Blakey French

Currently at:
— only buy tech too old to have AI built in
— painstakingly disable AI every time they add it to something that used to work perfectly well
— if it can't be switched off, abandon the platform or tool
— if there are no good alternatives, avoid the AI parts
— patiently wait for the crash

The last photo, in particular, resonates ... after visiting Helmshore Mills Textile Museum this summer :

Museumplein in Amsterdam vol voor rode lijn-protest tegen Israël-standpunt kabinet De demonstranten eisen actie van het Nederlandse kabinet om het genocidale geweld van Israël in Gaza te stoppen. Volgens de organisatie zijn er dit keer 250.000 mensen aanwezig.

In case today's protest in Amsterdam, the largest for decades, about 250k people (equivalent to 1/4 of the city population) didn't quite make it onto English news feeds: nos.nl/l/2585286

Lewis Hine captured photographs for the National Child Labour Committee from 1908 to 1924 of young workers and the conditions under which they worked.
They had names.

Sam.
Rosy.
Ronald and Frank.
Maud and Grace.
Dovey and Ertle.

From 6 to 11 years old, working from 3:00 A.M. to 5 P.M. daily.

Solidarity from Amsterdam : #RodeLijn

Book cover of The New Lives of Images: Digital Ecologies and Anthropocene Imaginaries in More-than-Human Worlds by Adrian J. Ivakhiv

The New Lives of Images is out! In this ambitious new work, eco-philosopher and cultural theorist Adrian Ivakhiv presents an incisive new way of thinking about images and imagination. #ReadUP

https://www.sup.org/books/media-studies/new-lives-images

Life is the only way
to get covered in leaves,
catch your breath on the sand,
rise on wings;

mislay your keys in the grass;
and to follow a spark on the wind with your eyes;
and to keep on not knowing
something important.

~Wislawa Szymborska

Looks like a hare to me :

Such a pleasure last night, to come across the fine playing of Dimitrios Tsiotas (at the Kring, here in Amsterdam) : #jazzsky #jazzguitar www.dimitriostsiotasmusic.com/bio

LP cover for 'Om Shanti Om' by Don Cherry, recorded in 1976, shared by Black Sweat Records.

A lesser-taken path towards restored faith in humankind: #doncherry #jazzsky

There are two kinds of reactionary centrism:

1. "The radical left are lunatics, the far right has legitimate concerns"

2. "Vote for me and uphold zombie neoliberalism or else you are helping the fascists"

They are inconsistent but people like Starmer, Marcon & co switch between them all the time.

If you sculpt, modify space, do funky 3D stuff ... this is a very worthwhile opportunity; apply by 13th October: #sculptors #sculpture

Black text on a sepia background: "As we train our sights on what we oppose, let’s recall the costs of surrender. When we use generative AI, we consent to the appropriation of our intellectual property by data scrapers. We stuff the pockets of oligarchs with even more money. We abet the acceleration of a social media gyre that everyone admits is making life worse. We accept the further degradation of an already degraded educational system. We agree that we would rather deplete our natural resources than make our own art or think our own thoughts. We dig ourselves deeper into crises that have been made worse by technology, from the erosion of electoral democracy to the intensification of climate change. We condone platforms that not only urge children to commit suicide, they instruct them on how to tie the noose. We hand over our autonomy, at the very moment of emerging American fascism."

Grateful to the editors of @nplusonemag.com for the clarity and force of this editorial.

www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...

A sinuous crystal goblet; 70s shape in a 60s candle-lit palm.

This one goes out to @wendyo.bsky.social ... 'Compleat Imbiber' spirits glass by Frank Thrower for Dartington Crystal ... so 1972:

'Trad Night' at Mulligan's, Amsterdam; a group of musicians huddle around a bar-room table, summoning Irish music, deep, old & sprightly - enchanting onlookers.

"Aristotle was profoundly right ... ethics is concerned with how to live and human happiness ... this sort of 'practical knowledge' is ... wider than the sphere of 'science' ... and a cultural necessity if we are to arrive at a sane and human view of ourselves or of science." Hilary Putnam (1978)

Lamplit still life with brutalist Dutch vase and comical drain plunger.

Disclosure: 'Unfollow situations' arise whenever AI bilge or X bilge bubbles up in my 'following' feed. I now have & use a drain plunger.

Book cover for 'Unfinished - The Anthropology of Becoming' (2017); a youth, blurred by motion, chases a bright red wheel spun forwards on dusty earth.

"Becoming troubles and exceeds our ways of knowing and acting. It pushes us to think against the grain, to consider the uncertain and unexpected ... to care for the as-yet-unthought ... We are tasked with the otherwise." João Biehl & Peter Locke (2017)

An Edwardian china doll, a young girl with dark hair and dirty feet, glowers from under a soft shawl.

"Instead of being left behind, old evils return under new names ... human beings are no more reasonable than they have ever been." John Gray (2018)

Book cover for 'Seven Types of Atheism' by John Gray (2018).

"The idea that the human species realizes common goals throughout history is a secular avatar of a religious idea of redemption." John Gray (2018) ... kicking off :

Interior of a classical concert hall; standing ovation from a large crowd for Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Groot (Mannen) Omroepkoor, Karina Canellakis, (dirigent) & Sophie Harmsen (alt).

In other news ... the Sunday morning concert at Concertgebouw in Amsterdam was not sh*t; Brahms & Strauss were actually rather wonderful:

Mayser Hats, high-quality German headwear since 1800, have not been paid for the dominant foregrounding of this straw hat; a divine lakeland landscape can, just, be glimpsed beyond.

Medium becomes toxic substrate; internet search is now a bare-faced raft for product placement; obviously, AI will also distribute embedded ads.

Black Narcissus, by Miłosz Oleniecki 6 track album

That was a week that was; chill & spry, the Miłosz Oleniecki trio : moleniecki.bandcamp.com/album/black-...

What's next, burning books? So very callow.

Bewildered Hedonist

Ruefully, adieu! Posting hellscape content on here is, for me, an 'unfollow' situation. I wish you well, but, hey, BlueSky decorum first.

We're seeking a PhD researcher interested in outdoor gear and how people dress for the weather. ☔ 🧥 This 4-year student position based at VU Amsterdam is part of the NWO-funded project 'Synthetic Adventures' supervised by me! #fashion#outdoors#weather#sustainability
#waterproof Apply here:

The CD cover, a group portrait.

What's not to like ... a sassy debut EP from Aâma (out of Lille); Emma Prat on vocals, Bertrand Maïlar on guitar - fine musicians, creating genuine 'fusion' - a treat:

A sweeping coastal landscape; sea-washed boulders, salt-marsh, Lindisfarne castle atop its rock, all under a thunderous sky, yielding to freshness, light and azure calm.

Bluesky reminds me today ... Arvo Pärt is 90; when I was drowning, as a young lawyer, the sure stillness of his music was so what kept my head up:

The paperback cover of 'Ignorance - A Global History' by Peter Burke; a cartoon ostrich had its head plunged in the sand.

"Although we are well aware that we know much that earlier generations did not, we are much less conscious of what they knew that we do not." Peter Burke (2024) #doubt

El Atlal

Deeply moving; I have no Arabic, but unsurprised that she sings of 'Ruins'; thinking of Gaza, and the arrant, callous, cowardice of England's goverment: open.spotify.com/track/2eAiSx...