Sputtering back to life.

I haven't posted here in a long time, but I'm going to try to post more again. Partly because I  want to keep more of an account of what goes on, and partly because it's already here and I'm too lazy to start a Substack.

So anyway, most of what I plan to post here is in the nature of a journal. Intended in part to prompt me to read more, and keep a better record of my walks and the films I watch. Today, 1 January 2026 that was:

1) Today's was a shorter walk than planned because I set out late. It was never going to be a walk of great beauty on the planned route to Wilmslow and back. There are a few places that are attractive,  and usually I can sing loudly in the tunnels under Manchester Airport's runways. But as I said, I set out too late, so instead of turning left at Hale Barns like I normally would I went right. That brought me eventually to Altrincham, from where I went to Ashton on Mersey, from there to the Mersey itself, and on to Stretford, then home.

During the walk I spent some time listening to podcasts, principally Blood Work, which I'm working through from the beginning. The podcast still has a manageable catalogue. It's a show "about the Economy of Violence". At present I'm paused until I'm next walking partway through the second part of an in-depth description of the history of the car bomb.

2) I read Kek-w's recently arrived book of two short stories, Meet the Shrivelwoods. It's described as "for fans of Gothic Romance, The Addams Family, Dark Shadows and Vivian Standshall's Sir Henry at Rawlingson End" which seems fair. I'd throw in hints of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books, and perhaps a faint shadow of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. It is funny, and I particularly like how the second story, true to the often epistolary character of the books that form its gothic roots, is in the form of a letter.

Also fun was the reproduction of an illustrated cover of an edition of Varney the Vampire. I was already familiar with the image, but otherwise only know Varney tangentially through Spring-Heeled Jack. While Jack started as a Victorian urban legend (more rural and suburban at first), he quickly became a literary character too, like the existing literary characters of Varney the Vampire and Sweeney Todd. And like them, while initially villainous, became more heroic over time. But I digress.

3) I'm currently watching, or have paused watching while I write this, Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen's Crystal Gazing. It's more narrative than other of their films I've seen, and there are some online reviews that call it boring. I disagree. I enjoy how the camera is often somewhat detached from the scene and allows it to play out in real time and in quotidian detail, even if that's a lack of anything much happening. There is less of the philosophy and theory than in their other films, but it is there. It might be a challenging watch, I wouldn't know, it's right up my street. Personally, if you put a superhero movie or a TV soap in front of me I'll find that gruelling. Different strokes for different folks. And that's all it is, different, neither inherently better nor worse.

4) Once again I've engaged in fruitless social media nonsense. Someone posted on Threads to say they thought that stripping Shamima Begum of citizenship was harsh. This in connection with Begum's current appeal in Europe. Most of the comments were along the lines of "Good", or "Fuck around and find out", so I weighed in agreeing with the OP and saying that I thought most of the animus came from Begum's ethnicity, and that were she white they'd be more willing to consider her a victim of grooming. That predictably triggered the snowflake racists and punitive liberals who came in raging to attack me. But I've been fighting online dipshits for over a decade, so despite the real seriousness of the case I had fun in this small corner of the Internet.

However, let's not forget that at the centre of this is a traumatised young woman who was groomed and trafficked as a teenager, married and according to the laws of both her and her husband's countries of origin raped. Who lost the two friends she travelled with, who lost three children, and who for years has been stateless in a refugee camp.

This is the third post of mine that's ever blown up beyond my usual tiny audience, all of them in the last few months. Most recently prior to this was when I dared to suggest that Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer was not very good, had a diabolical script, and was only saved by practical effects, good cinematography, and great performances. This was also on Threads. The other one was a reply on X to a US Department of Education post that said something dumb I can't recall exactly to do with curricula. I replied that Maga types obviously see an uneducated populace as a pliant populace. Predictably the groypers, Christian nationalists, fascists, libertarians, and assorted other degenerate right wing dorks that occupy Elon Musk's very own digital swamp lost their shit. It was very funny.

5) Anyway, between arriving home and the earlier mentioned reading and film viewing I did my usual meditation. In my current practice I've mediated for 20 minutes every day for a couple of days over 12 weeks. I enjoy it, and my cat Iggy also gets a long period sleeping on my lap.

And that's my boring life. Time now for a bath, bed, and after the Bank Holiday back to work in the morning for one day. Working from home, and with a four-day weekend ahead of me once Friday's over.

Happy New Year!