Spaced, Goop, courgettes

and relatable hedak art by unknown child at Edmund Waller primary school

Hello!

A little more time has passed between now and my last newsletter than I’d have liked and I feel a bit out of the swing of it all. Actually - I am feeling a bit like that with my whole life at the moment. Not bad, not sad, just a bit lazy and out of my routine, and struggling to get myself back in it. Maybe this is a good thing for you though, as it’s meant I’ve watched lots of TV in the hours I should be going to the gym or working on projects, so that’s something.

As ever, growing is an activity that’s pulling me out of my mini slump: checking the progress on my seeds on the window entices me out of bed, the to do list at the allotment keeps me busy and outside, and botched attempts at tree propagation bring me joy and pain depending on the outcome. I’ve bought some fabulous red sunflowers that are starting to come up and my tomato plants are thriving despite abandoning them for a couple of weeks when I went away, so things are looking up.

Somebody wrote to me and said they have recently taken up gardening after listening to the show, and that it’s helping them mentally. It was really good to hear. It helps me a lot too, hence why I bang on about it. I’ll try and think of another home grow idea to put in here because I liked doing the potato in a tub guide. I’d quite like to get something on the go that smells amazing and grows inside - a sort of natural and cheap Muji diffuser - I’ll have a think and get back to you on it. In the meantime:

Something to read

Let’s get this one out the way because I have no books to recommend today. On a book hiatus until that part of my brain kicks up again. I know I’ll read a book soon - I have two looking at me right now, waiting to be read (Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty on recommendation from trusted friend, and Elizabeth Taylor’s The Wedding Group on rec from trusted podcast). I’ll get to them soon. In the meantime, I loved this pitch perfect Lauren Oyler piece on the Goop cruise: I read it again as soon as I had finished it / this thread about Cleopatra and Frankenstein by good tweeter and former Only Connect finalist Eli: if you can find their thread where they read Florence Given’s book, you’re in for a treat too / this inspiring gardening column about embracing weeds.

^ a 2 pointer question for me from Eli’s season. That first one is Joey Negro which I didn’t get, but as soon as the Blessed Madonna entered the arena I knew it could only be one thing. Rare crossover for Only Connect and sus DJ knowledge!!

Something to watch

For those who enjoyed the comforting nostalgia of Driving School, may I direct you towards one of Britain’s cult sitcom hits of the late 90s, Spaced. Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson are two young aspiring art / media types who link up to get a nice flat in Tufnell Park. It’s excellent Saturday afternoon TV: hilarious, surreal, a little off kilter, with a great cast including wonderful Mark Heap playing a Throbbing Gristle-esque reject artist downstairs - just a fantastic show. I’m taking a sort of comfort when watching it that the central premise of something made almost thirty years ago could be from today. I like being reminded that people and their needs and desires really haven’t changed all that much, despite what our existence online might imply.

Other things I watched recently and enjoyed: the perfect reality show Race Across the World / Jury Duty, though I thought it was 6/10 at best - people compared it to The Rehearsal but I think it’s much more sanitised and twee than that, and felt more like watching the US Office, which is unsurprising as it’s the same creators - but quite a nice watch / Frankie Thompson’s one woman show Catts, which was incredible, and made me cry laugh: including it here in case you get the chance to go see her / perfect TikTok cinema / Sick of Myself, which I liked and would give 7/10 / a wonderful play called For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy - it’s finished now in London at least, but will almost certainly come back, and if it does, I will go to see it again / this clip from iconic tv show Golden Balls, which is labelled as ‘weirdest ever’ but is actually a great example of beating Prisoners Dilemma, and now taught in Maths courses at Harvard, UCL etc / a take so beyond comprehension that it makes me feel safer about AI and it’s capabilities

Something to listen to

I recently got tagged by someone on Twitter recommending this newsletter to somebody looking for music recs. I was pleased, but I feel like so far, this has been a way for me to share more than just music (which I do 3 times a week at this link, to the person looking!!). I also like to use it to share what I’m enjoying outside of the show, so advance apology to the aforementioned twitter user, as inexplicably I’ve been listening to Shania Twain’s seminal album Come on Over a lot… probably the first album I really loved as a little kid. But other than that:

Amazing downtempo Sven Vath / this Spacemen 3 cover which is the best on the compilation, I think / Swiss new wave group Liliput / good summer tune / Very English Sounding Music by Disco Inferno / completely beautiful soul song I shazamed in Tokyo listening bar / Selassie on NTS (in the sun.. impeccable) / this episode of a popular geeky podcast I enjoy with Hannah Fry / MOTD Top 10: you can’t buy this kind of chemistry!!

Something to eat

I’m not feeling particularly culinarily adventurous or overcome with desire to cook at the moment. But I recently made a delicious courgette carbonara, much to the chagrin of the NTS chatroom.

I used Rachel Roddy’s instagram post as a recipe and actually added some broccoli to the pasta water to make the overall thing greener, as I’d only eaten white bread sandwiches that day, and wanted the vitamins - but her expanded recipe is here. I love all her recipes. Generally at this time of year there’s a glut of asparagus from the allotment and spring feelings in the air so my evening meals are all variations on green pasta: I also made pesto for the first time, something I’d previously thought was overrated but now I take that back. I used this Nigel Slater recipe. Very good!

Hers ^ vs mine …..

Tasted fab tho. Bonus picture of peas / garlic / beans thriving on the plot:

I think that’s enough for now. I’ll do a longer roundup next go - I need to crowdsource some more things from the listeners… my well is running dry….

<3 till next time xx