Ash and Limelight

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5 minutes
thejaymo.net Blog header post 125

This week has been one big distracting side show. I’ve done nothing except make my self depressed and anxious by looking at the mainstream media environment is entirely a world of Ash and Limelight.

Speaking to my US friends about the Iowa Caucus they all seem to agree too.

I mean. It IS all a side show though isn’t it?

I really am not sure what sort of Democracy drip feeds the results from an internal party vote out over an entire 5 days. Perhaps it’s a Democracy with a total party system that wants to manage and maximise its media cycles. To distract its member from their massive failure. You know… the president being acquitted.. something which we all knew was going to happen the moment they announced the impeachment in the first place. It might be that sort of Democracy, but it certainly isn’t a healthy one.

Elsewhere a journalist and well known blogger who has been ‘very good’ as a lowkey propaganda organ for the EFF and good things like for my entire online life. Now has a sad case of terminal Russia Brain and is saying things like “these X journalists and whistleblowers should die in prison”. “enemies of America” on twitter. Madness.

Meanwhile in the UK you have conservative broadcaster/gammons walking off morning television for spurious reasons, to try and ‘own the libs’. The week also began with journalists boycotting a briefing at #10 because the government was trying to restrict outfits at the briefing to their preferred organs.

Also the scale of the mobilisations in Paris and France against Macron right now are also mind boggling. It’s been going on for over a year and they are only getting larger and larger.

Boris and Macron

I saw a ‘sensible’ guardianista using this photo saying something like “confident Macron and bumbling Boris” this week too. WTF? Macron is the most disliked premier of France ever and there are riots against him on the streets every week. The 2010’s have turned so so many peoples brains to mush.

Speaking of rotted brains I tried to understand Love Island over coffee earlier this week but failed. I’ve never seen a single second of it. Even the premise is lost on me. Which means I basically don’t understand (or get) something that 14% of the UK population is obsessed with.

What a disaster. It’s all spectacle. I know I should ignore it. But I’ve been glued to the horror this week. I’ve been looking deeply at it and tbqh the rest of my life has suffered. I’ve been grouchy and cantankerous towards loved ones this week and I feel horrible for doing so. I’ve also found it very hard to settle to get anything done even though I have a bunch of urgent and time sensitive things on my plate. I feel awful about that too.

I know this probably all sounds very rich and hypocritical from the person who wrote the words and insists that “Your attention is sovereign”. But I think this relapse into the eldritch horror that is the media environment has made me appreciate my own position even more. I’ve been at sea all week because I’ve been paying attention to the wrong things.

Its also remarkable how quick engaging with the outside world in as a media binge can effect your mental health.

With the release of the new Chrome browser on android apparently you can turn off the ‘Discover’ cards that appear on the google search/fresh tab page. Which is the main culprit for sucking me in to the mainstream media world.

Perhaps the only right thing I’ve paid attention to this week was band practice. I said that I’d joined a band. I can’t really say much about it right now but here’s a picture from practice. Our violin player has put down his bow and put a lap steel on his lap instead. Sounds great!

gretsch lap steel
Gretsch lap steel

Permanently Moved

Sounds Like It’s Synthwave

S3E05

A veiled moan about procrastination and introducing the shows new theme for 2020! 

Links:

Bullet Journal Video


Permanently moved is a personal podcast 301 seconds in length, written and recorded in one hour by @thejaymo

Website: https://www.thejaymo.net/
Podcast: http://permanentlymoved.online
Zine: http://startselectreset.com

As you can probably tell from this blog and the episode it’s been a weird week for me. I did really enjoy working on the new theme tune tho.

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

Signed and sent an NDA woop woop

Gotta have an endoscopy up my nose on Tuesday. Can’t say I’m looking forward to it.

Dipping the Stacks

BuyMeOnce | Selling Products That Are Built To Last | BuyMeOnce UK

Running a Paid Membership Program — by Craig Mod

The hidden biases that drive anti-vegan hatred – BBC Future

A Third Of Londoners Admit To Seeing Ghosts While Driving | Mysterious Universe

Reading

I almost wrote that I haven’t read anything this week. But I did start Blood of Iax a warhammer 40k book. But then I looked in my Goodreads and lo I actually finished Ringworld Engineers this week. The fact I don’t remember reading the book either says a lot about my state of mind this week, or take it as my review of the book.

Music

I’m in the mood today to share one of my favourite songs of all time. Stars In the Streetlight by former hardXcore band, turned Americana giants Chamberlain.

I mean the lyrics are super cheesy but I have loved these opening lines since I was a teenager. They just open up the song as a narrative in such a great way.

You’re laid out like a landscape on the frontier of my floor.
In the next room the girls are singing, they must be wondering where you are.

Stars In the Streetlight

Remember Kids:

GenX will die the way they lived.

LOL love Gordon so much.


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2 responses to “Ash and Limelight”

  1. Ahmet A. Sabanci avatar

    “The 2010’s have turned so so many peoples brains to mush.”

    This sums up so much.

  2. […] that Chamberlain are making new music again. They meant an enormous amount to me as a teenager. Still do. Their ’98 album The Moon My Saddle still remains one of the most important albums in my […]

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