Senses working overtime #499

1 Jade's birthday (28 November 1991)

Jade's out in front again this week with celebrations for her 33rd birthday. Jacky takes a mean photo!

Here's to you DLG!

2 Listening: WTWMC - Loved Ones

We've completed four of our loved one's selections now - 60 songs for Jacky, Joan, Joe, and Wendy. My mum is up next week.

3 Listening: The Voidz - Like All Before You

4 Reading: BBC Essentials - Nine TV shows they recommend for December viewing

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew

5 Reading: Brew - Indie bookstores are thriving!

Overtime: Unplugging from the matrix

I watched The Social Dilemma with my Year 10 classes this week. Key takeaway - delete your notifications! So I have been doing just that this week.

Senses working overtime #498

1 Big week this week as Samantha and Andrew settled on their wedding date - May 2, 2025.

Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash

2 Listening: Wozza's album collection

Been listening to Part 1 (there are four so far). 

3 Reading: How railroads inspired the creation of time zones

4 Listening: Greg Johnson's Liberty

In 1997, Johnson won the APRA Silver Scroll, New Zealand's most prestigious songwriting award, for Liberty from the album Chinese Whispers.

5 RIP Teri Garr  

RIP Phil Lesh from Grateful Dead

Overtime: 

"The easy, conversational tone of good writing comes only on the eighth rewrite."

Paul Graham

Senses working overtime #497

1 The feeling this week:

2 Reading: The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald

Savouring this book - taking it slowly.

3 Listening: Billy Joel - Piano Man

I'm listening to this album on repeat for my collection countdown on Goo Goo G'Joob. I'd forgotten how good this album is. Travellin' Prayer is an excellent opener.

4 Listening: WTWMC - Loved Ones

Joan's week is in the books. Next up is Joe Simms.

5 Viewing: Gladiator II

Looking forward to this one. Promo is here.

Overtime: Emily Dickinson 

Forever is composed of nows.

Senses working overtime #496

1 The feeling this week:

Alyssa Smith on Unsplash

2 Texture of the week: Movember

One week down, Jacky is not a fan, but the beard is growing on me (hahahahahaha). That Movember link again.

3 Listening: WTWMC - Loved Ones

One week completed (the Jacky week). See what you think here.

4 Listening: Jefferson Starship presents Jefferson's Tree of Liberty

A (very) late career highlight - Paul Kantner and David Freiberg etc return to their folk roots for an acoustic outing. Amazingly good! Not on Spotify sadly, but it is on YouTube. 

Only time for one track? Try Royal Canal.

5 R.I.P Quincy Jones

Overtime: James Clear

"When you think you are too old to do something new remember you will never be younger than you are right now."

Senses working overtime #495

1 Fund raiser for men;s mental health: Movember

Photo by Disney . on Unsplash

First week of the Movember fund raiser for men's mental health is ahead. You can support me and this cause during Movember, via this link.

2 Reading: The Obstacle is the Way - Ryan Holiday

3 Reading: The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald

4 Listening: WTWMC - Beasties

We've now completed this playlist - 105 awesome songs. Do try it.

5 Listening: Jan & Dean - Drag City

Try Surfin' Hearse for a laugh.

Overtime: Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell - Bob Dylan

While reading The Obstacle is the Way, Ryan cites the 'Hurricane' Carter story superbly (Carter was falsely imprisoned, but retained his dignity and power of choice while in prison for 19 years) and Dylan's perfect phrase came to mind.

Senses working overtime #494

1 Maple Grove: The roses are in bloom

2 Listening: WTWMC - Beasties

It's a cracker! 90 songs on the playlist, 15 to go next week.

3 Reading: Kaliane Bradley's The Ministry of Time

Thanks to Julie for the loan!

4 Watching: The Resident

A medical drama on Netflix - it's another one where I look away during the lurid operation scenes, but Jacky loves it.

5 Listening: Isis - Panopticon

Overtime:  Seymour Chwast

Graphic designer and illustrator Seymour Chwast reminds us that working harder may not be the answer:

"If you dig a hole and it's in the wrong place, digging it deeper isn't going to help."

(Courtesy James Clear)

Senses working overtime #493

1 Theme of the week: Slow recovery

Photo by Sofia S on Unsplash

2 Reading: Joan Baez - And A Voice To Sing With

3 Listening: Joan Baez - Diamonds and Rust

One of her best, try Hello In There if you just want one.

4 Watching: Macca doing Now and Then

Another view of The Beatles version here (but be warned - it gets emotional)

5 Listening: WTWMC - Beasties

75 songs now with two weeks to go.

Overtime: Kindness

Being kind to others is mostly about your actions.

Being kind to yourself is mostly about your thoughts.

James Clear

Senses working overtime #492

1 Item of the week

Yes, Jacky has a cold, now I also have a cold.

2 Listening: Human Instinct's Midnight Sun

Try their version of Dirty Creature!

3 Reading: Louis L'Amour's Last Stand At Papago Wells

4 Reading: Zen Flesh Zen Bones (A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings)

5 Listening: WTWMC Beasties

The three amigos are just over halfway through their latest playlist - sixty songs so far on all things animals. 

Overtime: Mark Manson

The person you marry is the person you fight with. The house you buy is the house you repair. The dream job you take is the job you stress over.

Everything comes with an inherent sacrifice—whatever makes us feel good will also inevitably make us feel bad.

Senses working overtime #491

1 Wellington

This week was largely spent in our capital city. It's getting a bad press at the moment with less foot traffic in the CBD but while Unity Books are on Willis and Arty Bees, Slow Boat Records are in or near Cuba St mall, I will still have plenty of reasons to visit on a regular basis.

2 World of Wearable Arts

Jacky's thing more than mine but I still really enjoyed the sensual experience.

3 Listening to: Jimmy Buffett - Living and Dying in 3/4 Time

One of my purchases from Slow Boat Records. Try Come Monday.

4 Reading: The Beach Boys by The Beach Boys

One of my purchases from Unity Books.

5 Tasting: Hot! Like a Mexican tacos

Overtime: Neil Finn

There's a certain good fortune in having a moderate amount of success.

Answering the 'How come you've avoided scandal?' question in Mojo magazine #367

Senses working overtime #490

1 Last week of term 3 is done and dusted - study break time for two weeks!

Meant my posts were often late this week, but what follows is a recap in case you missed them...

2 Baggy Trousers

3 Goo Goo G'Joob

4 Purdzilla Show

5 Wozza's Place

Overtime: 

Playwright and poet Sarah Ruhl on love as a creative force:

"There was once a very great American surgeon named Halsted. He was married to a nurse. He loved her—immeasurably.

One day Halsted noticed that his wife's hands were chapped and red when she came back from surgery. And so he invented rubber gloves. For her. It is one of the great love stories in medicine. The difference between inspired medicine and uninspired medicine is love...

[He] loved her to the point of invention."

(Courtesy James Clear)