Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

Paddy McAloon's "I Trawl The Megahertz" is an underrated masterpiece, an album of melancholy and bleak despair enlivened by hope of light. This is McAloon's response to the debilitating illness that temporarily robbed him of sight.

The title track is a 21 minute spoken word piece, a calm female voice reads snippets transcribed from short wave radio, turned into poetry, accompanied by music.

Hers is the wing span of the quotidian angel,
so her feet are sore from the walk
to the well of human kindness,
but she gives you a name and you grow into it.

And echoing the poetry of the stars.

They are listening for smudged echoes
of the moment of creation.
They are listening for the ghost of a chance.
They may help us make sense of who we are
and where we came from;
and, as a compassionate side effect,
teach us that nothing is ever lost.

It's wonderful.

I know I have talked about this album before, but the title track just came up on our massive random play list, and made me sit back for 20 minutes wonderful minutes.