Bad Pollution

Thinking about alot of the recent scepticism about climate change data, how reliable, accurate or relevant it is. I think we can all see and feel that pollution in any form is bad for the earth, be it seeing litter in the countryside, the stinking fumes that vehicle exhausts and factory chimneys release, or seeing an abandoned car rusting in a field. We can all see how our man made products jar and contrast uncomfortably with nature, and that they clearly aren't doing it any favours. If nothing else we're inflicting asthetic pollution, but i think we can all feel the damage caused is much less superficial than that, even without taking into account scientific studies and surveys.

Song for the Day!

Somtimes i like to pretend i'm sitting in a blue and white stripey deckchair, sipping a cocktail and pretending it's the 1960's. Beach House are a fantastic band to do this to, Norway is from their latest album Teen Dreams. And also Lover of Mine, which is possibly even better!

Herb Brown Is A Painter

As much as i don't really want to sponsor it too much, Vice magazine had an article up today about a painter called Herb Brown that's well worth reading (more so than 95% of Vice content, it's one of their rare genuinely informative articles). Back in the 60's he painted over subway adverts, posters and even tv sets, with some pretty explicit spontaneous imagery. At the grand old age of 87 he comes across as the best kind of cantankerous old fella', there's a few of his paintings above^. Apparently his stuff is on display in Nu yoik at the moment, which isn't very practical for me, but if i was there i would most certainly give it a look.

I'm pretty thrilled that Beirut are going to be at Green Man, the thought of hearing their jaunty pseudo-european-folk (surely there is no better definition) ringing throughout the hills of the Brecon Beacons makes me tingle in my happiest and most intimate areas. Forks and Knives!

Picture; Umami - how unbelievably lame

The trend in obsessive food culture is pretty uninspiring, it encourages people to waste their time (and inevitably money) believing they can be satisfied by what they put in their stomachs at the neglect of the world around them, outside of their own body. Sure it's good to eat healthy, good to eat nice food etc, but to let it dominate their lives as some people do is not a path to a full and happy existence. At it's base eating is just something we do to stay alive, I don't think nature intended it to be a platform for snobbish excessary and a replacement for actual interests and personality. Witness the arrival of 'Umami', the apparent 'Fifth' flavour, the lack of which has been the void at the centre of all our lives.

Song for the Day!

Holy Fuck may posses a dubious name and the shoddiest website in the business, but the Canadian folk make good music, listen to Lovely Allen

I'm a believer

Thinking about religion and spiritual beliefs in general, and how my automatic response to finding out somebody is a (bona fide) Christian is to assume they're a slightly unhinged virgin, i came to the conclusion that i'm being slightly pessimistic. Firstly i'm no atheist, i like to believe there's more to existance than science can explain and to reduce it all down to numbers and algorithms is depressing in the extreme, and I don't see how conscious life can adequately be explained or understood by the application of science. I also came to the conclusion my closest equivalent to a definite religious or spiritual belief would be my belief in LOVE. I'm a highly cynical person and i don't fall in love easily (or at least not that easily), and most of my life's experiences have gone some way to undermine the concept, but still, against almost any rationale, i believe in it. Maybe i need to, as pathetically and dependently as someone who can't get up in the morning without knowing there's a God. My concept of love is possibly different from most peoples, I'm including both platonic and sexual love when i say it, I also understand that love isn't required for sex, and that it isn't the same thing as simple commitment, that it rarely works conventionally, and that it won't always last (passionately) for a long time. But despite all it's flaws, believing it exists is still probably the only reason I get out of bed in the morning. Well that and cake. And alcohol. Tea...

Song for the Day!

Sufjan Stevens said he plans on making an album for every state in the US, being as he's due to turn 35 this year and has so far only covered two of the 50 that might not be feasible. However, if the ones he does make are as fine as Michigan and Illinoise then nobody will realy care. This is Jacksonville from the latter.

I went for my usual walk

I went for my usual walk up Hergest ridge, a regular occurrence when i'm home. I saw various people walking up it, walking their dogs and with their families and so on, and passed people in their living rooms on my way back through Kington. I got to thinking that for most of these people whatever they were doing as I passed them was probably what they do every sunday, and how comfortable but predictable this must be. Variety is important. Does the security which we ('we' speaking in generalities) strive for in our lives, the safety, shelter, warmth and rest easy which we gain from it, really satisfy us? It's a delay on the inevitable, and if we think that the inevitable is, of course, inevitable, then surely a search for happiness, so usually the spawn of change and variety (excitement), is a more important goal for our lives. Even if it may come at some loss to security, and maybe even a shortening of the gap between us and the inevitable, it must be worth it, rather than repeating each day in the same obscure comfort. I'm aware this line of thought is nothing original and has been heard, said and written down many times before, and that anyone who is alert, conscious and intelligent has probably thought it already, but i still think there's value in saying it again, even for my own benefit if nobody else's.

Morning with Thoreau and song for the day

I haven't posted anything for a couple of days due to lectures recommencing, and the ensuing earlier mornings and nights that follow, and my tired mind really hasn't thought of much worth saying (or writing) out loud. To quote Henry Thoreau; "Little is to be expected of that day, if it can be called a day, to which we are not awakened by our Genius, but by the mechanical nudgings of some servitor, are not awakened by our own newly aquired force and aspirations from within, accompanied by the undulations of celestial music, instead of factory bells"
Song for the day is No Name #1 by the late Elliott Smith, he makes music perfectly attuned to the tired mind.