Porridge, an excerpt

 He stretches out of bed every morning and performs the same ritual, beginning with half-closed eyes and finishing fully a-wake and a-lert:

He fills the small coffee percolator with coffee and water and places it on a low heat for fifteen minutes. As it warms, he takes a handmade japanese blue-glazed cup from the shelf above the sink, measures out just less than a cupful of crushed oats and throws them in a pot. He fills the cup twice with water, allowing it to spill over the sides and wash any remaining bits of oat dust into the pot. He adds a pinch of salt for the acidity, a pinch of cayenne pepper for the kick and cooks it gently on the lowest heat for thirty minutes. He pours the coffee into the same blue-glazed cup and sips on it while reading a book from the library, passing regularly into the kitchen to stir the solidifying mixture.

About five minutes before the consistency is right, he adds half a mashed banana, eats the other half, and puts on a second coffee.

When the mixture has become porridge, he turns the heat off, tumbles the gloopy mixture into a bowl and lets it sit. After about five minutes, he adds a tablespoon of crushed linseed and a quarter chopped avocado, mixes it all together and stirs in half a teaspoon of honey - thyme, linden or tea-tree work best. Finally, he places twelve blueberries evenly across its surface, eight around the edges of the bowl, four in its centre, and pours the second cup of coffee.

This morning, however, he does none of this. He wakes up after only six hours of sleep thinking about his grandmother who recently passed away. She lived in meath... 

[aidan :: BLOG: https://app.sigle.io/floatinghome.id.blockstack]

pandemic situation and the dream of a living wage

the argument for a living wage feels very real. it is not just a thought for lock-down time but would help reset the rift between the rich and poor that has grown drastically in the past 30 years, and reinject some diversity into the world or at least stop the last bits of colour from draining out. 

we need to stop with this perpetual growth model - it can't be sustainable on a finite planet ! we should take stock of where we are: what works and what does not. we need to scale things back to more sustainable levels and be considerate of global effects and the global population.

perhaps governments could start by covering healthcare and basic housing, maybe even a basic amount for food and amenities, making the job something we do to improve our standard of living, thereby hopefully reducing the constant need to create meaningless positions just so people can earn. perhaps financially incentivise jobs that are undesirable but necessary and can't be automated. i know there is social welfare, but this should be made more accessible. in fact, i would argue that it should be a default state ! i also believe there should be a cap on expanding wealth, but here i just wish to outline my situation, knowing that there are others situated similarly...

i constantly find myself in debt due to the exorbitant prices of anything with a minimum ethical and quality standard; due to the constant charges common to every person that should in my opinion, be overseen by a social structure or government, along with no-interest banking; and due to the absorption of the entertainment industry into the easily duplicable virtual realm !

i feel trapped in this system and excluded by it at the same time, and i don't think i'm alone.

before the pandemic i was living hand-to-mouth, common for people in my line of work. i am principally a live musician and sound-engineer, so when the live entertainment industry was shut-down in march 2020 and all work was cancelled, i was fucked ! i am not alone in this either. there are a lot of struggling people right now, mostly freelancers (including artists and all that in here) and small-business owners, some with families and dependents... i, on the other hand, am lucky to have amazing friends and family who were able to step in and help bridge the gap until the government responded with an aid package (in which regard, kudos, germany have been quick and accessible). that money ran out in august and luckily, i had some work during the autumn, while restrictions were temporarily lifted. once again, though, i find myself looking for help to get through the next bit of lockdown. i have faith that the german government are once again on it. if not, it will be slim pickings come christmas !

in the mean time, however, there is the existential question of what is the point ? 

why wait for work to come back in an industry that is probably going to struggle for a number of years to get back on its feet when i could be learning to do something else in the mean-time ? sure i enjoy the work, but is that really enough ? i am quite fed-up with the '0' constantly staring back at me from my bank account and i find it hard to see art fixing this problem... how would i have got through a situation like this if i was living in ireland, for example ? how would i get through a situation like this again ?

i am looking into the british government's advice on the matter: to retrain ! currently i am learning the german language and hope to join the forces of academia once again as an electricians apprentice in september 2021 (if any of my berliner friends reading this has advice, please pass it my way - im not sure yet how to do this !). it will probably be useful in conjunction with the music and all, but mostly i hope it will help me with the bank balance !!! again, i don't think i'm alone here !

"what next ?" i hear the chorus sing.

be well y'all... winter's coming !

my next post will be something light, like a winter porridge recipe !

[aidan :: BLOG: https://app.sigle.io/floatinghome.id.blockstack]

who plays on "le grand discours"

my debut album: "le grand discours" by Floatinghome
released: march, 2012
hear me: https://floatinghome.bandcamp.com/album/le-grand-discours

this month, we recuperated the rights for our debut album, "le grand discours" and rereleased it independently through bandcamp. as you're listening, you'll probably have noticed that there's a whole bunch of musicians and artists on it, who are they all? i hear the chorus ask... well:

aidan - vox / guitar / rhodes / clarinet+whistles / cello bass (04,06,09) / bass (10) / percussion (02,04,06) / vocoder+fx
that's me - floatinghome is one of the projects with my songwriting at its heart...
and as for everyone else... besides the time we spent recording together on this here album, i have and have had wonderful friend and professional relationships with each and everyone...

Alyanya Massey - bv (07)
one of my last projects before leaving ireland was playing percussion in alyanya's band to see the launch of her SPIRIT album. we also played music together in a musical collective in dublin that was the centre of my life for about 3 years.

Antoine Wielemans - bass (03)
one of the singers and songwriters of belgian band "girls in hawaii". i worked with antoine and lio on some of the songs that made up their third album, "EVEREST" and worked also with him in the shop of luthier and friend francois massau.

Anna Jacob - sax (03)
we played together in various bands and projects in dublin and she played with us in the live band in dublin and belgium - featuring also on the "live and sans souci" album.

Aoife O Sullivan - bv (06)
we played together in various projects in dublin and germany. aoife is a photographer who photographed "lord altmont" and other projects that i was involved in. we toured together with wallis bird for years and, most recently, i played clarinet on her album, CHAPTERS (band: timely).

Augustin Dethier - drums (01,03,05,09,10) / bv (05)
we worked together regularly on projects including a couple of video soundtracks and the floatinghome project during its belgian years.

Ben Kritikos - guitar (01,05,11) / percussion (02,03) / noise (03) / bv (01,02,11)
my musical brother - we have been working together on tons of projects since we met in 2004, including his HERONS! project, my lord altmont and floatinghome projects. most recently, i helped record his second album, SOME THINGS RUN WILD. ben was also part of that dublin collective. he features on all of the floatinghome recordings so far!

Brian Roache - bv (01)
my path crossed in the bewleys theatre in dublin with many musicians and artists - i had the pleasure of working with brian on the biatch collective nights, among others.

Christine Docq - bv (01,07)
we lived together in a house in belgium that organised weekly open-mic nights - she is a fabulous interpreter and songwriter. i played clarinet with her band bedoq for a time.

Christophe Capewell - violin (01,07)
we played together on so many stages and in so many sessions during my time in ireland and since, our paths continue to almost cross - one of these days soon!

Cian Murphy - bass (02)
cian played bass with the floatinghome project during its dublin days and features also on the live at bewleys album. we lived together for a time in dublin and he was part of that dublin collective.

David mcGuinness - bv (01)
i adore this man's voice! singer/songwriter in his own right and also frontman of dublin band lir, i played percussion and clarinet with him at a nick drake tribute in dublin, as well as some other shows where we found ourselves performing together.

Fabrice Bihain - flute (02,05,07,10) / bv (05)
we met at an open-mic night in bruxelles in 2002, fabrice was sat in the corner playing flute all night, so i took him with me! the west cork song came from a musical idea we had together in a forest near namur. we have been involved in loads of projects over the years, and fabrice played guitar during floatinghome's belgian years.

Francois Massau - bv (03)
francois is a wonderful luthier... he made my electric guitar. i worked with him at his shop, de musica, for most of the time i lived in belgium. we had and continue to have many musical adventures.

James Guilmartin - percussion (02)
i play clarinet on james' debut album, INTRO INTO EXILE. he played percussion with the floatinghome project during its dublin years and was part of that dublin collective.

Jenny Lindfors - bv (02,11)
i played in jenny's live band and she played in mine during the dublin years. we drove many kilometers, jenny, ben, alyanya and i, in aly's black bmw or my mum's dark red volvo playing shows. we lived together in her family home, a fabulous house near the ocean in dublin for bursts of time too - we played alot of music as part of that dublin musical collective.

Jenny Woods - bv (01)
jenny was another person that i met in the bewleys theatre in dublin - she also sang with the biatch collective nights.

Remy Lehembre - bass (01) / double bass (05,07) / bv (05)
remy played bass with floatinghome during the belgian years. we have known each other much longer than that, stemming from wild musical nights in belgium in 2002.

Shelley Buckspan - bv (01)
i also met shelley in the bewleys theatre in dublin - she sang with many bands including the biatch collective nights... it was shelley who organised the singers on to this album and subsequently onto stage at a couple of my shows.

Simon Beriaux - bv (03,05)
simon played keys with floatinghome during the belgian years. we had been playing together since 2001 - i have a photo of us on stage around that time, me with a broken arm in a sling, lifted over my head, screaming a note and he, battering the guitar beside me! we have also worked together on his HIBOU project.

Valerie Balligand - cello (07)
we worked together in francois massau's shop. valerie is a truly wonderful musician who has played with many greats. im still waiting for the call to record on her debut album!

Wallis Bird - bv (06,07)
my musical sister, i spend more days of each year with wallis than anyone else in the world - her wonderful music has brought me all over the world and continues to do so - im honoured to work with her not only for the journey, but for the tunes that never tire when they're stuck in the head and the craic! i have played on all of wallis' albums, most recently, her wonderful new album due in autumn 2019.

Artwork by Nico Beleyew (tchiktchak.be).
i love nico's work - he has been working on the graphic identity of floatinghome since after bewleys (that one was me and not nearly as pretty!)... he sees something in there that i love! i think this website is now defunkt, but he's all over the internet.

Photo by Jens Oellermann
i first met jens when he was photographing wallis in a building-site across the road from our berlin venue. since, we have worked together on tons of projects, including his photo of me on the inlay of this album.

Mixed and Mastered by Marcus Wüst at Kleine Audiowelt studios.
i met marcus through wallis and loved his work instantly, we have been working together since the sans souci album. our paths also cross regularly on tour.

then there's Karakter...
without all the help and advice from peter, liz and the whole karakter team, id be in a ditch with 4 strings on my guitar trying to hit the high notes in simon and garfunkel songs.

hashmetoo

I was offline for the month of october and when i logged on to facebook this weekend, my wall was mostly "meToo". Upon closer examination it appeared to be my female friends who had unanimously decided to state their agreement. Such waves are usually broken by a "you missed so-and-sos birthday" message and a few newspaper articles, but on this day, the first two pages were exclusively meToo.

Now, i'm sure you know exactly of what i speak: the harvey weinstein-provoked wave of women opening-up on social media about sexual abuse and misconduct...

What surprised me most was not, as perhaps it should have been, the percentage of women coming forward to say they have been treated inappropriately, but the discrepancy between the online conversation and real-life conversation as i have experienced it. The earliest meToo that i could see was posted on october 16th. Between then and the day i was sat reading it, october 28th, a week and a half had passed in which i, living offline but among people, heard not a single word spoken about it. With the scope of the meToo movement, a great big shift in human-conscience should be happening! Is it?

That evening i asked a few people about it - the female reactions were inviting me for dinner and coffee to talk about their situations and how we can best act / react / change in the future - invitations that i will be accepting in due course... the male reactions were polarised between "it's a terrible world" and "its great that this is happening!", the latter reaction, i have been considering since - it's true, but what exactly? What is happening? This seems barely to be a dialogue - the issue of how we treat our fellow-humans has just been spread out clearly in front of us all. This should be talked about and addressed in that sort of face-to-face way that forces you to look in someones eyes and really understand.

Here i should pause to reiterate that i don't have a mobile-phone connected to the internet and am aware that most people do. I realise that the chatter on social media may supplement conversation in our now-time, and perhaps everyone else actually has been talking, listening and understanding. Perhaps the change is happening and i am going to catch up a bit late!

I read, as i'm sure you have also, all sorts of accounts from horrific situations of sexual abuse that you would wish on no person to the sort of situation where a hand rests where it shouldn't or a gender-specific slur is uttered when a neutral phrase would have been more appropriate or, quite simply, a stare lingers so long that it feels creepy and makes you avoid walking through the park on the way home... In public... In private... At work... At home... When stories of situations were brushed off as unimportant or as the sort of thing that women deal with every day... Well, i'm sure we can all agree that nobody should have to deal with this shit every day - nobody should ever feel uncomfortable and unsafe to call it out!

The more stories i read; the more i consider situations i have found myself in: both where i have felt that silent, recoiling discomfort, and also in close- and would-be-close- relationships where i may have caused discomfort to another, and while i have never forced myself on anybody and feel that i have never been abusive (physically, emotionally or psychologically), i feel i may be guilty of having acted inappropriately on occasion - continuing to try to convince such-n-such even though i knew they were not interested... There should be no ambiguous line here: inappropriate is wrong, and i just feel shitty that i may have caused someone to feel this way - i ask and expect to be called out, if i find myself there (though would hope not to).

Furthermore, i don't feel that we can, or should, isolate this conversation to men preying upon women. Having felt the discomfort described in some of the posts myself, i am aware of such behaviours and attitudes being everywhere. I imagine that most people of any gender have experienced this and can empathise which, in itself, is reason enough that inappropriate or abusive behaviour can not endure. We must constantly call out such behaviours, words and attitudes, whether directed at ourselves or somebody else, and stop situations before they become abusive, or even discomforting. I believe that most people are fundamentally good, and if we all identify and call out these things, it will become habit for each of us to stop in our tracks before mistreating or disrespecting people.

a sunday in june

it was sunday, 2000.
we were woken up dry-mouthed and roasted at midday by an overly-joyous local brass band... we had been here since wednesday and this was just too much joy for the fifth day of any party! so almost without a word, we understood to walk shakely towards our lavazza man caravan...
we were 22: conor, maree and i; learning the world and finding, like so many other post-adolescents, a promising liberty in the blinkered world of the music festival... and we needed our fix; coffee and music would save us!
conor and i had been here before and knew that the line-up was secondary to the festival - and a good thing too, as this year's line-up was shit! our sunday was mostly spent walking lazily through the festival compound, consuming any magic that was on offer. besides nine inch nails and david bowie, this year's main stage line-up had little to offer us, but today was david bowie day!
as we queued for coffee, there were murmurs of the david bowie show being cancelled... allegedly, he had given a full-on show in new-york a few days prior, breaking into all the hits for the first time in decades... he had played a 5-hour long set - the wind said that he had fucked himself up so much, he had to cancel the following show... glastonbury was the next one after that - would he show up?
... we're all stood in front of the stage, i count at least a million of us (probably two million in hindsight) shouting in support and doubt of our hero's arrival. we cheered right through what i recognised as a nina simone song before his presence overcame us... then china girl and ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, the only of his songs that i thought i knew until he rolled out a setlist of fame, under pressure, heroes, lets dance, ziggy stardust... actually this dude has been part of my life all along and i didn't even realise it! a relentless and unexpected 90 minutes... never before had i been so caught up in a vibe... i'll never forget holding conor and maree in the pause between the set and the encore: we were ecstatic, and i didn't really know why but, in my 22-year-old self something had been awakened - music could go anywhere, i felt, and i wanted to go there too!
i can't remember the rest of the weekend so well - it seems to have stopped there... or was that the year that we were woken up on the monday after the festival in the bristol train station by a guard telling us that we could sleep a bit longer... ?
in any case, on this 12th january 2016, he drifts into the great unknown and i am surprised to be effected so, but fuck... he gave us so much and in the face of death screamed even louder!

david bowie - blackstar

... mind blown

simon's place

it's the best sort of institution to me... like school or college, this café has been a constant through my entire adult life, even when home has been far away.

i am 15, i first walk through their door with schoolfriend, dave after skipping school and spending the start of the afternoon in the university with college students, smoking weed in a society room on one of the top floors of the 16th century landmark building - i hadn't noticed this portland stone beauty before that afternoon! we went downstairs with a coffee and a cheese sandwich, where i struggled to find the beginning of the cling-wrap - we were going to sit here for hours, there was no rush!

i sit here again, some 20 years later, pull the ends of the cling-wrap and watch the sandwich spin open, before searching the surface of the sandwich for where to begin unwrapping - simon has mastered the simple cheese sandwich, and i still have trouble opening it! i don't eat so many cheese sandwiches these days, but with a side of nostalgia and a chat with the charming staff, i spread mustard on the bread, add some cheese and onion crisps and bite in...

i am 16, visiting the never-ageing white-haired gent across the arcade, getting my nipple pierced with fake id, as only the nipple or the cock would go unseen!
i am 17, adding rum to my coffee.
i am 18, feeling up a goth girl i met at the central bank.
i am 19, and one of the lucky few that got inside to see the frames play a secret filmed gig.
i am 20, changing microphones at a venue up the road at my first "big" gig.
i am 21, on a break between lectures, after finally going to university to study something "proper" in an attempt to take myself more seriously - it didn't work - i'm still a joke!
i am 22, studying in a corner downstairs between soundcheck and show, as regardless of what "serious" is, music is where my home is!
i am 23, having coffee with my lecturer, as i'm on a year away from college and he's cool!
i am 24, missing living here and thinking of coming home to finish college - music didn't work out!
i am 25, and finding my voice as a singer and meeting musicians.
i am 26, studying my ass off in the corner and writing about bach and palladio.
i am 27, sticking up posters for my very own concerts.
i am 28, taking a break from busking.
i am 29, playing songs with ben and kevin at closing time for esther, annie and simon.
i am 30, 31, 32, ... popping in whenever i'm home to shoot the breeze and talk economically of adventure - these people are some of my favorites - i wish i knew them better!
i sit the afternoon away in the window, writing and reading and watching people walk by, with the odd friendly exchange or smile, happy that as dublin closes down around him, simon stays put, washing the cups.

lunar eclipse: viewed from a rooftop in bruxelles, 28th september 2015

at 2h, armed with camera, guitar, cushion, blanket, some candles and a cup of tea, i climb out on to the roof of my home. the night is calm and fresh. i spot the moon sitting brightly above the church on the horizon, set up the camera pointing at it and wrap myself in the blanket. tonight's full moon will be eclipsed in two hours.

i hear voices drift up from the porte de hal, below - the final few steps of a weekend's partying, by the sound of it! as they shout and bang away into the distance, they are replaced by a burst of police sirens and city noise - why so loud at this time of night? i play quietly, all the same, so as not to further disturb the neighbours. i expected to be greeted by a city of people on the rooftops to witness this mornings full lunar eclipse, but i appear to be alone.... the city calms...

the moon has a pale blue hue and a lovely halo surrounding it - well, more of a misty aura than a halo, but it looks heavenly! the sky is clear, except for this light layer of humidity. i play a couple of songs, then take a photo and continue like this until about 3h30, when my neighbour's bedroom lights up. i hear a shuffle and hope to see someone appear at the window - it would be nice to share this moment with someone, not just the thought of an interworld of people, each going at it alone!

i sip my tea, no one arrives... i play another pair of songs!

i'm learning a bunch of old soul songs at the moment, as i finish mixing my band's album - i run around the repertoire... i hear a whoop and applause at the end of "dark end of the street", so i know i am no longer alone.

the moon remains blue, but the aura has gentle specks of red and yellow appearing in its edges.

i go to make a second cup of tea, and when i return, the dark side of the moon is a glowing dark desert brown - a spectacular colour. a small breeze picks up and the sky begins to flash with people taking photos of nature's dance.

the eclipse was announced for 4h11, it is almost 4h. the sky is clear now; the aura is gone... the sun's light is almost entirely absent from the moon's surface, only the refracted desert red remains. a dog barks... the last time i saw an eclipse this clear, was the solar eclipse of 1999: i travelled to the boglands outside edinburgh. for that event, the world went entirely dark at around 11am and all the animals responded in chorus - this lunar eclipse is almost mute!

a light cloud builds once again around the moon, cradling it as its blue hue returns... the first of the mornings airplanes and the urban sirensong fill the sky. my eyes are heavy now, and the fingernail clipping has grown too bright for my camera to capture so i collect my belongings and make for bed. i meet my house-mate getting up to watch the end of the eclipse and the rise of the dawn as i retire to dream.