Noticing the Little Things

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6 minutes

I honestly can’t belive its September already. WTF?

We have arrived far too quickly into the back third of the year. I haven’t finished any of the things I wanted to do this year. Such is life I suppose, a pile of half finished stuff. Maybe I should finish some of it thats still relevant and hit publish.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed that almost everyone I know is exhausted and *sick of it*.
Sick of what? *everything*.

I went to a BBQ at the weekend last week. Everyone was mentioning ‘the little things’. Small changes to base exceptions of reality that contribute to increasing unease.

From week to week I the UK right now: there’ll be no spring onions in the supermarket. No fizzy water or randomly no tins of tomatoes. Second hand cars are getting more expensive, and ones without microchips in are going *up* in value. Clothes shops have whole rails missing and apparently there were no screws *at all* in Homebase the other week. Marmite has suddenly got really expensive. Macbooks now cost 2 grand and the bins aren’t getting collected when they are supposed to.

One of my other friends who is older than me grew up in East Germany in the 80’s. To them the pandemic and Brexit effects remind them of growing up just before the fall of the wall.

It’s not that we are living in ‘end of empire’ times. It’s that things are now in fact ending. The upcoming reversion to the mean isn’t going to be pretty or fun. But the signal is out there in the culture, it has been for a decade. It’s coming. People can feel it. That’s why everyone is loosing their minds.

There are new calculations to be made. For example: if you are about to buy a new laptop, it genuinely might be the last laptop you ever buy. How does that change the equation?

The type of aesthetic energy one needs to cultivate in times like these, I belive, is something like the video to the Infant Annihilator song Three Bastards.

Just go have some fun on the beach – you know? It’s the end times.


Permanently Moved

A Napster Moment For Collective Storytelling?

Experienced Future shock this week with the launch of three NFT projects: LOOT, The Logged Universe, and Lifeforms. Permissive IPs are coming. If I was a major producer/owner of culture. I’d be very worried.

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

  • Going into a startup next week to see where their OPs are creaking. Should be a fun few days of work.
  • Smashed though some of the things on my long term list of things to do that have been on the back burner since I caught Covid.
  • Wrote up 600 words on several subjects each that I should probably get out into the world whilst they are still relevant. Or they just wither and die in my notion, this is what I thought about X then.

Dipping the Stacks

Is a $68 Custom T-Shirt the Key to Sustainable Fashion?

The fashion-tech company Son of a Tailor certainly thinks so. But will sticker shock always trump the greater good?

The 8/26 and 8/27 Blow to Chinese Entertainment Circles: Is the Storm Still Coming? | What’s on Weibo

In order to further push this idea of a celebrity culture that is ‘socially responsible,’ China’s Cyberspace Administration also issued new guidelines on August 27 to “resolve the problems of chaos” in online fan circles.

Notice concerning Further Strengthening Control over the “Fan Circle” Mess « China Copyright and Media

Since the “Clear and Crisp ‘Fan Circle’ Mess Control” campaign was held, all localities have implemented relevant work requirements, and have gained certain achievements focusing on star rankings, trending topics, fan communities,

The French military’s newest weapon: science fiction writers. ‹ Literary Hub

Once the sci-fi writers, called the “Red Team,” fact-check with “The Purple Team,” academics working in AI and tech, and the “Blue Team,” military, the military uses those ideas as practice scenarios.

The Anti-Fan Phenomenon – Cybernaut – Every

Guru Gossip itself is just one of countless online spaces where people come together to hate as a hobby—critiquing influencers, belittling beauty gurus, and vilifying creators.

Reading

Been mopping up half finished books this week. I finished Turn Not Pale, Beloved Snail which in some ways is a shame as i’ve been enjoying it so much the last couple of weeks.

I finished David Annandale’s horror novella The Deacon of Wounds. I started is ages ago but wasn’t in the right headspace/mood for slow burn body horror and creeping dread.

I also finally finished the back 3rd of Rich Dad Poor Dad. Despite my early skepticism, I can see why it’s such a bestselling finance book.

Last night I started reading ‘Javanese Shadow Puppets’. A slim catalogue book published by the British Museum in the 1970’s that I found on eBay. It’s full of detailed information – but its tone is er, very 1970’s British Museum. The fact that each puppet picture/image is accompanied by measurements and dimensions is very useful.

Music

thejaymo.net Spotify Playlist

Sadness – I Want to Be There

I just discovered Sadness. This album has been on repeat all week.

It’s an absolutely huge album. Post rock/atmospheric/black metal AKA Blackgaze.

It’s the sort of thing I can imagine scoring BBC Attenborough style docs in the climate ravaged future. Or to be honest, should be used over footage of the current wildfire’s and disasters around the world.

The track ‘I want to be with you’ is an anthem. So good.

I completely missed this back in 2019, but it’s been a total joy to discover this week. The album is still available on cloudy purple wax at bandcamp. I’m thinking of picking up a copy its that good.

KAUAN – Ice Fleet

I came across Sadness after last.fm recommended it to me after listening to Kauan Ice fleet the other week. I didn’t mention it at the time, but since Sadness has come along, its time to cite the source lol

Kauan’s 2017 album Kaiho was wonderful atmospheric Blackgaze, and Icefleet is more of the same… but, in my opinion my refined. It knows what buttons and dials it has on the box of tricks and used them all just at the right time. Ravio is my fav track on this album

Remember Kids:

This meme was me talking to video game developers in 2018

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