#13 Absolutely unaware of what's about to happen to your brain
Issue #13 Absolutely unaware of what's about to happen to your brain
8th June 2022
Dearest wonders,
Hope you've had a lovely week?
Nothing much to report here. We're out of the house so that our bathroom can be completely rebuilt - floors, walls, pipework - it all had to be replaced. Home ownership is fun!
And I find myself a little scattered without the routines and environments I've optimised for myself at home.
Who knew I was such a creature of habit?
Let's dig into some recommendations, why don't we hey?
Rule of three
[Music] Bonobo organ music
In the words of Anna Lapwood, organist at the Royal Albert Hall: "I often do middle-of-the-night practice sessions ... and have grown rather fond of hall staff calling up to the organ with requests. At 1am on Friday 20th, someone called up asking me to play Bach's Toccata in D minor. It turned out it was Bonobo's band. 12 hours later they had written me an organ part, and 18 hours later I was helping them close their show to an audience of 5000. This was, undoubtedly, the best moment of my life so far." You can watch the performance here. It's absolutely electric and made me weep uncontrollably (in fairness it's been an emotional week).
[Resource] Saying no
I'm very English and find it hard to say no to things. But sometimes that's exactly what I need to do in order to safeguard my time and energy. This archive of polite but firm emails provides multiple templates to say no to people in any situation.
[Films] Everything Everywhere All at Once
I'm late to this party but please allow me to be yet another friend who grabs you by the shoulders, looks you deep in the eye and earnestly tells you that you HAVE to see Everything Everywhere All at Once. I'm not even going to link to the trailer because for the best viewing experience you need to go in absolutely unaware of what's about to happen to your brain.
Spotlight
Still a few places left on the online improv course I'm teaching with Stephen Davidson - Crafting deep relationships on stage. The techniques we'll be sharing are amongst my very favourite things to teach so I'm keen to fill the class if possible. Take a look, Stephen is offering a number of different pricing options to allow any improviser who is interested to attend.
Longform thoughts
Good edits can save floundering improvisers, they can underline a perfect out-line, they can make bad jokes funny and clichéd sentiment sublime. That takes skill and timing and razor-sharp improv instincts.
Read the rest of In praise of the other improvisers.
Radio days
Thanks for being there, Radio.