Below are the five most recent posts in my weblog. You can also see a chronological list of all posts, dating back to 1999.

How can I not have done one of these for Propaganda already?

Propaganda: A Secret Wish, and 12"s of Duel and p:Machinery

Propaganda/A Secret Wish is criminally underrated. There seem to be a zillion variants of each track, which keeps completionists busy. Of the variants of Jewel/Duel/etc., I'm fond of the 03:10, almost instrumental mix of Jewel; preferring the lyrics to be exclusive to the more radio friendly Duel (04:42); I don't need them conflating (Jewel 06:21); but there are further depths I've yet to explore (Do Well cassette mix, the 20:07 The First Cut / Duel / Jewel (Cut Rough)/ Wonder / Bejewelled mega-mix...)

I recently watched The Fall of the House of Usher which I think has Poe lodged in my brain, which is how this album popped back into my conciousness this morning, with the opening lines of Dream within a Dream.

But are they Goth?

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I got a new work laptop this year: A Thinkpad X1 Carbon (Gen 11). It wasn't the one I wanted: I'd ordered an X1 Nano, which had a footprint very reminiscent to me of my beloved x40.

Never mind! The Carbon is lovely. Despite ostensibly the same size as the T470s it's replacing, it's significantly more portable, and more capable. The two USB-A ports, as well as the full-size HDMI port, are welcome and useful (over the Nano).

I used to keep notes on setting up Linux on different types of hardware, but I haven't really bothered now for years. Things Just Work. That's good!

My old machine naming schemes are stretched beyond breaking point (and I've re-used my favourite hostname, qusp, one too many times) so I went for something new this time: Riffing on Carbon, I settled (for now) on carbyne, a carbon allotrope which is of interest to nanotechnologists (Seems appropriate)

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I'm attending FOSDEM 2024. Perhaps I'll see you there!

For the first time, I'm giving some talks, both in the Free Java Devroom (UB5.132) on Saturday 3rd. They are

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My to-read shelf

My to-read shelf

This year, with respect to my ever-growing reading backlog, I'm going to try something new: when I acquire a new book, I'm going to try to read at least a few pages of it immediately. My theory is this will help me to have a better idea of what to expect when I come to pick the next book to start, later on. A few pages may not be very representative of a full book (In "How to read a Novel: A User's Guide John Sullivan suggests reading 69 pages before giving up on a book), but it may be better than nothing.

I'll report back if it seems to work.

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Happy 2024!

DAIS have continued their programme of posthumous Coil remasters and re-issues. Constant Shallowness Leads To Evil was remastered by Josh Bonati in 2021 and re-released in 2022 in a dizzying array of different packaging variants. The original releases in 2000 had barely any artwork, and given that void I think Nathaniel Young has done a great job of creating something compelling.

Constant Shallowness leads to Evil and Queens of te Circulating Library

A limited number of the original re-issue have special lenticular covers, although these were not sold by any distributors outside the US. I tried to find a copy on my trip to Portland in 2022, to no avail.

Last year DAIS followed Constant… with Queens Of The Circulating Library, same deal: limited lenticular covers, US only.

Both are also available digital-only, e.g. on Bandcamp: Constant…, Queens…. The original, pre-remastered releases have been freely available on archive.org for a long time: Constant…, Queens…

Both of these releases feel to me that they were made available by the group somewhat as an afterthought, having been produced primarily as part of their live efforts. (I'm speculating freely here, it might not be true). Live takes of some of this material exist in the form of Coil Presents Time Machines, which has not (yet) been reissued. In my opinion this is a really compelling recording. I vividly remember listening to this whilst trying to get an hour's rest in a hotel somewhere on a work trip. It took me to some strange places!

I'll leave you from one of my favourite moments from "Colour Sound Oblivion", Coil's video collection of live backdrops. When this was performed live it was also called "Constant Shallowness Leads To Evil", although it's distinct from the material on the LP:

also available on archive.org. A version of this Constant… made it onto a Russian live bootleg, which is available on Spotify and Bandcamp complete with some John Balance banter: we only do this on religious holidays…

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Older posts are available on the all posts page.