THE PREMATURE BLOSSOM
On the run again. Rubber slapping concrete, accumulating into the blood-filled blister on my big toe which reminds me that I can’t outrun myself. Blossoms in February. A mild winter. Yellow warnings of rain. Yellow buds bursting out of the grass in crop circles. Portents of some message I cannot decipher. Charging past it all…
David Fincher’s ‘The Killer’; So Good it’s Almost Boring
‘Purely logistical, narrowly focussed by design’ I used to go to dance classes as a teenager and occasionally entered into local festivals competing against other dance schools. Sitting on plastic chairs, clutching polystyrene cups of tea in my costume and make-up, waiting nervously for my turn to go up on stage, I would watch the…
Fitbit Anxiety
How my smart watch triggered my anxiety nightmare Knowledge is power Is it more true that knowledge is power, or that ignorance is bliss? It’s now taken as a given that the hallmark of a progressive, modern civilization is the unstoppable acquisition of information. The more we know, the more certainty we can have about…
In praise of ‘scheduling grief’
How ‘Succesion’ deals with grief in the workplace. In the latest episode of Succession’s fourth and final season, Tom walks in on his separated wife, Shiv, having a private moment; an “appointment that I can’t reschedule” as she tells her brothers, Roman and Kendall, to escape a meeting with them. When Tom interrupts Shiv’s 20…
Balancing Self-Love with the Desire for Self-Improvement in 2021
New Year, New Lockdown The beginning of a new year brings with it the promise of a fresh start. A chance to reflect on our shortcomings, diagnose any weaknesses in our character, and set up new goals and habits for the year ahead. Of course there is no real reason why January is a better…
The West’s COVID response reminds us that we still haven’t learned to talk about death.
It might not be a party trick that makes you many friends, but it can be useful to remind yourself, periodically, that your life will end. You will lose everything and everyone you have ever known or loved, and then you will die. Every friend you have ever had, every colleague, every person that you…
‘Anywhere But Westminster’ gets to the heart of the Brexit debacle.
23rd November, 2019 Anywhere but Westminster first popped into my digital awareness in 2015 when the series visited Nuneaton. Why was my hometown making an appearance on a political YouTube series from The Guardian? Who at the socialist paper had thought this place, of all places, worthy of media attention? The post-mining town in the…
Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ will tell you what kind of a film viewer you are
Mild spoilers ahead. Try and keep up. Tenet is a difficult film. Take the nonlinearity of Memento, the narrative layers of Inception and mix them with the futuristic technology of Interstellar and you’d still be several PhDs away from getting a grip on the complexity of this high-concept thriller. Even the ‘Tenet: Explained’ videos on…
UBIK on Lockdown: Episode 02
Episode 02 of the UBIK on Lockdown sessions! A slightly less rusty mix of some house and UKG bangers with a few wild cards thrown in; highlights include the new tune ‘Baby’ from Four Tet (click here for the music video I mention!), some Shanti Celeste and that classic belter from Wax, as well as…
Mix: UBIK on Lockdown Episode 01
My first mix recorded under lockdown, after a short period of technical frustration. A slightly avant-garde selection by my usual standards, with fairly rusty mixing after some time away from the radio studio and a neglect of my controller at home. Featuring the new beauty from Bicep ‘Atlas’, as well as some old CJ Bolland…
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The Jaded Optimist 