Dear connected reader,
How are you? I hope you are well, as I fire out another missive into the dark, connecting me — sitting on my couch, typing on my laptop — to you, scanning, skimming, or reading from your spot in the world.
Summer is at full blast here, and I’ve already spotted ripe blackcurrants. Small, spiky conkers are dangling from horse chestnut trees, and today, I saw green berries on the holly… it all seems a bit early, but we had several weeks of hot weather here so perhaps they have been hurried along.
I sent out a cartoon last Friday, called B.A.D., and it will be a regular addition. I hope you enjoy it. I’m aiming for silly, fun and a bit strange.
I’m finding a hermit-like urge descending upon me over the last week, and an indifference to the latest addition to the social media arena: Threads, courtesy of Instagram. To the 100 million (bots & humans) who have joined: I wish you well! Personally, I’m feeling less and less inclined to invest energy into maintaining another account for a company that’s going to harvest my data and throttle access to my followers. I’ve joined a bunch of other social media platforms over the last six months, as Twitter sinks further into the murk, and each time I log into any of them and observe my feed I experience a bone-deep weariness.
Stirring underneath my Threads aversion is the classic Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), a vague need to be part of the hip new joint your mates keep saying is so cool! I get it, I feel it. No one wants to be left behind, and as an avowed tech-head I see the appeal. But for now I’m content in my missingoutedness.
But before you think this post is going to comprise of a grumpy woman rattling her fist at invisible hijinks, I bring you: Have you seen…? I share things I’m enjoying, and perhaps you’ll like them too!
I’ve always been friends with people who are younger and older than me. Each have their wisdom. When I was in my twenties I had a friend who was over a decade older than me, and we often had long conversations about bands and songs. What I loved was his appetite for new music, despite being at an age when people’s tastes remain stuck or atrophy completely.
I remember determining that I would never become a person who says, ‘there’s no good music being made any more’, because I heard that declaration at every stage of my life and each time I recognised it as hogwash. Of course, much of what is produced and sent out into the world is forgettable, but there is always good material appearing.
For instance, I think Lizzo’s 2019 album, Cuz I Love You, should be on prescription for anyone going through a difficult time. ‘Here, listen to this, it’ll make you feel better.’ It’s full of exuberance, joy and great tunes.
So here are two songs that I’m enjoying at the moment, and the first one is partly out of admiration of the accompanying video. I’m not massively into K-Pop, but ‘OMG’ by NewJeans is upbeat and demonstrates a sharp insight to the strangeness inherent in our online culture, especially for those who were raised with it and whose lives are enmeshed with their smart phones. The opening surreal sequence leads into the tune, but it constantly flashes between different aspects of these terribly cute Korean women, and you are left to wonder, what is real and what is manufactured? ‘I exist for you,’ feels like a portentous truth, and is the dreadful dilemma of people who are in madly in love (with a person or a technology). Make sure you watch every last second of this clever video.
The second track is closer to home, Irish singer/songwriter Róisín Murphy’s new song ‘CooCool’, produced with German DJ Koze. It’s a track off her forthcoming album, Hit Parade. This is a simple lyric video, but also weird in its own way. Murphy has several decades in the music industry (she began her career in the band Moloko). There’s a clear statement with the clown-like latex covering most of her (distorting) face, but the disconcerting forthright gaze of the older eyes hint at a person who has been through the wringer. Yet the lyrics and production are full of light passion, plus I cannot deny I love a funky track.
Her other recent song, ‘The Universe’, is even catchier, with a stranger lyric video. I’m looking forward to listening to her entire album — in an era of playlists, it feels anachronistic to say ‘album’, but people still produce them. There is something useful about the process of crafting a collection of songs, just as a writer puts together their collection of short stories. Once you set your goal on a collection a shape appears in your mind about the ensemble. Some stories fit and others don’t, and new material manifests in reaction.
And once it is produced, your mind is free to begin musing upon the next project. Begin, and begin again. Such is the creative life.
Finally, I want to recommend the science fiction series Silo on Apple TV.
I knew little about the show before I watched the first episode, but I quickly guessed it was based on a book, because there was a weight to the world, a sense that someone had taken a long time to consider how it all fit together. Sure enough, Graham Yost adapted it from the Wool novels by Hugh Howey. It’s worth noting that his universe started as a short story, called ‘Wool’, which Howey self-published on Amazon. He followed it with four novellas, before writing the rest as novels. The popularity of the work brought attention, a TV deal, and a mainstream publisher. Yet Howey maintains the right to continue publishing the work online; good for him! This is a great example of the hybrid model of publishing that is continuing to develop.
As evidenced by the grim tone of the trailer, Silo is a dystopian future in which a self-contained community live in a massive underground silo comprising 144 levels. No one knows why the silo came into being, except to go outside is a death sentence. Artefacts from the past are strictly forbidden. To maintain its equilibrium there is a stringent set of rules, overseen and enforced by various organisations, which are not all working well together. It’s a place of control and secrets, and it eventually falls to Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson), an engineer, to figure out its mysteries. The series does something a bit unusual regarding the point of view characters in the first three episodes, and they tease enough information to keep you guessing. There’s a terrific cast putting in strong performances, especially Rashida Jones, David Oyelowo, Common, Tim Robbins, Chinaza Uche and Harriet Walter.
It’s always certain that if your hero is an engineer or a scientist they cannot be fobbed off with bad information or threats.1 Give them a perplexing puzzle and they will upend the world to figure it out — of course, there are consequences to knowledge…
The first season has a strong ending, offering answers and posing more questions. So much so that I’ll probably have to buy the books!
I completely forgot to mention that Joseph Freeman invited me to be part of his Midsummer Macabre collective video, where horror writers read from one of their stories.
I read ‘The Boughs Withered (When I Told Them My Dreams)’, which is the title story from my collection of the same name.
I’m in terrific company: Joseph, Mick Garris, Peter James and Helen Grant. If you fancy listening to some creepy tales, this is a great video to watch on YouTube.
As ever, I’m reminded of Nigel Kneale’s love of the scientist/hero, as exemplified in his Quatermass series. Kneale didn’t invent the idea of the boffin who saves the world through their unerring zeal for empirical truths, but he certainly created a mould that people have been using to cast off similar characters ever since.