Russell Davies

2019 steps

All that's left of my quantified self is my step tracking. I've got into a nice habit with it and although it's all made up, I still think there's some value in it. If I didn't have a target I wouldn't walk this much.

The stats

Target per day: 13,000

Actual average per day: 13,177

Target per year: 4,745,000
Actual per year: 4,809,642

Difference: +64,642

Confession

I bought myself a little electronic drum kit in the Autumn and discovered that I get some stepping credit when I play it. So, quite often, I'll get home from work having done only 10,000 steps and doing an hour of drumming will get me up to 13,000. That's technically cheating but I'm going to allow it because it encourages me to do a thing that I want to do but might be too lazy to do. ie: drumming.

Elimination

I'm always looking for reasons not to buy things I like. ie: there are lots of products I might buy, lots of good reasons to do so, but that doesn't help with making choices, what I really need is more reasons to eliminate things.

For instance, John Smedley. 

On paper they're right up my street. Made in the East Midlands. High quality. Comfortable but fashion-y enough. I'm always tempted by a bit of John Smedley. But now - hurrah! - I don't have to be. They've ruled themselves out by giving Boris a Get Brexit Done scarf. I can never think about them again.

 

What would Cory do?

Two independent Cory moments this week.

Cory 1. Like Nat I'm a massive fan of Cory Ellison on The Morning Show. I love the way he's so gleeful about the chaos and over dramatics of work. Being very positive and (probably) evil. That's a new way to be.

Cory 2. I'm also a huge fan of Cory Doctorow and I was reminded of that listening to this podcast. He doesn't just speak in whole, well-formed, sentences, he speaks in whole, well-formed philosophies. He seems to have thought everything through. He can quote case-law, hip-hop-relevant precedent and appropriate sociological theory for anything you bring up. He also dealt, very capably, with being interviewed by idiots. Very impressive.

November 2019

October 2019

October 2019 from russelldavies on Vimeo.

God. I did nothing. Some buildings, some coffee, some YouTube, some telly. Still, the music is slightly interesting. From Endlessss, though I'm not even doing that at the moment.

Archer 0 - 9 Burning Stables

Anne and I were chatting recently and I realised that football has replaced The Archers in my life. I can't listen to The Archers any more. Everyone in it is too young and/or too posh. So instead, the default on the radio is 5Live's coverage of football. And that gives me what The Archers used to give me - a soap opera community I can be vaguely, ambiently aware of and interested in. Characters, events, gossip. Kind of interesting but mostly fictional. And that's why I stayed up extra late to watch Leicester beat Southampton 9-0 on Match of the Day. It was an event like Grace Archer burning or Den and Angie at Christmas.

(I have many other posts I could write about me and football. Most of which involve me being very clearly 'not a real fan'. But they're for another day.)

September 2019

October 2019 from russelldavies on Vimeo.

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I have a little accumulator I run in my head every weekend, hoping all the family-related clubs win: Arsenal, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Dulwich Hamlet and Holbrook Sports. 

This weekend, it happened! I think, for the first time, certainly for the first time since I've been paying attention.

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BIG UP THE RSS MASSIVE

August 2019

August 2019 from russelldavies on Vimeo.

Music for this is from Endlesss which I am enjoying tremendously.

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I utterly adore this track. But what's spectacular about it is the little unison figure at 22 seconds (and later). There's this smooth jazzy intro and then a few seconds of PURE PROG POOTLING. It's like something from The Return of the Giant Hogweed. And then it's back to sandblasted smooth groove. Superb. I guess it also reminds you that underneath a lot of Genesis prog stodge there are these nimble little drum dances. DESTROY GENRE. There's more that unites us than divides us.

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This'll come in handy one day:

Q: Is there a visual example of how early employees can create imaginary hurdles for your company by building the wrong culture?

A: pic.twitter.com/h9UKH5yxXW

— Dare Obasanjo (@Carnage4Life) August 25, 2019

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It's the little things. We rewrote the toilet signs:

Before:

After:

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This is great. Good and true about how drive-by hate comments dig into your head. And a nice artistic response.

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Visit the electrifying Mojo.

Darn to Margate

Went to Margate at the weekend. Was nice. Good exhibition of seaside photos at the Turner Contemporary. It's slightly odd when your own childhood milieu is served up as historical oddity but the frisson of nostalgia mixed with 'oh god it was horrible' is still nice.

The most instantly powerful bit for me was a photo called "Illegal raving in Brighton" by Stuart Griffiths. You can see it on Vice. I have no memories of illegal raving in Brighton, or anywhere, but I got an instant hit of memory from the detail of the lads sitting on the roof. It was their combination of jackets, jeans and trainers. So specific and unique to that moment in history. I don't have much of a sense of smell, I don't find it instantly evocative as many people do, but clothes do that for me. They connect me to the my past in a way that most bits of culture don't. Those jeans and trainers.

Music and video

I haven't done one of these for ages. I miss it. Partly because it means I have to make a new snippet of music at least once a month. So I've started again.

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And doing that has had me going back looking for all the miscellaneous music files scattered around various external drives and streaming services, trying to sort it out and having a listen to old stuff. Made me realise some of this is actually quite alright. Slow to develop but there's something to it. 

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And that reminded me that I haven't played with Endlesss for ages so I had a go at that over coffee. Huge fun. It creates little loops and lets you download them. Here are a couple:

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We went to see the Faith Ringgold exhibition at the Serpentine today. Magnificent. I especially liked the portrait of Mr Charlie; "a large grinning head of a patronizing white man". (And reading about the term Mr Charlie was interesting too). Mr Charlie looks a lot like Mr Burns. I wonder if that's a coincidence.