Hello again!

I recently bought a watch for the first time. I went to a man who has a small shop on a market street, a shop he’s had since 1979. His father and his father before him were watch makers and repairers in Kenya, and from a young age he knew he wanted to do the same. He told me he eats, sleeps and breathes watches. After training for a few years, gaining certifications which he now displays on the walls of his shop, he brought his family business to London, first to Shepherd’s Bush, and then to the shop I found myself in in the east of the city.

The experience I had buying my watch felt satisfyingly timeless (excuse the pun). Although small, the shop was busy with customers. Some, like me, were browsing the modest selection of watches the man had for sale. Others were coming in for repairs to straps, batteries and glass. He was clearly a master of his trade. He talked as he worked, magnifying glass wedged tightly into his right eye socket, telling us the secrets of marriage and business and religion.

I left the shop after about 45 minutes, with my new watch tightly on my wrist. He had removed some of the links to make it fit exactly right, deftly fitted a new battery and set the time for me. The watch cost me £39.99, not an insignificant amount, but I feel as if I have bought a fine Rolex. The man who sold me the watch told me Rolexes are not actually as good as Longines watches, which he says are the best watches you can buy, but to me the name doesn’t have the same brand association: I hadn’t even heard of Longines, which is why I wrote it down in my iPhone notes as Long Jeans.

Anyway: I love the watch I bought. It is silver with a round face and an elasticated strap with metal links. I look at the watch more times a day than I need to know the time. It has a button on the side which I can press to make the face light up. I obviously love pressing this button. I deliberately roll my sleeves up so they sit above the watch on my wrist, so I can glance at it while I eat or type. I haven’t been this satisfied with a purchase for a long time. The modern shopping experience is generally an unsatisfying one to me, unless I score a true bargain in a charity shop, and even that has lost its charm of late. I don’t know what I want to wear and therefore what to buy because I don’t really know exactly how I want to present myself to the world at the moment. But the watch has given me a new confidence and air of adulthood. When I am wearing the watch I am an authoritative woman who gets things done, and I am wearing the watch now, so I am going to write and send this newsletter.

Since the last time I did it, which was February (!), a lot of amazing music has come out, so I won’t try and go back through it all, and instead just pick it up from here. Most recently I’ve been listening to this beautiful song by Maurice Deebank, who cofounded Felt with one of the lesser known mononymous musicians Lawrence. It’s perfect for a not quite summer but not quite autumn September moment, as Felt are too. One of the things I most look forward to about this time of year is listening to music, and coming back to Felt, Cleaners from Venus, Flaming Tunes etc who don’t feel quite as appropriate in summer. More guitar music here from New Zealand label NOA Records, which listeners of the show will have heard me bang on about. I love this label, especially this release which is the soundtrack to a short series called Still Here, about the Pasifika community who live in inner-city Auckland, and whose legacy is at risk of being erased from the city they have contributed so much to due to gentrification. The music is really good, and the whole label worth digging through; I’ve been playing this one a lot too which is less hazy guitar and more lo fi beat tape.

On a similar note to the above, I spent a lot of time this summer listening to Donna Regina, a duo who were active around the turn of the century, and have a really melancholic downtempo indie sound which I have increasingly gravitated towards this year. I particularly like their song Why. Or, if you’re after something a little less woozy: I think Geordie Greep (formerly of black midi)’s new song Holy, Holy is brilliant. It’s definitely not for everybody - it’s over the top, indulgent, and sort of sounds like a Broadway show tune - I love it. black midi were always one of those bands I was happy existed but weren’t for me. I appreciated the playful and pretentious nature of their music: their recurring references, 20 minute live versions and overall art-school-music essence reminded me of Godley & Creme, but unlike G&C I ultimately found them impossible to listen to. But Holy, Holy is much more my speed, and I really enjoyed talking to Geordie when he came on the show recently. He’s got this quality that I think a lot of brilliant musicians and artists have, which is an enthusiasm for the modern world and its strange uncanniness (e.g. for Geordie, Instagram Reels) but appreciation for the culture and style of the past (e.g. for Geordie, Léo Ferré). What I mean is they successfully avoid both being dismissive and derivative, and are instead able to draw inspiration from history while being open to the value of the contemporary moment. I don’t like new music that tries to sound like old music, and I find that sometimes musicians with too much reverence for the good old days fall into this.

Other new music I like at the moment: this really good hip hop/grime-ish producer called Oakland - my go-to night time tube riding music / contemporary Irish group bog band, who people keep comparing to Prefab Sprout, which I understand / reliably transcendent Laraaji / very good song by tg.blk I’ve listened to on repeat / wine maker and musician Gyeongsu and June’s really brilliant EP / the Sabrina Carpenter album which I don’t think I need to link to / painter Issy Wood’s new strange pop music / great link up between Molina and everyone’s favourite ML Buch / the return of Good Sad Happy Bad (I have heard the album, out a bit later this year, lots of which I prefer to the single). That’s enough to be getting on with I think!

Since I went on about the watch for so long I should wrap this up and perhaps save books and telly and recipes and stuff for next time. I think keeping these a little shorter than previously might help me get back in the swing of doing this more regularly. I really just wanted to get something brief out today in order to to get me back in the habit of this. And of course to show off about my brilliant watch purchase. And hopefully I’ll buy a great pair of shoes in a couple of weeks time and that’ll really cement me getting back on the writing horse. I’ll put pictures and things in the next one too.

Till then!

Hello!

Spring is on the way. Sometimes it really doesn’t feel like it, but it’s always coming, like the bus. I am ordering seeds from the seed catalogue and preparing the allotment for a new year of growing. Some tulips I planted have come up, and are brightening gloomier days, reminding me to keep looking forward, which can be very hard to do sometimes. But these yellow flowers tell me that the winter is waning and that the sun has been shining, even if I haven’t much noticed it.

Lots of today’s picks are things that I have been thinking about as a result of visits to museums, galleries, or venues. However, all of them can be enjoyed at home. I think this is important in the format of this newsletter as I don’t know who is reading it; where you are, or what your physical and financial abilities are to access in-real-life things at the moment. I read a wonderful column about this idea of accessing culture at home by Gabrielle de la Puente, one of the art critics who runs the White Pube. She writes beautifully on the experience of her ability changing, the art of knitting, and freeing herself from the drive to constantly work. It’s well worth your time, and will almost certainly make you want to take up knitting if you don’t already.

Anyway. Reading it reminded me of the beauty of reading, writing, creating and learning at home, and also reminded me how long it had been since I’d written one of these, so - if you are after something to read:

I’m finally reading My Garden by Jamaica Kincaid after being implored to by a friend, and it’s brilliant. I’d read her short story, Girl, before (which I think is still available online) but this is the first Kincaid book I’ve read. I’m looking forward to reading her novels in the future, which I always prefer to non fiction. Sometimes this makes me feel a bit stupid, or lazy, but I think that’s an internal voice I should ignore, and just keep reading what I actually want to read. If you like non fiction though, I heard Aniefiok Ekpoudom’s new book ‘Where We Come From: Rap, Home & Hope in Modern Britain’ is amazing, but I wouldn’t know, having never received my copy. This serves me right because I ordered it from the website I am not meant to use. I should have ordered it where I usually do, bookshop.org. This is a good website if you aren’t familiar: it connects to your local independent bookseller, so if you can’t go out about buy it in real life, or are lazy and want to buy it online, you can do so and still support independent sellers. But I have requested a refund from ****** and am going to go out and buy it today. There’s a brilliant extract of it online here, and I’m looking forward to reading the full book. A last bit of non fiction: a book called ‘The Book of Trespass’ by Nick Hayes, recommended to me by a listener, after I said how much I enjoyed seeing the photos of the tiny but fearsome activist Benny Rothman and the Kinder Scout Trespass at an exhibition recently.

The Kinder Scout Trespass is extremely cool. It was a mass coordinated trespass in 1932 on what was then private land, to protest against the fencing off of said land, an area called Kinder Scout in the Peak District. Kinder Scout has recently been sold off to rich landowners, and taken away from the people. Whereas before right to roam included walking but also foraging, land was now fenced off so people couldn’t even access it. Hundreds (or thousands depending on your sources) of walkers, coordinated by the Jewish anti-fascist activist Benny Rothman, engaged in a mass civil disobedience that eventually ended up with the creation of National Park legislation, which is the least we can ask for when you consider that all of England used to be for everybody. When I spoke about it on the show, listeners told me that a commemorative walk happens every year at Kinder Scout on the date of the initial trespass, which I would love to go to one year.

Some shorter things I read and enjoyed: this profile by Anna Cafolla of rowdy, controversial group Kneecap (I’d never heard of them! but now I am itching to see the film about them, or see them live) / this advice column by Lilian Fishman / this extract from Lauren Oyler’s new book of essays on the occasional terror and tyranny of Goodreads / beautiful self build house / this Quietus piece on Television Personalities frontman Dan Treacy / this piece on the reality behind the developer co-opted graffiti on Sheffield’s Park Hill bridge, which I read after going to see Standing at the Sky’s Edge, which is about the building. I liked the musical, but I found the ultimate perspective it gave on gentrification depressing, and disagreed with it quite vehemently, and this piece cemented my view / this incredible journalism by Patrick Radden Keefe in The New Yorker, about contemporary London, and youth, and danger, and corruption. I recognised so much in it, and was aghast and amazed at the story and the reporting respectively.

I also read about the relatively low environmental impact of potatoes. This made me think of when I first started this newsletter, about a year ago now, and I included a guide on how to grow potatoes at home. It is easy and satisfying to grow a potato plant at home in a pot, and if you want to, the instructions are here (at the end). I’m bringing it up now because if you would like to give this a go, and are in Europe, now is the time to start chitting your potato. This could be you!! Albeit in a few months.

Unfortunately this time I have nothing exciting for you to watch on television. I’m in a drought myself, waiting for a brilliant new show to fall into my lap. Until then I’m watching old series of Survivor, rewatching Pen15 and going to the cinema. I went to some film screenings at the Barbican, one of them called Trading Places, which showed three short films. All three spoke to the story all Londoners know well: the rapid changing of areas under guises of regeneration, and coming with that the dissolution of community and displacement of people. The first one was a brilliant programme made by a woman called Mary Dickinson, in 1985 for the BBC series Arena. Like so much BBC output of the time, it’s impossible to see this episode being commissioned now, both stylistically and in its content. It’s a beautiful portrait of the characters and businesses of Old Kent Road, the historic road to Kent from London; probably one of the most interesting roads in London, historically and today. It’s on YouTube, though not in the best quality, but still worth your time if you - like me - love this stretch of road. The film reminded me of an experience just off this road, on the way home from a party. I was walking past a pub that had music coming from it. It had blacked out windows and, had I not been a few drinks deep, I don’t think I would have gone in. But I was curious and half cut and opened the door. There were about 40 people in the pub, and everyone was grey haired and dressed sharply, and all seemed to know each other. I went to the bar and got a half pint and sat and watched what everyone else was: a four piece band on the stage. They were singing music hall classics, which are largely comedy songs from the turn of the 20th century, and everyone knew all the words. One guy got up and did a rousing rendition of The Spaniard that Blighted my Life, a slightly xenophobic song with a sing along chorus of murderous violence. So that tradition lives on. Anyway - other old episodes of Arena are on the internet, if you’re interested, like this one about the Chelsea Hotel on iPlayer and this one on Youtube about Elvis and his food.

I also enjoyed this clip of amazing Philip Guston talking about the death of finishing a painting / this video about harvesting razor clams / Outkast documentary.

If you’re looking for something to listen to, I really liked the new Jessica Pratt release. I find her music so calming and beautiful, and she has such a distinctive voice that her music feels fresh and unique, though it draws on obvious references. I find it hard to articulate what I like about music, but one thing I find easy to identify that I do not like is new music that is trying to sound old. I would rather listen to old music in that instance. Jessica Pratt’s music doesn’t feel like a pastiche, or an impression of something from the 60s, it feels like its own thing, which is hard to do when you make this kind of music. The album is not out yet but the first single from it is here.

Or maybe you want some excellent soft-hardcore via a new compilation out on Blank Mind - cannot wait to listen to it in full - excellent press release by Fergus Clark / or a timeless classic from Khan Jamal / or the Sophie B Hawkins loop at 15:30 on this tape / or new music by Nourished by Time, the lovely Marcus who joined me on the breakfast show, where he played more unreleased new music as well as some of his favourites: you can listen back to that here / vintage Warp Records - perfect nostalgic indie via Parsley Sound / this lovely release by a new Japanese band on stellar Washington DC label PPU / wicked Welsh new wave / perfect flow & perfect production from LeoStayTrill / ethereal alt pop from internet fave Mikey Enwright / sexiest Jeffrey Sfire / good cover / and another / and another.

Other non music things I listened to and enjoyed recently: a truly fantastic episode of Desert Island Discs with jazz writer, historian and photographer Val Wilmer, who has lived through the latter half of the 21st century, and whose stories, knowledge and perspective are matched only by her taste. I also liked Jon Ronson’s recent series about the post pandemic culture wars… I really like him, despite his occasional ahistorical perspectives (I remember feeling like So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed missed the mark a bit), and this specific episode of Blindboy about dolphins and flotation chambers and valentines day.

Nothing special to eat today because I have only attempted one new recipe in the last few weeks (steamed eggs) and failed. Hopefully by next time I’ll have mastered it.

Till next time - happy chitting xxx

Hello! Happy new year.

I love this time of year. Not for its gloomy dark afternoons or pipe freezing temperatures, but for the opportunity for reflection and potential self improvement. I’m a sucker for ways in which I can improve my life and brain, and I like lists and plans and notes to selfs, so a new year is always a welcome occasion. I have a lot of things I want to try and achieve in life, both personally and professionally. I’ve been thinking a lot over the last month or so about trying, actually. One recent example was when I watched the film Maestro, and then googled it afterwards.

I hadn’t read much about it before watching it, which is an increasingly common occurrence for me these days as I remain off Twitter. But after it finished, I wanted to know whether Bernstein’s family were happy with Bradley Cooper’s portrayal of him, if they felt it captured him at all or if they had been involved, even - so I googled the film and was presented with a whole discourse cycle that I had missed: that people thought the film was an ‘Oscar grab’, that Bradley Cooper’s desperation to be seen as an interesting and good filmmaker was embarrassing, that he had been totally outperformed by Carey Mulligan and wasn’t that fantastically just. I thought the film was really good; I greatly enjoyed the subject, I thought the individual performances were excellent, and it was shot beautifully. I wanted a bit more sex, maybe a tiny bit more West Side Story (personal preference) but I enjoyed it a lot.

I want people to try hard to make good things. Don’t we all?! Make a stupidly high budget, expansive, obsessive ‘Oscar bait’ film about a brilliant person - I will watch it! And I will enjoy it!! If someone wants to be seen as a more interesting filmmaker and makes an interesting film then I fail to see who is losing out. I suppose if I hadn’t liked the film it would irk me less that people were snarky about the indulgence and effort of the project, and fair enough if you didn’t like it - but it does seem a lazy accusation in place of more developed criticism.

Anyway, it all got me thinking, that for 2024 (and onwards) I will really be trying. I am going to try very hard to make the things I want to make, and continue to enjoy things that other people have tried very hard to make good. In keeping with the theme, one of my favourite things I saw recently if you are after:

Something to watch

Sam Blair’s beautiful documentary about legendary snooker player and extremely hard-trier Ronnie O’Sullivan. If you haven’t yet seen it, I thought it was perfect. Ronnie is an incredible subject: a child snooker prodigy born into an East End family, his dad goes to prison early in his snooker career for murdering the third Kray brother’s driver (!), he struggles throughout his life with depression and addiction and ambition - his story alone is fascinating, but it’s the way he talks, his candidness and honesty, his humour, his introspection that make this such a compelling watch. The direction, the editing and his motley crew of seemingly random celebrity friends are all spot on too: I just loved it.

Another (shorter, older) documentary I liked recently was this BBC 2 1994 programme about the then developing jungle scene. It features this amazing clip of Shy FX and MC Gunsmoke at home, and later Shy FX’s first live gig outside of London in Wolverhampton.

I really like watching music documentaries from this era. I find them inspiring and torturous in equal measure, but they remind me to go out, to explore London, a city that’s changed a lot in many ways since 1994 but retains some spirit and magic and people making amazing things. I think I’ve recommended it before here but this LTJ Bukem doc is great too if you’re interested, very different in tone (more Spinal Tap than news item, like the first one) but a great watch.

Something to listen to

This fantastic song by Belgian synth pop group Kid Montana - I used to play their song Today out, always at the wrong speed, which sounded great - I haven’t tried that with this one though / absolutely angelic, transcendent song by Noviciat de Soeurs Missionaires / this brilliant comp called Greasy Mike’s Lost & Lonely Ladies (fantastic title) - nice blues-jazz-rnb female voices / this live version of Tenha Fé that a listener sent in to me, and told me: '“translated (from portuguese) it literally means ‘have faith, because tomorrow a beautiful day will be born’"- just under 3 minutes of pure beauty / another Baltimore club song from the Wire soundtrack, or Mica Levi’s 2012 Boiler Room, or both / good M.I.A. instrumental / late night driving CASISDEAD tune I missed from end of last year / alternate late night driving soundtrack - downtempo Sonny ISM / classic I neglected from the ever amazing The The / great Stone Roses demo (not the new Just Another Rainbow though… when Liam started singing the rainbow midway through it was the nail in the coffin for me on that one) / new old Organ Tapes / properly incredible Mack McCormick blues field recordings on Smithsonian Folkways / beautiful Eric Satie sampling downtempo song from some 90s anarcho-punk South London Dole House squatters - heaven.

Something to read & eat

I loved this Vittles piece, The Tuck Shop Diary. I don’t think I need to tell you how good Vittles is, but this essay was particularly lovely. A former secondary school teacher got some students to write their reflections on the school canteen, and although it has now been a long time since I visited my own school’s tuck shop, their recallings stirred memories within me that felt like yesterday of the chicken wrap or pizza slice I would dream all morning about. It’s inspired me to have a cheese and tomato bagel for lunch, which I don’t think you need a recipe for, but instead you might want this one which I made last night: an extremely quick, easy, high reward spicy tuna pasta from Ixta Belfrage. Perfect for a cold January Wednesday night in front of the TV…. which leads me finally to…

Something to watch (on tv)

Luckily, this newsletter goes out *at most* every two weeks, so by the time I get round to the next one, the Traitors will be pretty much over. This is a Good Thing as I am already feeling tiresome banging on about it, but I just really enjoy watching this show. I loved it last year and I was concerned about the difficult second season, but I have been reassured by the first couple of episodes that there are some immediately iconic characters (Diane the soul gazer, possibly Andrew the hunk, possibly Tracey the psychic) and some more potential slow burners (Jasmine the beautiful, Charlie the foolish, Anthony the maligned). The challenges are good, Claudia’s obviously good, and the music is the same, as is the cast's unwavering devotion to misspelling each other’s names and attaching morality to personal distaste: Diane (Dianne) saying Anthony (Antony, Antoni) displayed ‘traitor behaviour’ by not letting her have his place in the line… I’m hooked!!!

And finally, in the spirit of trying, I have been making more episodes of Digging, my podcast where different people come to the allotment and have a go at a task while having a chat. They are coming out from next week, and the first one is with Jeremy Deller, who was very nice and interesting. We spoke at length about Take That, jumble sales and William Morris, which was fun. Here’s the Apple podcast link if it takes your fancy. They will come out weekly until I run out then I will hopefully make some more (I have been shocked at how long they take to make… the process, which starts with trying to persuade someone to come to the suburban plot and ends with trimming tiny milliseconds of audio and running it through various things to get it to sound as good as possible, is much longer than I had anticipated!!) - but I hope you enjoy them!

Till next time xxx

Hello…!

Dusting this off after a long absence. Like everyone, I have had some Things Going On: some good, some bad, some neutral; just time filling Things that pushed writing further and further down my to do list until it was shunted right off the bottom.

Not writing for a few weeks turned into a belief that my writing wasn’t really worth doing anyway, which turned into a total inability to write at all, which eventually turned into stress. In the absence of any belief in the divine or astrological, what I tend to do during these phases of acute stress or general malaise is blame it on the change in weather. I learnt via a podcast recently that Kate Fox in her book ‘Watching the English’, found that 94% of British respondents admitted to having conversed about the weather in the past six hours, while 38% said that they had talked about it in the past sixty minutes. So she worked out that that means that at almost any moment in England, at least a third of the population is either talking about the weather, has already recently done so, or is just about to. Indeed it has become suddenly cold here, and I am retreating inside, and feeling how truly lucky I am to be able to do so.

I’ve found a lot of comfort in art recently. I like this quote from Jeremy Deller about art being a way to stay in love with the world, and the world certainly feels difficult to love at the moment. I saw the Nicole Eisenmann exhibition at Whitechapel over the weekend - it’s a really good show, if you’re in London and looking for something to see - I like big paintings very much, and she is really good at big paintings. I don’t know if it made me fall back in love with the world necessarily, but it certainly made me feel better to stand and lose myself in a massive, layered, textured painting. It was comforting and inspiring to me to get out of my head and into Eisenmann’s. There’s a section where she paints people using screens, and I loved this one of a person on their laptop on a train, and of this one of someone watching TV:

The TV one could be a painting of me for the foreseeable cold winter midweek evenings. And perhaps you, if you’re after:

Something to watch

I have finally finished the Wire. As everyone says, great show. This hardly counts as a recommendation, does it? It’s like recommending buttered toast. But what can I do? It consumed my TV evenings for the last few months, with its hour long episodes and its 5 seasons. I really loved it, and I have enjoyed learning about the world of the show itself; that the writer was a Baltimore journalist himself, that lots of the cast are real life Baltimore figures - it is truly worth your time. And I love this video of the late Michael K. Williams, who plays amazing Omar, dancing in the park.

When you only have a limited window for TV consumption the ending of a series is a liberating time. What will I fill my TV evenings with now! Possibilities stretch out in front of me for a new multi season watch… and I think I will go with Rev, Tom Hollander’s old sitcom. Someone mentioned it to me recently when he popped up in the White Lotus, and I’ve been meaning to watch it. So I’ll let you know how I get on.

Other things I watched and enjoyed recently: Anatomy of a Fall in the cinema, which I loved. It made me think about storytelling, about perspective, about relationships and independence and gender, and I thought it was very stylish and funny / Wayne Rooney vs Phil Bardsley / Our Hobby is Depeche Mode, a lovely documentary made by Jeremy Deller and Nicholas Abrahams, about Depeche Mode superfans / legendary punk Penny Rimbaud being fantastic on It’s My Life / the Curse, the new Nathan Fielder/singular Safdie brother thing… I am finding it compelling (only a couple of episodes in) although I don’t think I like it much, partially because it just feels so NOW in a way that is repulsive to me. It feels like the show is aging as I watch it, which I don’t appreciate. This isn’t because I don’t like when art speaks to the time it was created in. I actually do. For example, the recent film Dream Scenario, another extremely A24 thing (like the Curse) - I felt spoke to the current moment with maturity, insight and (for want of a better word) panache, and I don’t think the same can be said for the Curse. It’s contemporariness distracts me, although I will likely finish the series, and I do think it will get better as it develops. This is an idea I need to think about further and develop, but I’m noticing this repulsion happening more and more in TV and cinema. Anyway. Back to Tom Hollander:

Something to listen to

Having not sent this newsletter for a while, I have a lot to share here, but I will try and be selective. Of course I share music every week on the show, but some particular favourites: I’ve been listening to the new Eartheater album a lot, and really loving it. Transportive, melodic dream pop from a unique artist. My favourite tracks so far are Crushing and Face in the Moon. It’s hard to make good pop-adjacent music I think, so I really appreciate it when someone pulls it off with a different take. I also recently greatly enjoyed and learnt a lot from this amazing NTS show about raga, which soundtracked a morning at home perfectly, and this other fantastic NTS show about North American indigenous music. The host played this incredible song from the mid 60s called My Land which especially stuck out at the moment. Highly recommended listening.

Other things on my recent rotation: Hurtboy Error by Isaiah Hull, a young Mancunian now based in London - so good, this / 80s wonky funk by Rick Dash, total earworm / Swerve by late 80s group Dub Sex, born out of the Kitchen in Hulme Crescents - I strongly recommend reading this piece about the estate / great Rochy RD song I shazammed in Gillett Square / brilliant new music from Holy Tongue, Beatrice Dillon, Lamin Fofana & LABOUR / beautiful Yussuf Dayes / possibly the most contentious ‘In Focus’ ever broadcast - The Grateful Dead, the band probably more people ask me about where to start with than any other / Take Mine, by the Motifs - could be in 500 Days of Summer which is fine by me / Irish musician Elaine Howley, specifically this song: she came on the show and did a live performance (starting mid way through this episode) and was just a very lovely person to top it all off.

And lastly, I loved the new Andre 3000 album, as it seems did everyone. I wasn’t worried it would be bad, because I don’t think he could really make anything bad, but I thought it might be more gimmicky than it is - foolish me. It’s beautiful, serene, restrained; a tonic. And I really enjoyed watching that interview with him in the laundromat. He said something about enjoying washing his clothes that resonated with me.

Or maybe you’re after something to listen to that isn’t music, as I often am. I would point you towards This Cultural Life, the BBC programme where guests are asked about culture or moments that have shaped their life. I love it, and listened to loads recently when I was sanding and painting some skirting boards. My favourite episodes so far are Es Devlin, Maggi Hambling, Melvyn Bragg, Gilbert & George and my favourite living man Michael Rosen, but I haven’t listened to all of them. There’s something in every episode, even if you don’t particularly like the interviewee.

Something to eat

Recently I saw Rachel Roddy post about this dish called bordatino allo livornese, which is an old Tuscan peasant soup made with beans and cabbage, thickened with polenta (or any cornmeal). I knew immediately I must make it, that this soup would be the thing to lift my spirits on a cold miserable evening. And how right I was!! I read a few different recipes and watched this excellent youtube recipe (with english subtitles) and got to work.

The recipe in the video is the one I mainly used, but: I didn’t add bacon, and I didn’t use dried beans. Instead I used 2 cans of borlotti beans because I needed to make the soup IMMEDIATELY. So don’t fear if you want to make it tonight and don’t have time to soak the beans, just use canned. Additionally, I blended one can with the water the beans were in, and kept the other one unblended. I added the blended beans at the same stage of cooking as the unblended. I had read about blending the beans in a different recipe which is why I did it and I think it worked very nicely. Say blending beans one more time! I also used a bit of spring cabbage because I needed to use it up in addition to the cavolo nero - I only wish I had shredded it finer - and added parmesan at the end. The cornmeal is essential for the texture and consistency of the dish; it lifts it from a soup into something a bit heartier and more warming. I cannot recommend this recipe enough. It’s a great one for using up cavolo nero if you have that growing, as I do, is cheap to make, takes extremely delicious and is very satisfying.

While we’re on food, I spoke to Thea for her Substack ‘What’s that You’re Cooking Thea?’. Her recipes are fantastic, and it was lovely to chat about tuna sandwiches. I highly recommend reading her newsletter for proper recipes (not just blending beans) and really great food writing.

Something to read

I’m still deep in my Elizabeth Taylor era: I just finished Blaming, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont and At Mrs Lippencote’s. Next up will be A View of the Harbour. If you are not interested in 20th century eccentric old commie English women, I cannot help you at the moment. I truly love reading her novels and I don’t want to read much else (although my sister did give me Rosemary Tonks’ The Halt During the Chase for my birthday, so I will deviate from Elizabeth for her, but same world imo). They’re so funny and small and contained and insightful, and there’s something very comforting to me as a 2023 reader being put into her world.

Usually here I also put funny things I have read or seen on Twitter, but I have not been on there for months. I miss the memes. I am becoming someone who is seeing the memes weeks late filtered down through Instagram. I will have to ask the chatroom to send me some good stuff for this section for the next edition!!! Or just give up and rejoin the hellish platform: the Traitors is about to return to TV so that will also encourage me to go back. But hopefully this is enough for now.

Till next time xx

Hello!

I had thought that by this time autumn would be settling in, but instead I’m enjoying this last gasp of summer sunshine that’s happening in the UK, as are the tomatoes that I thought wouldn’t get enough of a chance to ripen but now almost certainly will. It’s nut harvesting time on the allotment, which is a fun job initially (shaking the tree to make nuts fall, climbing the tree to get the tough to reach ones) until you must shuck hundreds and hundreds of nuts, then crack hundreds and hundreds of nuts, then roast hundreds and hundreds of nuts.

Outside of this seemingly endless task I've been busy enjoying the final moments of time off before I must embrace the back to school mentality that September usually inspires. I like the feeling of settling back in to routine which is often disturbed in the summer, and as such I’ll try to be a little better at sending this newsletter out more frequently. It might get a bit shorter, but I think that’s no bad thing. For now I have lots of nice things that have enriched my life over the last couple of weeks to share with you, so, if you’re after

Something to read

The Wedding Group by Elizabeth Taylor!!! Not that one. I had been ignoring this little book that I bought a while ago, but picked it up to bring to the beach and hoovered it up. It’s a late 20th century story of marriage and families that reminded me a little of the Bloater. I actually got the tip to read it from a podcast about that book, so maybe that’s partially why I make the connection, but it’s similarly funny and strange and small in scope. I loved it! I have ordered more of her books so I might have to skip this section of the newsletter for a while because I don’t think I will read much else. If you’re after something more contemporary, I also read last year’s I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel, which I really liked and I have to say found extremely relatable in parts. That was also a less embarrassing book to read alone in public which was a plus - WHY the publishers gave Taylor’s book this cover I will never know.

The cursive font! Such a disservice.

Something to eat

Last week during the show we were discussing pasta bakes and their global iterations. I truly adore pasta bakes and make them often, and find there are few more satisfying leftover lunches than last night’s pasta bake. Recently I made an Italian timballo with moderate success following guidance on Rachel Roddy’s instagram (my queen), and can vouch it was a delicious meal although my sauce was not quite wet enough after the bake and I should have used finer breadcrumbs. Other chatroom recommendations for pasta bake inspiration: Egyptian macarona bechemel / baked Artichoke pasta / Squash rigatoni bake / Imqarrun il-Forn (I have also made this, delicious / Leek and mackerel penne / surely that’s enough to be getting on with, but honorary mentions to two suggestions that are variations on the theme: Turkish Cypriot lamb pasta / funeral potatoes.

Something to watch

I watched the third and final season of Starstruck, a show I really really like, and actually thought this last season was it’s best. 6 x 20 minute episodes, very funny, very easy, very nice, and this final season had the perfect ending, I thought. But now for the first time in a while I find myself adrift without a show: no more AJLT, no more John Wilson, no more Starstruck… just endless Wire left for me. I might have to retire this section too for a bit while I finish that. Great show!! But I need something to mix it up with, you know? Maybe it’s time to start Reservation Dogs… been meaning to watch that… let’s see.

Something to listen to

I loved this EP I heard recently: I came to it a little late, but enthusiastically. I heard No Angels and thought it sounded like Giggs whispering, kind of like that iconic ASMR version of that Real Housewives scene. But no, it’s an Australian musician called Mike Midnight - whole thing is wicked, and also features a cameo from Noa who some people will recognise from Stroom’s Voice Actor release. Excellent atmospheric downtempo music that when listened to at night makes you feel unstoppable.

More nighttime music coming via R.E.M (!) - amazing song called Tongue (do I need to listen to their wider discography to find more gems??) / some vintage UK hardcore via DJ Biz / one of my favourite singing voices Colin Blunstone / new Jamma Dee album / very good very short John Glacier and Surf Gang / beautiful Cornish music / this Blissful Dancefloor Hooliganism compilation raising money for DIY venue and collective Gut Level in Sheffield: I DJ’ed for them last year, and it was just great, really special place, so if you do feel like supporting them via this excellent compilation please do.

Last piece of music for this week is this unreal Juana Molina song that I became obsessed with on a flight: I listened to it over and over again, having a bit of a moment, and as soon as I landed was googling all about her. Her music is amazing, especially the album Halo - so original, so transportive - and her story is equally interesting. She’s a huge Argentine TV star who quit at the height of her success to make music, and how happy for us that she did. She hasn’t put anything new out for a while, but seems to be performing live a lot in Argentina: I’m hoping she comes to Europe so I can see her live.

I also enjoyed another episode of a podcast I’ve previously recommended here called Search Engine. This recent episode is about ambition and happiness and whether anyone actually enjoys their job. It’s centred around an interview with Craig Finn, the lead singer of the band the Hold Steady (whose music I can’t say I like much, so if you’re the same, don’t be put off), and it made me think of some MOTHs that periodically appear about achieving success. I thought it was a good listen and found lots of it resonated with me, because negotiating between aspiration, ambition, drive, desire - whatever you want to call it - and contentment is something I find quite complicated.

At points I think possessing some form of one of the above has pushed me to get things I want, whether personal or professional, but sometimes that same drive has stopped me from enjoying the things I thought I wanted, as I instead look towards the next thing. Especially when what you desire involves making something, sometimes you can lose the joy in the process by focusing too much on the outcome. I think I experienced this a bit when making Digging. Something Finn said on the podcast episode made me think of the famous letter Kurt Vonnegut wrote to some young children who wrote to him to invite him to talk at their school. As September rolls on and my back to school feeling amps up, I think I will try to remember the advice Vonnegut gave the children. It is perhaps a bit corny to the modern reader, though my corniness receiver is likely dialled up too far. Regardless, it is good and timeless advice.

I think I will leave it there. Till next time! xx

Hello!

Welcome to new recipients of this newsletter, and hello / apologies for the long period of silence to older subscribers. It’s August! I switched off for a bit. But the show this week and the chatroom discussions have prodded me into action and I’m ready to resume, with loads of (hopefully) great things to share with you. Since it’s summer, this week it’s mainly things to read and listen to, to accompany empty warm evenings and possibly holidays.

And if you’re in southern England and looking for an easy holiday might I recommend Eastbourne?? I just went with my family for a long weekend and had a really nice time. We swam in the sea, ate fish and chips, walked up on the cliffs, and saw some really good art: there’s a great gallery there called Towner which had a fantastic Barbara Hepworth exhibition on (I also saw David Dimbleby at the gallery which was very exciting because I NEVER see famous people in the wild) and it’s not far from Charleston, which I was really happy to finally visit. Good times! But anyway. If you are after:

Something to read

I finally read Stoner by John Williams, which tells the story of an American professor’s life over the course of the first half of the 20th century. Though it was originally published in 1965, it had a big surge in popularity a few years ago - I think it was one of those books literary people were suddenly reading and recommending, and I’m glad I didn’t read it amid that hype. I picked it up recently knowing nothing about the story, and it took me a little while to get properly into - I kept reading a few pages and putting it down - but the writing was beautiful and simple in a way that I really enjoy, and perhaps I was just reading it in the wrong settings, because pretty soon I was in, and almost wishing I wasn’t as it is exceptionally moving. I absolutely loved it, and am really looking forward to reading the rest of Williams’ books.

I also recently finished Mary Gaitskill’s Two Girls which I thought was wild and incredible, and whizzed through Milk Teeth by Jessica Andrews on the plane which I didn’t like as much as I hoped but thought was nice. I also reread Party Lines by Ed Gillett now that it’s out properly, which I most definitely recommend if you have even the slightest interest in dance music and/or UK culture, and I’ve just gotten Anais Nin’s unexpurgated diaries, which I’ve just started after much anticipation.

I needed something smaller for a trip this weekend, so picked up these handbag sized books, including more Mary G -

I’ll let you know how I get on with them. I used to play D&D so I’m excited to read They Came to Slay (title alone too good), and the Olivia Sudjic one is a collection of essays on the anxiety epidemic - I loved her novel Asylum Road, so I’m hopeful for those too.

And a couple of short things I read and enjoyed: this piece in the Cut on the bonkers world of Levi collecting, in which dealers hunt for old pairs in places likes old mines in the US / this rare Vini Reilly interview / this particularly good advice column from Shon Faye (MOTH could never) / this excellent profile on amazing, acerbic, abrasive Steve Albini / Tom Hollander’s iconic day / and not recent, but years ago I read Your Duck is my Duck, a collection of short stories but Deborah Eisenberg - someone this week in the chatroom was asking for short story recommendations, and I thought immediately of these - I remember really enjoying them.

Something to listen to

Dreams Come True, the posthumous album of Judee Sill’s which I had previously ignored, soundtracked the train to Eastbourne for me perfectly - not on Spotify but on Youtube, here. When I feel uninspired musically, Judee Sill is one of the people I always return to. If you want just one song, I’d make it I’m Over, which sounds like it could have been on Heart Food, but the whole album is wonderful, especially for Sill fans.

I also loved this wonderful NTS radio show by David Holmes, a tribute to the late Sinead O’Connor, who he knew and worked with - and speaking of Sinead, how about this fantastic song she did with Jah Wobble. Some other music I’ve been listening to and enjoying: this brilliant album by mysterious musician Florence Sinclair / really nice Catalan shoegaze / excellent Joey Pastrana song / sweet Brazilian Soundcloud song / belter house tune fantastic for the summer / wicked new Slauson Malone / good Nines song Kanyin played when she came on the show the other day / perfect John Makin song… can’t get enough of this / peak 80s Robert Palmer / new Novelist / this recording of a DJ in a pub on Old Kent Road in the late 90s - so good - this whole blog is great, especially if (like me) you are a sucker for comments sections:

Podcasts: I’ve been listening to Counter Pressed, a podcast about women’s football, over the course of this Women’s World Cup / this episode of Search Engine - I found it an interesting window into other people’s musical habits and tastes, and found some of the things the guest journalist had to say about reggae and Tiktok especially interesting / this radio piece by Tom Dychoff on Cedric Price.

And if you haven’t yet listened to my podcast, Digging, you can do so here. There will be more episodes coming in the late autumn; I’ve been really pleased to hear people have enjoyed the ones we’ve done so far, and I’m looking forward to putting the rest out. Final plug for now !!

Something to watch

Outside of televised summer sport (farewell Stuart Broad, thank you Sarina Weigman, how could you Michael Olise), I’m having a trashy New York moment, enthusiastically watching the new season of Real Housewives of New York (I loooove Brynn and Jenna) as well as And Just Like That (has this actually become a halfway decent show or am I just desensitised to its insanity???) Couples Therapy (need her wardrobe and also to hang out with her therapist supervisor woman), and the new season of How to With John Wilson (keep sending DMs I know he’ll never see asking him to come on the breakfast show). New York City baby!!!

Is that enough for now?? It’ll have to be because I’m off. August!

Till next time, happy summer xxx

Hello!

This week I’m thinking about colour and vibrancy. I have never had confidence with my knowledge or application of colour. I am a terrible painter, and have never really gotten to grips with the colour wheel. When I have made things out of clay I am always very pleased with the form, but then when it comes to decoration, things emerge from the kiln looking dull and unpleasant. But I have always liked green. A hot spring and a good downpour last week has made the allotment alive with colour, and the major fruit harvest is coming. Blueberries are here in full force, the loganberries and tayberries too; I ate the first fig off the tree, and have spotted the black tomatoes fruiting; soon the sweetcorn will be here, and hopefully a squash or two soon - it looks beautiful.

Being in all this colour is inspiring and exciting, and I can feel it lifting my spirits, even on the dullest of days. I was at the Garden Museum this week, having a look around, and I saw the Jean Cooke exhibition they have on there. It’s well worth a visit if you’re in London, or reading up on her if you’re not. She most definitely understood colour, but also took so much inspiration from the natural world: so maybe if I stick to green, my pots will come out better. Anyway, sticking with this colourful theme:

Something to watch

This short film on the world of Mr Pink. I remember coincidentally driving past his house during the pandemic just after I watched this for the first time, and he came up again during conversation at the Garden Museum - they did something about him and his garden there - what a wonderful person. It reminds me a little bit of Ron’s Place. Apparently it’s not clear what will happen to his house, which as far as I know is owned by his child at the moment. I hope it gets listed! But we’ll have to see.

Breakfast show listeners will know I’m also watching the Ashes this summer for the first time. I spoke about it on the show much to the groaning of many but please forgive me this brief paragraph. I got into it literally two weeks ago and now I am hooked!! A listener sent over this good documentary about the 2010 England team, which I watched and really liked: the bit where they’re celebrating in the dressing room playing tinny kwaito off their phone? Or the footage of them in this Bavarian military camp weightlifting with bricks? Monty Panesar unexpectedly and heroically holding the fort? So good! And I had no idea the mental toll the game takes on the players, how total and engrossing it is on their lives - even if you’re not interested in cricket I would say this is still a solid watch. OK that’s it.

Other things I watched and enjoyed recently: Rick Astley doing the Smiths / nice fan made Dean Blunt documentary / Rocky.

Something to listen to

My friend Niall sent me this song by an artist I didn’t know called Jesse Rae. The song is a belter, and when I read up on Jesse Rae, I was hooked. What an amazing guy! He’s in his early 70s now, living in Scotland and dresses in highland garb, but in the 80s was living in the US and totally immersed in the funk scene - he worked with Parliament, wrote songs for Odyssey, etc. He’s well worth a deep dive musically - here’s another banger that a lovely listener sent in, who also let me know that she’s involved in a JR reissue coming imminently - and here’s his biggest commercial success. And here’s a link to read more about him. Such a legend!

I’m also listening to a lot of Electrelane, who like Jesse Rae have wonderful press shots, though a very different energy / this newly released but old, extremely beautiful John Fahey / a nice new release by Gyeongsu / perfect John Martyn song / very good Chick Safari / nice summer street soul house ish tune - cheap on Discogs too if that’s your bag / and my podcast lol. Sorry but I need to plug it. Three episodes are out at the time of writing, and I was absolutely THRILLED to get this write up in the Observer on it. Couldn’t believe it!!! My mum is so happy. Cosey Fanni Tutti’s ep is out next week, and Novelist, Mark Leckey and Brix Smith are all out now. Apple podcasts link here and Spotify here.

Something to read

I’m still reading Two Girls, Fat and Thin (I think it’s brilliant so far if you’re looking for something), and have added The Door by Magda Szabo, EM Forster’s Maurice and Claire Dederer’s Monsters to my unending to-read-next list. Also you might remember me loving Penance by Eliza Clark - that’s out now if you wanted to read it. Such a good summer read, I thought. There’s a big list in the last newsletter of listener recommended books if none of those take your fancy.

A short thing I read and really enjoyed was this on beige influencers. I hope that this dull, grey, monotonous fixation has a short lifecycle. When I think of Mr Pink, or Jean Cooke, or Jesse Rae, I feel inspiration and relief that people like that exist in the world. And they remind me to forgo the neutrals and embrace colour!!! Even if you don’t know quite what goes with what. That is going to be my guiding force for a while, I hope.

Till next time!!

xxxx

Hello!

Feels like it’s been ages since I did this newsletter. Now that it feels officially like summer here, I’m itching to ditch the things I need to do and go and sit in the shade and read a book. I’m sure you’re feeling the same: the general consensus in the chatroom during the show over the past couple of weeks seems to be one of major work avoidance and holiday dreaming. I’ve been particularly enjoying the updates of two listeners who are walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain - something I’d love to do too - and sending in regular photo updates of them with various Spanish horses they’re seeing along the way.

Legends. So, if you’re looking to skive off, and are wanting something to enjoy whilst doing so, hopefully we can find something for you here. If you’re specifically after

Something to read

My reading dry spell has finally ended thanks to my sister, who lent me Jennifer Egan’s Goon Squad follow up, Candy House. It was the perfect thing to get me back in: an engrossing, funny page turner - I read it in two sittings on the train to and from Totnes. I remember liking Visit from the Goon Squad a lot, though I couldn’t recall it at all when I read Candy House, which is set in the same universe and has some shared characters. If you haven’t read the first one, it doesn’t matter; it works as a stand alone novel too. It’s loosely about a new memory technology, a scary product based on an anthropological theory text that social media companies have bought and turned into a way to externalise your memories, and look at other people’s. But that’s just the backdrop really to the inter personal stories, which are the thrust of the novel, as well as the literary structure - I really liked it. Now that I’m back in the habit of reading, I’ll make my way through the endless list I have of things I want to read, which include most of the books here (I love the guy who wrote this list - very good book person to follow on Twitter if you use it) / Mary Gaitskill’s Two Girls, Fat and Thin / Octavia Bright’s This Ragged Grace / Ponyboy by Eliot Duncan, which I'm about halfway through, and liking though not loving.

And now, some books the chatroom have been enjoying - very good mix of things here:

“The Outrun by Amy Liptrot blew me away. In terms of memoirs, it's up there with Educated by Tara Westover. IMHO”

“Just finished reading Robert McFarlane’s the old ways - about the intersections of way making, walking, history & culture. If you’re into that sort of thing”

“i am currently reading Emergency by Daisy Hildyard, about her childhood up north, and it's v good”

“I’m reading artemis, by the same guy who did martian, easy reading space heist”

“Books: night people by Barry Gifford”

“books: still in love with deborah levy. just started August Blue”

“Ali Smith - Autumn. She writes her ideas and words so playfully it’s such a delight to read. Like it’s feels like she’s on full free flow when she writes and you are living inside her brain”

“Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde (high speed train of queer magical realism)”

“Deceit by yuri felsen my book of the year so far”

I’m going to try and hold myself a bit more to task with trying to read more over the next few months. I oscillate between feeling guilty for eschewing Good Art in favour of rubbish tv, and vehemently reminding myself that life is too short to force yourself into doing things you don’t want to do, and if your heart is pushing you towards bingeing The Ultimatum: Queer Love on Netflix, you should do that. I definitely do think there is room for all sorts of cultural enrichment, and that sometimes you just want to switch off and watch something silly. I don’t like it when people are snobby about things people enjoy, or intellectually superior. But I think I personally use this as an excuse sometimes not to challenge myself, or be more curious and investigative, and I do have a real tendency to be lazy, which often results in regret and guilt. So I want to try and be a little stricter with not only indulging my “low culture” (for want of a better term) fixes. I did watch all of The Ultimatum: Queer Love though, and if you want my take, Mal deserved so much better / Vanessa was not that bad / Rae was iconic / the dog fight that Tiff and Sam had was insane.

And some non-book things I enjoyed reading recently: this Substack from Alex Goldman, who used to host Reply All (which I loved) on the changing landscape of podcasting / this piece about the horror of youth / Azelia on Matty Healy / this excellent profile on Caroline Calloway (feel like I mention her every newsletter) / this absolutely wonderful Ed Sheeran review.

Something to listen to

Over the past few months I have been working on something that I have wanted to make for a while. It’s a podcast called Digging with Flo, and each episode I will be joined by a musical guest, and put them to work on the allotment, and have a chat to them while we garden together.

It’s been great to share the allotment with other people: gardening is really easy, much more so than people often think. It gets a bit off putting maybe when you start going deep on soil ph and stuff, but the main thrust of it is extremely simple and (I think) satisfying. The trailer is out now: click here for Apple podcasts link, and here for the Spotify one - though it’s going to be on all podcast platforms. Wherever you get your podcasts, as they say!! Hope you like it.

Music wise, I’ve been listening to lots of Michael Hurley in the evenings. If you’re not familiar with his beautiful, introspective music, this NTS show is a good place to start. He’s a wonderful weirdo, a true artist with a great website to boot, and well worth your time. I love this album and this one, and his paintings. Otherwise, I’ve been listening to this gorgeous song almost every day, enjoying the new Anthony Naples album, this previously unknown to me New Order song, and a lot of Cleo Sol - hits different in the London summer! What can I say. I’ve been on a good music tip recently, actually: I feel like the show’s been good and I’m inspired by music in a way I wasn’t a month or so ago. Few more random hits for you: Mz Diamond / Way of the West / Glass Candy.

Something to eat

Former guest of the show and old friend of mine Nancy has a really good new food Instagram, if you’re looking for some inspo. Nancy is really an amazing cook: I still remember the mashed potato she made when we were about 16. I look at the page when I don’t know what to make for dinner, and have so far made versions of the soba noodles and roast chicken with brown rice - I made a garlic butter sauce to go with it though, rather than scallion oil as Nancy did - so good.

Yum!!

Yum!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or maybe you’ll like this recipe for Portugese tomato rice which I made about twenty times last summer, using up all the tomatoes we were getting on the allotment. This week I made a bastardised version of it, with bulgur wheat instead of rice - sort of like a classic Turkish bulgur side. For a proper version of that, this video is good. I love making lots of it and eating it throughout the week: makes a good lunch on a hot day with tinned sardines and salad. I will also be making the last recipe on this link (spring salad with buttermilk feta dressing) because I bought buttermilk accidentally and its been in my freezer waiting for a golden opportunity like this.

Something to watch

Come back next time when And Just Like That has returned! Or if you want to take a recommendation from my mum, she’s loving ‘Colin From Accounts’, but she also told me to watch the worst thing I’ve seen in recent history (‘Inside Man’ where David Tennant plays a panicking priest and locks a woman in his basement) so.. at your own risk.

OK I think that is enough for now. Till next time ! xxx

Hello hello,

Short and sweet today, owing to a busy couple of weeks and a lack of time for much else beyond the bare bones of my routine. Family commitments and side hustles have eaten up a lot of my spare time, but I have been listening to a lot of music recently. Maybe this sounds silly since it’s part of my job, but just as sometimes you don’t feel much like watching tv, or feel much like reading, sometimes I have that with music, and don’t listen to it much when I don’t have to. I was having a drink with lots of music-y people quite recently and one of them, who is a musician and DJ, asked me if I like music. Everyone laughed but it was a good question! He meant did I listen to music out of choice, when I wasn’t prepping a show or something, because he doesn’t unless he has to. He likes listening to podcasts or silence. That aversion to music for him might be because he makes it; I think you have a different ear when you know how songs get made, and perhaps are more sensitive to things you would have done differently, and I am free from this. Anyway, I understood his position, but happily at the moment music is sounding good to me.

Said side hustles and family commitments have had me on quite a lot of trains recently too. I used to think that listening to music in the front seat of a car was the best - the whip test certainly still has its place - but on a train has got to be up there. So if you’re after

Something to listen to

On one train ride I listened to almost all of Chris & Cosey’s back catalogue after reading Art Sex Music, Cosey Fanni Tutti’s acclaimed memoir from a few years ago. It’s brilliant, even for me who tends to dislike autobiographies and memoirs: full of incredible stories, obviously, and insight about the realities of working in the way that she did. I didn’t know about this song they had done with the Eurhythmics before reading it, and I hadn’t listened to this early 80s thing they did - the vocal is Cosey’s lecture to fine art students at Leeds Polytechnic and the cover art is of her too. She also used to strip to this complete belter by Fern Kinney. I’ve felt really inspired by CFT and her approach to life over the last couple of weeks: I really recommend the book if you’ve not read it yet.

On another train I drowned out the sound of an unpleasant man and his asinine observations of the British countryside - “I’ve not seen one single pig farm on this whole journey. They eat so much pig in this country. Where are they? If they farmed their own pigs they wouldn’t import so much. Not one pig farm” - with Zack Fox’s Wood Tip EP. Great mood enhancer. I’ve also been tipped by a friend to this new artist from Bristol called Llainwire; insane production and out of this world visuals. So good! Or maybe you want to soundtrack your sunny mornings with beautiful guitars by David Horridge, or maybe some sweet slow soul from the Eastham Band, or as I am at the moment by rinsing Peven Everett or Joan Armatrading’s respective back catalogues. This excellent song by SG Rilla Mane (aka Slim Guerilla) also been on repeat - there’s a Morgan Buckley remix out too if that’s your bag - as has this song by Bron Area who I periodically return to and remember how good they were. On the post punk tip I loved this Martin Hannett / Factory Records mix on NTS: perfect for cooking dinner, I found. Out of the kitchen this week, I was lucky enough to see Beyonce in Edinburgh, so of course I’ve had Renaissance on repeat - I was chatting to another DJ recently about this album and they hadn’t listened to it, out of a sort of music snobbery I guess, but I love it. It’s my go to gym album too. Anyway this was the best song at the tour I thought. Sunny mornings also have been having me reach for a lot of street soul and downtempo stuff, especially on the show - here is a cheesy but perfect summer banger that got a great reception from the chatroom.

Somewhere to go??

Speaking of the chatroom, they were coming out with some fantastic tips for particularly good train rides this week. I’ll put them here for you if you’re looking for some holiday inspiration. I’m desperate to take my bike on the train this summer and do a bit of a biking / train trip, so maybe it’ll be one of these:

|| cornwall from London || along north coast in sicily || zagreb to budapest || italy through switzerland || llubjana to frankfurt || manchester to glasgow via lake district || glasgow to corrour || inverness to kyle of lochalsh || oslo to bergen in winter || cusco to machu pichu || carlisle to settle over ribblehead viaduct || Bern to Lausanne || Tokyo to Takayama || The 45 degree train up the mountain in Luzern || California zephyr train || lauterbrunnen to jungfrau || Napoli to Rome ||

A couple of honorary mentions:

‘greatest train of all time is the TH-0M45 on the little island of Sodor, always interesting things happening. Especially with the conductor who is rather a large character in all sense of the word. Best of all is all of the intercoms are narrated by Ringo Starr’

‘I love the small train at Manningtree that you need to change to get to Harwich, there is a pub on the platform and you can take pints with you.’

‘Worst train is from Preston to Blackpool. Old cast off from trains from London in the 80s. So rickety and stinky.’

and here’s a train podcast if you just can’t get enough.

Some (short) things to read

This guy hating on Taiki Waititi. I actually don’t have a strong opinion on him as a filmmaker because to me he is mainly Rita Ora’s husband, though I suppose I liked Thor Ragnarok. But I am NOT watching Jojo Rabbit. I’ve seen the trailer, which was enough. Anyway this guy really doesn’t like him / worms / Rachel Connolly being brilliant on why everyone suddenly knows the best thing to order at every restaurant, and indeed the best restaurant to go to even though you swore you didn’t like offal??? / London Hellraiser VHS mystery / this interview with the king of clowns, Philippe Gaulier. I was reading this after doing the breakfast show this week, where we ended up chatting for ages about clown school. I’d love to do it - it’s meant to be quite a harrowing experience, where you sort of reveal your deepest insecurities and get broken down on stage in order to rebuild and discover your inner clown - and indeed one listener had done it. He studied with Gaulier for 2 years, and confirmed it was a crazy experience. His clown style, he discovered after years of tears and training, was ‘a cheeky devil’. So good! More Philippe profiling if you’re interested here. And another listener shared this Stewart Lee radio documentary about Pueblo Clowns, which I am listening to as soon as I hit send on this newsletter. Tangentially related, I watched this short doc ages ago on Juggalos, Insane Clown Posse mega fans, and remember really liking it. Maybe you will too.

Hopefully that’s enough for now. I have no exciting TV to share that I haven't already shared with you here, and at the moment I’m almost only watching reality tv, my comfort viewing. If you’re interested, my current rotation is I Kissed a Boy (gay Love Island, hosted by Dannii Minogue, drip fed weekly… good), Made in Chelsea (long running but incredibly boring programme about posh young people in London: you would be surprised at how many people are still watching this), and Race Across the World (duos competing to get from one destination to another without flying or using a smartphone - permanently have the application process open on a tab on my laptop).

Thanks all who contributed to this this week - the chatroom really coming through with the tips. It is so brilliant and very very fun to get all of these recommendations and ideas from such a lovely group of people.

<3 Till next time xx

Hello!

A little more time has passed between now and my last newsletter than I’d have liked and I feel a bit out of the swing of it all. Actually - I am feeling a bit like that with my whole life at the moment. Not bad, not sad, just a bit lazy and out of my routine, and struggling to get myself back in it. Maybe this is a good thing for you though, as it’s meant I’ve watched lots of TV in the hours I should be going to the gym or working on projects, so that’s something.

As ever, growing is an activity that’s pulling me out of my mini slump: checking the progress on my seeds on the window entices me out of bed, the to do list at the allotment keeps me busy and outside, and botched attempts at tree propagation bring me joy and pain depending on the outcome. I’ve bought some fabulous red sunflowers that are starting to come up and my tomato plants are thriving despite abandoning them for a couple of weeks when I went away, so things are looking up.

Somebody wrote to me and said they have recently taken up gardening after listening to the show, and that it’s helping them mentally. It was really good to hear. It helps me a lot too, hence why I bang on about it. I’ll try and think of another home grow idea to put in here because I liked doing the potato in a tub guide. I’d quite like to get something on the go that smells amazing and grows inside - a sort of natural and cheap Muji diffuser - I’ll have a think and get back to you on it. In the meantime:

Something to read

Let’s get this one out the way because I have no books to recommend today. On a book hiatus until that part of my brain kicks up again. I know I’ll read a book soon - I have two looking at me right now, waiting to be read (Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty on recommendation from trusted friend, and Elizabeth Taylor’s The Wedding Group on rec from trusted podcast). I’ll get to them soon. In the meantime, I loved this pitch perfect Lauren Oyler piece on the Goop cruise: I read it again as soon as I had finished it / this thread about Cleopatra and Frankenstein by good tweeter and former Only Connect finalist Eli: if you can find their thread where they read Florence Given’s book, you’re in for a treat too / this inspiring gardening column about embracing weeds.

^ a 2 pointer question for me from Eli’s season. That first one is Joey Negro which I didn’t get, but as soon as the Blessed Madonna entered the arena I knew it could only be one thing. Rare crossover for Only Connect and sus DJ knowledge!!

Something to watch

For those who enjoyed the comforting nostalgia of Driving School, may I direct you towards one of Britain’s cult sitcom hits of the late 90s, Spaced. Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson are two young aspiring art / media types who link up to get a nice flat in Tufnell Park. It’s excellent Saturday afternoon TV: hilarious, surreal, a little off kilter, with a great cast including wonderful Mark Heap playing a Throbbing Gristle-esque reject artist downstairs - just a fantastic show. I’m taking a sort of comfort when watching it that the central premise of something made almost thirty years ago could be from today. I like being reminded that people and their needs and desires really haven’t changed all that much, despite what our existence online might imply.

Other things I watched recently and enjoyed: the perfect reality show Race Across the World / Jury Duty, though I thought it was 6/10 at best - people compared it to The Rehearsal but I think it’s much more sanitised and twee than that, and felt more like watching the US Office, which is unsurprising as it’s the same creators - but quite a nice watch / Frankie Thompson’s one woman show Catts, which was incredible, and made me cry laugh: including it here in case you get the chance to go see her / perfect TikTok cinema / Sick of Myself, which I liked and would give 7/10 / a wonderful play called For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy - it’s finished now in London at least, but will almost certainly come back, and if it does, I will go to see it again / this clip from iconic tv show Golden Balls, which is labelled as ‘weirdest ever’ but is actually a great example of beating Prisoners Dilemma, and now taught in Maths courses at Harvard, UCL etc / a take so beyond comprehension that it makes me feel safer about AI and it’s capabilities

Something to listen to

I recently got tagged by someone on Twitter recommending this newsletter to somebody looking for music recs. I was pleased, but I feel like so far, this has been a way for me to share more than just music (which I do 3 times a week at this link, to the person looking!!). I also like to use it to share what I’m enjoying outside of the show, so advance apology to the aforementioned twitter user, as inexplicably I’ve been listening to Shania Twain’s seminal album Come on Over a lot… probably the first album I really loved as a little kid. But other than that:

Amazing downtempo Sven Vath / this Spacemen 3 cover which is the best on the compilation, I think / Swiss new wave group Liliput / good summer tune / Very English Sounding Music by Disco Inferno / completely beautiful soul song I shazamed in Tokyo listening bar / Selassie on NTS (in the sun.. impeccable) / this episode of a popular geeky podcast I enjoy with Hannah Fry / MOTD Top 10: you can’t buy this kind of chemistry!!

Something to eat

I’m not feeling particularly culinarily adventurous or overcome with desire to cook at the moment. But I recently made a delicious courgette carbonara, much to the chagrin of the NTS chatroom.

I used Rachel Roddy’s instagram post as a recipe and actually added some broccoli to the pasta water to make the overall thing greener, as I’d only eaten white bread sandwiches that day, and wanted the vitamins - but her expanded recipe is here. I love all her recipes. Generally at this time of year there’s a glut of asparagus from the allotment and spring feelings in the air so my evening meals are all variations on green pasta: I also made pesto for the first time, something I’d previously thought was overrated but now I take that back. I used this Nigel Slater recipe. Very good!

Hers ^ vs mine …..

Tasted fab tho. Bonus picture of peas / garlic / beans thriving on the plot:

I think that’s enough for now. I’ll do a longer roundup next go - I need to crowdsource some more things from the listeners… my well is running dry….

<3 till next time xx

Hello! from Hakone, Japan, where I’m writing this to you. I’m staying in a ryokan here and just had dinner, and have found myself with the first proper bit of time to spare that I’ve had for a couple of weeks! And I’ve been really wanting to get a newsletter out, although I haven’t done the radio show properly for a little bit, so I have no chatroom-generated tips to offer. Maybe not doing the show has contributed to my desire to write something - I’m so used now to chit chatting away about what I’ve been up to and sharing thoughts on the radio that maybe I’m more conditioned to do it than I used to be. Don’t want to think too deeply on whether or not that is a good thing!! I’ll just let it be neutral: as my old therapist would say, just notice the thought. Anyway - my friends and family are certainly sick of getting incessant updates and photos through from me from this trip either via text or my finsta - I guess travelling on your own also compels you to share stuff a little more, as you don’t have anyone to immediately chat to about it. I write that completely neutrally, by the way, no tiny violins are playing in my head as I sit alone on this tatami mat. Travelling on my own has been pure joy these last couple of weeks: if you’re umming and ahhing about doing it, or wanting to go somewhere solo but feeling a little daunted by the prospect, it might help you to know that I’ve had an absolute blast, and done everything I wanted to do. I think lockdown has made me a little bit conditioned to staying at home a lot (or at least increased my perception of how much I need to be at home), and I was apprehensive about being so far from London, my routine, my family. But it’s really been magic. I’ve done exactly what I want when I want, on my own schedule, at my own pace. Bliss!!

But this is NOT a travel blog. It is a recommendations newsletter, and boy do I have some recommendations because another excellent thing about eating 3 meals a day alone is you really become one with your kindle, so if you’re after

Something to read

I hoovered up Eliza Clark’s new book Penance - so so good - not out till July (I have a proofs plug hence the early access) but I’d definitely pre order it for a summer holiday read. I remember reading her other novel Boy Parts on the beach in Portugal a couple of years ago and loving it: very dark, gruesome, strange book, but weirdly great to read on holiday. Same with Penance although the novels are not similar: this one is the tale of a semi-cancelled true crime writer documenting a gruesome murder of a teenage girl in a run down English seaside town. It’s about a lot of things, primarily but not limited to the terrible ordeal of being a teenager, the breakdown and rebuilding of British identity over the last few years, and Tumblr, but I think everyone will take different things from it. As someone who had a pretty turbulent time at secondary school, I found the cruelty and pain of the teenage characters as they struggle to fit in at school to be the aspect of it I resonated with most, but also I was quite blown away by the structure of the novel: Clark writes in the voice of the true crime writer and it all goes a bit topsy turvy - I found it extremely compelling and though provoking. It’s also very very gruesome. Additionally I find the whole true crime craze / superiority complex of those who eschew it a fun topic: for me it is a must read!

I also LOVED Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton: brilliantly written, excellent story, also includes themes I love - gardening, New Zealand, covert operations - just a perfect book. Very astute, very funny, very good.

Couple of shorter things I have read and enjoyed recently: this piece about the drama of football and loving it / someone from Union J’s dramatic exit statement / Samatha Irby’s incredible newsletter which I cannot believe I didn’t read before / this piece about Grey’s Anatomy (a show which got me through a breakup… if you are in that position might I suggest you dive on in to the most absorbing ridiculous show ever and let it become your companion / Lindy West taking on the Whale, which I’m very late on but I was reading it because I watched the film on the plane, which leads me to

Something to watch

A list of things I watched on the plane to Melbourne / Tokyo:

• M3GAN (finally, amazing, so happy I watched it, AW is so good, the Sia moment is perfect, 10/10 film)

• The Whale (corny, gratuitous, sentimental to the point of nausea, like watching bad student theatre, still cried a lot at the end)

• Decision to Leave (aesthetically wonderful, wish I’d seen at the cinema, surprising, devastating final scene)

• What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (I knew nothing about this film before watching it except for the cast, and now I am like ??? what’s the contemporary consensus on this movie??? This is when I need the NTS chatroom, which is full of film people - I did enjoy it, and again found it very aesthetically pleasing, in part due to the appearance of my beloved Julianne Moore who is also iconically in

• Yellowjackets s2 - love this show so much, thankfully still good in the second series, music supervision continues to be good and Melanie Lynskey remains on top, also loved this piece about the show which had a great headline:

Other things I’ve watched and enjoyed: old CPTV video of legends (+ former legend Connor) doing FIFA card challenge / Love is Blind (I’m not hyperlinking this sorry) / Two live shows, one at The Curtin in Melbourne and one at 20000 Den-atsu in Tokyo - two brilliant venues if you’re ever in those cities!

Something to listen to

I spent a long time at a great shop called Organic Music with wonderful Chee Shimizu, who picked me out a load of brilliant Japanese records. I NEVER record shop at home any more and it was really good to do it again. Got loads of stuff by Lily, including this good seven inch / an amazing live version of this album by Maki / iconic Yukihiro Takahashi album Poisson D'Avril which should be on streaming, plus a load more I’m gonna save for the radio. Other stuff I’ve been listening to: song of the year so far for me by Blanco / this perfect album by Lives of Angels, fave track is Imperial Motors / the Verve debut album a Storm in Heaven / banger by GFX / nice new Maxine Funke / legendary Birmingham artist Higher Intelligence Agency who played live after me at the festival in Melbourne - he was sooo good.

OK - gonna wrap it there because I want to watch the Arsenal game - I’ll do a proper dispatch of listener recs in a couple weeks when I’m back home. No recipes this time as I have not cooked in a while, but here are some things I have eaten on my trip. Food has been off the chart!!!!

<3 Til next time xxx sorry its a quickie x

Hello again reader,

It is time to disseminate the tips and tricks I have gathered over another couple of weeks on earth, and recommend to you some things I’ve enjoyed in the hope that you will too. I’ve been somewhat consumed over the last couple of weeks with football and its associated drama, so large portions of my free time have been spent shouting at the tv or discussing Roy Hodgson’s imminent return, but I do have a few other things to share. Also, at the end of this week’s dispatch, I’ve collected some of the tips that people have given me on Japan travel: I’m heading there in a few weeks time, and people have sent over lots of recommendations, and as promised, I’ve rounded them up at the end of this newsletter. Maybe they’ll be useful to some of you.

In London spring has definitely sprung, so I’ve also been busy at the allotment: March is the time to plant a lot of seeds, and my windowsills are currently heaving with trays of soil which will eventually become tomato and sunflower plants ready to be planted out. The early potatoes are in the ground, and my 85 year old uncle John who has farmed his whole life says that’s a good thing, as there will likely be a high demand for them over summer in England. English farmers are apparently avoiding growing potatoes this year because they’re a high cost crop - they’re fertiliser, fuel and labour intensive, and with inflation plus a possible drought this summer, farmers are avoiding the financial risk associated with potato growing. So get chitting!

If you’re not feeling particularly sprightly, I find nurturing something other than myself can help pull me out of the funk, and growing is a perfect nurturing project. Planting a bulb in a jar, getting some herb seeds in a tray, or tending to a small plant you buy from a shop - whatever your access to gardening is, it might be a good small evening activity to try if you’re feeling a bit blue. But I know it’s not for everyone, so maybe instead you’re after…

Something to read

I just finished a short novel called Wivenhoe, by Samuel Fisher. I loved it, though be warned: it contains dystopian themes, and should not be read in a state of anxiety. Fisher imagines an alternate present in which Wivenhoe, the Essex town that has inspired many a Martin Newell song, is under a thick layer of permanent snow due to ecological disaster. A murder happens (that isn’t a spoiler, it happens on the first page) and the novel explores the following 24 hours as the news ripples through the town and the families affected. It’s not solely about the environmental/survivalist aspect, though it’s the crucial setting - it’s about family, and love, and change. Fisher’s writing is brilliant, and I ripped through it very quickly (it’s only short). I think it will stay with me a while. I actually picked it up on a whim because of the title - I have been interested in Wivenhoe as long as I have been a Cleaners fan - but I was in the bookshop to purchase something else, which I also recommend though I haven’t finished it yet: Why Women Grow by Alice Vincent. It is a collection of essays about women and growing - so far I’m finding it very nice to read, very rich, and as such it’s been a good companion to the bleakness of the alternate world Wivenhoe setting.

Other things I have read and enjoyed recently: this piece about fantasy writer Kelly link / this list of films Michael Owen’s been forced to watch / this very sad but incredible interview with a man whose mother became obsessed with trolling online / Leandra Cohen’s aspirational substack where she tells me how I could dress, though I know I never will.

Something to watch

I’m ashamed to say I will be watching the new season of Ted Lasso. I know, I know, it’s the most saccharine programme ever made, absolute twee nonsense, but I really have no quality control when it comes to the TV I consume. Also, sometimes I need to watch something where literally nothing bad happens. It’s escapism!! So if you can stomach it, go for it - I found once I got past episode two the sheer shock of it wore off and I submitted to Jason Sudeikis’ disgusting universe. For something else mind numbing you might enjoy Physical 100, a programme a friend recommended to me, where people compete to see which of them has the winning physique through a series of challenges and straight up fights. Or, if you want to bear witness to amateur interior designers throwing random colours on walls and experimenting with upcycling to varying degrees of success, may I direct you to Interior Design Masters, which just started its fourth season. I am waiting to watch this season with my friend as we watch it together every year and haven’t had time yet, but I can’t wait. They do stuff like this:

and Alan Carr hosts. It’s really fun.

Some other things I watched and enjoyed recently: my childhood aspirational icon Michaela Strachan investigating the amazing sport Shrovetide Football / this great (and very nostalgic) documentary on influential British television channel Channel U / Elizabeth Fraser on Jeff Buckley / Robbie Savage’s kid scoring a goal / Sofia Coppola’s daughter’s flawless Tiktok debut / Mark Leckey’s iconic film Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore / my favourite line dancers / the film Tar, which I looooooved.

Something to… look at?

During Wednesday’s show, a listener in the chatroom was telling us all about their adventures mapping the seabed of the North Sea. Soon other sea mappers emerged, trading sonar tips and swapping stories, and they sent a couple of amazing pictures:

Insane!! And someone else shared this heatmap they did off Islas Malvinas:

Very very cool and unexpected conversation for the Wednesday morning - I loved it. If you want to look at more interesting things and you’re in London, I have two recommendations from a reliable source for you: Mike Nelson at the Hayward & R.I.P. Germain at the ICA both apparently great.

Something to listen to

This Norwegian sort of trap song by Snelle that Sassy 009 played when she came on the show - title translates to city girls / this cover of Jeff Buckley and Elizabeth Fraser / ridiculous Strika tune for the gym / neglected Dry Cleaning song / the Top of the Pops cover compilations - discogs link here (what is going on with this cover art) and a Move on Up cover here / a beautiful Peruvian compilation of psych rock and sunshine pop / a great album by the Cigarettes / Richard Hawley, particularly this song, because I was trying desperately to see his musical in London but couldn’t get tickets - called Standing at the Sky’s Edge, meant to be amazing, about Park Hill estate in Sheffield / and a podcast recommendation from a lovely listener, who says it has become a bit of a lifeline for them recently: Very Delta, hosted by Delta Work - ‘extremely funny and fantastic drag queen hosts VERY DELTA - first 15 mins is her going off about some menial topic but in the most articulate and captivating way , and then she has a guest on for a chat show style back and forth - always funny always amazing.’

Something to eat

I have zero personal recipe recommendations to give you this week, as I am happily existing almost solely off various different types of noodles I got from a recent trip to H Mart in New Malden. Whilst there I also bulk bought my favourite condiment - this shallot sauce - and some milk mochi in anticipation of my Japan trip. But somebody in the chatroom recommended this Rachel Roddy recipe for pasta e Ceci, a dish I love, and so I’ll be making this this week (RR is one of my favourite people to follow on Instagram too). My talented listener friends over at Coombeshead Bakery (go if you’re in Cornwall!) have also given a top bean tip if cooking a similar dish called pasta fagioli: ‘The trick as always is to get the best best best beans possible. If you’re bothered, cook your beans in some stock from raw, after soaking. But if you’re not willing to do a 2 day process an Italian deli will have some tasty beans I’d say.’ For the bean curious, they also recommended Laila Gohar for more bean recipes, or an Irish chef called Hugh Corcoran who they say has the best Instagram account and ‘cooks hella beans’. But also get the shallot sauce and put it on anything you like really: fried rice, noodles, pasta, or it’s good with bubble and squeak too.

And finally, below are some tips for Japan that have come in from listeners. I’m going to Tokyo for a few days, then a night at an onsen town, then on to Osaka for a few days. Thanks everyone for your tips, so helpful, I can’t wait.

Till next time! xxx

(or here is a link to a listener-made Apple Music playlist if you use that!)

An assortment of Japan tips I have been sent

• ‘Only hearing your Japan request now bc I'm an Australian replay listener... But if no one has suggested it already I can't recommend going to the baseball at the Tokyo Dome enough even if baseball isn't your bag (def isn't mine). 

  Fans singing the entire time, non stop entertainment and the stadiums are BYO. Giants v Tigers is the major rivalry but really any of the games would be fun.’

• ‘This is a great site for finding out about art exhibitions across the city:

  http://www.tokyoartbeat.com’

• Go to Fukuoka if you can - ‘really cool Steven Holl housing project there’

• Onsen - Femi told me to go to Kusatsu but it’s a little out the way for my route, so I’m going to Hakone: one person highly recommended Hakone Tent to stay at, echoed in this tip from someone else: ‘Hakone: the 'onsen' (natural hot springs) capital of Japan up in the mountains. Bit fiddly to get to but well worth it. There's a great 'loop' of the sites you can do there which covers several cable cars and boats. I recommend staying at Hakone Tent - it's a great (but a bit pricey) hostel which has an onsen in the basement.’

• ‘Buy an IC card (like an Oyster card) - there are two types which are basically the same: Suica and Pasmo. Do this straight away to avoid faffing with paper tickets. You can use these in all major cities’

• ‘If you’re a bit of a synth/drum machine nerd, I’d recommend going to 5G in Tokyo, and see all the original synths you never dared dreaming about owning’

• ‘Grassroots in Tokyo’

• ‘Afuri does a sick vegan ramen’

• ‘Shinjuku Kamiya’ (yakitori restaurant)

• ‘Shirubee Shibuya’ (izakaya)

• ‘Hire a mobile wifi router at the airport so you can use 3G everywhere you go. This will make finding your way around 100 times easier as Google maps is a god send in Japan and international roaming is usually expensive here. Drop it off at the same place when you fly home’

• ‘Ensure you get a JR tourist pass for the train journeys. You need to buy this outside Japan before you leave (if flying from London - the place is in Holborn) and activate it in a JR train station once you're in Japan. Only do this when you actually need it - ie. not when in Tokyo’

• ‘Loads of great small clubs/DJ bars with good atmos and up for it crowds that go on late: Koara (in Shibuya), Bar Bonobo (near Harajuku), Aoyama Tunnel/Hachi/Oath (all in same building complex), Grassroots (in Koenji) and Forestlimit in Hatagaya’

• ‘Daikanyama is a great area for clothes shopping and has one of the best bookshops in the world - Tsutaya Books’

• ‘My personal highlights:

  Asahi Sky Room
  Sushi Zanmai
  Itamae
  Ramen Street
  Pizza Studio Tamaki
  JBS Jazz Bar
  Lion Café’

• ‘Petit Bois is a teppanyaki restaurant (chef cooking in front of you on hot plate) we were taken to by a mutual friend. It was very small, super legit, great experience. In Chuo City.’

• ‘Bar Nightingale’

• ‘Nakano area for food and night time fun, Lion cafe, Ebi katsu sandwiches from 7eleven, Seirinkan https://theseirinkan.com/menu.html"‘

• Where to stay in Tokyo - of course Shinjuku / Shibuya, people also recommended Nakameguro, Daitabashi, Koenji to me

• Lots of people recommending time in Osaka if you can: smaller, easy to navigate, relaxed, fun city - I’m going there, and will defo go to a record shop that’s been at the top of my hit list forever, Rare Groove

Dear reader,

I’m sorry for missing a week of this fledgling newsletter. How quickly my hopes for regularity have been dashed! But maybe not-quite-weekly is a little bit more realistic for me, and for you too, I expect. I’ve had a busy time over the last month or so, which has made me feel quite stressed, and in difficult moments - whether they’re life’s small inconveniences or the massive upheavals - something like a brilliant novel or a spirit lifting album can be just the thing you need. So here are some of the things that have brought moments of joy (or at least distraction!) over the last couple of weeks. Hopefully you’ll find something in them too. No potatoes this week (though if you are chitting, you want to be planting them at the end of this month, or as soon as the chits get to the right sort of size… sorry just a tiny bit of potatoes) but if you’re looking to plant something, look no further than my favourite Youtuber’s latest video. Anway: on to the recs.

Something to listen to

I can’t recommend the immersive improvisational music of The Necks enough. I get away with playing their music sometimes on the show, but not too often as some of their pieces are an hour long. Their most recent EP is just beautiful: it’s called Travel, and is primed for late night listening. Transportive, meditative, relaxing - I would say it’s perfect bath music, if that’s what you’re after. If you’re looking for something a little more energetic but not by much, maybe this song by Swallow will be up your street, or for something even more energetic, this song off a new album by Dr Mystery, which is giving me Kedr Livanskiy meets Drexciya energy.

Or maybe you want a feel good nostalgia hit via Shola Ama (or headsy downtempo cover version if you’re pretentious) / an incredible new album from Chunky which is a contender for the most UK sounding album I’ve ever heard / really good new John Glacier.

Something to read

I just finished Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery, which I also really enjoyed. It’s a fictional account (set in a non fictional world of 1960s New York) of a young teenager with a difficult mother who, in an attempt to escape her mundane and often painful life, finds herself as a typist in Warhol’s Factory. There she’s tasked with transcribing the recordings he and Ondine made in 1965-8, which eventually became a, A Novel. I’ve successfully ignored Andy Warhol and his work for most of my life, so lots of the stuff in the book was new and intriguing to me (it sent me on many Wikipedia dives), and I thought it was wonderfully written. Next up I’m reading a short story collection by Neil Dunn called Up the Junction.

Also, you might like this FT piece about 10 Foot if you missed it, or reading the wonderful news that Ron’s Place was successfully saved! I can’t wait to see what happens with it, and I hope it gets opened to the public. I love houses with art built into them like this - makes me think of the Headington Shark too.

Something to watch

As promised in the last newsletter, I steamrollered my way through Fleishman is in Trouble, watching it basically in two sittings. It’s a sort-of-funny-but-serious miniseries about middle age, divorce and storytelling, adapted from a novel of the same name that came out a few years ago. I really enjoyed it! I thought Lizzy Kaplan was particularly great in it: she plays an ambitious journalist who has moved to the suburbs and had children (in her words, too easily given up all that was exciting to her in search of safety and wholeness) and is beginning to feel the walls closing in on her. There’s a brilliant scene where she’s doing the sort of painful dance exercise class most women have succumbed to at least once in their life while wearing a Ween t shirt, which felt a bit close to home. It’s certainly not groundbreaking television and if you are not a fan of Claire Danes or Jesse Eisenberg it’s definitely not for you, but it hit the spot for me last week.

For something higher brow, we turn to the listeners, who are always sending me Mubi links that I bookmark, then eschew in favour of watching old episodes of Only Connect (which are all on Youtube, by the way). Yesterday someone mentioned they had watched the film Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, which had made them feel ‘speechless and pensive’ - I looked it up and it does sound beautiful: it’s a Korean film directed by Kim Ki-duk “about a Buddhist Monastery that floats on a lake in a pristine forest. The story is about the life of a Buddhist monk as he passes through the seasons of his life, from childhood to old age.” If that doesn’t pique your interest, perhaps this recommendation from a different listener will: they watched the film La Cérémonie, which is a ‘classic psychological thriller… characteristic of Chabrol’s fascination with macabre murders performed by practical women, this refreshing look at class conflict, starring Sandrine Bonnaire, [La Cérémonie] mounts a full-frontal attack on the French bourgeoisie.’ Sounds good!!

Or… here’s a deeply satisfying 18 minute video of a heroic man unclogging drains / a jaunty estate agent video for an available property (including a potential new business venture for the homeowners) / Alice in Chains at a waterpark / the all time greatest episode of Faking It.

Something to see

I went to see a brilliant exhibition over the weekend called People Make Television. It’s largely showing archival footage from a BBC programme called Open Door, and public access TV channels from different areas of England. Open Door was a programme the BBC ran in the 1970s and 80s, and each episode was a different campaign group or local interest group, and they got given a camera crew, a studio, and air time: ‘This raw, often formally inventive television comprises a vivid archive of social history, and direct testimony of the concerns and struggles of a tumultuous decade.’ It’s so good; you can go there and sit on the sofa and browse through hours of the programme, and most of the episodes have never been seen since airing. I was there for ages (obviously, it was very comfy and I love tv) and got to pick a couple of the episodes to watch (one on the Chinese community in Merseyside and one on a cleaners union). Then this young girl reached for the remote, explaining she wanted to watch an episode which featured her godmother. Happily for me, it was the one I was going to put on next, which was called You and I: Living with Cystitis. Turns out her godmother is this incredible woman who made a rousing case for better care and attention for women who had cystitis in the 1970s. The idea of an extended programme on what is a really common bladder infection seemed like it had the potential to be funny, but it was actually quite a harrowing watch: the episode featured various women whose lives had been ruined (!) by cystitis, because at the time women were continually dismissed by doctors who told them to avoid spicy food or that it was psychosomatic. One poor sufferer had had her urethra cauterised and two further operations in an effort to solve it. Anyway - the exhibition is brilliant, and you could spend days there. It’s on until the end of March, and if you’re in London I really recommend making an afternoon (or as long as you can!) to go.

Something to eat

I just made an enormous batch of fish pie, and gave some to my mum who was very pleased with it, so if you’re looking for something comforting maybe that’s an idea for you. I won’t suggest a recipe as I think everyone prefers different things in a fish pie (for me, I like carrots and leeks but NOT peas inside the pie), but it’s an idea. Don’t forget there’s frozen fish pie mix in the frozen isle to make your life easier and cheaper. More comfort food coming in via this enormous NYT mushroom-butternut squash strata recipe, and my favourite apple cake recipe, which if you have a food mixer, is incredibly simple. A note if you do make it, use more than half the mixture on the bottom else the apple falls through to the bottom, and dust the whole thing when it’s finished with icing sugar. I also prefer this cake with brown sugar, as it makes the cake a more wholesome seeming colour, and I feel better about eating it for breakfast. For something lighter and more lunch appropriate, I’ve been making this carrot ragout recipe (or a version of) almost weekly since I saw it on twitter (this link is the tweet which also has helpfully screenshotted the recipe). So cheap and so delicious. Here’s a really good drink to make if you’re looking to make a cocktail at home. I used to drink these all the time when I lived in Germany, out of iced glasses in this bar we liked, but they hit the spot at home too. On my list to make maybe this week are these pesto breakfast biscuits - sorry it’s on Instagram but they look delicious - and on my list to buy is some fancy decaf coffee as I have shunned caffeine on account of dental advice (apparently it might help me clench my jaw less, though I can’t help but feel it won’t do much at all). Listeners recommended me a few different options, regurgitated for you here, here and here - I will enjoy mine in these mugs I made a couple of weeks ago that I was very pleased with!!

Finally, yassified chip:

That’s all folks! Till next time xxx

Hello everyone!

Last week on the show someone let me know they’d recently taken over an allotment, and asked for some tips on what to plant now. I’m by no means a gardening expert, but I have been helping my dad look after his allotment for the last couple of years. I go over there every week - it’s quite a long way from where I live in London, so I can’t go much more frequently - and act as a spare pair of hands and an enthusiastic ear. My dad is definitely a gardening expert. He grew up on a farm in the Somerset countryside, and has had the allotment as long as I can remember. It used to be a real chore to go, except for the annual bonfire (which is actually illegal to do now, I suppose rightly) when we would bring tin foil to wrap potatoes in, and cook them in the centre of the bonfire. I have no better taste memory than that of charred potato skin with butter and salt on an October afternoon. But other than that, there isn’t much excitement to be had on an allotment for a less than outdoorsy 8 year old. 

Now as an adult I love going. Learning how best to cultivate asparagus or how to prune an apple tree is an amazing way to spend an afternoon, and I feel very lucky to have access to the plot. They’re kind of fascinating places, allotments. I can’t think of another example of leasing land like that, in a relatively communal set up: there is usually a volunteer-led committee who do administrative work, as well as things like stocking the on site shop, if there is one. The people who also have plots on our site are a hugely varied group of people and accordingly their approach to gardening varies a lot. The plot next door to ours is leased at the moment by a young couple who are both scientists, and they’re always experimenting with more radical gardening methods. They’re really into the whole no-dig thing, and are always growing things under bits of corrugated plastic. The plot on the other side was old Harry’s, who was there my whole childhood until he wasn’t, who was anything but experimental. Some mad things have happened at the allotment: like the time someone unearthed an unexploded WW2 bomb and the site was closed for a week, or when the police raided a huge plot that was being used to grow cannabis (somehow, outside?), but generally it’s a sedate place where people trade tips on how best to avoid rotting strawberries or black fly on broad beans.

Although they’re a wonderful thing, allotments, they have kind of a messed up origin story. They were offered up as an appeasement to the citizens of Britain from whom the common land was stolen and privatised during the enclosures. I see people’s eyes glaze over in the pub when I say I’ve been reading a leftist history of gardening in the UK, or I try to explain how allotments can arguably be thought of as a method of social control (as the ruling classes of the day thought they would be a good way to keep the working man out of the ale house and thus out of trouble) so I won’t go into it too much here. But there's plenty of material on the radical potential of gardening, or the criminal history of the enclosures online - or if you want to read a book on it, I think ‘The Story of Gardening’ by Martin Hoyles is a great place to start.

My absolute favourite thing to do on the allotment is to grow potatoes. Traditionally you grow them in rows, and you need a lot of space. But Dad and I have experimented with growing them in pots, to great success. Ideally keep the pot outside, either in the garden or balcony if you have one, but you can also do this inside, as long as you have the pot somewhere with a lot of light. You’ll need a sprouted potato, a big pot of any material, and soil. I’ve put the method at the end of the newsletter.

On to some new music I’ve been listening to - I’ve had this Jouska album on repeat loads this week. Jouska is a solo project of Norwegian musician Marit Othilie Thorvik, and this is the first music I’ve heard of hers. I think it’s very good pop music! My favourite tracks are Death Sentence and Fragrance. Top tier pretending-you’re-in-a-film music, which is my favourite genre. Also, this brilliant shoegaze song, Close Lobsters, and this Ukranian gem called Зачароване коло from 1979 that a listener sent in to me, along with a load of other wonderful Ukranian music to listen to.

Television… I haven’t watched much this past week, as I’ve had a lot of work on. But when I have needed a show, an ongoing rewatch of 30 Rock has been my choice, or unfortunately the most recent series of You. At the top of my to-watch list is an episode of Storyville a chatroomer suggested during the show on Wednesday, Casa Susanna: In the 1950s and 60s, deep in the American countryside at the foot of the Catskill mountains, there was a small wooden house with a barn behind it called Casa Susanna, a holiday home for one of the first clandestine networks of cross-dressers in the US. Back then, Diane and Kate used to enjoy weekend visits to the house with their wives and friends. Now in their 80s, Diane and Kate tell a forgotten chapter of some of the early days of trans identity. I’ll also be watching Fleishman is in Trouble next, maybe over the weekend, as I greatly enjoyed the book (although if you asked me for a single detail of it I would be unable to give you any) and I heard the TV version is good too.

I’m so pleased so many of you are enjoying Driving School (I tried watching the new version, by the way, and it’s much less good) so I will offer something in a similar aesthetic vein this week: this amazing documentary about drum and bass legend LTJ Bukem and his management, which is sort of like dnb Spinal Tap. Highly highly recommend. If you can find a better quality version of it send it to me!

Alternatively, perhaps you’ll enjoy this beautiful short film about the wonderful Alice Neel, a painter I adore. I love watching her talk about art and the world - I could listen to her for hours. There’s a huge show on at the Barbican now of her work, if you’re in London. I saw it last week: here’s a few photos of my favourites from the exhibition. It’s not cheap (no major exhibitions here ever seem to be anymore) but it’s expansive, and I felt really inspired after seeing it; her relentless commitment to what she called ‘anarchist humanism’ and rejection of abstraction in favour of focusing on humans, and human connection, resonated with me. Also her paintings are really big which honestly I appreciate.

Some other little things that made me smile this week - obviously Anjuhlah Bassett did the thing / Jill Sobule playing guitar while undergoing brain surgery / nature being EXTREMELY metal / new Caroline Calloway doc (if you don’t know who this is already, do not click on this link and forget you ever saw it, but if you do, the video is worth your time and FWIW made me think differently about her) / a fantastically simple but effective recipe for cauliflower gratin. Also, a brilliant idea from a lovely listener if you’re feeling a bit blue: buy yourself some daffodils. I heeded their advice and got my mum some this afternoon, £3 in M&S, and she was very happy: £3 well spent.

And now…. how to grow a potato in a pot. It’s pretty simple as you would expect. I have dug out (see what I did there) some photos from when I did it last summer too. I’ll sign off here for those getting off the train now: thanks for reading, till next time xxx

!! POTATOES !!

First thing is to get an old potato, one about the size of a large egg, and leave it in a cupboard. It’ll eventually sprout - this is known as chitting - and then it’ll be ready to plant. Some people don’t think you need to chit potatoes (one of my favourite people on Youtube, this lovely Yorkshireman, has a good video on it if you’re interested) so it’s not totally essential, but it’s the way we do it. Here is the platonic ideal of a chitted potato:

Then get a large pot, or tub, with drainage holes in the base. Get a bit of compost in the bottom, the depth of your hand or so, and put the potato on top, sprout reaching toward the sky. If you have multiple sprouts, put the biggest one to the top. Bury it in another hand height of compost, water it, and wait.

Eventually your potato plant will emerge as in picture 1 below. Keep it well watered, but not waterlogged else the potato will rot. When it’s 3-4 inches tall, bury it, leaving an inch or two out. Repeat this process over a couple of months till you get to the top of the pot. Then the plant will grow and grow and grow, and the stems you buried will become swollen with water and eventually turn into potatoes underground. Magic! Harvest after a few months in the summer time. You should get a fair few - I got about 15 small potatoes. Even if you only get three I cannot emphasise enough how fun it is to dig up potatoes, and how delicious a boiled new potato fresh out the ground is. This is more about fun than bang for the buck: also, I think the mighty potato plant is as beautiful to look at as any flower. And you can’t eat geraniums!

So potato heavy today. No more on this subject for a while.

Hello! 

Delighted to be sending out this first newsletter. If you’re reading this, you’re likely a listener of the NTS breakfast show, but if not, it’s a morning radio show I host Monday-Wednesday.  You can listen back to old episodes here, or it’s live 9-11am.

There’s an accompanying chatroom which has largely inspired me to start this mailout. Every show I do, it feels like hundreds of brilliant recommendations and tips emerge, and I usually finish the show feeling frustrated that I haven’t disseminated them in a more accessible and digestible way than frantically reeling them off during the live show. There’s also an audience of the show that can’t listen live because of time differences, or lifestyles, or access, and I want them to be able to easily get to some of the recommendations that come out of the show and from its other listeners. I like the idea of doing something slightly less ephemeral than live radio, and rounding up some of the brilliant insights from this community into something a bit more concise. Sometimes the breadth of choice we all have now about what to listen to, what to watch, what to read can feel a bit paralysing. So I hope this can be a useful roundup of things at least one person (me) has enjoyed and can recommend you when you need a little bit of entertainment. I hope it can also be a way for me to share extra music with you all that maybe doesn’t fit into the morning show.

I’ve been thinking a lot about audio generally, and the role it plays in my life - whether it’s music, radio or podcasts. There’s that meme about what it feels like to listen to a podcast, where a kid is sitting next to an advert of smiling people, and I was thinking about how that really is an accurate depiction of how it’s felt for me to listen to things for a large part of my life. I have always had something on in the background, and music and radio were my companions when real life ones were sparse. When I was tiny, I had a tape machine for story tapes and some albums I had, and then I had a CD player in my bedroom, which later was joined by an iPod and speakers, then eventually by a laptop. I would fall asleep to stories or podcasts or sometimes the radio. Throughout my life, through stints of heartache, loneliness and uncertainty, I would always have something to turn to, to listen to. So it feels really wonderful to provide that to people, to be an accompaniment to your morning, or to offer some music to enjoy when you don’t know what to choose.

Something to listen to 

Sometimes having to find so much music for the radio show means that when I’m listening to music in a non functional way, that is for entertainment rather than research, I just listen to one person obsessively. Since it’s been sunny in London for the last few days, my Frank Ocean reflex has kicked in, and so I’m just listening to him. It’s nice to revisit his discography (before this I hadn’t listened to any of his music for months), especially when I’m on a long train journey, and I can look out the window and pretend I’m in Malibu rather than a London suburb. One of my favourite new things that’s come out recently is actually by Frank O collaborator and producer Vegyn (who anecdotally produced my fave Frank song, Provider, but don’t quote me on that) - he remixed this Sassy009 song into something so good I wish it was 5 times the length. I’ve also been really enjoying a forthcoming Stroom release by Library L’Amour: you can listen to a couple of the tracks on Bandcamp here, and star of the Nigerian alté scene Cruel Santino’s new song - it’s only on Spotify so you’ll have to listen there. I LOVE Santi’s music, and the Subaru Boys album was one of the best of last year, I thought. He’s got a live show in March in London so keep an eye out for that if you’re a fan too.

Podcast wise… I’m in a bit of a lull period. I have my ongoing football and pop culture podcasts like Stadio and Who Weekly, but in terms of narrative story telling I can only recommend I’m Not A Monster (terrible name), which is telling the Shamima Begum story. I think it’s good, and presents a pretty balanced picture of the story so far, though some people find the journalists questions a little irritating and there are points at which I wish it could go a bit deeper. But it gets me through my 12-3-30 so. Can’t complain too much.

Some things to watch to lift your mood

I woke up and watched Rihanna’s halftime show first thing, of course, which I loved - some people saying the performance was lacklustre, but she’s never been that kind of high production, full choreo performer, let alone pregnant: I thought the production was amazing and the dancers next level… and her vocals completely on point (my sister told me they were mimed but I’m ignoring her). But happily it also reminded me of that classic Tom Holland video which I rewatched at lunchtime eating my leftover lasagne. I know I’m basic but every time I watch it I clap and giggle like a child even though I’ve seen it 20+ times. 

Perhaps you’ll enjoy this wonderful British television programme from 1994 called Driving School. It’s an early BBC reality TV show about people in Bristol and Cardiff learning to drive. It sounds humdrum but it is just joyous to watch: there are some extremely lovable characters but also it looks beautiful. If you have any sort of 90s nostalgia (as I do) you’ll love the shots of people’s living rooms, the cars, the outfits. There’s one instructor who is always glued to her massive mobile phone, who I adore. During the breakfast show this morning someone in the chatroom said of it: ‘lots and lots of beautiful hanging shots and I really didn't expect a subplot of how religion helps with making driving school related business decisions’. It’s the perfect chaser if you (like me) are watching The Last of Us and finding it a harrowing watch. Though it’s not without its own terrifying moments - here’s a clip of lovely Maureen learning to drive on the motorway.

Or maybe instead you’ll take something from this Yoko Ono interview that Kate from the B-52s did in 1992 [15 mins]. I have a lot of sympathy with interviewers, having done a few myself, and the first couple of questions of this are a little shaky. But once they get into it, the conversation becomes much smoother and has some really lovely moments - I looove Yoko and could listen to her talking about music and art for hours.

Some really short things to watch: iconic vine / cursed Instagram account which rounds up the kind of tiktoks that make you feel absolutely unhinged / Bob Mortimer making corned beef hash / absolutely incredible short film (dance film? theatre film? I don’t know how to classify it) called the Cost of Living.

Something to read

I have to start with the last book I truly loved, which was the Bloater by Rosemary Tonks. It’s just a very weird little book about really fancying someone. My friend recommended it to me, and although her recommendations are always spot on, I didn’t expect to adore this as much as I did. I have an embarrassing tendency to assume that I won’t enjoy things made before 1990, and this is from 1968: it’s a really short novel about a dissatisfied married woman living in London who gets a lodger, who she finds simultaneously repulsive and sexually enticing.

I got a bit obsessed with Tonks’ life story after I read it. Disaster after disaster befell her: she was raised by her widowed mother, then married young, got polio, lost the use of her hand, then found religion, detached her retinas from staring at a wall doing Taoist meditation, divorced, denounced all her work and burned everything she owned, and ended up living in Bournemouth away from the London literary scene she had been a part of - I think we would probably now class what happened to her later in life as some sort of mental health crisis, or trauma response: her obituary is here if you want to read a bit about her unbelievable story. If tales of strange English women and their romantic exploits aren’t your bag, here’s a link to Anna Cafolla’s column in the Face where she can actually tell you something good to read.

A couple of short things I enjoyed these last couple of weeks - this piece in the New Statesman by Lamorna Ash on dating a couple (one for the MOTH listeners especially), and this twitter thread about the absolutely unbelievable story of footballer Jermaine Pennant.

Something to eat

If you have a spare afternoon, and you feel the need, you could make this bolognese sauce. I’ve made it before but yesterday I had the urge to make it into a lasagne. Here is a recipe for the lasagne version. I would say it was very successful, if rich; if you make it, I suggest a sharp side salad or some pickles to go with it. Here’s a photo of my pickles on a plate I made. I also put garlic in the béchamel sauce (sorry France).

Right - is that enough for now?? I should think so. Till next time xx

Hello! Been meaning to do this for ages. I will (insert frequency here... I'll try for weekly) share recommendations from the breakfast show listenership and some music I'm listening to and enjoying that perhaps doesn’t fit into the sonic realm of the show. Let’s see!

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