w/e 2022-10-09

I start most weekdays listening to NTS’s Early Bird Show which is a lovely, calm way to begin a day. Interesting, good, but gentle music, nice DJs, no news, no jingles, no adverts, no phone-ins, no “posses”. Unlike most NTS shows I even recognise some of the (older) tunes (Mazzy Star, Robert Wyatt, David Sylvian, Cocteau Twins, Stina Nordenstam, etc.) but that’s very much a minority – I listen to radio to hear new-to-me music.

Other than a few random snatches of other NTS shows I haven’t listened to live radio for years but it’s a nice way to feel very slightly connected to other people, aware of those around the world hearing exactly what you’re hearing at that moment,^* even without dipping into the NTS Discord to see a few of them chatting.

(^* I’m sure I saw someone tweet something similar this week, but I can’t find it now.)

Out here in the quiet, surrounded by fields, knowing there are many others, awake, alive, enjoying something that I’m enjoying, is an affirming way to start a day.

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§ Switching musical gears, I’ve also been enjoying the two Prolapse Peel Sessions released as part of Precious Recordings’ consistently-designed collection:

A few weeks back I was relieved that, after carelessly watching a Prolapse music video on YouTube, my keyword-based recommendations were only very briefly made unusable.

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After marveling at some of the recent t-shirt weather last week, this weekend, early October, I was sat outside in the sun reading without a t-shirt. Madness.

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§ Webmentions might be working again, you’ll both be mildly interested to hear.

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§ I’ve been trying to find good two-person scenes as candidates for my next acting class but, while there are sites that collect lots of them, I rarely come up with anything decent after a lot of searching. I’m trying to find something age-appropriate, British or not too American (we don’t need to do accents, but it sounds weird if the dialogue uses too much US slang), where both characters have similar amounts to say, and that has some tension, conflict or strong wants/actions.

It’d probably be easier if I ever noticed good scenes while watching TV or movies but, like failing to notice good direction or cinematography, I rarely spot them while watching something for pleasure.

This morning I even started thinking I’ll have to make a website that collects details about scenes, filterable by genders, ages, countries, themes, etc. Don’t make me add another project to the list.

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§ We finished watching The Eddy (Netflix) this week, which was enjoyable. Some characters are a bit annoying – Elliot Udo’s daughter is even more self-centered than he is – but I guess that’s what makes for drama. Worth a watch if an American running a jazz club in Paris, and getting inadvertently caught up with dodgy people sounds your bag.

I assume there aren’t any going to be any more seasons, but a google to try and find out was a bit depressing – there are so many almost identical spammy websites all purporting to have news (“Here’s what we know…”) about possible upcoming seasons of TV shows. I’d say that spammy content-farming website makers will be first up against the wall come the revolution, but there’s quite a queue. At least we, as a country, have experience of managing long queues now.

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§ I nearly forgot to add – we also finished season four of Ghosts which continued to be pleasant, silly fun. The only downside is that I realised I no longer have any interest in Alison or (especially) Mike, and so any scenes about whatever dull schemes they’re up to are a distraction from the funny good bits.

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§ That’s all.