Doomed to be an artist and doomed to be niche.

Nice constellation of the almost full moon🌔and Jupiter this evening. Jupiter has 92 moons!! And is the gatekeeper of our solar system, preventing impact from ☄️ comets etc.

Catherine O’Hara was a hilarious, gorgeous, and older woman. Three things a lot of women grew up thinking didn’t mix, but they did. They all did. RIP you Canadian treasure

Catherine O’Hara got us through the pandemic. In our darkest hour Moira Rose lit up the day

Brilliant news

Really enjoyed Midsummer Night’s Dream at #theglobe - A comedy transformed into a class tragedy about agency under authoritarianism, with Bottom as the lead

Thread - 1/7 7 reasons #AI is a tool of global domination and tech fascism. 1. Constant hallucinations which are factually incorrect but subtly interwoven with correct information, requiring expertise to spot. As a routinely used research tool, it undermines facts/truth - helpful for fascism.

Wrote a little thing on my substack about Mary Beard and Roman Emperors and AI. performingquiet.substack.com/p/what-the-r...

Wrote about John Berger and The Future Show on my (kind of) brand new substack... open.substack.com/pub/performi...

Who’s been putting off filling in that government consultation on AI then? Because you took one look and realised that fucking thing was designed SPECIFICALLY to put you off? Don’t worry, there are three online guides to help you: The Association of Illustrators theaoi.com/news/the-cop...

You’ve got the next hour to fill this in if you can. The questions are definitely phrased in a way to discourage you from finishing the survey, but finish it anyway. Our human voices should be heard, not stolen.

Last chance to respond to the government’s consultation on AI’s threat to creatives and copyright. Here’s a handy guide to filling it in from @writersguildgb.bsky.social.

As promised, here are the slides I shared with students to convince them to NOT use chatGPT and other artificial stupidity. TL;DR? AI is evil, unsustainable and stupid, and I'd much rather they use their own brains, make their own mistakes, and actually learn something. 🪄

“I use antlers in all of my decorating.” Is there any better lyric in film?

An important piece in today’s Observer from Katie Hims on why cuts to audio drama are so damaging - to writers, audiences and the wider cultural ecosystem in the UK We continue to campaign to Save Audio Drama at the BBC #SADatTheBBC www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Some people are celebrities as a result of absolute privilege. Some are celebrities as a result of absolute hardship. Some are celebrities as a result of incredibly hard work/virtuosic skill. Liza Minelli is all three. #Legend #LoveLiza

Incredibly honest moment: one of the most useful cookbooks I have ever bought is Tim Anderson’s Microwave Cooking. Not necessarily for the recipes but for the paradigm shift it offers a cook in terms of how they think of their microwave. It isn’t just for reheating, it’s a tool.

Not exaggerating when I say I would like a personal, handwritten apology from every pundit who barfed out a dozen "the left wants to change the way you talk!" op-eds based on non-mandatory guidelines in obscure PDFs.

Anyone else feel like “Feed the Birds” in Mary Poppins is the moment you realise your nanny is a radical anarchist who wants to take down capitalism with her cool chimney sweep artist f-buddy? And does the beauty of that realisation make anyone else cry?

Let’s not trade wisdom for knowledge.

Grow up

There could be a future where algorithms chatting with eachother about all the things the humans used to do is the only intelligent life left in the universe.

“Dreyfuss once wrote from Devil’s Island that he would see the most glorious birds. Many years later in Brittany he realised they had only been seagulls. For me, they will always be glorious birds.” - Maude

Today, honor a King, not a Felon. #mlkday2025

Anyone truly interested in elegance must admire the inimitable creature that is the cat.

After almost 20 years living in the U.K., my North American accent sounds like I left yesterday. But the place where I’ve “gone British” is in emails. I have never signed one “Cheerio” but that could be next

So the Labour government clearly does not give a sh*t about climate change. Carbon emissions from even relatively simple AI use are enormous. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

There is a lot of irony in this headline reading “over 40” when every actress referenced in the article is over 50. Why pretend they are 10 years younger? Isn’t it cooler that these women are over 50? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I am a climate scientist and this is correct ⬇️

Some people make life bigger and more beautiful. And some people make life smaller and worse.

Master of the cute sulk.

once again i am astonished at UK politicians and their inability to understand the simplest fucking things about the gift horse that is the 🇬🇧 creative industry and how little money they will fuck it over for.

“You speak like someone who has no ideals.” “True. I am a neo-frivolist.” “And how does that differ from old-fashioned frivolity?” “Mostly in the ‘neo’ prefix. It makes it more interesting.” - Antal Szerb, The Pendragon Legend, 1933

The government will try to sell the public on AI generated art as a collaboration between algorithms and artists, but can collaboration be non-consensual, aimed at erasing the autonomy of the human collaborator? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Re: AI I emailed [email protected] the following letter. Happy to share and I urge all my colleagues to get in touch with these kowtowers and tell it like it is.

Just used this to email my MP. I urge you to do the same. If you are an artist make no mistake, you have skin in the game and corporate greed doesn’t want to eliminate content, it wants to eliminate you, the critical thinking embedded in your “content” and any need to pay you.

The thing with theatre is you can’t really expect it to become self-funding. You have to think it’s worth funding indefinitely; it’s not a startup, it’s not going to grow up some day and make money. Theatre doesn’t make money. It makes experiences, connections, memories, community, it makes artists.

This morning two theatre companies (Freedom Studios and Coney) have announced their permanent closure. Both 'left' the National Portfolio in 2023 and have found the climate impossible since. Their statements are heartbreakingly similar. Without massive funding reform many more will follow in 2025.

fuckin hell

Does nobody get this? Artists are likely to be dissidents. If AI takes over art making as a viable industry, fascism is easier to achieve. We have “content” without the pesky artists who make it. This isn’t innocuous AI fun, this is the human spirit at risk… www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Any resemblance to real cats is coincidental

dear theatre, this is how you do it. this is access. for real. if Dan Fishback can do this, so can everyone. learn. listen. do. #theatre

List 5 playwrights where your ears would perk up if you heard they had something new on. Here are mine: Annie Baker, Tim Crouch, Brandon Jacob Jenkins, Anne Washburn, Young Jean Lee. Bonus Round: Lola Arias, Daniel MacIvor, John Guare

James Webb telescope just dropped its latest image, Neptune, and its rings.

Who do I follow? I feel like I got invited to a party and now I’m in a massive gymnasium by myself.

Yesterday the Canadian government emailed me to tell me they were giving me a medal. It turned out the medal was for another Deborah Pearson and they got my email by accident. Meaning I can’t take the medal. So technically I turned down a medal on ethical grounds. Nbd.