howdy friends
i’m essentially furloughed from work and trying to find the joys in life in lockdown, so here’s your DAILY DOSE of MUSIC/WRITING/BOOKS/FILM/TV/ART recs from jake aka PLAYTIME
first up for those politically inclined, and who want to make sense of the current moment beyond hating keir starmer with a passion (the correct position), James Butler’s mini-podcast “Now, After Corbyn” is typically great. i always think of Butler as a real “character” of the contemporary era, consistently eloquent and articulate, quasi-aristocratic in a good way… his stuff is always worth engaging with, a cut above the usual novara fluff and shite. this piece doesn’t disappoint: it starts with a sample of corbyn’s first speech at a pro-refugee demo hours after being elected in 2015 - a real tug at the heartstrings. RIP JC big fella.
been watching a lot of high maintenance lately - one of the few genuinely joyous tv programmes. (trailer here to get the vibe.) it follows a weed dealer in new york and each episode is about a different client of his, allowing it to go in all sort of weird directions. (one episode is told from the perspective of a dog, and it’s fantastic.) it’s also one of the few i think that genuinely captures the “mood” of the past 5-10 years, at least for a certain generation, rather than pumping out nostalgia/lowest common denominator shite. it’s v much worth a watch. i watch the show via 😜 extra-legal 😜 means but if you know someone with a NOW TV or sky subscription you can watch via there.
the other great thing about high maintenance is that it has one of the best soundtracks going - think summer/spring vibes, a hazy psychedelic flatline running from the 60s/70s counterculture right up to the current pitchfork era (connan mockasin, homeshake, alex cameron, etc). i have my issues with most of this bland “chillwave”/mac de marco-esque pitchfork stuff - which really demands a Name and a proper sociological (on in xenogothic’s terms biological) study; there’s a project for the blog there… - but HM really picks out the best of it and give it its proper treatment. maybe it’s just better as mood music.
here’s the season 2 soundtrack on youtube
here’s sharon redd - never give you up which i discovered through the show - a post-disco gem from 1982 which makes those rare rays of lockdown sunshine even sweeter.
as per usual, i find myself reading random blog posts from k-punk (rip) and hyperstition from about 15 years ago. all this stuff is gold. read this 2005 post from mark fisher @ hyperstition yesterday as research for a potential upcoming blogpost on coronavirus guilt, and as ever it’s a weird, psychedelic and yet analytically precise affair:
Guilt is the a priori condition for those inserted into the Control machine, whose lineaments were described with terrifying precision by Burroughs, Kafka's real successor. Control precisely does not issue rigid commands, but complementary yet contradictory injunctions, themselves always provisional and 'subject to review'. The coherence of the Control hyper-entity can only ever be virtual; it doesn't pre-exist the subject of Control. Very much to the contrary, it is the very attempt to make sense of the 'obviously' incommensurate and prima facie senseless injunctions it issues that constitute what minimal coherence Control has. As Kafka's hapless petitioner discovers, the door is meant only for you. But behind the door is the metastatic God Over Djinn bad infinity of metanoiac postponement. Ceaseless seamless bad dream corridors.
i’ll end with the hilarious fact that i was quote tweeted by boots riley yesterday.
till tomorrow, friends. send me recs! read my blog! stay safe!
jake x