Recently updated blogs

Of all the obituary posts I’ve felt obliged to hastily bang out for this blog over the years, this loss is perhaps the one which has proved most difficult to process, or to find words for. When looking at a figure like Lynch - who has been a giant presence within any kind of art or culture I’d deign to care about, throughout my life - it would be all …

Not much to write home about lately, in fact hardly been out at all. Tried a spot at the end of the pool with a shallow run down the near bank that worth a return visit, would be good to wade and trot. Bit distracted by a plane doing touch and go's from Norwich Airport turning right over head 4-5 times. Plenty of chublets and the snowdrops will be a …

I finally received the beautiful zines by Miranda Reinert. (I say finally bc there was a postal strike in Canada and the mail is slowly getting back to its usual pace) She's a music writer, zine enthusiast and podcast host. These zines are simply stunning. The paper texture is a dream, and the way she rendered most of her photographs extra-grainy is a visual treat. Her zines feel special in …

You know when you’re browsing old copies of American television industry magazines, and you come across something that makes you stop and scratch your head with Simian-like confusion? Broadcasting & Cable, 19th Jan 1987 New Monkees was a syndicated show, developed from the original by Matthew Fassberg and Victor Fresco. It lasted 13 episodes, and was jointly produced by Coca Cola Telecommunications and Straybert Productions. Broadcasting & Cable, 20th October, …

Last weekend I lazily cancelled this survey because I didn't fancy walking in the snow. No such problem today although it was only two degrees when I set off. A train and a bus took me to the outskirts of West Kirby, to the Ridger which is now called the Newton Arms:Outside this is something of a sixties classic, or actually I think it is more modern than that, eighties …

Classic Movie Travels: Clarine Seymour Clarine Seymour was born on December 9, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York, New York. She was born to Albert and Florence Seymour, a wealthy Methodist couple. Her father ran a ribbon manufacturing business until 1916, … Continue reading →

If Kate Bush fans can sometimes treat her work with a bit too much reverence, it says something about the artist herself that she is less precious about her back catalogue. Indeed she has latterly tinkered with old albums and has dismissed this 1993 short film even though at the time poured considerable effort into directing as well as writing and starring in it. Its thirty two years old now …

Dissolves Difference The smartphone is what you get when the architecture of media collapses. It’s a black hole full of light: information supercompressed but radiant. In its singularity, it might be described as the first postmedia medium. Its circuitry dissolves difference, renders all content equal and equally disposable. Media becomes medium. Nicholas Carr

The forecast is full of single digit lows and sub-freezing highs this week. Did I mention in live in the South? Tomorrow is a holiday to celebrate MLK's birthday. It seems like a sick joke to inaugurate a racist, rapist, felon as President on his birthday, but that is the world the voters delivered. The USA had a good run, but I guess I'll get to see first hand what …

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival will take place Jan. 23-Feb. 2 in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, with a selection of titles available online from Jan. 30-Feb. 2 for audiences across the country to discover bold, independent storytelling.

When I started a recent role, my exec team peers were working on the three-year strategy using a framework outlined in Playing to Win. I have been really impressed by the work and the outputs, so I read the book. Here are my notes. What would have to be true The most valuable idea in Playing to Win is the process it outlines for how to make strategic choices. Creating …

Voronoi (aka Visual Economist) made this map about service times at emergency rooms around the U.S. This map shows why one shouldn’t just stick state-level data into a state-level map by default. The data are median service times, defined as the duration of the visit from the moment a patients arrive to the moment they leave. For reasons to be explained below, I don’t like this metric. The data are …

I’m undertaking a year-long crash course in the humanities. These are my notes for week 3. Following Ted Gioia’s curriculum, this week I read the remainder of the Odyssey. On the audiovisual front, I watched a movie that made me think differently about the poem’s subject. Readings Last week included books 1-10 of the Odyssey. This week I “read” through the remainder of the poem. “Read” is in quotes because …

Worcestershire is "Greened"The final 2025 Good Beer Guide Worcestershire Tick is up for grabs. I hear the word "Bredon" and instantly think of the hill. Possibly my favourite place to walk.There is a reason I haven't been to the Coach and Horses before. The village is a fair way from the hills. It could have been done, but 8 miles would test the patience of today's walking partners. Mrs M …

Most studies of the 1960s counterculture focus more on the “counter” than the culture. They want to know what did—or did not—make the phenomenon oppositional to the dominant structures of Read more The post “Putting the Culture in the Counterculture”: Michael J. Kramer on Thomas E. Crow’s *The Artist in the Counterculture: Bruce Conner to Mike Kelley and Other Tales from the Edge* first appeared on Society for US Intellectual …