Reading this right now. What a treat for an anxious Easter European mind! Plus my fav historian Barbara Tuchman gets a mention so what’s not to like.

J'ai voté! Ne perdez pas votre droit de vote.

I'm glad someone took the time to write the thread I wanted to write. It is tiresome to have this chat with other adults who simply don't have a clue. "Why don't you have an Alexa?" "Because Gav won't have them in the house." I have a culture problem right now, I call it the Other Parents problem

Let’s hope this rise is not going to be reversed with a stupid choice next week 🤞🤞🤞

Yes to Josh O’Connor playing an art thief again but it is the soundtrack of this film by Rob Mazurek that is truly exquisite.

Tluscioszek dla Ciebie @simoncrofts.bsky.social

La France refuse en masse des demandes de visa venant de Russie, craignant des opérations d’ingérence

1. Because this issue is critical, but has received remarkably little coverage, here's a thread pulling out the key themes from my article yesterday, on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which puts decades of environmental protections to the torch. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Just breathe. Just don’t think how little pollinators is flying around with all that juicy cherry tree blossom around Edinburgh.

Dear @bbcradio3bot.bsky.social You know that there many other composers in the world than only ruzzian ones (and you still only tend to play two anyway) and Poland had more talented composers than just Chopin. If you’d need any hints what’s good from that part of Europe, just ask.

Effing hate ‘cousin Benji’ types #iukyk always spoiling all the fun by going off piste which usually causes tears - somebody else’s not theirs. Avoid like a plague. #teamdavid #agreatpain

Astonishing fact on #bbcr4today earlier, discussing the Heathrow power failure. Heathrow requires 41MW; a new data centre nearby needs 150MW. Stark illustration of the underpinning energy consequences of data storage.

Funded PhD Scholarship opportunity! Come work with me and Claire Haggett in partnership with @living-rent.bsky.social on a project looking at retrofitting, housing, and tenure in Edinburgh. Please share with anyone you think might be interested, and get in touch with us if you have any questions.

I’ve been raving about Laura Carreira’s quietly devastating debut On Falling to anyone who’ll listen and now here’s my interview with Laura herself ‘You’re always on edge – it has consequences’: the extraordinary drama about working in an Amazon-style warehouse www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ma...

‘Frances Haugen (…) has suggested modifying the "Share" function on Facebook so that after any content has been shared twice, the third person in the chain must take the time to copy and paste the content into a new post.’

Fat Thursday must be my favourite holiday of the Polish calendar. We’re very lucky because an excellent Polish bakery is just a street away from our studio in Leith and today Mario Patisserie provided us with the fluffy, delicate, rose-jam filled goods:

Hosted by Tim Guldimann, with Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev we discussed the question whether the West is broken and whether liberal democracy, the rule of law and human rights failed as global values. I learned a lot from Ivan Krastev. open.spotify.com/episode/1Zif...

"The fact you don't have money is not just problematic because you're not getting the basics, it’s also excluding you from society" Laura Carreira (@lauracarreira.bsky.social) on ON FALLING, her debut feature about the tolls of the gig economy https://buff.ly/3ELUf5X [✍️: @jamiedunnesq.bsky.social]

My thoughts on the Russian-American talks on Ukraine, without Ukraine. The simplest interpretation of the available facts is that the Americans are using Russian violence to try to exploit Ukraine. snyder.substack.com/p/peace-or-p...

After we let Russia occupy part of your country and steal your resources, we will occupy the other part and do the same. Quite the starting point for the Americans.

I cannot wait to see it!

This image immediately makes me think about Olga Tokarczuk’s latest novel ‘Empusium’ 🤩 If you ever struggled through her Nobel prize winning ‘Books of Jacob’ this is a much easier but not least haunting read.

So nice to share the bday ☺️ not that it means anything 🫠

Always a great chat with this one and I hope that results will be worth the film!

I’ve just spotted a great grant funding for artists, makers and designers from @hugobfoundation.bsky.social They don’t have many posts here so go directly to their website/IG to check the deadlines. Looks very promising - like what the design/making/arting community would need exactly:

Respect to @theeuropeans.bsky.social for ditching Instagram. He’ll be an important figure here on #bluesky to follow, if you’re not already.

Having a photography studio right next to a picturesque pool of water makes leaving it late on a Sunday in January after a long day of prep for a Monday shoot, somehow more pleasureable. Hence my iPhone snap of the view from The Shore in Leith:

Nice touch with reality actually when watching Eggers’ ‘Nosferatu’ yesterday - ruzzians do bring death and destruction with them. And it is the women who’ll save the world.

Heavy day editing, I’m looking forward to being this horizontal position a la this wee dachshund:

Not making any new year resolutions (not that I ever have!) Some things need to remain private especially in times like 2025.

Never forget that Christmas is a German tradition.

Had a wholesome Christmas Eve and Day entertaining mu mum who is visiting from Poland and a smol dachshund that was visiting from friends. We’ve also heard from babushka so hoping for some more joy and the light at the end of a tunnel! I hope your Xmas is going smoothly and tastily too! Studio card:

Such courage and integrity

My stepdaughter. Doing her best not to feel helpless. The circumstances are dire indeed and I’m extremely worried about babushka and other innocent people who are just targets for these monsters.

I have now prolonged my two library books and I’m planning to tackle my bedside tsundoku book pile before the end of the year. Yesterday I finished Ali Smith’s ‘Winter’ and today I’m back on Norman Davies’ essays ‘Beneath Another Sky’. Travelling without moving as Jay K would sing.

I’ve been thinking, we need to bring back patrons. Like real ones who give writers and artists money to keep going why they create. Like in Renaissance Italy, but without the murder and persecution. Anyway, I’m available to be patronised, FYI

Storytelling and the art of tenderness – Olga Tokarczuk's magnificent Nobel Prize acceptance speech

Do you know of any successful art COUPLES? There is a constant moaning about artist-wives that had to put their own careers at a back burner to let their husbands one thrive. At least they are getting shown now. Where are the COUPLES working together? Are Christo and Jeanne Claude the only ones?

Just a reminder that my open studio day is this Saturday. Pop in, say hello, look at my work, tell me a joke or just invade me with your pet :D Hoping to see you there! It's 2 Commercial Street, above Hemingway's, in Edinburgh. The door downstairs will be open. Pals, re-tw... re-bluesky! :D

Is portrait always good whenever it has a famous face in it? I beg to differ.

I'm delighted to be part of this group show from Studies in Photography with a print from my animal collage series 'Metamorphoses'. Do pop in THIS SATURDAY to 6 William Street in Edinburgh West End. The exhibition opens 6 - 22 Dec Tuesday - Sunday 12 noon - 6 pm

Love that @rahmemanuel.bsky.social recommended The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes, one of the most touching books written on Shostakovich - the title comes from Osip Mandelshtam who like many talented, independent people was executed by the Soviets. A despicable regime that destroys the best.

Impressions Gallery, Open Eye Gallery and Side Gallery, are looking for a Network Coordinator to establish a new pilot network across the North of England for photographers and organisations that are working with photography. www.impressions-gallery.com/opportunity/...

I tremendously enjoy creating photos, observing, arranging and re-arranging. I’m quite lucky that my art practice differs significantly from my commercial practice though these feed into each other in the most unexpected ways. Do I fail? Oh yes, often but I like the process of digging myself out.

Think what you’re leaving behind or what MIGHT have survive you - all the letters (exactly 7 of them) that we now have that were written with Rembrandt’s own hand deal with business aka money. He was also the very first painter in history signing his works with his first name only: Rembrandt.

One of the best books I read in 2024. If not THE best. However, it does have a prequel (‘Empireland’ published in 2021) so I judge them equally. Also, got it from my local library in Leith so a double win. I will never look the same at the exotic holidays locations 😢