iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Thank you. I definitely didn't have losing both parents within four months of each other on last year's bingo card, and it all still feels a bit unreal/surreal. Have I found my peace with it? Sort of. And then, out of nowhere... Well, you know how it is. 😞

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Wise words, sir, and thank you. Excellent Things arrive periodically, to my delight. The trick at the moment is finding time between an increasingly frantic working life and firefighting issues at the new gaff to enjoy them. 😅

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

#ProofOfLife It'll soon be a year to the day since I lost my mum. To say it has been a rollercoaster ride would be underselling it. Still breathing, still reading what everyone is up to, just finding myself with fewer opportunities to step away from the constant firefighting & join in, iz all.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

@whiterhinotea.bsky.social Happy Birthday, old chap. Hope you've been having an excellent day of it. 🍻

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Cheers, old chap. Here's hoping! Not that the job looks like it'll be getting easier any time soon. 😄

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

So true. Music is, as the man said, the best. Here's to keeping on keeping on. ✊️ Thanks for the solidarity. I'm a lucky fella, I have a lot of wonderful people supporting me, but you know how it is - it's felt like a pretty lonely road at times all the same. That's life, as the song goes.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Cheers, mate. 👊 Hope you're doing OK? I confess I've not been paying much attention to my socials for a while now.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Thank you. And you're right, it does feel a bit like there is a tipping point, and once things start to happen it's like a row of dominoes. There seems to be an age where this is simply inevitable, and I guess I reached it.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Anyway, if anyone was wondering: not dead, just undergoing a metamorphosis. See you on the other side.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Reading other posts, this seems to happen to many people my age. Things fall apart, and we find ourselves rediscovering/reinventing ourselves; taking stock and making changes we probably should have made a long time ago. That's how it feels for me. HippyDave is dead. HippyDave v2.0 is in beta test.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Whilst answering a post I was tagged in a few days ago, I realised I haven't posted here in six months or more. It's been a rotten year. Lost my mum, stepdad's not doing so well, took on a new role at work that I was not remotely prepared for... basically having my midlife crisis. 😅

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

I am intrigued. Cheers, will go and have a listen. 😀

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

Paging @emilymagpieyeah.bsky.social... I genuinely did a double take when I saw this in the @6music.bsky.social feed. Go you! 😀 (Glad to see you here, btw, may it be everything we still miss about the good old days on Twitter!)

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

Yeah, I've noticed this more and more recently, especially (and understandably) with albums that have gone a long time without being reissued. Legacy labels like Esoteric/Cherry Red etc are doing us all a solid re-issuing some deep catalogue items with such care.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Pink Floyd's "At Pompeii" is at number one in the UK album chart? I am the zeitgeist! 😄

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

@jigsawpieces.bsky.social Happy Birthday old chap! Hope you've had a severely excellent day. 😃

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Definitely quite torn over the local election results. Clearly it's appalling to see Farage's goons doing so well, but on the other hand it's pure popcorn fodder to see the Tories so thoroughly humiliated once again. If this is the beginning of the end of the party for good, bring it on.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Hmmm. That weird feeling you get when you realise that the dread Tories have finally lost control of your local council after 20 years, but that Reform now have the largest number of seats on it... 😵‍💫

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Diolch yn fawr. No, despite my best efforts to catch a lift with any passing intergalactic visitors, I'm still here. 🙃

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Thank you, mate. I'll have a much better idea of where I stand after this month, and if it all goes tits up, at least I have a holiday to look forward to. 😃

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

"Yes, but it's MY shit!" proclaim thousands of faeces-encrusted bed-shitters. 😄 We almost certainly are becoming more generally intolerant/right-wing as a country. The easy answers these jokers peddle are seductive to the dissatisfied, and the left has no answer to them, it seems.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Perhaps there is a concern that passers-by might think it was a request to bewitch people rather than to enter the building. 😄

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Utterly dispiriting watching Farage and his army of swivel-eyed loons accrue seat after seat in the local election results. I do understand why people are so angry at Labour - I am too - but Farage's tired, reactionary, xenophobic bullshit is not the answer. 🤦

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Exercised my democratic rights earlier this evening. Unlikely to make a difference in a Tory seat so safe that most tactical voting sites just put a shrug emoji next to it, but elections can only be won by showing up. 🗳💚

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

I've been neglecting my blogging, so wrote a monster update tonight. Hopefully it goes some way towards explaining why I've been so quiet here of late...! open.substack.com/pub/hippydav...

open.substack.com

Through The Singularity

Or: 2025, gimme a break already

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

Ah, back in business. All hail the excellent staff at the O2 store in Worcester, who rectified a seemingly intractable problem with my new phone in record time. Had a brief mooch around Worcester, and now waiting for the train home so I can get on with the weekend I was actually planning!

Waiting for the train on my old stamping ground, the hallowed Platform 1 at Foregate Street station, where I spent so much time in the early 90s. 😄

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Reposted by HippyDave

Sean | Drowned in Sound @drownedinsound.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

If you love live music and want to have your voice heard by the government and music industry, please join thousands of music fans in taking this survey before it’s too late cgastrategy.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

For what it's worth, though, I really hope they are. 🙂

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Absolutely, yes. But the government can argue that til it's blue in the face. My point is that there is a sizeable proportion of the UK electorate who won't want to listen, and Reform's numbers are starting to be worrisome. Are Labour brave enough to take the high ground? On recent form, I doubt it.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

The operative word being "should". Of course, you are right. But there's a sizeable minority in the UK for whom the very idea is anathema. There's a great deal of misinformation and propaganda to roll back before we're even close to ready for that. And that's if Europe are even interested.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

The number of US politicians who are actively speaking out is vanishingly small. The prevailing attitude seems to be, "Well, the majority of you who could be arsed to vote wanted Trump, so this is on you. Have fun."

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

I am so excited to see this I can barely type this message. 🥰

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

The stone was then whisked away for testing, I was told that I'll be getting a blood test done to check my kidney function, and was allowed to leave. Not much waiting, everything nice and smooth... score one for the dear old NHS. 👍

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

He was also astounded to hear that I have now passed the kidney stone that led to my visit to A&E last month. It staged an escape this past weekend, so I helpfully took it along. 9mm, people. "Extraordinary... Well done!", my specialist repeatedly told me. I felt like a proud dad.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

My new specialist - the guy I've been seeing since I was 20(!) retired recently - was very nice and highly entertaining. He told me that my old specialist described me as "an enigma" and apparently my (very thick) patient file detailing my kidney stone shenanigans is the stuff of legend. 😂

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Well, my specialist's appointment this afternoon went very well. Because I have a long history of forming kidney stones, I used to get regular scans, which - understandably - stopped abruptly when Covid hit, but were never re-instated. This has now been done, which is very welcome. 😀

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

It did, thank you. My new specialist - the one I've been seeing since I was 20(!) retired recently - was super helpful. A productive afternoon. Even the trains ran on time! 😄

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

A hassle-free train journey and a welcome walk in the sunshine to see a man about some kidney stones. Got here a little early so hanging out in the sun. Roll on Spring!

A HippyDave eye-view from a bench outside Worcester Royal Hospital.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

I watch the footage of Musk waving a chainsaw around at CPAC earlier, and can only conclude the same kind of blind, dispassionate hatred and nihilism that drives Leatherface drives Musk as well. Both men only know how to destroy; for them it is an end unto itself.

media.tenor.com

a man is holding a woman in his arms while the sun is setting in the background .

Alt: Leatherface wields his chainsaw, a clip from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

One thing's for sure, sitting here listening to a new Mostly Autumn record and sending my thoughts into the ether has left me feeling that any minute, Tim Hall would be joining the proverbial chat. "I hear his voice call / It only seems a moment since we last spoke", indeed.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Postscript: I've just started listening to the bonus disc, and entirely predictably, the first few couple of bonus tracks are superb and really should have been on the album proper in my view. 😄

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

The fact remains that after over two-and-a-half decades and change, Mostly Autumn have weathered almost every storm imaginable and are still producing albums this emotive and intriguing, so that's not nothing. Like so many British prog stalwarts, they deserve more listening ears.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Still, this is all me just shooting from the hip: who knows, some of this stuff may yet grow on me over time (MA albums often do). And the rest of this record really is superb; I really hope that people sit down with it (especially the title track) and get to grips with it.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Likewise the well-intended and clearly heartfelt "My Home" comes across a touch mawkish (and I'm always happy when bands write about the real world, so that makes me a bit sad), and "Mars" is... not out of this world.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Track 3 often seems to be where the wheels come off for me, and sure enough "Be Something" is a touch repetitive; and whilst the following track ("When We Ran") tries its hand at wedding electronics to what might have been a more obviously folky number, for me it outstays its welcome a bit.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

About 50 minutes of the runtime is terrific; the remainder makes the album drag more than it might otherwise do. I do appreciate that many fans might have an entirely different idea about what to keep and what to lose, though, which is evidence of quality in itself.

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HippyDave @hippydave.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

But, but, but. Although there's nothing here that makes me roll my eyes, sometimes I do think that in their desire to deliver something weighty and outstanding, they occasionally reach too far. "Seawater" (the album itself; never mind the bonus disc) is over 75 minutes long.

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