Read: John Le Carré: A Murder of Quality (1962). What do you know, the second Smiley novel is not a spy book but a classic murder mystery. Le Carré might be better with spycraft but this was delightful.

#TheTenx5. Day 31. #20. LA Priest: Oino (2015) Catchy as hell. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJPj...

#TheTenx5. Day 30. #21. Danny L Harle: Broken Flowers (2015) Well built four on the floor house. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwpP...

*Slaps roof of Klein bottle* this baby can- hang on

#TheTenx5. Day 29. #22. Lavender Diamond: Everybody’s Heart’s Breaking Now (2012) Quietly devastating bedroom pop (with the comics artist Ron Regé Jr. om drums). www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGJu...

Sunset 17:49

My running route is hilly / My climbing route is flat.

#TheTenx5. Day 28. #23. Amber Mark: Love Me Right (2018) R&b so lush it's literally criminal. www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWvX...

#TheTenx5. Day 27. #24. Jessie Ware: Midnight (2017) This absolute stomper now has a total of, count 'em, one vote. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJz8...

#TheTenx5. Day 26. #25. Beyoncé: Formation (2016) Okay, ladies, now let's get our ducks in a row. youtu.be/WDZJPJV__bQ?...

#TheTenx5. Honourable mention 5/5. Sums: Budapest (2017) Slow, majestic, angular electronic piece. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUuy...

February reading [✓] Favourite: looking at the stack now, not actually a fantastic month. I guess vol. I of Balle's groundhog day was the best of the lot.

But have we enough Allen keys?

#TheTenx5. Honourable mention 4/5. C Duncan: For (2015) Quietly mesmerising pop. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkeY...

Læst: Solvej Balle: Om udregning af rumfang II (2020). Åh, allerede aftagende udbytte! Igen en god cliffhanger, men inden da er der 180 sider, jeg så småt begynder at finde noget adstadige. Men der er en proustsk langsom grundighed i serien, så jeg er stadig indstillet på at lade mig flyde med.

#TheTenx5. Honourable mention 3/5. Izo FitzRoy: Skyline (2017) Sort of feel bad now for not making space for this absolute groooove among my 50. www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9Ql...

#TheTenx5. Honourable mention 2/5. Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott: I Gotta Praise (2017) More singalong! www.youtube.com/watch?v=g74F...

#TheTenx5. Honourable mention 1/5. Jonathan Groff: You’ll Be Back (2015). Sing along, everybody! www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5JA...

“Small presses who can’t afford big advances get gazumped by publishers who then do nothing to promote those books.” Good interview with Neil Griffiths - founder of Weatherglass Books and the Queen Mary small press fiction prize (né the Republic of Consciousness Prize).

Following J*** B*z**'s decision to sack all the journalists, I am glad the books coverage at the Washington Post is in safe hands i.e. the hands of someone who owns the world's biggest audiobook provider. #fancythat

#TheTenx5. Day 25. #26. Underworld: Nylong Strung (2016). 1st of 2. Halfway through the list, and it looks like about half of mine will end up being solo picks. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhC...

Read: Fiona Benson: Midden Witch (2025). I am a Benson fan, and while this didn't quite reach the heights of Vertigo & Ghost, it was still very good: evocative, earthy, real.

#TheTenx5. Day 24. #27. M83: Midnight City (2011) Big is beautiful. www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX3k...

AI is going to trash every single way that we had modernised university teaching and send us back to handwritten exams and vivas for every assessment. Which will bring back every problem with those assessment models (and make us seem even more out-of-touch even as we just try to do meaningful work).

Read with your kids. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

#TheTenx5. Day 23. #28. Carly Rae Jepsen: Call Me Maybe (2011) Look, it's not that I like the song, I am merely powerless against it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWNa...

If you liked this experiment, I published a full piece today in the same vein: a text that gets 100 years older with every section, from a modern blog post to a medieval chronicle. It's a single story spanning 1000 years of English. See how far you get. www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

Read: Stephen King: On Writing (2000). My first King. Two observations: He is good at writing; I can imagine reading thousands of pages of his. This may be one of the most overrated books I have read: a potted autobiography and a few tips about not overusing adverbs, and not much else.

#TheTenx5. Day 22. #29. Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus: Old Town Road (2019) Sometimes you just have to pick a song with 1,673,744,300 streams on Spotify. (My next two picks are my only other 1 billion plus songs.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7qo...

Drop a crush from your youth

#TheTenx5. Day 21. #30. Radiohead: Burn The Witch (2016). This is a low-flying panic attack. youtu.be/yI2oS2hoL0k?...

Læst: Zofia Nałkowska: Medaliony (1953. Oversat af Judyta Preis og Jørgen Herman). En lille novelle/reportagesamling om Anden Verdenskrigs ofre. Spartansk stil, frygtelige skæbner. Enkelte detaljer brændte sig fast på den indre nethinde.

#TheTenx5. Day 20. #31. Run The Jewels feat. Zach de la Rocha: Close Your Eyes (2014). Nice to see a really strong rap track get some nominations. youtu.be/PkGwI7nGehA?...

#TheTenx5. Day 19. #32. John Grant: GMF (2013). Another great baritone. It was a toss-up between this and Sigourney Weaver, but this has Sinéad on backing vocals and was filmed in my old hood, so nostalgia. youtu.be/E5G2orT2sjE?...

#TheTenx5. Day 18. #33. The National: Bloodbuzz Ohio (2010). Had to have this. youtu.be/yfySK7CLEEg?...

#TheTenx5. Day 17. #34. Mitski: Nobody (2018). My idea of pop: swirling, insistent, interesting. youtu.be/qooWnw5rEcI?...

Same scene. Added white.

I don't have much truck with Portia.

#TheTenx5. Day 16. #35. The Comet Is Coming: Timewave Zero (2019). Let's cosmic jazz. youtu.be/T5epgWNEdzQ?...

Read: Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (1932). Equal parts bore and fascination. Yes, he got quite a few things about modern society right or rightish, so well done, but I wish he'd bothered incorporating them into an actual story or done something with the characters.

#TheTenx5. Day 15. #36. FKA Twigs: Lights On (2014). Icy r&b part 2. Colder and sexier than The Weeknd. youtu.be/NhDReJhpy4k?...

#TheTenx5. Day 14. #37. Kingdom feat. Kelela: Bank Head (2013) Icy r&b. Will get a companion piece tomorrow. youtu.be/6I_2eYvrEJw?...

27 years ago today, artist John Myatt was sentenced to a year in prison for conspiracy to defraud, after painting around 200 fake works, including Chagalls and Matisses over a period of eight years, which convinced buyers despite usually being rendered in household emulsion mixed with KY Jelly 🧵

Læst: Solvej Balle: Om udregning af rumfang I (2020). Veloplagt lille scifi-historie brygget af lige dele hverdagsrealisme, filosofi og suspense. Godt, at jeg har bind II liggende parat.

#TheTenx5. Day 13. #38. Erykah Badu: Window Seat (2010) Smooth soul, with a video that takes no prisoners. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hVp...

John Fowles's 100th birthday coming up so I picked this off the shelf. After not many pages I think I'm going to bail.

⬇️ Agreeing totally about the 3 books I've read (Baker, Carr, Comyns), I bet the rest of the list is just as good. [Adding to the TBR.]

#TheTenx5. Day 12. #39. Rejjie Snow feat. (uncredited) Your Smith: 23 (2018) Sun-kissed indie hip hop. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHy0...