Dec. 27, 2017
Bjork Utopia “Utopia” is Björk’s ninth album. It’s a happier album compared to the emotional wreckage of “Vulnicura”. But while “Vulnicura” was a compelling if uncomfortable listen, “Utopia” is more comfortable and, unfortunately, not that compelling. This is old ground retrodden with few glimmers of past glories.
The brevity, succinctness and sharpness are all gone. Even on the best songs (the first three), there is very little strength in the lyrics.
Tags: Album Digest, December, Music, Bjork, Phoebe Bridgers, Watter, Neil Finn, Seventeen
Dec. 26, 2017
Here’s a recipe to use up your turkey leftovers after Christmas.
You will need a slow cooker or an oven-proof cooking dish.
Ingredients About four portions of cold turkey, torn into bite-sized pieces 1 sweet potato, chopped into small slivers 1 carrot, chopped into small slivers 1 onion, diced 2 cloves of garlic, diced 2 tsp mixed herbs 2 tsp smoked paprika 20g butter 50g diced chorizo 1 chicken stock cube mixed in about 700ml water (see method) Method Melt the butter and fry the onions on a medium heat until golden.
Tags: Recipe, Tomato Free, Seventeen, Food, Gluten Free
Dec. 17, 2017
We left Gulfoss and drove through the countryside to Fluðir where our next hotel stay would be. The hotel had cute little cabins arranged around a central square and the room itself was comfy and warm. Our dinner was nice enough, although we had a bit of a Fawlty Towers moment with Ingrid’s chicken salad. First it went back because they didn’t leave the BBQ sauce off. Then it came back with tomatoes.
Tags: Trips, Europe, Iceland, Photos, Seventeen
Dec. 7, 2017
00110100 01010100 “0181” This is a reissue of a Four Tet rarity from 2013 that has recently surfaced on Spotify under an alias1. “0181” collects a series of short experimental pieces from throughout his career, though I’m not enough of a nerd to know whether they are in any particular order. Last month’s ‘proper’ Four Tet album “New Energy” has a lot more bounce to it, but “0181” nevertheless has some interesting moments that raises it above mere curiosity.
Tags: Album Digest, November, Music, 0110100 01010100, Four Tet, James Holden, Daniele Luppi, Parquet Courts, Karen O, Fever Ray, Seventeen
Nov. 15, 2017
In a perfect confluence of last month’s album digest, here’s an excellent Four Tet remix of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s “I Will Make Room For You” from her album “The Kid”. I’ve put it into a playlist with “Lush” from Four Tet’s “New Energy” album and the original version of “I Will Make Room For You.”
Enjoy!
Tags: Music, Four Tet, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Seventeen, Electronic
Nov. 11, 2017
After I read “Hello America” and “Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun” to Ingrid, it was her turn to read something to me. We settled on Matt Haig’s memoir of anxiety and depression “Reasons to Stay Alive”, which is as uplifting and life-affirming as its title suggests.
The book begins with its author standing atop some cliffs in Ibiza, crushed by depression and anxiety and determined to die.
Tags: Books, Matt Haig, Non Fiction, Seventeen
Nov. 5, 2017
We cook this version of bolognaise with beetroot due to Ingrid’s tomato allergy. This recipe is an attempt to capture what we do on the fly. The key to it is using the wine, the Worcestershire sauce and the herbs to even out the sweetness of the beetroot. If you can manage that, it’s super tasty. The sauce usually ends up being an unusual but pleasing pink/purple colour, as you will see from the pictures.
Tags: Recipe, Tomato Free, Food, Seventeen
Nov. 4, 2017
I had to compute an indicator this week. It had confidence intervals that relied on taking 100,000 samples from the indicator’s approximate distribution. I had to repeat this over multiple GP practices and for twelve different demographic groups.
I decided to use dplyr1 because I thought it would help me organise all subgroups involved. I used mutate_at() heavily and thought that dplyr was keeping everything organised. However, when I moved from the 10 samples I’d used for testing to the 100,000 samples required by the specification of the indicator, my code moved to a crawl.
Tags: Programming, R, Seventeen
Nov. 3, 2017
In recent weeks I have worn a suit to work. I bought a new furry woolly suit a few weeks ago and have alternated between it and my old one. I also bought new shoes that gave me blisters and made me cry. Enough time has passed that by now it feels natural rather than silly and those shoes don’t eat my feet as much as they used to.
I think I feel calmer before I go to work as a result of wearing the suit.
Tags: News, Fun, Seventeen
Oct. 31, 2017
Three years ago today I moved in to my little flat in Chichester, soon to start a new job. I had no money left but at least, after a character building stint of six months sleeping on the floor, I had a bed. In the intervening three years, my job role has expanded, I’ve done another degree, the flat has become a home, and I’ve met and married Ingrid. Add to that the fact that it’s almost four years since I left for South America and I start to realise that I’ve done a crazy amount of things in that time.
Tags: Time Passing, Writing, Seventeen, Life Experiences
Oct. 31, 2017
Mary Epworth “Elytral” This album came to my attention because its lead single “Me Swimming” appeared on my Discover Weekly playlist. I’d never heard of Mary before but this album was one of those nice discoveries that one sometimes makes when one tries to broaden what one listens to. The aforementioned “Me Swimming” is probably the best track, a beautiful slice of summery experimental pop layered over a beat that you can imagine as the kicks of a swimmer compared to the swirling lyric that imitates the pull of the strokes through the water.
Tags: Album Digest, October, Music, Mary Epworth, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Four Tet, Rival Consoles, Seventeen
Oct. 30, 2017
“Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun” is a novella by Sarah Ladipo Manyika. Of all the books nominated for the 2016 Goldsmiths Prize, this looked like the most interesting to my eyes. I’ve enjoyed previous Goldsmiths nominated novels including Acts of the Assassins and Satin Island.
The title comes from a poem by Mary Ruefle called “Donkey On”. You can read it here.
“Like a Mule…” is set in contemporary San Francisco and takes the form of multiple first person narratives, centred around Dr.
Tags: Books, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Novella, Goldsmiths, Seventeen