great(ish) pt 50: grown ups, scammers, artists
Today: the best new song by a definitely not new band, the new Biedermeier in film and literature, an update on the art market, unfortunately we have to talk...
great(ish) pt 49: rom-coms, Andor, charity shops
Feel-good content only today! A film about a young woman who doesn’t know what she’s doing with her life, a novel about a middle-aged woman who also doesn’t...
great(ish) pt 48: empathy, puzzles, European summer
Hello! I’m still here, writing emails. Today: the plight of tourism in the TikTok age, a Norwegian film, a Catalan book, carbon offsetting and my favourite...
great(ish) pt 47: space and time and party (politics)
Hello! Today: a mishmash. Collective depression, time travel and space travel, party politics (always), girlbands. Article: Welcome to the World’s Happiest...
great(ish) pt 46: oil, fire, sour drinks
Hello! I've just come home from an afternoon at the theatre where I saw an excellent updated version of Henrik Ibsen's Pillars of Society. The play is, among...
great(ish) pt 45: clocks, toilets, is the 19th century to blame for everything?
Hello! Since I last wrote to you I moved house, I started a new job, I met dozens of new people and spent dozens of hours on trains to Italy. I absorbed,...
great(ish) pt 44: control, low tech, Ibsen
Hello! Today: a film about earth and the Earth, an Ibsen play about contaminated water, an essay about control and music by a cellist who sings. I also...
great(ish) pt 43: modernist architecture, Cairo Station, hair like a weasel
Hello everyone! Today: a long read about Skopje's fantastic architectural history, a film set in Cairo's main railway station, a collection of Catalan short...
great(ish) pt 42: tree transport; public art; still life
Hello and happy Earth Day! Today: public art in Norway; a sad and beautiful Georgian documentary; Argentinian eco-fiction; the paper industry; and a Flemish...
great(ish) pt 41: androids, Ireland, punk rock
Hello! Today: a conversation about Irish history, a rom-com starring an academic researching dead languages and a British-coded android, a poem about the...
great(ish) pt 40: shepherds, seasonal music, literature and the market
Hello! Today: an interview about literature and the market; a film about Swiss shepherds; a short story collection about being almost happy; and firmly...
great(ish) pt 39: islands, the myth of discovery, Denmark
Hello. It’s been a long time, but I’m still here, writing emails! My life has changed quite a lot since the last time I sent out one of these in early June,...
great(ish) pt 38: 80s girlbossing, renaming paintings, supply chains (again)
Hello! Today, the unintentional but no less appropriate theme is work: the work of the curator, the work of the 80s girlboss, the work of the PR consultant....
great(ish) pt 37: the myth of the Himalaya, hockey trivia, chairs
Hello! Today: an article about the myth of the Himalaya, Chloe Zhao's debut, a novel suffused with "hallucinatory eroticism" (and poetry) and some silly...
great(ish) pt 36: best friends, climbers, getting lost in the Arctic
Hello! Today: friendship love vs romantic love; friends who climb together; friends who get stuck in the Arctic together and die together; and, sorry, no...
great(ish) pt 35: gnocchi, teens, expeditions
Hello! Today: how outdoor athletes get money to fund their expeditions; a Quebecois film about teenagers; a French-Algerian autobiographical novel about 80s...
great(ish) pt 34: Brahms x 2, Addison Rae, trading for potatoes
Hello! Today, yet another longread about the beauty industry, a short Georgian documentary, a short French novel, a Korean drama about classical musicians...
great(ish) pt 33: MLM academia, Farewell Amor, the beauty industry
Hello! Is everyone hanging in there? This week, a bunch of things that I've enjoyed over the last month or so but didn't get around to writing up because I...
great(ish) pt 32: baseball, Titanic, logistics
Hello! This week, baseball and its employment practices; a new Tessa Thompson film!; a classic novel about friendship and competing orthodoxies; my ongoing...
great(ish) pt 31: heists, gossip, buns
Hello! Today: a Frans Hals painting has been stolen for the third time; a Netflix film about archaeology; a novel about boarding school propaganda; a music...