My Creative Week: 16th - 23rd September
What I've been reading, watching, listening to and up to lately.
After an enforced hiatus due to my producing partner's ill health I was delighted to be back in the recording studio this week capturing the final few scenes of our forthcoming audio drama. This required a lot of screaming and sobbing from both of us but, that's what you want as an actor isn't it? Next we move on to editing and sound design (it's a long old process, but still easier than film!), however here's a sneaky peak inside the studio where I have just been listening to Andrew Mowatt's intro on repeat - what a voice!
In the meantime I have had a slightly quieter cultural week as work intruded on my reading, listening and watching time - the cheek! I'm still about 3/4 through Martin Amis's 'Money' but the sexism, misogyny and homophobia are becoming a bit relentless so, in search of respite, I fired up my Kindle for the first time this year I think. Inside I found a short novel that I remember loving on my first read so I gave it another go and it stands up. If, like me, you have a hate/love/hate relationship with technology, try 'I Hate The Internet' by Jarett Kobek for a satirical skewering of Silicon Valley and social media in all it's hypocrisy and hype. You can read some background here: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/16/i-hate-the-internet-jarett-kobek-san-francisco.
Elsewhere in my kindle are dozens of books that are 2 or 3% complete, mainly classics that are free or dirt cheap and which, in my more high-minded moments, I have every intention of reading...until I start. The problem with anything written pre-WWII is that they were written in a time before common access to television and photographs so every individual, object and location must be described in exhausting detail for an audience almost entirely lacking in visual references. The problem is, I know what shit looks like! There is of course pleasure to be found in the richness of the language itself , but I think that's why I increasingly enjoy listening to classics read by actors who's trained mouths can get around the words so eloquently.
Elsewhere, in the small cracks of media that exist between between Russel Brand coverage, I found an absolutely blistering column by professional shit-stirrer Julie Burchill in the Spectator taking aim at Jamie Oliver and his nepo babies. Like most people, I've always though Jamie was "pukka" and I've got a bookshelf of untried recipes to prove it, but it's been a long time since he was the cheeky chappy making pub grub in his flat. He is now the head of a massive media empire that operates in much the same way as any empire - rapacious! https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-perverse-greed-of-jamie-oliver-2
Speaking of empire, Britain might FINALLY be waking up the fact that it doesn't have one anymore, which is a good thing according to this piece in the FT: https://www.ft.com/content/b294d9e6-6bd5-44b3-a77f-e58d8779b2d2
Musically, my child has finally killed any love I had for Taylor Swift with repetition so I went in search of other sources of confessional female songwriting for her to enjoy and found some fantastic practitioners my doorstep in Singapore. Shye writes, performs, records, mixes and masters all her own music, which is a helluvanaccomplishment but also means that when you listen to her you get 100% pure Shye!
Sobs I have written about in previous and elsewhere but they're still a regular on mine, and now my daughter's, Spotify playlists:
And finally Vivian Yap singing about her period might be a bit advanced for my 8 year old but it's catchy!
I've not watched anything of note this week but I am hopefully writing something of note for you to watch in the future, so I better get back to it. Have a great week ahead, N