Senses working overtime #504

1 2025 - Happy new year to the blogosphere

2 Watched: Yellowstone Season 3

3 Listening: Aimee Mann - Bachelor No.2

4 Reading: Testimony - Robbie Robertson

I'm nearly done and I'm not sure if I like him or not. He may be the only musician in the history of the world to go on the road and be faithful to his wife (and three children). Maybe - he certainly doesn't confess to any dalliances along the way in his book.

Most of it centres on a narrow period from when he started being a musician to when The Band were in their prime. I'm on page 420 (out of 494) and he's not even up to The Last Waltz yet!

He does write well, and I'm fully engaged - especially in the chronicling of his relationships with Dylan and Levon Helm.

5 Listening: WTWMC - Loved Ones

The playlist is complete - 135 to celebrate our loved ones. It's a pretty darn impressive playlist made with love.

Our attention shifts to our favourite Kiwi artists next week. Thirty songs for each amigo, spread over 6 weeks. 

Overtime:  

Writer Susan Sontag on finding the courage to change this year (courtesy James Clear):

"I must change my life so that I can live it, not wait for it."

Senses working overtime #503

1 Twas the week after Christmas

2 Watching: Welcome To Wrexham Season 2

I had to pause watching Season 1 a fair while ago for some reason, so I've been binge watching the rest of that and all of Season 2 in two days while Jacky was at work.

I'm an emotional wreck! I've never cried so much watching a TV documentary as I have watching this. It's brilliantly constructed with lovable characters and a football team who are as wildly unpredictable as every other team around.  

Season 2 ends on a high for both the men's and women's team. I'm wrung out!

3 Read: Alan Alda - Never Have Your Dog Stuffed

This starts off brilliantly with his early life but gets a bit wayward after the M*A*S*H sections.

4 Reading: Robbie Robertson - Testimony

Greg lent this to me and I figured it better go to the top of the music books' pile.

5 Listening: Dixie Chicken - Little Feat

The song and the album are damn near perfect.

Overtime: James Clear

"The quality of my life is significantly higher on days that I publish an article. The creative process and well-being go hand-in-hand."

Senses working overtime #431

1 The feeling this week

2 Listening: The Album Years 

I'm not usually a podcast guy but this one from Steven Wilson and Tim Bowness who together make up No-Man, is terrific. 

Each episode centres on a specific year and they discuss a selection of albums from that year.

I'm still reading Wilson's Limited Edition Of One - it's one of those books you don't want to finish!

3 Watching: FIFA Women's World Cup 2023

We're at the quarter final stage now. Without participation from the USA.

The seismic reverberations of that USA/ Sweden game will be felt for a long while.

Come on Sweden!! Amanda Ilestedt has been immense so far. Blackstenius and Hurtig have also made a big impact. Yes, they all play for Arsenal F.C.

4 Listening: my favourite album by The Band - Northern Lights-Southern Cross

5 R.I.P. Robbie Roberston

Overtime: Writer Jeanette Winterson on the process of life:

“We live in a society that peddles solutions, whether it’s solutions to those extra pounds you’re carrying, or to your thinning hair, or to your loss of appetite, loss of love. We are always looking for solutions, but actually what we are engaged in is a process throughout life during which you never get it right. You have to keep being open, you have to keep moving forward. You have to keep finding out who you are and how you are changing, and only that makes life tolerable.”