Categories
Community Practice Spirituality Therapy

Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities

Selling my records on Discogs has been an intense process. I have parted with 1,866 items since August 7th. There have been ample opportunities for reflection on the past, upon the original activity of finding them in shops, and my historic participation in those musical worlds.

Even though carefully considered, many separations were emotional, and inevitably there were a few regrets. I’ve been fortunate to be able to rectify the handful of mistakes I’ve made. Mostly, though, I’ve been glad that they have gone to new homes.

One unexpected result was that, after not engaging with vinyl for over three years, whether I liked it or not, I was thrust back into its universe. Thinking about it all the time became necessary, not just in practical terms so as to deal with the flow of orders, but to stay on top of my own feelings; to be certain I wasn’t making mistakes.

Having to confront actually parting with this stuff, rather than just having it packed away unconsciously in storage, some attachments became surprisingly pronounced. I didn’t know I felt so strongly about certain items (talismans?) – that I would be compelled to rescue things from the inventory at unusual moments (before breakfast) or in odd places (on a walk over Dartmoor). What stood out most was a deep reverence and affection for the dance music of 1989-1996 that I anthologised in mixes. I’m referring to that run through New York House, Chicago House, Detroit Techno, UK Techno, Hardcore, Jungle, Two-Step, and Grime. The demand for these old records is insatiable…

Not, in the strictest terms a dance music record, one of the last items I rescued from the sale was Holden’s “The Inheritors” LP, which I had bought in 2013. I found an old download code for it in the inner sleeve, which actually worked still. From thence I found my way to this his 2023 album. I also read a nice interview with him conducted by John Doran at The Quietus.

Holden is enchanted by this same era of dance music and the possibilities for a new society that it suggested. Indeed, it’s striking how little of the retro-rave music goes deeper than reviving old technology and fetishising old twelve inches. The reason that music glowed, even as it was at the end crushed into tiny clubs and pirate radio stations, was that behind it was a dream.

Nothing can stay the same and mean the same thing, and where “Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities” dazzles is in its invocation of that elevated optimism in a new form. Holden finds a way to channel that spirit in these troubled times.

I really admire Holden not (apparently) being preoccupied by physical formats, as is evident in his sharing of his collection of digital music and his expression in interview of “an idea for a rhizomatic, decentralised, community owned version of Bandcamp”. I bought this album as a 24bit 48khz FLAC. It sounds better than even a CD ever could, and that did give me food for thought.

Categories
Agriculture Ecology

Smog in India

Flight between Varanasi and Bodh Gaya December 2019.

News just in that the Taj Mahal is obscured by smog will come as no surprise to anyone who has visited India in this season.

Delhi airport.

When I visited in December 2019, in what felt like minutes before the COVID crisis struck, wherever I visited, Delhi, Bodh Gaya, and Varanasi, everywhere was shrouded in the smog caused by farmers burning crops. You could even see it hanging in the air in the large airport halls.

Varanasi.

The farmers will tell you that this is the only way to clear their fields and ready them for the next season’s crops, but truthfully, it doesn’t have to be this way. It was possibly the most unpleasant and disturbing experience of pollution I’ve ever had, especially in that beautiful country.

Categories
Growing Urban

Winter

This Amelanchier lost its leaves recently. There’s always less to report on this season – less “growth” all round you might say.

Categories
Community Ecology Therapy Urban

EC1 Voices

Since 2007 I’ve been involved with my local community in EC1, mounting opposition to the threatened overdevelopment of the Finsbury Leisure Centre site.

Although three previous mooted developments have failed, as far as we’re aware this had nothing to do with our campaigning. In each case, it was just luck. Over the years, however, the projected developments have got bigger and bigger, with less and less being left available on the ground for the football pitches and in the way of open space.

Over time, I also came to realise that the development affected me less severely than the footballers or my neighbours around the site, who rely on the pitches to be kept as they are for their light and open space. So my objection has shifted to being more about the community’s needs.

I have done a lot already, even in this round, to put my shoulder to the wheel: tallying up bookings on the pitches, establishing the group’s relations to a chartered surveyor expert in rights-to-light, and attending heated meetings with Islington Council elders. However, I thought that a short documentary would really help get the message out there. I’ve come to know and admire my fellow campaigners, a more diverse bunch you could not imagine, and it was a great opportunity to talk to them all on camera.

If, as we suspect, the council does grant themselves planning permission (what a joke, right?) then having a memento of how this magical space once was, and evidence of how hard we fought to keep it, will be worth something.

If you have a moment – please object here. No need to be a local resident.

Categories
Community Growing Practice Urban

Free Spider Plants

Categories
Organic Spirituality

The Creation of Plants

Maffiolo da Cremona, The Creation of Plants, first quarter of 15th century, Old Testament Window, Milan cathedral
Categories
Spirituality

The Art of India

I’m not sure exactly how I came across this book, “The Art of India” (1954) by Stella Kramrisch, but I’m pretty certain I read Allen Ginsberg talking about it.

That naturally led me to want to hunt down a copy. But this was at the tail of end research for “Retreat” when I was consciously attempting to dial back my focus on Eastern philosophy. Not an expensive book, really. But I satisfied myself with finding a PDF of it on archive.org.

A couple of weeks ago, I was hanging around in my wife’s study. Disturbing her when she was trying to write something on Le Corbusier, probably… As I was looking through her bookshelf, my eye caught upon the spine of this copy of “The Art of India.”

When my grandfather, the art collector Michael Ingram died, once their family’s house sold, the entire family was invited, almost as though we were vultures, to take whatever we wanted from the building. I was very fond of my grandparents and remember being a bit dazed. I think I took only one item, a small iron frying pan that I remembered my beloved grandmother frying me an egg in.

Thank god, Mrs Ingram had her wits about her. She took the Kramrisch book from his massive library of art books. In its frontispiece there is this review notice from Phaidon, announcing the publication to the reviews department of The Illustrated London News, which was our family business. Unprompted, and without any unseemly pleading from me, she gave me the book.

My grandfather took a deep interest in the culture of the far east. This ran in the family. His uncle was Collingwood “Cherry” Ingram – famous for saving for Japan one of their cherry trees.

By 1926, he was a world authority on Japanese cherries and was asked to address the Cherry Society in Japan on their national tree. It was on this visit that he was shown a painting of a beautiful white cherry, then thought to be extinct in Japan. He recognised it as one he had seen in a moribund state in a Sussex garden, the result of an early introduction from Japan. He had taken cuttings and so was able to re-introduce it to the gardening world as ‘Taihaku’, the name meaning ‘Great White Cherry’. His 1948 book Ornamental Cherries is a standard work.

Wikipedia

His father Herbert Ingram, son of William Ingram, was a collector of Chinese porcelain, whose collection is the heart of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford’s collection.

The arrival of the Sir Herbert Ingram’s generous gift of over 3,000 Chinese and Japanese objects to the Museum of Eastern Art in 1956, then housed in the Indian Institute, more than doubled its original holdings. In 1962, these were moved to become part of the collection of the Ashmolean Museum.

Eastern Art Online

In spite of his father’s generosity, their house was still full of lovely ancient pots, urns, and vases. But my grandfather was also fascinated by Eastern thought. I remember this quote from Confucius pinned up in their kitchen:

“If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character.
If there is beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home.
If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nations.
When there is order in the nations, there will peace in the world.”

Confucius

This is, of course, the same call for “bottom-up” action which bewitched the counterculture as it rebelled against the political activism of the previous generation.

There are two particularly lovely pictures of the Buddha in the book.

And an exquisite “Tree of Life of Knowledge” perfect for this blog.

Categories
Food Growing Organic Practice Soil Urban

Brassicas Out

These little guys grown from seed: Brussels sprouts, savoy cabbage, cabbage, and calabrese broccoli. They have had enough time under the grow lights.

They need to go out under the cool autumn sun. It’s amazing how much more light there is outdoors, even on an autumn day, than indoors under lights.

They’re going in here, which is some of the finest topsoil rescued from my raised bed, with added biochar (not stirred in yet).

God bless the little blighters. Just the strongest seedlings which have shown the most vigorous growth. The rest I am going to eat as microgreens for my tea.

All tucked in for the winter. With, I think, plenty of space for them. At least for the time being. If Kiki the cat digs these out, I will throttle her. Or at least swear at her!

Categories
Growing Health Spirituality Urban

Drugs

I came across these plants in the Medicinal garden of the Royal College of Physicians, besides Regent’s Park.

This is an ephedra plant, a source of ephedrine alkaloids, including ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. Natural speed.

A tobacco plant. The leaves are huge.

Opium poppies.

One datura plant.

And another datura plant. These trumpet-like flowers are enormous – about a foot long.

I don’t use any drugs, but it has occurred to me how relatively easy it would be to grow one’s own. Obviously, marijuana can be grown simply enough, but also coca leaves. With the latter it would be impractical for industrial purposes to grow in the UK. This because of the huge amount of coca leaves needed for a tiny yield of cocaine, the expense of land, and large plantations’ subsequent visibility to law enforcement agencies. But climate-wise, it wouldn’t be a problem. With a greenhouse, you might be able to grow enough coca for your own personal use. You could even just chew the leaves like the South Americans do.

I came across a modern book on Amazon once of some home-counties apothecarist quietly growing his own opium poppies – plant and man getting “heavy” together.

Categories
Food Growing Practice Urban

End of the Season

After an exquisite Indian Summer, it seems Autumn is now truly upon us. Consequently, I’m packing up the garden for the year.

It’s bittersweet looking back at it at its height in August in comparison with where it is now below.

The only glimmer of hope is in these seedlings of brussels sprouts, savoy cabbage, cabbage, and calabrese. I thought I would try and get these established and see if I could grow them through the winter outdoors. That might just about be possible.