There's sometimes a feeling, a very attractive feeling, that we have to change everything to change one particular something. It underpins everything religious apocalypticism to doomsday preppers to populism and calls for revolutions without the work of revolutions.

There's a persistent thread of discussion that takes analysis of how capitalist social organisation compounds the challenges present to individuals by mental ill-health, distress and trauma and declares that if we didn't have capitalism we wouldn't have mental ill-health, distress and trauma

I don't think I've heard the demos. I've heard a few alternate versions, perhaps ones Lal did with her son? I got a copy on cd from what I think was person in their shed. Stuff like this is real record shop heaven / hell. I first heard The Scarecrow covered by The Fatima Mansions as a young teen

That is a cracking, cracking record. It's weirdly close to kids TV folk soundtrack while also being howlingly sad. Red Wine and Promises, The Scarecrow... I adore it

I love all of the Nico records. Marble Index is kind of like its name, Desert Shore is much more emotional. I think Desert Shore is the one for me. But it's baffling looking at it with the other records in that list, lots of great records but all 1968 records. Marble Index? Adrift in time

I believe the quote is something like 'you can't market suicide' or similar. It's remarkable uncheerful, even for John Cale.

*Dad coughs* Shall I turn it over?

Somewhere a wind howls

Imagining all of the family clustering around the record player for a nice rousing festive spin of The Marble Index sides one and two.

"Why isn't there a formula that will consistently make other people less confusing and only act in the ways that I prescribe? Where is the exterior court in which my will shall rule supreme? How can I protect this kernal of self I do not really understand from the assault of the reality of others?"

More generally, I think people who were happy to discuss, share and be neighbourly benefitted most from pre-monitisation social networks. While some people got careers from that, the career grew from lack of hierarchy, not because of it. Monetisation make colleagues audiences, conversations metrics

Up to a point, maintaining visibility in the face of rancid hostility made sense when there was also new possibilities to be gained, finding another tiny islands of reasonable friendship in a sea of shits. Lots of folks still found this better than isolation. Musk's take over of twitter sank that

As is always the case, those who experienced most prejudice and disdain were the folks who pointed out very early that social media was not an Eden. Those who usually suffered less from people hating them for fuck all reason didn't really see the problem, even when it was directly pointed out

Social media as network felt kind of liberating (anyone can be in anyone's network!) a magic telephone where you could phone anyone in the world or listen in on anyone else's discussions. The extent to which this felt nice depended on the balance of who magic telephoned you.

Writing and social media was always a funny business because for some, talking with people via social media was part of social media and writing was an extension of this. Like the way writing in a noisy place filters into what and how you write. Your mentions weren't just a comments section

While these amazing connective innovations were changing things for us, they were also doing same for everyone else. Your intentions and conduct played back by your outcomes. Social media in general became stratified more into creators and audiences. Best folks straddled this divide. Others didn't

There was a huge confusion in the 2010s between 'libertarian' and 'for the common good' . Not the same things at all. I suppose we all. Assumed that the ways others would use this amazing thing would be how we ourselves would. And that's what everyone thought, regardless of how they used it.

Arrival of Post Facebook social media in the late 2000s, along with 3g for phones, seemed like an amazing time to me. You could discuss with strangers and share in real time and it felt like somehow everyone was a star and no one was. We sort of assumed that the spirit of social media was benign-ish

Get in the memory hole nation of the dead. You have become uncomfortable truths that no one wants to sit in witness of. We now live in the present that was minimised and scoffed at. I'm sorry we can't bring you back with optimism and looking on the bright side. I remember and thousands of others do