how fretboards work

i remember sitting down with a guitar playing friend of mine years ago after he'd been lamenting how complicated making a chord was. i drew a piano keyboard and explained. it was, he said, revelatory. from that day to this i don't know why guitar players make this all so difficult for themselves. ukulele players even moreso! so here's brandon acker doing it better than i could.....

middlemarch

i managed a lovely wee quarter hour yesterday meeting up with a friend of my to, initially, have a chat about middlemarch. she's way younger than me and hadn't read middlemarch before. me, i'm old, antisocial (see previous post!), and i'd read middlemarch after a gap of 7 years or so. i was surprised that the middlemarch i read this time seemed much more open, characters that used to be feel sympathetic (i'm looking at you dorothea!), characters that didn't (arthur brooke and even, to a certain extent, poor old causabon), and so different from what my friend had read. what a lovely experience to be able to share different perspectives!

i'd shy away from any attempt of what defines a classic. but i think there's something that speaks to humanity. both of us liked how the characters, despite being fictional, despite the gulf of time, were instantly recognisable and identifiable. here's rebecca mead talking about this sort of thing in the new yorker

 

paolo gans

polyphia's enthusiastic nerding out to paolo gans' cover was youtube gold. while there's much on the internet that's just a sewer (and at least a sewer has function) this sort of thing fills me with hope and joy. me, i find myself ever more antisocial when it comes to just hanging out. but being in a space where's there's genuine talent. genuine creativity, that's like a spiritual recharge every time 

settekake

i'm not going to lie, i love making flat breads, pizza bases and the like. it's not the weather in my house right now for letting yeast rise but the sun's making a comeback so it won't be long. here's a supereasy recipe for settekake. if you can get a hold of some brunost, or gjetost, absolutely do - it's a treat!

erik speer

a background in marine biology? you don't say! here's erik speer 

the coin

a film using felt? clearly i'm not going to pass that up! lovely 

eduardo galeano

i miss eduardo galeano and still, every so often, remember with a start that he's dead. how fortunate to have his writing, his voice niggling away in my ear like an old friend, chiding, laughing. even better i can (just about) read him in spanish these days

Fleas dream of buying themselves a dog, and nobodies dream of escaping poverty: that, one magical day, good luck will suddenly rain down on them – will rain down in buckets. But good luck doesn’t rain down, yesterday, today, tomorrow or ever. Good luck doesn’t even fall in a fine drizzle, no matter how hard the nobodies summon it, even if their left hand is tickling, or if they begin the new day on their right foot, or start the new year with a change of brooms. The nobodies: nobody’s children, owners of nothing. The nobodies: the no-ones, the nobodied, running like rabbits, dying through life, screwed every which way. Who are not, but could be. Who don’t speak languages, but dialects. Who don’t have religions, but superstitions. Who don’t create art, but handicrafts. Who don’t have culture, but folklore. Who are not human beings, but human resources. Who do not have faces, but arms. Who do not have names, but numbers. Who do not appear in the history of the world, but in the crime reports of the local paper. The nobodies, who are not worth the bullet that kills them 

from the book of embraces

cheese

 came across this, which covers many of my linguistic bases! 

albert camus

 here's a proper treat 

L'Etranger lu par Albert Camus from pixieszzz on Vimeo.

bloodywood

off the back of the tale of jenny and screech here's bloodywood's take on violence against women. after reading about yet another senseless murder to day and the inevitable guidance to women from the government about how to avoid getting harassed/assaulted/murdered i'm reminded yet again that this is a problem of male behaviour that men overwhelmingly don't recognise, don't own up to the part they play, and don't do anything about. which makes this rather refreshing. this is one topic where men should be angry, they should be furious

ren

it's true the first of these is striking a chord amongst the healthcare community but i'm putting it and the one that follows up just because they're so different from so much of what i'm hearing right now. i love the swagger, i love the structure, the delicacy and i love the englishness of it, the london-ness. a truly original voice for right now. 

*i feel i ought to point out that these contain refs to chronic illness, mental health issues, sexual assault and violence. while the veracity of their presentation makes them everyday for me, they may not be for everyone

                              

more polyphia

michael palmisano loving on polyphia, forgetting he's a guitar teacher and getting into the drums! but, and although he gets a bit theory for my limited skills, he breaks into down into it (surprisingly) simple basic parts. i've read elsewhere that tim henson takes pop tunes and smashes them thru daws/midi in order to do this. plamisano has two other vids on polyphia, both worth watching. me, i've never been more aware that i've pudgy sausage fingers like the hot dog hands people in everything everywhere all at once - nevertheless i'm off to have a go at those progressions! 

polyphia

 i don't quite know how i'd missed polyphia but thanks to justin hawkins banging on about them i started off listening to this. and was staggered by the virtuosity on show, it's true, as music, i'd need to be in just the right mood to be listening to it. but, as a bad musician, watching the technique on display is just inspiring 

what's more, i then came across this vid. music's no less prone to appalling dickery than other art forms but, for me, more than any other, when you come across people with whom you can have communication, some cross pollination, or just applaud, it's transformative like nothing else. so here's this 'roast'. it made me feel better about the world! 

terry riley

 the legend. and his words of advice go across disciplines and ages. create a culture that invites ideas. it can't get simpler - true, i wouldn't necessarily advocate my isolated life but equally, talking isn't working. avoid social media. it's the mind killer. rejoice in error and not knowing. this is lovely. 

a band called death

i am actually doing more than watching music docos. but just found this on youtube. don't know how long it'll stay up but it's fabulous 

non dairy milk

just for health but also because we live in pricey times it's useful to think about what you're putting into yourself. me, i like a non dairy milk. and while i'm lazy i like mucking about in the kitchen more....

more bloodywood

 here's a decent documentary on them

bloodywood

i haven't played any tin whistle in a dog's age but after hearing this i'm going to try a playalong later. not sure bloodywood are doing anything particularly different, and this for me strays firmly into wagakki band territory, but i like the uplifting nature of the lyrics, tu jee veerey indeed

  

actually i think i'm being a bit uncharitable here. i'd thought of them being about for years but it turns out they just launched their first album last year. not only that this track was released to support a mental illness/depression campaign. and they do animal welfare stuff! i love these guys. plus jayant is a beats of a vocalist. on that note here's the charismatic voice to break them down a bit 

ceylan göksel

 start the year as i mean to go on. kicking back, making stuff with some mellow sounds