nigeblog

Listening to the first Throwing Muses album, the first Underworld album, A Brave Man Once Said by Fierce Ruling Diva, my Fall Festive 50 and best of 1984 playlists, a bunch of 12″ singles I picked up in Oxfam and the Cherry Red Industrial CD box set compilation I got for Christmas.

Vinyl listening group was last week. The theme was weather and I played Rhythm of the Rain, I wish it would rain by Wreckless Eric and Hazy Shade of Winter.

Reading Jamie Delano/early Garth Ennis Hellblazers, Tekken Kinkreet, Cerebus #1, Zavej Zizek for Beginners and the Influence by Ramsey Campbell.

Watching Civil War, the Matrix and The Wandering Earth. I first watched the Matrix the night Manchester United won the European Cup — fact! I still think the physics of farming humans is too silly. Also why care what goes on in the virtual world? Civil War I think is a reality check for where we might well be in a few years time. That’s certainly how it looks from the outside (of the USA). The Wandering Earth, like the Three Body Problem, gave me some cause for optimism. We often hear the argument made against decarbonisation that India and China and the developing nations aren’t interested so what difference does anything we do matter. I think Wandering Earth (and also Three Body Problem) show that communist China is able to think long term in a way that we in the west can’t because of our devotion to short term gain — capitalism and democracy means we’re stuck stuck stuck.

Disclaimer: this post is a work in progress and will likely go through at least one more rewrite, but I like to publish as I go for the sake of immediacy 😉

I know, I know, resolutions don’t really work, and it’s hard to find the motivation for anything in this cold weather (hence no blog for 11 days), but my general aims for this year are…

1. Find abundance (either through paid work or a whole bunch of side hustles)
2. Find peace (with my place in this mad world)
3. Travel (planning trips to Serbia, Lithuania and our walking London project)

#SameStupidJokeEveryYeat

I’m really sorry we lost Ed Piskor, Graham Thorpe and Steve Albini this year.

I hadn’t been expecting Donald Trump to win and that’s what I told my kids and friends before the election. Once Joe Biden pulled out of the race I just couldn’t see how more people would vote Trump than in 2016 or 2020. Shows what I know… I guess the lesson here is it’s very difficult to know what’s going on in another country, which is one of the reasons I am planning to consume a lot less news in 2025.

I didn’t campaign for Labour in our election, but I was very pleased they won such a big majority. The mood of the country is still essentially pessimistic which leaves us vulnerable to our own populist front, but surely in time things will start to improve.

I’ve gone a whole calendar year without working and another full year without foreign travel. I’m seriously committed to work and travel next year.

I’ve lost weight through 5:2 fasting and am back to my pre-pandemic self. I’m sticking with it through next year because 1. it feels good and 2. I’m fast approaching normal weight for someone my size.

And I achieved an average 10k daily steps for the second year running, or should that be walking. I’m letting go of the step goal for next year, but I do intend to keep active and to do regular long walks with Jan, but 10k daily just takes too much time out of my day.

At this time of year lots of folk produce their top tunes of the year. Well here’s mine, but instead of this year, it’s a top 25 of 1984 when 17 year old me was actually a bit more up to date with current music 😉

Open share for importing in to your own streaming service here: https://www.tunemymusic.com/share/05HyXGISZz

I’ve tried to reflect my taste back in the day, which in fairness is pretty much my taste now. There’s only 23 tracks in the playlist because Marc Riley with the Creepers and Tools You Can Trust don’t appear in any streaming services. Come on Cherry Red, give us the Marc Riley compilation we’re all waiting for… Cure by Choice and Show Your Teeth are the missing tunes.

I’m trying to migrate from Spotify to Tidal for artist royalty reasons, but I think there’s likely to be some opposition from the other users of my family account. This playlist was created in Tidal with the share generated using TuneMyMusic. Any feedback much appreciated.

#ATuneADay

A few recent sad things:

1. this piece by Grace Dent in the Guardian at the weekend. Like her I’m letting go of trying to recreate the Christmas my now deceased parents used to give me
2. this song by Lana Del Ray that my kids love so much. She can really bring the emotion
3. the dream I had where I was working in the Imperial College bookshop, advising a young bald man in a camper van not to drop out in his fourth year

#Moore #Morrison #Morrissey

I liked these stickers someone applied to a comms cabinet in the High Street

I don’t really know Rob Beckett’s comedy work, but I was intrigued by this profile in the Observer, particularly the idea of going to bed each night and asking yourself the question “Did I enjoy today, yes or no?”

And at this point in my life I think I would answer yes pretty much every single day.