"That makes me sound unfeasibly old but the world changed all of a sudden with the coming of the Great Recession and the ubiquity of the devils distraction devices that now perpetually rest in our back pockets."
I'm afraid I must agree with how unfeasibly old that makes you sound. Definitely reinforces your previous essays about the more tangible connections that fans used to have with music however.
The whole experience of discovery was a trillion times more exciting than finding some new music you like in your Youtube recommended section while listening to "lo-fi beats to relax to."
As a funny aside - I looked up the wiki for 'High Fidelity' (never seen it), and found this in the opening section:
"After seeing the film, Hornby expressed his happiness with Cusack's performance, saying that "at times, it appears to be a film in which John Cusack reads my book."[2] Though, this may have been sarcasm or what’s known as a “backhanded compliment”—banter."
Banter you say? Interesting, I must look into it.
"You need people like that in your life, now more than ever. People who share their idiosyncratic taste as a means of helping you develop your own idiosyncratic taste, or at least give you permission to do so by shamelessly sharing their high brow meets low brow aesthetic."
You fit the bill in my own case, along with a number of others. Twitter has been fantastic for finding people who give book recommendations actually. Paul Skallas newsletter has led to me ordering two Tom Wolfe paperbacks (Painted word and Bauhaus to Our House), and a Leon Krier's Drawinf For Architecture.
Up until relatively recently architecture wasn't something I cared much about, but because of a handful of insanely devoted traditionalists (WrathOfGnon for example) I will now speak, at length, about the virtues of high ceilings and the key factors in a city's walkability to anyone who will listen.
I've only just read to the bottom under the article and seen that it's your birthday, so happy birthday mate. The lack of listicle is thoroughly appreciated, although I'm sure you'd do a good job of it.
This whole article is tremendously interesting - as you mention, it reflects more on you than on the artist himself. It's hard not to appreciate the truly authentic nature of Smith's artistic expression, and how well he presents a period of time and place.
It makes a lot of sense that it's your birthday as well, given the nostalgic nature of the writing.
But where is the nostalgia rooted? In growing up in a town with "more bookies than bookshops", did you want to get away from that, or do you feel a desire to get back to it? (Possibly because of all the fake BS in our semi-virtual world).
Personally, the video for Wings made me feel somewhat down. Just being honest about that one, it's more a reflection on me than anything else. I think it reminded me a bit of the old drinking culture that was in Ireland, coupled with poverty and lack of opportunity.
The pub is packed, despite it being 8 o'clock on a weekday, because there wasn't anything else to do if you had no work. I'm glad that period of time is dead and buried.
I don't mean to put such a downer on things, it was still a fantastic, and unique love-letter of an article, but it came into my head so I said I would share it.
‘But where is the nostalgia rooted? In growing up in a town with "more bookies than bookshops", did you want to get away from that, or do you feel a desire to get back to it? (Possibly because of all the fake BS in our semi-virtual world).’
It’s not so much nostalgia strictly speaking as the tension between looking back fondly and trying to extract a few worthwhile ideas from the past as we move forward.
Like Smith himself, the old world is dead. I don’t want to go back, but I think there are a few things worth salvaging, some principles rather than particular manifestations.
So in this case grimy old pubs are depressing, yes. But the idea of an unpretentious and internet free, real world space that welcomes everyone is not.
I too have memories of poverty and lack of opportunity. The wall in the head. Glad it’s gone, or is at least going. But I also have memories of tighter knit communities and a lack of rampant consumerism and people being more present during conversations. Shame it’s gone.
So we need to cultivate new ways of bringing such things back that are appropriate to the world we find ourselves in.
See what I’m saying?
This is the dialectic and the point of tension, and I suppose a good chunk of these newsletters are different angles on the same idea: what do we try and keep or at least reappropriate? And what do we absolutely have to leave behind?
I see what you're saying, thanks for the detailed response. I completely agree about what's been lost - myself and my friends have made an effort to get rid of that with a modern twist on the old credit card game: All smartphones go in the middle of the table, first person to check buys a round. Simple, but given the price of pints these days it's a solid means of dissuasion.
I think tech-free bars and cafes would be a wonderful innovation, but what's even more important would be getting people to *want* a lack of tech rather than have it mandated for them. Maybe the mandate should come first to show people what they're missing?
I see what you mean about the point of tension - I've been reading a lot of John Gray recently, and it's got me thinking about human progress (or lack of). What was better, what was worse - some things are obvious, others less so.
We almost have to realise that we're still the same, extremely simple, easily misled creatures we always have been - and finding ways to build systems to outsmart ourselves. Designated tech-free zones could be a way of doing that.
Funny you should mention John Gray- keep an eye out for tomorrow’s newsletter.
In regards to tech my current thought, as with many other topics, is that it is the lukewarm middle ground that gets you in the end. A lot of people spend a lot of time online, not really working, not really having fun, just kind of existing in the Matrix, passive.
So I say try and up the intensity, which is when you are online be REALLY online- posting and firing of DMs and replies like a machine gun. But for a short time. Then log-off so you can enjoy the analogue life and cultivate the kind of attention span that will probably prove to be the deciding factor between success and stagnation in this decade.
That’s my current perspective. Both/and rather than the scarcity minded either/or. Perhaps it’s impossible. Perhaps not. But I suppose it would take someone succeeding with this method to then inspire others to do like wise which is what would be needed to create the best of both worlds situation that both you and I seem to crave.
Looking forward to it. I don't know how it took me so long to get around to reading his work. His erudition has me both envious and in awe - and feeling like I should be reading more/
Definitely agree. They say life is a marathon but each day should really be more like a series of sprints followed by moving very slowly if at all, book, guitar, or pencil in hand. Every day I live like this ends up being a good one.
The high-low theory is everywhere - I workout twice a day 7 days a week, work like an absolute maniac and then do absolutely nothing after a cutoff point. Sometimes just looking out of a window and watching clouds, like I'm back in Secondary school. And it feels absolutely like the correct way to live, in terms of progress and happiness, at least for right now.
I have you to thank for the doing nothing part - or at least the lack of "guilt" that used to be there. It's where all of my best ideas come anyway - the downside of productivity is creativity tends to have an inverse relationship with it.
I think you'll prove to be a glowing example of it. And the best part is that through paving a path, and making it much easier for others to pass through, we all end up with more high quality books to read. Win, win.
my birthday was last thursday, and i got a cake. I hope your day has gone a bit better than that... i've come to really enjoy you're writing and share it often. hope that helps...
On the one hand it’s been a nice day. On the other hand it’s been really hard to differentiate from most other days in this strange current world of hours.
More blessing than complaint, but you get what I’m saying.
Hard to get the flavour of different occasions when most of the world outside is closed,
Happy belated birthday to you Joseph.
Thanks for reading and for sharing. It really helps.
First of all, I think a proper Happy birthday is mandatory here. Tremendous progress you've made these past 2-3 years! I remember reading my first thread from you when I was in London for a few months in 2018, it was writing advices from Elmore Leonard and you had a handful of followers. By the quality and humour of the thread I knew this anon brit was up to something... and now here we are.
"That world of swirling paisley-wallpapered pre-refurbishment pubs, of the aforementioned cheapo second hand record shops and book shops, of ashtrays and pints and carrier bags, a world that was pre-internet, pre-gentrification, pre-health consciousness, a world that was grimy and awful but at least you could actually touch it."
I never heard of Mark E. Smith and it's not exactly my kind of music but I felt deeply this paragraph by watching a few video clips from him. I feel exactly the same towards movies, especially that 70-80s era of grimy film, somewhat gaudy colors, crooked teeth and imperfect haircuts. This era when an unsanitary house REALLY looked like that, when you could almost smell the filth from behind the screen; when the creatures were made of plasticine and unearthly fabrics, when the directors sometimes used real giblets and offals; foley artists experimenting with synthesizer, kitchenwares and god knows what to create haunting sounds.
Sure, the result was less polished; some scenes supposedly horryfying were funny and even big budget movies had often that amateurish vibe; but it was clear that the people who made them and starred in them were HAVING FUN; they loved it and wanted to share that love with the viewer, like a good buddy eager to make you listen to the new record he just bought; not like a cold pencil neck crossing boxes on a market research form. I feel it's the same "vibe" with Mark E. Smith; Innocence, ingenuity and passion above all else. Something we lost over the last two decades. The sadness seems theatrical. The filth looks staged to the last germ. Nothing looks real anymore. Hopefully, the exasperation with the refinement culture will eventually open up the valves of creativity and audacity again. Time will tell
See, this is why I like you Sebastien. You always gets the subtext.
Mark E Smith was just a jumping off point to talk about the grim, grimy, anti-fashion, imperfect but arguably more fun world of the not too distant past. Hence choosing to link to all of those videos from old TV appearances or where the video was a zero-budget effort in some wallpapered Northern working man’s boozer.
If you’ve been hear with me on the internet since the very beginning (and God bless you for your perseverance if nothing else) then I believe it has been close to 2 and a half years at this point. Doesn’t time fly when you are pretending to finish up a novel?
It’s always a pleasure talking to you Sebastien, here and elsewhere, and long may it continue. Reading your insights is always one of the highlights of this whole process for me.
This whole missive was a test to see who the Fall affiliated (or at least Fall aware) in my audience were as it is a decent litmus test of who ‘gets it’ and who doesn’t.
Gonna have to listen to Live At The Witch Trials again today. Always laugh at the story of Mark E Smith not allowing the members of Nirvana on to his tour bus because they were "scruffy cunts" hahaha
Happy birthday Tom! You’ll be glad to hear I’ve been giving you birthday gifts for weeks now. Nary is the Sunday that I don’t end up forwarding your newsletter to a half-dozen assorted friends. It’s just that good.
“You need people like that in your life, now more than ever. People who share their idiosyncratic taste as a means of helping you develop your own idiosyncratic taste, or at least give you permission to do so by shamelessly sharing their high brow meets low brow aesthetic.”
Hoping for the day where people online can revel unashamedly in their geeky, “uncultured” tastes. Without feeling the need to be “culturally correct”.
P.S. I’ve always wondered what you made of the idea of birthdays. Perhaps a subject for a future newsletter?
I’m fairly ambivalent about birthdays because mine falls in January when there is little going on and a lot of people are broke after Christmas.
At the risk of sounding like a Puritan it has more of a reflective vibe rather than a hedonistic one. It’s more like my new year, if that makes sense.
But I tell you what, a year today I’ll be 35 which feels like a real milestone. I’ll make sure that the newsletter for that week is on the subject of birthdays.
Thanks Robert. I would like to both pat myself on the back and also apologise for (re)introducing you to the strange and frightening world of The Fall.
"That makes me sound unfeasibly old but the world changed all of a sudden with the coming of the Great Recession and the ubiquity of the devils distraction devices that now perpetually rest in our back pockets."
I'm afraid I must agree with how unfeasibly old that makes you sound. Definitely reinforces your previous essays about the more tangible connections that fans used to have with music however.
The whole experience of discovery was a trillion times more exciting than finding some new music you like in your Youtube recommended section while listening to "lo-fi beats to relax to."
As a funny aside - I looked up the wiki for 'High Fidelity' (never seen it), and found this in the opening section:
"After seeing the film, Hornby expressed his happiness with Cusack's performance, saying that "at times, it appears to be a film in which John Cusack reads my book."[2] Though, this may have been sarcasm or what’s known as a “backhanded compliment”—banter."
Banter you say? Interesting, I must look into it.
"You need people like that in your life, now more than ever. People who share their idiosyncratic taste as a means of helping you develop your own idiosyncratic taste, or at least give you permission to do so by shamelessly sharing their high brow meets low brow aesthetic."
You fit the bill in my own case, along with a number of others. Twitter has been fantastic for finding people who give book recommendations actually. Paul Skallas newsletter has led to me ordering two Tom Wolfe paperbacks (Painted word and Bauhaus to Our House), and a Leon Krier's Drawinf For Architecture.
Up until relatively recently architecture wasn't something I cared much about, but because of a handful of insanely devoted traditionalists (WrathOfGnon for example) I will now speak, at length, about the virtues of high ceilings and the key factors in a city's walkability to anyone who will listen.
I've only just read to the bottom under the article and seen that it's your birthday, so happy birthday mate. The lack of listicle is thoroughly appreciated, although I'm sure you'd do a good job of it.
This whole article is tremendously interesting - as you mention, it reflects more on you than on the artist himself. It's hard not to appreciate the truly authentic nature of Smith's artistic expression, and how well he presents a period of time and place.
It makes a lot of sense that it's your birthday as well, given the nostalgic nature of the writing.
But where is the nostalgia rooted? In growing up in a town with "more bookies than bookshops", did you want to get away from that, or do you feel a desire to get back to it? (Possibly because of all the fake BS in our semi-virtual world).
Personally, the video for Wings made me feel somewhat down. Just being honest about that one, it's more a reflection on me than anything else. I think it reminded me a bit of the old drinking culture that was in Ireland, coupled with poverty and lack of opportunity.
This video ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpyE23OKnWc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpyE23OKnWc)), of the early pubs in Cork, where I grew up, has one character who comes in looking for work, but there's no jobs, so he goes to the pub, to spend whatever small bit of money he has on a pint.
The pub is packed, despite it being 8 o'clock on a weekday, because there wasn't anything else to do if you had no work. I'm glad that period of time is dead and buried.
I don't mean to put such a downer on things, it was still a fantastic, and unique love-letter of an article, but it came into my head so I said I would share it.
‘But where is the nostalgia rooted? In growing up in a town with "more bookies than bookshops", did you want to get away from that, or do you feel a desire to get back to it? (Possibly because of all the fake BS in our semi-virtual world).’
It’s not so much nostalgia strictly speaking as the tension between looking back fondly and trying to extract a few worthwhile ideas from the past as we move forward.
Like Smith himself, the old world is dead. I don’t want to go back, but I think there are a few things worth salvaging, some principles rather than particular manifestations.
So in this case grimy old pubs are depressing, yes. But the idea of an unpretentious and internet free, real world space that welcomes everyone is not.
I too have memories of poverty and lack of opportunity. The wall in the head. Glad it’s gone, or is at least going. But I also have memories of tighter knit communities and a lack of rampant consumerism and people being more present during conversations. Shame it’s gone.
So we need to cultivate new ways of bringing such things back that are appropriate to the world we find ourselves in.
See what I’m saying?
This is the dialectic and the point of tension, and I suppose a good chunk of these newsletters are different angles on the same idea: what do we try and keep or at least reappropriate? And what do we absolutely have to leave behind?
Thanks for your excellent input as always, Conor.
I see what you're saying, thanks for the detailed response. I completely agree about what's been lost - myself and my friends have made an effort to get rid of that with a modern twist on the old credit card game: All smartphones go in the middle of the table, first person to check buys a round. Simple, but given the price of pints these days it's a solid means of dissuasion.
I think tech-free bars and cafes would be a wonderful innovation, but what's even more important would be getting people to *want* a lack of tech rather than have it mandated for them. Maybe the mandate should come first to show people what they're missing?
I see what you mean about the point of tension - I've been reading a lot of John Gray recently, and it's got me thinking about human progress (or lack of). What was better, what was worse - some things are obvious, others less so.
We almost have to realise that we're still the same, extremely simple, easily misled creatures we always have been - and finding ways to build systems to outsmart ourselves. Designated tech-free zones could be a way of doing that.
Funny you should mention John Gray- keep an eye out for tomorrow’s newsletter.
In regards to tech my current thought, as with many other topics, is that it is the lukewarm middle ground that gets you in the end. A lot of people spend a lot of time online, not really working, not really having fun, just kind of existing in the Matrix, passive.
So I say try and up the intensity, which is when you are online be REALLY online- posting and firing of DMs and replies like a machine gun. But for a short time. Then log-off so you can enjoy the analogue life and cultivate the kind of attention span that will probably prove to be the deciding factor between success and stagnation in this decade.
That’s my current perspective. Both/and rather than the scarcity minded either/or. Perhaps it’s impossible. Perhaps not. But I suppose it would take someone succeeding with this method to then inspire others to do like wise which is what would be needed to create the best of both worlds situation that both you and I seem to crave.
Looking forward to it. I don't know how it took me so long to get around to reading his work. His erudition has me both envious and in awe - and feeling like I should be reading more/
Definitely agree. They say life is a marathon but each day should really be more like a series of sprints followed by moving very slowly if at all, book, guitar, or pencil in hand. Every day I live like this ends up being a good one.
The high-low theory is everywhere - I workout twice a day 7 days a week, work like an absolute maniac and then do absolutely nothing after a cutoff point. Sometimes just looking out of a window and watching clouds, like I'm back in Secondary school. And it feels absolutely like the correct way to live, in terms of progress and happiness, at least for right now.
I have you to thank for the doing nothing part - or at least the lack of "guilt" that used to be there. It's where all of my best ideas come anyway - the downside of productivity is creativity tends to have an inverse relationship with it.
I think you'll prove to be a glowing example of it. And the best part is that through paving a path, and making it much easier for others to pass through, we all end up with more high quality books to read. Win, win.
my birthday was last thursday, and i got a cake. I hope your day has gone a bit better than that... i've come to really enjoy you're writing and share it often. hope that helps...
all the best
On the one hand it’s been a nice day. On the other hand it’s been really hard to differentiate from most other days in this strange current world of hours.
More blessing than complaint, but you get what I’m saying.
Hard to get the flavour of different occasions when most of the world outside is closed,
Happy belated birthday to you Joseph.
Thanks for reading and for sharing. It really helps.
First of all, I think a proper Happy birthday is mandatory here. Tremendous progress you've made these past 2-3 years! I remember reading my first thread from you when I was in London for a few months in 2018, it was writing advices from Elmore Leonard and you had a handful of followers. By the quality and humour of the thread I knew this anon brit was up to something... and now here we are.
"That world of swirling paisley-wallpapered pre-refurbishment pubs, of the aforementioned cheapo second hand record shops and book shops, of ashtrays and pints and carrier bags, a world that was pre-internet, pre-gentrification, pre-health consciousness, a world that was grimy and awful but at least you could actually touch it."
I never heard of Mark E. Smith and it's not exactly my kind of music but I felt deeply this paragraph by watching a few video clips from him. I feel exactly the same towards movies, especially that 70-80s era of grimy film, somewhat gaudy colors, crooked teeth and imperfect haircuts. This era when an unsanitary house REALLY looked like that, when you could almost smell the filth from behind the screen; when the creatures were made of plasticine and unearthly fabrics, when the directors sometimes used real giblets and offals; foley artists experimenting with synthesizer, kitchenwares and god knows what to create haunting sounds.
Sure, the result was less polished; some scenes supposedly horryfying were funny and even big budget movies had often that amateurish vibe; but it was clear that the people who made them and starred in them were HAVING FUN; they loved it and wanted to share that love with the viewer, like a good buddy eager to make you listen to the new record he just bought; not like a cold pencil neck crossing boxes on a market research form. I feel it's the same "vibe" with Mark E. Smith; Innocence, ingenuity and passion above all else. Something we lost over the last two decades. The sadness seems theatrical. The filth looks staged to the last germ. Nothing looks real anymore. Hopefully, the exasperation with the refinement culture will eventually open up the valves of creativity and audacity again. Time will tell
See, this is why I like you Sebastien. You always gets the subtext.
Mark E Smith was just a jumping off point to talk about the grim, grimy, anti-fashion, imperfect but arguably more fun world of the not too distant past. Hence choosing to link to all of those videos from old TV appearances or where the video was a zero-budget effort in some wallpapered Northern working man’s boozer.
If you’ve been hear with me on the internet since the very beginning (and God bless you for your perseverance if nothing else) then I believe it has been close to 2 and a half years at this point. Doesn’t time fly when you are pretending to finish up a novel?
It’s always a pleasure talking to you Sebastien, here and elsewhere, and long may it continue. Reading your insights is always one of the highlights of this whole process for me.
Cheers.
Happy birthday, you autodidactic Aquarian.
Favorite line: "a drunken Karaoke uncle mumble with the obligatory added ah at the end of every line-ah."
How true. I did like the line, too, about a world you could touch -- though it gave me more pause.
As Smith himself might say, may this year feel the wrath of your bombast!
That’s the plan Paul.
This whole missive was a test to see who the Fall affiliated (or at least Fall aware) in my audience were as it is a decent litmus test of who ‘gets it’ and who doesn’t.
Pleased to see that you passed.
Gonna have to listen to Live At The Witch Trials again today. Always laugh at the story of Mark E Smith not allowing the members of Nirvana on to his tour bus because they were "scruffy cunts" hahaha
The man’s instincts were flawless. History has vindicated him on much and will continue to do so.
If this newsletter makes one person dig on Witch Trials or Hex Enduction Hour then I have done my job.
If this newsletter converts one new kid to a Fall fan(or at least Fall curious) then it has doubly done its job.
Cheers.
Happy birthday Tom! You’ll be glad to hear I’ve been giving you birthday gifts for weeks now. Nary is the Sunday that I don’t end up forwarding your newsletter to a half-dozen assorted friends. It’s just that good.
“You need people like that in your life, now more than ever. People who share their idiosyncratic taste as a means of helping you develop your own idiosyncratic taste, or at least give you permission to do so by shamelessly sharing their high brow meets low brow aesthetic.”
Hoping for the day where people online can revel unashamedly in their geeky, “uncultured” tastes. Without feeling the need to be “culturally correct”.
P.S. I’ve always wondered what you made of the idea of birthdays. Perhaps a subject for a future newsletter?
Thanks Judah.
I’m fairly ambivalent about birthdays because mine falls in January when there is little going on and a lot of people are broke after Christmas.
At the risk of sounding like a Puritan it has more of a reflective vibe rather than a hedonistic one. It’s more like my new year, if that makes sense.
But I tell you what, a year today I’ll be 35 which feels like a real milestone. I’ll make sure that the newsletter for that week is on the subject of birthdays.
Thanks for the support, mate.
Thanks Robert. I would like to both pat myself on the back and also apologise for (re)introducing you to the strange and frightening world of The Fall.