"Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?"

Fast Christmas, phone specials and Giggy's greetings

“O chestnut tree, great rooted blossomer,

Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?

O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,

How can we know the dancer from the dance?”

W. B. Yeats, “Among School Children”

Happy New Year everyone,

I hope you’re all OK and feeling somewhat optimistic!

What’s the poem, track or other inspiration that’s taken you through the solstice and new year transitions? Alongside Umeko Ando’s Ihunke, I’ve been obsessed with this paragraph in a Yeats poem. Last year (oh yeah, 2020 is now in the past), I marveled at the edge of a forest one evening and thought: “huh, isn’t it kinda funny that the eye can’t distinguish when a group of tree becomes a forest?” 🌲🌳🌴🎄 That hypnotic realization echoed through the next months but was nowhere articulated as clearly as through those recently encountered words: “How can we know the dancer from the dance?”

I miss the dance. We all miss the dance. My partner and I tuned into sweet rave memories when we spent some time in the studio together last month. We came up with this track! 🎁 However, you may want to wait another 50 weeks to check it as it is xmas themed and few things sound as passé as a “fresh” holiday track on the 2nd of January.

On the topic of celebrations, winter solstice marked my jump into the Instagram-free world. It’s kinda cool here, you should come for a visit! I haven’t quite figured out yet if I want to live a life completely devoid of social media or if I will experiment with platforms that match my ethics. Any recommendations of Discord groups? Has anyone tried Mastodon yet? 📬 Also always open to more suggestions of mailinglists/zines that you made or read :)

What else? Oh yeah, Fictions update! I hosted two phone specials on Cashmere Radio. One in October from slow to fast including audio messages from my friends:

And then one in December with a sample of How To Break Up With Your Phone as well as a 20min piece combining muzak with reminiscences of perplexed call centre workers. ☎️📞📵 Many thanks to Soa & Aasana for covering the show in November. I’m taking a break from my slot as off now (😢) but I’m very honored to invite Susanna for a six-months residency!

Finally, it made me so happy to ship over some zines last month! Thanks for all the sweet and careful feedback. This time, I’ll be sending a tiny tiny greeting card to the first three readers who send me their postal address. 📮📩

Take care,

Nono