100: Just the usual
Well hello, welcome to Border Crossing issue one hundred (nope, nothing unusual, just a regular issue, perhaps issue #101 will have something extra special in it, hmm…) anyway, I hope you’re doing well.
I’m the opposite of the frog in the saucepan: I sit in a t-shirt in the evening and don’t notice, as it gets colder and colder, until suddenly I’m dead, frozen to my chair. Come on Spring, where tf are you?
Two quick music plugs:
The self-titled debut solo album by Cousin Ben came out this week. I already wrote about it over on Double Chorus. I produced this record, played bass, keys, arranged and scored the strings. I hope you like it. FFO: sad dad alt/rock meets Proust.
Also, I reviewed Lady Gaga’s new LP Mayhem for The Quietus. Then Jim Bob scared the shit out of me by casually mentioning how amused he was at all the mad abuse I was getting online for this review. It’s true that in the past I’ve caught some heat from certain artists’ fans, after reviewing big pop records. So I panicked and started searching everywhere online for this supposed tirade of abuse, until it turned out Jim had read comments under someone else’s Gaga review by mistake and nobody cares what I wrote. Weird blend of relief and disappointment.
Right, on we go. xx
gems
1
New documentary on BBC iPlayer about the great 1960s pop art pioneer Pauline Boty, who died tragically young and is only now gaining some long deserved recognition.
2
Watch this year’s Oscar-winning Best Short Film I’m Not A Robot for free on YouTube courtesy the New Yorker.
3
Watch this year’s Oscar-winning Best Documentary No Other Land via the Channel 4 player. This is such an important doc, a rarely seen perspective and the first Academy Award for a Palestinian film.
4a
Two for Brighton locals: I love the irregular alt/comedy/music night This Machine Kills Wasps, usually at Folklore Rooms. Always a lovely crowd and excellent curation. Usually it sells out early, making it hard for casuals to go, however this Friday (21st) they’ve still got tickets. Lorna Rose Treen + Queen Mab + Holly Spillar + The Highchurches is a super lineup.
4b
Secondly the gorgeous, innovative Brighton (Hove, actually) arts venue The Old Market is celebrating its building’s 200th birthday with an ambitious £100k crowdfunder.
5
Will MacLean and Joel Morris have a hot new mystery podcast, Broken Veil. (Apple Podcast link but obviously it’s available wherever.)
6
Joshua Kaplan’s thrilling long-read for ProPublica ‘The Militia And The Mole’ unpacks an extraordinary successful infiltration (by an independent, unsupported civilian) of US far-right militia leaderships.
7
Judith Butler writes for London Review of Books on Executive Order 14168.
8
The hugely popular author Sally Rooney writes for New York Books (of all places) about Ronnie O’Sullivan. ‘Angles of Approach’ is a wonderful, unlikely essay, aimed at an American readership that mostly doesn’t actually know what snooker is.
potato gems
Our sharp-eyed potato scenester Natalie Burns just got in touch to flag up two essential new eating places: Spudhut in London Bridge opens this week and, if you’re on the south coast near me, there’s an oddball place just opened in Worthing called Potatoast, which appears to be (for real) a bread and potato themed takeaway. I’ll be check out both of these. Thanks, Natalie.
Impressively dull interview with actor Eddie Marsan in The Guardian in which he falsely claims “my potatoes are legendary” simply because (ahem) he leaves a gap between par-boiling and roasting. Side-eye to his delusions of pomme grandeur.
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get in touch
email: chris@christt.com
Instagram: @cjthorpetracey
always there
Try my other newsletter Double Chorus which is what I think about when I think about music.
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Check out my Creativity Counselling service, which I run on a one-to-one basis.
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Thanks again. Look after yourself and your people.
All my love,
Chris
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