May has been a busy, mixed month, filled with a lot of fun and a fair amount of grumbling about health.
Saw Max Cooper with Rowan, as my one event in the Brighton Festival this year. It was his first “proper” gig and my first one in ages, and I didn’t realise it would be quite so intense. The light and sound show was amazing, if relentless. I’ve promised him a more chilled out show next time.
Did Eurovision x Birthday weekend with my family – my mum and dad, and my sister and her lot. It was lovely to finally have all of us in the same room for the evening, and every year there are one or two more people who have got sucked into it. Israel very-nearly-winning was a bit of a heart-in-mouth moment admittedly, and with all things Eurovision, I had to constantly adjust my taking-it-seriously-or-not level. But hey, music, dancing and fireworks are things the world will always need to be a better place.
Got some lovely birthday presents. An 8bitdo retro-themes mechanical keyboard, with huge buttons. A pack of Twin Peaks top trump cards. A giant vegan cake. Two great coffee-table books for inspiration – Brutalist Plants and Project Japan. It was fun to have a birthday at the weekend, for some reason it feels a lot easier to extend it out to Friday and Monday.
We paid a visit to the curves of the De La Warr pavilion in Bexhill, including the “Ssh Ow” art exhibition by Jaki Irvine. (On a sidenote, why don’t venues make it easy to see what’s already been on, as well as what’s coming up?)
I don’t know if No-Mow May or No-Rain Britain (it rhymes if you say it wrong…) has had a big effect, but it’s definitely been the month of May Hay Fever. Strangely, the couple of days I got woken up before 6am with sneezing fits, I also felt kind of awake, and enjoyed getting out of bed, sneaking downstairs, and just feeling the day wake up around me.
Largely though, the sneezing has combined with a cold lasting most of the month. I suspect I was run-down to begin with, which has made recovery harder, but after a few weeks of feeling a-bit-crap, I’m now a bit run-down from being run-down. I’ve got just enough energy back now to get some enthusiasm though, so I’ve started trying to plank a little but often (at least 30 seconds 2-3 times a day) and drink more water (a glass 4-5 times a day). Definitely feel like I’m getting static and becoming taken over by bodily trees and ivy, and it’s on me to look after myself better.
Very much on a whim, I made a lime and coconut cake. It went fairly wrong and I got rather grumpy, but actually it tasted fine and I’ve learnt some things to try it again.
Bob’s Retro Mart in Seaford closed, so I picked up some more vinyl for cheap.
To finish off the month, we had a great visit to London, seeing Covent Garden, and heading along to the Barbican Garden Conservatory. The Barbican is still amazing and I didn’t realise until we booked that the Conservatory even exists. We also found a genuinely brilliant modular synth “play room” beneath Rough Trade record shop.
I’ll be posting more edited shots from London over at DRPFD soon.
Recent Content:
- Game: Vexbox, Playdate: Fun and addictive little box-opening game with chaotic combos and a fair chunk of luck involved. Sometimes you make your own luck though…
- Game: Discolored, Steam: Plucked from the backlog, a compact and concise little colour-based puzzle game, set in a strange diner.
- Book: Sinopticon: A celebration of Chinese sci-fi short stories, (so far) fascinating for a slightly different perspective on themes, weaving in Chinese history and nuances effectively.
- Game: Gunbird, Switch: Always great to have an old school shmup to get into and switch the rest of the world off.
- Game: Turbo Golf racing, Steam: It was on offer, I like cars, I like golf games, it’s amusing.
- Game: Celeste, via Itch: I’d stopped halfway through a while back, but wanted to press on, so switched on Assist Mode and also got over my fear of failure, and had a great time getting to the top.
- Game: A Story About My Uncle, Steam: Another backlog pluck, this one is a first-person air-dash grapple-swinger that does feel nice. I wasn’t sure about playing it on the Deck without a keyboard and mouse, but there’s no real pressure if you fail, so it’s working out so far.
- “Game?”: Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, Switch: Picked up the physical release of this and got to say I’m loving working through the timeline bit-by-bit. Some of the early games in here such as Gridrunner 2 are great to play, but I’m also finding a lot of inspiration from Jeff’s old approach to making games, which is just to have fun and enjoy what emerges from fairly simple tech.
- TV: Race Around the World, BBC: Good one to watch over dinner with the family, another nice combo of interpersonal relationships and exotic parts of the world.
- Film: Sinners: The vampirey part was so-so in my book, but the whole setup and first half and soundtrack make this well worth a watch, a listen, and a general meditation on the power of music.
- Graphic book: Lip Hook: A Tale of Rural Unease: Found this in HMV for FOUR POUNDS, and haven’t regretted picking it up. Lovely tale of an isolated village, a strange mist filled with insects, and strangers, cults and witchcraft.
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