Congratulations on the 50th. The Kate Middleton business is quite the pantomime, though. Why didn't they just have a press conference and put the whole business to rest. They've learned a thing or six from the old Mirage Men, that's why. There's nowt more intriguing than absence. What are we being distracted from, really (etc.). Your 50th anniversary message warmed my heart - I've been continually immersed in the cesspit that is the internet and the odious TV stations, and your words shone like a diamond gleaming in a raft of sewage. A message in a bottle from a rational, advanced culture- thank you. I will now return to my high tech cloister, but with renewed faith that humanity endures. We ought to go back to 'thou shalt not kill' etc., Time and Life being vanishingly rare properties in this universe of emptiness, facts can always be twisted or ignored, besides rationality shouldnt be used as a bludgeon - truth is self-evident, no? Are 'truthers' the problem? More like they are wise to being duped but not how, due to exposure to intelligence-reducing drugs like what passes for news and relentless advertising. We are liable to go through some funny stuff while we try to acclimatise and find equilibrium. Love the observation re art becoming entertainment etc - tho' to entertain is a noble goal in my eyes. Here's to more folk abandoning the internet in favour of IRL grooves such aas your excellent film club. I fancy to write a satire wherein the internet is an insidious cult, progressively the users wear blindfolds, supposed to induce VR or 'inner-generated' vision, but in fact promote mostly blindness (apologies to sensory deprivation fans). 'Triffids' in reverse, the users are horrified by the experience of removing their blinkers. Endless mind-chatter, cheap telepathy via skype, rants about the nature of now abandoned reality, with grotesque imaginings filling the darkness, de chirico paranoia, byzantine conspiracies ... OK, a bit heavy handed, but this is merely a sketch at present. Like in a dream - if all this is a sensory-deprivation generated illusion, with the purpose to drag one out of one's hallucination, maybe it is all cyclical, as with wakefulness and sleep. Maybe one must have the other to sustain itself. Night is a chrysalis, night is another self. Food for thought!? Everything modern is false! Love and peace, if only to spite 'em!
We also have a Westgate Chapel in our village - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westgate_Methodist_Chapel - which my good friend & neighbour Charlie Allen is doing much to promote & restore. Perhaps we should set up a twinned film club, take the pressure off the southern one a little 🙃 I'm not sure how many fans of psychedelic film we have in the dale, but I guess there's only one way to find out!
Thank you for promoting True Clown Stories. I also think it sounds messed up... and I'm publishing the bloody thing. Still, not had any death threats from clowns so far, which I regard as something worth celebrating.
After two days in the Big Smoke at a tech conference dominated by all things AI, it was refreshing to return home to not only an “old fashioned email newsletter”, but also on the same day the delivery of ‘Strange Things Are Happening’ by Richard Norris - a superb slice of synchronicity.
I’m looking forward to tucking into this delicious hardback.
I must get me self one of those T shirts they look cosmic!
Well here’s to the next 50 editions of Octannual.
I leave you with Rings & Things 🎵Strange Things are Happening🎵
thanks for this. You wrote "I doubt anyone can say for certain what percentage of the web and social media is bots talking to other bots, but it does seem to be increasing, especially now that AI is doing much of the work. Perhaps the current wave of Kate Middleton Truthers slowly grasping how little they can believe of what they see and read may, in time, be part of the growing realisation that much of the current internet is just a waste of everyone’s time"
….the idea of narrative collapse leaving us all in a situation where everything we might know about much of the world we are in….is fed to us and could just as easily be true or false or meaningless…..For example two people with opinions on the Middle East may both have access to totally different facts upon which they base their opinions…but neither of them know whether or not the information they base their opinions on is true or false….or meaningless...anyway....it's worth a look and listen
Hi John, the Blake exhibition at the Fitzwilliam is fantastic, I work at the Dept of Chemistry across the road, so I’ve been popping over when I can, let me know if you fancy hooking up for lunch when you’re around, it’d be good to see you 😀
Congratulations on the 50th. The Kate Middleton business is quite the pantomime, though. Why didn't they just have a press conference and put the whole business to rest. They've learned a thing or six from the old Mirage Men, that's why. There's nowt more intriguing than absence. What are we being distracted from, really (etc.). Your 50th anniversary message warmed my heart - I've been continually immersed in the cesspit that is the internet and the odious TV stations, and your words shone like a diamond gleaming in a raft of sewage. A message in a bottle from a rational, advanced culture- thank you. I will now return to my high tech cloister, but with renewed faith that humanity endures. We ought to go back to 'thou shalt not kill' etc., Time and Life being vanishingly rare properties in this universe of emptiness, facts can always be twisted or ignored, besides rationality shouldnt be used as a bludgeon - truth is self-evident, no? Are 'truthers' the problem? More like they are wise to being duped but not how, due to exposure to intelligence-reducing drugs like what passes for news and relentless advertising. We are liable to go through some funny stuff while we try to acclimatise and find equilibrium. Love the observation re art becoming entertainment etc - tho' to entertain is a noble goal in my eyes. Here's to more folk abandoning the internet in favour of IRL grooves such aas your excellent film club. I fancy to write a satire wherein the internet is an insidious cult, progressively the users wear blindfolds, supposed to induce VR or 'inner-generated' vision, but in fact promote mostly blindness (apologies to sensory deprivation fans). 'Triffids' in reverse, the users are horrified by the experience of removing their blinkers. Endless mind-chatter, cheap telepathy via skype, rants about the nature of now abandoned reality, with grotesque imaginings filling the darkness, de chirico paranoia, byzantine conspiracies ... OK, a bit heavy handed, but this is merely a sketch at present. Like in a dream - if all this is a sensory-deprivation generated illusion, with the purpose to drag one out of one's hallucination, maybe it is all cyclical, as with wakefulness and sleep. Maybe one must have the other to sustain itself. Night is a chrysalis, night is another self. Food for thought!? Everything modern is false! Love and peace, if only to spite 'em!
Happy 50th Manual, John! What an achievement.
We also have a Westgate Chapel in our village - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westgate_Methodist_Chapel - which my good friend & neighbour Charlie Allen is doing much to promote & restore. Perhaps we should set up a twinned film club, take the pressure off the southern one a little 🙃 I'm not sure how many fans of psychedelic film we have in the dale, but I guess there's only one way to find out!
Thank you for promoting True Clown Stories. I also think it sounds messed up... and I'm publishing the bloody thing. Still, not had any death threats from clowns so far, which I regard as something worth celebrating.
Happy 50th!
After two days in the Big Smoke at a tech conference dominated by all things AI, it was refreshing to return home to not only an “old fashioned email newsletter”, but also on the same day the delivery of ‘Strange Things Are Happening’ by Richard Norris - a superb slice of synchronicity.
I’m looking forward to tucking into this delicious hardback.
I must get me self one of those T shirts they look cosmic!
Well here’s to the next 50 editions of Octannual.
I leave you with Rings & Things 🎵Strange Things are Happening🎵
https://youtu.be/GYgxVtvAfgQ?feature=shared
Congratulations on your nice round number!
The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book looks awesome
Hi John,
thanks for this. You wrote "I doubt anyone can say for certain what percentage of the web and social media is bots talking to other bots, but it does seem to be increasing, especially now that AI is doing much of the work. Perhaps the current wave of Kate Middleton Truthers slowly grasping how little they can believe of what they see and read may, in time, be part of the growing realisation that much of the current internet is just a waste of everyone’s time"
In case you missed it, have a look at this:
https://shows.acast.com/teamhuman/episodes/brendon-lemon
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/team-human/id1140331811?i=1000644475012
….the idea of narrative collapse leaving us all in a situation where everything we might know about much of the world we are in….is fed to us and could just as easily be true or false or meaningless…..For example two people with opinions on the Middle East may both have access to totally different facts upon which they base their opinions…but neither of them know whether or not the information they base their opinions on is true or false….or meaningless...anyway....it's worth a look and listen
Hi John, the Blake exhibition at the Fitzwilliam is fantastic, I work at the Dept of Chemistry across the road, so I’ve been popping over when I can, let me know if you fancy hooking up for lunch when you’re around, it’d be good to see you 😀
Congratulations!
Blake AND Friedrich!!!!! Sumptuous spiritual feast!