Rob Read

Jonathan Coe · Don’t we all want to be happy? Satie against Solemnity Erik Satie is the progenitor of torch songs and lounge music, systems music and minimalism, even (with his later...

‘For Ian Penman, Satie is more than a joker. He is the supreme practitioner of a species of art forever undervalued by solemn-minded dullards, and which is anything but trivial.’

@jonathancoe.bsky.social on Erik Satie:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

I was thinking about this joke of yours earlier this week - and singing it too as I locked up at work. Nice to see it in out in the wild again.

Headline and first 2 paragraphs Migrants can use rights laws to evade deportation Loopholes could undermine treaty with France Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor Small boat migrants will be able to frustrate attempts to deport them to France under Sir Keir Starmer's returns deal by exploiting human rights laws, according to the treaty's terms. Under the terms of the agreement with France, migrants will be ineligible for deportation if they have outstanding human rights claims or other legal challenges or claim they are under 18. These are among potential loopholes that threaten to undermine Labour's attempt to end Channel crossings. The treaty also gives France and other European Union member states an effective veto over which individuals are returned.

Just the supposed ‘paper of record’ bemoaning the fact that asylum seekers have *human* rights and may be able to enforce them. Accompanied - ultra cynically - by a photo of Human Rights lawyer, Amal Clooney, at a glamorous fundraiser. What a sly and deeply unpleasant rag The Times now is.

This year has seen high number of social wasps. This puts pressures from robbing to stress on colonies.
Narrowing entrances, care when opening hives and feeding. Check colonies are bee tight. Watch for weak colonies and nucs. Narrow entrances, corridors or moving are options.

Prompted by an ad for a tacky clock in the Metro, TIL that ‘In Flanders Fields’ is a pro-war poem (in the voice of dead soldiers it urges living soldiers to keep fighting) written in early years of WWI. Never realised

Water Mint, Mentha aquatica, in a drainage ditch on the golf course on Mitcham Common. I love the smell of a big patch of Water Mint. #WildflowerHour #DeadnettleFamily #DitchLife

Perhaps the best collection of rhymes ever in one short song. If you can make a meaningful rhyme for Kyrie eleison you’re a genius (which he was, as you say!)

@garybainbridge.bsky.social and she is called …

An ambassador for a UN Foundation (thanks @gargarin.bsky.social) I want her to replace our bunch of royals

Top work

She definitely won the podium line up

Can’t find any info - but she doesn’t care who the chap next to her is as she seeks to grasp the players hands. Quite right too

Tom Lehrer made all of his music 100% public domain so if seeing people sad about his death makes you want to check them out… it’s free. he wanted you to share them.

tomlehrersongs.com

Yes of course … I thought I had thought sufficiently hard about this film, but clearly not. Until the next day actually arrived, he was simply expecting to repeat the day again, so he was doing his regular routine around the town for the nth time. It only becomes the “last day” in retrospect.

Is there a reason she isn’t subbed on as soon as they need the equaliser she can conjure …

Ah - so he went along for a lesson (albeit not really needing one) to make her happy (as he does with everyone else). Ok - I buy that! Now it’s perfect again :)

England need to send on that one who comes on and scores equalisers. But do it in this half

There is a simple physical reason why riders want to park themselves in the rear middle of the peloton. Source: buff.ly/08K3PtJ

By which I mean needed no additional lesson on that final day …

But why does the piano teacher think she is his piano teacher at the evening event? If he can play jazz version of Rachmaninov piano concerto - presumably he was just as good that morning so needed no lessons … this is my one niggle about an otherwise perfect film

Gardening Bram's Fruit

There appears to be quite a range available, albeit at mad prices … bramsfruit.com/collections/...

Christmas present for this year is sorted then 😂

“What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make and end is to make a beginning”

Eliot on his inability to distinguish treble twenty from double top, in his memoir ‘Why my darts game never flourished’

This oil sketch, 'The Flying Applepickers,' (c1946) came about after a discussion between Evelyn Dunbar and her next-door neighbour about the best way to harvest apples in their gardens; the setting is Long Compton in Warwickshire.

This is how branding work had read and sounded for decades. It’s just that most companies present stories & ads that demonstrate their brand. They don’t just publish the (in this case poorly written) brand book itself.

Today is a very good day to be born on!

We need more flowers for the bees we have not just more bee hives.

We did trip there as part of DoE at school - but somewhat closer to Sheffield, where I grew up. Likewise inspired by geog O level (but not enough to do it at A level!)

Good isn’t it!

The Garden of The Hill House. Featuring Charles Rennie Mackintosh's bench from c.1912.
Photo: @kestrel_no7