Each page a portal [512]

Greetings from Gladstone's Library...

I’m Christian Payne, autotelic, photographer and at the moment I feel more like a writer than I have in a long time.

In this weekly dispatch I’ll endeavour to seek out novelty and explore the relations between things.

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#TheAction

It took me awhile to settle in here. I always feel like I need to get a sense of place before turning inwards. To map my immediate surroundings so I know where I am amid the new sights, scenes and sounds. My explorations started outside. Along the woodland walkways and in the grounds among the graves spilling down into the valley.

Then I explored the corridors to the library. A high security RFID tag opened the door and for a moment I felt i’d slipped into an analogue past. Only the sound of someone tapping on a keyboard brought me back to the epic archive and wisdom lined walls.

With a single oaken case holding more books than I could read in my remaining years, a zoomed out view was literal overwhelm.

Parquet flooring edged with books, beneath vaulted ceilings protecting them. Narrow staircases lined with yet more books. Leading to balconied mezzanines with head-phoned head-down scholars and writers reading dusty tomes on pillows.

Many of the books contained theology. But in amongst the older archives were pamphlets and newer additions as well. On history, philosophy and politics. Over the days I could only explore a fraction of the things that caught my eye.

While the building itself impressed me greatly, it’s the spaces inside where the people are that truly enriched me.

I have found that the best moments in social gatherings happen between the expected. Between what you think you are there for. That place where conversation blossoms with strangers and friends. Now imagine four whole days of those socially enriching moments and the chance to converse with thinkers, readers and writers.

Epiphany meets serendipity, bookmarked between reading, writing and exploring a vast library of knowledge and wisdom. A temple of words designed for the practise of deep reading.

And I certainly made the most of it. It will take me another week, at least, to recover.

Sleep is always good, but being with books and like minds is better.

“Books are delightful society. If you go into a room and find it full of books - even without taking them from the shelves they seem to speak to you, to bid you welcome. ”
― William Ewart Gladstone

More info on Gladstone’s Library.

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#ThePictures

If you are looking for an alternative to Instagram the foto app is now available to download from Google and Apple stores. Links are at fotoapp.co

You will find me on there as Documentally. Obvs. I’ve posted a heap of images there over the last few months, so please scroll back and check them out. Some of my favourites are there. (And not all black and white ;-)

The people behind Foto are a small team of three. Michael, Sahil, and Adam. No doubt this will grow and I wish them all the best.

It is free but I have paid a yearly fee to see where things go. As a 100% community-supported app it has not received a penny of VC investors money and I’m hoping they can continue to support photography and photographers while becoming sustainable.

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After the last dispatch, few people helped me solve the misery of the TV program featuring the Stingray. But Adam Bowie was the first to ping me. In the US the series was in fact called "Stingray" and was a Stephen J Cannell series (Also famed for The Rockford Files and The A-Team etc). It ran for two seasons starring Nick Mancuso. It was renamed in the UK because of Gerry Anderson’s Stingray.

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#TheWords

A great thought piece on how instead of assuming bad intentions, we should consider that people might just be misunderstood or a hold a differing opinion. This approach can reduce conflict and help improve discussions by encouraging understanding rather than dishing out accusations.

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Some of the many books I pursued this week.

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Thanks to Dan Sumption for sharing this article with me on how to read. Reading is a psychedelic drug.

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#TheSound

On the way to Wales in the van, with the rain pounding my windscreen, I reached for that pouch of CD’s I mentioned last week. Keeping my eyes on the road and tapping into muscle memory decades old, I pulled out a disc at ransom and slid it into the dashboard. It was the 2001 album by Ian Brown, ‘Music of The Spheres’.

I loved this album and remember track one being something I deeply wish I’d written with my own band.

I think it must have also inspired me to buy the domain FE4R.com which briefly linked to a protest forum of the same name. Free Expression 4 Revolution.

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The podcast ‘Lives Less Ordinary’ served me this episode… The Journalist that took down a billion-dollar company.

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#TheConsumed

A standout piece of food I consumed at Gladstone’s Library was the roasted balsamic beetroot that was served with smoked salmon and horseradish yoghurt. I asked the chef how the beetroot was done.

If starting from raw, par-boil chunks of beetroot and toss in a large bowl with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, honey (if needed), salt, and pepper.

Then spread the beetroot evenly on a tray lined with a baking sheet and roast in a preheated oven for about 20-30 minutes. Stir half way through and serve when tender and caramelised.

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[NOTE: There’s a little booze talk in the remainder of this section so please skip if it’s not your thing.]

As this was a whisky tasting week for me, I was treated with a sample of The Heart Cut’s #12 from Nc’Nean, a distillery I’ve enjoyed before. This was an organic tropical fruit of a whisky finished in Madeira casks. Delicious. Nc’Nean are a distillery working with the land and I really appreciate The Heart Cut featuring them and bringing them more interest.

Then during the almost monthly online meeting with my ‘Absent Friends’ I was treated to two pot still Irish whiskies from Midleton. I’ve never had a bad Greenspot or Redbreast and so both the red wine cask Leoville Barton and the Pedro Ximenez PX edition were a real treat.

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#TheFound

After explaining how the app Swarm helped me find the best coffee in my area, the Radiacode on my leg logged invisible ionising isotopes; my air quality monitor helped me quantify the CO2 and particulate matter in the air; and my ham radio helped me find the conversations buzzing around our heads — my new friend and writer, Danny, asked what other unseen things I could make seen.

I then remembered that I had the geocaching app on my phone and we followed the arrow to the spot on the map. The nearest cache wasn’t far away. Danny found it under a rock down a long and surprisingly busy alleyway.

So if you happened to be in the village of Hawarden on Wednesday this week and spotted two middle aged men hunched over in an alleyway, giggling while trying to retrieve a plastic bag from a medicine bottle with a knife… It’s not what you think. Unless you are also into this weird sport. Then it was exactly what you thought.

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#TheThings

In between tapping on the keyboard this week I have been brain dumping and note taking into my Supernote. Yes— it’s still a part of my toolkit and to be honest, when it comes to shiny new tech, I was not 100% convinced it would be anything more than a temporary distraction.

But it’s still here, enabling me to offload ideas and clear the mind ready for burst of focused action. Jeff Rice wrote something for the Supernote blog this week talking about how he uses it in his workflow.

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#TheThanks

Many thanks to Dr Yasmin Chopin who gifted me my stay at Gladstone House for my birthday. 🥰󠅃󠅘󠅕󠄗󠅣󠄐󠅝󠅩󠄐󠅝󠅟󠅤󠅘󠅕󠅢󠄝󠅙󠅞󠄝󠅜󠅑󠅧󠄐󠅑󠅞󠅔󠄐󠅗󠅕󠅤󠅣󠄐󠅤󠅘󠅕󠄐󠅒󠅕󠅣󠅤󠄐󠅠󠅢󠅕󠅣󠅕󠅞󠅤󠅣󠄞󠄞󠄞󠄐󠅓󠅘󠅕󠅓󠅛󠄐󠅟󠅥󠅤󠄐󠅘󠅕󠅢󠄐󠅧󠅢󠅙󠅤󠅙󠅞󠅗󠅣󠄑󠄐󠄪󠄝󠄙

Thanks to the paying subscribers who continue to support this dispatch and the adventures/experiments that make it. Especially to Iain Rowan 🥹󠄹󠄐󠅜󠅙󠅛󠅕󠄐󠅑󠅜󠅜󠄐󠅣󠅥󠅒󠅣󠅓󠅢󠅙󠅒󠅕󠅢󠅣󠄐󠅒󠅥󠅤󠄐󠅘󠅕󠄗󠅣󠄐󠅟󠅞󠅕󠄐󠅟󠅖󠄐󠅤󠅘󠅕󠄐󠅒󠅕󠅣󠅤󠄐󠄫󠄝󠄙. Check out his coast/seaside/beach themed photo microblog called Littorally.me ← 👀󠄴󠅟󠅓󠅥󠅝󠅕󠅞󠅤󠅑󠅜󠅜󠅩󠄐󠅜󠅟󠅦󠅕󠅣󠄐󠅑󠅜󠅜󠄐󠅣󠅥󠅠󠅠󠅟󠅢󠅤󠅙󠅞󠅗󠄐󠅣󠅥󠅒󠅣󠅓󠅢󠅙󠅒󠅕󠅢󠅣󠄐󠅑󠅞󠅔󠄐󠅕󠅦󠅕󠅞󠄐󠅣󠅟󠅝󠅕󠄐󠅤󠅘󠅑󠅤󠄐󠅣󠅛󠅙󠅝󠄐󠅢󠅕󠅑󠅔󠄐󠅤󠅘󠅕󠄐󠅖󠅢󠅕󠅕󠄐󠅦󠅕󠅢󠅣󠅙󠅟󠅞󠄞󠄐

If you also value these words, ideas and curation, please consider an upgrade to paid…

Or if you prefer a random hat tip you can do that via PayPal or Monzo …Either way… Thank you for reading, sharing, liking and supporting a human doing manual work with their brain.

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#TheWeb

• Championing inconsistency.

• I’ve a feeling I’m a neo-traditionalist-internet-age-explorer and that maybe the ‘yoof’ aren’t all that culturally different to my generation after all. Are you a Neo-Traditionalists, Fluid Pragmatists, or Internet-Age Explorer?

• Hi James, thanks for adding yourself to the Documentally community map ;-)

• Some of my other places include Letterboxd for film logging, Strava for documenting exercise, my audio RSS feed stores recordings, Swarm where I log the occasional place, LinkedIn for… not sure what that’s for, YouTube for vlogging, Mastodon for decentralised social, or search ‘Documentally’ on Wire, Birdsite, Bluesky or Zello to stay in touch. Supporting subscribers also get access to a Discord server. 👍󠅉󠅕󠅣󠄐󠅜󠅙󠅛󠅕󠄐󠅤󠅘󠅙󠅣󠄐󠅟󠅞󠅕󠄑󠄐󠄸󠅑󠅦󠅕󠄐󠅩󠅟󠅥󠄐󠅓󠅘󠅕󠅓󠅛󠅕󠅔󠄐󠅤󠅘󠅕󠄐󠅟󠅤󠅘󠅕󠅢󠅣󠄯

• Last night I saw an advert on a pause screen in Netflix. This is a sure sign of accelerated enshitification.

• Putin-pecker tours Lithuanian cities.

• Use this handy tool to encode and decode hidden messages in emojis. 👏󠅇󠅕󠅜󠅜󠄐󠅔󠅟󠅞󠅕󠄐󠅙󠅖󠄐󠅩󠅟󠅥󠄐󠅖󠅟󠅥󠅞󠅔󠄐󠅑󠅜󠅜󠄐󠅤󠅘󠅕󠄐󠅟󠅤󠅘󠅕󠅢󠄐󠅘󠅙󠅔󠅔󠅕󠅞󠄐󠅝󠅕󠅣󠅣󠅑󠅗󠅕󠅣󠄞

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#TheEnd

This appears to be issue 512. In an attempt to try and find some meaning in the number… 512 bytes is a common block size for data storage and is often used in file systems and disk sectors.

Next week I’ll mostly be in the shed but also almost certainly I’ll be trying to pack some boxes, read some books and ride my bike while failing to avoid new and surprising distractions.

Thanks for reading and joining me on this meandering ride.

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“Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you won't have to hunt for happiness”
― William Ewart Gladstone

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Read.

See you out there.

Over…

A ❤️ is a high-five, a comment is a hug. A supporting subscription earns my undying love.