Inventory: September
A quick roundup of things from last month that I thought were quite nice
I don’t know if its just me, but it feels as if that nice summer sunshine stopped a bit more abruptly this year. Maybe it’s the fact that the end of August for me was spent in glorious Portuguese sunshine on my honeymoon, and when we returned to Dublin in September it was (A) cloudy and rainy, and (B) right at the beginning of the university/college term, meaning I found myself up to my eyes directing and giving orientation tours of the library and supporting colleagues giving presentations on a variety of topics we think (read: hope) will be useful to incoming (and continuing) students.
If it sounds like I’m complaining, I’m not. I’m amongst what increasingly feels like a shrinking circle of people who actually enjoy their jobs (despite the chaos that ensues around them when you launch new, somewhat glitch-y library catalogues or deal with thirty-to-fifty confused and/or tired postgraduates showing up to the library doors all at once expecting a tour).
Anyhow, September’s been great. Back to reality after all the wedding celebrations and so on, but I’m fortunate that said reality is one that’s nice. Here’s everything, from music to books to anything else I can think of, that I enjoyed this month.
Earworms: What I’ve Been Listening To
There’s been a great deal of stuff I’ve been listening to over the past month, but I’ve got to start with what has fast become one of my favourite albums of this year. I’d mentioned previously how much I’d enjoyed the singles preceding it, but the new Nation of Language album (entitled ‘Dance Called Memory’) is really, really good. This band just keeps delivering for me. Each record is better than the last, each sounding a bit more refined, pushing into different directions and yet always remaining anchored in the mix of post-punk, synth-pop and new-wave influences that have been at the band’s core since the beginning. I’ll grant you that they’re not the only band1 who occupy this space, but they’re probably the one occupying best (if that makes sense).
Aside from the above, I recently stumbled upon the eponymous second album by Michigan band Racing Mount Pleasant, a band that at first listen (or glance), people may dismiss as the American version of Black Country, New Road. Whilst it’s not exactly an unfair comparison - you can definitely hear some BCNR-esque stuff on the album - I think to say they’re an American copycat version or something along those lines does a great disservice to a band that sounds a lot more like a mix of Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes than a wholesale rip-off of BCNR. Anyhow, the album is great. I’m all in on the above influences, so I was never not going to enjoy this album after stumbling across it. Favourite/recommended tracks include: ‘Your New Place’, ‘Tenspeed (Shallows)’, ‘Emily’ and ‘Call It Easy’.
Bookstacks: What I’ve Been Reading
I feel like I’m back in the swing of things reading-wise, largely thanks to the honeymoon taken at the end of August that seen me finish two books, both of which I enjoyed quite a bit.
The first, Perfection by Italian writer Vincenzo Latronico, concerns a young millennial couple from an unnamed city in southern Europe2 who have moved to Berlin around the time that city was starting to become a hot-spot for ‘creatives’ and their associates3. It details that oft-talked about ‘millennial malaise’ and alienation, the couple’s life defined not by a defined sense of self but by the objects and images they have curated, created and talked about. It’s a fairly biting work (though you do sometimes want Latronico to be more pointed in his descriptions); indeed there were a couple of points where I paused, put the book down, and had to reflect after the narrative caused that one Euphoria meme to pop into my head4. A great read altogether.
The second is Kazuo Ishigoro’s An Artist of the Floating World. I was a bit wary going into this one; I’d thought Klara & the Sun was fine but not particularly great, whilst I really disliked his music-centered short story collection Nocturnes. Safe to say I was coming into this one with mixed feelings, but I was pleasantly surprised by An Artist of the Floating World. The novel concerns a recently retired Japanese artist living in postwar Japan, an artist whose postwar reputation has taken something of a hit given his role in producing propaganda for the Imperial Japanese government during WW2. The central crux of the novel revolve around his past, his struggle to come to terms with it, and how it’s viewed by those in the present, many of whom view him with quiet suspicion to outright hostility. It’s an interesting look at the whole ‘art versus the artist’ and other questions surrounding art, it’s politicisation, and the direction of postwar Japan. Definitely worth reading.
At the time of writing, I’m making my way through Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by the Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk. I’m enjoying it so far; it can feel a bit meandering (if that’s the right word?) at points but my guess is that this reflects the eccentricities and habits of the main character.
Pickups: Nice Things That Have Caught My Eye
Not much to speak of in the way of things that I’ve bought lately. In fact, more has been leaving my wardrobe lately than joining it (which is no bad thing). I may have mentioned it in a previous entry here, but I managed to pick up a couple of nice vintage thick twill work-shirts from Gant a while back, one in March and another in August.
They really remind me of a lot of the ones Drake’s do around spring and again in early autumn, except these cost me a combined total of around €20 or something as opposed to a small mortgage payment. Anyhow, they’re really great for this transitional time of year, heavy enough to be worn on their own under a jacket like a harrington or, when it’s a tad colder and wetter out, one of Carhartt WIP’s chore coats (which funnily enough I also picked up recently in a rather lovely brown/tobacco colour).
Concluding Thoughts
It’s been a nice month altogether. I’m currently a tad under the weather as I’m writing this closing section, but can’t really complain otherwise. Head’s back down and focusing on work, the evenings are getting darker and the morning light is starting to get obscured by grey clouds at dawn.
Bring on the colder months with all their wind and rain I say (maybe some snow too but I’m not holding out much hope). Hope you’ve had a good one folks, slán
Another one of my favourite artists, Black Marble, are probably worth a listen if you enjoy this sort of thing.
Given that both Lisbon and other southern European locales like Sicily are mentioned in the novel, the ‘southern peripheral city’ Anna and Tom come from could be Dubrovnik? Maybe somewhere in Greece? Valletta in Malta? We never find out, largely by design to indicate their transient, rather unmoored existence.
2013-2018? Lisbon slowly started to become the ‘place to be’ for creative types at the tail end of the 2010s/beginning of the 2020s if I recall correctly.
