THE QUANTUM EVASION

PARIJAH DIARIES 15 It’s not surprising, I suppose. To look squarely at what is happening in the world at this time is extremely disturbing, and people have quickly evolved reasons for not doing so — even in my unvaccinated circles. At least a couple of people — one vaccinated, one not — have asked me, […]

BUT THEN AGAIN, WHAT DOES?

PARIJAH DIARIES 8 My life is a dream. That’s what it feels like, more and more. Has done for a while; the last few years, at least. Paradoxically, I think that’s how life should feel; how reality feels if you are actually in it. It’s a measure: the more you live in reality, the more […]

THE SEA BENEATH

PARIJAH DIARIES 7 I spent my first five years in a Legoland suburb of London at the end of the Piccadilly Line. I was born at home, 2am on a Tuesday morning, I believe, with a transparent membrane covering my head — a ‘cowl’, the midwife called it, explaining to my mother the traditional belief […]

SAINT DEATH

Parijah Diaries 11 “Such a caring for death, an awakening that keeps vigil over death, a conscience that looks death in the face, is another name for freedom.” ― Jacques Derrida After their gig the Filipinos like to go skate-boarding at midnight down on the beach road. It’s their new craze, and a great way to […]

IN BOCCA LUPO

COFFEE WITH GIOVANNI, Brixton 2014 I’m sitting outside the Ritzy cinema in Brixton, one of the few places in London I enjoy. I lived here in the early eighties, when the immigrant population was still predominantly Caribbean and Portuguese. Thirty years on, I’m waiting for my daughter, all grown up and successful now. She slept […]

WHEN THE BOOKS START TO READ ME

“When I came upon the myth of objectivity in certain modern thinkers, it made me angry. So there was only one world for these people, the same for everyone. And all the other worlds were to be counted as illusions left over from the past. Or why not call them by their name — hallucinations?” […]

THE END OF THE WORLD, MY FRIEND

“It’s the end of the world, my friend,” said Muhammed Zafrul Yilmaz.  The road was fast and empty, long bends snaking between dark, forested hills. The half-moon, floating on its back, scudded through cloud in a halo of petroleum colours; seeing the moon at this angle always reminded me that I was half a world […]

HAMADRYAD

A hamadryad (Greek: Ἁμαδρυάδες, Hamadryádes) is a Greek mythological being that lives in trees. They are a particular type of dryad, which are a particular type of nymph. Hamadryads are born bonded to a certain tree. Some believe that hamadryads are the actual tree, while normal dryads are simply the entities, or spirits, of the trees. If the […]

INTERVIEW WITH THE DIVOC

PARIJAH DIARIES 13 It wasn’t fun, exactly, but I wouldn’t have missed it. A bad trip is still a trip; and quite a trip at that.  My friend Jim worries about me doing this. Jim makes fine guitars; I call him the Just Artisan; he’s always saying ‘I’m just an artisan, but…’ before coming out with […]

NOUMENON / ICON

PARIJAH DIARIES 12 There was something else I was looking forward to when I came back to Jamrock — to put myself under the mushroom again. I’d been thinking about it for a while, up there on my parched plain in the North-East. I’d been in Isan more than a year already, working with Red […]