‘Lost Year’ Syndrome

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7 minutes

Sun comes up, sun goes down, the year turns, the date changes and the clock keeps ticking.

I can’t belive that its the 7th of November.

I went to a wedding last weekend. The wedding was lovely and everyone seems to have had a really nice time. It was also a big event because everyone was basically seeing each other in one place/room for the first time, in some cases since 2019.

I felt somewhat appropriate that we were all togged up as in addition to the wedding, it was an ‘event’. Really nice to see so many friends all in one place looking their best.

The thing I noticed speaking to folks is that everyone seems to be suffering from ‘lost year’ syndrome. Of course the the planet kept on spinning and time passed, but remembering if something happened in 2021/20/19 or even 2018 is actually quite difficult. I got the sense that things currently are basically being dated ‘before and after’. I wonder if 5 years out from now people will still make the distinction because of the lost year.

I my own mind 2020 and most of early 2021 is just one big hazy blur.

Everyone I spoke to of course made the best of it. It was good to catch up with folks, especially those that had got married during the worst of it all, and I hadn’t seen them.
But there was also a sense of loss and grief for the things that didn’t happen in the last 18 months. Peoples plans, lives, ambitions (both creative and practical) put on hold or abandoned completely. Some friends lost family too.

It seems to me that 2021 has been one big hangover from 2020. This year’s vibe has been difficult to execute in or take any significant steps forward. 2022 I think generally, is also going to be a difficult year, but the vibe will be different from the previous two. More solid, a rougher surface to act on and against.

Maybe I’m also just projecting my own feelings about the last 2 years in my conversations with others.

It’s November and I have (in all honestly) done none of the things I wanted to do this year. I’ve made progress towards some things but none are completed.

Looking back at the In the Archipelago, Paddling Toward the Future, I can see that this was really all in motion and baked in to my understanding of what this year was going to be like. Dealing with uncertainty, taking the short term as it arrives.

When people say: ‘when things get back to normal again’.

What I hear is: ‘when the future feels further away’.

I think ‘the future’ is going to feel very close from now on. 2021 has been a year long exercise in adjustment to the condition of the thick present.

Acting in this kind of environment is difficult, it’s risky and scary, but any actions taken are ultimately better than in-action or worse re-action.


On a more cheery note, I went for a few beers with Laurie from The Night Dream Podcast, who guest hosted for me on Permanently Moved the other week.

It was really nice to meet and speak with them for the first time, IRL. really great evening.


Permanently Moved

I Ain’t Reading All That

The other night I had a dream. I opened a letter and read it out loud on camera for this weeks show.

What a nightmare.

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

  • It’s Nanowrimo 2021!!! 😬 I guess we’re only x days in at this point but i’m already feeling it. The extra word count a day means i’m look at maybe writing 90k plus words this month. My poor wrist 🙁

Dipping the Stacks

REVIEW: Dune (2021) – Blood Knife

by avoiding the novel’s sharper edges and stranger sequences, and instead opting to relegate the actual text of that universe to the background, has troubling implications for the way we view science fiction and fantasy. 

Good Bourgeois Subjects | Soft Punk Magazine

If in the first half of the twentieth century the idea of culture was set by the opposition between high and low, it was also self-consciously the preserve of a leisured elite, from which the plebs were to be kept well away.

Self-Emptying Prayer – Glory to God for All Things

There is a tendency, I think, to conceive of our prayer life as an effort that somehow gains us something. Like so much in our lives, we imagine prayer to belong to the realm of cause and effect. “If I do this…then this will be the result.” 

How two BBC journalists risked their jobs to reveal the truth about Jimmy Savile | Jimmy Savile | The Guardian

Listening to the women who alleged abuse, and fighting to get their stories heard, helped change the treatment of victims by the media and the justice system

Drunk as a Lord? OK, if You’re a Lord – JSTOR Daily

“For many educated and relatively affluent men, drinking and smoking were normative and stylized aspects of their social identity” by the 1630s, writes Withington. He notes that this trend was concurrent with the rise of the word “society” to describe voluntary associations.

Reading

Still reading the Letters of J R R Tolkien. Nearly done. Shame.

Two books on Japanese Bunraku puppet theatre arrived after getting stuck in customs for a zillion years. First Brexit related issue i’ve had beyond empty shelves in the supermarkets.
Looking forward to diving in more. Important subject to understand Vinfluencers.

The fifth book in the Warhammer: Ciaphas Cain series by Sandy Mitchell just dropped on Audible. I’m already 1/2 of the way though. The character is a fan favourite. But imo its Stephen Perring’s narration that elevates everything up a notch. They guy IS the voice Cain. It could be no one else. Brilliant casting.

I’ve just finally started reading Becky Chambers’ solarpunk novella Psalm for the Wild Built. It’s wonderful. Bursting with ideas. Gutted to have not started reading it sooner.

Music

thejaymo.net Spotify Playlist

The End by Feral

I’ve been listening to The End by Feral this week. The album is 40mins long which is exactly long enough to walk into town and back along the river. Its an extremely eclectic album, with some tracks feeling like vignettes all plugged together.

As you listen to the album it feels like with each track you are being presented an idea, or collection of ideas in a sound gallery, guided from exhibit to exhibit by the artist. Each idea, made from a deep and rich pallet.

I really appreciate the carful delicate attention Feral plays to the manipulation of the oscillators on some of the dreamy syth drones. Wonderful.

After my second or third listen, I looked up the album and found a wonderful track by track ‘Directors Commentary’ by Feral for Magnetic Magazine.

Here’s what Feral had to say about God’s Country embedded above:

God’s Country

During this phase of writing I was just doing long riffs every day as an exercise. This one feels a lot like a spaghetti western, there’s even a The Good, The Bad and The Ugly moment in the intro. To further lean into this idea I asked my friend Lance Martin, who lives in Nashville, to add some layers of lap and pedal steel, which turned out really beautifully. Thanks Lance.

This Bird In Flight is another personal favourite track on the album.

I could honestly embed the whole album. The track No Other, is actually sublime. I really love this album. I think it’s because it feels like a deeply personal project made with zero compromise.

My favourite kind of art.

Remember Kids:

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