writer | researcher | academic
Who do you pray to? According to Genesis 1:27, God made us in his image. In 1977, Genesis wrote "I was feeling part of the scenery / I walked right out of the machinery".[1] These are both powerful statements which speak to how and why we worship what we do: we find the numinous in... Continue Reading →
I can't be the only one stuck in this loop... Oh god, do I want off the internet. The list of things I need a phone to do is so small that I am seriously considering going back to a 2013 Blackberry. My ability and desire to read, write, and communicate have been improved by... Continue Reading →
my talk given at the Creative Industries Festival 2026 “What is left, what is remembered and what is still fit for use in the heritage of classical bourgeois culture?” It is with these words that Eric Hobsbawm opens his 2012 essay ‘Heritage’. Hobsbawm, a historian in his 95th year when this was written, is concerned... Continue Reading →
Or: Fanfic in opposition to auteurship.
good people who died young.
October 10th to 12th was the London (Autumn) Pen Show. This is like any trade show: you have vendors who like to sell you things, customers who want deals on those things, and a few onlookers trying to build brands, follow next year's marketing trends, make relationships with mutually beneficial businesses… or who just want to hold the bags of somebody they love, looking for a place to sit. I went for the Sunday as a customer.
I am 31 and fully dead. Lloyd Cole says the first song he ever wrote about being middle-aged was Hey Rusty. Anybody listening to his 1987 album 'Mainstream' can tell he's having a bit of an identity crisis: songs like Sean Penn Blues and My Bag are sharp satires of a world Cole doesn't seem... Continue Reading →
Why do I feel compelled to save pictures?
Growing up in a house of bootlegs, and developing my own music collection.
It was my great joy to see Ms Rebecca Black live last week when she brought her Salvation tour to London. I've been so glad to see her reach her potential, and I bought the ticket mainly to support an indie artist, since I'm really much too old to be heading to the club on... Continue Reading →
Late Romantic 