Month Notes, March/April 2026

It’s been a strangely busy past few weeks, to the point where I’m not entirely sure where all my time disappeared to.

Well, I guess first there’s the fact that three friends and I have formed a band, and we’ve been starting to put some songs together with a sort of post-punk/alternative sound: tribal drums, driving bass, and two guitars.

We’re all too old and cynical to harbour any heady dreams of rock stardom: this is a group of friends playing loud music together for the joy of it in a small rehearsal room in Hastings Old Town, and it is indeed fun. We’ll probably play some local pubs or small venues when we’ve got enough songs in a decent shape, but don’t expect to see us at Wembley Arena!

I also did another short DJ slot last week at 1200 Postcards, my favourite local bar/micro-pub that is frequented by many Hastings artists, musicians, writers, poets, and the like.

And then there was a trip to the Electric Palace, Hastings’ independent 48-seat cinema deep in the Old Town, to watch Greener Grass, the latest offering from the cinema’s Strange Frames film club. Strange Frames is a monthly film club, curated by Katie Spooner, that is:

a film strand that celebrates the offbeat, grotesque or arcane films and concepts that lurk in the shadowy recesses of cinema; with a focus on viewing cinema through the lens of history, folklore and fairytale.

Since October, when I started going to the Strange Frames screenings, I’ve also seen The Company of Wolves (an old favourite of mine), The Snow Woman, and Daughters of Darkness. I think I’m a regular now!

As for my artistic practice: well I haven’t done much over the past few weeks. The exhibition I was in at Hastings Arts Forum has ended, but yet again I need to start booking more life-models.

I’ve booked the last three Thursdays of April off work because I needed to use up my annual leave allowance before the end of this month (or lose it), giving me three four-day weekends (I don’t work Fridays), so hopefully I’ll be able to find some life-models who are available for those slots.