Things Are Sounding Good

Things Are Sounding Good

I’ve spent all day at the practice room today rehearsing with Forest Bed. The upcoming weekends September though October are all given over to recording a new EP and some singles. So this has been my view all day

We do an all day band practice a couple of times a year. Usually those days are about jamming and writing new material we can work on every other week at out regular rehearsals. Today however, was pretty meticulous going though the songs which we’ve been playing live all year and fixing the BPMs in place for recording, and the arrangements. I’ve changed some of my bass parts and I think things are sounding better. One song has suddenly got quite dubby with a new bass rhythm and works really well. Looking forward to recording.

As I’ve got older I’ve come to value these all day band practices a lot more. I guess when you are young you take them for granted. That three of four of you can find a whole day to go make music together. When you are 21 you can just drop everything with very little notice and have an all day band practice. But now approaching 40, its a very different story. These weekends, both this practice and the recording dates have been in the diary since – like – Easter. Fixed immovable blocks of time. Our families, friends, dependents etc all know that its happening, and have done for months – We are very lucky. Also the same with gigs. We had to turn down High Tide Festival 2025 as we already have stuff in the diary! lol.

As I type this I’m re-integrating, as it’s very disorienting being in a very loud, and quite dark room with no windows for hours on end. At least we finished up and managed to get home before it got dark, but I do sort of feel like i’ve skipped a day. Fast forwarded from morning to evening. Band practice in my mind is 3 hours twice a month on a Tuesday evening. Not 7 hours on a Sunday! Anyways. Things are sounding good and i’m looking forward to recording

Talking Spook Country

I was back on wolf pod to speak about the second book in William Gibson’s Blue Ant Trilogy Spook County!

Today I’m talking with Jay Springett, writer, thinker, worldrunner, and podcaster. You can find him at his website, his Permanently Moved podcast, or on substack at Experience.Computer. Check out his recent appearance on the Ecogradia podcast! It’s great.

Today, we’re onto Spook Country, which reminded me more of Gibson’s previous novels. And so your mileage may vary with that, but I think it’s a bit of a reversion.

Permanently Moved

Dig Back In

If you create something that’s to your taste, you have to dig back in. Figure out exactly what it was that worked for you and not the algorithm. Iterate on it, and do it again. 

Full Show Notes: https://thejaymo.net/2024/09/21/2424-dig-back-in/

• Experience.Computer: https://experience.computer/
• Worldrunning.guide: https://worldrunning.guide/
• Subscriber Zine! https://startselectreset.com/

Permanently moved is a personal podcast 301 seconds in length, written and recorded by @thejaymo

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Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Got a python dev environment for PROJECT DIVE up and running – only took half a day.
• Two half days on PROJECT ENTRY
• Catch up calls with a few people in the USofA
• Recorded Wolf Pod with Eddie!
• First draft of SSRZ #011 done

Terminal Access

Lee Derouen working with the ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination has written a series of short stories about the possible futures for “third places” as outputs from workshopping program

The term was coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg in his 1989 book The Great Good Place; Oldenburg argued that third places are important spaces for exploring our identities, promoting social equality, and nourishing a culture of democracy.   

At the workshop, researchers, artists, and other creative thinkers used speculative fiction and previous research findings to imagine possible configurations of third places in the future, with the year 2057 as an point of reference. Following the workshop, fiction author Lee Derouen created three short science fiction stories highlighting the norms, rituals, communities, and social activities that bring people together, and artist Brian Miller created visual representations to accompany each story.

Dipping the Stacks

Can Solar Costs Keep Shrinking? – by Tomas Pueyo

Today, if you want solar electricity in your home, the cost of the actual solar panels is minimal. Over 60% of the costs are soft! It’s harder to shrink those and all the other costs outside of the panels.

Hope for the web | James’ Coffee Blog

I think having a personal website is a vote for a different future: one where you can craft a little place online that’s yours, made in the way that you want. Your website may play a small part in a constellation of tools you use on the web: social media, chat communities, and more. But, a small part is still a part. It’s like learning an instrument. You don’t have to play all the time to find that every time you go back there is something new to learn or create or share.

Why toilet paper keeps getting smaller and smaller – The Hustle

There is no end to America’s most egregious case of shrinkflation

You Don’t Have to be a Try Guy – Freddie deBoer

one of the Guys – I don’t know which one, they’re all pretty interchangeable – Tried cheating on his wife, in what was described as a consensual relationship with an employee. The other three of the Guys Who Try responded by firing the cheater. For reasons that are utterly bamboozling to me, this became a massive news story.

Nostalgia and grief | A Working Library

Stability will be the fundamental value proposition of a certain kind of politics in our time of undoing, and we need to reckon with just how seductive it will prove to be for too many of our neighbors in the global North. For them, the overriding instinct will be to press on, to avoid confronting any of the increasingly blatant asymmetries of access to care that characterize our world, just so long as someone promises to preserve the rudiments of a comfortingly familiar way of life….

Reading

I finished Gibson’s Zero History and recorded the episode for it with Eddie. It’ll be out in October. Having read the trilogy back to back I think this was my favourite of the three – Pattern Recognition is of course a masterpiece. But in the context of the trilogy, this book has the most engaging best plot! probably because it’s a relatable coming of age novel.

I blasted though the audiobook of Morvenn Vahl: Spear of Faith by Jude Reid. It’s Warhammer pulp obviously but a fun ride. Past the time at 2x speed whilst I was doing house work and the washing up etc.

I started reading Monastic Wisdom – Letters of St. Joseph the Hesychast. I’m just reading one a night right before sleep. St. Joseph the Hesychast 1897 – 1959 lived on Mount Athos and was made a saint in 2019. He was instrumental in spreading the mystical approach to advocating for the use of the Jesus Prayer on the Mountain.

I’m not a big space opera fan. But i’ve finally given in and started listening to Artifact Space by Miles Cameron. It’s 16 hours long. I’m only 45mins in. No opinions formed about it so far

In Green We Dream – Parlor Greens

I’ve been so hyped for this album since I saw the LP trailer earlier this year. A jazz-soul-funk super group with some of the best musicians in the world. The albums opener is funky as hell. There isn’t anything extra about this track at all – just pure straight up fire

I also recommend the albums title track. I think it’s my favourite tune on the record. The thing I love about this track are the chords. Really fun, playful and inventive. All the weird inversions and progressions. This tune is super timeless I think. Love it

As a bonus here’s the behind the scenes Raw Tape Breakdwon video about how the album was recorded live, straight to tape.

Remember Kids: