33. Describe Stuff, But Not Too Fancy-like
Yesterday I drank a glass of wine that tasted like walking through a botanic garden. When I smelled it I imagined huge creamy white flowers opening their succulent petals, brushing me with fragrance as I passed by. Except of course, it was just a glass of wine and I was being me, cackling and slurping and enjoying the synaesthesia of flavours turning into colours in my head. I'm like this with music too. I used to write web copy reviews for a dance music downloads site, a fair few of my sentences were copy-pasted into a Music Reviews Bullshit tumblr account. I was thrilled, and checked every week to see if I'd managed to make it into a new post.
Whenever the word "pretentious" is tossed around, it's usually meant to as a dismissal. Proof that what's been said has no value because it's all gussied up. Pretentiousness is bad, and you should feel bad.
Well, no. Language is one of the only luxuries we all share, and I entertain myself by making that luxury as decadent as possible.
If you like my pretentious bullshit, you're in luck. Next week a new piece of mine is being published and HOO BOY do I wax some serious lyricals over various mundanities. See you then.
Other Stuff:
Watch this incredible upscaled video of a train coming into La Ciotat station in 1896. The sleeves! The hats! The hurrying ladies worried about not getting a seat!
I really liked this Helena Fitzgerald piece on rethinking how central alcohol was to her life and talking about the difference between hobby and habit.
This beautiful triptych of meadow photos from James Rebanks (the Herdwick Shepherd) has been saved on a tab on my laptop since he posted it, where I can easily click and see it again and remind myself that the fog and gale force fuck winds won't be around forever.
Here's a lovely piece about Summer Wine brewery by Matthew Curtis. They will be missed.
500 hopefuls, one dream career. Jonathan Liew on top form as he details the world of Q-School, the average person's potential ticket into professional darts stardom.
Another great piece by Jonathan Liew -- he's great, why not -- about "Brand Saracens" and the unspoken truth of money equalling sporting success.
I'm learning about wine at the moment and one term I like, but find too vague, is "minerality". This piece taught me that people didn't even talk about minerality until the mid-80s! And that mineral flavours are still debated by some people, and might not be due to soil types! Wine is nothing if not totally awkward. Don't you love it?
Speaking of wine, do you want to learn more about Chinese wine regions? I do!
Mushroom experts debunking fungi depiction in art. This piece is amazing in its detail and passion for mushrooms in art and design, history and generally everything.
If you thought your last road trip to 3F for some rare bottles was edgy, get a load of the spies who were tasked by their superiors to bring Nablus tahini into Israel.
Katie Goh interviewed the makers of SPAM magazine via Google docs and it totally captured my imagination. The interview is great, but the method is inspired!
I don't really want to read anything about climate change at the moment but this map of Ice Age Britain and Ireland/NW Europe really grabbed me. Seeing rivers flowing over Doggerland was fascinating -- if anyone has a map like this but with contours, I'd love to see it.
My Stuff:
I've been off sick for a couple of weeks l so there's nothing out there currently. Nothing serious, I just had to prioritise my mental health for a little while. I'm back on it now though so expect a few things being cranked out over the next month or so. Starting with the piece next week, obv.
A reminder that Dick and Cath are ace people and I loved writing about them for Pellicle.
ICYMI: I wrote about beer and lower-league football and had fun doing it.
Mushroom Motif (Black and Ochre) 2017 - Alex Morrison