There was rain, which was good. The tomatoes and chilis in The Cut’s vegetable patch were grateful. A drink of water that hadn’t been used for the washing-up was very pleasant. Similarly, most of the staff have been happy for a couple of nights sleep undisturbed by the sweats and gnats. They’re small things but frankly, we take our positives where we can get them.
Onto business! This week—a night at The Lighterman, considerations on lunch and travel and the return of Garth Merenghi!
Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.
It seems strange to consider the 90s as olden times, but the awful truth is we are thirty years past the release of The Silence Of The Lambs and the birth of the saintly Selena Gomez. Awful to say, but the Cut Crew are only as young as they feel and that twinge in the lower back isn’t getting any better.
Enough whinging. We are here to celebrate the past, not complain about it. Back when MTV used to actually show music videos, the highlight of any indie-centric music fan was 120 Minutes. This was a show which cemented the reputations of bands as disparate as Alice In Chains and Yo La Tengo. There was a lot of music to listen to. Luckily for us, a playlist has just popped up featuring pretty much every video ever screened on the show. Over 2000 of them. We guarantee you’ll find at least one track which is to your taste. Yes, we are aware that we’ve flipped the normal order of things and put the music up front, but this seemed too good an opportunity to stick at the end. Click on the playlist button top right of the embed (which only gives you the first 200 songs, click on a choice cut and head over to YouTube for the rest) and get digging!
There is a movie waiting to happen about the life and wild times of Andres Beckett. Part Western, part romance, part take on human endurance against the odds, this is a long read we think you should settle in for. Mount up!
The Lighterman is a rarity these days—a true community space in an area which has no glamour or money attached to it. The closest we can come to a good example is a fictional place: The Queen Vic in Eastenders. It’s a crying shame these kind of pubs are so hard to find, or that so few of them survive. We suspect The Lighterman sits in a tiny bubble of geography and economic disinterest, making enough, just about, to stay open against the odds.
We present a fine example of speculative cinephilia from So Mayer, which presents a charming thought exercise. If we assume there are other universes, why should we not also assume the existence of films which are not immediately available to us? There are plenty of movies, especially from the silent era, which only now exist as reviews or stills. The piece linked below is simply taking this concept to a logical conclusion…
Being alive is famously difficult. Where should you go? What should you do? Why are you here? When is lunch?
Travel broadens the mind. It also broadens the palate, which is equally important. Adam Mastroinni considers both, and offers a few notes for the ongoing massive Google Doc of our lived experience here on Earth.
We talked last week about how Hollywood writer’s rooms are struggling to come up with stories whose twists and endings won’t be second-guessed by obsessive fans. This isn’t the only challenge authors and scriptwriters face. Given that there are only so many stories to be told (some say seven core narratives, while the Heroe’s Journey is, as theorised by Joseph Campbell, the blueprint for all fictional texts) it’s inevitable that there will be overlaps. Or, as many lawsuits pointed at studios and networks every year assert, theft…
Jacob Collier is an extraordinarily talented multi-instrumentalist. He can play just about everything. Including, in this clip, the audience at his gigs.
He’s got the audience on the palm of his hand
This instantly reminded us of a moment featuring Bobby McFerrin at a science conference, which showed our innate understanding of basic musical theory. It may look like dots on a page, but we know the intervals of the pentatonic scale without even really thinking about it.
Some musings on the life and writing of John Donne, Elizabethan thinker, writer and theologian. Sounds a bit dry? Think again, Readership. Donne took every day by the collar and shook it hard. He was a fascinating character whose impulses and beliefs often seemed at odds but were wholly in keeping with his pursuit of the infinite.
One equal light, one equal music.
And finally, some extremely good news. Author and dream-weaver Garth Merenghi has returned from his dark sojourns to bring us a new set of stories crafted as only he knows how. Released just after Halloween following disagreements with his editor, this one promises to be the read for Spooky Season. Fresh meat for the demon lords!
It would feel strange not to finish with a song, so we’ve had a quick spin round the 120 Minutes playlist we started with to find something fitting. Couldn’t resist a replay of this one. Buzz buzz buzz.
See you next Saturday, eardrummers.
EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS 