Bindweed is a nightmare, but the flowers are really nice…
Status:
Rest day, but once the usual morning stress-dream trauma passed I was determined not to stay idle so have lightly pottered around the kitchen and garden. No crash after yesterday’s exertions but there’s still time on the old PEM countdown.
Reading:
- Life, Love, Liberty: The spirit of Marjane Satrapi — The comprehensive obituary from The Comics Journal that I’ve been waiting for. Highly recommended reading for all artists.
- Phil Gyford w/e 2026-06-14 — If I did these things weekly instead of daily they might look a bit like this.
- The bands who got left behind when punk exploded — Alexis Petridis looks at the NME in the year the Sex Pistols “changed British rock forever” and finds it doesn’t quite match the mythology.
- Sidebar: I was amused at Petridis' confusion over the term “punk” being used to describe “harmless pop-rock bands” who were nothing like we’d now imagine punk to be. Clearly he doesn’t know the full etymology of the term which, prior to 1976, would have likely meant a youngish homosexual man, analogous to a “twink” in our parlance. Given the aesthetics of punk, at least as promulgated by McClaren and Westwood, was queer as fuck the co-option of the term shouldn’t be too much of a surprise.
- Lessons from Slime — This brief look at slime, and sliminess across science and nature, reminded me of when, the other day, after removing a particularly large slug from the hedgehog cafe, I was amazed at how its slime did not want to wash off my fingers. Eventually I had to transfer it to a flannel. Astonishing stuff.
Watching:
- Laura Kampf (14:25)
Listening:
- The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s by Jason Burke — Am enjoying this audiobook which is less a history of politics and ideas and more biographical sketches of weirdos who got led astray. Here’s a nice interview with the author. “The book is about individuals, and what brings a person to use (often lethal) violence, their motivations and the circumstances that might direct them towards that kind of activity, and the personal consequences, positive and negative, that follow." I’m hoping it also sheds some light on why Palestine is such a magnet for western leftists, often to the exclusion of other causes. via
Pre-ordering:
- Networks of New York, 2026 edition — Ingrid Burrington is re-issuing her 2016 guide which I really enjoyed and attempted to replicate on the streets of Birmingham a couple of times. Looking forward to this!
Music:
- Joy by Means of Production — When writing above about the etymology of “punk” I remembered I was told this by my old friend Jeremy Dennis/Day back in her cartoonist days when I sold her mini comics, and that she’s now in a post-punky electronica band making music I quite like, so I stuck their album on. Should also be on your streamers.