Most nights I listen to aesthetic pain Oozed through a black speaker

[Saturday 8th December 2018]


Alcohol. Sleep. Oblivion. Damn the waking hours.

[Quote is from the poem 'Transblucency' from the collection 'Elegies' by Douglas Dunn]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Tales From The Crypt - Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd January 2022

Image
Another one of those combined posts, this time covering Friday and Saturday, with both being written after the event. Friday was a working day so not much to say about it other than the observation that this week felt like it was one of the longest weeks ever, despite at the same time feeling that January is almost over and also being the month with 90 days.  Time and our perception of it, eh? Saturday started as usual with a trip to the bread stall in the market plus a few of the other shopping haunts before returning home for breakfast, washing and packing. Mid-morning, all chores complete, I packed my car and headed south for the coast, hoping to stay until Monday morning as there are several reasons why that would be a good idea, not least the company. Looked at a house in the afternoon, returned via the supermarket to get some ingredients to make lasagne and carrot cake cheesecake for dinner. The day draws to a close with another day away in prospect to look forward to... Melo...
Read more

Love, Poetry and Revolution - Tuesday 7th October 2025

Image
I have been swimming deeply in the sea of life, often miles from land, and there hasn't been space to write. Have you ever tried writing whilst immersed in the sea? Much has been going on externally and internally. Getting engaged to Q in July has necessitated some early planning, starting with where and when we'll be getting married.  We have a date and a location.  Based on the date of the wedding we've booked a venue for the party.  These two dates being agreed upon, we've sent out initial invitations: this is especially important for most of Q's family as they will be travelling from a land down under, namely Australia. Most of August was taken up with this planning, mentally if not physically. As wedding-related activities have started to crystallise, I have begun to realise that everything has been leading towards the big day next year. Destiny. I've also found it hard to write here for a couple of different reasons. A bee flew into my bonnet and took up r...
Read more

Winner of January's Album of the Month

Image
Funny old world! I’ve been listening to these five albums (you remember, the latest from The National, Salem, Oneohtrix Point Never and Wire plus an oldie, Cluster ’71 by Cluster) since the start of January and my thoughts about almost all of them have changed several times.  At least I didn’t rush out and buy them all: chalk one up to the experiment! I had planned to write an interim posting of thoughts on the albums so far, but in fact time has overtaken me: this post announces the winner of the January album of the month instead. Before announcing the winner, what of the other albums? King Night the debut album from Salem : I had high hopes for this one. I like it. It has the sort of ‘dark’ sounds I find appealing, but if anything it’s just not dark enough. Nevertheless it has quite a unique sound somewhere on the fringes of dubstep, dark core drum ‘n bass and industrial electronica, much of it slowed down to a crawl.  On the basis of ‘King Night’ I’ll keep a look out fo...
Read more

Love, Poetry and Revolution - Tuesday 25th March 2025

Image
After a long period of stasis, I have just completed the first step in changing our house and garden to meet the needs of us all.  The first step is converting our garden into a usable space for socialising and hosting gatherings (maybe with food if guests are lucky!) I'm on the verge of starting a project to convert our garage into a combined music room, library, and guest bedroom. It's long been a dream of mine to have a library and a music room, and this dream is now almost a reality.   You might ask why I didn't start this sooner? The overarching reason is that being E's carer, with all that entailed, it was almost impossible (for a long time) to muster the energy or positivity needed to make such big changes. Not only that, some of these changes would have been impossible whilst E was in her hospital bed. Getting to the point where I could even imagine there was a future for me was a very long process involving pain, upheaval, and a lot of counselling.  I need t...
Read more

Lockdown Diary - Monday 20th July 2020

Image
Today is the penultimate day of my post-operative recovery, all being well. At 8:30 tomorrow morning I have to return the the Urology Department at the hospital to discover if the operation was a success.  All being well, a few more tests and then I'm out of there, though they do advise you may have to stay until 3 p.m. I want to make the most of the day, since - if all goes well - I'll be back to work on Wednesday, however the limitations placed on what I can do, make that difficult. One thing I do want to do is finish reading the 'Hades' chapter of 'Ulysses', so that'll be my first activity, post-breakfast. Another limiting factor on what I can do is that I am required to drink at least 2 litres of fluid ahead of tomorrow's hospital appointments, as I have to be 'well hydrated' Breakfast of porridge and coffee over, I've just finished reading to the end of 'Hades', ready to start on 'Aeolus' tomorrow.  One goal achieve...
Read more