Getting back to normal

Slowly things are getting back to something like normal. But one never really knows what the alsting effects of the recent events could be.

I have been throwing myself in trading work developments - working 12 hours oplus per day till dropping off to sleep exhausted mid-to-late evening. Waking up at 4:30a.m. or so, I am having a constant run of great ideas - or so it seems

Reading has mainly been a 700 page sociological account of sex in Japan, Nicholas Bornoff's Pink Samurai (the author died recently and i was reminded about this book by his obituary in the paper), Patti Smith's excellent Just Kids, and Kristin Hersh's very odd autobiography, Paradoxical Undressing - the last two of which I bought with the Waterstone token I got for Christmas

Music is mainly the wew cds by Mogwai, PJ Harvey and Swans. I am most impressed with PJ Harvey's latest. Not sure I am that keen on the newest incarnation of Swans as it doesn't feature Jarboe, who I always took to be vitally important to the mature Swan's sound.

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For me, the perfect Swans lineup

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Swans in 1997 - the last tour. The Swans are Dead double cd is a superb live album. The versions of "Lavender" and "Blood Promise" are stupendous

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For some years around 2000 I corresponded with Jarboe, as she had available other live recordings of Swans and was slowly developing her own solo material. Anhedoniac remains a really disturbing recording. As a result, I have loads of signed Jarboe stuff, rare recordings, etc.

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A recent photo from her website - http://www.thelivingjarboe.com/ A artist well-worth supporting in my view. And still a very striking looking person!