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2025-09-16

Week 245: Infinite variations

I put on a CD of Bach’s Goldberg Variations (Hewitt’s 1999 piano recording, for those who are interested) while I was making dinner. After I had done all the preparation, cooked all the food, and was about to serve, I realised that it had been playing for an implausibly long time. I took a closer look. The player was restarting the final track every time it reached about a minute and a half into it, but in a way that wasn’t jarring, and wasn’t obvious unless you listened out for it.

There’s nothing exactly wrong with the CD – my DVD drive can read it accurately – but it’s much longer than the original 1980 CD specification (78′ 24″ vs 74′ 33″) and my CD player from 1989 predates the point at which they started to push the limits. The player generally does a good job considering that it’s 36 years old and I bought it second hand, but perhaps the final track is just too far out towards the edge for its tolerances.

I was browsing the books in a charity shop in Deptford when my attention was caught by a hardback second edition of The Physics of Musical Instruments by Fletcher and Rossing. It’s a hefty tome, typeset in Computer Modern (so you know it’s legit), and it goes for about £87 new. I paid £4. I am very pleased with this, not least because I obtained a copy without giving a penny to the awful company that publishes it.

Hundreds of thousands of ethno-nationalists and white supremacists (and, presumably, some number of hangers-on who weren’t smart enough to realise that they had come out for an ethno-nationalist white supremacist event organised by an odious, violent, criminal agitator) held a rally in London on Saturday. I didn’t join the opposing march because I couldn’t fit it around other commitments, but in the end I’m glad: I spoke to friends who were there, and being hemmed in on all sides by angry red men sounds terrifying.

When I cycled into central London later in the day, Southwark and Blackfriars were filled with throngs of nylon-flag-draped far-right demonstrators, most of whom seemed to be more than adequately refreshed, and the streets were covered in their litter, beer bottles and cans in particular.

On the other hand, when I passed Russell Square, where the anti-fascist march started, it was as tidy as normal.

I had to ride around a lot of broken glass on Blackfriars Bridge to get home that evening. I managed to take a photo of some of the mess. This wasn’t the worst of it, but it was the place that I felt least in physical danger to sneak the shot.

As if it weren’t already obvious, these people don’t actually love or respect their country. They treat it like a bin.

I’ve never been scared of a Muslim in a shalwar kameez, but these “white British” oiks wrapped in flags have me absolutely fucking terrified.

I went to SOAS for a concert to celebrate the life of David Hughes on Sunday afternoon. Some members of Sanshinkai were performing eisā, but I was just there as a member of the audience, which is much more relaxing. The performances reflected David’s wide musicological interests and covered a vast range of traditions: Japanese, Okinawan, Chinese, Indonesian, Arabic, Cuban. The gamelan was a new experience to me, and as the players worked through their interlocking patterns on the metal bars of the gendèr, I felt as if I was listening to an acoustic version of a modular synth piece.

On the walk home from the station, I managed to be caught outside during five minutes of an absolute cloudburst, and had to go directly to the bathroom to strip off my soaking clothes in favour of something drier.

Links:

• Create a Phishy URL: Like a URL shortener, except that every URL it produces looks extremely sketchy.
• MMI Modular USB Power is a cheap, open-source USB power supply for Eurorack synthesisers.
• New Orleans jambook is a huge collection of lead sheets.
• Friends of Friendless Churches. “We rescue and protect historic places of worship in England and Wales.”
• SailLink: Cross the Channel by sail between Dover and Boulogne.
• Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning. “There is no requirement to take part in this whitewashing campaign, and refusing to join in doesn’t make anyone a bad person. It’s a choice to write an obituary that begins ‘Joseph Goebbels was a gifted marketer and loving father to six children.’”