PART 1 : Creating a novel plan (fast)

I had some fun with some writing yesterday. A friend of mine is planning out a book and gave me a couple of themes. Generally is about time travel to old music gigs. 

I thought I'd give it a spin with my brainstorming technique for plot line. I'm more a 'pantser' than a planner (ie write by the seat of my pants etc).

Anyway, I thought of a few titles that could be relevant to the theme, as well as trying to add in something to drive the listless protagonist.

It was such fun I thought I'd write it down...

Here are a few whimsical and eclectic songs I used to stimulate thought. 

Cat crept in – Mud

Schrödinger’s Cat. Obviously. Within you and without you. Paradox. Constellation with Noomi Rapace not realising the quantumness of everything after an ISS impact with a corpse. 

 

Time – Bowie

An obvious choice, although I had to think of these. I didn't want to use Mr. Google and the 'sniper in the brain came' to me and I thought, 'Perfect. Slow bullet wound affecting brain' but then I remembered the TV show Life on Mars and others.

 

Drugs don’t work – Verve/Richard Ashcroft

Could be drugged and hallucinating? Entirely possible if a big fan. Add that the drugs don’t really work and you have a split.

 

American idiot - Green Day – Gogol

Reminds me of the amazing Diary of a Madman by Gogol, which takes Poprishchin and follows him on a path to madness. First person. The entries haphazardly mix a past tense recounting of events of the day with present time registering of thoughts and associations relating to them. It begins with a standard date-based diary format, but at a certain point even the dates take on an irrational form, as if the writer's sense of conventional time has dissolved.

 

I will follow you into the dark. Death cab for cutie

At the borders of life and death. Seen and done it all. Except these last few things.

 

Teardrop. Massive attack

Mirrors are a powerful tool. Faithful mirrors especially so.

 

Girlfriend in a coma. Morrisey  and Marr/ Smiths/ Coupland 

Young, gifted and Black re-imagined by gloom rockers. More significantly, Douglas Coupland writes a modern fairy tale of Karen who predicts her lapse into a coma and stays in it for 17 years, awakening in time for the End of the World. Brilliant use of Jared as a ghost narrator. Style is grounded in realism.

 

Bad dream hotline - FOE

Use of a Dream trap. Go figure.

idontwanttobeyouanymore – Billy Eilish 

She took a long cold look at me (Syd). Generate the mood. Gravity of it can’t escape the fate.  

Jesus wept - Sia. (God shaped hole) 

Playing with divinity. Use of a God construct? “Life is a cigarette / Cinder, ash and fire / Some smoke it in a hurry / Others savour it". And ‘I smoke my friends down to the filter.’ 2.5 billion heartbeats= average lifespan. ('God shaped hole' is in Smashing Pumpkins lyrics also)

21st century schizoid man. King Crimson. 

Being manipulated Terry Gillam’s Brazil-style and powerless to escape the chosen route. Nondeterminism: the doctrine that there are factors other than the state and immutable laws of the universe involved in the unfolding of events, such as free will.

My song choices generated ideas incorporating:

• ·      Schrödinger’s Cat
• ·      Bullet in Brain
• ·      Drugs and Hallucinations
• ·      The madness is creeping over me
• ·      Borderline of death
• ·      Mirror concepts
• ·      Coma
• ·      Ghost narrator
• ·      Dream trap
• ·      Mood Gravity & Love
• ·      Divine friends
• ·      Determinism and non-determinisim

 so read tomorrow for what I did next...

Proxy pub metrics

I knew it would happen. Petrolheads adapt the electric car agenda. Now it's about fastest acceleration from 0-60 mph, with the new Xaomi claiming faster acceleration, beating Porsche and Tesla. Of course it's the model that no-one will buy - their so called Max model. The normal model is seconds slower than the other two cars. 

It's what I call 'finding a proxy pub metric'. Yet anyone who has driven my type of electric model knows that the acceleration is already insane, to the extent I always have it set in the still swift 'Chill' mode.

Not sure about the deliberate 'supermarket trolley damage' styling?

Paper, everywhere

Some processes take me back in time. I was just completing a legal document and exactly that occurred. I needed to create a 20 page document - two versions - for which I needed signatures on several pages. And witnesses. The signatures were spread out through the document, instead of all being on a signature page.  There was also a certificator. Then I needed a photocopy of the signed form. 

If this was being done by a legal firm, I guess they would charge me several hundred for the tedium of copying and checking everything.

When I used to work abroad, I can remember some countries with their arcane paperwork. I thought we had improved, but it looks as if the legal profession is slow to catch up.

a constellation of quantum paradox

 I might be in a minority, but I'm quite enjoying Constellation, a sci-fi psycho-drama box set. It's set in space and there is an opportunity for things to floatily slow down and then suddenly speed up. Like the way The Killing did at the end of its Episodes.

The main protagonist is Naomi Rapace, and we get some good Scandi Noir thrown into the mix. It is as if the writers tipped out their packet of parts to see which ones they could use.

I've noticed Kubrick and Silence of the Lambs moments as well as proper Scandi crashing through the softly falling now. I usually watch Alien in the dark, for maximum immersion and I found this one to be similarly so, to the extent that a couple of times I needlessly looked away whilst the tension was mounting.

In some ways I was doing a 'Copenhagen';  by not observing the states which became consequently  quantumly ambiguous. And I suppose the (later observed) dead cosmonaut could be a parallel for the a finally observed Schrödinger cat. 

In quantum physics there is a concept called entanglement. An entangled system is defined as an inseparable whole. In entanglement, one constituent cannot be fully described without considering the other(s). The superposition of states of local constituents is entangled if it cannot be written as a single product term.

I'm wondering how deftly the script for this can avoid entanglement as it waltzes through this science, with Breaking Bad's Mike Ehrmentraut (Jonathan Banks) playing the seasoned seventy year old astronaut 'Bud' who has been to the moon and knows about science things. For me, he doesn't quite pull it off and treats the 'canister thingy' as a McGuffin.  "But we must get it back".

Still, outside of these observations, I'm finding it better to watch than a few other things queued up on my various players.

 

Zone of Interest

I steeled myself to go to see the Jonathan Glazer production of 'Zone of Interest' which portrays the life of KL Camp Kommandant Rudolf Höss and his family in their apparently idyllic house set against the walls of Auschwitz. Martin Amis wrote a similar story and Glazer decided to tell it with the actual people instead of the anonymity of the fictional version. 

There's the bucolic and well-tended garden with trimmed grass, pretty flowers and a swimming pool slowly revealing that beyond the wall is the industrialised mass murder of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Höss is senior commander of the entire operation and even gets promoted back to Berlin to oversee a whole set of these camps. The family declines to follow, preferring their luxurious lifestyle outside of the Auschwitz camp.

The language is matter of fact as the family behaves typically with their assorted children, pet dog, numerous servants and workmen. They are largely insulated from the Konzentrationslager as their nearest neighbour, growing vines up the camp walls. The terrifying soundscape tells the story of what is within these walls. Although the movie is in German language, the stark sounds already tell too much.  Pistolshot, echoing rifle shots, screams, and the interminable grinding, smoke, cries and metallic groans from the heavy machinery of industrial slaughter. Black smoke rising and ash coating the flowers causing the visiting mother to quietly depart overnight. Mercifully Glazer doesn't show us inside the active camp.

We see Höss rising to power, first a promotion to Berlin, then to take proud control of the mass extermination of Hungarian prisoners - another excited promotion relayed by phone from Berlin to his wife still at the house in Auschwitz.

In his Nuremburg Trial affidavit made on 5 April 1946, Höss stated:

'I commanded Auschwitz until 1 December 1943, and estimate that at least 2,500,000 victims were executed and exterminated there by gassing and burning, and at least another half million succumbed to starvation and disease, making a total of about 3,000,000 dead. This figure represents about 70% or 80% of all persons sent to Auschwitz as prisoners, the remainder having been selected and used for slave labor in the concentration camp industries. Included among the executed and burnt were approximately 20,000 Russian prisoners of war (previously screened out of Prisoner of War cages by the Gestapo) who were delivered at Auschwitz in Wehrmacht transports operated by regular Wehrmacht officers and men. The remainder of the total number of victims included about 100,000 German Jews, and great numbers of citizens (mostly Jewish) from The Netherlands, France, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Greece, or other countries. We executed about 400,000 Hungarian Jews alone at Auschwitz in the summer of 1944.

Not included in the movie...

Nazi evacuation and evidence destruction took place leaving approximately 7,000 prisoners in the camp. On January 27, 1945. Red Army soldiers entered Oświęcimand and soldiers of the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front appeared on the grounds of the Monowitz sub-camp, on the eastern side of the city. They liberated the Auschwitz Main Camp and Birkenau at about 3 p.m.

...And yes, sadly the wall can be a metaphor for now.

Homelessness

It's 136,000 homeless young people now.

UPDATE: 

Government "Levelling Up" responded:

Government is committed to tackling homelessness and ending rough sleeping for good. Our strategy is backed by over £2bn over 3 years. Tackling youth homelessness is critical to this strategy.

Every child and young person deserves a roof over their head and a safe place to call home. 

The Government is firmly committed to tackling all forms of homelessness including youth homelessness. The Government’s Ending Rough Sleeping for Good strategy, published in 2022 and backed by over £2 billion, recognises the particular challenges facing young people experiencing homelessness.

The strategy puts prevention at its heart. The Government has committed over £1 billion to councils in England through the Homelessness Prevention Grant to help them prevent homelessness over three years, including youth homelessness. Councils can use the funding flexibly – for example, to offer financial support for people to find a new home, to work with landlords to prevent evictions or to provide temporary accommodation. 

In addition, in his Autumn Statement the Chancellor announced Government is increasing the Local Housing Allowance to the 30th percentile of market rents from April. This will mean 1.6m low-income households will be around £800 a year better off on average in 2024-25, and will make it more affordable for young people on benefits to rent properties in the private rented sector.

Government support for housing-led solutions includes the Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme (SHAP), which aims to provide longer term supported housing, Housing First and other housing-led accommodation with accompanying support, including for young people at risk of or experiencing homelessness or rough sleeping.

So far, £150 million has been allocated to adult and young people’s projects through SHAP in 46 local authority areas to deliver 1,230 homes and accompanying support services.

The Rough Sleeping Initiative 2022-25 includes £2.5 million of funding at youth-specific services in 8 local authorities across England. This funding develops specialist youth support such as outreach workers, prevention officers and specialist housing for those under 25.

Up to £3 million funding is available in 2023/24 to provide targeted support to young people leaving care, those most at risk of homelessness and rough sleeping. This funding is targeted across 56 local authorities in England, those with the highest need and will provide financial support to children’s services and housing teams to encourage improved partnership working through the introduction of joint protocols. 

A proportion of the Local Authority Housing Fund worth over £1 billion also goes towards temporary accommodation, helping to alleviate homelessness.

We have also put in place bespoke support for local authorities through our Homelessness Advice and Support Team, which includes dedicated youth homelessness advisor roles that have a commitment to work with local authorities to proactively promote positive joint working across housing authorities and children’s services, offering training, advice and support to all local authorities.   

Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities

Don't turn off your computer, it says? How many days should I wait?

I know, it's a predictable post.

I had to use a Windows computer again. It said it wanted to check a few things first. I thought 'here we go again'. Yes it's been BSOD-ing ever since. 

What a waste of time. Still I can write this post on my trusty Mac.

entitled sheds

I've been driving up and down the country over the last few days. It's interesting to notice certain types of other driver and their attempted manoeuvres. 

One of the most commonplace is with someone in a brown, or grey SUV shed on the inside lane who wants to go as fast as possible and will find the smallest gap in front of me to pull across into lane 3. The time spent in front of me is minimal, but it is also at an unsafe braking distance and causes my car's auto sensing to dab the brakes. 

I'd predicted that drivers will 'game' the new convoy lorries, but it seems it is already happening with holistic cruise control.

vroom vroom

Outside the front of our house there's a protected wildlife corridor. The other side of it is a building site with a temporary through road whilst a new bridge is being finalised. The builders have added red and white chevrons to the edges of the temporary road, akin to the ones used in Scalextric car racing.

Sometimes these barriers blow across the road, but most of the time they invite speeding traffic.

What is striking is how similar all the cars look. No, it's not an eye test, but the shapes without the badges are remarkably similar amongst these speeding hatchback cars and grey, black or white mobile sheds.

termites holding hands

They say that Vǫluspá  follows Ragnarök. A kind of rebirth after the twilight of the Gods. List everything news-topping right now. 

The Edda poems reference it. Poems first passed by song and then written down in the 14th century.Wagner wrote a Cycle about it and Bowie made a searing song. And some movie studios still make franchises.

Where all were minds in uni-thought
Power weird by mystics taught
No pain, no joy, no power too great
Colossal strength to grasp a fate

Where sad-eyed mermen tossed in slumbers
Nightmare dreams no mortal mind could hold
A man would tear his brother's flesh
A chance to die
To turn to mould

Far out in the red-sky
Far out from the sad eyes
Strange, mad celebration
So softly a supergod cries

Its easier to remember Bowie than Edda, but the point is the same.

And the termites hold the wooden bridge together.

basic face kick elemental

I just got sent the BFI listing for 2024. Featured movie? 

The KLF: 23 Seconds to Eternity

Sample city through Trancentral
Basic face kick elemental
Swings brings new technology
The 'K' the 'L' the 'F' and the ology
Da Force coming down with mayhem
Looking at my watch time 3 A.M.
Got to see that everywhere I turn
Will point to the fact that time is eternal

It's 3 A.M., 3 A.M.
It's 3 A.M. Eternal (eternal)

A-ha, a-ha, a-ha, a-ha 
Eternal

I can't do a link because it's all restricted. 

I have that book 2023. I watched it being a future artefact to becoming part of history.

And there's still images from the original footage being re-invented on modern television.

Another dimension.

fast track it to the meatballs

 

I've just read an an interesting post from a friend, about the nature of existentialism and determinism. It cunningly packs the question into a discussion about turning corners, as if in a deterministic state. 

A contrasting divergent thought could have free-will based existential agency. 

It reminds me of queueing in Disney. Follow the beaten path, or walk through walls? Maybe a question for Nietsche.* 

In Disney terms, you get a Fast Pass on your digital watch, to make it about strategy. 

Travel at 100 times the speed of everyone else, but know when to pause. Some of the best queues make it a part of the ride "To travel hopefully etc." 

Like the sadly suspended Rock 'n Roller coaster, there's a pre-queue a trip to the studio, watch the band mix down, and get invited into a stretched limo. All before the ride itself, across SoCal at 0-60 in 3 seconds.

Three minutes at insane cross town traffic speed is an unforgettable experience. Or waiting for that that space flight where you go through space preparation before getting into the rocket and blast off on a mission to Mars. Worth the wait to have felt those G-forces at launch.

My point is we are making it up. This life. This story. It's unique. To each of us. 

 *And still knowing in IKEA to 'look behind you' to get out of the pantomime of queueing and fast track it to the meatballs.