BLANK SPACE

Salt marshes, vineyards and white washed buildings. Gaura, sampfire, oysters and wall lizards. Swimming, reading, biking and kayaking. Rob Beckett in the Eurotunnel. Merci Île de Ré.

LATITUDE ★ LATITUDE ★ LATITUDE ★ LATITUDE ★ LATITUDE Latitude gratitude to David Byrne, Jacob Alon, David O'Doherty, The Flaming Lips, Self Esteem, The Beta Band, Adam Buxton, Flo & Joan, Beth Orton, Mark Kermode, Hugo Hamlet, Alex James Britpop Classical & Guilty Pleasures. Shout out to the apple crumble, you magnificent fruity beast.

LDN.

Bike adventures on the C2C. 150 miles of brutal hills and relentless sun from Whitehaven to Sunderland. Thanks to David for fixing my bike (a new tyre, derailleur, chain and cassette later…), Sarah for ferrying us around and cooking, and Phil for talking our ears off in the old station cafe at Parkhead. The Victoria sponge I had on Roker Beach was perfection.

28 miles and 2500m ascent in the Lake District via Catbells, High Spy, Dale Head & High Seat, soundtracked by the trilling of the skylarks.

LP: Geese 'Getting Killed' / Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko 'Гільдеґарда (Hildegard)' / The Necks 'Disquiet' / These New Puritans 'Crooked Wing' / Abul Mogard 'Quiet Pieces' / James Holden & Waclaw Zimpel 'The Universe Will Take Care of You' / Walt McClements 'On a Painted Ocean' / Armand Hammer 'Haram' / YHWH Nailgun '45 Pounds' / Little Simz 'Lotus' Track: Wolf Alice 'Just Two Girls' / Geese 'Trinidad' / Abul Mogard 'In a Studded Procession' / Burial ‘Comafields’ / Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke 'The White Cliffs' / Little Simz 'Lion' / Billy Woods 'A Doll Fulla Pins' Gig: Fatboy Slim, Latitude / Supergrass, Bedford Park / Spiritualized, Barbican /  Father John Misty, Corn Exchange Book: Paul Kingsnorth 'Against the Machine' / Robert MacFarlane 'Is a River Alive?' TV: Holding Liat Film: The Brutalist / Conclave / One Battle After Another / Wake Up Dead Man / One to One: John & Yoko / Pink Floyd Pompeii MCMLXXII Theatre: Reggie Watts & Luke Wright, Latitude / Hamlet Hail to the Thief, RSC Art: Jenny Saville, National Portrait Gallery / Portia Zvavahera, Kettle's Yard /  Stanley Donwood & Thom Yorke, Ashmolean Museum Radio: What Happened to Counter Culture?, BBC Radio 4 Place: Stockholm & Ornö

Postcards from Sweden. A week or so in beautiful Stockholm & Ornö. Tack för kayaking, wild swimming, Markuskyrkan, Skogskyrkogarden, the ABBA & Nobel Museums, the crazy waiter at Spago, the reggae fuzz of the Indigo bar & the warm hug of Den Gyldene Freden. Listening to Nick Drake, Gorecki and a load of reggae. Reading Marilynne Robinson ‘Reading Genesis’.

LATITUDE ★ LATITUDE ★ LATITUDE ★ LATITUDE ★ LATITUDE Latitude gratitude to Fatboy Slim, Basement Jaxx, Reggie Watts, Luke Wright, Bridget Christie, Adam Buxton, Air, Mandrake Handshake, Sonic Furs, Snow Patrol, Sting, Guilty Pleasures and the England Women's Football Team. Thanks Teams S, G, F & L.

Deutschland 25. 240 miles on the bike through sun-drenched woodland and farmland in Lower Saxony via Bremen, Celle & Hamburg. Thanks for the Gruner Bunker, Freudenhaus, Altstadte Stube, Cotton Club jazz bar and the milkshakes in the Back Lava Cafe. No punctures, one intimidating jazz bar owner.

30 miles and 2500m ascent on Blencathra, Sharp Edge and Grisedale Pike. Grass snakes, wetness and windiness. Derwentwater and Worms homing missiles.

22 miles on the South West Coast Path via Woolacombe, Saunton, Lynton and the Valley of Rocks.

Barbican.

Nils Frahm ‘Four Hands’ The Beacon Sound Choir 'Drone 3’ Jonsi & Alex 'Boy 1904’ Ryuichi Sakamoto 'ubi’ Oliver Coates 'One Without’ Alva Noto 'Xerrox Topia' Arvo Part 'Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten’ U Srinivas & Michael Brook 'Think’ Terry Riley 'Persian Surgery Dervishes: Performance One’ Buffy Sainte-Marie 'Poppies’

Beginnings.

LP: The Smile 'Wall of Eyes' / Cameron Winter 'Heavy Metal' / Beth Gibbons 'Lives Outgrown' / Floating Points 'Cascade' / Nala Sinephro 'Endlessness' / Father John Misty 'Mahashmashana' / Kim Deal 'Nobody Loves You More' / Bibio 'Phantom Brickworks II' / Jasmine Wood 'Piano Reverb' EP: Shabaka 'Possession' / DjRUM 'Meaning's Edge' Track: Beth Gibbons 'Floating on a Moment' / Joy Orbison ‘Flight FM’ / The Smile 'Friend of a Friend' / Fontaines DC ‘Favourite’ Gig: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, O2 / Lankum, End of the Road / The Smile, Hammersmith Apollo / Nils Frahm, Corn Exchange / Stewart Lee, Arts Theatre / Beth Gibbons, Barbican / Richard Dawson, Storey's Field Centre Book: Zoe Schlanger ‘The Light Eaters’ / Benjamin Labatut 'When We Cease to Understand the World' / Christian Wiman ‘My Bright Abyss’ Film: The Zone of Interest TV: Inside No 9 Theatre: Teatro Flamenco Triana Radio: Late Junction / The Coming Storm / Things Fell Apart / The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God Art: Megan Rooney, Kettle's Yard Place: Sierra Nevada

END OF THE ROAD ★ END OF THE ROAD ★ END OF THE ROAD ★ END OF THE ROAD ★ END OF THE ROAD Lankum, Richard Dawson, Bonnie Prince Billy, Floating Points, James Holden, Cornelius, Still House Plants, Tara Clerkin Trio, Altin Gun, Mary Lattimore, Bill Ryder Jones, Sleater Kinney, Baxter Dury, Slowdive, Casisdead, Lemon Twigs, Camera Obscura, Nation of Language, Jon Moses & Simon Raymonde. Thanks Joe.