I'm not very active here now* but am briefly logging on to note that to-day is the third anniversary of my successful transplant. *Partly because I'm busy at the moment, but also because this place, in my view anyway, has become tedious and unhealthy.

Trying to explain why the now sadly late Alfred Brendel was one of the very greatest of pianists is a lot harder than simply linking to a recording, but he was good with words as well so it is owed. He had a style that was precise and intelligent, but so very human. There was life and humour there.

Someone has to say it. And I don't live in Northern Ireland. I will note that no one has firebombed Jeffrey Donaldson's house. That's all. (Yes, Mr Donaldson has not been convicted of anything, but neither have the two young men accused in this case. In neither case do I make comment on guilt).

For all the triumphalism in certain quarters about there being a women's tournament at Queens this year, I will rather sourly note that this has mostly come at the expense of the Edgbaston tournament, which moved to the last week of RG and was further downgraded. Is this actually progress?

That's as his budget has been slashed *so hard* that departmental spending projections have actually increased substantially, due to complex laws of physics understood only by breathless political gossipmongers and beyond the ken of mere mortals.

Some things presently available on the BBC iPlayer: the peerless 1995 adaptation of Persuasion, Britten conducting his own War Requiem, every episode of 'The Ascent of Man' and 'Civilisation', a lot of Schama art docs, John Freeman interviewing Jung and MLK, and the Agincourt episode of War Walks.

I understand that the Pope has met the victorious Napoli team and has publicly denied earlier reports that he is a Roma fan.

To take my tongue out of my cheek, the joy of having worked on a daily newsletter for the best part of 12 years now is having a physical reminder that I am not being nostalgic - the dominant question from 2013 to 2021 really wasn’t “how will this play electorally” EVERY DAY.

I have of late acquired a taste for Scandinavian 'Remoulade', a fact that many find to be disturbing.

A strange mash-up of Morse and David Foster Wallace here... www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Earlier today I visited an exhibition of Rembrandt drawings (largely etchings with some drypoint) at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. It was absolutely fantastic and genuinely fascinating. Runs for another week. If you get a chance, go. Certain things are one-offs.

Sunderland *winning* the play-offs in dramatic circumstances is the exact opposite of what you train yourself to expect as a Sunderland fan, but isn't it a nice surprise?

This is an excellent idea, especially with such an emphasis on pre-and-post transplant physio and fitness: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Ah well you see very often if I describe something or someone as 'odd' it is a deadly insult.

'Bad for bills' - come on, how? Does she think that if bills go up that's good because line go up is good, so that if bills are more stable that's bad?

I’m old fashioned enough to think the BBC should be leading on what the deal is and what it means. Rather than the political claims from both sides.

I just want to state on the record, as one does, that I am in favour of things that stabilize food prices and reduce the likelihood of periodic shortages of this or that item. Might be a little like paracetamol to the national mood once the effects are percolating.

Call me Andrea Dworkin, but I just think it’s corrosive that there are quite so many references to sexual acts in the British right’s response to this deal.

This is a really useful thread on a difficult, thorny issue where nothing is entirely what it seems at first and it can be difficult to know quite what to think:

Random linguistic observation: a lot of peripheral estates are often described as 'overspill estates' even when they were not actually built for 'overspill' purposes: e.g. Becontree or Wythenshawe (which were not) as contrasted with Chelmsley Wood (which was).

Migration is a thing that people do and states try to manage rather than the other way around. Attempts to restrict flows when they're rising tend to be unsuccessful as do attempts to increase them when they're falling. It's a strange phenomenon, not that well understood despite everything.

Going to repeat this on a loop for a few years, I suppose.

I gather that the new Pope is One Of Us (i.e. a Tennis nut).

The Namierite theory of Papal elections wins again.

Ah, white smoke.

Well, that's an unexpected headline. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Taking their time. Wonder if there's been some Cleverly-style gamesmanship gone wrong and they've elected someone on the first ballot. Cardinal Shapps has just been excommunicated.

If the criteria for sainthood is 'being a Righteous arsehole' then perhaps James Wellbeloved might be one? As an MP his name was famously ironic (type of chap who could start a fight in an empty lift) but his work for organ donation and transplant patients later was of incalculable value.

The thing about the system-built high rise boom of the middle 1960s is this: we would all have made the roughly same decisions as policy makers of the time did if we were in their shoes. And that is a sobering thought.

Indeed. Part of why I have always been a “this show seems like it will become a legendary production nightmare” is I remember how mad some fans were when I used to sell the books! And now they have the Internet and the kids involved *will see it*!!

Comparing any kind of General Election anywhere with local election rounds somewhere else that happen to occur at the same sort of time is massively stupid and I will think less of anyone who does it.

Albo's welcome re-election is another example of an electorate suddenly switching on once it realizes that a General Election is in the offing, observing the choices in front of it, and reacting accordingly.

Someone needs to say it but: as bizarre as the local election results are, please do note that turnout was at the usual 'around about a third, give or take a few % here or there' level. Most people barely noticed they were going on. But some people were *very* keen.

From a centre-left perspective, these results are completely catastrophic and there's little point in pretending otherwise. They're not going to get much better during the day. Local govt. is sufficiently powerless these days that the impact will be *mostly* psychological, but still harsh.

I do not like the current tendency to moralize electoral outcomes: after all it leads logically to 'in defence of Adolf Hitler'. But in the strange case of Pretty Polly, it fits. He confused projection with reality as bad as the average SkyBlue user and was insufficiently patriotic during a crisis.

This is Bad in itself and also for what it might lead to. Worrying. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Ted Hughes once made the point that word processors were having a much more profound impact on creative writing than even the typewriter had, as the ability to edit at will takes away some of the need for focus and economy of thought.

It's fascinating that North America is the great stronghold of weird neo-academic painting given that its formal art establishment has been the most virulently hostile towards figurative painting for such a long time, but it's also inevitable. An unhealthy environment produces unhealthy responses.

I'm reasonably sure that this story runs every month, often billed as an exclusive (in the same paper). Reading through it, it would appear that the idea of a partial repeal of the cap is still on, though multiple approaches to that are mentioned. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Happy Easter. Here's some Blake:

What a beautiful line. Every so often, it's worth noting things like this. It's not trivial; it's the opposite of trivial.

I gather that the time has come to, once more, dust down this and take out for a spin: www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-f...

I don't feel inclined to say much more, but there has been some very bad and very irresponsible reporting of yesterday's court ruling (including down to the basics of what it even *is* and affects) of a kind that could have regrettable real world consequences.

A little section of a recent drawing (done as a gift for someone) based loosely on an Atget photograph. Bistre (dip pen and wash) on tinted paper...

Part of the fun of art - of proper art - is that it involves the manipulation of the stuff of the Earth for creative purposes. Pigment is made from minerals, metals, soils, mixtures of strange deposits of this or that; oils used for oils are from seeds; the binder for watercolours comes from...

Elements of this are playing out like a fever dream: a Labour government sends in the police to prevent the owners of an about-to-be-seized steelworks from accessing the plant. But it's all a good example of what the state can (in this case: should) do in an emergency.

A Saturday recall of Parliament is a big deal. Is it justified in this case? Given the timescales alone, absolutely, yes. No question.

An interesting thing about Art is the way that the same source of inspiration can point artists in totally different directions. Consider: Ingres was immensely important to Picasso, Bacon and Freud, but there's essentially no link between where that same appreciation took them.

He is what he has always been and in office is what he was always going to be: an immense public menace.