I know not everyone’s working from home, but a great many of you are. I’ve just come off the phone from my friend Ollie in Lower East Side, New York. When he first got the apartment in Manhattan with his girlfriend Rache it was postage stamp sized, but, hey, they reasoned, it was just a pad to lay down their heads at night. The rest of the time they’d be working or whooping it up in the city that never sleeps.
Ripple dissolve.
Ollie and Rache have been cooped up for three weeks now in an apartment in which you would literally not be able to swing a cat (which always seems a rather heartless expression, TBH). They daren’t go out because the Lower East Side is the biggest Petri dish in the world, the epicentre of the world’s pandemic (again, centre or epicentre? - OK, let’s not get diverted).
They’ve been out twice for half an hour each in the last week for supplies. The one window they own has a view of the building opposite. They’re effectively in prison – and being forced to work harder than ever before on conference calls one metre apart from each other. On the plus side, if they get through this then having children will be nothing in comparison.
So for all you Ollie and Raches out there, here’s an opportunity to gyrate a little and burn off the excess frustration and energy. It’s a Sombrero Fallout International Dance Party episode.
Special shout out. Devotee of the programme Colin O’Sullivan has a book I’d like to recommend with a very SF theme, called ‘My Perfect Cousin’. It features Siouxsie and The Cure. Please do get on Amazon and snap up a copy to help you through these “challenging” / “crazy” times. He’s won awards. He’s really good.
Tracklist:
Laissez passer, Diblo Dibala Machatcha (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Is it always binary, Soulwax (Belgium)
I feel love, Donna Summer (US)
Ship, Molchat Doma (Belarus)
Der Mussolini, DAF (Germany)
Venus, Cheek (Sunshine People DJ Gregory Remix) (France)
Jit Jive, Bhundu Boys (Zimbabwe)
Let’s make love and listen to death from above, CSS (Brazil)
Eple, Roykssop (Norway)
The gospel comes to Papua New Guinea, The Future Sound of London, (UK)
Only love can break your heart, St Etienne (Andrew Weatherall Mix), (UK)