Sleep at the Forum, 4 October 2019

Topless in Orange.

The only effects were lights, usually green, occasionally purple, offset by the insistent orange power dots of the amplifiers, and this time we were blessed with no projections. The rhythm progresses at what might politely be termed a steady pace, but this did not deter a desperately manic moshing front and centre; though Melachi reflects that moshing to Sleep resembles moshing to Gregorian chant, for sure it can be done, but why would one want to?

The Black Death by John Hatcher

I, Melachi ibn Amillar, being of unsound mind and body, did read The Black Death by John Hatcher (2008), in 2020, for contemporary reasons. It is an imagination of life in an English village, Walsham, during the plague, though sticks very close to records from the time. Unfortunately these records are mainly texts of ideal liturgical practice and rolls from the local court, dealing with successions and straying livestock. The latter are used nicely to demonstrate  the changes in prices and demographics, though one does wonder whether the locals were quite as religious as the other sources make them appear. Although this must be the most interesting time in the life of the village, the mysteries of life and death remain, and there is nothing else, so it is all quite sad, as with most things.