WHY YOU BETTER BE WATCHING THE ROCKET LAUNCH LATER TONIGHT (and hey, how's it going?)

Hello centaurs (and centauresses ((that’s a female centaur, I just checked))), 

How are you getting on, all things considered? I imagine our general experience of the situation is starting to diverge a bit now. Bulgaria appears to have gotten considerably more lucky than a number of other countries – most of us are out and about again, garden restaurants are open, and open-air Balkan pistol dueling is once again in fashion. (I have no depth perception and so generally use a bazooka.)  Reported deaths aren’t even at a few hundred yet if the figures are to be believed. It’s still not clear how we got off so lightly.

I’m aware things aren’t quite so relaxed elsewhere, especially for a number of our American friends at the moment. I won’t drag out the covid rant this time. Just: I hope you’re all doing well and - if you’re still in lockdown - that you’re keeping entertained.

As a spot of housekeeping, I hope it’s quite all right to charge you for June – Patreon-wise. I have an almost finished script that I don’t hate, and I’m hoping you won’t hate it either. I won’t give much away, only that it’s about arguing and how shit we are at it as a species. Per usual, lots of stock footage and music is going to be needed, plus I finally have a brilliant animator by my side. Also per usual it seems like a dick move to just suddenly charge you out of the blue, so I thought I’d give a bit of warning. I’ll start the process off with a post tomorrow evening if that’s quite all right, so I’m hoping that gives you plenty of time to opt out now if you’d like to. (And is obviously entirely understandable.) 

I also rather hope you liked the last video. It’d be pretty self-aggrandising  to bang on about oh how hard it was to make etc, but this one probably shouldn’t have been started in the first place. It was largely a symptom of lockdown madness and by the time I got a quarter of the way in, I knew I couldn’t stop – despite largely wanting to. In any case, if you’re still here, I trust it didn’t offend your artistic sensibilities too much.

If you see this in time, tonight around 20:22 BST will be Elon Musk’s second attempt to launch humans into space from US soil (and commercially for the first time ever, I think) in almost a decade. Very exciting shit. The last launch on Thursday was postponed thanks to crappy weather. Let’s all just pray to our deities of choice that today is better. I’ll be watching with popcorn and a cat. I hope you’re watching too. You can catch the entire thing live from SpaceX’s YouTube page. (This should work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxCzpa07dvg)

Not much news this side besides trying to finish the new book. I’ve banged on about it plenty before in Patreon posts, there isn’t much more I can give away besides that it’s – guess what – later than planned, larger than planned, and has considerably more violence and swearing than planned. I’m hoping to get the draft polished up this month. When there’s an official cover, I’ll put that out too for sure. And when the whole project is finally done, I will of course be sending it out to yourselves digitally for free as the least I can do for your support. 

Oh! We’ve got to the thanks-for-the-support bit. So as ever, thank you massively for it. I spent most of the lockdown sat with the feline (pictures attached below as per tradition) on my lap editing the last video and trying to finish up the new book. I’ve said it before almost to the point of nausea now, but I wouldn’t have had the freedom to do so without you being so lovely. So thank you ever so much for that, and I’m hugely grateful.

When anything is done you’ll be the first to know, and I hope you don’t hate what’s coming. I’ll leave a few mystery links below to stuff I’ve been discovering and coming back to recently, and I’m always super interested to hear your recommendations too.

Again, if you’re still in lockdown I hope you and your families are in wonderful spirits and keeping healthy, and you’re finding plenty of fun ways to keep occupied. (May I for the 15th time recommend Subnautica on Steam?)

There are still several outstanding messages I’m just finally replying to now from you folks, and I’m sorry for not being quicker about it. As a general rule I try not to leave anything unread, but I’d also rather not just reply with rushed bullshit. If I haven’t written back, I promise I will shortly, and huge apologies on my side for lateness.

Much love from this side as always, thank you again for the support, and looking forward to showing you the coming projects,

Ex.

P.S. - to address where the new tortoise/turtle icon went: in a moment of emotional fragility and identity crisis, I decided to return to my amphibian routes. It just felt more like me.

Anti-context Mystery Links (please don’t look for any emotional consistency here. There is none.)

https://youtu.be/a-CnWwbeetE (A somewhat romantic Russian song that is impossible not to dance to.)

https://youtu.be/oY59wZdCDo0 (Spacey Sagan stuff that never fails to inspire.)

https://youtu.be/m6buIdQacoM (A composer doing a brilliant introduction to musical complexity.)

https://youtu.be/3pn0tPwOx_w (No explanation required. I’ve had enough of you, you beast.)

https://youtu.be/P3mR3Hnp0TI (Musical excellence. Dental excellence.)

https://youtu.be/ikcHIkwUDvU (Bits of me almost came off laughing to this.)