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30 years later: The Universal Hits Different
Last night I was scraping the YouTube Jools Holland / Live Lounge barrel and came across something so delicious: a live video of Damon Albarn singing my favorite Blur song The Universal back in 1995. Watching it now, you can feel this strange, beautiful tension: the song is both triumphalist and cynical at the same…
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Manila days
The best definition of camp I’ve heard is: “Regarding the serious things as trivial and the trivial things as deadly serious.” I promise this is a compliment: I find the Philippines so un-serious in the most endearing of ways. In fact I feel it to be un-serious in the exact way I feel I am.…
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The 5 Killers songs that make me feel 17 again
‘You’re losing all your highs and lows, ain’t it funny how the feeling goes away?’ I’ve found that even if I click fantastically well with a new person – its hard to grow close to them at the age of 32. I can see people that, had we met in school we probably would be…
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The Reassuringly Expensive Netherlands
When I first moved here 6 years ago I spent a lot of time walking the streets of Utrecht. Every time I passed this particular promotional banner it would make me feel a weird, new emotion that I’d never felt in the UK… It loudly offers two pairs of jeans for the price of €149.95.…
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How covid broke our relationship to spending
Recently the news broke that a record 9.2 million British working age adults don’t have a job and don’t want one. 700k more than in 2019. I feel like I kind of get it. Covid was a once in a lifetime emergency stop on everything. With the slamming of those brakes many shifts happened in…
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The games we choose to play
I recently got into Robert Sapolsky lectures on YouTube, after hearing him on The Rest is Politics. The guy has a very lucid way of explaining everything, and a style of speaking that holds my attention for hours. One thing that got me thinking in this lecture on language is: “Language comes from peers –…
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Saltburn’s strange parallel with the refugee crisis
Saltburn is a modern film, of its time in its portrayal of homo-eroticism and a quirky, ‘A24 horror’ vibe. Here’s why I think Saltburn, deliberately or not – may also be finding relevance by resonating with people’s fear of refugees and immigration: The first thing to understand is that Saltburn is not an ‘eat the…
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Why we give up on Dutch
The point of learning any language, Dutch included; is to be able to communicate more clearly with the people around you. Unlike with other languages, trying to learn Dutch is guaranteed to slam the brakes on quality of communication. This half Dutch half American Derek Scott Mitchell has become a total hero by memifying this…
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The Diderot effect
Isn’t it great when you learn a new word and realise you’ve been looking for it for years. Now that its January (new year new me) I started listening to the ‘Atomic Habits’ audiobook. I bought it when my boss recommended it in 2021 and its taken me a while to bring myself to listen…
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Yes it’s a glorified autocomplete, but so are you
Did you know that you can only perceive an object’s colour if you’re looking directly at it, that the human eye does not have ‘rods’ capable of distinguishing colours in peripheral vision. It sounds crazy but it can be demonstrated easily – if someone holds a randomly coloured tennis ball in your peripheral vision you…
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5 thoughts after 6 nights in America
I love the USA, its a Disney masterpiece, it’s a cheesy pop key change. American culture assumes the best in you and rubs off on you. It is however, boring talking about stuff you like, its much more interesting to pick through the confusing, unsatisfying aspects of experience – here are 5 things that stick…
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What Jessie J taught us about money
In 2011, Jessie J waited patiently for Coconut Man, Moonhead and Pea to be ready before she bravely imparted some wisdom onto the world. Money is brilliant and fascinating. Two years after Price Tag came out I remember standing mesmerised in the bathroom, opening the Barclays mobile banking app and seeing my current account balance…