Lockdown Diary - Saturday 6th June 2020

Saturday again and no sign of things improving enough for life to switch from pause to play.

Did our shopping first thing, as usual.  Got back, started chores and then had breakfast.  Read the papers - not much in either of them of interest today, so I'll read more of the latest issue of 'Private Eye' and my book club novel, 'The Binding'. I'm barely a quarter of the way through 'The Binding', but without wishing to prejudice the final review (or give anything much away) I am finding it very intriguing.  I'm not sure where it's headed - things seem to be happening quite fast, so I'm guessing there's going to be a change of direction, but who knows!

Music-wise I've been listening to a raft of albums from 2020 to see which, if any, are eligible to join my birthday/father's day selection box. So far today I've heard albums from: Mood Taeg; Porridge Radio; Moses Boyd; Pure Reason Revolution; The Lovely Eggs; Plone; Shabazz Palaces and King Krule. So far the 'it's alright, but so what' category outweighs those that have taken risks and popped their heads over the parapet.

I'm having a lazy day: not going to do too many boring tasks.  Had planned to do some more hacking in the garden but the rain and electric hedge trimmer don't work well together, so that's off.  I also need to catch up on my 'Science of Psychedelics' course, though I want to re-watch the first lesson again as, appropriately, it blew my mind.

Watched lesson 1 again and am now ready to move on to lesson 2 'A Short History of Psychedelics', but before that, time for something completely different. I'm listening to the 31st May episode of 'Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone' from BBC6 Music.  I haven't found time to listen to any of these for ages, even though it is probably the best show for discovering new music (7 out of 18 of the tracks listed are by artists I've never heard of).  Amongst the new and old stuff, the show has an interview with cult Liverpool band, The Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus. Can't wait!

Saturday is becoming established as film night and tonight is an experiment: I'm going to take my anti-depressant 2 hours later, still drink alcohol, and see if I manage to stay awake for the 2 hours and a bit of 'American Sniper', son #3's film choice. Didn't start watching the film until 8:30pm, so I'll be taking the tablet a mere 30 minutes after starting the film.

First, the film. As films go it did a good job of drawing you in, and was an interesting story, and gripping.  The first thing to bear in mind is that it's a 'true' story, one based on the life of the central character.  If you take the attitudes, motivations and behaviours at face value, I guess it's entirely coherent.  At the heart of the film, though, is a unswerving view that everything that was done was right and that, by definition, America is a nation better than all others and, moreover, whatever it does is right, by definition, too. There is no wider context for what is shown. At times this grated more than a little.  It's one thing to present a viewpoint that a set of actions are right under a specific set of circumstances (whether or not you agree with those pre-conditions and assumptions), but there was this rather unpleasant undercurrent that 'America is always right, because it is America' with an added biblical dimension (I originally wrote 'Christian' rather than 'biblical', but I don't think they are Christian values at all but a warping and perversion of them).  You only have to look at the news from America today to see that this is a dangerous belief to promote.

Did I stay awake? Abso-bloody-lutely. The experiment will continue.

There is a video to accompany this song, but I feel that videos distort or impose a meaning on a song which restricts and narrows it, rather than enhances it.  I still love this song, 'Memories and Faces' by Liela Moss from the album 'My Name is Safe in Your Mouth'

[[]]