He later moved back, but I have only been to visit three times since I left. He is one of the few people from that time that I keep in touch with... recently we have been talking about another collaboration on some new releases.

When any of the numerous bands that occupied the house practiced, you could feel the double kick of the bass drum through the whole structure. Both of us left the country soon after moving out of that house, him for Japan and me for Europe.

Most of it was below street level as it followed a slope down to the rivulet that ran off the mountain to soon disappear underground and flow beneath the city. The house was damp and smelt of mould. At the very bottom, completely underground, was a 'living room', which was used as a band room.

Tom from Förfalla and I were housemates in Hobart Tasmania nearly 20 years ago. It was in that interstitial period of your twenties, when you have graduated but still live like a student. We rented a tiny old terraced cottage near the centre of town.

Fecundecay, by Förfalla 1 track album

The picture was later used as cover art for the single Fecundecay by Förfalla:

forfalla.bandcamp.com/album/fecund...

The rain had dislodged a seam of clay, which ran down dark against the whiteness of the chalk, leaving this textured paint-like pattern.

I took this picture nearly 10 years ago by the chalk cliffs of Møns Klint in Denmark. There had been big storms in the preceding days, strange days around midsummer with visits to barrows, bonfires, and nighttime bicycle rides with lightning flickering all around us...

Interesting... I love Kiefer's art, but long ago decided to not read anymore interviews with him, rather to let the art speak for itself. I can imagine Kluge brings a different angle, but embarrassingly I have not really read enough of his work. Is this a good place to start?

I love these slate panels on the side of a local building...

[1992] Irena & Vojtech Havlovi - Hudba Ticha (Music of Silence) (FULL ALBUM) YouTube video by heavyintodreaming

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMTK...

‘She wanted to disappear in silence’: the magical life and mysterious death of married musician duo Irena and Vojtěch Havlovi Blending minimalism, ambient and folk music in the former Czechoslovakia, the couple made pilgrim-like tours around Europe, beguiling everyone they met. Fans including the National’s Bryce Dessner exp...

This was such a beautiful and tender article, about beautiful and tender lives... I had not heard of Irena and Vojtěch Havlovi before, but this sent me to search out some of their music... and it did, as it says in the article, bring me to tears.
www.theguardian.com/music/2026/a...

*rationale

About 20 years ago I spent a strange year working on low income statistics for the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it was pretty eyeopening. They didn't like it when I questioned their division between household and economic statistics, I argued that 'economic' means household: oikos + nemein.

I answered Yes, mainly to try and normalise not using a tumble dryer... I am pretty sure that I am always eliminated as a statistical outlier in all surveys.

The options were Yes and No. I have never had a tumble dryer because of their environmental impact. Should I answer: 1) No, because my habit has not changed; 2) No, because my reason is ecological not economic; or, 3) Yes, because I air dry my laundry and do not use a tumble dryer...?

Then I moved to another bookseller on the other side of CXR and experienced the time they brought in a customer service consultant who hilariously could not understand the way people buying books behaved... That was reassuring, as if the book somehow resisted the commodity form.

Another depressingly memorable quote was 'it just looks like a library in here...'

Absolutely agree that Cordelia (and Charisma Carpenter) were treated appallingly, we know much more details now... The series picked up substantially once Angel was put in charge of Wolfram & Hart. But maybe I'm also a Buffy anomaly in that I think season 6 is the best...

I don't know... I thought Angel improved vastly once Spike joined.

Is the Next Nobel Laureate in Literature Tending Bar in a Dusty Australian Town? With the publication of two new books, Gerald Murnane might finally find an American audience.

Oh, it reminds me of it because the connection has already been made in the very article where I read about Murnane's Antipodean Archive and The Interior of Gaaldine:
web.archive.org/web/20180327...

Reminds me of Gerald Murnane and his horse races...

I haven't read anything by her, despite several people whose taste I respect recommending The Last Samurai, but after reading this and then a couple of interviews I am much more tempted. Even if it feels, at first glimpse, that the content (?) may not appeal to me...

The insanity seems mainly from the industry side. I always have respect for people who reject prizes... and especially for explicitly rejecting the economy of prestige that surrounds them (the marketing/publicity apparatus, etc.) Just give people the money (or a UBI) and let them write...

Yes, of course it hurts when buds are breaking. Why else would the springtime falter? Why would all our ardent longing bind itself in frozen, bitter pallor? After all, the bud was covered all the winter. What new thing is it that bursts and wears? Yes, of course it hurts when buds are breaking, hurts for that which grows and that which bars. Yes, it is hard when drops are falling. Trembling with fear, and heavy hanging, cleaving to the twig, and swelling, sliding - weight draws them down, though they go on clinging. Hard to be uncertain, afraid and divided, hard to feel the depths attract and call, yet sit fast and merely tremble - hard to want to stay and want to fall. Then, when things are worst and nothing helps the tree's buds break as in rejoicing, then, when no fear holds back any longer, down in glitter go the twig's drops plunging, forget that they were frightened by the new, forget their fear before the flight unfurled - feel for a second their greatest safety, rest in that trust that creates the world.

You are here at the right moment to experience the painful slowness of spring... And it is perfectly captured in Karin Boye's Ja visst gör det ont /Of course it hurts.

This texture was also photographed in Norway... From a hotel room that was overlooking a building site. A demolished building had exposed this strange grey paper-like wall.

In my experience, you are lucky to even get a form reflection letter... Much more common is just 'if you haven't heard from us in 12/whatever weeks then it's a no', which is more disheartening. At least with a letter you feel somewhat seen. Oh well, onto the next manuscript...

The moon...

It is actually an edition of 40...

More textures. A Norwegian mine, photographed nearly ten years ago now... I remember these dark rocks.

Golden reeds in front of a dark dense texture of trees.

Textures...