💾 Archived View for sdf.org › stug › phlog › 2021 › 20210813.txt captured on 2023-03-20 at 19:28:07.
⬅️ Previous capture (2022-07-16)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
13 August 2021 Today feels melancholic. My Dad was visiting yesterday, using me as a free camp site following a habitation check of his camper van. We went for a wonder by the canal, a curry and a few beers. It was a really pleasant time. It has been a while since I had a few beers in a pub with someone else. There was a surreal aspect with news dripping in about a shooting incident going on in Plymouth. We first heard from my Mum calling in a bit of a panic. It was interesting that my dad went straight to thinking there was an issue in the dockyard and the alarms were going off. We had a lovely evening and a couple more beers when we returned. Rude not to and all that. My Dad was sleeping in the campervan thanks to my Mum panicking after my garage was broken into last week. He left before I woke up which felt slightly odd. It put me into this slightly off mood. Combine that with having been tidying up for the week before hand then suddenly having nothing to do but read the news and you end up with this melancholy. My Dad said he was going to leave early as he wanted to be there to take my Mum for her next B12 injection so it was not a surprise or malicious. It just awoke a sort of remembered feeling from his not being there when expected as he had been called out for another towed array job in the middle of the night. The shooting incident turns out to involve an incel who reached breaking point and came a butcher, killing 4 adults and a young child before offing himself. Trying to understand such things is hard and certainly impossible to get within their mind set. Frustrating in how daft and tragic it all is. In an attempt to get out of my melancholy, I decided to head into the town centre. Partly for food and partly to return to a music shop. Admittedly it was a HMV which has recently reopened but it was nice browsing. I ended up buying a perfect mood album - Another Green World by Brian Eno. Yes, Eno is arty farty ambient nonsense most of the time but he has some fine albums. His first solo album, Here Come the Warm Jets is a force of nature which whips any mental baggage away and makes you feel. Sometimes it is uncomfortable, sometimes it is pleasurable but it always makes you feel something. There are days where that is required. Another Green World is a bridge between the first couple of albums and the later ambient works. It feels relaxed and yet challenges the listener. I found that the album removed the feeling of hopelessness and enabled me to feel like I could move. In some ways, Another Green World is the precision tool to Here Come the Warm Jets' blunt force sledge hammer. Well for mood shifting anyway! Eno's ambient works are also worth investigating but only if you are doing things. Discrete Music is a nice album to work to and does lead to thoughts. Eno's schtick has always been about the process rather than the end result. His ambient works have a fascinating process which helps make the end product paletable. He is certainly an interesting creative character who I sort of want to meet and sort of don't. I get the feeling he might be a smug git who goes into great depth about the art of creating. Although I also think he is a genuine person who seems kind and interesting. Alternatively, just listen to the music and enjoy it!