A big ball of wibbly wobbly brandy wandy stuff. newsletter.lowfalutin.co.uk/archive/the-...

Rebecca (RF) Kuang last night. So smart. So articulate. So forthcoming. Turned a question about Nature Valley bars into a brilliant point of view about characterisation.

If handing someone their arse, was a video clip

When your analysis doesn't spoil your enjoyment, and your enjoyment doesn't dull your analysis, I think that's what they mean by appreciation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=INiV...

My friend and ex-colleague, Tim, gave this perfectly pitched Time For Reflection address to the Scottish Parliament yesterday. Timely (timeless) messages, well packaged and well delivered. www.scottishparliament.tv/meeting/time...

"What she was great at was posing questions, listening, and watching. This is a habit many CEOs struggle to develop." Margaret Heffernan on good decisions. heffernanm.substack.com/p/what-make-...

Lots of good stuff in Adam Buxton's chat with Zadie Smith, but I laughed out loud when she described the lyrics of Don't Look Back in Anger as, "Beatles wingdings." www.adam-buxton.co.uk/podcasts/82d...

For fellow alcohol-free drinkers, this is in my Top 5, especially at this time of year. Tastes how it looks.

Marta from Company Bakery talking with great style about change and growth at Creative Mornings (Edinburgh) today. A lesson in how to combine personal and corporate storytelling. @creativemornings.bsky.social

"With one eye on posterity." Love this. Brand management should be an act of stewardship; the manager in service to the brand. Too often it's the other way round.

Dressing up and having fun. It feels like a radical act. Who knows, it might start making sense. Groovy as fuck. I shall watch this many times. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNmc...

I was mesmerised by this beautiful documentary @filmhouseedinburgh.bsky.social this evening. Gorgeous cinematography and deft storytelling. Lots of Mongol Rally nostalgia for these people and landscapes too. www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_Ow...

Unemployable, Exhausting, Chaotic, Boring, and Indiscriminate. My latest newsletter. buttondown.com/Lowfalutin/a...

Nick Liddell's book arrived this morning. I haven't read a word yet but it looks gorgeous. And it's bigger than I expected; about the same size as Campaign Magazine, when the print version was a big thing too, literally and figuratively.

"Because if you don’t know what’s going to happen, how can you confidently stride up to your client and say “I’ll make you some magic, promise”? What are such promises worth?" I promise Paul's post is worth your time. He's written some magic. And I do know what's going to happen; you'll enjoy it.

Catching up on stuff after a month away. This is courtesy of the most recent Storythings newsletter. "Fruitionising". Perfectly observed marketing Zoom call. x.com/RealChalamet...

Still got it. And some. www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_Kl...

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

Serving a niche in Osaka.

BBC Under Attack: Pot and Kettle Special The new Private Eye is out now.

Visitor map in a stationery/origami store in Kanazawa, Japan. There is one sticker for North Korea. Prank? Ignorance? Or a story behind the datum?

There are lots of these tall, boxy cars in Japan. Honda, Nissan, Toyota et al all make them. We’ve nicknamed them “Pixar cars.” This one is pictured on a street in Matsumoto.

It's 2025. You have to find a way to confuse the artificially infallible bot in order to get human help. When we got there, the "live" human did explain the issue but couldn't resolve it. At least I got a reliable answer. It's 2025. Just providing basic service is now a USP for a service business.

"Creative work begins with an impulse for WORK, the kind of thing you want to spend your time doing, to which narrative and emotional material is quickly added." Interesting (shortish) take from Robin Sloan on the genesis of ideas. www.robinsloan.com/lab/shape-of...

Good news that this is on until March. I should be able to get down and pay a visit. Excellent write-up as usual by Jim. www.jimcarrollsblog.com/blog/2025/10...

For Edinburgh (Scotland) connections, I can't make this sadly, but it looks very good. "a talk about empathy and the power of gentle thinking in a world that often rewards the loudest voice" @creativemornings.bsky.social creativemornings.com/talks/the-so...?

If you’re a people business, your employer brand is your customer brand. And you have the option to make this a comms strategy. My latest newsletter. buttondown.com/Lowfalutin/a...

10/10 for imagination. www.bedfordindependent.co.uk/police-calle...

I Photoshop Paddington into a movie, TV show, or pop culture until I forget: Day 1673

Latest newsletter. Books revisited. buttondown.com/Lowfalutin/a...

An excellent piece of writing whether you agree with it or not, which I mostly do. Yes to AI for science. No to AI for creative endeavours. The problem is that work sits somewhere in between. medium.com/@tomwm/the-s...

"All of my meetings with my heroes have gone well, every single one. I've had like just magical moments. No assholes. And they've all blown me away. But I will attribute some of that to myself because I had really good taste in the people that I chose to admire." www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/bro...

"To the Congolese it seems odd that if one man gets fifty votes and the other forty-nine, the first one wins altogether and the second one plumb loses. That means almost half the people will be unhappy, and in a village that's left halfway unhappy you haven't heard the end of it." Democracy, huh?

Went to see Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf last night. Having read his book, How I Escaped My Certain Fate, I could better appreciate the interwoven narratives & the attention to rhythm & individual words. It's very funny & very clever. I mention his book in this post: buttondown.com/Lowfalutin/a...

It's Google's 27th birthday. It just gives me wistful feelings about what has been lost in the name of progress, which won't have been the desired effect of reinstating the old logo for a day.

EnSlackification is a subset of more general enshittification. If I'd wanted a messaging style conversation, I'd have messaged you. I sent an email for a reason. WTF?

"when people tell you the future is inevitable, it isn’t because they know. It’s because they are trying to get you to submit to their version of the future... It’s propaganda." Margaret Heffernan's keynote at Cambridge Tech Week. heffernanm.substack.com/p/polluter-p...

Just back from a fascinating, exhilarating break in Istanbul. Much to reflect on but it was particularly striking how you could go from utter tranquility to utter mayhem by just turning a corner or stepping through a gate. There are no gentle transitions. Loved it.

Arty goofing. Political goofing. Goofing nostalgia. buttondown.com/Lowfalutin/a...

They just mentioned Mandelson's 'fighter, not a quitter' speech on the World at One, so here's a short anecodote about that night exhumed from Elon's Racist Misery Factory

This is an absurd misuse of laws designed to tackle terrorism and an insane waste of a resource-starved criminal justice system. There were obviously not 900 terrorists wandering through central London on Saturday and it's utterly ridiculous to act as if there were

Watched this at @filmhouseedinburgh.bsky.social last night. I'll recall certain scenes if I'm tempted to buy from Amazon (and the convenience can be tempting.) Part of the struggle for grassroots community organisers is holding themselves together, not just taking on Goliath. www.unionthefilm.com

Can’t get enough of this. @raskin.house.gov rubbing Nigel Farage’s nose in his self-confessed love of Putin as he’s forced to sit & watch is delicious beyond words

realistic Star Trek

Worth sharing for the rollover comment alone. xkcd.com/3133/

"Art, and the meaning of art, is something that happens in human brains. It doesn't exist out in the world separate from a human brain. One of the things that changes our feelings about something is our knowledge of where it came from, how it came into being." www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnei...

This "upstreaming" of advertising has a lot to answer for. buttondown.com/Lowfalutin/a...