Post Midnight Sounds

Gentle through the night -

Isotop 217 - La Jeteé

Chicago Underground Duo - Pangea

Rachel's - Family Portrait

ENJOY

Good Morning

Nuance

Over the years I have found the idea of nuance to be disappearing from conversations and from how simplified language has become. In fact, as we have become more digitalised our grasp on nuance has become weaker. We get polarised into two different diametrically opposed factions. Take politics for example as being a prima facie aspect of this polarisation. Of course, vocabulary is an important fact of this situation and I do feel that the less we read and discover new words or different nuances the less tolerable we become. Digital culture has made us become less nuanced and more radical or recalcitrant against opposing views.

Social media, overall, is definitely cursed by this lack of nuance, except for a few places such as LiveJournal. When it comes to the written word itself, then the majority are caught in their own tribal proclivities except for the more balanced views of the Guardian newspaper. I must admit I do not know which American newspaper has a similar nuanced viewpoint of the world. Some may argue that such papers are elitist, and once again, we are caught in this tribalism. I even occasionally fall into that same trap and dismiss red top papers such as The Sun, and then must check myself for not understanding why readers of that rag have differing viewpoints. Oh, and there I go again calling it a “rag” in such dismissive terms.

And yes, I do love nuance and the discovery of words and meaning.

So dear reader, what are your thoughts and viewpoints? Concurring or opposing, all will be read and not cancelled.

Interesting Links

We can no longer ignore the benefits of a four-day working week


https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/voices-we-can-no-longer-ignore-the-benefits-of-a-four-day-working-week/ar-AASTJuy?bncnt=BroadcastNews_TopStories&ocid=UCPNC1&pc=U531<


Wetherspoon's Tim Martin attacks No 10 hypocrisy as sales crash

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jan/19/wetherspoons-tim-martin-piles-in-to-no-10-hypocrisy-as-sales-crash

Can this get any worse?

By the time I reached the hospital yesterday by taxi, I could hardly walk, with a severe pain in my left buttock radiating down my left leg.There has been no improvement. I can hardly manage to walk from the lounge to the kitchen. I called NHS111 and after much debate they said they should call for an ambulance and get me to hospital. I declined, explaining that my wife was in hospital and I should be visiting her today. But I couldn't. I have just spoken to Ros. Her nurse was kind enough to call me and say that Ros has had another CT scan today and then passed the 'phone to Ros. She had not been told that I could not get there today despite me making several calls. Anyway, some progress has been made. My local practice called me, having been contacted by NHS111 and also said perhaps I should go to hospital. Out of the question, I said, so they have prescribed Codeine that my neighbour has been good enough to collect for me.

I just pray for some improvement so that I can get to see Ros tomorrow. I have ordered a pair of crutches from Amazon that should be delivered tomorrow.

Book 8 - Shokoofen Azar "The Enlightenment Of The Greengage Tree"

Shokoofen Azar "The Enlightenment Of The Greengage Tree" (Europa Editions)







I struggled a bit with this one, taking nearly a week to go through its scant 250ish pages. Magical realism works for me sometimes and doesn't work for me other times, and I guess it didn't work for me entirely in this book. Parts of it were stupendous and often neat, but so much of it felt sort of randomly strung together to me that I had trouble staying interested. I was most interested in Iranian history which forms the backdrop to the story and in fact, the last fifth or so of the book landed better for me than much of the middle. So, it had some parts I enjoyed and some parts I read in a hazy glassy-eyed ambivalence and mostly wanted to grit my teeth and get through.

Of course, you may enjoy it better, but for me, it was a struggle and hence not a keeper.

Wednesday Waxy Tunes

Some cool grooves for the midweek day.

Paolo Conte - Boogie

Lee Hazlewood - The Night Before

Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg - Bonnie And Clyde

Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood - Some Velvet Morning

ENJOY