Would love to go to this too: a John Le Carre exhibition at the Bodleian #LeCarre #Tradecraft visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/lecarre

I rather like this: 'On the Hunt' by British artist Jack Penny, currently in residence at the crumbling Elveden Hall in Suffolk—formerly owned by the Guinness family. Who's hunting who? #Painting

If I was in London, I'd go to this: an exhibition of Ursula K Le Guin's mapmaking. There's book too. #LeGuin #UrsulaKLeGuin www.aaschool.ac.uk/publicprogra...

A rare book dealer / investigative journalist + Jim Thompson paperbacks + a JJ Cale soundtrack. #TheLowdown feels like someone wrote a TV show for me

@karaswisher.bsky.social would be proud. Good luck to them!

Every solstice @david94117.bsky.social sends out 220+ artworks by mail to lucky people around the world. I'm hoping to get one, but we'll see. And, yes, they are always this good #Art #Drawing

If you need cheering up (I did)...

My favourite pic from a long weekend exploring the Danish island of Bornholm. It's from a harbour-front bar in Gudhjem (God home). The large photo is of Jacques Brell, the reason for which I enjoy remaining entirely ignorant. #TimeofGifts

Listening to Linda Ronstadt on repeat all evening. She's so good

Lauren Bacall #BOTD 1924 📷Louise Dahl-Wolfe, in Harper's Bazaar, 1943 #LaurenBacall #LouiseDahl-Wolfe

Love this: AI trained on AI-generated fakes to identify 'real' fakes that aren't any good

Brodsky on Venice’s nebbia (fog enclosed city): “This is a time for reading, for burning electricity all day long, for going easy on self-deprecating thoughts or coffee, for listening to the BBC World Service, for going to bed early.”

Picked up Mountolive today to complete the paperback set. These things make me happy #bookcollecting #lawrencedurrell

This prompted an embarrassing LOL at cafe: “What Paradise and vacation have in common is that you have to pay for both, and the coin is your previous life.” Brodsky, Watermark

Verner Panton’s ‘Fantasy Landscape’ (1970). Odd to think this was commissioned by Bayer Pharma to outfit a Rhine excursion steamer hired as their showroom for the Cologne Furniture Fair.

All this could be yours for just 1.5 million GBP www.worldofinteriors.com/story/richar...

Just finished—an excellent, well-told survey of English (not British) art between the wars. Lots of ‘new-to-me’ artists + well-known figures like Paul Nash and Ben Nicholson. #FrancisSpalding #EnglishArt

Jean Siméon Chardin, Glass of Water and Coffee Pot (1760) + Georgio Morandi, Still Life (1955) Morandi cited Chardin as a model for the quiet sobriety in his still life compositions #SideBySide #Art #Painting #ArtHistory #Chardin #Morandi #GeorgioMorandi #StillLife

True Grit is a joy to read: “He said he knew a woman in Sedalia Missouri who had stepped on a needle as a girl, and nine years later the needle worked out the thigh of her third child.” #TrueGrit

Intrigued to learn this Spain Civil War poster was too political for the London Passenger Transport Board to display in the 1930s. It was created by Felicity Ashbee who was later at Bletchly Park and tracked Rudolf Hess' odd flight to Scotland in 1941. #FelicityAshbee

The talented Ms Highsmith could also draw: self-portrait 1940; Positano 1952; portrait of Ellen Hill 1954; and cats 1961 #PatriciaHighsmith #Sketching

Intrigued to learn—though it makes sense—that Patricia Highsmith, living in Greenwich Village in the 1940s, had extensive contacts with the art world. She even modelled for photographs, including these by Rolf Tietgens. #PatriciaHighsmith #RolfTietgens

The Inigo Philbrick documentary—The Great Art Fraud—is an amusing Tom Ripleyish story. Lots insight into the contemporary art market like ‘fractional ownership’

Kevin Kelly blog on self-publishing. This would be a pleasant way to make a living: #UncertaintyStrategies kk.org/thetechnium/...

Wanted this for ages: Bruce Chatwin’s photographs and notebooks. A happy find in a book sale #BruceChatwin

Slowly changing my dismissive view of contemporary art. Or rather some contemporary art is changing my mind. #TacitaDean, LA Magic Hour 6, 2021

Enjoyed this: the memoirs of Donna Leon, the creator of Venetian detective Guido Brunetti. She just *does stuff* and everything works out. Would recommend if you need to hear that. #BookSky

Was amused to learn: Gen Z refer to customer support robots as ‘clankers’ e.g. “I called them with a problem and a clanker picked up.” People who overuse AI for writing are called 'sloppers' e.g. "He's such a slopper."

Useful little essay on 'flourishing' / eudaimonia in New Philosopher magazine. #UncertaintyStrategies www.newphilosopher.com/articles/som...

Self-definition as a means of escape. #21stCenturyStrategies

Luigi Serafini and his Codex Seraphinianus, an encyclopedia of an imaginary world. Sells out every time it's published. #WorthALook birdinflight.com/en/media/lui...

Escaped to a friend’s farm and tried to make myself useful

Penelope Lively: The bodies of children, Clare thought, have the same grace as plants: They sprawl and reach and bend, they help themselves to the atmosphere, to light and warmth and nourishment. They neither posture nor contrive; they are unconcerned: They are a delight to the eye. #punctuation

Microsoft research into ‘AI application’ in employment sectors and jobs. It will probably be interpreted as ‘replaceability’ but it doesn’t go that far. #UncertaintyStrategies #AIStrategies arxiv.org/pdf/2507.07935

Piero della Francesca’s Flagellation of Christ (c.1460) + Wyndham Lewis’ A Battery Shelled (1919). Della Francesca’s strange, two-part structure may have been a inspiration. #SideBySide #RomanticModerns

I chanced upon the Japanese term ‘kintsugi’ or ‘kintsukuroi’—meaning mending broken pottery with gold. Celebrating imperfection, rather than allowing an object's service to end, is rather wonderful #ArtHistory #WorthALook

A more positive take on AI and employment from Robert Capps, writing in The New York Times in June [paywall] www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/m... #UncertaintyStrategies #21stCenturyStrategies #AIStrategies Some thoughts…

“It would be glib to suggest that the immeasurably complex problems of a whole world are mirrored in the small confrontations and challenges of the garden. But maybe the mindset needed for both is the same.” Richard Mabey, The Accidental Gardener #21stCenturyStrategies

John Constable, Rainstorm Over the Sea (1826) + David Bomberg, Sunset, the Bay, North Devon (1946) #SideBySide #RomanticModerns

Hydra, Jan 2025. #TimeOfGifts

Useful article on the growing value of ‘taste’—careful curation. “Taste is what allows you to skim past the performative noise, the fake depth, the viral bait, and know—instinctively—what’s worth your time.” #UncertaintyStrategies #21CenturyStrategies www.wildbarethoughts.com/p/taste-is-t...

There hasn't yet been a Romantic reaction to AI akin to the one inspired by the industrial revolution. I think it’s coming. #Prediction

Two very different takes on same subject. Eric Ravilious' Train Landscape (1940) and Leonard Campbell Taylor's Restaurant Car (c.1935). #RomanticModerns #SideBySide

Latest addition to the Patrick Leigh Fermor first edition collection. Trying to find them all without internet cheating. #PatrickLeighFermor #BookCollecting #TravelWriters #TimeOfGifts

"Atelier Missor creates gigantic titanium statues inspired by Napoleon's dream of making Paris the capital of the universe" I believe their Jean d'Arc statue was taken down (odd commissioning process). Still can't decide if they are serious or art pranksters... www.ateliermissor.com

Translators often use ‘side-by-side’ view for obvious reasons. I find it useful for lots of things. Here’s 2 versions of the Assumption of the Virgin: Titian on the left (c.1518) and then Rubens (c.1615). #ThinkingTools #SideBySide #ArtHistory

Came across these Edward Gorey envelope illustrations of his correspondence. There’s a joy and care that's appealing, not to mention the drawing skill. #WorthALook #EdwardGorey

Young people look to an art career in the face of uncertainty. Fine-art programmes in New York City are enjoying a record surge in student applications. #UncertaintyStrategies gothamist.com/arts-enterta...

Two paintings created in 1939. Tullio Crali's 'Nose dive' keeps popping into my head, somehow symbolising current events. Ravilious' Wilmington Man is a kind of antidote, despite the barbed wire

Just finished. Interesting to have Wittgenstein positioned in the wider currents of European thought. Understand him better. Benjamin was fascinating. Still don't understand Heidegger—it's always just out of grasp. #TimeOfTheMagicians