I really like this still from the end of the show, of me gesturing wildly at the real star of the show. This was four shows from the end of the Fringe, so there was increasing relief at the end of each one!

I now need to make myself sit down and watch the whole thing, notebook and pen in hand. I watched it editing it, but that's a different kind of watching. Also, have a few months distance now which should help see things with fresher eyes. I'm not a fan of watching myself, but it's necessary!

Rest in peace, mighty Steve Cropper. If you want to hear more about the fantastic guitarist, songwriter and producer he was, he features in two episodes of the podcast. Below you can listen to Episode 105: “Green Onions” by Booker T and the MGs.

Very much underlines the point I was making yesterday about standing up to this shit regardless of the cost. When you capitulate, it doesn't make them happy, it doesn't even make them stop: they just ask why you didn't do it sooner, why you aren't being more full-throated in your cowardice.

Started listening to the news. It led with Wes Streeting and his inquiry into possible over diagnosis, and I just don’t need to be swearing at the radio that much during my lunch break, so I’ve turned it off.

Have finally cleaned up the audio from film of my show at the Edinburgh Fringe. Recording through the sound desk went wonky, but thankfully the videographer had a good quality room mic. It just needed a bit of attention to make it clearer and fuller, and I messed it up at first attempt. Better now!

This is gorgeous

All of the companies that make the software I use are increasing their prices, to account for an "investment" in AI. I'm sat here imagining how my clients would feel if I added 30% to each invoice, because I "really got into gambling".

Steve Cropper was an amazing guitarist. He knew when to play, when to groove. Much more of a lasting influence on me (and I'm sure many, many folk) than early obsessions with Hendrix, Clapton and the like. I've done a mix highlighting his guitar on Johnnie Taylor's Who's Making Love (right channel)

The joke is, when it was ppl peer3peer downloading the crisis wasn't so bad. Ppl still paid for downloads or bought hard media. Piracy combined with ppl buying media is prob a better model for artists than 100% streaming for less than pennies

I’ve been meaning to rewatch The Blues Brothers, now have even more reason to do so, as there’s lots of Steve Cropper in it. The 4K disc version of it arrived in yesterday’s post, by coincidence.

I’ve always loved this song. RIP Steve Cropper. youtu.be/7C-VscEQugk?...

I remember MOJO magazine doing a "top hundred guitarists of all time" list in the nineties and ranking Cropper as second after Hendrix, and I don't think there was a single reader who didn't think that was fair, even though he was the opposite of a shredder and mostly played rhythm.

Oh no, that's really terrible news. If you like soul music at all, you've loved something that Steve Cropper was intimately involved in at Stax

If several of you share an umbrella thats brollyamoury

We’re already so far over the line.

Shocking behaviour at the local gym

Narration: "...a song accusing Chris Blackwell of being a vampire and killing Bob Marley, and his secretary of being a witch." *Me* Let's see how Scratch worked that in. 🎶 Chris Blackwell is a vampire 🎶

No real surprises here. Slightly concerned that my 7th most used word is 'myself' (though I think mostly in sentences starting with 'talking/singing to', 'shouting/despairing at' etc.) . My most used emoji is fittingly the facepalm. Generated by @anisota.net

Legitimate reasons

Cis folks: Speak the fuck up and open your wallets. Our trans friends can’t fight this alone. It’s our job to be both noisy and generous right now.

Pick another group to scapegoat, round them up at gun point, and repeat. This is where the rhetoric about immigration leads and its terrifying.

Been having the kind of dreams that feature much of my adult life and a bunch of alternate pasts and presents and some possible futures, and it was quite the ride and now I’m exhausted!

Yet another week passes without the egg-house being called Richard Osman’s House of Eggs by anyone on the program. What is wrong with these people?

I often do my clearest thinking about life at this time of day, and revelations/realisations are obviously really helpful, but also it takes time thinking them through and writing them down while I remember them and I just want to make a hot drink and watch some trash TV and turn my brain off.

Being touched can, in very specific circumstances and with sufficient levels of mitigating factors, be a bearable activity between consenting adults, a groundbreaking new study has revealed.

The cupboard is throwing chocolate at me! There are worse things to have thrown at you, admittedly, but still.

You want harmoniously groaning zombies? You don’t? Either way, here they are! I think this was the third song I wrote when trying to test the idea of a zombie musical. The version in the show now is shorter, but here’s the full version. Also available on streaming & Bandcamp youtu.be/iA45WdAie-U?...

The moral of this story is if you want to do something, do it yourself because waiting around for permission is a waste of time.

PSI: I strongly recommend trying not to breathe in any of the dust from hot Bombay Mix. [cough cough splutter]

I often give myself a hard time for having been burnt out, but then I remember another thing that’s happened or that I’ve done in the last year or so and realise it’s understandable to be a bit worn out. It’s been a full old time.

Megan Aldrich, 30, works full time in an attempt to avoid starving to death, but is forced to choose between showing up to work and being the sort of person who doesn’t cry in the shower.

Personally, I think there is a pretty major difference between billionaires able to weaponise their hoards of gold to achieve personal aims, and lots of people getting together to take on the issues they care about. I love working somewhere which tries to put justice back in the hands of the many.

Reluctantly-outdoors face.

Cross-stitch is a nice hobby to fill up some of the time one no longer uses to combat roaming trolls & intrusive sealions.

Realising I need to share these things more often if I want people to know they exist, and maybe even like, listen to them... The full album can be streamed wherever you stream, downloaded at Bandcamp, bought in physical form from my website, or a small selection on YouTube youtu.be/GKUu2f2r--Q?...

Oh heck, it’s December already! Time is indeed a slippery bastard (I have a song called that. Last time I had an actual gig, the gig finished with the pub continuing to sing the harmonies back at me while I packed up. Totally overwhelming and totally lovely).

The ongoing farce that is Your Party

As I’ve been sorting out songs for next album, I’ve been listening to them and making notes on what needs sorting. The note for one of them was “burn it to the ground and start again!”. Have now done so and it’s finally near where I want it. Satisfying.

Alma Montague, 34, who routinely keeps her arms folded tightly over her chest like someone might try to steal her boobs, is an expert in making new feline friends without exchanging a single word.

Sees local newspaper post about rising sea levels. Don’tLookAtTheComments Don’tLookAtTheComments Don’tLookAtTheComments. Looks at the comments. AAAARGH!

Christmas at the BBC

The noise sensitivity is strong with this one, today. Walk home from town this morning was full of barky dogs, shouty sport parents and other loud things.

I don’t want to engage with Christmas but am reluctantly realising I’m going to have to soon.

when people are transphobic your party says nothing when someone points out that transphobia your party says "hey cmon now, leave it out"

We must by now have manufactured more travel mugs, keep cups, pastel water bottles, and nebulous vessels in the Stanley-Chilly's Industrial Complex than the human race can feasibly use, so I worry about a Douglas Adam's style Shoe Event Horizon, but somehow even more embarrassing.

Stranger Things: wow. That is all I will be saying, no spoilers for anyone here, please. But if I were able to just spend Christmas and Boxing Day on my own watching the next 3 episodes I’d be perfectly happy.

I could fill this up with Doctor Who quotes that have more meaning to me than anything Starmer could come up with: “Nobody important? Blimey, that's amazing. You know that in nine hundred years of time and space and I've never met anybody who wasn't important before.”

100 times THIS!

Hi! I'm someone who has the audacity to be brown and autistic on the Internet, and I wrote this piece because I'm also too audacious to care about whether I make certain people uncomfortable. It's not about you! But if you THINK it's about you, then it most definitely is. Hope this helps!