morning pals, how are you?
first up, this little 12 minute montage of clips of adorno and horkheimer from old documentaries is a fun watch. horkheimer ends up having an incredibly high pitched voice, while adorno speaks in exactly the same negative way that he writes. it’s a nice little nugget that succinctly expresses what the two writers were about, i think.
next up, klara lewis’ latest release, “ingrid”, is really something: a 20 minute experimental track formed from a single cello loop, which ends up being either unsettlingly beautiful or beautifully unsettling (i haven’t decided which). it’s wonderfully dislocating, even dissociative; every loop seemingly brings you back to the beginning, to “home”, and yet at the same time pushes you further from it. (the musical expression of douglas hofstadter’s concept of the “strange loop”?) it evokes waves solemnly crashing on the shore: rising and falling, but never towards an end (conceived both temporally and teleologically), never towards a closure.
lewis’ back catalogue is worth engaging with, too, if you want to explore more experimental field recording / sound-collage-esque music. her album ett (youtube) was very good, from what i recall from listening to it a few years back.
other fragments from the gutters of cyberspace:
i quickly wrote up a short blog post the other day on mark fisher/k-punk and his views on fandom. in short: snarky hipsters who make you feel bad for sincerely and openly enjoying something = superficial and bad.
shannon recommends this essay by rebecca may johnson in granta, reflecting on her experiences tending an allotment. johnson does a good job not only of viscerally evoking the experience of growing and caring for plants, but also of not fetishing and romanticising “nature” as some absolute good. also reminded me that i finally need to get round to reading my copy of sophie lewis’ full surrogacy now.
the quietus posted a good set of reflections on BBC4’s output, following news that it’s to be wound up. nice set of recs, too: definitely going to check out those johnathan meades documentaries.
finally, andrew key on twitter (author of the wonderful roland barfs film diary newsletter, which has been rec’d here before) shared this website of a set of short feminist documentary films made by a film co-operative in 1970s sheffield. haven’t had time to check out, but always here for long-lost web archives.
i’m taking a break from the newsletter for the weekend, so next delivery will be monday morning instead of sunday. enjoy the weekend, keep sending in recs, and share the newsletter if you’ve been enjoying it!
jake x