may '25

> began the month with being obsessed with music and making mixes. ended the month being obsessed with platinuming games, currently playing witcher 3
> went on a little get-away to margate to celebrate 2 years with my gf
> decided that i want to only buy my physical media in person
> bought a new smart tv, my first ever tv purchase. i think the last time i used one properly was like 10 years ago. so it took me a while to understand what was happening: like why i had access to channels without having an aerial or cable connected. tbh it’s just gonna be for gaming purposes

media list

read 3 books

> a visit from the goon squad - jennifer egan (2010)
> against boarders: the case for abolition - gracie mae bradley, luke de noronha (2022)
> fun home - alison bechdel (2006)

listened to 13 albums plus 586 songs

> tunde adebimpe - thee black boltzindie rock
> anthony naples - scannerstech house(started kind of slow, but the tracks build up and i started to get really into it)
> emma-jane thackray - weirdojazz fusion(super interesting, had some fun moments)
> cash langdon - dogscountry rock
> louis cole, jules buckley - nothingjazz fusion(exemplary musician)
> erika de casia - lifetimedowntempo
> dargz - friends and familylo-fi hip hop(i love the production dargz brings especially once some vocals are laid over the top)
> mark pritchard, thom yorke - tall taleselectronic
> stereolab - instant holograms on metal filmindietronica
> stereolab - peng!space-rock revival
> stereolab - dots and loopsart pop(wanted to explore stereolabs back-catalog but tbh i’m just not that excited by their music)
> surprise chef - superbjazz-funk
> merrick winter - california zephyrsinger-songwriter(best discovery of the year so far, see below)

watched 1 film

> sinners (2025)

played 3 games

> finished far cry 4
> finished split fiction
> started the witcher 3

other shareables

> once i discovered music was a core element of the film i booked my cinema ticket to see sinners after listening tothis episode of switched on pop. i highly recommend this podcast for people who are interested in all things music related
> i did lights for merrick winter when he supported half life, so far this year he’s been my favourite discovery at work. I bought hisalbumthe next day
> bandcamp are pushing theirplaylist feature more so instead of it being just available on the app it should soon be available online too. i’d forgotten i’d made a start to a playlist in 2023 (that i can only view on the app), anyway check out myprofile and collection
> agood videoabout why we need to fight back and end subscription based models that corp’s want to implement to everything. it touches on ownership as well, something that i’d written in my previous post

a piece about shopping irl

thinking about ways in which i don't buy anything online at all, i want to be less reliant on using tech in a consumptive way just for convenience.

so a couple of days ago i went out with the intention to buy a video game called clair obscur: expedition 33 and out of the six stores i visited nowhere had it in stock! while it was slightly disappointing that i didn’t manage to buy it, i think it teaches a valuable lesson in patience, discovery and excitement. back when i was a kid, as a family we would occasionally go to the mall at weekends for some retail therapy. as i got older i started to develop my own tastes and explore new things without my parents' influence. i’d buy my own books and cd’s just from the cover alone. but when I really wanted something, it became a mission. i’d scour the shelves of ottakers or virgin megastore on the prowl for a particular book or album, many times i was disappointed in not being able to bring whatever it was back home. but the days i found what i was looking for, the elation and excitement i felt from having it in my hands gave me such joy, i couldn’t wait to get back to lose my evenings and weekends to whatever it was.

now, you may be thinking “surely after that unsuccessful jaunt to the shops you’d want to use an online platform to buy it?” actually, no - it had only just reinforced the idea that i should do my shopping in the real world. i interacted with staff, discovered new things, and had a pretty good coffee from a place i’d never visited before. this made the whole experience of buying something more enjoyable than clicking through an ugly website where it feels so impersonal and anticlimactic, i’d still have to wait for it to be delivered anyway. thinking about how the online shopping experience is for me, all i can say is that it’s functional, as in “well it works… but there’s nothing else to it.” being in the real world made it a memorable day, not like the times where i’ve bought something and forgotten about it until it has arrived.

coming back to when will i get the game, who knows? i know it’ll happen but quite honestly what is the rush, however when i do spot clair obscur: expedition 33 out in the wild i’m gonna be so thrilled.

as always the journey, and the surprises along the way, is what life is about.

april '25

> very busy month at work for me, at one point it felt like i was only existing in two places. the theatre and my bed
> think i experienced some depersonalization while getting my lunch during the long run of shifts i had. at one point i looked over my should to see the local underground station and felt like i was brought back into my body and stopped running on auto-pilot
> something that has made a positive difference to my life is setting a shortcut on my ipad to automatically play NTS radio in the morning. what a great way to start the day with music and not be jolted awake by an alarm
> currently my go to snack is grapes and almonds, i like that they are opposites. soft, wet grapes against dry, hard almonds. yum.
> lastly i managed to squeeze in one last exhibition visit this month, which was kinda mid. but i bought some new perfume that i am excited to have as my summer fragrance

media list

read 2 books
> memorial - bryan washington (2020)
> the road to wigan pier - george orwell (1937)

listened to 14 albums plus 604 songs
> panchiko - gingko indie rock
> vegyn, air - blue moon safari electronic“hearing something you're so familiar with in a different way hits different”
> alabaster de plume - a blade because a blade is whole spiritual jazz
> sam gendal, nate mercereau - digi-squires fourth world
> dirty projectors, stargaze - song of the earth modern classical
> floating points - lazarus (ost) electronic “a great soundtrack for me to design this site to”
> los thuthanaka - los thuthanaka experimental “a cacophony of sounds but i couldn’t stop listening to the layers”
> bon iver - sable fable indie folk
> park jiha - all living things fusion gugak
> dean blunt & elias ronnerfelt - lucre slacker rock
> boards of canada - tomorrows harvest idm
> black country new road - forever howlong art pop "aoty contender?"
> cousin kula - vitamin d psych soul
> ras michael and the sons of negus - rastafari roots reggae

watched 14 films (11 were short films)
> the panic in needle park (1971)
> the french connection (1971)
> the bones (2021)
> animated desires (various years) - mubi’s curation of short sexually charged animations. favourites from the collection - maurice's bar, pussy, tooma beaneath the valley of the wild wolves
> long good friday (1981)

other sharables

> two things that i love are london and history, combining them is jago hazard who mainly makes videos about london’s transport. think trains, design, and architecture
> this was a fun piece to read “hating is not trolling. trolls have no philosophical or epistemological underpinnings, they’re just there to annoy people. haters are on an endless pursuit of aesthetic and spiritual beauty and are repulsed when they see something grotesque being worshipped.”
> might have spent far too long swiping on here, but at least my brain didn’t rot

march '25

> march is always the month where i can start to see a light at the end of a tunnel. literally the clocks changed on the penultimate day of the month, and i'm suddenly waking up happy and at a normal time
> the start of birthday season
> having ambitions to build things, which i suppose has manifested into this site
> saw a couple of exhibitions: noah davis, and brasil! brasil! the birth of modernism — took some photos of some of the pieces i liked and will share in photos
> thinking a lot about how i want to take back some 'control' in my life. hope to write about it soon...

media list

read 3 books
> the complete maus – art spiegelman (1986)
> man's search for meaning – viktor frankl (1946)
> down and out in paris and london – george orwell (1933)

listened to 7 albums plus 939 songs
> panda bear – sinister gift (2025)
> cameron winter – heavy metal (2024)
> anthony szmierek – the service station at the end of the universe (2025) "reminds me of the streets ‘original pirate material’ that came out like 20 years ago"
> saya grey – saya (2025)
> lady gaga – mayhem (2025)
> cloakroom – last leg of the human table (2025) "new discovery for me but looking to go through their back catalog after hearing this"
> men i trust – equus asinus (2025)

watched 4 films
> a fish called wanda (1988) watched this so many times as a kid in the 90’s
> the substance (2024) chose to watch this on an overnight shift i was working — not too scary but kind of grotesque
> anora (2024)
> puk nini (1994)

games
> far cry 4 (2014)
> split fiction (2025)

other sharables

> read a few things about online archiving — this is a great piece
> i used last.fm for years, but when itunes became apple music, scrobbling stopped working. discovered musicat, which supports apple music and spotify — signed up immediately
> most of the 939 songs i listened to last month were from kate bush, and this live version of 'them heavy people' was on rotation

post 1

hey, just figuring out how to code. trying to make this look nice and decide what to include on here — maybe like weekly updates, what i've been watching, reading, listening to, just general thoughts and quick notes.

did think to call this "feed" and have it act like my own kind of social media feed, but that's too much work haha.

but i'm gonna continue building this and watching veep. peace...