Richard Baker

William Blake’s illustration for “The Tyger” has what appears to be a dippy grin for some reason.

The wonderful thing about Tyggers
Is Tyggers are burning bright
Their tops are made out of rubber
In the forest of the night

What bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy,
Immortal hand or eye
Did frame the most wonderful thing about Tyggers,
Their fearful symmetry!

Can’t listen to music while working. Occupational hazard!

‘False consciousness’ according to billionaires - you think you’re poor and your life sucks but you’re just not looking at it the right way!

(Also available as CBT on the NHS)

👀 www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...

I feel like we've gone through the looking glass at some point

It *literally* does.

Thats what it is. A document which says youre British.

Celtic Sinfonietta here we come!

…and look how that worked out for DD! Totally agree re the visceral energy. As with the most gnarly Birtwistle.

Oh thank you for posting this. I worry sometimes that I’m the last person alive who actually enjoys this kind of thing. It makes me remember why I got into this in the first place…

YouTube video by Four-hobbies-man Iannis Xenakis - Voile [w/score]

One of the things I love about the music of Iannis Xenakis is how “Xenaskissy” it can be. Unmistakeable, almost like he’s parodying himself sometimes. Who else would have written this? A little 5-minute cataclysm. Sounds like a fissure opening in the earth. Fantastic.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJMU...

I look forward to her prize winning discs of unjustly neglected repertoire!

Screenshot of contents of Tim Buckley Wikipedia page: Middle period "Sex funk" period Death

How I envision the rest of my life

Moderation in all things. Moderationmaxxing.

I gotta say, "the Pentagon uses a high powered laser to shoot down a party balloon" feels like enough symbolism for awhile. all full up thanks

Wait, I thought Anthropic were the nice guys?

Oatly banned from using word ‘milk’ to market plant-based products in UK Supreme court makes ruling after Swedish firm’s long-running battle with trade association Dairy UK

The meaning of words is to be decided not by their use, usefulness, or history, but by their commercial benefit to the most powerful lobby groups. I have a recipe for almond milk in a cookbook from 1226. It has been used as a term in English for hundreds of years.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Friends from Minneapolis reporting to me that things are at the point where folks are being hidden in other people's houses and we are in the "again" part of "never again" which the "never" was supposed to preclude

Knew nothing about Bad Bunny until the Grammy's. Loved his half-time performance - found it powerful and moving.

Reminds me of the William Carlos Williams quote that for a poet to be universal, first he must be local.

*singing to the tune of the Sade song*

Plaid Cymru MP Ben Lake has criticised Reform UK for being “absent” from a parliamentary debate on Russian interference, in the wake of the jailing of its former Welsh leader Nathan Gill for “treachery"

Lake was speaking in a Westminster Hall debate on Monday re the petition on Russian interference

Ignore the smears: I have literally never been fed, like ever.

A. Cat

My outside bet has always been that REF 2029 never happens. At a time of massive financial instability (including redundancies) around HE it simply seems like an obscene waste of money.

The law on universities and free speech prevents speakers from being *disinvited after they have been invited*. It does not require universities to provide a platform to whoever demands one.

Let's not mince words: the threat to cut funding to every university who disagrees with them is fascist.

History: Serious about Play: Childhood, Play and Policymaking in Wales, 1945 to the present (RS936) - Swansea University We offer a wide range of funded and fully funded research scholarships in all subject areas. Explore your options and apply now.

Please do share this doctoral opportunity with MA/MSt students - four years of AHRC funding to work on the history of children's play in Wales, supervised by me and the lovely and brilliant Dr Jacky Tyrie. Any questions get in touch! www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...

Starmer defies call to quit as UK prime minister Fresh tensions emerge between embattled premier and potential leadership rival Wes Streeting

Starmer defies call to quit as UK prime minister ft.trib.al/tHd5d7T

Anas Sawar with his “old friend” Peter Mandelson.

By his dramatic intervention calling for Keir Starmer to resign, Anas Sarwar has drawn attention to himself in ways likely to be deeply unhelpful to his own chances of survival in office and to Labour’s electoral prospects in Scotland.

Amazing.

arguably the biggest news of the week that Lisa Nandy is currently doing something related to her brief

Tbf it would probably be more effective if someone not already doomed called for Starmer to go

Bad Bunny’s performance began in the plantation, featured broken electric poles, and ended by centering a hemispheric understanding of “América”—among many other things—and some Anglo journalists are like “his performance wasn’t political.”

This is why we need to be telling our stories.

The far right defeated in Portugal - good news to start the week's work