Morning!

well, that's brightened up a bit.

RIP Martin Parr. One of my very tenuous claims to fame is that Parr selected one of my photos which I'd submitted to a tribute group on Flickr (taken at Halifax Agricultural Show) for a project with Joachim Schmid.

lovely soft wet winter light on the Daniel Arshams at @yspsculpture.bsky.social

Thoughts and prayers with everyone feeling wobbly this morning. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

CW: steampunk kink

THIS IS ART

t'owd Odeon

Really enjoyed the collision of Huddersfield market architecture and Iannis Xenakis, part of the last leg of @hcmfuk.bsky.social

Return of the melting glacier symphonies.

The big lad's getting fired up tonight.

Cracking session of augmented piano-bothering with Stefan Schultze at @hcmfuk.bsky.social

Black Friday spending spree at the local Oxfam.

Dear editors, I have a 'Monkey business' headline to sell. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

"this week, I saw that eco-populism is taking the country by storm, even in the unlikeliest places" - Telegraph comment piece based on a day trip to Huddersfield and Sheffield. "What we are witnessing is a battle for the soul of progressivism" apparently. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11...

“The first single, 'Room At The Top' is inspired by the JG Ballard short story, Billenium (1962), a bleak dystopian narrative that explores the oppression of urban spaces, dodgy rented property and overpopulation.” www.piccadillyrecords.com/163438/Quate...

Souvenir of a cracking Shorts day at @hcmfuk.bsky.social 3 very different improv sessions with Heiner Goebbels gave a backbone to the day - I particularly liked the church organ / sax wigout with Raymond MacDonald.

some apparatus of the Estonian Electronic Music Society Ensemble, following their performance at @hcmfuk.bsky.social

have reached the Jacques Brel level of Duolingo.

Dreamt I'd invented Crosswalks, where you have to solve a grid of cryptic clues to obtain the directions for a hike through demanding countryside. Now I don't know if this is the best or worst idea I've ever unconsciously had.

25 years ago, I wrote for Bizarre magazine about online hoaxes and scams. This was cutting-edge stuff back then, in the fallout from the first great dotcom bubble. How very different things are today. This was my first freelance sale - ta @drblacklock.bsky.social for the commission.

Look, up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Yeah, it's some birds.

Sloe eater.

Lapwings at YWT Staveley - loads of them.

Spotted a squirrel scampering through lakeside grass, with something in its mouth - presumably taking its young to safety.

Birthday visit to the railway cuttings.

Checking in.

Nidd's in good spate.

Belatedly saw Bugonia. It’s OK if unnecessary - the original had a lot more going on, but I enjoyed the alien costumes and the Marlene Dietrich.

All I’m saying is that there is one early James Bond actor who the new producers could bring back to resolve any continuity issues. And he could probably do with a career boost.

Unforgettable in The Human Condition which, if you consider it as a single film, dwarfs Satantango. Also genuinely awesome in The Sword of Doom. And - lest we forget - Oggi a me... domani a te!

Enjoyed the del Toro Frankenstein. It’s relatively faithful to the book (even if it skips past the detour to Matlock) but GdT brings enough of his own obsessions to keep things interesting.

Popped by 1 Buckingham Place, former home of Number 6, to pay our respects.

Tiny underground mail train! Mind your head, indeed.

old haunts

RIP. I'd just reread LAUM in Bellos' original translation on my French hols.

Some thoughts and photos from a holiday in the Camargue. It’s a unique landscape, with the highest point just a few metres above sea level. That makes it extremely vulnerable to climate change. The flamingos will survive, but it could be bad news for people. othersfield.com/photo/camarg...

Like Hemingway for a new generation.

Behind the scenes at the bull fight.

What I saw this weekend at the London Film Festival, in the order in which I'd recommend them to a casual acquaintance: Silent Friend (Ildikó Enyedi) The Ice Tower (Lucile Hadzihalilovic) Alpha (Julia Ducournau) What Marielle Knows (Frédéric Hambalek) D is for Distance (Christopher Petit)

The more I walk in busy parts of London, the more I think that anyone snatching phones out of pedestrians' hands is actually performing a public service.

Stopped by the under-bridge book market on the way into the BFI. Impressed by the lad running the table with all the Penguin Classics who, in response to an enquiry from another punter, said he'd never heard of Moby Dick.

hello again, best cinema ceiling in London.

From a walk around the walls of Aigues-Mortes.

None of these options seem to be incorrect.

Salin-de-Giraud

Beach portents

Worth remembering that just a few years before Cop21, Johnson was still in full-on denial mode and merrily endorsing loopers like Piers Corbyn in his columns. I've seen more consistent windsocks.

Had a lovely morning touring the new sewage treatment works, Clayton West.

Taking a lot of inspo from this thread, but I think this is my favourite. That jaguar did not die in vain.