what are you into right now?

“nightmare vision of catching bird” is a good sentence fragment

Or Dario Argento movie title.

Marcos asked me to post in here:

- Bloodborne the video game (my travails and hardships documented on the thread)

- a DJ guest mix of "ravey bangers) which I just finished for my friends' radio show

- speaking of ravey bangers, the new album by Chrissy called Physical Release is packed full of them

- trying to find ways to wear these keen Levi's burnt orange cords I bought on a whim without looking like a children's TV presenter or some sort of red-trizered Etonian prick

- as such I seem to have bought three identical but differently coloured overshirts which i will probably where over a grey turtleneck but this is all being worked out as the weather turns to shit

- the movie Saint Maud. It's a masterpiece

- nice rums and whiskies as the weather turns to shit

- the Blindboy podcast which has become a soothing lifeline over the last year of stress and lockdowns. His hot takes and Limerick lilt are enough to quell anxiety

- I'm also listening to Dune as an audiobook. It's good. Bit of a slog in places but good.

- getting back into running, which I couldn't do for a few months due to a torn calf muscle. Running in the city after dark is a lot harder than last year as it's much busier with cars and people. I choked on exahust fumes the other day. Must start getting up early and doing it then

- growing my hair long and embracing the natural wave and curl. I used to hairdry religiously cos I hated the way it curled up in weird places but after a proper styling from a hairdresser who knows his onions, I'm rather happy just letting it do its thing

*adds +20 commission bonus to marcos points*

i've played most of the from games, but haven't played demon's souls or bloodbourne. what do you think?

Listening to a vast amount of podcasts of different types. Various books, US politics, myth debunking, anti racism/decolonisation etc etc

hopefully getting back into sewing. Finally got a couple of zips back on jeans yesterday after months of nothing.
Got to trace a pattern and customise and cut a jacket or 2.

doing one major cook per week then reheating. Think this is a fusion of various things or me just bunging in a lot of veg, fungi and fruit into a mix.
Currently buying a load of reduced veg & fruit the day before teh major cook . Things just on the turn and not looking the best for display in a fruit & veg place that's a bit outof teh way. Also still buying a lot of Asian veg & fungi and sauces and stuff.

Watching mainly videofiles of foreign tv. Not watched a foreign film in a month or so. Need to watch some tarkovsky and Kurosawa I downloaded though.

Reading a load of antiracism books and hopefully having more turn up in local charity shops.

Finally getting a couple of teeth fixed. Came out of the major lockdown periods with them in a really not great state.

Macy Gray who had passed me by at the time but I just recently picked up her first best of and quite enjoying it
Vince Martin , Fred Neil's one time singing partner and I think they picked up some of teh same influences , jazz & country and stuff , been neglecting his If the Jasmine Don't Get You... the Bay Breeze Will for too long. BUt getting back into it.

TULCA Festival again , now back at teh traditional time of year. But seen most o fit now so not sure if it will keep me going for another 2 weeks. Still has some interesting stuff in.

i've played most of the from games, but haven't played demon's souls or bloodbourne. what do you think?

― just staying (Karl Malone), Monday, November 8, 2021 2:48 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'd only given Dark Souls III a rudimentary play as it came bundled with Witcher 3. I found it a rather oppressive experience: Creepy, gnomic, insanely difficult, utterly devoid of any humour, and just generally stressful.
So I don't know why I picked up Bloodborne for any reason other than it was on sale and I get really in the mood for Victorian Gothic horror from time to time. At first I hated it. Hated it. I couldn't get past even the most basic of enemies. It's all documented on the dedicated thread.
But yes, I got a bit of help from Jordan, Josh in Chicago and a few others, and also followed a YouTube guide by a guy called Jumpin Productions which is excellent. I'm still playing with the guide and enjoying it a lot more than before. Once you get your head around it, it all starts to click. But man, it is nevertheless extremely grim and creepy. I said it on another thread but why "adult gaming" has to automatically be all about lonely wandering through oppressive landscapes is beyond me. Yeah, there are a bunch of whimsical art games with a bit more colour in them, Journey etc, but they're still isolatory on the whole. Even grown-ups need a bit of therapeutic light relief I think, which is why I miss my old Nintendo.

Stevolende I'm very jealous about your ability to make clothes. I can barely sew a button on, but if I could magically grant myself a practical skill, making my own clothes would be up there as one of the things I'd love to be able to do.

yeah, took me way too long to get into. If I could do things over again I think I might get myself into a dressmaking course in my mid to late teens then just be building on that ever since.
I was being lined up for a FAS course in design in 92 that fell through which might have meant I got into this much earlier too.
Has certainly meant i can dress in clothing I like over the last few years. THink I was looking for a pair of striped turn of the 70s Levis or similar for a while then realised I could probably make them.

I mean, that's it. Sometimes I'm just like "Man I just need this exact design in this fit" but it either doesn't exist or it does kind of exist but it's prohibitively expensive or not quite right

It's not really that difficult , a bit time consuming and potentially somewhat frustrating. So worth a shot. I started out learning how to sew by doing stuffed toys on a community centre course. I had done some machine sewing of patches in my teens and narrowing jeans legs.
Do wish I had done more practical stuff at the time. Would have been a nice thing to have for those years.
Still it's a nice thing to be able to do and you can start with something a lot less ambitious and work your way up. & ok it doesn't suite everyone but it is really useful to know how to do.

I'm just a bit frustrated that for various reasons I haven't got more to show for this year. I do hope teh more i do the better i get.
BUt I have a problem with clutter on the work table since it's the one large piece of furniture in teh place so gets covered too easily. & not bee feeling motivated this year. So now have several thing si meant to do earlier this year still waiting to be done.
Did get to attend a lot of webinars and listen to podcasts and things but could probably have done both if better organised.

this my favorite thread

i am into rn:

this moxie/parris set streaming live on NTS right now it is really good
this bomb-ass sativa i bought last week
my houseplants, they're taking over, you should see this philodendron selloum in particular. some are dying though too
my new job, wfh groove, financial stability. i miss going to a campus though sometimes
the sun, always
taking walks
SOPHIE "just like we never said goodbye" "is it cold in the water"
sly "just like a baby"
yoko "death of samantha"

It turns out I am willing to play drums for anybody in town.

Also those thinhs that are like juice boxes but with wine? are okay

I have a hammock and it is nice today

Tiny hats: they might be cool again someday

Roasted apples

Peruvian rotisserie chicken

Geology

hiking
playing guitar during lame work meetings
cashews
starting movies/shows and not finishing them and not feeling guilty about it
walking 2-3 miles every day
billiards
reconnecting with old friends
wearing t-shirts (never really been a t-shirt guy before)
shooting hoops with my kids
grapefruit

oh i sat in a hammock this weekend on a trip to MI, it was between two trees on this small hill so i felt truly suspended in the air

cashews are so good
grapefruits are so good

IK found an acoustic guitar in the bin enclosure. Wonder if it was a mistake still but nice find I think. hoping it doesn't spread woodworm to everything else at least

Making my own gnocchi. No idea it was so easy! Easier to get right than "normal" pasta (though of course when I made it for my sister in a recent visit, they didn't come out right for the first time)

starting movies/shows and not finishing them and not feeling guilty about it

^ hero behavior

let's please normalize not feeling guilt about what media we do or don't consume

I mean it's all a voluntary leisure activity anyway

for real there is little time to waste on bad art
the converse is that it is also okay to waste time on bad art

or inverse? idk what those mean. in any case idk really know what is good art or bad art anymore. good art can be bad and bad art can be good

I abandon most things before I finish them - books and games mostly, and on the rare occasion I start watching a show, those too. For some reason I make it a point to finish films though

Most things are too long

Tove Jansson's island cabin:

https://www.finnishdesignshop.com/design-stories/travel/on-klovharu-island-tove-janssons-spirit-and-handprint-live-on

let's please normalize not feeling guilt about what media we do or don't consume

I mean it's all a voluntary leisure activity anyway

― actually, it's "in which we're livin'." (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, November 10, 2021 11:33 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

theres only so much time in the day etc etc

Jens Larsen's jazz guitar videos

"Learn Jazz Make Music" - words to live by.

Charlotte Joko Beck
These local hickory-smoked pistachios, so good
Baking from a new Martha Stewart (lol) fruit dessert cookbook
Riding young off-track thoroughbred horses, sometimes falling off but not that much!
KCRW out of LA
Not trying so hard at things
Not caring so much about things
Flea eradication
Daily naps

xp those pictures of Tove Jansson's cabin are very cool, thanks for the link

her Summer Book covers time spent there as a child (assuming it's the same island)

((also assuming it's not purely fictional and has some kind of autobiographical content))

Most things are too long

― just staying (Karl Malone), Wednesday, November 10, 2021 6:57 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

QFT

The amount of books I start far exceeds the number I finish.

Right now my evening relaxation is playing Bloodborne and any time I die, I rage quit and watch five minutes of the film The Life And Death of Colonel Blimp, which is great but is interesting to digest in comic strip sized bites.

The Professionals, on Prime, man I love this ridiculous cop show, particularly when Collins/Shaw add that 'school of drama' icing on the cake to scenes.

I think it used to be on tv on Sunday nights and even though I was an avid watcher of it in the early 80's I can barely remember much plotwise about it other than the *iconic* Bodie & Doyle running about with guns and duffing people up!

leeks
thomas hardy
this big oversized marloro classics turtleneck
padang food tigers

I am recalling the episodes as they unfold.

The only episode I ever remember with no help is the one where Doyle gets shot by an assassin, and the entire episode is him in hospital with only Bodie running about with guns and duffing people up.

yeah that rings a bell

i watched the entire run of the professionals a few years ago, itv4 would show them one a day and just loop them forever, probably still do, apart from one episode about racist gang(?), which they didn't show. favourite was the one with the sniper on the roof.

(filmed around here as well, bits of it, so you'd recognise the scenery from time to time)

Bob Dylan: 1970

Trying to get myself together.
Still watching bits of KLorean tv in the wake of squid game
Wishing I had better oragnisation cos i want to get right back into making clothing
NOt really into sense of fatigue hoping its transitory and teh wake of the booster shot.
Still making massive cook one day a week for the next week and making it some kind of fusion of European and Asian veg & fruit and a bit of meat. & a can of preferably LIDL coconut milk cos its the highest %age of coconut to other ingredient like almost pure.
the reappearance of some yoghurts I've been missing from Lidl though in smaller size pots . Hope tehy stick around cos I do like them
Reading a stack of anti racist/feminist etc writing that I should have years earlier, not sure why I'm only finding bell hooks now. But am finding that there is more of her on the Irish library system than I had thought.
buying way too many books for the storage space I have . & my budget and still having the idea that I will eventually get through them all.
Making bread about once a week. Still working on how to balance ingredients since some are substitutions.
Dreaming of tidying up

Have you ever looked into an e-reader?

I know they're not for everyone but in terms of space-saving they're a game changer

I think the availability of e-books from library apps is also pretty good (and many ways besides to get a lot of titles on the cheap or free)

leeks and thomas hardy

street tacos
playing the drums
my children
pop nonfiction
pinot grigio
Ritual gin alternative
NYT Spelling Bee

pencil and pen

Guineas West Indies bottles especially cos they're €2 a pop right now. 6% volunteers too. But I think the taste is even better than the draught stuff.

Autocorrect Guinness

new strain i'm vaping
Silas Marner
my new slippers
listening to old noise and freakout music from the early to mid 2000s

i am looking for slippers, can i ask what you got?

ILM singles recommendations, lotsa good shit in here
triple chocolate pannetone
demons souls on ps5
not having covid
that one fucking stitch in my arm finally falling out
non-medicated sleep
a movie now and then
iced green tea with honey
being surrounded by plenty while i heal

map, I got the LL Bean Wicked Good Slippers in the "venetian" style.

They're expensive but I read good things, and all my recent slippers have fallen apart after a single season. Beans makes me feel like I'm turning into a weird cliche, but oh well. Feeling warm and cozy is worth it.