a wee reminder of what is possible in a kinder society

I like getting the RSE's newsletter, but the envelope always insists that I just chuck it in the bin

get in

a wee close up of the hand-painted Alexander 'Greek' Thomson wall decoration at Holmwood House this afternoon. I walk past Thomson buildings all the time but getting to see his interior designs is a real treat #glasgow www.nts.org.uk/visit/places...

today’s life tip: always have the number of a good local locksmith in your phone

@theguardian.com has its regular ‘how I healed myself by moving to an exotic remote Scottish island & getting in the sea’ piece again. Most of the usual clichés intact. Please stop. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/27/victoria-bennett-writer-garden-orkney-scotland-apothecary-sea

Back in the university chapel after a 4 month break last night with Ross Ainslie, and the 1st phase of our pipes & organ project is shaping up nicely. Also, I've found one place where I can play a bottom C on the new 32' stop: at 16Hz it's below the range of human hearing, but you can feel it!

i’m sure there’s room for a microtonal alien mathrock instrumental band who really love their chips and brown cheesy gravy. yup, Angine de Poutine

When Falstaff threatens to have ballads made up about Prince Hal and sung to filthy tunes (IHen4.2.2), he did not have a Latin-texted motet in mind, but the effect might be the same. Brilliant Josquin parody and amazing solo performance! youtu.be/91CuilQk61U?...

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

back home from a fun day in St Andrews improvising on piano, melodica and the gorgeous 1860 organ in the Laidlaw Centre at St Andrews, with the HARK collective. The folks from @fifecollege.bsky.social recorded us in Dolby Surround with more DPA mics than you could blow a melodica at

#Cardiacs were superb last night of course, wonderful to finally hear some of the big set pieces as they should be, with an audience. Also, they very kindly let me sit in on their soundcheck which was quite the (seaside) treat. Stellar work from some very lovely people spreading happiness and joy.

I can’t quite get my head around the fact that I’m going to see Cardiacs play tonight, two doors along from my university office, and this seems normal. There are two many impossible things at play simultaneously.

easily the finest piece of art produced this year is Harry Hill's reading of a Shopify ad, 20'48 into this. Perfection. youtu.be/mMKSnQTY5Vs?...

We've got until the end of Monday to respond to the Green Paper on BBC Charter Review. You can bet your arse that the people who want rid of the BBC will be filling it in, so if you value the BBC, please do it too. www.gov.uk/government/c...

Great work by @glasgowbell.bsky.social A recommended read, particularly for Glasgow’s residents. It’s about your money: www.glasgowbell.co.uk/humanitarian...

Can't think of a better film about being a musician, all of the time... there's even a bit where Fred's coughing is music. Black and [off-]white version: youtu.be/XEVJUJz2AuY

Step Across the Border (1990) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Step_Ac...

Had a flashback to this one, just now, watching The Skids on #TOTP youtu.be/Gib916jJW1o?...

Yes,,, your boy has taken a ride in the 4 man bobsled,,, but im an adrenaline junkie and needed to try skeleton. And now I’ve officially joined the team and am gonna try to start competing. 66 years old going 66 mph.

do yourself a favour and set aside half an hour to marvel at this from the astonishing Angine de Poitrine. microtonal looping in silly costumes at its absolute best youtu.be/0Ssi-9wS1so?...

Interesting piece on Andy Goldsworthy's Gravetstones art work on the BBC website. It's an "exclusive first look" apparently. I offered it to a national newspaper last year but they turned it down. I ended up writing it for my Substack. smallfinds.substack.com/p/small-find...

anyone advocated a cultural boycott of the US yet?

Artificial Unintelligence: the government is in full retreat over copyright, and the attempts to make it look dignified only make it funnier. My SKETCH. thecritic.co.uk/arti...

this is absolutely amazing - an anonymous person has spent two years mapping the state of every public path in Glasgow "with the movement of high support mobility device users as priority" 👏👏👏 glasgowaudit.wordpress.com/about/

amazingly, Ski Sunday is still running as a TV programme, and it still has the same sig tune, but they drown it out with crap sound FX. better to subtitle it so we can all sing along https://youtu.be/hCIWyKey0BI?si=xJJbkIIwTacgBtMg

having just had to postpone a recording session because the organ pitch had dropped in the cold weather, this is definitely my favourite news story of the week https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/22/organ-tuning-books-english-churches-notes-warming-climate?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

even if Derek Griffiths had done nothing other than the music for Bod, and singing in the chorus on I Am The Walrus, he would still be an utter legend. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002p1zj

Antifascist stickers spotted in Dundee, Scotland

Just got to listen to Maxim Emelyanychev trying out three different pianos (1844 Broadwood, 1880s Erard, 1970s Steinway), and going to see Josie Long tonight. Not bad for a day off, eh?

this was so much fun to do: sitting round a table enthusing about XTC!

a wee sundial on my new old jacket, thanks to @alisoneales.com fikarecordings.bandcamp.com/album/mox-nox

“This festival is a celebration of improvisation as a global, inclusive, and transformative art form.” Stewart Smith looks forward to a celebration of the gamelan at the seventeenth instalment of the Scottish festival Preview: Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra’s GIOfest buff.ly/QM9uFi9

this is incredible - Public Information Film meets Sesame Street. "Hey! Luggage Chute!"

I'm saddened to learn of the passing of Dr Elspeth King, the legendary curator of the People's Palace, and a fierce advocate for Glasgow and its history. This was fascinating on the release of the film adaptation of Alasdair Gray's "Poor Things". yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/01/10/p...

from today, all this ludicrous music where 18th-century Italian composers tried to sound Scottish and Scottish ones tried to sound Italian is out in the wild again - find your preferred streaming service here (and consider leaving Sp*tlfy if you can) concertocaledonia.ffm.to/mungrelstuff

coming to streaming services on Friday after only 24 years' wait - pre-save here concertocaledonia.ffm.to/mungrelstuff

at @uofglasgowmusic.bsky.social today in the space of an hour, today's year 2 performance workshop had some Welsh triple harp, a bit of John Mayer, and Debussy played on two different Steinways and an Erard. The student consensus was for the Erard: yes! 🎉

Melbourne: ever helpful

about 4 minutes into last night's #totp repeat you can spot audio legend Calum Malcolm miming to his carefully crafted keyboard parts on a classic CP-70/Prophet 5 combo in Edinburgh's power popsters The Headboys www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Machine learning is a neat tool, but clearly companies are desperate to give “AI” credit for what human scholars accomplish in part because companies have bet the farm on the idea that human ingenuity is expendable. This historian is extraordinary and deserves the real credit.

great to hear the unstoppable Matt Wadsworth in this feature on 200 years of Braille music notation https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002jst7?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Roland Space Echo onstage #totp

as of today, MUNGREL STUFF is available again on Bandcamp: over 70 minutes of 18th-century Scottish-Italian & Italian-Scottish musical experiments in all their ridiculous glory. Get it here concertocaledonia.bandcamp.com/album/mungrel-stuff

yesterday's organ tourism, at the 1970s-tastic Hradetzky in St Salvator's chapel in St Andrews, which my Buxtehude score reminded me I had played once before. Chris Bragg also showed me the amazing new Laidlaw Music Centre with its moving floor and reverberation chamber in the roof - wow!

today's organ tourism, on the wonderful early 18th-century styled Ahrend organ in the Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh. I gave a recital on this about 30 years ago, can't remember what I played ...

Are you young, highly educated and driven, and want to contribute to our stagnant economy with its aging population and low productivity? Well out you go

well, this is both genuinely brilliant and properly hilarious. Martin Parr just doing what he does https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002j0v3

this morning: Bach on the 1844 Broadwood piano in the concert hall, this evening: pipe tunes with the organ in the chapel. Not bad for a Monday. #UofG