I thought the vogue for immortality 'how-to' books had, ironically, died out. when I read them, I always end up at the same thought (like Delillo in Zero K) "what's the point of life if you don't die at the end". Sorry to hear about your personal experience tho, that sounds scary. Enjoy the column

I always had the intuition that it was the PR machine of a false London. And had this deep sense of propaganda whenever I went there, which was often because a few mates worked in a clothes shop right on the square. Eerie place for me, but defo gonna challenge that by having a crack at this book!

Nice review Luke! I always thought of Covent Garden as one of the stands against gentrification because of the 1970s protest when they moved the markets to Battersea. Personally one of my least favourite areas in central from a young age, compounded by its weird presence in that Wham movie.

It's beyond sickening.

I think they put a regional block on using it v. recentiy. I might be wrong but I tried for DE & FR and it said it wouldn't deliver to Belgium anymore. Hopefully I'm wrong or doesn't extend to NL.

Yeah I was a big hater, but he kept telling me to give it another go. It'll never be my go-to, but it has its place. If you ever come across any of his beers, defo have a look, they're some of my favourites

My friends brewery in Ghent does a really nice low alcohol raspberry sour. They sell it here and there in Delhaize's (not sure as far out as Antwerp). But that's it if you ever come across, it's a good one: Stroom Colorado Raspberry Sour 0.5% 33cl | De Hopduvel share.google/HAmaMPtu8YgQ...

Didn't even realise my subscription had lapsed. But you got me for another year at least. Bargain!

Yeah his mum is a New York Times bestselling author with a memoir about her open marriage. Which again, you can't tell me you can't hear

And when I say the beautiful sound, I mean almost chord for chord the nostalgia VU mainlining morose sanguinary of "Au Pays du Cocaine". It's like they're born with a silver spoon that has the sheet music for that type of song engraved on it

I like the record, I think you can scroll back thru my timeline to see, doesn't mean it doesn't feel like a re-occuring event haha. Strokes blowing up / dot.con crash, Vampire weekend siundtracking 2008 financial collapse, we were due Geese and the mass inflated AI stock sell off.

Always looking for the Cal bylines on the list, I call those Calbums

...one instance it was a couple days after I was in London doing that Sinclair piece and I had a quote of his, "nothing is coincidence, but confirmation" written in my notebook that I was looking at while she was in hospital (it was nothing very bad, just concerning enough to land in hospital)

On the day you release the AOTY list? Ouchy! To balance this out, whenever my daughter has something serious, I always just happen to be home. The three times she has been hospitalised all came a week or in some cases a day after I came back from a trip. I find that incredibly odd...

Right plaice, right twime

...Let alone the letters, the book on Moby Dick, all the other poems, the works on the Mayans. I'm the same, I've read The Kingfishers and I'm this far into the Maximus Poems despite having it for years and telling Iain Sinclair I would read it after chatting with him like 8 months ago

The microgenres of (internet) hip hop that inform this record are genuinely astonishing. I knew almost zero of them beforehand, but working backwards I've found a lot of artists that are doing really interesting stuff outside of my 30-something existence