the well tempered clavier

 

stick technique

 along with dance, if i had a degree of repeat in life, i'd include more drums. so tricky, so absorbing! 

the morgan notebook

 isaac newton primary source! 

cinnamon rolls

i'm not going to lie, cinnamon rolls in english just doesn't have the same ring to it as kanelbullar but nonetheless this recipe is worth a go 

direct positive reverse prints

another one of these..  

henry VII

if you got thru last week's wars of the roses epic (i listened rather than watched and it worked well) then here's the natural successor (sic lol). i read thomas penn's winter king a while back and i never really got into it. i did get into this tho. that said with all the above you're not likely to walk away enamoured wiht the human condition! 

svaneborg kardyb

to be honest, not what i was expected from this pair but equally i'll listen to just about anything with a gondwana label on it 

jess hobbs

another one of these wee docos from ilford. community dark rooms are a rarity round these parts now. i remember not even twenty years ago i could locate one with ease. now, as far as i know, there's one that the local photographic club has but, beyond that, there's a privately run public access one about 40 miles away. plus, film is just expensive, and there's no two ways round that. that said, getting out, even with 'just' your phone is the easiest it's ever been. no excuses! 

marina viotti

 whole album! 

wars of the roses

 full fat three hour long doco. packed with info, very pausable, very googleable. absorbing 

*i've not watched all of this in one go. you could, if you wanted to but where's the fun in that!

bass lines

 a wee drum machine, keep time and you're away 

marco cirillo

 pretty and not difficult

max richter

 

caoilfhionn rose

 another winner from gondwana 

starting field recording

 field recording was, and is, a bit impenetrable at times. not leastw ehn you're starting. this helps 

a true renaissance

behind the scenes with visma lease a bike on the 2024 tour. really quite an affecting wee doco. jonas appears even more grounded and poor old wout, in a team that couldn't buy luck this year, doesn't know what's coming. good watch 

zizek gets criticized

i don't know a whole lot about religious philsophy but i'm reading a fair bit about the reformation at the moment so any information is handy. plus carefree wandering is a good yt channel for stimulating listening. thus with this, which i've really been quite enjoying 

marina viotti

 lovely 

recreating the first folio

 another pleasing wee doco from lrb  

jasmine myra

 

guillaume poncelet

 more plinky plonky piano music. there's a comparison to richard clayderman in the comments, which seems a bit harsh. whatever, i find this sort of thing deeply soothing 

eric hobsbawn

lovely wee doco of a time and, perhaps, a type of approach that feels like it's passed by and which wouldn't survive in the modern day politics of soundbites and name calling. nice too, to watch something where the maker doesn't treat the viewer like an idiot 

noisy noise

 then i listen to a bunch of female fronted punk bands. great energy but a law of diminishing returns and none of them get near hearing pj harvey for the first time. or now for that matter. but i had a lovely shouty afternoon.

what a great noise this squad make. their videos tho, genuinely awful and what live performances i saw were not the best. this tho, is a laugh and, if was i was going to soundtrack rita bullwinkel's novel headshot, this would be ideal. their follow up i hate when girls die is an absolute metal riff monster 

pleasing old school vibes. their frontperson knows what the job is and the band is supertight. 

as above, frontperson knows how to do her job and band solid. i read criticism of them that their latest stuff has become too generic but the l7 vibe here is clear to hear and i'm not complaining 

at points their garage band vibe seems almost too self conscious but i love this lot. plus the bass player is no nonsense 

and this? if i was in the car and in the mood, this would be my happy place 

as for this, bad brains throwback fabulousness. 

ecca vandal

 this doing heavy rotation on my playlist. rhythm section is relentless and she's got real presence. plus,a song that's about something. i thought those days were past! 

An-Ting

came across an-ting vis an insta real where she was apparently out doing some sound recording. couldn't see what her gear was but, if this was the result (and hasn't been stepped all over), what a good job. altogether intriguing tho and am surprised i haven't heard of her in any of the sound recording things i'm on

*i'm still doing no sound recording despite the recent purchase of new mics. am hoping this'll inspire me a bit! 

phil walter

i was taken by this interview and i liked wtaching him set up, along with the tidiness of his workspace. the work? maybe not for me, but these days i'm finding lots of interest in the 'not for me' category, esp in terms of looking at technique and process, all this categorisation, putting people, and onself, in boxes, just seems very limiting and counterproductive these days 

svaneborg kardyb

 

snaw

 

jazz sabbath

 i've long held forth about black sabbath's funk roots. this then is no surprise lol 

the bodhran

 i've only intermittently been able to make a go on one of these but always had a soft spot for them 

pt 2

vernon fisher

 here's a vernon fisher doco. nice studio! 

delaine la bas

it'd be easy to say that this isn't the sort of work that i like but, in the manner in which it diverges and challenges by its different perspective, it's exactly the sort of work that i like. 

kassia

 i'm not loving my algorithms these days - too much recycling of what i've already seen and not enough weird left field offerings. that said, i wasn't expecting this 

astrology in the ottoman court

niche, but right up my street. 

iranian sunday

kick back with this  

portrait drawing

 i fear a very different result if i tried this! lol 

macro photography basics

 

botanical plaster casting

 handy. but looks much easier than it is! lol 

hoa

 i couldn't possibly say what their influences were! lol 

orkney and the pictish trail

 nice to see what i once described as the homeland. an impending visit again very soon. love it but it's a memory of a version of myself now and, even if  it were an option, i don't think i'd ever go back to live.

pan celtic 2024

 and the time of year to review this madness 

nils frahm

 

olafur arnalds

 

sew many miles

it's been a year when i've cycled less outside than i've ever done and, truth be told, never felt more alienated from the experience of cycling, but at the same time it's lovely to see people who haven't. liking this wee doco, which is slightly different. does nothing to change my view i'll never camp again tho! lol 

contact printing

 me, i've stuck with my direct positive paper, mainly for reasons of simplicity but a lot of my pinhole acquaintances swear by contact printing. here's ari showing how to make it easy.

hania rani

 i've got a lot of love for islay so i was never not going to like this 

lee miller

i wasn't taken by the trailer for the upcoming 'lee' film so here's this instead which, i think, is likely to be much more interesting 

retro bikes

if this is the sort of the you like then this is the sort of thing you'll want to kick back to, get  a cup of tea and enjoy the memories. i'm not going to pretend for a second that disc brakes aren't better but some of these v brake set ups i would've died for back in the day. plus i just love the simplicity and adventure of them all, happy days! 

biking to bakeries

 finally, some modern cycling i can get into! lol 

flos

 why is this only 1:22! i'm absolutely the target audience for this sort of thing! lol 

waqwaq kingdom

 

ecca vandal

 you could build a house on a ecca vandal's backing band! lol 

bjork and arvo part

 

tony ann

 

every frame a painting

back! now that was unexpected!

 

alexis ffrench

 

ludovico einaudi

 if it's the sort of thing you like then this is the sort of thing you'll like. hours of einaudi noodling. perfect for a long slow day of work! 

polo & pan

 

moonic productions

hands down my favourite cover version of funkytown! lol if what he's doing is your thing then i can't recommend this channel highly enough, not least because they're a great motivator to just actually play. i don't know how to use a keyboard as a controller for drums, which would be handy, but he's doing my need to get a drum kit (months of practice pad mean i can actually drum a bit now!) no good at all!

slift

 this is what happens if you expose children to hawkwind in the womb! lol

nirvana covered

 and then there's those musicians whose technique i can only dream of. this is a delight 

malcolm young

 i can feel the autumn in the air so it's no surprise that as the night's draw in i'm picking up my instrument again and i'm loving knocking out a few chords at the end of the day. it could be argued that malcolm young's 'simple' riffs would suit me just fine but, as with many so called simple things, it belies the skill behind them. these sound great but, for me, they make me focus on technique and precision (and using a pick!) as well as being a laugh 

mastodon and eloy casagrande

 this is my favourite mastodon track by a country mile and i've always loved the drum part. here drumeo puts eloy casagrande thru his paces trying to get him to pick it up at speed. these drumeo videos are always great but i'm struck again with just how interesting/talented good drummers and their craft really is. a practice pad remains my limit! lol

1000 mods

 my favourite greek band ever. not the best sound quality but their material is easily available online. there's no bit of their music i don't like listening to and trying to fogure out how to play along to. best of their genre. and i like the fact they look like a bunch of primary school age childrens' dads have got together to play music in a garage! 

gawain and the green knight

came across this really interesting podcast a few weeks back. it disappeared and was only available on substack but now it's back on yt. i've since looked at a couple of other bits and pieces by dorsay armstrong and found it all rather interesting  

using a light meter

 to be honest i've yet to be convinced that thrashing out the money on one of these light meters for pinhole photography is giving me much more than what i had with my app light meter - though to be fair i like the randomness of my eye over either! but it's a good basic guide in any case

ulvesang

 

justina jaruševičiūtė

 do yourself a favour - don't just click on this but go off, get a cup of tea, settle in your favourite chair, get your listening gear sorted and listen to this without disturbance. proper lovely! 

how microphones work

 if there's a better demonstration of how microphones pick up sound i haven't seen it! 

black pantera

 

matthew halsall

 

beth gibbons

 

linus alberg

 

hania rani

 

SUNN O)))

 seeing as i've put godflesh up here's some defiantly uneasy listening 

godflesh

now that gojira is in my algorithm... to be honest i thought godflesh had stopped years ago but no, and i get this. i can't say much has changed tho they feel very contemporary. but really it's bc green's pulverising bass that does it for me. and, after the poor sound in the gojira video, special mention to whoever recorded this. i can't think of better sound in a live video. but still, it's godflesh, so not for everyone! lol 

them olympics!

i don't watch tv anymore and i've never been a fan of opening ceremonies so i was happy to let the paris opening ceremony pass me by. but, as 'controversy'/prejudice emerged about some of the imagery emerged, my interest was piqued, not least because i heard they had gojira playing. gojira! what! so here's elizabeth at charismatic voice enthusing.

as for the show itself, all my french socials seem to be loving it. in the run up the usual suspects weren't happy about aya nakamura but that seems to have passed english speaking commentators by as they immerse themselves in outrage about the last supper imagery. which, of itself, is just tiring but at the same time it's obvious enough to see why they drew this conclusion that the ceremony organisers should've anticipated it. nor, despite the snowflakery about it all, is the reaction of people not on the same wavelength, who seem to have forgotten any concept of heteroglossality when it comes to performance, particularly helpful.

as usual the loudest voices get heard the most in spite, it seems, of the many who took it as just a show and therefore a lark, in the end will i watch it? likely not (i mean the sound quality - come on!) as this post has taken more attention than any tv i'm wanting to watch! lol 

rick beato on music theory

theory on a keyboard. it's just easier. rick beato, bouncing back from surgery, shows how

 

silvia cignoli

rick beato caused something of a social media storm of late stating modern music is rubbish. which, if you listen to the charts, is likely true, but if you listen to the charts then that's your own lookout. me, i've never known a time when music was so diverse or, it seems to me, there's so many players with so much talent. not rick beato's defintion of modern muic as chart music but hey ho. in that vein here's this. maybe not all to my taste but, for me, full of ideas i want to try  

midicake arp

 and this is why this'll be my next piece of gear 

tomoki tamura

 

takeo suzuki

 

paul galbraith

 i have no idea what this instrument is all about. but lovely

barre chords

 guitar, as with most things, is definitely improved with good technique. mine's is horrible and it all starts with poor technique. i like this guy's view on barreing. not saying i'll be able to do it tho! 

henrik nordbrandt

 i was saddened to hear that henrik nordbrandt died last year. he had a good innings so not so much that but more that, in the first place, i hadn't heard anything about it but also, these days, how little of his work is available in english, esp as i can hardly read danish these days. anyway, here's this doco form the louisiana channel 

felix rösch

 

18th century embroidery

 bernadetee banner et al are on it! 

plïnkï plønkï

 

cedric vermue

 

realismo mágico

 mellow start to saturday. link below vid to buy on bandcamp

nils frahm/antonio arvind

 i actuallly went to see antonio arvind not so long ago just to hear the glass harmonica!

klangriket and sjors mans

 

bassline techniques

 i like this vid because it illustrates (for me!) the need to practice with your gear until you understand the technique rather than the gear itself. similarly it doesn't matter if it's 'techno' and that's not your taste, it's about what your gear does, how you can learn that, and how you can apply it to your practice

nguyên lê

 

beatpella house

 korean next level beatboxing

fanny

 danny sapko in typically exuberant form (and he gets to be because he's right) as he extolls the virtue of jean millington and fanny in general. what a shame that, even now, they don't get the recognition they deserve 

volca keys as drone machine

 

woodcut printing

i've been chopping down some trees of late so, after a bit of drying, this is on the cards  

sharpening gouges

 handy tool. handy tips 

portishead

seeing as beth gibbons was up yesterday here's michael palmisano, who's somehow missed ever hearing portishead, reacting to strangers

beth gibbons

 

pj harvey

 

roland aira s1

 it's taken many decades but i'm finally discovering that reading the manual is a good idea. those for electronics tho, are notoriously scant which, when you're faced with something like the s1, isn't the best. fortunately here's this to sort it out. it's a bit rushed - but there's a pause button! i love my wee s1 but i've found this vid invaluable. great fun to follow along, stop, go down a side alley, have a think and start again. and, i'd guess, a good way to get to grips with what's going on with your electronic gizmos! 

roland drum machines

 it seems likely i'll be adding a tr8 to my box of tricks in the near future even tho i really want a tr8s. space is clearly an issue but i loved the aira s1 so consistently since i've opened the box that the tr8 seems a logical add on. they are compatible with my volcas and interesting things may be done but it's amazing, in just the space of ten years, how dated the volcas feel. all are still 'relatively' cheap tho and if you want to get away from tv/socials/daw etc in the dark nights i can't recommend a wee set up like this enough. even if you're as awfully terrible at actually using them as me! lol 

pinhole photography

 another pinhole basics video from martin henson because.... martin henson! 

albinoni oboe concerto op9 no2

 

this an actual albinoni piece, unlike adagio in g minor, which it turns out was writeen by someone else. every day a learning day!

eduardo galeano

 one of the book groups i'm on in my socials has an unfortunate habit of repeatedly asking for the 'best' translation, to which my answer is always - how would you know? unless you can read in the original. which is an activity, these days, i'm gravitating more and more towards. i'm not there yet in all my target languages but it's an activity i'd massively recommend as the text opens up in a way that's just not possible otherwise. plus not only do you get a better feel for the original btu you see directly into the choices and style of the translator. it's very satisfying!

anyway, my reading of the moment is eduardo galeano's book of embraces, i love galeano and, as my spanish gets better, he's ideal for reading practice. and my spanish gets better! 

drive my car

 

max richter - four seasons

 

les essais

having myself some nice (slow!) parallel reads at the moment and came across this. i don't think i'd have much chance with the original but, on first look, this isn't bad, and i enjoyed a similar approach with don quixote. sh here's montaigne's essays in  modern frenchnull! 

george miller

 really interesting interview with george miller, not least because of the buster keaton references. i had an interesting discussion post, about how one might, these days, develop a visual lexicon when, in these days of streaming, access to these old classics, is almost non existent 

plastic bag

 short film. peak herzog 

kham meslien

 loving this 

aphex twin

 old school aphex outtakes 

joe barnes

 i can't get enough of joshua charowjoshua charow's series on artists in their lofts. here's joe barnesjoe barnes 

plant of the week

 i can't deny it, plant of the week plant of the week is one of my favourite drops in my socials. i wish i was a bit more full on about botany - or maybe i am for my more familiar plants - or had more interaction with botanising pals but botsoc's regular mail makes up for it. there's a wealth of info and, if you've any feeling for the environment around you, it's invaluable.

peter demetz

 one thing i absolutely cannot do - 3d realism. peter demetz's work is just amazing to me! 

caulking

 i'm fettling in my kitchen. this is very handy

noodling

i can appreciate a computer for sure but i don't like them. as i rejig some of my electronica i find more and more pleasure just noodling - it's called plasy for a reason! 

pleasing sunday vibes. looking to practice/buy some gear to make more ambient sounds and this, currently, is right up my street 

lisa bella donna

 one for the weekend. or just look at that gear! 

ennio morricone

no school like the old school  

stretching

 as i've said before, if i got my life to do over i'd make sure there was more dance in it, and a natural consequence of that would be a commitment to stretching and flexibility. having not done that, my body these days is suffering the consequences of everything i've done to it and getting a regular habit of stretching is difficult due, in small part, to discomfort, but manly because i don't want to recognise the consequences of such neglect! these are a decent bunch, don't need equipment, and don't take long 

meng qi wingie 2

 this looks likely as i make a return to sound recording! 

gabrielle bones

 i seem to have a few self portrait photogrpahers dropping into my feed of late. love some of the work but i'm not over comfortable with the concept. so here's gabrielle bones to explain it to me

*note the line about her dad giving her a camera. it's so important to encourage kids into the habit of creativity esp in these times where arts education is being deprioritised

local hero

went to pennan to see the 'most famous phone box in scotland' tho  i'm not sure not if you're under 45 that it is. the phone box in the film isn't the one in the village, which has a garage built next to it, a post box in front of it and, when i was there, a car parked and blocking it entirely. but it's still the pennan of the film, even if it isn't. it's still beautiful but i'm guessing, as with so much of rural scotland these days, i'd hazards it's all holiday cottages these days, if indeed anyine lives there at all. the pennan inn is closed, up for sale, and not even functional as a bar - no real surprise. worth a visit but saddening. am watching the film for the first time in years this weekend, can't wait 

keinseier

 my forays into music these days are either bleepy techno or eighties basslines, both of which i'm enjoying but i'm definitely wanting to moce in the direction of this. clearly, along with the cleanest workspace i've ever seen, keinseier has better gear for the purpose than me but, and aside from loving the dreamy soundscapes (no surprises he composes for films), i never watch a video of his without feeling inspired, one day! lol 

remco evenepoel

it's fair to say i'm not remco's biggest fan when it comes to the racing - i'm not taken with his style and, to my eyes, his head's just not in the game too many times. that said, outside of the races, he comes across really well and, tbh, if he can keep that side of life together he'll be the bigger winner. here he is rehabing from his injuries earlier in the season but also making time to hang out with the kids when his sister in law (!!) is racing. good luck to him in the season ahead and, i hope, no more incidents 

josep tapiró baró

of late it seems like insta and yt's algorithms are getting less and less imaginative but today, at last, this popped up. never heard of this guy, or if i have it was in my 'i won't look at representative art phase'! but these are luminous 

dani handcraft

 i know nothing about dani handcraft, who they are, where they come from or what they're about. these pieces tho, keep appearing on my socials and i love them. i've said it before and i'll say it again - some large part of my favourite art is comprised of things i just can't do myself. as with this, i can't wait to give it a go one of these days but i know already it won't look like any of this. proper skill! 

marie louise hertog

 if i had my life over again i'd be wanting to include a hefty amount more dance in it. this is her showcase but on her insta marie louise hertog has a bunch of vids of her just practicing in the studio. as my own body has the finctionality of a bag of spanners these days i find it all rather hypnotic. so hopefully more dance vids in the future! 

João Gilberto

 this'll be sunday 

italian disco

 if this doesn't get you into your weekend i don't know what will

keeping fit

 gcn's dan lloyd is trying to cut out his post career bad habits - knock smoking on the head, cut down the booze and get more active - in an effort to keep himself fit and active for as long as he can. getting a v02 max test might be a lark but it's the usual stuff - keep the weight off, move, look after your head, and he's remarkably candid about how he's going about it. worth a view 

play some melodies

 there's loads of ukulele tutorials online but this guy, i think, is better and clearer than most. getting some melodies down is really freeing, esp if you're encouraging younger people 

major pentatonic bass sesh

 this is handy. 

build a pond

 after yesterday, now i feel a pond is feasible 

building a fence

 i'm mulling over building a fence. i love this idea, esp the ivy part so i think this will be happening 

superfools

 a reminder of what a titanic voice aretha franklin was and what a fabulous drummer black sabbath had in bill ward 

let's get bleeding

 i love that mclintock eases some black sabbath in here just to conform their funk roots. i'm also thinking it's showing my age that i actually prefer marvin gaye's surely bold even for the time stripey green suit to what these metal boys are wearing! lol i'm off to play some power chords! 

electric sex machine

more bill mclintock. and why not!?  rob halford looking like he's walked out of an eighties leather bar in new york. quite why he's not a gay icon i don't know, other than the wrong type of music 

superkill

 like the soundtrack to every bad decision i ever made! lol 

road to resilience

 it's the start of the giro and here's jumbo lease a bike's patchy run in. ouch! 

sebastiao salgado

 love his work. deserves all the recognition 

circle of fifths

ouch, that's all i'm saying. if you can learn about the circle of fifths from this, you're a better person than me. but it's rick beato and it's chock full of interesting language so i'm not complaining. 

pinhole camera

analogue legend martin henson makes a pinhole camera, if you've got a scanner the method for measuring aperture is super useful. i did laugh tho when he was measuring for exposure - my metering is so often patent nonsense that i imagine that, either my meter is entirely wrong, the camera i'm using is somehow vastly different from what the manufacturer says it is, or the user error is so glaring that i can't recognise it! whatever, all my pinhole images are done on instinct, which is why there's such a relatively high failure rate - given the cost of analogue photography this gets irksome really quickly so if you do try it, do so with a budget you can afford to throw away! 

easy bass patterns

i'm an awful bass player, and musician generally it has to be said, but seeing as we only have one word for the doing of music in english, fortunately it has play embedded at its centre. so, with the bass in particular, when i'm playing my instrument, possibly more than any other, i'm at play. which is a roundabout way of saying i love these bass lines! 

adolfo kaminsky

 clearly, 60 minutes didn't want to engage with what kaninsky did post war with various liberation movements but there's slightly more detail in this criminal podcast. not a dull life! 

barigozzi group

 

rabih abou-khalil

 

drawing the head

another one of these. i'm not a figurative drawist by any means but there's a lot to be said for sitting down of an afternoon with a bit of paper and a pencil and drilling some technique  

making a mini exhibition

 ari makes a mini exhibition. so much more satisfying than a session on photoshop! the expense of photo paper these days make it a less frequent pleasure tho! but you could do this sort of thing with any endeavour

claire eleanor fergusson

 another one of these, like a breath of fresh air. i feel the lack of anyone left in my life like this! 

malik abdul-rahmaan & chris hound

 

bill mclintock

 every so often i realise i haven't listened to something by bill mclintock for a while. so here's this 

and here he is getting interviewed about it all 

filters

 an back to fiddling with filters. it's complicated-ish. here's a guide. 

my favourite april fool from this year

 it's a while since april 1st but this is brilliant

korg monologue

 i've finally dragged some of my old electronica out and my, but i'm rusty. the korg monologue is a great starter synth and here's a couple of vids that show how it work 

learning from mistakes

 useful 

the slow lane

 

mëstiza

 

hiroko yamamura

 not your usual behind the decks demographic! lol sounds are great. crowd is dismal 

hermanos gutierrez

 

paris roubaix

 there's a ton of gear channels that'll go on and on and on and on about tyre pressures,  gearing and the like re paris roubaix but really, none of it has much to do with most cyclists. here's what happens when regular people do the cobbles, arno representing my body type, rob my heart rate! lol i laughed a lot, not least at their go to advice guy 

the flandrien challenge

it being the holy week of classics cycling what better way to kick back before/after the ronde than this. the flandrien challenge is definitely on my tick list of things to do but time is definitely running out as i want to do it on a proper bike, not an ebike, but equally not a modern bike. my modern bike, geared as it is for younger racers just wouldn't work for me but my old workhorse, once it's refurbed, will eat these hills. but not the cobbles - there's a lot of modern technology i'm neither here nor there about but fatter tyres is defintiely comfier and i hate a cobble! lol

i actually lost a friend over this trip a while back for, in his eyes, having the temerity to suggest he might want to do some proper training as the route isn't for the faint hearted. i was right then and watching this i feel even more right now. equally i do love the sight of those frituur. as does benji i reckon, who's representing those of us wiht a more normal body shape! patrick does very well but looks like his ageing process stalled at about 19!

entertaining vid. love the classics. love flanders. 

*at the time of writing i'm waiting for the ronde to start. given the weather and the crash at dwars earlier this week here's hoping that it's great racing and everyone gets thru without incident

planet fungi

 can't go wrong with a fungus 

build a pond

it's handy if you've got land, a bunch of money, and time, to build your own pond. land is the essential and, even if you don't have a lot of money it's possible to create environments. time is often forgotten as, wiht many of these things, they need a bit of care and maintenance. outwith that, even here, there's lots of local initiatives to be involved in and it's definitely something i'm going to be getting more involved in as life goes on.

  

making a change

 i was out the other day doing a bit of fieldwalking and noticed just how close the farmer was panting to the field edge. no particular surprise given the margins they're having to deal with these days but there are some really interesting projects out and about at the moments to utilise edges and nooks in a manner that directly benefits the farmer as well as being good for nature. sadly, we live in a binary world so it's far easier, it seems, to take sides than explore solutions 

fools and dreamers

 not much cheering in current events at the moment so had a look for some more inspiring documentaries 

output

came across this purely by chance and there seems a lot of value in it, not least children learning their parents' behaviour. i'm doing lots of work these days where i'm wanting to push the boundaries of what i'm trying to do, partly because what i do well i feel like i've been doing for a long time but also, not unlike my cycling, i want to get back to my childhood state of just mucking about. that said, right now i feel like a recharge - i've never been less keen on cycling and constant making is just tiring. so the struggle now is not to be onvolved in the process of making, but to realise where it's time to have a rest. with cycling, i'm just not going out, still doing a few trainer sessions and watching my numbers dwindle (data and social media truly are the mind killer! lol), but the hard part is with all the rest, and persuading myself that putting my feet up, staring into space and having a nap, is an essential! 

*and yes, my practice pieces do not look good. but that's why i'm practicing!

hiroshi sugimoto

 hiroshi sugimoto  

the doing of art

 this, just this 

bikepacking the a1

 bikepacking definitely not for me but a big long cycle thru england? you'd never be bored for sure! 

dorothea rockburne

 another loft dweller. this time dorothea rockburne who, again, as well as being a fabulous artist, shows the way well into old age - books, light, material - what else could you want? lol inspiring! 

carmen cicero

 getting filmed in his loft. along with it being great to see someone at his age still working and creating, it is a thought that this has been made possible by rent protection. here, without that,  exorbitant rent increases, crippling rates, along with a ludicrous increase in utility prices, it's easy to see a real diminishing in the culture, from small businesses, performance venues and studio spaces. 

cosey fanny tutti

i love this picture of cosey fanny tutti, there's lots of issues around this but as it's the internet, which never forgets, caution is best. what i will say is i remember seeing images of the prostitution show from back in the day and finding it all very disturbing, not least because i hadn't learned a context to put it in. even then tho, i was aware of men in the same field getting less bad press for doing less. that aside, i'd love to see more of my female acquaintances of this age getting up to this sort of caper. they seem so few and far between and that has to be such a loss.

here's this 

macro and more

here's a vid about macro photography which, given the whole botany thing, has always been something i've been interested in. but it's not just about macro, or photography. the stuff he's on about can be applied to any endeavour. i'm doing it with drawing, different methods of pigment aplication and collage right now. just for a break, just for a laugh, but at the same time pushing my boundaries 

octave mandolin

 am getting to the end of my music buying and i think this could be my last instrument 

*okay maybe a tr8s and some electronics but my last acoustic instrument. maybe! lol

commute

the first step is to get out.... 

chris watson

 it's true that i'm doing a fair bit of photography these days, which is great, and i especially love the analogue work, and being out and about outside, but it's not a patch on sound recording. sadly, these days, i just don't have the time. here's chris watson and why slowing down and listening is great