I wanted to write up the last few months that I've  effectively in hiding but they can really be summarised as "moving house is really bloody hard", and that's probably as much as I need to communicate on that front. Other than that is's really the normal collection of links and videos that I've captured from my online diet. General wow factor things A Skydiver Appears to Fall from the Sun Music Not quite sure where this came from but it's an oddly hypnotic watch. This track has stuck with me and pops into my head at odd moments. U2 + gospel choir makes track make more sense. Aha's Take on Me, but it's Norwegian metal. Yep. Just fun If you haven't treated yourself to Blue Eye Samurai on Netflix I'd recommend you do so before season 2.

  A rockslide in Greenland and the subsequent Tsunami set the Earth ringing for 9 days. I have been re-listening to The Silt Verses to drive some inspiration to do more writing. This is still a great bit of writing and audio production.

  ANZAC Day Service - Cromer RSL Whilst I have studied the history of the First and Second World Wars and firmly believe that understanding that history, why and how it happened, is important in understanding the contemporary world, something about the memorial ceremonies sets my teeth on edge. I think it's the way they become an excuse for mawkishness and fawning over the military, which I find more than moderately distasteful.  Remembrance Day, ANZAC Day and others are also used by the jingoistic to goad and brow-beat those less inclined to take the 'my country, right or wrong' approach to these conflicts. We are asked to remember the fallen without also necessarily remembering the cavalcade of negligence, incompetence and stupidity from their leaders that set them on the path to death. ANZAC Day at least has slightly less of this as Australia and New Zealand commemorate those sent to die at Gallipoli by their leaders half a world away; although I will qualify this with t...

It's been a while and I need to refresh some things starting with some more regular posts on here to replace some of the doomscrolling from elsewhere. Audiobooks I listen to a fair few audiobooks but often it's the same ones again and again to try and get me to sleep when I have about of insomnia. However I take on new ones which I listen to whilst doing chores and gardening so that I've heard them properly. There have been some new accessions into the collection which I can recommend. Both are noir detective type genre fiction but take a very different approach. Nick Harkaway's work is something I almost always enjoy and he has some real strength in depth (ake on Gnomon if you want a real challenge). His book Titanium Noir is a lot of fun with some really great ideas in it. It's more sci-fi than straight detective fiction. I've also been enjoying the Fetch Phillips stories by Aussie actor and author Luke Arnold (you might have seen him as Long John SIlver in ...

I've been considering buying myself this BBC Maestro course just so that I can listen to Alan Moore. Edit: Auntie has, of course, disabled playback outside of YouTube so now linked there instead.

Don't ignore the spies' role in the creation of the media landscape of the late twentieth century. They used it to contain radical voices and maintain a dominant narrative that suited their strategic agenda. That's the chief lesson in this series, but it takes a while to really arrive and it takes many a digression through the lives of its three main protagonists on the way to it. A worthwhile listen if you have an interest in this era of history and culture. “ Not All Propaganda is Art ”  tells the story of three writers who got caught up in the Cultural Cold War between the years of 1956 and 1960: New Yorker writer and “little magazine” champion Dwight Macdonald, British theater critic and “Angry Young Man” Kenneth Tynan, and legendary Native Son novelist Richard Wright, who at this time was living in exile in France in protest of American racism. All three collaborated with and were targeted by American, British, and French security agencies in Cold War propaganda battle...