIONS: I have a long list in my daybook to get through today. Email and messaging apps are on but responses may be delayed this week.
STATUS: The chickens haven’t quite settled – the older one has found a runt to pick on – so that’s going to be the centre of stress for the next few days.
READING: THE FOGHORN’S LAMENT, Jennifer Lucy Allan
LISTENING: Unclassified, but today I need to get deeper into my Bandcamp queue
LAST WATCHED: We found ourselves watching the new BBC cosy crime show DEATH VALLEY last night, because we like to see Timothy Spall work, and it was surprisingly witty and occasionally more scabrous than you’d expect for 8pm on a Sunday evening. Small child tells Timothy Spall that her granny calls him “the b-word.” Spall leans down and says, “Well, sometimes I can be the b-word. Sometimes I’m even the c-word.” “What’s the c-word?” Go and play somewhere else, says granny. And across the country five year olds will have turned to a parent and said, what’s the c-word?

THINKING ABOUT:

There can be a resistance to so-called ‘difficult’ music – to that which is considered ‘weird’ or unconventional. There is perhaps comfort in the familiar, in verse-bridge-chorus, but too much comfort brings stagnation. Having a chorus is great, but have you ever heard Buddhist monks chanting for exorcisms?

THE FOGHORN’S LAMENT

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter. Now: DESOLATION JONES: THE BIOHZARD EDITION, THE DEPARTMENT OF MIDNIGHT audio drama podcast, THE STORMWATCH COMPENDIUM. Forthcoming 2025: FELL: FERAL CITY new printing, THE AUTHORITY Compact Edition, The LIGHTS OUT Anthology.