Keyboard sessions by the sea

There are worse places in the world to be putting the finishing touches to an album, that's for sure 😊 In all the many years I have been coming to West Somerset, this has been the sunniest and loveliest autumn I can remember.

‘A succession of prime ministers persuaded themselves that their country was somehow different from the rest: it could pick and choose from the menu of European options in the way that suited it best. They were all mistaken.’ David Runciman on the road to Brexit: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Excited to see this lovely bunch again tomorrow for rehearsals ❤️

‘Although she is now routinely mentioned in histories of modernist Paris in the 1920s, only Hemingway seemed to read her with any understanding – Eliot and Joyce and Woolf had no idea what to make of her.’ Adam Thirlwell on Gertrude Stein: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

The truth: under a third of American adults are Trump voters. He is much less popular than he wants you to think. Read this today: https://www.gelliottmorris.com/p/a-lot-of-powerful-people-just-dont

Cozy season

‘What we saw in the last US election was the rise of this very individualistic politics and this idea that a real man doesn't need a social safety net, that he is the agent of his own destiny.’ Emily Witt (@embits.bsky.social) on the manosphere, on the podcast: www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and...

One of a series of atmospheric photos shot by Naishu Shah of myself and the band performing live at the Victoria, Dalston, London, on our spring tour last year. Not long until we announce some more shows 😉

Not sure if there are any ambient fans among my followers, but just to say that today I've released an album by my side-project, riverrun 🌊 It's a 60-hour generative piece; each CD copy contains a unique slice. Streaming/download available too. General mood: "On Land"-era Brian Eno. Details here 😊

Lyric revisions/ Finishing touches / New textures Excitement levels building as I get towards the end of a large project 😀

Put down that guitar and give me some attention

Scorchio!

Not sure if there are any ambient fans among my followers, but if so, just to say: I’ve just announced a new album by my side-project. Each of the 50 CD copies contains a different 72-minute slice of a 60-hour generative piece. General vibe: "On Land"-era Eno. Details here if anyone's interested!

‘Crossroads, watershed, turning or tipping point, whatever cliché falls just this side of revolution: that’s the way the New York Democratic mayoral primary on 24 June will be remembered decades from now if Zohran Mamdani wins.’ Christian Lorentzen, from 13 June: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘These people are all Hayek’s bastards in their different ways and it’s not hard to imagine them eventually ripping each other’s throats out.’ David Runciman last month on Hayek’s legacy and the populist right: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

"To the degree that we are creative, our work really *can't* be compared". I think of this often. Competition in the arts is so bone-headed. Creativity can be motivated by many things, but if it's rooted in competition, your artistry is probably on very shaky foundations. #EdmundWhite

Probably late to the party on this, but "Trump Musk" sounds like the kind of thing you first learn about when some kinkster messages you on Grindr — and suddenly you're googling "How to bleach the inside of your skull"...

‘If gay autofiction does seem slippery and free it does so because it not only embodies the continuing documentary ambitions of the realistic novel but because it also participates in a very different tradition – the confession.’ Edmund White from 1995: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v1...

Good piece, although this format buries the lede a bit: you have to read to the end to see "The Farewell Symphony" and "The Married Man" named as his greatest achievements. I agree—those both surpass "A Boy’s Own Story", which might be "most popular" but not necessarily "best" 😉 #EdmundWhite

🥹

Devastated to hear that Edmund White, my favourite author, and the chronicler of a generation, has passed away at 85. I’ll forever be grateful for his work. #EdmundWhite

SoundCloud. The same company that offered up all their subscriber's content to generative AI... which they've now backtracked on. If enough people know about their advertising, will they do the same? Am I a little tired of companies that go full techbro before being publicly pulled up? Yeah...

‘The obligation to chronicle, to make a record of the times, has always been part of a novelist’s business, though it’s often eclipsed by other concerns.’ Adam Mars-Jones on the significance of detail in two recent novels: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Accidental backing vocalist

‘Hayek suspected that nothing about the vindication of neoliberalism was likely to be straightforward. Some magical thinking would be needed to leaven the mix.’ David Runciman on Hayek and his far-right descendants: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

"On Wishing a Happy Birthday to my Ex-Boyfriend". A poem I wrote, yesterday.

The Blue Nile & Rickie Lee Jones - Easter Parade

Happy Record Store Day! 🎶 Some pics from our Holt Vinyl Vault gig in Norfolk last year. Fingers crossed we'll be back for a full evening show soon! If you're in Norfolk, check out Andrew’s store—he’s keeping the true indie spirit of RSD alive, away from all the hype. #RSD2025

Post your favourite Doctor Who. Wrong answers only.

As someone who always has their phone on silent, there is a special place in hell for people who watch videos on their phones in public without headphones.

100%

Studio assistant

The second draft of my book is done! Elevator pitch: it’s a memoir about surviving homophobia & depression in the 1990s with the help of literature, good friends, and the Cocteau Twins. (Now it goes into a virtual drawer for a few months rest before I start a final draft with fresh eyes...)

There are prefaces and prefaces…

No, but if you’re looking for one, I am aware of a guy you work with that was indicted four times and convicted of thirty-four felonies.

Amazing review up on @louderthanwar.bsky.social by @robertd1.bsky.social. Mentions of T.S. Eliot, B.S. Johnson and Brueghel! 'Examines how things both seemingly change and forever stay the same ... a charming and caustic book.' louderthanwar.com/the-punk-roc... @richardjamesfoster.bsky.social

A tribute I’ve written to my late friend, Dr. Michael Halls, along with some words about the groundbreaking work he did to address issues of homophobic and transphobic crime in the South West of the UK (which I was a part of, for a time)

A theatre show about a queer icon, staged in a very queer city, by a likely queer-heavy cast, draws homophobic abuse from an audience member. Hope I'm wrong, but these are the things you can expect when the acceptance of diversity backslides. Feels eerily like the incidents from the 80s and 90s.

Sigourney Weaver in "The Tempest": Early reviews were brutal; it’s either improved or the backlash was overblown. Impressive production actually, and Prospero’s final scenes were unexpectedly moving. Good, cheap tickets remain still—100% worth seeing in London. #SigourneyWeaver #TheTempest

Lovely, lovely Brian Eno at the launch of "What Art Does" last night. My 5th or 6th time seeing him talk (also saw a rare live performance in 2006 at Bath). I've long been as much a fan of his ideas as his music, and have been awaiting his book on culture since 2005. (My book review coming shortly).

‘US politics, like most politics, was nothing if not a love-in with some harmless (ideological) rough stuff thrown in. But I don’t love you in the least, Trump said, and if I scratch your back it will hurt.’ T.J. Clark on Trump and the spectacle: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Excited for Tuesday and the new memoir from Edmund White, my favourite writer... "He is also a poet. How else to describe a writer who sees, in the eyebrows and unsmiling, closed mouth of a man, a 'Morse code of male beauty', or even better, 'the oblong pitches in a medieval hymnal?'"

The monthly LGBTQ+ online support call with OutPatients has been a lifeline for me. Getting peer support hits different from other LGBTQ people. They also have a friends/carers monthly call and one for people with breast cancer. outpatients.org.uk/support/

one for all of us in the Venn diagram of shoegaze / murder she wrote

‘In 2021, Niall Ferguson described Trump as a “demagogue and would-be tyrant”. Last month he was dancing to “YMCA” at Mar-a-Lago.’ Jan-Werner Müller on the ‘anticipatory obedience’ on display in the run-up to Trump 2.0: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ja...