Oakland, Donna Regina, my new watch

and today, not much else

Hello again!

I recently bought a watch for the first time. I went to a man who has a small shop on a market street, a shop he’s had since 1979. His father and his father before him were watch makers and repairers in Kenya, and from a young age he knew he wanted to do the same. He told me he eats, sleeps and breathes watches. After training for a few years, gaining certifications which he now displays on the walls of his shop, he brought his family business to London, first to Shepherd’s Bush, and then to the shop I found myself in in the east of the city.

The experience I had buying my watch felt satisfyingly timeless (excuse the pun). Although small, the shop was busy with customers. Some, like me, were browsing the modest selection of watches the man had for sale. Others were coming in for repairs to straps, batteries and glass. He was clearly a master of his trade. He talked as he worked, magnifying glass wedged tightly into his right eye socket, telling us the secrets of marriage and business and religion.

I left the shop after about 45 minutes, with my new watch tightly on my wrist. He had removed some of the links to make it fit exactly right, deftly fitted a new battery and set the time for me. The watch cost me £39.99, not an insignificant amount, but I feel as if I have bought a fine Rolex. The man who sold me the watch told me Rolexes are not actually as good as Longines watches, which he says are the best watches you can buy, but to me the name doesn’t have the same brand association: I hadn’t even heard of Longines, which is why I wrote it down in my iPhone notes as Long Jeans.

Anyway: I love the watch I bought. It is silver with a round face and an elasticated strap with metal links. I look at the watch more times a day than I need to know the time. It has a button on the side which I can press to make the face light up. I obviously love pressing this button. I deliberately roll my sleeves up so they sit above the watch on my wrist, so I can glance at it while I eat or type. I haven’t been this satisfied with a purchase for a long time. The modern shopping experience is generally an unsatisfying one to me, unless I score a true bargain in a charity shop, and even that has lost its charm of late. I don’t know what I want to wear and therefore what to buy because I don’t really know exactly how I want to present myself to the world at the moment. But the watch has given me a new confidence and air of adulthood. When I am wearing the watch I am an authoritative woman who gets things done, and I am wearing the watch now, so I am going to write and send this newsletter.

Since the last time I did it, which was February (!), a lot of amazing music has come out, so I won’t try and go back through it all, and instead just pick it up from here. Most recently I’ve been listening to this beautiful song by Maurice Deebank, who cofounded Felt with one of the lesser known mononymous musicians Lawrence. It’s perfect for a not quite summer but not quite autumn September moment, as Felt are too. One of the things I most look forward to about this time of year is listening to music, and coming back to Felt, Cleaners from Venus, Flaming Tunes etc who don’t feel quite as appropriate in summer. More guitar music here from New Zealand label NOA Records, which listeners of the show will have heard me bang on about. I love this label, especially this release which is the soundtrack to a short series called Still Here, about the Pasifika community who live in inner-city Auckland, and whose legacy is at risk of being erased from the city they have contributed so much to due to gentrification. The music is really good, and the whole label worth digging through; I’ve been playing this one a lot too which is less hazy guitar and more lo fi beat tape.

On a similar note to the above, I spent a lot of time this summer listening to Donna Regina, a duo who were active around the turn of the century, and have a really melancholic downtempo indie sound which I have increasingly gravitated towards this year. I particularly like their song Why. Or, if you’re after something a little less woozy: I think Geordie Greep (formerly of black midi)’s new song Holy, Holy is brilliant. It’s definitely not for everybody - it’s over the top, indulgent, and sort of sounds like a Broadway show tune - I love it. black midi were always one of those bands I was happy existed but weren’t for me. I appreciated the playful and pretentious nature of their music: their recurring references, 20 minute live versions and overall art-school-music essence reminded me of Godley & Creme, but unlike G&C I ultimately found them impossible to listen to. But Holy, Holy is much more my speed, and I really enjoyed talking to Geordie when he came on the show recently. He’s got this quality that I think a lot of brilliant musicians and artists have, which is an enthusiasm for the modern world and its strange uncanniness (e.g. for Geordie, Instagram Reels) but appreciation for the culture and style of the past (e.g. for Geordie, Léo Ferré). What I mean is they successfully avoid both being dismissive and derivative, and are instead able to draw inspiration from history while being open to the value of the contemporary moment. I don’t like new music that tries to sound like old music, and I find that sometimes musicians with too much reverence for the good old days fall into this.

Other new music I like at the moment: this really good hip hop/grime-ish producer called Oakland - my go-to night time tube riding music / contemporary Irish group bog band, who people keep comparing to Prefab Sprout, which I understand / reliably transcendent Laraaji / very good song by tg.blk I’ve listened to on repeat / wine maker and musician Gyeongsu and June’s really brilliant EP / the Sabrina Carpenter album which I don’t think I need to link to / painter Issy Wood’s new strange pop music / great link up between Molina and everyone’s favourite ML Buch / the return of Good Sad Happy Bad (I have heard the album, out a bit later this year, lots of which I prefer to the single). That’s enough to be getting on with I think!

Since I went on about the watch for so long I should wrap this up and perhaps save books and telly and recipes and stuff for next time. I think keeping these a little shorter than previously might help me get back in the swing of doing this more regularly. I really just wanted to get something brief out today in order to to get me back in the habit of this. And of course to show off about my brilliant watch purchase. And hopefully I’ll buy a great pair of shoes in a couple of weeks time and that’ll really cement me getting back on the writing horse. I’ll put pictures and things in the next one too.

Till then!