Andrew Avramenko

Current favourite thing on the internet.

An abandoned building by the beach where a window overlooks the sea. The water through the window resembles a painting, so someone has scrawled Free Rothko on the wall.

Good morning.
I don't know who did this, but I love you.

Vinyl records of Mono’s orchestral concert production of their Oath album and a copy of their Heaven Volume 3 they signed at last week’s Bristol gig. The concert is showing on the TV in the background.

Whilst I’d love to be able to be at every night of Mono (Japan)’s current tour, I can at least relive last year’s orchestral concert production of the Oath album at home now the concert album has arrived. Most definitely my favourite band, such great music and musicians!

Taka of Mono

Tamaki Kunishi of Mono

From left: Yoda (guitar), Tamaki Kunishi (bass), Dahm (drums) and Taka (guitar)

Taken from the band’s Facebook and Instagram post - Mono on stage at The Fleece, Bristol with me at the front of the stage.

Last night I got to see one of my favourite bands, MONO, open their European Tour in Bristol, UK with one of best concerts I’ve been to which closed with my favourite piece of theirs “Com(?)” & the band signed an Ep for me

Do check if they are coming to a place near you www.monoofjapan.com/tour.php

YouTube video by 20th Century Studios Canada Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere | Official Trailer

I could wait to watch the Bruce Springsteen film Deliver Me From Nowhere at home or I could go to Everyman Cinema in Bath and sit on a sofa there to watch it sooner on a screen that fills my field of vision and with a sound system better than I could afford at home… I chose the latter.

Gregory Alan Isakov singing and playing an acoustic guitar under a single spotlight

Gregory Alan Isakov on stage with his band

Gregory Alan Isakov backlit by thin lines of light in a fan shape

Gregory Alan Isakovwirh his band playing around a single microphone

Well that was a revelation! Gregory Alan Isakov and his band at The Beacon in Bristol were amazing, as was the sound - judging by concerts I’ve been to there before and since its refurbishment and renaming, the venue has certainly improved but it’s still dependent on a good band & sound engineer.

It’s relaxing to be at a concert when you don’t know the artist or their music, yet also disconcerting when the numbers attending suggest the artist is very well known… clearly I’m not as in touch with ‘the music scene’ as I used to be.

There’s so much happening in the world that sucks the joy out of life that I keep trying to lift people when I preach. But my attempts to encourage through my last 2 sermons were drowned out by the challenges they contained about showing God’s care for people & planet. I long for unadulterated joy…

Greta Thunberg has arrived in Greece following her deportation from Israel,
after the Gaza aid flotilla was intercepted
#GlobalSumudFlotilla
She said:
“I could talk for a very,very long time about our mistreatment and abuses in our imprisonment.
Trust me, but that is not the story.”
#Athens airport

Free stickers suitable for flag-bearing lampposts. Send a large A4 envelope with a 1st class large stamp to me at Bragg Office, PO Box 6830 Bridport DT6 9BH and I’ll send you a sheet. #ReclaimtheFlag 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇬🇧

It breaks my mind that two British political parties have seen scenes like this and decided to try and replicate it in Britain. Thuggary, lawlessness, state brutality. Farage and Badenoch decided they liked the look of it.

"To my colleagues in mainstream media: your silence is complicity. Your 'boths-sides-ism' is complicty. Your euphemisms for genocide is complicity."

From my speech accepting the 'Path of Truth' award from Palestinian diaspora group KTH.

Full speech: zeteo.com/p/palestine-...

Jean-Michel Jarre’s live album from his London Docklands concert played in my music shuffle this evening bringing back memories of being there. I looked up the date, it was in 1988.

I feel old…

Michael Palin being picked up by a jaguar animal

Terry Gilliam writing a book about the toilet

I was listening to Michael Palin’s (1979) diaries earlier and hear him say he was picked up by a jaguar and Terry Gilliam wrote a synopsis on the toilet.

My first thought was not of cars or a deposal device… cue ChatGPT’s imagination of my imagination.

A DJ on stage under a single white light

Tonight’s listening pleasure: the reformed The Beta Band, live at the O2 Academy in Bristol, and a masked DJ who would I would be surprised to find out is Steve Mason or another member of The Beta Band.

Vinyl albums create a closer connection to the music than any other format, but not for their tactile nature - CD’s have a similar quality. But the very need to get up and change sides or discs means that vinyl records stop songs blurring into others and losing their individual identities.

Mogwai’s vinyl album As The Love Continues playing on a turntable

Tonight’s album: Mogwai’s As The Love Continues - an excellent addition to their discography that includes their trademark range of sonic intensities and their finest sung song to date (Richie Sacramento).

Underworld’s dub no bass with my headman album.

Tonight’s bedtime listening: Underworld’s dubnobasswithmyheadman.

Yes! Mine came in the post today (release day) having pre-ordered it from Nine Inch Nails’ website back in July. I presume record stores will have it from today, albeit with different cover and black vinyl (the red/black vinyl and cover is only available from their website).

The vinyl record and cover of Nine Inch Nail’s Tron Ares soundtrack.

It’s finally out! An evening with Nine Inch Nails’ Tron Ares soundtrack has started.

Conversation today:

“How did the Israelites survive for 40 years in the desert (during the Exodus)?”

Me: “God sent them quails and manna to eat”

“What’s that?”

Me “Think of it like 40 years of KFC and bread, so no wonder they were grumpy”.

Music is my passion and fuel for life, but the sound of silence is equally powerful, the peace bringing both inner peace and energy at the same time. So with an empty house, I’m keeping the records in their sleeves and the stylus docked, and enjoying the silence whilst I can.

As humans we are built to live in relationship and community with others, which is one reason social media is so popular, but it hides or masks the reality of our isolation from each other. We can’t rely on algorithms and digital observations, we need to contact or be contacted, to meet and to talk.

I’m reminded of the illusion of Facebook and its system of friends. Rather than be a tool to share life as friends would so, it encourages people to show only the best of their lives, or spin/manipulate their reality to appear great, with friends watching rather than become part of.

YouTube video by BrianTheMan Life of Brian - Alms for an ex Leper

Funny how things coincide…read Michael Palin’a diaries covering the ex-leper scene from The Life of Brian. Few days later hear a sermon on the Grateful Leper. Then reminded of my status as a metaphorical unhealed leper best kept outside the community, avoided & forgotten

Time to laugh with the film

At least with the concert in question not happening until March I’ll likely have forgotten the stress and will enjoy it.

Still, glad most of the artists & venues I go to see sell tickets the simple, straightforward & relatively traditional way.

After multiple attempts before I finally managed to get some tickets in a pre-sale today but can’t shake the feeling I could have got better and/or cheaper seats if it wasn’t for the 5 minute countdown to find seats and purchase the tickets.

The Pre-sale concert ticket process is way too stressful - the virtual queue and clock, the selection of seats disappearing before your eyes, the IT failures chucking you out & needing to repeat the process to get back in, seem purposely designed to panic people into paying more than they’d planned.

Angela Rayner accidentally pays less tax than she should have, resigns, and the media gives her hell.

Nigel Farage deliberately pays less tax than he should have, and the media gives him a free pass.

That, right there, is the problem.