Appreciating the avian diversity that’s there to astound us—if only we look.
By Jessica Leber
There are only two species of turkey in the world, and we’re all familiar with one: the Wild Turkey. A magnificent bird first domesticated by the Aztecs and later again by Native Americans, its farm-bred form will fill our Thanksgiving plates this November, while wild flocks continue their decades-long recovery from overhunting and habitat loss across the eastern United States.
Let’s first take a minute to appreciate the Wild Turkey’s comeback, or perhaps even savor its sweet revenge as the birds apparently terrorize growing swaths of suburbia.
The Cineskinny is the film review podcast from The Skinny – this week Anahit tells us about her new book BFFs, plus chat on Hello Dankness & Rye Lane
The Cineskinny is the film podcast from some of the team behind The Skinny – every fortnight we take some kind of look at the wide world of The Movies. We’re talking classic films, brand-new films, film festivals, the politics of film, arthouse thinkers *and* action bangers with loads of explosions.
Latest Episode
Anahit’s written a book! BFFs is about the radical potential of female friendship, so your best podcast pals are here for a pals’ chat about a pal’s book (except for Jamie, who is waylaid on another project we’ll tell you about later…)
Elsewhere, we take a big ol’ honk on Hello Dankness, the latest from mash-up nouveau-agitprop legends Soda_Jerk, ahead of its Glasgow Short Film Festival screening, and Anahit fills us in on the lovely Rye Lane.
New episodes of The Cineskinny are out every fortnight; listen below
Thanks to the Hippodrome Silent Film Festival for sponsoring The Cineskinny! hippfest.co.uk
Enjoy the ethereal vocals and powerful lyrics of Lavinia Blackwall on her new single, ‘The Damage We Have Done’, a potent dose of folk-rock.
Probably best known as a member of the prolific Glaswegian psych-folk outfit Trembling Bells, Lavinia Blackwall released her debut solo album Muggington Lane End in 2020. The following year, after meeting Laura J Martin at Moseley Folk Festival and bonding over a mutual love of Robert Wyatt’s music, the duo Wyndow was born, releasing their debut that was likened on these pages to an experimental time capsule of beautiful melodies, ethereal vocal layers, and powerful lyrics.
Those ethereal vocals and powerful lyrics are still very present on Blackwall’s new solo single ‘The Damage We Have Done’, a potent dose of folk-rock, and a sign of new things to come. She tells us, ‘”The Damage We Have Done’ was inspired by Percy Shelley’s poem ‘Ozymandias’. It’s about the brevity we have on this planet, the fact that we can’t take anything with us, hoping to leave behind something meaningful and the hope that one day we’ll all meet again, the realisation that there is an environmental and spiritual consequence to the lives we choose to lead. We initially recorded the single at the barn around the time of the pandemic. I wrote it at the piano, but there’s no piano on the final edit. We went down a bit of a rabbit hole with this one, with strings, thumb piano, far too many guitar parts. I must have recorded the vocals about 60 times and was really struggling to get it right, but got there eventually”
Maybe heightened by the presence of the paisley, the chorus called to mind the cultural reawakening of the late sixties, although the message here is far more pressing. Like Shelly’s poem, it warns against the arrogance that often accompanies great wealth and power and reminds us of the transient nature of all things and that change is not desired but needed; the weight of that message is felt throughout.
The single is out tomorrow, March 29th, ahead of her UK tour, which commences on April 2nd (dates below).
Appreciating the avian diversity that’s there to astound us—if only we look.
