More Mamdanis, please

a side of beef, a shoulder of mutton, a haunch of venison

Very good insights by @eryk.bsky.social on the UK Skills Hub — especially on how the division of users between ‘AI workers’ and ‘AI leaders’ affects content 🧵

Light (4:30pm)

every cloud etc.

Pick up the nearest book. Turn to page 42, post the second sentence. Page 42: <Egon Schiele’s Frau mit Spiegel>

yellow monday

shadowland

Thrilled that THE SECRET AGENT won the Critics Choice award for Best International Film but so disheartened and angry at how it happened. Mendonça Filho and producer Emilie Lesclaux were ambushed on the red carpet, no briefing, no chance of giving a speech, the whole thing an insulting disaster.

Last oil barrel (Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck, Caracas, 1972)

A Simple Maze, Suzanne Treister (a painting for today, occasional series) @modernartoxford.bsky.social

About 6 months ago, Helen de Cruz, one of my favorite philosophers, died from a bruising battle with cancer, which they faced with insight and courage. This is a good time to note that the fund set up to support their children is within $2,000 of being fully funded.

Prep for 2026’s arrival (before and after)

(In)organic [detail of Cathie Pilkington’s installation at the Freud Museum & sea slug that can cut its head off and regenerate its own body]

The Conversations was my introduction to Murch. Ways of seeing, hearing, creating — fascinating stuff, really generative. Hadn’t watched The Conversation 😳, but finally did after coming across a Radio 3 Sound of Cinema ep (still available) where Murch is interviewed.

Merry Giacometti Christmas! @barbican.bsky.social

And the Christmas Eve Venison Stew (so good only one snapshot was taken) wishes everyone a Merry Christmas!

Getting distracted/annoyed while watching a film set in the 1970s (The Mastermind) because the UK release of the film set in the 70s I want to watch (The Secret Agent) is END OF FEBRUARY

‘predictable winter pressures demand more than individual responsibility, they also require systemic measures … you won’t remember the flu waves of 2020/21 because there weren’t any’ www.bmj.com/content/391/...

With Volodos is always a mix of hearing music as if it were the very first time (there were moments when I couldn’t tell where Schubert’s D959 was going despite knowing it well) and ‘oh, that’s how it’s supposed to be’ (Brahms’s Intermezzi, always mind blowing). A generous encore-giver too.

Me and the moon arriving at our destination (best concert of 2025). Barbara Hannigan and Bertrand Chamayou going from intimacy to transcendence via Messiaen, Skryabin, and John Zorn @wigmore-hall.org.uk

shame redistribution project

Reciprocity

And it’s a wrap

Full moon, trees, red and yellow lights

Full moon over nondescript building

Second-hand books introduced me to Stoppard’s work. There’re still plays I’ve never seen on stage. Ticked The Invention of Love off last year. Was literally looking for Arcadia tickets, thinking at least he’s still with us, when I heard the news. Sad day.

Same 😌

Calling it Reverse Perec Season. A flood of people with random Es in their names, a chyron bringing me hip hope.

Awful things unfolding in Rio, over 60 dead, lots of favelados friends either unable to go home or trapped in their homes. Evil cops, evil state governor.

Caught by a line tossed by Henri-Edmond Cross: a spiral that begins with a tiny red flag and is successively extended by light on sand, improbably-sized toreros, bull, and audience’s heads, of which mine is the third one, just above the giant purple hat 1/2

Five minutes of an autumnal walk 1/2

October light

Heating on (Do Ho Suh)

The first time I saw a box of Altoids was in a poem. The second time was last week, on a table at a Frieze stand. I could be wrong, but I’ll assume it contained mints this time. Years ago a diminutive St Michael was inside it, hanging demons with velvet thread, 1/6

And I saw the Madonna in the Triceratops’s eyes (mystical/surreal experiences at Frieze Masters, ongoing series)

Still haunted by the UK première of Kareem Roustom’s piece for the children of Gaza, commissioned by Michael Barenboim. Talking about the source of musical inspiration for this work, @disgwylfa.bsky.social says that ‘thinking … of laments, Roustom came to Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte 1/3

Video shows Palestinian children jumping with joy as a parent chants “Hudna! Hudna! Hudna!” — an Arabic word meaning a long-term truce or ceasefire.

Tintarella di luna

moonlight

Five swans

International Translation Day. St Jerome is tired and being told to reconsider his career choices.

fox, turning away

This made me v v happy (plus opening hours that work for me)

In her new book on internet culture, @badaude.bsky.social discusses the use of photography as facial recognition technology during the Paris Commune. It reminded me of Schäublin’s exceptional film Unrest, following Kropotkin’s 1877 visit to a Swiss village transformed by capitalism and anarchy 1/3

“Huge crowds packed the squares and beaches of some of Brazil’s biggest cities to voice their opposition to rightwing endeavors to help Bolsonaro escape jail for his failed power grab”

Those five syllables, per-di-da-men-te, their final ‘e’ merging seamlessly with the initial ‘e’ of e-na-mo-ra-do, walking you through meaning and experience… Perfect words.

Never mind the ruby-necklace-gifting ritual — Patricia Lockwood sang, beautifully and unprompted (reasons to attend book launches, occasional series) @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk

The Fall of Civilisation

Guilty