Five Retrogrades Pulling on the Body of the Earth
And some healthy antidotes.
If over half of us is water then we are each an earth when it comes to the moon. This is how I like to understand why, when I walk up to the edge of the sea, it stretches and swills over my shoes with a kiss. I draw it towards me.
It’s been a long month.
November and I are not the best of friends. She is a governess, and I miss the summer. We are in the middle of five retrograding planets, apparently. I am too lazy a student to try and understand which or why - but I hear that it’s okay to feel whatever November likes to make us feel - the darkness imposing itself over perfectly useful hours like a sulky song.
I feel I owe you an update. I’ve managed to host the Monday night creative sessions every week but two so far, and it’s been wonderful. One regular attendee, a few familiar faces, often some surprise drop-ins. Always productive and heart-warming. Each week something emerges that wouldn’t otherwise have made it out of me on a Monday evening, and I feel better for that, less lost in the overgrowth of work.
Last weekend, Mathew and I also started our first day of filming a little project we’ve been planning for awhile. Sun poured through the window of a very pretty cottage as we talked creativity with our muse. I’ll tell you about it when it’s ready - a long-term project - but a blissful day of listening and talking and looking and thinking. Helped by all who so kindly donated to our camera pot - for which the very deepest thanks!
Writing wise, alas, it’s been a patchy patch. The focus and routine I was managing in September got munched up by one too many family birthdays in October. Some surprising things snuck out - a short story got finished, submitted and accepted to a new zine, a second script found its focus and the third is emerging in playful sketches. But 3 finished scripts in 3 months… Not so much.
November, thus far, has been all work and no dreaming. Germs and work and dark tired nights. When I’m too tired to dream, and give up on writing for a little while, I notice there’s a world around me. Real things seem extraordinary. I joined the Green Party, to see what it’s like to believe in something. I fed warm leftovers to Glen who has settled into the library doorway. I finally put the sloes in the gin. I took my shoes off on the beach and watched the swimmers disappear in that line where the sun drinks the water.
To defend yourself against November…
Tyrone Lebon’s wonderful Reely and Truly Film Club has a new film out. It’s free to become a member and if I ever need to turn my soul upside down and give it a good shake by the heels, I watch one of these.
Fyfe Dangerfield will be officially launching his rather ground-breaking new listening project, ‘The Stream’ next week on an Instagram live at 8pm on 21st November. His lives are always a wild ride of shockingly talented piano improvisation and left-field humour, so this one will be worth adding to the diary.
My most recent Netflix binge came as a surprise as it was in German. Feeling sickly and irritable, I couldn’t face any of their all too mediocre newer releases, and was immediately sucked in by the poetic camera work and irresistible eye candy of mid-Victorian European court life. The Empress, if you need some moderately high-brow escapism.
Which reminded me that Netflix only offers European language options to the English speaking world if they’re pretty excellent. And so if you haven’t yet watched Call My Agent, you probably should. It’s set in a contemporary Parisian film agency, and the talent are real French film stars like Juliette Binoche, and Monica Bellucci, making cameos each episode. Returning to Netflix on 23rd November.
My final recommendation is just a simple reminder that with Christmas coming up your local community is likely to be filled with open studios and craft fairs. The makers of this world will have been working their socks off these past few months to prepare. So have a google, go forth and support. You will be making a difference.
Monday Evening Shared Creative Space
What? 2 hours of quiet creative time that we share together online.
When? 7-9pm Monday evenings
For whom? For everyone and anyone who wants some quiet, committed time for a creative project, and finds it helpful to be held accountable for that.
Where? Join here.
Delightful! Loved the read thanks for sharing 💫