The Metabolic Conservatory
A bit of sci-fi architecture (scichitecture?) for you: the Conservatoire de Montreuil, built in 1968. It’s very much in the ‘metabolist’ school, a movement hailing from post-war Japan where buildings are composed of many replaceable parts. Here it serves a very practical use; each music studio is insulated from the next because they’re all separated.
Read more "The Metabolic Conservatory"A Suffocating Feeling
I find this image terrifying. I spotted it on Twitter and immediately recognised it as an Assyrian relief then almost as immediately realised that I would have seen it before now, given I’m an ancient history nerd. It’s an AI generated image. But I only spotted that because I’m of the last few generations who […]
Read more "A Suffocating Feeling"Cleo & Adele
Work In Progress Update
Found this illustration (by Meig Dickson) and it could almost be the cover of the book I’m writing. I’m 97,000 words in and I think it’ll top out at 120.
Read more "Work In Progress Update"What I Watched: Eyes Of Fire (1983)
David Cameron’s favourite eighties movie, according to Amazon Prime’s trivia. However, I didn’t let the former prime minister’s approval put me off. Eyes Of Fire is about some European settlers transgressing taboo land and features a patriarchal character full of belief in his abilities but lacking any sense or spine. Weird how the art we […]
Read more "What I Watched: Eyes Of Fire (1983)"What I’m Watching: Quest (1984)
QUEST (1984). Saul Bass is rightly famous for his title sequence designs for Hitchcock and Kubrick but he also turned his hand at film making, like this short fantasy/sci—fi movie based on a Ray Bradbury tale. Humans live for only eight days on a strange world, but they send a boy on a quest to […]
Read more "What I’m Watching: Quest (1984)"Of Then vs Now
There’s a lot of memes nowadays about the blithe serenity and sanity of the 90s/early 2000s and I get it, totally. The world before the social media demon burst forth was, looking back, a more certain place. A place we wished we’d saved as a checkpoint so we could have a crack at things again […]
Read more "Of Then vs Now"A Photo From Four Years Past
Cripes, there’s an image to appear in my FB memories. Sat in Room 3 of Premier Inn Leicester North West during lockdown and editing a manuscript of Pennyblade to the tune of both my editor and agent. A weird time, a crossroads, full of fear and excitement: disease stalked the land and I was caretaker […]
Read more "A Photo From Four Years Past"The Curse Of Ea-Nasir
Saw this very niche bumper sticker in my neighbourhood. It’s funny how a guy from 5000 years ago is now cursed to have his shady business practices mocked all over the internet. And, you know what? Screw him. His copper’s shit.
Read more "The Curse Of Ea-Nasir"
