Finally got my mitts on this. Looking forward to eating it.

Happy autumn equinox! Also the birthdays of Bilbo and Frodo.

A short thing about music. Please indulge me. My son and his girlfriend did a pub gig this afternoon. Here they are. Voice and keyboard. Jazz standards. They were good, but that’s not the point. (1/n)

Favourite* 10 TV comedies Fawlty Towers Monty Python's Flying Circus Blackadder Seinfeld Friends Casper og Mandrilaftalen I'm Alan Partridge The Office Fleabag Detectorists *That made the greatest impression on me at the time.

Read: Barbara Pym: Excellent Women (1952). Another great book for #SpinsterSeptember, and my first Pym. Quietly funny with wonderful observations of British humans in the postwar years: I gobbled it up. PS: Having finally read books by Barbaras Pym and Comyns, I can now tell them apart!

I don't know what it is about conkers but they are magical objects. I look forward to them every year.

Both he and Newman were exactly what famous actors should be: concerned with doing good work and getting good films made, displaying an affection and love for art, having fun hobbies, giving lots of their time and money to help people and not being a complete piece of shit in their personal life RIP

Great pitch, now go and make the film.

I have my #TheTwen2ie5 list ready. Join us, if you like music from this century and want to play along. Starting 1 Oct.

I love my running route: forest, fields, very large golden retrievers.

Read: Jane Austen: Northanger Abbey (1799/1817). Flirts with some of the tropes of the gothic novel, but is basically a classic Austen, albeit not quite as funny and intelligent as her more mature works. Still: *very* enjoyable. Not sure it qualifies for #SpinsterSeptember.

Lots of birds today, including a goldcrest, a first for me here. And three red squirrels gambolling/plotting world domination.

Five buzzards!

That seems a most fitting beginning.

My family will be watching the Up series from Granada Television. My boys were entranced with the 1964 seven-year-olds, their accents, their manners. Great tv. www.itv.com/watch/the-7-...

Read: Sylvia Townsend Warner's The Corner That Held Them (1948). A brilliantly evocative historical novel about a convent in the forteenth century, which pulls off the trick of not having a plot arc and yet being a page-turner. Masterly. And my first read of #spinsterseptember.

尾竹 竹坡 (Otake Chikuha) Rising Sun with Waves, ca 1915-35 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otake_C...

Let's listen to this: International by Saint Etienne is out today.

This sounds interesting. ⬇️

Congratulations to Melvyn Bragg for an astounding run of In Our Time, a great series of programmes. But does he not believe in climate change? bsky.app/profile/geor...

FILM DECADES: The 30s are better than the 40s. The 50s are better than the 60s. The 70s are better than the 80s.

Taking the first bite out of autumn.

August reading [✓] Favourite: all good, but Irmgard Keun was electric and added more to the TBR. Not much to show for it, but I have three books on the go to be finished in September.

In response to my rant yesterday, I was asked how we can make better parks and other public places for teenage girls? What do they want? I have answers to this, so now a positive 🧵. Starting in Sweden, where this was co-designed by teenage girls.

Read with JuniorJunior: Lucy M. Boston: The Children of Green Knowe (1954). My wife and a generation of British kids were scared witless by the 1986 BBC adaptation, but the book was only mildly eerie. Classic mid-century low fantasy, v. nice. We might not carry on with the series.

People get the peppermints they deserve.

Performative reading.

Reform isn’t a political party. It’s a corporate lobbying firm. The business model is simple. Wealthy elites pay Farage to push policies that could make them millions. 4 infuriating examples:

Today: a wee dead bat in the path. But the birds were out as well: crested grebe, chiffchaff, greenfinch, robin, tits great and blue, wood pigeon, and possibly redstart, treecreeper and spotted flycatcher.

To celebrate Proms season, throwback to 2012 and the National Youth Orchestra performing the amazing Handsfree by Anna Meredith. I have never seen an orchestra look so terrified / relieved *after* a performance. youtu.be/Xo97ztKppIw?...

Can't even build death star anymore, because of ewok

Gosh, this passage in Proust feels very C21.

Pausing Uncut Gems halfway through, for my health. Will resume another day.

Jeg har oversat en bog: Jenny Odell: Red tiden. Dén var sjov at oversætte: en nysgerrig og causerende undersøgelse af tiden, og hvad vi gør med den. Ikke rigtig en selvhjælpsbog, men mere et filosofisk blik på emnet i al sin bredde. Ude nu på Zetland.

THAT'S RIGHT!

29 years ago today, Jamiroquai released the music video for 'Virtual Insanity'

www.instagram.com/the.world.in... by Instagram user: @the.world.in.maps

TRIGGER WARNING

Sweet, sweet new bookcases. No more running out of shelf space for at least ... Well, let's not be specific. For a good while.

Læst: Annie Ernaux' L'événement (2000, oversat af Niels Lyngsø). Kun min anden Ernaux, og selv om den var interessant og hårdtslående, kunne den med sin korte længde ikke måle sig med Les Années. #WITmonth

Book recommendations galore ✨ ⬇️

Slightly diminish a band: A Tribe Called Rummage

Kids, go to university!

Today's exciting fauna: a grass snake zigzagging away.

Why yes, I showed the kids It Happened One Night last week, what of it?

Read: Tove Jansson: Den ärliga bedragaren (1982, translated by Thomas Teal). Having only read Jansson's Sommarboken (plus loads of Moomin books), this one surprised me with it's prickliness. Not at all warm and nice, I thoroughly enjoyed its streak of iciness. I bet it was fun to write. #WITmonth