Dear friends, here we are again. Another long but short but ordinary but weird week.

Quote of the week

“Any jackass can kick a barn down. But it takes a carpenter to build one” – Sam Rayburn

Doodle of the week

What’s on my mind

Heartbeats

The group I was part of at Hard Art this week were thinking about creating sustainable ritual using biofeedback. That’s a fancy way of saying we thought up some ways of using our own heartbeats as the basis for connecting with each other. That’s still sounds a bit fancy, doesn’t it? Sorry, that’s Hard Art.

It led me down a little rabbit hole of working out how to record the sound of one’s own heartbeat. Turns out, that of course there’s an app (or two) for that. But they’re a bit closed and enshittified for my liking, So I used the technique they suggest with the voice recorder apps I already have. The instruction for iPhones is to start recording and then press the mic end (the bottom bit that plugs in) against the left hand bit of your collar bone (maybe check first that you can locate your pulse there with your finger). And that’s it. I used the Rode voice recorder and the iOS Voice Memo app and I preferred the sound on Voice Memo. Your mileage may vary.

Anyway, my heartbeat is probably faster than yours because of my ADHD meds, but here‘s a little snippet, if it doesn’t feel too intimate to listen.

Reinventing Campfires

They (citation needed) say that every day in Silicon Valley, some tech bro reinvents the city bus (only more complicated). In the intersection of arts, tech and spirit that I bumble around in, it’s more like “every day someone trying to be helpful reinvents the campfire (only more complicated)” – and often that “someone” is me – this is more of a reminder to self, rather than an admonition to anyone else.

Connected is something Liz described to me on Monday as “getting distracted by the artefacts” – which no doubt is elaborated on at length somewhere in the wisdom literature, if only I could be bothered to read. It’s a bit like cargo cults, but it’s also about focusing on the material rather than the ineffable. Think harder, Davis.

What audit isn’t

In the 1990s and early 2000s I worked for a now dead organisation called the Audit Commission. I was never an auditor, but I worked with auditors, I knew auditors, I would even go so far as to say that some of my best friends at the time were auditors. So I know audit when I see it. And the idea that Elon Musk and his Teen Justice League are performing some sort of audit of government systems and spending is as laughable to me as trying to suggest he was just making a warm gesture to show how his heart was going out to people.

What I’ve watched

Finished “Rise of the Nazis” – the last section is about them hiding (sometimes in plain sight) after the war and how quickly the focus switched to Communism being the enemy, with people like Klaus Barbie recruited by intelligence services, but also what compromises had to be made in order to keep basic institutions going. Left a bad taste in my mouth.

Mike Leigh On Every Film He’s Directed Over 50+ Years what a treasure this man is.

Followed up with “Mr Turner” as a consequence – a marvellous work all round.

We’re just about half-way through “Little Dorrit” – still weird and getting weirder in parts. Eddie Marsan has grown on me.

I don’t think I watched the latest episode of Prime Target, which says something.

What I’m reading

I’ve been combing through old blog posts about Tuttle both in preparation for the first Coffee Morning and the re-release of the Annual Report from 2009. I’ve said before that I’m working on an annotated version of that report for release on metalabel, but I thought I’d do a kind of dry run first with the original document to introduce it to those people who may have been in primary school the first time round.

What I’m listening to

O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack
Chopin Nocturnes
Wednesday morning I was inexplicably driven to play The Beatles’ “I’ll Get You” while making my breakfast.

Where I’ve been

I went into London for Hard Art on Monday and I’m in again on Friday (today!) for the first Coffee Morning (it was good, but I’ll write more next week). I’m getting a hankering for going further afield, but I think that’s driven mainly by wanting more daylight – sunrise 07:30 and sunset at 17:00 is still too short, even if it’s going in the right direction.

What I’m tracking

Feline wanderings. I’m experimenting with having an airtag on the cat’s collar – she went out for the first time on Sunday lunchtime and didn’t come back until Tuesday. She was probably in our garden or the neighbours but it felt like a good excuse to buy silly tech even if it’s pretty useless.

What I’m playing

Rocket Racing (up to Gold III) with occasional forays into Fortnite OG. I’ve also revived my early morning Sudoku habit. Oh and last week I introduced best daughter to Rummikub. She beat me soundly of course.

What is this?

It’s my newly refurbished (dare I say “weekly”?) newsletter thingy. This is the last time that I’m going to publish it jointly via Perfect Path and Substack, I disagree strongly with the opinions on freedom of speech from the leadership at Substack and while WordPress is, well… WordPress, I will feel more comfortable publishing from my own domain only. It’ll still come to your mailbox, but I’ll do a note to those of you who are reading via Substack to explain what I intend to do and how it will affect you, before I hit send on next week’s epistle.

What’s in the works

“Spirituals” is not even a working title, just a description of some songs that I’m recording. At the moment this is kind of George Lewis meets Patsy Cline by way of “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?” – this week’s progress included reviving my Reaper set up from back-up and mucking about with harmonies.

“Why can’t we just have old twitter?” is an essay that I’ve been writing for far too long and it shows. Mainly because new stuff keeps happening in that area. A further complication was the release of Tapestry (iOS only) – which looks pretty, but is read-only, so a kind of glorified RSS reader.

Tuttle Club metalabel – I’ve released the first (and to date, only) Annual Report from 2009 in all it’s original glory. I’m still working on a newly-annotated version – a kind of “director’s cut” if you can say such a thing about a 17-page PDF.

How to talk to me (or perhaps comment on my stuff)

If I do the thing formerly known as “tweeting” it goes on my micro.blog and syndicated from there to Bluesky Mastodon and Threads but I don’t feel great about it.
If I take pictures that I want in public they go on Flickr but I still put stuff on Instagram too.
My blog is where it’s always been with a kind of backup of all the things on tumblr
That should be enough.