Albums of 2023, (late I know but reasons).

I forgot to put up my albums of the year

An aggregate review site tells me that the top three albums of the year are 

Fountain Baby by Amarae

Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die (world war) by Jaimie Branch

Desire, I Want To Turn into You by Catherin Polachek.

While congratulations are due to all of these artists on their critical reception, my top 3 are based on my ears and my thoughts.

1- Out and About by Lewsberg

2 – Javelin by Sufjan Stevens 

3 – Everything Is Alive by Slowdive

Every year, I add one album to a list which echoes the Cannes Film Awards catergory of Prix un certain regard. Those albums I like but regard uncertainly. I choose one a year of the albums, which means something to me, but perhaps I do not have the magic for someone else. This years addition is

Romantic Piano by Gia Margaret.

Thanks, that is all.

January 2024 – I live in these clouds

a small news update

I enjoyed time off work. that was good.

I attended the International conference of the International Association for the Study of Youth Ministry and really enjoyed it. The thinking and the people. The small but beautiful attendees from Scotland, (four of us), were in the minority, but engaging with colleagues and academics from across the world was significant, stretching and good.

I went to Drag Queen karaoke in the gay village in Manchester. It was remarkable in two ways, beyond the great company obviously. (1) The love and acceptance in the room were significant. It asks questions of any church which says it is welcoming and loving. (2) There were only two songs sung from this century, (Blank Space by Taylor Swift and Mr Brightside by the Killers), while a great line was done in ABBA etc from last century, yet the averge age of the performers was under 25.

I have become a member of the Executive Board of the International Association for the Study of Youth Ministry. If you are working with young people in the church and want to learn from academic research and thought into this, written by people who research, think and act where they are, you may find lots of value in the IASYM association and the associated Journal of Youth and Theology. (The next international conference is in 2 years’ time in Stellenbosch, South Africa!)

I had a nice birthday. Thank to all who marked it for/with me.

I continue to enjoy the small course I am doing at New College Lanarkshire (not the well respected theological college) in Leadership at Work. I suspect I am enjoying it as we do not have the assement for it yet. Bonus – it was a free night class.

My wife suggested I get up earlier and go for my walk before work. It is annoying getting up at 6am but it is good excercise and seeing the world move from darkness to light is a very good thing.

I have been listening to three theological books
The Palgrave Handbook of Radical Theology – PDF reader app.
I am challenged, puzzled and often mystified by these radical thinkers and their ideas.
Theology – A very short introduction – spotify
A Little Book for new theologians : Why and How to study theology – spotify
I often marvel at the simplicity of making ideas simple yet deep. I am encouraged to keep trying by these.

I have started a new practice of recording the signs i pass by in life everyday. Seeing the world around me, being amused by it, playing with it, Questioning it, making links with it and being shaped by it. You can follow along on my instagram. #SignsOfLife

I am trying to use both Roam Research and Obsidian for keeping notes, and starting to port all my Academic notes into these programs. It is quite a thing from a word file to these formats. but once done, it is easy enought to cut and paste between them so I can decide which one I like best and always keep the other as a back up.

recommendations
Music – Emma Ayzenberg – Iron Mountain EP.
Reading – Why We Love/Hate Brutalist Architecture on Jstor, and A clock in the forest on Noēma.
Watch – Zen Motoring on BBC iPlayer.

I live in these clouds.

more next month.

Laconic Hegemony 2023 – SideA (vol 26) and SideB (vol 27)

The new Laconic Hegemony mixtape is now out. Laconic Hegemony is a small mixtape with my favourite songs of the past year. I put this out annually, including 27 volumes under the Laconic Hegemony name #jings.

You can listen to all, some or none of it. It is your choice. All these songs have been songs that have accompanied me over 2023 and mean something to me in some way (and I should point out that 2023 was the year that I deserved). These songs may not mean anything to you; perhaps that will change. Think of it as two sides of musical goodness accompanying you as you are here, wherever here is for you.

If you are so inclined, let me know what you like from Laconic Hegemony 2023. If you like something, buy it from the artist as direct as possible. That way, the artists get more money for your listening. (I have).

Technically I buy the songs from the artist as directly as possible. I mix the songs on a DJ mixer. I mix in 20-minute sections normally to see what goes together in my head. I then use Garageband to combine the mixes, giving me a mixtape mp3. I uploaded it to Mixcloud, which provides free mixtape streaming; Mixcloud also pays royalties to the appropriate rights body for streaming.

Album of the Year 2023 – The long list

As you no doubt know by now, every year I select my album of the year. This is of no interest to most people but keeps me amused.

In the first month of the new year, I create a long list and attempt to whittle the list down to 3 top albums. This year is no different. I have enjoyed listening to them during 2023. You will also find something to enjoy if you venture this way. You will have heard of some people on this list, and perhaps, others you will never have heard of. 

This year there are 22 albums on the Long List. {country – artist name – album name}.

USA – Gia Margaret – Romanic Piano
JPN – For Tracy Hyde – Hotel Insomnia
USA – Meg Baird – Furling
USA – Brandee Younger – Brand New Life!
AUS – Terry – Call Me Terry
USA – Youth Lagoon – Heaven is a Junkyard
IRL – Anna Mieke – Theatre
USA – The Watson Twins – Holler
USA – Rhiannon Giddens – You’re the One
SWE – Little Dragons – Slugs of Love
FRA – En Attendant Ana – Principia
USA – Allegra Krieger – I Keep My Feet on the Fragile Plane
UK – Slowdive – Everything is Alive
ISL – Laufey – Bewitched
USA – Nick Shoulders – All Bad
USA – Sufjan Stevens – Javelin
MEX – Titanic – Vidrio
NLD – Lewsberg – Out and About
UK – Cult Figures – Between Us and Heaven
USA – Seablite – Lemon Lights
ITA – Psyché – Psyché
PRI – Epilogio – Cromo Rx

There is an option to listen to the longlist on the open spotify for you all.

Working again

This blog stopped working.
I fixed it.

If you tried to use this blog for a couple of days, it said, “There has been a critical error on this website.”
No clue was given as to what was wrong.

Step one – log into the FTP of the blog.
I had to remember how to FTP into my web host. I hadn’t done that for a while, so it took some work to make that happen. But eventually, it works again.

Step two – Disable the plugins
I disabled the plugins I had running. This instantly solved all the issues.
I have had back and forth as I tested the plugins to see what was causing the issue. However, I am pleased I had solved the problem on my first try.

The WordPress dashboard now had a big warning banner as I logged in again. The PHP version I was using was 5.4 and needed to be a recommended 7.2 it told me. This was critical.

Step three – updating the PHP via the webhost.
I logged into my web hosting cpanel to see if I could find a way to update PHP. WordPress was sure I should back up everything before I did this. However, it was effortless to update PHP to 8.1, almost temptingly simple and easy. I had already been psychologically prepared to lose everything, so I risked it. Perhaps a new start would not be that bad for this blogging thing.

I refreshed the page.

It all worked as expected.

I was slightly disappointed. Anyway, all updated now, so that’s good.

Laconic Hegemony 2022, side A (vol 24) & side B (vol 25), a #mixtape for you.

The new Laconic Hegemony mixtape is now out. Laconic Hegemony is a small mixtape with my favourite songs of the past year. I put this out annually, including 25 volumes under the Laconic Hegemony name #jings.

You can listen to all, some or none of it. It is your choice. All these songs have been songs which have accompanied me over 2022 and mean something to me in some way, (and I should point out, 2022 was a year of changes for me). I am aware they may not currently mean anything to you; perhaps that will change. Think of it as two sides of musical goodness to accompany you as you are here, where here is for you.

If you are so inclined, let me know what you like from Laconic Hegemony 2022. If you like something, buy it from the artist as direct as possible. That way they get more money for your listening. I have.)

Technically I buy the songs from the artist as directly as possible. I mix the songs on a DJ mixer. I mix in 20min sections normally, to see what goes together in my head. I then use Garageband to put the mixes together, which gives me a mixtape mp3. I upload it to Mixcloud which provides free streaming for the mixtapes, Mixcloud also pays royalties for streaming to the appropriate rights body.

side A
side B

Album of the Year 2022 – The long list

As you no doubt know by now, every year I select my album of the year. This is of no interest to most people but keeps me amused.

In the first month of the new year, I create a long list, and attempt to whittle the list down to 3 top albums. This year is no different. I have enjoyed listening to them during 2022. and I dare say you will also find something to enjoy if you venture this way. Some people on this list you will have heard of, perhaps, others you will never of heard of.

This year there are 37 albums on the Long List. {country of birth – artist name – album name}

UK – Naima Block – Giant Palm
USA – Jake Xerxes Fussell – Good and Green Again
USA – Beach House – Once Twice Melody
KOR – Say Sue Me – The Last Thing Left
USA – Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
NZL – Yumi Zouma – Present Tense
AUS – Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Endless Rooms
CAN – Tallies – Patina
USA – Toro y Moi – MAHAL
UK – The Smile – A Light for Attracting Attention
USA – Craig Finn – Legacy of Rentals
BRA – Tim Bernardes – Mil Coisas Invisiveis
ESP – Alfonso de Vilallonga – Nueva en benidorm (Banda sonora original)
UK – The Ezra Collective – Where I’m Meant To Be
USA – Mamalarky – Pocket Fantasy
NZL – The Beths – Expert in a Dying Field
USA – Eli Winter – Eli Winter
USA – Julie Odell – Autumn Eve
USA – Lou Turner – Microcosmos
USA – Sam Prep/John McEntire – Sons Of
CAN –  Badge Époque Ensemble – Cloud of Joy
USA – Danger Mouse – Cheat Codes
NOR – Jenny Hval – Classic Objects
USA – Widowspeak – The Jacket
TUR – Isik Kural – in February
IRE – Pillow Queens – Leave The Light On
USA – Father John Misty  – Chloe and the Next 20th Century
AUS – Romero – Turn It On!
UK – Wet Leg – Wet Leg
USA – Tomberlin – i don’t know who needs to hear this…
USA – Flasher – Love is Yours
USA – Tenci – A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing
ECU – Mala Fama – Jichushka
AUS – Carla dal Forna – Come Around
USA – Makaya McCraven – In These Times
USA – Marisa Anderson – Still, Here
UK – Walt Disco – Unlearning

If you wish, here is a link to a long list Spotify playlist.

Support the artists by buying their records as well as streaming them. I know I do.

Here also is a spotify playlist of all the albums I have listened to over 2022 (that are on spotify).

Support the artists by buying their records as well as streaming them. I know I do.

2021 was my year

Review.

Throughout 2021, I was living my best life and being legendary.
It was hard but I feel I achieved this well.

My resolution for 2022 is to be even more legendary than in 2021. Look out 2022!

Across 2021 I listened to some music. All the albums I heard are here on this Spotify playlist. you could listen to them as well or just consider this the long list of the album of the year thing I do every early January.

Laconic Hegemony volumes 22 and 23 (for 2021) will be available in a few days on Mixcloud. Please take this time to listen back to previous years’ efforts.