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Late Summer Light

I wrote last week that I felt the summer was waning. Which of course it is, it’s much colder in the evenings than it was a month ago. But I read during the week that the reason the trees are dropping their leaves is because of the drought, and they are stressed. I understand their situation fully. I too need to drink more water and chill nore.

So I thought to myself yesterday (Sunday) that I’d just post my weeknotes on Bank Holiday Monday morning. Now here I am at 9.30pm just only now sitting down to finish up the blog post.

I’ve been super busy all day, busy with domestic things; cleaning and tidying etc. And then I spent all afternoon in a junk yard on a farm filming a music video with my band.

I’m somewhat dubious as to what the final product will end up like lol, but I enjoyed spending the day farting about with my friends.

On an unrelated note, todays weeknotes poem was written 2nd Sept 24. But the title seemed apropos for todays post, so thought i’d share it in full.

On The Blog

4o-4 Not Found

After the user revolt, Altman publicly announced re-enabling access to legacy models for paid users—essentially giving them an upgrade pathway for the millions of free users. While this offers some comfort to users distraught at losing a friend.

All good. But internally, OpenAI needs to do a deep institutional dive into this decision.

Vote Now for the 2025 Tiny Awards!

I posted a while back that I was on the selection jury for this year’s Tiny Awards! We all went through hundreds of websites and selected our shortlist.

Voting has been open for most of August, but there are now just 10 days left to check out some of the best, most beautiful, oddest, and silliest websites of the past year.

Start Select Reset 📑

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Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Pulled all the texts from ‘The Artist‘ episodes of 301 into a PDF to test something.
• Wrote the into text for the above zine.
• Designed a rubber stamp! Currently looking at what company to go with to get it made.
• Long catch up call with some folks I haven’t spoken to ages. Was lovely to speak to them.
• Finished up a few things at current work before I take a break from the project. Still have weekly calls tho.
• Recording Wolf pod with Eddie next week as we had to move it.
• Band practice
• Edited 4.5k words of SLOP MACHINES
• Began looking at my MOST IMPOSSIBLE OBJECT text on SOLO Journalling games.

Terminal Access

I’d like to recommend this amazing piece of writing on the current ongoing efforts to make and create new and better cultivars of Garlic. It’s a wonderful topic and bit of writing. “It was a seductive notion: to create something new by making it wilder.”

You might not know that, nine months after you break off a clove and bury it, it will have fractaled into a head of near-identical cloves. You may not know that this process is faster and more consistent than planting seeds, which, like apples or citrus or rhubarb, don’t grow true — an offspring might not resemble its parent in any useful way.

But none of this is the crazy thing. The crazy thing is not that garlic isn’t grown from seeds; it’s that, for the most part, it can’t be. Ever since people began cultivating garlic — six millennia ago by some estimates, 10 by others — it’s primarily been done through asexual reproduction. In all those thousands of years, scarcely a single plant was coaxed to produce one solitary seed.

And so it forgot how.

About 15 years ago, a Missouri farmer and former union painter named Mark Brown began trying to coax true seeds from his garlic — an attempt, essentially, to undo thousands of years of domestication

Also, off range newsletter seems to be doing amazing things, funded by … an accounting software business for SME farmers and ranchers?

Reading

Still reading The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For and Believe by Richard Rohr and Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing Pain by John E. Sarno. Dipping into one or the other, or both on my kindle before bed.

I realised a few months ago that in my zeal to get though the series in 2018/19 I skipped a few of the Horus Heresy books. So going back and filling the gaps. I burnt though the audiobook of Fulgrim by Graham McNeil this week. Book 5 in the series. It was really good. Don’t remember why I skipped it the first time.

Finishing Fulgrim I moved straight into listening to The Shape of Things Unseen: A New Science of Imagination by Adam Zeman, the scientist who named the condition of Aphantasia.

Mrs Green APPLE – 10

This week i’ve been listening to J-Pop rockers Mrs Green Apple newest album. Catchy as hell math rock, where every note and guitar run is precision crafted, also their bassist is one hell of a musician. If you don’t know who MGA, are you should check them out. They are the first Japanese band to reach 10 BILLION streams, and are still the youngest home grown artists to have done a stadium tour in Japan. They are *a big deal* over there.

I really vibe with their chaotic arrangements and flitting and flirting with moods, grooves and genres in a single song. But speaking to a friend about them the other day, they find it all sonically exhausting. For me the thing that holds it all together is how front and centre the vocalist is in the mix. You cling on to the voice, whilst everything else happens around you.

This I my fav track off the album:

Remember Kids:

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Two Studio Days

This weekend just gone was also non-stop. As I said the other week, my band is recording a new EP(?) Album(?) – we have enough material for an album. Saturday and Sunday was two 8 hour days in a windowless room. We managed to get 6 songs of Bass and Drums recorded.

Our guitarist and lap steel player are going in to the room over the next weekend to start recording their tracks and vocals etc. Despite the long days, everything went very smoothly and I think across all the alternate takes we got enough recorded to build something really cool for the final record.

We have our regular rehearsal tomorrow night and, despite having just spent two days playing the songs over and over I’m looking forward to it. Mark (drummer) and I are obviously super tight together right now and it’ll be cool to bring that to the space and be really locked in for the benefit of Paul and Matt. Who obviously still need to rehearse for their recording dates coming up.

I was thinking that I might do 301 this week on recording/being in a recording studio and how experiences of them has changed since I first went into one in 2001 when I was 15/16. But I might come up with something better to talk about – who knows!

Today (Monday) has been mostly spent catching up on admin and domestic things and also little bit of work. Definitely not a day off! Back into the swing of things tomorrow.

On The Blog

Reaching Enlightenment on Todoist

I recently reached ‘Enlightenment status’ on my productivity app Todoist. An achievement unlocked by only 0.05% of users apparently. I wrote about the software and why I love it so much.

Speaking of getting things done, here’s the one core truth I can impart from my enlightened position:

If It’s Not Written Down, It Doesn’t Exist.

Start Select Reset Zine | NOTICING

Issue #11 of my zine went out to paid subscribers on the snail mail list last week and further mail was sent in the post today to new subscribers! I have a few copy’s left (So subscribe today! big things coming next issue).

Noticing is a solo mapping game encouraging mindful exploration.
The goal isn’t to travel far, but to observe deeply.

This issue contains another ‘Quiet Quest‘ I’ve designed. I’m really happy how it’s turned out. big thanks to Paul Czege for giving the draft rules a once over and asking some valuable/obvious questions as feedback.

Permanently Moved

No show this week! I’ve been too busy! Soz. Why not check out the archive if you’re missing me!

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Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• PROJECT ENTRY has a big deadline next week, so i’ve been writing reports and design documents
• Ran out of free space in notion for PROJECT DIVE – I forked out for both of us. so i’ve made an investment in the business now lol.
• Calls so many calls
• Had my winter flu jab on Wednesday and felt rotten for days afterward!
• Spent ages futzing with my local deployment of PROJECT DIVE’s codebase. But I have some how ‘malformed’ the database. Might need to roll back some git changes.

Terminal Access

I don’t have a direct link but Klint Finley mentioned in the most recent edition of his newsletter MUTATION VECTORS that he has been reading Book of The New Sun by Gene Wolfe. A book I mentioned a few month ago seems to be having a moment – settling in to culture.

Here’s what Klint had to say:

Obsessed as I am, it’s hard to recommend. Wolfe megafans will tell you that you need to read the whole series (which they actually regard as a single book rather than as a series of books), probably more than once, before you can judge it. I’ve still only read it once. But reading the whole thing, let alone reading it twice, along with commentaries and such, is a tall order.

Dipping the Stacks

Under the radar?

Current policy proposals allow companies to selectively choose what evaluations to conduct, and fail to ensure evaluation results lead to meaningful action that prevents unsafe products from entering the market.

We should take awkwardness less personally, and more seriously | Aeon Essays

Rather than being a cringey personal failing, awkwardness is a collective rupture – and a chance to rewrite the social script

Overthinkers Anonymous

I also don’t go down the “what if” anxiety rabbit holes. I don’t do the imaginary conversations in my head with my perceived “enemies” because I don’t foster the kind of resentments that I used to. I’m much more grounded with what is going on around me than I am wondering about whether I’ll get a raise on the next round of evaluations

Why is Britain poor?

This has contributed to Britain becoming ‘the most energy-starved nation in the developed world’, hammering our industrial sector; they cite the ammonia plant in Billingham which recently shut, citing high energy costs. ‘Deindustrialisation was not the inevitable result of economic progress,’ they argue, and even services-based economies like Switzerland and Sweden ‘have kept their energy costs well below ours and avoided the erosion of their industrial base that we have experienced.’

Western game studios should be very nervous about ‘Black Myth: Wukong’

“Black Myth: Wukong” was just one of over 100 domestically made titles the Chinese government approved this year. There’s a lot more coming, which should make the gaming landscape very interesting.

Reading

I finally got round to starting: Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America by Alec MacGillis. It’s a fantastic book about ‘Amazon’s impact on the wealth and poverty of towns and cities across the United States.’ It uses Amazon as a centre of gravity to tell a much wider history and has so far covered history of cardboard manufacturing, Seattle house prices and corporate lobbying and tax breaks, steel production in the late 1800’s. Its super good!

After finishing Artifact Space by Miles Cameron last month, I read Beyond the Fringe: An Arcana Imperii Collection. A collection of novella length stories set in the same universe. Just this morning I started Deep Black – book #2 in the series.

Still on deck: Wisdom – Letters of St. Joseph the Hesychast, Puppets, Gods, Brands: Theorizing the Age of Animation from Taiwan, Puppet: An Essay on Uncanny Life by Kenneth Gross

Charli XCX – Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat

I mainlined the Brat remix album this weekend on the bus to the studio. There’s some song on this remix album which in any other circumstance, would have been a legit hit.

I really like the new version of Sympathy is a Knife

Remember Kids:

The post Two Studio Days appeared first on thejaymo.net.

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

Subscribe to the Podcast: https://permanentlymoved.online/

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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:

The post Things Are Sounding Good appeared first on thejaymo.net.

Other Things First

It’s been a super busy week for me. Mostly taken up with working on my talk @ Human Entities in Lisbon on Wednesday. Then we’re going to have some down time, and get the train to Albufeira. We’re away for a week, so there’ll be no Weeknotes next week.

When I’m back, my life needs to change gear a little – I’m looking for work so will be hustling.

In other news, I’m the sort of sicko who when busy, gets very creatively inspired. Lots to do.

But I simply MUST FINISH OTHER THINGS FIRST.

Forest Bed

My band played a gig yesterday which massively interrupted the talk writing flow state – but – A. I should have planned my week better B. When one makes commitments, one must keep them.

We played a 40min set and it went really well. We have another show/day festival in Kingston in late August.

Permanently Moved

Little Computer People

Right now AI is the worst it’s ever going to be. It costs about 60 bucks a day to house a state of the art little computer person powered by an LLM in a virtual world. But what will the world be like when it costs 60p?

Full Show Notes: https://thejaymo.net/2024/06/01/2411-little-computer-people/

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Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Working on my talk for Human Entities next week in Lisbon
• Lots of calls – hope something comes of them
• Finished the draft for issue #10 of SSRZ for subscribers – I don’t rate it. Needs lots of work.
• Thinking about hypermedia and CD-ROMS because Y2K is back.

Terminal Access

Tobias Revell was interviewed over at design decode about the ‘The Interplay of Reality and Imagination in Speculative Design‘. I encourage you to click on the link to read the whole thing. At the very you should head over just to see the header photo they used of him. 😂

echnology only really becomes a locus of the future because of the Cold War with the arms and space races and second-order technologies that resulted. So our techno-sphere is somewhat coincidental – a product of political, social and cultural constructions fuelled by nationalism, greed and nihilism (that’s a whole closet theory I’m developing – that tech is essentially nihilistic) – as opposed to the myth that it’s inevitable and certain. I want to firstly challenge that inevitailism and broaden the sense of the possible and secondly understand why these particular technologies ‘stick’ in society (AI in particular).

Dipping the Stacks

A Website Is A Room

I came to this conclusion sometime during quarantine when I realized that certain websites give me a sense of shelter and rest more than others.

How to live without your phone – by Sam Kriss

After a while without my phone, I started to really notice how much everyone else was staring at theirs. On public transport in particular. Every adult is sitting there, pushing around coloured squares and popping coloured bubbles. They are playing with toys for babies. Now look at their faces. These people are not being entertained. They’re not having fun. They are turning their brains off while they wait.

Crypto’s cultural potential — The Digital Buffets

You can conceptualise these tools in terms of the five Cs, each representing the capabilities of blockchains as a (i) catalogue, (ii) custodian, (iii) canvas, (iv) computer, and (v) casino.

“In your search of greater meaning in this Sweetgreenified life, you decide to go to the climbing gym.”

You suspect that could make you truly happy. But also, you have to get real. This is a capitalist world. Pursuing a “dream”? Think of all the ways it wouldn’t work. All that rejection. All those hours. Now that wouldn’t make you happy, would it?

Why you need a “WTF Notebook”

Every time I join a new team, I go to the next fresh page, and on top of that page I write: “WTF – [Team Name].” Then I make a note every time I run into something that makes me go “wtf,” and a task every time I come up with something I want to change.

Reading

I finished Matt Alt’s Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World. Absolutely fantastic book. Can’t recommend it enough. It re-situates much of the cultural weirdness we are experiencing online as part of a 60+ year long dialogue of exchange between Japanese and American culture. Feedback loops of influence and recapitulation.

I finally went back to and finished The Breathing Book by Brad Tompson. The exercises are designed to allow you to explore your chest, posture and diaphragm. By giving you more awareness of whats going on, what muscles are moving and how posture effects the breath you can begin to re-learn how to breath as an adult after years of not thinking about it. Pairs well with James Nestors Breath book I think.

Moving on from all that I *finally* started reading How Music Works by David Byrne. I bought it back in 2012 and it’s taken me 12 years to get round to reading it. So good!

Fearless Movement – Kamasi Washington

The new album is a bit good isn’t it!? The opening track is an absolute riot.

Remember Kids:

The post Other Things First appeared first on thejaymo.net.

Where Interests Take You

I’ve been thinking about how the longer I go from spending time on social media, the more wide open my media diet is becoming. My digital media diet still remains similar as its always been, consuming work by peers and friends. And panning the streams.

But not being on social media has given me so much time and brain space back. It’s all just so nice. So I’ve been reading even more than usual the last few months since I got back from Thailand, and reading across a far broader range of interests.

I’ve added more history of computing books on the TBR pile, I’ve just started The New New Journalism: Conversations with America’s Best Nonfiction Writers on Their Craft by Robert Boynton. And for no reason at all other than this is where my interests are taking me, I’m thinking about reading a biography of Eisenhower I found in Oxfam next.

The main thing I’m noticing is the pivot to long form. perhaps I want this to define the rest of my year. Blog posts are better than tweets, but books beat everything. There is something about a long sustained argument and unfolding of narrative that I find super appealing as an antidote to the speed of the social web.

Solarpunk seems to be a bit of a theme for me this year, so I’m going to me make it a focus. I’d like to re-engage with some of the recent pop literature on climate and ecosystems restoration etc – I stopped reading it all in 2020.

Can anyone recommend something good? Comments open below.

Forest Bed

My band Forest Bed is playing the legendary Whats Cookin’ in Leytonstone on Wednesday (24th)!!!

We’re supporting Scott Mickelson, who is over from the USA on tour. His first album was Grammy Balloted so its a real honour to be opening up for him in London! It’s our first support slot opening for a out of big out of town band, so we’re going to do our best to do London’s alt-folk-rock / cosmic Americana scene proud! (admittedly its a small scene).

Another date for your diaries, is we’ll be playing Lambstock 2024 in Surbiton on the 1st June. No times or details yet, but its one of the best weekends of live music in my local area. Come down and hang out south of the river!

Permanently Moved

Little Wars of the Worlds

A review of HG Wells’ most important work, Little Wars. The book that changed the way table top war games were played and paved the way for the development of role-playing and modern war games.

Full Show Notes: https://thejaymo.net/2024/04/20/2405-little-wars-of-the-worlds/

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Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Started the edit/re-write of part 2 of Writing The Impossible Object essay
• Wrote a big PDF on the ‘state of things’ for a compnay I may be involved with
• Recorded TWO experience.computer interviews
• Band practice
• Prepped for Call with Dougald
• Started work my Solarpunk Talk for June
• Calls. So many calls that are leading no where work wise 🙁

Terminal Access

Dré Labre over at Design Fiction Daily has just released a super nice Comfy UI tool for stable diffusion called Trace Transform:

a versatile tool for supercharging one’s imagination, it can be used to speed up your creative workflow and come up with some novel future imaginings to inspire design fiction.

Dre and I have chatted a few times about stable diffusion workflows and its really cool to see that his has become robust enough to become a product!

Dipping the Stacks

The Incredible Psychodrama That Is Millions Of Helldivers 2 Players Versus One Guy Named Joel – Aftermath

“We have done an emergency expansion to the GM’s team,” Baskin said. “He’s only one guy, and he was just not sleeping. I remember over the launch weekend, he was sending me messages at 4am because we were the only ones still awake.”
Baskin went on to say that Joel has “a lot of advisors.”

Walden Pond

Walden Pond is a little paper zine that comes once a month in the mail ✉. It’s full of a selection of the articles you’ve saved to Pocket, so you know that you’re interested in everything inside.

Seems cool?

Who Killed Prestige TV? Toward a “Good Fan” Theory of Television ‹ Literary Hub

Peak TV draws its audience in to a Spotified relationship to art. For a low, low price, lightly bundled streamers offer personalization in lieu of experimentation. And even when new ground seems broken, TV is undercut by the binging style of its consumption.

Interview with Raph Koster: The Declaration of Rights of Avatars – Fieldnotes from the Metaverse

From the beginning everybody intuitively spoke about virtual worlds as places. Nobody thought of them as being like a party line call. Nobody thought of them as being pieces of software. We casually spoke about “being there.” Everything was using metaphors of ”placeness”, of movement, of embodiment, but none of the legal views reflected that.

How A Small Video Game Narrative Studio Wound Up At The Heart Of A Massive, Anti-Woke Conspiracy Theory – Aftermath

While the Sweet Baby conspiracy theory has picked up steam among larger content creators in recent weeks – leading to trending topics on Twitter and millions of views on YouTube – many of those who’ve propagated it over the past few months demonstrably have no idea how game development works.

Reading

I finished The Essential Letters 1936 – 2004 by Alistair Cooke. I grew up with Cooke on the radio, on a Sunday morning both Mum and Dad were big fans. Its a mammoth audiobook, but well worth a listen. I can’t get over his 2,869 broadcasts over nearly 58 years. What an achievement. I thought 250+ eps of 301 was good going! lol

I fired up The Chapter’s Due by Graham McNeill. Book 6 and currently the last book in the Ultramarines series focused on the space marine Uriel Ventris. Its more of the same pulpy 40k nonsense. LOL.

I started reading The Breathing Book: A Practical Guide to Natural Breathing by Brad Thompson on my kindle this week. Been on there for ages since it was referenced in the Feldenkrais book I read a while ago. It is quite a good practical book, aimed at western people who have never really encountered other breathing modalities.

Also started The New New Journalism: Conversations with America’s Best Nonfiction Writers on Their Craft by Robert Boynton.

Claire Rousay – Sentiment

I guess the album of the week is Swift’s desperate ongoing attempt to become lana del ray, but the album that I’ve had the most conversations about is Claire Rousay’s (previously on the blog) emo album Sentiment

It’s the inevitable fusion of the current emo revival and the ambient trends in contemporary electronica. Low midwest riffs, strings, autotuned vocals and vocoda’s. It’s dreamy and shoegazy. Tracks also incorporate birdsong and other field recordings.

Headline track on the album is probably lover’s spit plays in the background:

But I also have a real soft spot for please 5 more minutes (feat. Lala Lala). its wonderful octave guitar parts, synth, field recordings and autotune.

She’s playing at the ICA next month on the 29th. I think I might grab a ticket and go ticket for one – unless anyone is up for coming with me?

Remember Kids:

The post Where Interests Take You appeared first on thejaymo.net.

What’s the Time?

I bought a new watch this week! It arrived on Saturday.

At the time of writing I’ve been wearing it for about 24hs or so.

I’m not sure what Casio model it actually is as I got it for less than 10 quid on ebay. It’s plastic where as the A168WA-1WDF is made from stainless steel.

I bought a super cheap one to begin with as I haven’t worn a watch since about 2001. lol. As a teenager I maintained that I didn’t need to wear a watch ever as I always had my phone with me.

But 23 years later I realise the folly in my line of thinking. A phone in 2024 is a slab of dark glass full of demons clawing for my attention. I reckon that 10% of my average 78ish phone unlocks a day are a result of checking the time and then diving in to check a notification or whatever.

5/6 times already I’ve looked at my watch rather than pulling my phone out. The most recent/conscious memory of doing so being in the queue at the supermarket earlier today. I wondered what the time was, became aware of my phone in my pocket, but then also of the strap around my wrist at the same time. I think I’m going to need to practice what the Alexander Technique calls ‘Conscious Awareness‘ for a bit to retrain my habits around ‘where the time is‘.

I’m going to give myself a month before I start fully falling down the watch rabbit hole as need to give wearing one some time to bed in physically. But to be quite honest, I’ve been down this hole for a while. I’m already thinking I’d like a real A168WA-1WDF. And for about a year I’ve been drooling over mid 1970’s LCD watches on US ebay – which aren’t all that expensive – as LCD watches aren’t very collectable right now. I’d also quite like the stealth modded Casio F-91W with a nylon NATO strap I’ve seen on etsy as a fashion piece.

There’s a part of me that feels very silly that he’s bought a watch. That said i’m sure there’s plenty of you reading right now who have always worn one? Like I said earlier I was so dead set against even the need for wearing a watch in my formative years. Now I have one I feel like … I dunno. An old man? An adult?

Ultimately, buying a watch (lol) is just another action in my years long battle to reclaim a sense of sovereignty over my own attention. I’m hoping that its physical presence (I can see it in my peripheral vision right now as I type) is going to act as an aide-memoire or mnemonic to keep me on track.

Two Short Things!

Open Croissant

I’m speaking at ‘Open Croissant‘ this Friday in London. A blockchain gaming conference organised by the London AW Floating Croissant Chaos Agents telegram group I’m a member of. I’m going to be reprising my talk from istanbul on Myth-making Mechanisms in Autonomous World Design but the last 1/4 of the talk will focus in a bit more depth on their importance to the design of Moddable Worlds in preparation for the AA conference/hackerton in Lisbon later this spring (which is till haven’t decided if I’m attending or not). The conference is also the launch of Issue 1 of Floating Worlds zine that I edited and did the layout for.

Sunday Sessions

The good Dougald Hine is starting a new live conversation series called ‘Sunday Sessions’.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been planning something new, a way to share some more of the conversations and friendships that animate my own work, and a context to create some new conversations that I’ve been wanting to have.

So I’d like to invite you to the Sunday Sessions, a season of “overheard conversations”, open to paid subscribers to this Substack. Starting on 10 March, once a fortnight, on a Sunday evening (Swedish time), you’re welcome to join me and a guest whose work gets me thinking. Sometimes it will be a friend who I talk with regularly, other times someone whose projects or writing I’m excited about.

I’m honoured to have been asked to take part as guest during Season 1. I’ll be speaking on the 21st April.

If you are a zine subscriber email me and would like to watch live and participate in the chat I can sort out the zoom link – email me.

Forest Bed

My ‘post-country band‘ played a gig at Leo’s in Sydenham recently here’s some videos from the set:

The track Light Begins to Fade is on our Placeholders EP but the new live version above has more of a groove and is less ‘slow and sad‘. lol.

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Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

Due to being sick this week I’m behind again. And time is runnign out to get all the things I wanted to do done before 301 restarts at the end of the month.

• The floating worlds zine went off to print – after much export strees. PDFs are basically rocket science.
• Had a very lively call with Warhammer historian Jordan Sorcery
• Had a great call with Ross from Impossible Object
• Moved one step further to worldrunning.guide clicking over to version 2
• Spreadsheets for Novara are all done now. Now i’m investigating Google Looker which I understand

Terminal Access

Gordon has started a new series on Animism over on his youtube channel, separate from the Runesoup Podcast. Supported by material in his own book ani.mystic G travels to Lake Mungo – “a dried-up ice age lake bed filled with thousands of powerful Aboriginal artefacts that changed the course of the planet’s history.” Great stuff.

Dipping the Stacks

The Intellectual Obesity Crisis – by Gurwinder – The Prism

Unable to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant, you become concerned by trivialities and outraged by fiction. These concerns and outrages push you to consume even more, and all the time that you’re consuming, you’re prevented from doing anything else: learning, focusing, even thinking.

Culture of Criticism – by Peter N Limberg – Less Foolish

Cultivate offline friends of virtue who are not shy about disagreeing and are lovingly critical of character and proposition.

The First and Best Writing Advice I Ever Received

“Finish things.” This is the best writing advice I was given but also more or less the first writing advice I ever received.

The Information Environment: Toward a Deeper Enshittification Thesis

Print was a perfected technology, an unsurpassable way of sharing information and ideas and stories — and we are all in the process of throwing it away for something we know is worse,

The Power Of Abstract Thinking In The Unseen Mind

People with aphantasia are more likely to work in scientific and mathematical industries than in creative sectors. This suggests that the absence of specific tokens may, paradoxically, enhance the ability for abstract conceptualization, enabling unique contributions to fields that thrive on ‘type’ thinking.

Reading

I started and finished reading the final version a novel by Andrew Dana Hudson. He sent me an unfinished draft way back during the pandemic. The seed of the idea that became this novel. It’s super pace-y and a real page turner. I like how the short chapters are. They propel the story forward. I really hope he sells it soon!

This week I also inhaled Angron the Red Angel by David Guymer. It’s Warhammer 40k nonsense, lots of explosions and genetically enhanced super soldiers shouting and being angry. Love it.

Ki moun ou ye – Nathalie Joachim

Until this week I hadn’t heard of Grammy-nominated Nathalie Joachim. But I have now.

Nathalie Joachim is a Brooklyn born Haitian-American flutist, composer, and vocalist known for creating “a unique blend of… classical music, hip-hop, electronic programming and soulful vocals…

The album is incredible. Such a unique voice. The drum programming is out of this world. The rhythmic attitude underpin the album and form the foundation for the vocals as the main melodic instrument. Wonderful album.

Remember Kids:

The post What’s the Time? appeared first on thejaymo.net.

Spent all day at a 6 hour band practice today. First of the year, was nice to see the boys.

My band The Forest Bed will be back at Leo’s Cafe in Sydenham this Saturday. £10 for a ticket, the’ll be music and poets and you get food.

Leo’s is such a welcoming venue and the nights they put on are awesome.

If you are in South London why not grab a ticket and swing by?

Here’s us playing at Leo’s last October 23:

Experience.Computer

This months episode went out.
My interview with writer and social thinker Dougald Hine.

https://pca.st/ub74px2p

Jay Springett leads writer and social thinker Dougald Hine through a series of imaginative exercises.

Then they discuss:

• How the internet came in like a tide
• The importance of attention and presence
• The significance of writing by hand and its impact on self-expression and communication
• The power of conversation and its ability to shape and influence ideas and more

Read More

Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Been working on the layout and design for a 60 page edition of my zine
• Wrote so many emails
• Had a call with Dougald Hine
• Had a call with Neilson
• Started writing a long thing. Not sure what its about or where its going.
• Trying to figure out my Q1
• Did some spreadsheet work for Novara, more to come

Terminal Access

Julian wrote a thing about the thing Matt made using the same thing Matt is using to write poems.

Dipping the Stacks

The moral imperative to learn from diverse phenomenal experiences | Aeon Essays

Most people report having an inner voice. For example, 83 per cent (3,445 out of 4,145 people in our sample) ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ with the statement ‘When I read I tend to hear a voice in my mind’s ear.’ A similar proportion – 80 per cent – ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ with the statement ‘I think about problems in my mind in the form of a conversation with myself.’ This proportion goes up even more when asked about social problems: 85 per cent ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’

How the internet became the modern purveyor of ancient magic | Aeon Essays

From the Renaissance humanists onwards, nearly every major proponent of what we might loosely call modern, liberal, democratic, technologically saturated life was involved with, or at least influenced by, intellectual and philosophical movements – from Hermeticism to Freemasonry

Earliest Carpenters – Archaeology Magazine

Rarely has a single find changed scholars’ views of the capabilities of people of the past as radically as the discovery of the world’s earliest known wooden architecture, which dates to nearly half a million years ago.

Software Is Beating The World

What I am saying is that Andreessen Horowitz isn’t a “media company that monetizes through VC,” but a form of financial cult.

The War on Informality – by Brett Scott

London is a city of endless helpful requests coldly delivered to sound like orders, alongside matey propaganda designed by M&C Saatchi to make corporate platforms look warm and cuddly.

Reading

I’ve cracked my head open this week listening to the audiobook of Martin Shaw’s Bardskull. The audio book is a totally different beast to the hardback. Bardskull-as-audiobook has to be one of the most important books I’ve read in recent years. It’s electric, like touching a live wire. The ‘uproar’ as Shaw calls it in the introduction is alive both in him, though him, and in me. I think I’m going to need a moment to recover once I’ve finished listening to it.

Bardskull is the record of three journeys made by Martin Shaw, the celebrated storyteller and interpreter of myth, in the year before he turned fifty. It is unlike anything he has written before. This is not a book about myth or narrative: rather, it is a sequence of incantations, a series of battles.

Also started reading A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders this week. I love the books format:

For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times.

David Matthews & The First Calls – Speed Demon

First of all, THIS David Matthews isn’t the ‘Dave Matthews Band’ Jam band Dave Matthews. This is David Matthews, 1970 James Brown bandleader David Matthews. With that cleared up, this album is wall to wall mid 1980’s synth-funk. it RULES. Long protracted sax solos, guitar solos. Its funky as hell and full of great energy.

I’ve been listening to this album loads. On the plane to Thailand, in Thailand, on the way back from Thailand. Whilst washing up, or hanging up laundry. I think i’m going to pick up the LP on eBay if I see it at a good price with postage.

Double Bill this week!

Lambrini Girls – God Country

New Lambrini Girls single! (Previously on the blog)

Remember Kids:

The post Band Practice appeared first on thejaymo.net.

My ‘cosmic-country’ americana band, Forest Bed played Leo & Friends in Sydenham SE London last weekend.

Get our EP on Bandcamp! 🎶

It was a great night, it was a real honour to play a show with so many amazing creative people. As usual with London shows these days: An hour of 1 or 2 poems from 5-6 poets, curry break, then we played, SRF closed the night and blew us all away.

SRF’s previous show earlier in October had been at KOKO cafe, so it was really cool to share the stage with such talented young musicians still making time and space to play community shows in endz.

We’ll be back at Leo’s in Feb 2024. So if you’re in South and want to come see us live – a date for your diary!

We played a short-ish 40mins set. Two songs that aren’t on our Placeholders EP are embedded below. Our traditional set closer (and crowd favourite) Goodbye + a new song Tangled String.

Hope you like ’em.

Forest Bed – Goodbye (Live @ Leo’s – Oct 23)

Forest Bed – Tangled String (Live @ Leo’s – Oct 23)

The post Forest Bed | Live at Leo’s Sydenham appeared first on thejaymo.net.

September 30, 2023

Forest Bed 🎸 | Permanently Moved 🔊 | Social Media 💉

Permanently Moved will be celebrating its 250th episode during this next run of 10 shows. I’m looking forward to achieving that!

Full Show Notes: https://thejaymo.net/2023/09/30/2331-season-10/

Support the show! 
Subscribe to the zine
Watch on Youtube

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

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Season 10!

Sorry about the spotty posting recently – I was enjoying my summer and my holiday. But I’m back now, and ready for season 10!

Permanently Moved will be celebrating its 250th episode during this next run of 10 episodes. I’m looking forward to achieving that. A milestone worth celebrating.

In aggregate, it all feels like a herculean blur of effort. Speaking of effort, making 40 episodes a year instead of 50 is great. Hands down the best decision I made back in January for this year. There’s absolutely no point in killing yourself doing something you enjoy doing. I honestly don’t know how Youtubers who make work for the algorithm and not the audience do it. Week after week, year after year. But they don’t, do they? They either eventually burn out or have public breakdowns.

Anyways.

Reviewing the episodes I’ve put out this year I’m pretty pleased with them. However I have noticed that with 10 episodes less a year to work with, I’ve made less shows that aren’t essays. Not that I’ve ever thought of shows where I speak about life and what I’m up to as filler episodes, far from it. But since this is, after all, a personal podcast I’ll begin season 10 by speaking personally.

Firstly, my ‘slow sad country band’ Forest Bed put out our first EP last month. Your keyword search is Forest Bed, Placeholders EP. Or you can find us on Instagram or Bandcamp.

It’s had some good reviews. Americana UK described the EP’s opening track Footsteps as having the “earthy feel of a long-lost Fairport Convention recording.” and another as having “echoes of Lindisfarne”. Which isn’t bad at all, coming from such an august publication.

Plastic Mag reviewed us and said it captured “a sonic landscape that feels at once timeless and contemporary” and Mesmerized wrote that our EP is “kaleidoscopic” and liked our “slow-paced shoegaze-y formula”. Which is a lot of references for an EP that’s only 4 tracks. We’re obviously doing something right. If genres like Americana and Cosmic Country float your boat then please do check us out and buy a tote or something over on Bandcamp. 

Secondly, back in July I was encouraged to buy Freedom.to. An app that describes itself as ‘The World’s Best App & Website Blocker’. Having used a few different ones over the years, I can confirm that the marketing isn’t a lie.

It’s completely changed my life. Between the hours of 8am and 6.30pm across all my devices – both laptops and my phone – I have the news, social media, and Youtube completely blocked. I’ve spent the whole summer saying to people who send me links (especially tweets) “I can’t see this until after 6.30”. 99% of the time they’ll reply “It doesn’t matter, it wasn’t important anyway”.

A few times recently I’ve gone days without looking at any news or front page headlines at all. News still reaches me of course, either via Discord, Slack or DM. I figure that if someone is going out of their way to tell me about something – especially in person – then it’s probably, actually news. You know?

The first few weeks of using Freedom I felt like an addict with the shakes. Bereft of distraction as everything and everywhere I wasted time on was blocked. Eventually I had to face the fact that there was only work to be done.

After about a month I also noticed that my reflexive and repetitive behavioural loop of checking my phone every five minutes was broken. I wasn’t picking it up and waking the screen or immediately pulling it out of my pocket when standing in line at the supermarket. A good tip if you an android user is to set up focus mode for the same duration as the Freedom block period. This will grey out the apps in the app draw and mute notifications.

It’s somewhat galling to admit that in order to get the most out of the powerful and futuristic computing machines I own, I have to remove functionality from them. But then again Freedom is now doing what my willpower alone couldn’t. So I’m all for it. If you’re tired of internet bullshit then give it a go. Buying this software is worth every penny spent.

Speaking of which, if you also are tired of Adobes rent seeking and chafe at paying for creative cloud then it is worth giving Affinity suite a look. I recently bought Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher in a sale  and they are very capable pieces of software. I helped design an artefact with Rafa the builder for the summer of protocols and I’ve been using it to design my zine.

Which brings me nicely to the last thing I wanted to mention. Issue 7 of Start Select Reset will be going out to my mailing list subscribers next week. It’s all ready to go, I’m just waiting for the local copy shop to get their printer repaired. This issue is called Quiet Quests and features a small LiteLARP or RPG that you can play at work. It uses the last digits of the hour as a random encounter which you check against a table of 60 small acts of kindness to perform in the office environment.

If you want a copy or enjoy the show and would like to help me reach 250 episodes please subscribe and support the show at www.thejaymo.net/support

Watch

The post Season 10! | 2331 appeared first on thejaymo.net.

On Thursday the 24th August 23 we played an EP launch show at the Lamb in Surbiton. It was lovely to see so many faces there. We sold a bunch of totes which was nice.

Listen On Youtube (Playlist)

Listen On Spotify

The post Forest Bed | Placeholders EP appeared first on thejaymo.net.

So late! If you are subscribed to thejaymo.net you’ll know I already posted the podcast a few hours ago. I’m sorry for two posts in one day. But not posting a podcast and my weeknotes would break the chain thats been running since 2018. Can’t have that.

I’ve had a pretty busy week. I think its its busiest week I’ve had since before the pandemic?

On Tuesday I had band practice.

We’re playing a gig at the Lamb in Surbiton on the 23rd of June – if you live in south London. Come on down!

On Wednesday I had tutorials with the students in Camberwell. After that I had a couple of drinks and went to Studio Voltaire for the launch of Bad Gays:A Homosexual History.

It was a fantastic evening. Really good to see Huw! So proud of the Bag Gays Podcast, and the book. I saw so many friends at the launch – too many to mention here – but they all have a lot going on. So I’ll do some PR for them soon! I had such a lovely evening. So nice to see folks I haven’t seen IRL since 2019!

Friday was another Bad Gays event at Foyels in Changing Cross. Shon Faye was the guest and chair for the evening. Before the event I met with Alex from Common Knowledge. We speak almost every day on web chat, but I haven’t seen him IRL since 2019. We ended up meeting along Southbank and then walking though all the Jubilee madness up to oxford circus where we started drinking.

We talked about Orthodoxy …. a lot.

Then we met his good wife T and went to Foyels. More friends were in the audience there too!

I’ll admit, I got pretty hammered after the event in SoHo and got the last train home.

Saturday was spent feeling a little ‘slow’. I had chills and felt like my bones were aching. One LFT later and I deffo didn’t have Covid (again). But I did realise/remember I hadn’t taken an anti-histamine, so maybe I was just poisoned by the outside.

This morning I recorded my podcast and put that out – only took 1.5 hours to edit today!

Then I went to the Lamb (where my band is playing a gig on the 23rd of June – did I mention this?) to see my bandmates play in their bluegrass band The 105 for Lambstock.

It was nice! Now I’m at home, four beers later, trying to write a blogpost at bed time.

0___o

Photo 365

Permanently Moved

Brainworms

Saying ‘Someone has brainworms‘, is a recognition that an individual is behaving in a way not congruent with dominant cultural logics.

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Teaching at Camberwell
• Did the deep dive into scrivener, laying the ground work for a big writing push
• Calls with a few Web3 folks all building Wind-Up Worlds

Dipping the Stacks

Martin Lewis faces up to a world he can no longer fix | The Economist

As inflation soars, Britain’s money-saving guru calls for government intervention

MetaFilter’s rule-laden mini-utopia

This week, we take a closer look at MetaFilter, a very old online forum that’s an exceedingly pleasant place to spend time online, with really high-quality content.

The Cathedral Vs. The Orthodox Church – The American Conservative

This is a biased article, even by NPR’s standards. Reporter Odette Yousef begins by talking about right-wing converts to ROCOR (the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia — the exile church, though it reconciled in recent years with the Moscow Patriarchate) in a single West Virginia congregation.

White People Love Calling Other White People “White People”

A Twitter user in the throes of political grandstanding would invoke the “whiteness” of a particular individual or group whose politics or behavior they found objectionable, with a kind of self-satisfied flourish that suggested they believed they had delivered a knockout rhetorical blow.

Garments of Grass and Flowers Fuse Jeanne Simmons’s Body to the Landscape | Colossal

After gathering natural materials like branches, wild vegetables, and bark, Simmons constructs garments that intertwine her own body and those of others with the landscape and obscure the distinction between the two.

Reading

I finished Daemon by Daniel Suarez. Its a really long book!!! This 2006 novel has already shot into my top 5 cyberpunk books of all time. It’s honestly bang on. the near future Suarez was imagining in 2006 is *now*.

Still reading The Elusive Shift by Jon Peterson. Game Studies Study Buddies did a podcast on the book recently so I want to finish it before I listen to their report.

I finished up Good Prose by Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd. Really good book. So interesting. Very helpful. especially the chapter on essay writing.

Music

thejaymo.net Spotify Playlist

Texas Moon by Khruangbin

Paul, the singer and guitarist in my band referenced Khruangbin at band practice this week. Telling me to listen to their baselines and get some inspiration for a section of a song we’re working on. So I’ve been listening to this this week as ‘homework’.

Khruangbin are a psych/soul/folk band. Its hard to pin them down, as each song seems to cross several genres. There’s reverb soaked guitars, falsetto soul vocals, goovey R&B drums, the two EPs, Texas Sun, and Texas Moon are all over the place musically – but in a good way.

The two main musical references I have for the twin Texas EPs are

1. Emerson Brothers

2. This is what I imagine a road trip though the American Mid West should sound like.

Remember Kids:

The post Busy Week appeared first on thejaymo.net.

I played a gig with Forest Bed at the Surbiton Village Fete today.

It was absolutely TIPPING it down. The tiny gazebo we were under on the stage wasn’t exactly the most comprehensive of shelters. Both our lap steel guitarist, and drummer got soaked by water running off the tarp.

At least the weather matched the bands vibe tbh.

Our next gig is on the 23rd of June at The Lamb, Surbiton.

I went up to Camden to see Pine Grove at the Roundhouse with the boys last night. I haven’t been to Camden in years. I was totally shocked by the extreme gentrification. There’s a box park like street food market, theres a huge street food market and new development by the lock/canal. The stables seems to be mostly street food now too. Not a bootleg Nirvana t-shirt or piece of hippy tat to be found. Shocked.

The gig was good.

Another Michael opened the show. I’d never head them before, but they were really good. Indie rock and roll. They had some fun lyrics and themes and put on a really good show. Their bassist had a sort of 70’s german footballer looking going on which was also super strong.

SOAK went on next. It’s a big ask, to stand by oneself on stage at the roundhouse and sing to a room full of people waiting to see the next act. But she smashed it. I can’t say I was the biggest fan, its was all a bit 6 music for me. But I stood and watched attentively. Because thats what you are supposed to do at shows.

Pinegrove went on about 9.30 and played right up to the very last second of their 11 o’clock curfuw. They played all the tracks of 11:11 thougout the set, and all the hits too.

They were *really* tight. Such a good live band. They do that midwest indie/emo/Americana thing so so well.

I was super knackered by the time I got home tho, plus the gig today I’m going to get an early night.

Photo 365

Post Normal

New Zine, Post Normal Fiction, A Brief History of Modernity, and our need to explore what’s beyond or after it.

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• I’m currently a ‘special lecturer’ at Camberwell College of Arts, on the Computational Art MA. I’ve been working on my two guest lectures and sorting out my diary to do the site visits, final performance, and crit.
• Gonna post about 3k words on the web2/3 Alms Race soon.
• I sat down this week and added about 2k words to the document I’ve been writing about mediation for 7 years. Re-wrote the introduction and smoothed out some of historical Jay’s idiosyncratic writing style.
• Posted all the zines to paid subscribers.
• Some great calls, couple of press interviews to boot too.

Dipping the Stacks

A Surprise Cave Finding Has Once Again Upended Our Story of Humans Leaving Africa

Last year, a genetic analysis of bone fragments representing our earliest known presence in Europe raised a few questions over the steps modern humans took to conquer every corner of the modern world.

The Classless Society in Motion – A New Theory of Communist Economy

We offer a return to a vision of a communist society based upon the abolition of wage labour, a position fundamental to the Marxists and Anarchists of the First International.

How to Overcome Instant Gratification [Actionable Guide] – Durmonski.com

The key is to keep your mind focused on the grand goal, even when there are small distractions. On the thing that you want to achieve and don’t let the small occasional whims derail you.

The Technium: 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known

Today is my birthday. I turn 70. I’ve learned a few things so far that might be helpful to others. For the past few years, I’ve jotted down bits of unsolicited advice each year and much to my surprise I have more to add this year. So here is my birthday gift to you all: 103 bits of wisdom I wish I had known when I was young.

The Collateral Damage of Queen Elizabeth’s Glorious Reign | The New Yorker

The portrait of Elizabeth II that emerges from Brown’s book is of someone acutely aware of her multiple roles: as the ceremonial head of state, an empty mirror for the nation to gaze upon itself; as the C.E.O. of a rich, dysfunctional celebrity dynasty

Reading

I finished the 40k audiobook Throne Of Light. Another entry in to the Dawn of Fire series which is shaping up to be an epic chunk of 40k lore. The table top game is about 100 years ahead of the narrative, (and there are books set even further into the future than that). It’s really interesting the way GW decided to push the narrative forward – one more minute to midnight – and then took two steps back to fill in all the details. Proto-Permissive IP. So much to learn from this franchise.

I’m still reading The Chip: How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution. It’s very well written and clips along. Been smashing though 7-8% f the book on my kindle every night.

I started reading The Lantern Men by by Elly Griffiths. Book 12 in a police/detective series I’ve never ever heard of. But a friend said it is ‘Norfolk Folk Horror’ and suggested I might like it, so I’m reading it.

Music

thejaymo.net Spotify Playlist

The new Ethel Cain album ‘Preachers Daughter’ came out this week. It’s fucking incredible. I want to listen to it a couple more times before write about it. (Previously on the blog)

Cate Le Bon – Pompeii

Art Pop legend Cate Le Bon’s newest album Pompeii is extremely fun. I saw her live about 10/11 years ago in the early 00’s and she was fantastic live

As always Le Bons song writing is wonderful. Difficult to place. “In the remake of my life, I moved in straight lines” she sings in the opening lines of Remembering Me.

Running Away is another great song, a sort of patchwork of catchy musical ideas that when woven together cause things to sound askew.

If you are a Bowie fan particularly late 70’s early 80’s period (think Low era) and haven’t ever heard of Cate Le Bon – You’ll love her out the gate.

Remember Kids:

The post Tipping It Down appeared first on thejaymo.net.

My band played its first gig on Friday at Leo Food’s Supper Club. I had a great time, all the other acts on the night were amazing too. The evening had poets, singer songwriters, a jazz band, and stand up comedians.

In a weird twist of fate, we were playing along side Esther aka Quiet Choir. We used to work together about 10 years ago and haven’t seen each other in about as long! Apparently she also lives with another colleague from back then too. LOL. It was really great to catch up and get to play alongside each other. Esther plays queer Ani DiFranco shoegaze on an acoustic guitar. Check her work out if that sounds up your street.

Leo also fed us all too, which was … amazing!

If you live local to Crystal Palace or near enough, keep an eye on Leo Food’s mailing list!

In other Forest Bed related news, we should be playing a bunch of shows in May and June, I’ll post about them obviously. Our 4 track demo/EP is still coming along. Mixing is in progress, second vocals still need recording but things are in progress.

Photo 365

Permanently Moved

Speed Barbie, Racer Knight

The New Barbie Movie, Cultural Fracking, my aphantasia and why Speed Racer is a much better movie than The Dark Knight

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Built some spreadsheets for Novara Media
• Planning meetings about my New Centre Course later this year
• Met up with Xin and had drinks along south bank. Super nice evening!
• A huge burst of productive writing that needs breaking up and ‘doing something with’
• Finished my next zine
• Lovely long chat with Sarah from Ignota
• Still seeking confidence 🙁

Dipping the Stacks

What does your narrative system need to do?

This is a question that comes up very frequently in the narrative design conversations. This post is a tour of some possible answers.

The Avery Review | Forest Governmentality and the Struggle for More-Than-Human Sovereignty

This essay explores three legal instruments of forest governmentality—the Charter, the Constitution, and the Contract—that offer an updated imaginary for the rights of nature and more-than-human sovereignty beyond property.

WATCHTOWER: a short story by Warren Ellis – WARREN ELLIS LTD

I crested the plateau and stopped for a moment, wondering if I were the first person to breathe the air out here….

Infinite Game Storytelling — simondlr.com

Conflict narratives hijack our brains to simulate conflict, and teaches us how to overcome change. This is evident from the absurd to everyday: lightsaber space wizards in a battle of good vs evil to class struggle in modern day South Korea.

Do The Thing! | Musings of an Aspie

Maybe my bullshit detection program wasn’t running in high gear. I’m usually pretty good at detecting when someone is trying to put one over on me. And at pushing back. Hard if necessary. This was a low stakes situation, though. Spending an additional hour doing something isn’t a very high cost.

Reading

Still reading Crystal Fire: The Invention of the Transistor and the Birth of the Information Age its fantastic. I’ve already recommended it to 2 people IRL. About half way through now. Really enjoying it.

I finished Scott Westerfeld’s Youngbloods a fitting end to an 8 part saga. I’ve seen grumbling on goodreads reviews about the ending but I thought it was … fine.

James Bridle’s Ways of Being is fantastic. I finished it this week. I recommend reading it back to back with Gordons Ani.Mystic for where we need to be heading in 2020’s. Plus it settles in nicely with the much wider ‘reading list’ like Thus Spoke The Plant, Sand Talk, Braiding Sweetgrass, Apocalyptic Witchcraft and a whole host of other books i’m forgetting off the top of my head.

Dougald Hine was kind enough to send me the draft 0/first draft of his first book. He talked about writing it briefly on season 4 of The Great Humbling podcast recently. Last time we spoke earlier in the year he was just winding up to write the thing. As of writing this I’m about 1 evening away from finishing it. I think it’ll be a book that sits alongside the previously mentioned reading list upon release.

I picked up the audio book for the new 40k Dawn of Fire series book Throne Of Light yesterday. Havn’t started it yet, but John Banks is narrating, so it’ll feel like good company.

Music

thejaymo.net Spotify Playlist

Music For 18 Musicians (Steve Reich) by Erik Hall

Released in 2020, Erik Hall performed every part himself, using instruments he had on hand. He recorded one section a day, one layer at a time in live, single takes, painstakingly cobbling together a loving interpretation of Reich’s 1976 masterpiece of minimalism.

This trailer for the album gives a taste of the the experience is like:

I actually performed part of this Reich’s Music For 18 Musicians whilst at university. Section I has always been my favourite chord in suite of 11 sonic/tonal explorations, and remains so with Hall’s s rendition.

I’ve listened to this album 3/4 times this week, in diffrent contexts and states of mind. Whilst we might now be in the era of post-post modernism, Reich remains one of the most influential artists in my life, ever since a 6th former named Tom gave me a mix tape that contained Music For 6 Marimba’s when I was about 15 and changed my life forever.

Remember Kids:

The post Other Acts appeared first on thejaymo.net.

Super long day yesterday at Lonesome Dog Studios with the lads from Forest Bed.

We recorded 4 tracks in 10 hours (including load in, studio set up etc all that jazz). We still have vocals and synths to record in a few weeks but they can be done from home. It won’t be long until we get our demo out, which hopefully means we should be playing some gigs soon after.

I first recorded in a studio … 20 years ago 😩. At 36 I now appreciate that the time spent there is all work not play. I experienced yesterday as non stop ‘paying attention’.

It’s about focusing on your own role, and performance. It’s listening, It’s being respectful of band mates time and the fact they’re doing their own thing to the best of their own ability too. Fucking up is totally human. Besides you probably played it correctly in another take, so don’t sweat – copy and paste instead.

The all concentration required was definitely tiring, but rewarding. I’m really happy with how everything is sounding. It’s also nice to hang out in the company of friends/dudes working towards a collective endeavour.

If you live in SW London our experience at Lonesome Dog was awesome and reasonably priced. If you’re looking for somewhere to record. Check Em Out.

Prasheen Naran engineered us – super nice guy!

Heres some photos:

Photo 365

Permanently Moved

From Penny Theatre to Social Media

TikTtok is like an algorithmically weaponised talent show from the 18th century

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Call with Ross planning our New Centre Course later this year
• Had a nice call with MPF, about possibly doing something together with his students
• I’m glad I got the coordination vs governance podcast out – unlocks a lot of other thoughts and writing
• Part 4 of the writing course I’m taking. starting to put the novel plan together
• Spreadsheetin’
• I’ve filled 6 pages of my notebook this week with ‘plans to finish’

Dipping the Stacks

Building Expansive NFT Universes: CC0, Fidelity, & On-Chain Bundling — simondlr.com

NFT creative universes are undergoing an exciting phase of wild experimentation: emphasising free IP, new economics, and remixing. As these universes develop, there’s three key components that can help foster success:

The Billionaire’s Bard | Rob Madole

Neal Stephenson might be the most influential novelist among business tycoons since Ayn Rand. What does he believe?

Meet me in the metaverse | New Humanist

The metaverse promises to connect everyone and everything. Should we fear its impact on intimate relationships?

“Time spent on app” and what it’s doing to our minds

What screenlife and “time spent on app” is doing to our brains. Also: Vampire capitalists, St. Patrick’s Day in New England, suspense vs. surprise, and more.

Who Is ‘That Girl’ And Why Is TikTok Obsessed With Her?

The ‘that girl’ trend is promoting an unrealistic version of perfection.

Reading

This week I finished Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta for the second time. Its such an important book. I’m glad I did the close re-read. Deeply engaging with its content, meaning etc transforms its content in to a whole other book entirely.

I blasted though Steel Tread by Andy Clarke. A claustrophobic Warhammer 40k novel about a tank crew trapped in dire circumstances. The ending was a bit too upbeat for me, I think everyone should have died. But hey ho, thats just where I am with fiction at the moment.

At the time of writing, I’m about 35% of the way though Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games by Matt Barton on my Kindle. It’s really inspired me to go check out some really old CRPGS. I know my friend Costas many years ago was getting in to the old Apple II Ultima Games. Need to catch up and get a beer lol.

I’m alternating Desktops with The Elusive Shift by Jon Peterson its a book about how the early Dungeons & Dragons community grappled with the nature of role-playing games, theorising a new game genre. Whats interesting to me is how concurrent it is with CRPGS and the history of computing.

Music

thejaymo.net Spotify Playlist

Mabe Fratti – Será que ahora podremos entendernos?

I continue to be drawn to music that is ‘sculptural’ it seems. Será que ahora podremos entendernos? (Will We be Able to Understand Each Other Now?) is an album with that feeling. Each of its 9 tracks feels like a sonic instillation. Vocals float over synths, field recordings, held together by Fratti’s deeply emotional cello performances.

Originally from Guatemala, Mabe Fratti found her self locked down in the artist compound La Orduña, outside Mexico City during the pandemic. This album is the result of that experience, there are many collaborations with musicians who were with her during the Mexico’s isolation period.

This is one of the most beautiful albums i’ve heard in a long time. Wonderful. Check it out.

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