Child in his element.

Rehearsal today with a new band for a series of gigs - beautiful folky/singer songwriter stuff. I also took my son to the science museum this morning, so I am knackered now. And still need to do some remote recording 😅

I did the same thing when I mistakenly started watching the second season of The Witcher first and was impressed with how you were just thrown into the world with no explanation.

Just realised that I started watching The Other Bennett Sister with episode 6 (having then watched ep.2 & 3). I thought it was a rather abrupt start 😅

I love that (amateur) historian feeling of following a hunch about a connection and having it proved right. I’ve just randomly discovered a familial link between a composer I’m looking into and the (real life) slave trading Bristol family that featured in my opera. Was not expecting that!

The dangerous roads and impossible cycling situation here were literally the reasons why we didn't choose to send our child to the lovely Hotwells School - the idea of cycling to and from there twice a day was too risky. Speed limits and provision for cyclists are badly needed here.

Limit Break, the award winning mentorship program for marginalised people working in the UK games industry returns! 💖 Part of a marginalised group in games looking for a mentor? 💖 Want to help level up the next gen of game devs? Apply to be a mentor &/or mentee now! ⤵️ limitbreak.co.uk/apply

Caaaaaake

Mackenzie Crook’s magical suburban folk tale, #SmallProphets published by #PenguinBooks and #PuffinBooks down the years. A 🧵 1/

JK Rowling is calling women athletes men even after they pass genetic testing. People in her replies are talking about these women having “ambiguous” genitalia. We are in an extremely frightening moment for ALL women thanks to transphobia.

'That is not protecting women’s sport. That is policing girls’ bodies. And once sport starts deciding which women are ‘acceptable’, no woman or girl is truly safe.'

I'm editing a face from one photo onto a different photo (same person, preferred expression, publicity photo) the old fashioned copy-paste-layers-eraser-soften way, and I feel very smug.

I've recently formed a new trio (Trio Sivrai) and we're focussing on works by Victorian women composers - and particularly those with connections to the south west. Here's our first outing - playing the wonderfully melodramatic 'Danse Russe' by Jane Roeckel, originally for solo piano.

My child just turned 6 and has only been reliably sleeping through the night for about a year. The visceral anger I feel when I hear someone (usually with one baby) say that 'you just need to put the effort in to build good sleep habits!' is off the charts.

the harry potter show being popular is gonna be deeply annoying but it will also be a great time to practice saying calmly and repeatedly “oh i don’t care much for harry potter since i learned rowling spends all her time and money attacking trans people”

Drop a film that traumatised you as a kid.

As a social anthropologist undergrad I was taught that science and scientists are just as beholden to and rooted in belief systems as the rest of us. They just like to pretend there's such a thing as true objectivity 😁

Probably Clive Barker's Weaveworld as an early teen. That was... something. I read LOTR aged about 9 which was the perfect age as I had the stamina to slog through it back then.

My almost 6yo requested a 'sloth cake' for his birthday, so I took a picture of his favourite sloth toy and got Asda to print it on a cake. 😁

The progression from limiting trans people's rights (which is wrong full stop) to limiting all women's rights is crystal clear.

I’m running a 2 hour online workshop for teachers, heritage professionals, journalists & anyone who wants to be able to discuss the British Empire and its afterlives with nuance and concision. It’s on 1st June. Do sign up if interested? onlineshop.sussex.ac.uk/product-cata...

I HATE plane tree pollen season (now). My Kryptonite 😭

You absolutely cannot separate the artist and the art without contributing to the persecution of trans people. Boycott everything Potter.

Okay, the #TransRightsReadathon auction is up, and I have an offer in there! Drumroll... I will put your pet in my forthcoming book. Name, description, personality! (Nothing bad will happen to them, I'm not a monster.)

The Crystal Palace (well, what's left of its foundations anyway). And the River Wandle, which is entirely concreted over and cannot be seen.

Maternity services have coercion fundamentally embedded in their everyday practices, and the only way I could navigate it was by doing more research than I did for my master's. It should NOT be necessary to self educate to the eyeballs in order to fight a system that should be there to support you.

Fantastic news in the UK today - the government has apparently ditched its plan to force creatives to 'opt out' if they don't want AI companies training on their life's work. www.thetimes.com/uk/technolog... 🧵 1/4

A resident recently told me they used the new NHS Dental Access Portal after 10+ years without an NHS dentist - and had an appointment within 2 weeks. If you haven’t seen an NHS dentist for 4 years+ and aren’t registered, you can sign up here: dhcw.nhs.wales/product-dire... Please share, it works.

Have you ever seen someone at a train station who looks upset, but not been sure what to do? The lovely people at Samaritans have produced a #SmallTalkSavesLives guide and were handing it out at Bristol Temple Meads last week ☺️ Also available online: www.samaritans.org/support-us/c...

Very happy to see all the wins for Sinners - including the very deserved Best Score. And I don't think anyone on Classicalsky will be mourning Chalamet's loss 😁 In any case, MBJ's performance was stunning.

First try making bagels and I'd say 100% successful in terms of taste and texture & 10% in terms of hole.

The term 'suicidal empathy' is a direct parroting of Elon Musk, and hugely promoted by far right US Christian nationalists. White supremacist dog whistle bs.

Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work. 'That was a good one. Do it again.'

As someone who has never had regular grandparental support with childcare (which is hardly their fault, since we all live in different cities), why do I feel like asking them to babysit my 5yo for a day so I can go to a work thing on a Saturday is the world's biggest favour?

Anti-Trans Health Secretary & Labour leadership hopeful Wes Streeting claims his segregation of trans people in the NHS are to “protect (cis) women”. Yet he brought Palantir into the NHS, something that its CEO has now admitted will specifically harm cis women. Streeting and Palantir must go.

Pretty stoked that our solar panels planning application has been approved 🌞 still deciding on the exact system, so feel free to weigh in with advice.

'Let’s return to that question about the supposed poor returns for creative arts graduates. The answer lies in the fact that they are effectively subsidising the creative industries that they’re working in – they are...selling their labour for less than they might earn in other sectors'. 2/3

100% agree. I don't really suffer from nerves when public speaking because it is SO much easier than performing a concerto. It's just words! I can do words with very little practice!

After uni I was a 'Resident Tutor' for a year at a girls' boarding school. It was really Not Fun, and when our potential replacements were coming for interview we had to show them round. We tried to be diplomatic, but I remember one girl saying "You're not really selling it..." 😬

Some British newspapers now seem more interested in pleasing American readers than reflecting British opinion. ➡️ Watch Page 94, the Private Eye podcast: youtu.be/m8kyoyGdCQY

A class action lawsuit has already been announced, courtesy of journalist and author Julia Angwin. I doubt anyone from the @mcgilloss.bsky.social had their identity stolen in this way, but if you have proof that we did, let me know. prf-law.com/current-case...

Just another normal day in the Butterworth family chat.

So that’s that, right? We don’t have to put up with endless drivel about how expensive it is to save the planet abd ourselves ever again? Cool.

The A Little Less Conversation remix came out in 2002 which gave him a big boost for the generation born a decade after his death, I think. More recently? A lot less.

I wrote to my Green MP @carladenyer.bsky.social to voice my concerns about the government's apparent disregard for all the voices raised against allowing AI companies to freely train their data on our life's work. I was pleased with her robust response and advocacy for stronger regulation of AI.

You’d think in this era of “MPs face increasing danger” there would be more outrage at newly elected Green MP Hannah Spencer being assaulted by transphobes but it’s nowhere to be seen on BBC News app even if you search her name

Really Serious People: the Iran war proves that the only way for Britain to protect itself from fossil fuel dependency is to produce her own fossil fuels regardless of the ecological cost. Me, at home with my electric car and my heat pump and my induction cooker: Er, guys…

My hot Chalamet take: just because someone’s famous and successful in one area of the arts, doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll have anything sensible to say about other art forms - especially more niche ones like opera. It’s not terribly surprising!

Looking at the quote replies, it's... interesting how most men have quite a few options. I'm not sure I can think of any really awful Emmas, though there must be one, considering how long it was top of the baby name lists.