Whoever called this the Black Forest was not driving through it on a sunny autumn day.

Today’s office

Please do not book me expecting a clowness because that will risk disappointment for potentially multiple reasons

Misread “GenAI” as a generation name and now I want to weep forever

Off to Freiburg today. There was a direct train at about 3 and one at about 5. I thought: pity there isn’t one in between! Be careful what you wish for 🤦‍♂️

Cute, this station has its platforms numbered in binary

“In a well-known symphony by Kapellmeister #Haydn, the orchestra gets smaller and smaller by the departure of musicians in the Finale. Here is the opposite…” J. #Sperger’s ‘Arrival’ #symphony begins with two musicians and grows as more join throughout. youtu.be/hhTGCZGJKzI

Here’s the map for the swallow. Each dot represents a bird, and each line links the places where they were found.

An observation test for you - for your inner 8 year-old “The artist has hidden 12 things in this picture. How many can you find?” Treasure magazine, 1964 Official answers coming soon (Even if you don’t reply, could you please ‘like’ or share this one? 🙏)

Anyone enjoying Liquid Glass yet?

WHEEEEEEEEEEE

This is the only proper way to watch Beckett. This person understands Beckett on a level you and I cannot even hope to.

Sibelius *could* have watched the Panorama spaghetti tree hoax.

I just saw someone use the abbreviation “AI;DR” and I’ll be laughing for a while.

I still think about this Onion headline *at least* 10-15 times a week

Look what we have here then.

New Substack post on Boulez's work with electronics, including links to recordings and documentary material: open.substack.com/pub/disgwylf...

For the 75th anniversary of "Peanuts," here's what I consider to be the quintessential strip of the entire run. No one else but Charles Schulz could've gotten away with this on the newspaper funny pages.

I trust there will also be a performance of Lulu at the appropriate point! youtu.be/L4Cjm_wa6VI

On National Poetry Day, the greatest poem I have ever read

FOUND IT Of COURSE it was a @dreadships.bsky.social repost.

Bother! Someone in the last few days posted a nice old map with ‘Well Well Well’ on it, and I forgot either to save the pic or to like the post, so now I can’t find it any more. Anyone remember it and can point me in the right direction?

This nice picture seems to be attracting some attention for an account which at first glance doesn’t seem to deserve it… www.tumblr.com/5-and-a-half...

Sorry to have to say that this makes the Berio which is presumably based on it seem a bit icky to me… www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0wa...

Today is a good day to remember that the clearest extra-musical references in Shostakovich’s 5th and 10th symphonies are to do with women in his life and for some inexplicable reason go unmentioned in Testimony.

the booker prize judges make a lot of fuss about having to read 153 books. but assuming an average weight of 750g per book, that comes in at 115kg of literature - or just under the weight of a single adult male ostrich

Oh dear, who thought Liquid Glass was a good idea 🤢

THIS IS SO TASTY

Pierre #Boulez at the ondes Martenot in 1947. From the indispensable catalogue of Boulez’s works published earlier this year

Hey guitarists, what’s going on with this fretboard? Is this a right-handed guitar being played left-handed?

Known to music nerds of a certain age as the cover of the Percy Scholes Oxford Companion to Music.

Terrific piece on 'Electric Boulez' by Paul Griffiths @disgwylfa.bsky.social referencing the magnificently-named Jean-René Pierre Goetgheluck Le Rouge Tillard des Acres de Presfontaines londonsinfonietta.org.uk/channel/news...

thinking once again about one of the all-time great newspaper mixups, when Dennis the Menace and The Far Side got their captions swapped

Premiered #OTD in 1995, Panic for alto saxophone, drum kit & orchestra by English composer, Harrison Birtwistle. It took place at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, performed by John Harle (sax), Paul Clarvis (drums), & the BBC SO & Andrew Davis. open.spotify.com/track/35BZYK... #britsymphyear

My latest cartoon for @newscientist.com p.s. this week I am on a USA/Canada tour with my new book. Details and preorder links at tomgauld.com

Strangely enough, no.

Thank god. If they made this chocolate at any other frequency I don't know what I would do

To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

Look, I’m not saying that this photo of a really pleasing dry stone wall in front of spectacular mountain scenery will improve your morning even a tiny bit but yes actually that is exactly what I’m saying.

NIGEL: Yeah, it’s part of a...trilogy really, a musical trilogy I’m doing... in... D minor, which I always find is really the saddest of all keys really. I don’t know why, but it makes people weep instantly, you play a..baaaaa...baaaaaa it’s a horn part. MARTY: It’s very pretty.

There was once a time when you'd just go and buy a product Then Big brains changed things so we had to order it first Then came the oh-so-convenient concept of 'pre-order' But now, the wunderkinds of marketing have bestowed on us the joy of registering for pre-orders It's actually quite funny

Hei hei from the Hvalross in Vardø, a fish port on a butterfly-shaped island in the Barents Sea, starting point for the #Schengen200 adventure. Schengen is 40 in 2025 and we’re attempting the longest point-to-point journey within it, by public transport, in about 200 hours. bsky.app/profile/poli...

My brilliant business idea: an app where you press a button whenever you eat beetroot. Then, for the next 24 hours, when your phone's GPS detects you're approaching a toilet you get an alert saying "PROBABLY DON'T PANIC RIGHT NOW"

NEED

📸✨The value of light on a building facade. As a photographer I learned so much watching how the light shaped the mood and impact of the building. (Wells Cathedral) #photography #architecture #light

(Baltic) sea and sky (good morning @disgwylfa.bsky.social)

So, speaking of these fellows, a funny little dream of mine over the last 20 years or so should (🤜🤜🤜🪵) come true the day after tomorrow…

Claudio Abbado, Luigi Nono and Maurizio Pollini, ca. 1970s.

Sea Level xkcd.com/3135/

Watching this waiting for the train to come by, you know it's going to be very fast. But however fast you expect it to be, I guarantee you, it's faster than you expect.