66: Sleep As Resistance

We're somewhere in-between Mabon and Samhain, but even if that means nothing to you (and for most of my life it didn't), you might have noticed that things are wrapping up; nature is bundling up its energy stores and squaring up against the weather, ready to see through another winter. I'm trying to do the same.Until very recently I saw winter as a dormant period. A time of year when things slept, or died, and life paused for a while until the first signs of spring, or now, Imbolc (early Feb -- my fave Pagan festival). But recently I can see more clearly than ever that winter is just as live as the rest of the wheel. Roots carry on tapping goodness from the earth under hard ground. Migrating birds scatter across watery skies, fighting the wind. Hibernation is a fight for survival against intolerable conditions. Sleep as resistance. I like that.Other Stuff

• In possibly the coolest thing that's ever happened to me news, Nitin Sawhney sent me his favourite live video of Eddie Van Halen playing Eruption.

• Eddie Van Halen's patent for a "musical instrument support". Please do yourself a favour and look at the diagrams.

• Grassroots activist group We Are Viable has been set up by artists to save the live entertainment industry. Click the link and show your support.

• A deep and interesting (and heartbreaking) look at CUP Foods, the shop outside of which George Floyd was killed, and the people who work there, and how the community in their neighbourhood is faring five months on.

• Jancis Robinson on why Riesling is the greatest white wine grape.

• Printers are lifechanging, according to Sarah Todd. But what I found most interesting about this article are her thoughts on our new home design requirements now we're indoors and desperate for comfort and utility.

• An amazing gif to celebrate Buster Keaton's 125th birthday created by Silentmoviegifs.

• 100 days of protest in Portland, a report by Shane Burley for Verso

• Staying with Verso, if everything is getting too much for you right now, take a look at their recommended radical utopia reading list and find writings about what the future could be.

• Remy Charlip turned up on my feed this week. This article on his life and work as a creator of "postmodernism for kids" shows why I'm so happy he did.

My Stuff

• The govt have shown yet again that the hospitality industry means fuck all to them so here's my piece for Ferment mag about how under-appreciated hospitality staff are, and how essential hospitality jobs are in this country as an invisible safety net.

• Speaking of working in hospitality, we're a little closer to being able to go inside our unit and start making our bar. Maybe we'll get keys soon, who knows???

• Thank you to everyone who kindly donated towards the artwork I want to commission for the bar! I really, truly appreciate it.

• If you would like to buy me a pint or chip in for the artwork (more info in last week's edition of The Gulp), thank you very much :) You can do that via ko-fi.com/shinybiscuit or paypal.me/hyggoth 

Remy Charlip -- This Is Not The End, From Arm in Arm (1969).