Tate trodden

On Saturday I spent two hours and fifty minutes walking in and around Tate Modern on London’s Bankside. I didn’t plan that specific duration but timings were a significant dimension Continue reading →

Sorry, we thought you were the art

Stephen Fry recently gave a talk at the Royal Academy in which he urged the assembled art cognoscenti to consider the difficulties for non-artists when confronting contemporary art. The biggest Continue reading →

Habitat, Shabitat

You grow out of Habitat by the time you’re 40, a complete stranger once told me with an air of surprising confidence. Looking around our house, a suburban monument to Continue reading →

Getting to the point

A man in America called David Rees has created a website advertising his artisanal pencil sharpening service. Here’s how it works. You mail your blunt pencil to David at his Continue reading →

Here comes the sunset

Yesterday evening I encountered an affecting modern day act of communion on Brighton Beach. At least that’s what I’m telling myself it was. Like hundreds of other people, I had Continue reading →

Moleskine dilemma

Yesterday I overheard a middle aged woman lamenting to a friend why something or other was so “excruciatingly middle class”. She did this whilst: 1. Sipping an espresso macchiato in Continue reading →

Strategy day sunset

I’m not sure if retroactive blogging really is in the the spirit of thing. But looking at this photograph again and remembering the mildly surprising circumstances of its making prompts Continue reading →

Sit back and enjoy the absurdity

I’ve just this minute finished Michale Foley’s book The Age of Absurdity, which, among many other things, invites us to look upon absurdity as the new sublime. While they are Continue reading →

The consolation of chocolate digestives

  I’m on our garden bench. The first spring sunshine warm enough to sit out in has arrived and I’m sipping from a mug of strong tea. Two dark chocolate Continue reading →

Reflecting on a closed artwork

Yesterday I was ambling through Pavilion Gardens in Brighton when, from a distance, I noticed that Anish Kapoor’s sculpture ‘Sky Mirror’ had been installed in a corner facing the Royal Continue reading →