holga

 partly because i've been having a lark with a holga lens of late but also because i just like sitting down and having a listen to martin henson's channel, here's my last of year post... 

cheap dark room

 mostly these days, i take primarily black and white images, using a pinhole, using direct positive paper so i don't have an enlarger etc, i do have a space where i keep chemicals etc that i can use as a dark room space but i tend to do so very rarely. that said, i have been playing with a holga lens recently on an old digital body and, while i don't like the process much, i do like the results, so i can feel myself being gently pushed in the direction of a functioning darkroom. it will be basic - i like the idea of chemicals and processes but at the same time i like to keep things really simple. so this 

the balkans

 while my heart is always in mainland europe, if i was asked to pick a region (i couldn't!), the balkans would be high on the list. and having a big cycle would be perfect! 

michael kenna

 like bnw? rest that post xmas aching brain with this 

the 90 year old cyclist

 lovely 

interesting also to see a relative being documented. i really like audio/video for this. altho i've no experience of the viseo side for this. being able to watch/hear a person speak in their own time, at their own cadence, for me, seems so much more satisfying in this respect than an image on its own

tomten

 guaranteed to bring a tear to my eye - this traditional classic (with subtitles!) 

poem plus two english translations here

the kiffness

this is what happens when you spend too much time on youtube, have a stack of electronics, loads of instruments, talented mates. you're worth a browse thru his back catalogue, loads of collaboration and joyousness, in these difficult times surely what the internet is for! lol i so want a trumpet now! 

fulu miziki

 who needs drugs when you've got afrofuturism! lol this is so far from the day to day music i hear here it's just a joy to listen to. outstanding!

boring light

 the weather here of late has just been shocking. not poor as such, but dull and uninspiring. or is it? 

so much talent!

 of these the ones i'm most familiar with are ellen of ellenplaysbass and nandi bushell. i think ellen is about 9 here and nandi must be about 13 now. it's a how long's a piece of string question but it's possible that yoyoka may be the most precociously talented of the lot of them. she must be about 12 i think here and only the tip of the iceberg of supertalented japanese youngsters (nice wee fanboy doco of here here) 

obvs, supportive family is a given in all of these but, in a country where language, drama and music education are becoming more and more the province of a private school education i worry about where creative talent is being nurtured. children, despite what the media/your gran might say, are no less talented, its just that their elders have, and continue to, fail them, my generation being particular offenders in this respect

*twisted sister. it pains me. i have not, and will never be, a fan

the alchemistress

 very large format photography! i also love the prisoner pictures but no idea where they come from 

make your own pen

 this guy's great. i'm trying this! 

suminagashi

i'm doing some of this later on this week. this vid's in spanish but it's easy enough to follow along. there are loads of other but i didn't want to use one where the person doing the vocal track couldn't at least approximate the proper pronunciation! using glue is a new one on me (pva in uk i'm guessing) but i'll give that a go and see what happens 

tresor

 away back in the day i loved the tresor label and all that entailed. it's interesting to reflect, all these years later, just how much spaces like this, whether you like techno or not, affected not just the music of the time, but the ability to have a creative space to meet mingle and do all sorts of other forms of creative work. i look around where i used to go and every single venue is gone, with nothing to replace them, along with the gallery/performance spaces that accompanied them. there is a necessity for change, of course, but that change has to include the possibility of future change 

less gear, more bike

 i was talking to a work colleague recently about her son, who's recently pitched up with a violin. good i said, music is great. true, she said, but i thought you'd rather he was getting into cycling. in contrast, the violin he's been bought, if he keeps it up, will see him all thru his basic education and all thru his grades, if he so chooses. a bike, on the other hand. growth aside, for what i'd consider entry level, to do the equivalent for cycling, i could buy him a guitar, a bass, all his baseline recording things (daw, interface, microphone etc) and some healthy electronics - synthesiser/drum kit. and likely have money left over for his violin. it's no secret that the cost of cycling has ballooned these last few years, the cost of making music, even allowing for inflation, has remained relatively static - and your gear isn't built to wear out/become obselete!

here's a couple of vids around this topic. points to note

- just ride your bike

- i pursued and english degree and became a bike mechanic

*i'm not saying you shouldn't have electronic shifting etc. buy what you want! but don't forget what a bike is/was. and all that other stuff - the clothes, the stravaing etc. that's cosplay

focal dystonia

i like scott's bass channel and watching it, couldn't help but notice he wears, typically on his left hand, a glove. the story of that is in this vid. neuro is something i've steered clear of over the years but i'd never heard of focal dystonia. this is a really interesting take about living with a chronic condition, the difficulty of getting referrals, let alone diagnosis 

sonic storyboard

i love this idea! i've been absolutely unmotivated to do any sound recording since i came back to this country (and lost all my swedish sound files, possibly deliberately. maybe probably but i can't bring myself to accept someone would do such a thing!) but this actually wants me to get a decent mike set up, get out and capture soome sound, plus set up the electronics. 

*i'll add a bit here seeing as a lot of this summer has been involved with medium format photography for which i have no negatives. should something happen to these images there's no back up, they exist solely as themselves and, as they age, they will disappear. that my sound files should be subject to the same vagaries plain never occurred to me. this notion appears in byung-chul han's writings - the notion that in the digital panopticon nothing is forgotten - and not in a good way. i need to think on it a bit.

the mobile darkroom

 inasmuch as i have a darkroom it's super basic and limited by joinery, my lack of commitment to an actual enlarger and fears about ventilation. plus, no matter how you cut it, old school photogrpahy isn't cheap (i'm setting out today with a holga lens on an old canon later today, bnut that's a whole other story). that said, i love the creativity around it all. it's not to say that digital lacks creativity just that all that computer based malarkey isn't for me. check this out 

metropolis

 here's some christmas cheer! an absolute classic. i did find a rescored version but i wasn't superfussed for the score but, when i've more time on my hands, i'd love to try and score an old silent movie!

notes on the fretboard

 i've been mystified for years about why bass/guitar/uke players are mystified by the fretboard. i remember speaking to a guitary friend about it when he was getting confused by his chords etc (and before i'd ever picked up a guitar before) and i said - but all the relationships between the notes are the same. and then demonstrated, albeit via a piano keyboard, that given a basic knowledge of how a scale worked, i could work out any chord and find a position for it on the neck. which sounds great, except that when i'm playing guitars now i play like someone who learned piano as a child! anyway, this video is decent if you're finding all a bit of a pain, or like me, you're forgetting your basics

*ear players - this is a talent i do not have! it's not better or worse, just different. if you're not getting to grips with the above, consider yourself blessed you have an ear!

tour de tietema

 the tour de tietema lads have been a way for me, especially the last couple of years, to watch some tdf based irreverence and get some dutch listening practice. who'd have thought they'd now be a pro-continental set up!? here's that story 

work music

 further from yesterday's post. got a couple of things going on. all set up fora day of work. here's my initia; soundtrack to get me into it. no distractions. ideal! 

phyllida barlow

 came across this via insta and was taken with it just for this if nothing else - 

There are plenty of artists who don't have exhibitions, there is plenty of art that is never seen. … Making work that does not have a destination has it's loneliness and its sadness about it, and many artists endure that for their entire lives, and it's heroic.

i guess, these days, i would fall firmly into that camp but i don't find anything sad or lonely, let alone heroic about it. so much of 'recognition' it seems to me, is about external validation. i've got no need for any of that. i got published loads when i was writing but it just made me miserable. doing visual art, whether it was making it, or being involved in the business of selling, really wasn't any better.

i feel incredibly fortunate that creativity for me is a means to life not a way of life. i have no external deadlines, no gatekeepers, no need to be standing about, virtually or irl, droning on about art/writing etc. i am absolutely free to do what i want, when i want and to encourage others to do the same. it's a great mode of being!

*i'll make an exception for music, which is fabulous when it's shared. but, sadly, i'm rubbish at it. not that that's a bad thing - i'd wholly recommend having something you do, that you're just not good at, or at least only good enough to properly appreciate people who are. i still feel massively lucky to be part of the continuum of music. all of it really (even writing, which i'm gradually. gradually making my way back to after being pretty broken by all the publishing shenanigans) is just a joy

panceltic race

 it's that time of year again and i'm going to sit down with a cup of tea and watch their legs hurting so mine don't have to lol 

tim henson's guitar

back in early polyphia i heard tim henson was getting to put out his own guitar. looked lovely, sounded lovely and i love a nylon string. and now they're ludicrously priced on resale! my skill level is so low i can wait the current boom out but, watching this video, i still want one! lol 

midjourney does star wars by hieronymus bosch

 let's be clear, i don't love a computer. and i've especially not loved them, useful as they might be, as a means to creative process. as for ai, the vast majority of what i've seen is not the sort of thing i like. i want hands on, paint and glue, instruments to hold, blades and scrapers. that said my yt algorithm threw this at me and i have to say, i rather liked it. not so much as a thing in itself but as a reminder of just how bland much science fiction/alternative worlds look these days (i'm excepting the creator's recent outing). if midjourney and their ilk can be a springboard for a new way of looking then i'm all for it 

audre lord

i'm always happy when great books prof puts up a new video and, even moreso, when it's about something i know nothing about, in this case audre lord's the cancer journals. i ordered it immediately and my plan for this weekend is to read it slowly, let it percolate (i have a side plan to browse some susan sontag b ut i have to dig that out). so far what i'm loving is the language, the bare articulacy of it. obvs i see way more malignancy than most and, while i've read my fair share of disease journey books, i'm not certain i've found one that i've found that's chimed with me with such immediacy. partly i guess because while it's concenred with cancer it's really about life. i'd highly recommend. 

stewart copeland

i'm in the midst of discovering, even by my already low standards, what a truly dreadful drummer i'd make. that said, in terms of pushing my body/brain to do things they're not used to, i think it's really valuable. there's a wealth of drumming info online, drumeo a particular highlight, but i'm also enjoying listening to and about stewart copeland