Alright mate? This is the digital home of Daniel Savage, a small man who is trying very hard to exist.

There’s so many unnecessary things in an airport. Why are you trying to do me a deal on 3 bottles of gin. Why is there a space for gamblers. Why is a Kit Kat £2.50.

🎵Now Playing: Villagers - Becoming a Jackal (2010)

I’m stressing at work trying to cram everything in before the big trip. And Villagers can whisk me away into an indie-folk ethereal world while I deal with data. A stunning, lyrical album full of emotion and pictures.

Favourite Tracks:

  • I Saw the Dead
  • Becoming a Jackal
  • The Meaning of the Ritual
  • Home
  • Twenty Seven Strangers

Across Canada: The How, The Why, The What

I’m going on holiday this week, to Canada 🇨🇦. I’m hoping that I will make use of this digital space to record my trip properly, and actually blog something other than sharing what I’m listening to or my inane thoughts. To begin, let’s chat about why I’m going, how I’m travelling, and what my overall plan is. The Why It will be 10 years since I last visited Canada. I have family over there and, as my nan has been nearing the end of her life (she’s 95 this year!

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Not had a proper holiday for myself in years. So counting down the days left in work to next Friday 🇨🇦

🎵Now Playing: Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger (2005)

6music had them on today to celebrate 20 (TWENTY) years since it’s release. With that and seeing The Maccabees tonight I’m absolutely delighted to be reliving my youth.

Favourite Tracks:

  • Apply Some Pressure
  • Graffiti
  • Picture of a Painting
  • Going Missing
  • Limassol

🎵Now Playing: Muse - Black Holes and Revelations (2007)

I haven’t listened to Muse for ages, and normally I wouldn’t stray far from Origin of Symmetry or Absolution but they headlined my first ever festival (Benicassim, 2007) on this tour so I have a soft spot for it. Opening the set with Knights of Cydonia blew my teenage head clean off.

Favourite Tracks:

  • Starlight
  • Supermassive Black Holes
  • Assassin
  • Knights of Cydonia

🎵Now Playing: Santigold - Santogold (2008)

It’s Monday and I’m drinking a Lucozade (orange flavour obviously, I’m not a mentalist who drinks original). I clearly needed a pep in my step this afternoon so we’re back to the 00’s with Santigold’s fantastic debut.

Favourite Tracks:

  • L.E.S. Artists
  • You’ll Find a Way
  • Shove It
  • Say Aha
  • Lights Out
  • Unstoppable

🎵Now Playing: Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future (2007)

It’s hot, sunny, and a Friday. 00’s nu-rave seems appropriate, and this is the 00’s nu-raviest of them all. Wall-to-wall bangers.

Favourite Tracks:

  • Atlantis to Interzone
  • Golden Skans
  • Totem on the Timeline
  • As Above So Below
  • Isle of Her
  • Gravity’s Rainbow
  • Forgotten Works
  • Magick
  • It’s Not Over Yet

My (5km) empire of dirt

To paraphrase the song Hurt (the Johnny Cash version) What have I become My sweetest friend Everyone I know runs 5km In the end One of my goals this year was to run a 5km, something I don’t think I’ve done since I was a teenager. This morning I did my third! I can’t believe doing a parkrun at the time I used to get in from a Friday night session is who I’ve become.

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🎵Now Playing: Yeasayer - Odd Blood (2010)

I totally forgot about Yeasayer. Yeasayer used to exist. I used to sing the ooh’s from Madder Red all the time. I will try not to forget about Yeasayer again.

Favourite Tracks:

  • Ambling Alp
  • Madder Red
  • O.N.E

Cultural Diet - July 2025

A run down of everything I’ve consumed this month, and I have certainly had my fill this month. July… just… disappeared? What happened? Where did it go? What did I do? I guess we’ll find out.

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🎵Now Playing: Oasis - The Masterplan (1998)

If you didn’t know, Oasis are back. Everyone I know who got tickets say it was the best gig of their lives. Anyway, this collection of B-Sides is probably their second best album. Manchester vibes in the area.

Favourite Tracks:

  • Acquiesce
  • Underneath The Sky
  • Talk Tonight
  • Fade Away
  • Half the World Away
  • Stay Young
  • The Masterplan

A Hawk in a Hall

The present life of man upon earth, O King, seems to me in comparison with that time which is unknown to us like the swift flight of a sparrow through the mead-hall where you sit at supper in winter, with your Ealdormen and thanes, while the fire blazes in the midst and the hall is warmed, but the wintry storms of rain or snow are raging abroad. The sparrow, flying in at one door and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry tempest, but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, passing from winter to winter again.

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and the rule for sowing is, ‘One for the mouse, one for the crow, One to rot, and one to grow’

Monthly Packet of Evening Readings, Volume 19, (London: Mozley and Smith, 1875), page 213 — via maya.land