May 2020.

May 2020 was the month I published around 15 of my own podcasts. You can discover my Love in the Time of Coronavirus series via the link on this site, but, anyway, this lead me to make some cassettes and I had 120 produced as gifts and for sale. I think that cassettes might just be the future again, there is something delightfully homemade and cheap and easy about them. Returning to simple fanzines and cassettes feels right for today.

Talking of returning to things, I think raving is due to make a comeback. The last time it happened was 1989 and there was a similar pent up need for people to party; what I mean is that young people were, at the tail end of the 1980s, feeling downtrodden and unheard. And soon they’re going to feel the same but they won’t be allowed to party so they’ll go underground. Anyway, I decided to read The Second Summer of Love by Alon Shulman to better understand this; it’s about 1988/89 and Ibiza and Ecstasy and Acid House and it is fascinating and engaging and I think that raving will come back. I sort of wish I was younger.

I took a deep dive in natural wine and I am hooked. I read Natural Wine for The People by Alice Feiring and although I can’t pretend to remember even half of what the author told me, I knew I needed to get involved. I bought wine from Natural Born Wines (an Italian specialist) and Buon Gusto (a much larger operation with a wider offer) and we even started stocking them in our Farm Shop. It takes a bit of getting used to for me; I have always enjoyed big, ballsy, obvious reds and the natural alternatives are more nuanced and challenging but I am very very firmly in.