I met up with Sarah Shin of Ignota Books/Silver Press at Kew Gardens this week. It was lovely to see her. Our meet up bookended the pandemic for me in a way. As her flat was one of the last locations I was at, days before the first lockdown in 2020.

We were given a little tour by her friend. The guide (whose name I’ve already forgotten 😔 ) has also played a lot of Gamalan and even lived in Indonesia for a while. Our conversation walking around the gardens in the spitting rain went DEEP into shadow puppetry from around the world.

After dusk, Sarah and I went to the pub and got pretty hammered. Our conversation moved at a mile a minute, for hours. Subjects like technology and blockchain waylaid by long tangents into Greek Orthodox Hesychasm, and the church Organ in Catholic understandings of sacred environments via table top wargames and mediation or something. We kept checking ourselves as as (rightly) anyone listening in must have thought we were absolutely fucking bonkers.

Full Moon vibes.

Had band practice at Pirate Studios in Earlsfield on Tuesday night. Interrupting my usual fortnightly music/warhammer alternate Tuesday evening cadence. It’s a lot fancier than the metal band/carpet on the walls place we usually rehearse in.

Pirate is a funny old place. A fully automated wearhouse full of practice rooms. Booked online, accessed by 1 pass code for the front door, and 2nd for the booked room.

If something doesn’t work – a mic or an amp, you call a helpline and they direct you on a crystal maze style mission to find a locker containing a replacement also accessed by passcode.

All the amps are ‘ok’ – thrashed to hell by 24/7 usage. But it’s a space I’m glad exists. With insane real estate prices, shared spaces like this are so so important for scenes nationwide.

Photo 365

Permanently Moved

Inauthentic Internet

It’s ironic that Boomers spent the 00’s telling kids to not believe everything they read on the internet. Now the situation is reversed.

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Loads of work hours put in for a talk due beginning of March
• Spreadsheetin’ for Novara Media
• Been working though a set of exercises for a novel writing course I’m on
• Learning about Cell Shaders in Unity
• Been reading *a lot* of papers about spacial processing in virtual environments.

Shields are now down. I’m looking for work. If you’re interested in doing something together get in touch.

Dipping the Stacks

Saying goodbye to Steve, the reader who commented on everything I wrote for 17 years

This story of friendship doesn’t fit the templates. I have no photo of Steve Goertz and me. Steve and I only met twice, so we didn’t know each other the same way you know people with whom you spend years.

‘Knitters should get to decide’: Tiny Seattle knitting startup pushing to ‘unravel’ Apple in App Store fight

“The fact that Apple can say your waiting customers can’t have this, and there was nowhere else to go. To think you spent two years building something for it to never see the light of day.” 

It’s Not Just Climate: Are We Ignoring Other Causes of Disasters? – Yale E360

Climate change is increasingly seen as the cause of natural catastrophes, from floods to famines. But a growing number of scientists are cautioning that blaming disasters solely on climate overlooks the poor policy and planning decisions that make these events much worse.

Tumblr Is Everything – The Atlantic

The soft, sad freaks on an unprofitable website claimed victory in the battle for the internet’s soul and defined the worldview of a generation.

Cities’ biggest obstacle to flood-proofing isn’t money: It’s 50-year-old rainfall data.

Cities say they can’t plan for tomorrow’s storms using yesterday’s data.

Reading

Gordon Whites’s Ani.Mystic arrived. I’ve dropped everything to attend to it.

I can say with confidence that it’s probably one of the most important books I’ve ever read.

I said I was going to try and finish a bunch of books I was reading. Things are in progress on the front. But everything was paused when Ani.Mystic arrvied.

I finished listening to Silent Hunters by Edoardo Albert, finished reading The Emperor’s Gift by Aaron Dembski-Bowden on kindle.

Music

thejaymo.net Spotify Playlist

Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You review

Paul mentioned that he’d been listening to this album at band practice on Tuesday when we were packing up. I haven’t listed to Big Thief – ever. So this is my first introduction to the Indie/Alt Country/Art/Folk band.

The 20 tracks on the LP are as a great introduction as any.

Sparrow is a stand out track for me. A folkloric account/reckoning with the story of the Book of Genesis and the natural world.

I listened to the whole album on my way to Kew this week. Can’t wait to dive into their back catalogue.

It’s funny, my approach to listening to this album had me at moments thinking ‘we should do this sort of thing in our band’.

Remember Kids: