159/2024 – “Something as Simple as Rock ‘n’ Roll Would Save Us All”

Lyrics: “I Still Believe” – Frank Turner, 2011

This is just a quick rundown of the few podcasts I listened to this week; mostly in my car while driving to the office three instead of two times this week. Work’s been busy and I ended the week with almost three hours of overtime. Next week might go similar. But things are moving forward, that’s what I should focus on.

Anyway here is the top of my recently listened to podcast list:

Screenshot of my recent podcast list
Podcast list

Below that (which I wasn’t able to screencap on my phone in a landscape mode) is

There also was

  • another informative, well balanced “A Muslim & A Jew Go There” (from last week, I still need to catch up with this week’s)
  • A bit out of left field among the fangirling, self-care and current politics issues podcasts, is the DLF “Hörsaal” podcast (in German), which I try to listen to from time to time to broaden my horizon. The podcast basically is audio recording of a science lecture, usually not from a regular uni class or curriculum, but often from special lecture series or conferences. Either way, I always learn a lot. This episode was about the problems arising nowadays from the Allies Forces decisions to disarm Germany after WW II by dumping all stashes of Nazi war munitions into the North and Baltic Sea. Nerdy topic? Absolutely, but fascinating:

    “Meeresforschung: Welche Gefahren von alter Munition ausgehen” [German]

This week’s podcasts highlight today was a long Talkhouse Podcast chat of Billy Bragg with Frank Turner. (fangirling – see above). I sort of knew Billy Bragg of course. I mean who with an interest in rock music and/or progressive politics hasn’t heard or sung along to “A New England” at some point in the last four decades ?!?!? And I was well aware of Frank relationship with / connection to Billy, but it was still super interesting to learn more about it. Learn more about Billy as well, because while I know off him and what kind of troubadour he is, I didn’t really know a lot about him. I shall rectify that by listening to more of his music on the weekend. Highlight of this chat was the common thread of how making music and listening to music and going to gigs and finding your people in the process shapes you and your view of the world and how much it all can mean to people. Or not just can, but does mean to people. Case in point those two guys who have been standing “on raised platforms in rooms” for 40 / 20 years. And also myself, who has learned and changed so much since I started listening to Frank’s music and going to his (and other) gigs and meeting people and all that.

I downloaded another new podcast interview with Frank today. Yes, I know, I’ve heard all the stories and anecdotes by now, but in most chats there are still tidbits of information I haven’t heard before. In the “Listen Carefully” one Frank mentions literal references to a song, which I never knew about and to be fair, I still don’t see / haven’t found the line he has drawn there. But I jotted it down to look into it at some point and if I find the reference and source material and all I might include it in the “Lyrical History”. In due time…

154/2024 – No Idea Where This Is Heading

Besides tearing through “The Guncle Abroad”, the sequel novel to “The Guncle” – Spoiler Alert: I didn’t like it as much as the first one – I spent quite some time today to further go through all the posts I put in draft mode on here yesterday to find out which one to keep in an edited form. Almost 400 posts ended up or will end up in the bin. A part of me almost starts to regret my decision to close down most of this blog, because I’ve written a lot here over the past 4 years. A bigger part though feels good about limiting the amount of personal information I share online.

Just for the “fun” of it, I looked up when I first started writing a personal blog, as I still have those texts archived as HTML files on my computer): September 2004! Woah! That’s been a long time. I changed blogging services and titles a few times since then. The language only once (from German to English).

I honestly still don’t know what I will use this space for in the future. There will still be fangirling, in fact it’s those posts about gigs and songs and books that I’ve kept here so far. I guess in my writing about Frank’s music there will still be a lot of personal stuff from me, because the way I can relate to his music makes it personal.

I’m also in the process of consolidating a few vacation posts where I share photos to at least keep the photos without all the random minutiae of my vacation days.

Photography might be another new focus here. Not that I’m any good yet, but I’m trying. With my macro lens here for instance, though it’s safe to say that that’s not going to be a speciality for me, I think.

Close up of my Kaweco fountain pen
Close up of my fountain pen's nib

I also finally watched part 4 of the Frank Turner documentary “The Work: 50 States in 50 Days”. There might be another post about that, if I find the time to rewatch all 4 episodes before 24 June 2024. My purchase ticket to watch is valid till then. We’ll see.

153/2024 – Books I’ve Read in May 2024

I’m sure I mentioned earlier this month, that I stopped rating the books on a 1-5 stars or any other scale. Inspired by something Christian wrote here (in German). In May I’ve read 12 books! To be fair 11.75, because I just finished the last one today, but I’ll count that as a May book. Four of the 12 – 33% – also were super short stories, which only count as “book”, because they are released as standalone ebook, I think. Anyway.

Books lined up on a sofa: The first 4 of the Chronicles of St. Mary's, Ties that Tether, The Violin Conspiracy, The Guncle
Some of the books I’ve read this month

Even if I don’t rate book as such anymore, I’ll now share them in order of how much I enjoyed reading them. Favourite first, obviously.

The Guncle, Steven Rowley, 2021
I came across this one through a recommendation (on Instagram?) for the sequel and of course I thought I should start with this (first) one. I didn’t read the summary too carefully or I would have clocked that tragedy equals tears. Lots of tears on my part. OMG. Maybe it was a book I needed right now. It’s not just sad though, far from it, it’s also very funny and warm and life-affirming. Definitely one of my favourite reads this year so far.

The Chronicles of St. Mary’s, Jodi Taylor, 2013 – 2023
I’ve read the first 4 (of 14) so far plus the forementioned short stories between those books, which make up 8 of the 12. I won’t include all the reviews for all the books here. I very much enjoy exploring this universe and the trips up and down (mostly down) the timeline of our history. Reading them back to back can be a bit overwhelming though, because stories and plot tend to blend in to each other. Starting with different worlds / universes in book 4 didn’t help to make it less confusing, but it’s been a lot of fun so far.

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez, Claire Jiménez, 2023
This was a powerful story about siblings and families and also for me a valuable insight into the difficult life of a Puerto Rican family in the US, doing their best to get by. It’s mostly told from the point of view of Ruthy’s older and younger sisters and while the drive of the story of course was to find Ruthy or get her back, we also learned a lot about what it is like to grow up in the US, when you’re not part of the white middle-class. It also made me feel sad for all the thousands or more “Ruthy’s” who disappear every year in the US and elsewhere. I thought the whole reality show bit – including the showdown – was a bit over-the-top and often silly. I don’t know anything about the current state of reality shows., though. Maybe they actually are like that.

The Violin Conspiracy, Brendan Slocumb, 2022
I enjoyed this one for the most part as a story of a young black man who overcomes many obstacles to succeed in the classical music world. I’m well aware that it’s a privileged perspective to say that the blatant racism he faces (based on real life experience of the author) surprised and shocked me. And it broke my heart from time to time. I don’t know a lot about classical music, but I tried to listen to the pieces that are mentioned in this novel while reading it and I enjoyed that as well. The ending of the story left me a bit underwhelmed though, to find out who stole the violin and why. But all in all an entertaining and informative read for me.

The Great Divide, Cristina Henríquez, 2024
I had written a review, accidentally deleted it (long story) and couldn’t be bothered to type it all again. I enjoyed learning more about that period of time in that region of the world. On the one hand I liked the writing and the various points of views and the small insights into the people’s past and future. On the other hand there were so many people and points of view, that it was hard to get attached to anyone.