It’s that time of year when you either (a) have nothing to do, or (b) have no energy to do the things you should be doing. I fell into the latter camp this week.
It’s been a few years since I did anything on New Years Eve, but this year I was persuaded / coerced into heading to The Oxford in Totterdown for their party. And, to be fair, I had a reasonably all-right time. Other than the complimentary glass of bubbles on arrival, I stuck to the Guinness 0.0.
The main band were ‘Basic Pleasure Model’ - a band who, I can only imagine, came about their name because the initials are BPM. They are a cover band doing mainly 80s tunes and they were really rather good. Excellent musicians, and with great, infectious energy that had nearly the whole pub dancing and singing along.
OK. Hear me out. I happened across one of those “My Life in Music” articles in Uncut magazine, and it was about someone / a band that I’ve been meaning to check out for quite a while, so I read on. The article is about Steve Davis’ favourite records. He includes one from his own group (The Utopia Strong), which some might consider a bit 'off', but given where he started (snooker halls and world championships), I think it’s fair for him to include his (super)group’s first release, marking a pivotal point in his life.
The music? I’ve listened to an early album and the most recent album. It’s not really my thing - a bit too experimental (I prefer more ‘governance’), but there are tracks I like, so I will almost certainly explore further at a later date.
Here’s an Apple News link to the Uncut article (as far as I can tell, there are no subscription-free versions of the article online) - https://apple.news/AFZoZc0E9TEyLYeWHayVebg
In the times when I had the energy, I got quite a lot done, I suppose:
- I wrote two pieces for The Ode Map, scheduled for release on 5th and 12th January, respectively.
- I spend some time honing my ‘styles’ in Spiral (by Every Inc)
- I spend some time with n8n. Working on automating the second half of a process where I already have the first half done. It’s fairly straightforward - no AI - but requiring some JavaScript on my part, which I’m really rusty at.
- By virtue of the above, I also learned and experimented with error handling in n8n, which has been really well thought out.
I watched quite a lot this week, but of note were:
I listened to:
- The Utopia Strong - “Doperider” album
- The Utopia Strong - “The Utopia Strong” album
- The Legendary Pink Dots - “Chemical Play School 25” album