Not On Time
Some thoughts on the clock, and all the latest from OneTrackMinds HQ
Hello friends! Greetings from OneTrackMinds HQ, where I have returned to from my self-imposed exile in a cabin in the woods north of Hemel Hempstead. Yes, my three-day Unplugged retreat went off very well, thank you very much for asking, and I’m feeling refreshed, recharged and ready for the big build-up to our two stellar shows at the end of the month.
Of which more in a moment. But first, some reflections on three days off-grid. Observant readers of this newsletter will know that this wasn’t my first visit to an Unplugged cabin - indeed, I spent a very pleasant few days in the sun in a different one of their cabins last summer - but this visit was all the better for knowing a little more what to expect. The idea with Unplugged is that you spend three days completely off-grid, and they give you a little wooden box to lock your phone in for the duration of your stay. This is quite a daunting prospect the first time out, and my first day on my own felt very unusual indeed. There’s a strange kind of anxiety associated with not being in work mode - not needing to be somewhere, not needing to call someone, not having anything in particular to do.
This time around, I was prepared for that odd sense of disorientation, and so was able to ease into it much more. Moreover though, this time I not only locked my phone away, but I also put my watch in the little wooden box as well. So for three days, I had no way of really knowing what time it was exactly.
And that, my friends, was really, really strange. But also really, really enlightening! Without a clock to guide me, I had to rely solely on how I was feeling to decide what to do… If I was hungry, I ate. If I was tired, I took a nap. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t lunchtime. It didn’t matter if I went to bed at 7pm. It didn’t much matter if I woke up in the middle of the night (because I presumably went to bed at 7pm), because it didn’t matter what time I woke up the next day.
In normal life, such a carefree attitude to time is obviously impossible - I need to get up at 6am so I can squeeze in my morning routine before the girls get up at 7am, and they need to have eaten breakfast by 7:30am so we can get them out the door for school by 8:45am, and then I need to get on the tube into the office so I can get there for my first meetings of the day at 10am etc. etc. etc. and on and on it goes. But for three days, I was free. And that was a very special feeling altogether.
If you’re curious to give it a try, I highly recommend it. Unplugged have 16 cabins dotted around London, an hour or so outside of the city (as well as a couple in Manchester and a couple in Wales); they’re all identical inside, and very comfortable indeed, with hot showers, very comfy bedding and a very practical kitchen with all the tea and coffee you could need. There’s more information on their website.
I’ve been thinking a lot about our attitude to time since coming back to the ‘real world’ on Friday morning, and a good friend recommended Jenny Odell’s book Saving Time, subtitled Discovering a Life Beyond The Clock. It sounds rather fascinating, and so I picked up a copy on my way home from the office this afternoon… It’s out in paperback, and you can get a copy from our Bookshop.
What’s any of this got to do with stories about life-changing songs? Well, not much to be honest. So, getting back to the point, let me tell you more about our upcoming shows at Wilton's Music Hall at the end of the month. We’re back in our spiritual home on March 26th and 27th, and if tickets continue to sell at the rate they have been, we’ll expect them to be on LIMITED AVAILABILITY by the end of the week. If you want to hear glorious stories from the likes of Doon Mackichan, Alice Vincent, Thomas Leeds, Alan Johnson, Amy Key and Sadie Clark, then don’t hang about. And if you use the code OTMCast when booking, you can get top-price tickets (usually £18) for just £11. Bargain!
And you can use that same discount code if you want to get really organised and book ahead for our shows in May (31st) and July (2nd and 3rd) as well. We’ve already confirmed our full line-ups (which IS very organised of us, isn’t it?).
If you can’t wait until then, you live in the vicinity of Hackney and you’re at a loose end this Friday evening (March 15th), might I recommend that you head to the Hackney Empire where you can see long-time ‘Holy Grail’ Wishlist OneTrackMinds guest Hollie McNish, alongside recent OneTrackMinds heroes Michael Pedersen and Salena Godden, for what will surely be a riotously fun night of poetry and spoken word. Tickets here.
Here’s a delightful thing - VinylMePlease is a vinyl record subscription service which I’ve been subscribed to on and off for the past few years. Each month they send you a limited edition hand-picked record, usually pressed on some wildly garish and beautiful coloured vinyl of a classic album in your genre of choice (choose from Hip Hop, Country, Rock, Classics (Jazz/Soul) or Essentials (a mix of some of the best albums ever recorded)), and it’s always a genuine delight. Look at this gorgeous pressing of Fleetwood Mac’s Tango In The Night which is on its way to me right now!
Lovely! And, as a member, you have access to their brilliantly curated shop, full of similarly gorgeous editions of all-time classic records, as well as some really curious discoveries as well. It’s a real treat. If you’re curious, here’s a discount code that will give you 20% off any subscription or store purchase. Let me know what you picked…
It’s March, which means it’s Tournament of Books time! The greatest book prize on the internet got underway last week, and already it’s every bit as exciting as it always is. If you’re unfamiliar with the Tournament of Books, it’s a literary prize where the judging is done out in the open, and books compete against each other like in a tournament, with the judge’s favourite book each round going through to the next one until only one book remains. There’s a new match every week day in March, culminating in the Championship march on March 29th and each year it’s a total joy and I always come away from it with a long list of books to read, and in the twenty years of the competition, it’s not served up a single dud. Past winners include Cloud Atlas, Wolf Hall, Normal People, The Road, The Underground Railroad and Station Eleven - a wall of champions made up of 100% modern classics. It’s a lot of fun. Follow along every week day for the rest of the month.
Angels songwriter Guy Chambers adds his voice to the growing unease over Artificial Intelligence and its increasing influence in the cultural arena…
This fascinating piece from cultural critic Ted Giola is well worth your time. In short, Art got eaten by Entertainment, which in turn got eaten by Distraction, which is now being eaten by Addiction. It’s a grim read, but after reading it, everything makes a lot more sense…
The State of The Culture - Ted Giola
Another one of my favourite Substack newsletters is Noted, which will appeal to any of you with a stationery addiction. Each week, Jillian Hess looks at the notes and notebooks of a culturally interesting person. Last week’s issue focused on the work of Rent composer Jonathan Larsen.
Right, that’ll do! It’s Adam’s turn in the newsletter hot-seat next Monday, so he’ll be here with all the latest from OneTrackMinds HQ. Until then, take very good care of yourselves.
KB.
Hugely recommend Unplugged too. Chapeau for putting your watch in the box as well as your phone.