🖋️ LongForm
Want to reduce the noice and just focus on things with a little more meat - the this category is for you. Like so much on this site we have a ‘WIP’ as i take some out - and put some in - but safe for at least starting in 2026.
Sculpture
“I think the relationship of a warm-blooded creature versus an object that is still and silent—which is essentially what I think sculpture is—for me is the sort of fundamentals. Sculpture is in our everyday lives the whole time. Crossing the road with a lorry coming towards you is, in my opinion, a sculptural experience, where you as a flesh-and-blood object [are] up against the thing that isn’t. And one’s emotional and psychological assessment of that all happens in a flash.
To me, there is a big, sculptural presence there because of the way that large lorry is constantly displacing space as it comes towards you—so the track that is left behind, which is now empty, was once filled. And that’s what I think we do when we’re interacting with sculpture: the space is filled. As we walk around it, we are constantly losing an image of it and finding a new image. So quite a large part of what sculpture is, [is] not necessarily visual. And I think that’s quite shocking. [It’s] a state of affairs that we’re assessing.”
💬 Phyllida Barlow
🎥 Luther: The Fallen Sun, 2023 - ★★★★
The story continues and gets weirder, but it’s Idris .. right?
And it all ends with an interesting set up for the next story.
🎵 The Theme Song Of Madam Blanc Is More Of A Mystery Than Any Of The Stories.
The Theme Music for the Madam Blanc mysteries has firmly embedded itself into my brain and I love it. Still do. But who is the artist?
Turns out, a ‘duo’ called ‘Hague and White’. But the White might not be who you think.
I thought ‘the white’ was one ‘Steve White’. You might know him as the drummer for The Style Council and pretty much all the subsequent solo albums of Paul Weller. He clearly has chops in the drumming arena. He is also married to Sally Lindsay - the star of Madame Blanc - and the co writer and creator of the show. (I guess they thought they would keep it in the family).
But no …
The song is actually written by Hague and Joel White - who is also the vocalist. In fact Joel is credited with writing their first (and only album), Alan seems to have come along later.
And who is Joel White? Only Richard Hawley’s cousin!
That explains (so much of it) it.
🎥 Bohemian Rhapsody, 2018 - ★★★★
I’m not big into biopics … but for this I will make an exception and all because of Rami Malik. Quite brilliant in this role.
🎥 Paddington 2, 2017 - ★★★★
Loved the first one. Loved this one. Love the books. In my mind, Paddington can’t go wrong.
🎥 Office Space, 1999 - ★★★★½
Maybe it should-be 5 stars ... but that would mean it couldn’t be improved ... and everything can be improved .. can’t it? How? No idea.
🎥 The Pale Blue Eye, 2022 - ★★★½
3 stars from me, 4 stars from Jax. I likeChristian Bale’s work, I thought the ‘Poe’ character was excellent … but in the end, I didn’t really care, even with ‘twist’ at the end.
🎥 RRR, 2022 - ★★½
I wanted to like it … nay .. love it. I really did. But it was not to be. Definitely extraordinary scenes of ‘spectacularity’ within, but they weren’t enough to create a 3 hour movie and even at under 2 hours would have still been a push. Sorry.
Exploring Tracking Crud in Readwise
This is in Stoop.
I click on the ‘Read On’ link and see this.
BUT - if I save to ‘Read Later' in ‘Readwise’ and then open Readwise, I see this
🔗 The original page (sans the 5 lines of tracking crud)
Here’s what I am wondering.
When I visit the public Readwise link it includes this tracking crud;
which to this untrained bear, seems to be very different tracking crud to Liminals, so there is some rewriting going on?
Why?
And …
If I remove that tracking crud, I can still see the article, so could Readwise automatically remove that tracking crud as they save the link into my library?
🎵 This Is The End
I wrote an email this morning, responding to something that had been sent to me, announcing - and I paraphrase - that despite the longevity of the work that he had been personally driving for decades, he has decided that this was indeed - ‘the end’.
I guess it is one of those days, where every where you look, every page you turn emotion takes over and (at least for me), music takes hold.
Because I - and indeed he - are ‘of a certain age’, ‘The End’ came to mind. (If you aren’t of a certain age - I commend you to watch just one (if not all three) of the YouTubes below.) If you are of a certain age - you don’t need me to tell you.
This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I’ll never look into your eyes again
“Every time I hear that song, it means something else to me. It started out as a simple good-bye song… Probably just to a girl, but I see how it could be a goodbye to a kind of childhood."
💬 Jim Morrison
If you want a really good cry, the images most certainly do nothing to distract from the pain of the song …
If you want to listen to the original recording of nearly 11 minutes that took just 30 minutes of studio time (think about that) …
If you are of the live music persuasion… in the US you had Woodstock. In the UK we had The Isle of Wight …
New Zealand | Unrecognized Leadership
If the UK and/or the USA could find more leaders that demonstrate the qualities of Jacinda Arden, wouldn’t both surely be better off for it?
Sadly, she’s had her run, the voters are not going her way hence her resignation. ‘Hitch’ is being allowed to reset the agenda and so far at least, seems to be turning the ‘anti-Labour’ tide. Make no mistake though, yes, she took some wrong turns but the problems being laid at her feet won’t go away with new leaders. It’s a global problem … and despite New Zealand managing to punch well above their international weight over the last few years … these global issues are exactly that … global.
🔗 Colbert pays tribute to Jacinda
🎙️ What was behind Jacinda-mania and why did it end so suddenly?
Substacks Fail At Providing Joy
A claim made by Mike Pesca on his ‘occasional’ 🔗 Substack. But maybe that isn’t the point? Maybe that is also not right? He asked for comments. This post is is my response. What do you think?
🎥 if...., 1968 - ★★★
I had it at 4 Stars in my head when I first watched the film. I checked it out again recently. It’s dated … and not as great as I remembered. Because I’m older? Or just more considered.
I still like the idea of never quite putting your finger on when it suddenly went the character’s tipping point occured.
🚧 New Zealand | The JigSaw
I popped in a couple of posts recently that are part of what I am naming the ‘New Zealand Jigsaw’. This post is one of my ‘living posts’ that will serve as the gateway to the full set, once they are all published - and assuming that I can publish faster than I can think of more topics.
Introduction
Ardern Resigns - Hashtag
Colbert Monologue
Compared To Iceland
Compared To The United States of America
Compared To The United Kingdom
Conversations
- with Anna
- with Mitchell
Crossing The Chasm
Investing
NZTE
Why You Can't So Easily Replicate Silicon Valley
Wherever you go in the world, New Zealand, Scotland, Austin Texas, Raleigh North Carolina, Hyderabad, Shenzhen …. pretty much anywhere, you will find there are tech centers. Tech centers that often adopt ’Silicon’ or ‘Valley’ or variations on such in their names, but there are many more. The local government will often declare they are investing and building a tech center of excellence to ‘rival’ Silicon Valley. Except they aren’t. Let me explain.