Helmingham, April 2016

This week’s Five Things…

1. I’ve updated my Now page.

2. Maxïmo Park discuss the making of their latest album Nature Always Wins on the (Sodajerker On Songwriting) podcast.

3. And another music podcast recommendation! Adam Buxton talks about his creative process and his jingles on the Tape Notes podcast.

4. Ted Gioia explains how to listen to old music and hear it the way it first sounded to those alive at the time.

5. A beautiful collection of digitally restored photos of Earth.

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, sign up to get the next one delivered straight to your inbox.

(This is an archive copy of my now page update on 12th May 2021)

Face-to-face drum lessons are back!

Teaching online has been invaluable over the last year but I’m so glad to be back teaching at Colchester High School and South Street Students. I’ve missed seeing my students and colleagues in person!

Teaching online

I’m continuing to teach online lessons to my roster of students that live out of reach of Ipswich and Colchester. Teaching online is very different to teaching in-person and it’s nice having that variety.

Updating drum transcriptions

Earlier this year I switched from using a very old copy of Sibelius for making drum transcriptions and worksheets to Dorico Pro. It’s 1000x better. I regret not making the switch sooner.

I’m now working my way through all of my old transcriptions and updating them with the new software.

All of the updated transcriptions are now hosted on Buy Me A Coffee. In the two months since I started hosting the transcriptions there I’ve had around 200 downloads. Not bad!

Keeping fit

I’ve started cycling to and from the studio. Great exercise and means I’m using my car far less. Good for me, good for the environment!

Miscellaneous

I’m currently reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and How to Make the World Add Up by Tim Harford. Really enjoying both so far.

We recently started rewatching Community (for about the 100th time). Such a funny show. We are continuing to work our way through all of The Wire. If you haven’t watched it, you should.

Since moving last year, we bought a load of house plants. Trying not to kill them has become a fun new hobby. If you are new to house plants I recommend getting a Devil’s Ivy. They grow so fast and seem indestructible!

Holywells Park, Ipswich - May 2021

This week’s Five Things…

1. 👏 “Paint Drying is a 2016 British feature film directed and produced by Charlie Lyne. The film is about paint on a wall drying, lasting for ten hours and seven minutes. The film was created by Charlie Lyne in order to force the British Board of Film Classification to watch all ten hours to give the film an age rating classification, as a protest against censorship and the prohibitive cost to independent film-makers”

2. In celebration of The Guardian’s 200th birthday they’ve released an annotated version of their very first issue. Very cool!

3. This is great. Andre Agassi explains the trick he used to predict where Boris Becker would serve.

4. A very interesting episode of Rafael Behr’s podcast, Politics on the Couch. “Rafael Behr talks to the cognitive scientist and radicalisation expert Nafees Hamid about what makes extremists tick and how to change their minds.”

5. This is a fun little website. Scroll and click… and see what happens!

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, sign up to get the next one delivered straight to your inbox.

Holywells Park, Ipswich - May 2021

This week’s Five Things…

1. “That thing that made you weird as a kid could make you great as an adult — if you don’t lose it.” From this excellent list of (unsolicited) advice from Kevin Kelly

2. The healing grid illusion. Clever!

3. An amazing collection of long exposure photos of fireflies.

4. A fascinating long read about Nintendo’s game director, Shigeru Miyamoto.

5. “$7 (£5) pays for one vaccination in a developing country. Each vaccine is worth $5800 (£4000) in economic and non-economic value to the world, and may well save a life.” More info in the tweet here. You can donate here.

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, sign up to get the next one delivered straight to your inbox.

Valletta, July 2019

This week’s Five Things…

1. A juggling, rhythmic masterclass. Michael Moschen performs The Triangle

2. John McWhorter explains the origins of a number of “rude” English words. You probably don’t want to listen to this around any kids!

3. Rob Reid explores the steps that can be taken to help prevent the next pandemic. It’s a long podcast at 3 hours 41 minutes but I found the whole thing fascinating.

4. I just finished Ian Leslie’s excellent book Conflicted on how to have better and more productive disagreements. If everyone read this book we’d live in a far happier world!

5. Will I ever get tired of re-watching Community? I’m not sure I will!

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, sign up to get the next one delivered straight to your inbox.