cathedral of trees form an arch over a small lake/lagoon - two figures sit across the water, facing one another, feeling of expansiveness, divided by a narrow inlet of water, space between, sense of belonging

Tomás Sánchez

Contemplar, 1995

Andersson as Petra the maid in Smiles of a Summer Night

Andersson in Summer with Monika, her stunning film debut

Happy birthday to the wondrous Harriet Andersson, 94 years old today. Star of several great Ingmar Bergman films, including SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT, which would be a lovely watch for Valentine's Day; and SUMMER WITH MONIKA, which would not.

Nah, India has 100+ lit fests because there are around 136 writers (or 'writers'), actors, retired police personnel, politicians with lit'ry pretensions, business experts, tech founders, and miscellaneous interlocutors who would otherwise have nothing to do outside the South Delhi social season.

🍸 🍸 🍸 🍸 #oilpainting #art

post a banger that isn't in english

youtu.be/uBYnza1Ta7E?...

Revealed: How Substack makes money from hosting Nazi newsletters Exclusive: Site takes a cut of subscriptions to content that promotes far-right ideology, white supremacy and antisemitism

Awkward for everyone on Substack...
www.theguardian.com/media/2026/f...

Priest at altar isolated and up above. Hugs Window to outside shows light and naked trees. Cool drawings on wall

Wife asking minister question as husband looks to side

Woman w coat and hat and glasses comforts sick minister w head on his hands on tanks

Minister leans on railing. Framed by huge window w big light outside. Woman leans back against far wall B&W

Winter Light 1963 Ingmar Bergman. A ~short story of a masterpiece w several regulars Thulin, Bjornstrand, Lindblom, Von Sydow

Shah has a long and storied career, of course, but wanted to recommend the little-known THE HUNGRY (2017), an adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus in contemporary Delhi that plays like a horror movie version of MONSOON WEDDING, with Shah once again a (far more villainous) family patriarch.

I am all at a loose end since you left; I feel as if I haven't seen you for ten years. Every conversation that I have with my mother is about you. Everyone here loves you dearly. Under what constellation were you born then, to be blessed with such qualities, so diverse and so rare? I do not know the name of the feeling that I have for you. But it is a special tenderness, something I have never felt until now, not for anyone. We got on well together, didn't we? It was very agreeable. It was so good that I do not want to share the pleasure with anyone else. If you happen to use Croisset in one of your books, do disguise it so that nobody recognizes it. I would appreciate it. The memory of your visit is just for the two of us, for me. That is how selfish I am. I particularly missed you last night, at ten o'clock. There was a fire, over at my wood-merchant's. The sky was pink and the Seine was the colour of red-currant syrup. I worked at the pumps for three hours and I came home as weary as the Turk with the giraffe? [...] One of the Rouen newspapers (Le Nouvelliste) reported your visit to Rouen, so that on Saturday after I had left you I met several bourgeois in a state of indignation over the fact that I had not put you on display. A former magistrate took the prize: 'If we had known that she was here... we would have... we would have ..? - five-minute pause, he's looking for the word - We would have... smiled at her.' That would have been rather meagre, don't you think? [...] To love you 'more' is difficult for me. But I do embrace you most tenderly. Your letter this morning, so melancholy, stirred me. We parted company just at the moment when all kinds of things were about to find their way into words. All of the doors between the two of us are not yet open. You inspire a great respect in me and I do not have the courage to ask you questions, Farewell, I kiss your sweet and lovely countenance, and I am Your Gve Flaubert

“We parted company at the moment when all kinds of things were about to find their way into words.”

Find yourself a correspondent who writes to you as Gustave Flaubert did to George Sand.

Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me? [a holiday cerebration]

Happy Dickens's birthday!

An original painting by Canadian artist Nicki Ault depicting a prairie landscape at night. The sky is alive with the northern lights and awash with hundreds and hundreds of stars.

"Midnight Confetti"
acrylic & oil on canvas
20x60 inches
Nicki Ault
2026

#nightsky #auroraborealis #nocturne #northernlights #CanadianArtist

And this matters. One of the huge gotchas of New Atheism was that religious faith didn't instill moral virtue in believers. Rational thought apparently could. But it didn't, for so many leading men in that movement.

Anke Gowda: The Karnataka man who built a library of two million books Anke Gowda, whose library is open to everyone, recently received an Indian government award.

A profile of Anke Gowda, retired sugar factory worker from Karnataka, and his library of two million books free for anyone to borrow and read.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

honestly can't keep track of all the brilliant, invaluable writers the Washington Post has let go this morning, but I cannot recall in my lifetime a once-great publication so purposefully shooting itself in the face

Australian tropical rainforest trees switch in world first from carbon sink to emissions source Researchers say carbon emissions change in Queensland tropical rainforests may have global climate implications

This research paper is the first time that a tipping point of a switch from a carbon sink to a carbon emission source in tropical rainforests has been identified clearly – not just for one year but for the last 20 years. Cause is a change in the local climate. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘He used the trumpet as a songbird’: 100 years of Miles Davis, by jazz greats Sonny Rollins, Yazz Ahmed and more Ahead of the centenary of Davis’s birth, musicians including Terence Blanchard and John Scofield analyse his brilliance: from his soft phrasing and spiritual feel to his raspy cussing and leather outf...

“He was really into #melody & phrasing rather than playing licks with lots of notes to show off technique & he always played the moment, since it’s what was happening at the time in the #music that would dictate what he expressed through his horn.” www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j... #MilesDavis

New Interview: www.newyorker.com/culture/q-an...

We're very sad to hear the passing of American writer James Sallis (1944-2026) one of the great crime writers. Plenty of great titles, but of course, there is always one which always sticks out... #FIlmNoir #NeoNoir #RIP

Some terrible losses in crime fiction this past year. Ken Bruen, Daniel Woodrell, and now James Sallis.

Rest in peace.

Man, it’s wild that normal people just go to work every day while the people who run everything meticulously document their sex crimes

every epstein file drop underscores how elite power operates through shared socio-economic networks, regardless of people's ideological differences, populist posturing, or public feuds

Fun & games on the ice in 1608 by Hendrick Avercamp, born OTD in 1585. Deaf, he painted winter filled with joyful sound.

A Japanese poster for the film built around a black and white photo of a young boy.

Now watching: ‘Pather Panchali', dir. Satyajit Ray, 1955. 🎥🎬

The Dreamers and Cynics of the New Turkey A renowned director quietly probes life under Erdogan.

HBD Nuri Bilge Ceylan!!!
MCCT5: 5)Dry Grasses 4)3 Monkeys 3)Wild Pear Tree 2)OUaT in Anatolia 1)Winter Sleep
More:
@fcardamenis.bsky.social: mubi.com/en/notebook/...
@hamrahrama.bsky.social: www.thenation.com/article/cult...
@kayagenc.bsky.social: foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/08/t...

YouTube video by Middle Aged Metalhead THIS SCENE IS OURS - Voices from the Indian metal and punk underground

My band's singer, Gautham, interviewed 4 women from the indian metal scene on his podcast.

youtu.be/ln7qWjIS1ss?...

Living in the world feels like a bad fever dream or a constant arrhythmia of all the senses. There is no cure and endurance only means feeling ever more deranged.

A panel from ultimates where a bad guy in a black and red suit says “You are under arrest! Your human right have been semi-permanently suspended and will be returned to you if it is decided you deserve them!”

What it feels like to live in America and believe ALL people should have basic human rights.

deer (fawn?) with dark eyes in a field, full moon just rising over dark hills and tree line

Laura Makabresku

Inner Landscapes, 2021

Have a peaceful night

I love this exposition of the Hierarchy of Heaven (‘Santi protettori di Palermo invocano la grazia contro la peste’) - the people ask S. Rosalia who asks the Virgin Mary who asks Jesus who asks God. @adapalmer.bsky.social ‘s translation of grazia as ‘client-patron influence’ is an epiphany

oh it's going to be a Recession recession