Recently added blogs

When I first decided to write my novel, Their Divine Fires, I knew I wanted to draw on and honor the stories of my grandmother and mother. In the early 1900s, my grandmother’s uncles joined …

Dotted around the world are sign painters whose work lends a particular aesthetic to their locales but is rarely, if ever, seen online. Montreal's Claude Dolbec is one of them, and in 2016 his story …

Tilburg gets a lot of shit from people in Amsterdam. Every person I talked to about going there asked why and when I explained that there was a music festival there, they made jokes about …

I find myself in Hampstead fairly regularly, but I had never been to Fenton House, the oldest house in Hampstead, until very recently. It is a beautiful late 17th century merchant’s house with wonderful walled …

Very few LPs radiate a level of spiritual grandeur quite like the 1974 summit between Alice Coltrane and Carlos Santana, Illuminations. With Coltrane’s harp and soaring orchestration, uncharacteristically patient, technically precise lead work from Santana, …

Usually when I get new inks and they are available in multiple colors I go with a small bottle. Sometimes that leads to me buying a big bottle once it runs out. Most of the …

Thoughts on 2023 The Big Stuff:A year of contentment. Family life atop the miller’s hill is bliss, and the kids are so much more relaxed and confident now we’re more comfortable letting them explore. Felt …

I wrote about AI already, but that was about how we’re all going to die. Since then, the conversation has become more nuanced. Now I’m encountering more subtle ideas I think are totally wrong. So …

Selection 1: Spracklin’ https://londonjazzcollector.files.wordpress.com/2024/04/barney-wilen_spracklin_guilde-du-jazz_1957-france_sam-records-2024_ljc_.mp3 . . . Selection 2: Papiermento https://londonjazzcollector.files.wordpress.com/2024/04/barney-wilen_papiermento_guilde-du-jazz_1957-mono_sam-records-france-2024_ljc.mp3 . . . Track List A1 Moving Out 2’48A2 Brainstorm 4’40A3 Lloyd’s Brother’s Tune 5’21A4 Crystal Ball 7’51A5 Spracklin 3’23B1 Up In Alsace 4’33B2 …

I don’t feel like this is what Microsoft were expecting when they set up the ‘on this day’ feature. What a day though. What a day…

Sometimes things never change. The first Monday in May has become synonymous with the Met Gala, the extravaganza known as the Oscars of fashion or "the Super Bowl of social fashion events," as André Leon …

There’s a great Spanish idiom Maru taught me that says, “con el diario de lunes”. It translates literally to “with Monday’s newspaper,” and is used when analysing past decisions with the benefit of hindsight. Let’s …

For her latest solo release, Cara Beth Satalino strips her sound back, letting the indie exteriors of Outer Spaces flicker away with the firelight. A more personal, intimate record than she’s presented prior, Little Green, …

Beginning of Spring An undocumented feature of my long-term weeknote habit is that every now and then WordPress related posts reminds me of another week in the dim distant past when I was rambling about …

Be vewy quiet! Trump, gagged So Kevin McCarthy has been ousted from his position as Speaker of the House. Meanwhile, Trump, on trial for massive fraud, has been hit with a gag order because he …