11: In The Dance

The thing I always loved about clubs was how easy it felt to slip away into my own world.In a recent documentary on the BBC about dance music culture (it's a series called Can You Feel It, and you need to see it all), clubs are shown as vital centres of art and expression. They are places where people come together. They are the vibrant soul of the underground, tethering kindred spirits to each other, binding a community with deep, unspoken words reverberating under an ever-evolving progression of beats. For me, they were something else too. In the midst of a crowded room, swathed in darkness, eyelids blessed with strobes, sight obscured by smoke, I could be alone. The music was mine, and here, I could worship it. In a noisy world, in the loudest places, I found a nucleus of calm and when I danced, or raised my arms, or closed my eyes, I wasn't thinking of who might see me. The music was moving me. I was in my place.[This rumination was brought to you by the BBC Radio 6 all day rave]Other stuff:

• The Amazon rainforest is burning and it feels like there's nothing we can do about it. Here are some tiny actions you can take which could make a little bit of difference: Sign this petition, change your search engine to Ecosia and support The Rainforest Trust. The Rainforest trust allocates 100% of all project donations to their causes.

• This from new mag Caña on Antwerp's vibrant graphic design scene made me want to go there.

• The history of Fabric, as told by the club's photographers.

• I love reading about far away places, and Palmerston atoll couldn't really get much further away. 

• Animator and artist Jorge R Gutierrez grew up believing that Skeletor was a dia de los muertos superhero in Mexico City and I can't stop thinking about how much better that show would have been than He Man.

• This article goes on a bit, but the idea that I'm not alone in rewatching crap TV when I could/should be doing something else is comforting.

• The beer world suffers from the same ailment as the music industry, in that people don't know how to say "I don't like/agree with that" instead of "that's shit." Boak and Bailey pray for sanity 

• I'm devouring everything I can about wine at the moment and this post by Wine Folly on wine flavours, human perception and cognition really hit the spot.

My stuff:

• I've been exceptionally busy this week but I'm not sure anything I've done has been published yet so here are a couple of past pieces to read in case you missed them first time round:

• Cask comeback? In the North it never went away.

• A Sense of Belonging - how pubs can tackle the loneliness epidemic

• I'm restarting my restaurant reviews next week after a short break.

• Tonight I'm in Manchester hosting a Beer52 tasting session. Should be good fun!

• This means I'm in Manchester Friday-daytime. Recommend me somewhere to take Tom for a bretted saison he won't be disappointed with.

Danny Seaton // Fabric