Running and shouting with a large group of people
hello,
Technically this is late. Should have happened last Sunday. But, something (laziness) stopped me doing it. This Sunday is different. This is a Biden/Harris Sunday. The only bad thing about this Sunday is that Britain is now back to being Most Embarrassing Western Democracy.
Still, here are 5 things:
Sterling Moss (British racing driver) had a house of gadgets. 70s gadgets. If you’re a rich person, you should do this, you should build a house full of odd things personalised for you. The wobbly correspondence tray is the best bit.
George has been inspiring of late. This post about the Museum In A Box is resolute and cheering and her tweet led me to this magnificent article about women who become action stars and do their own stunts. I did not know this:
“A woman’s center of gravity tends to be lower than a man’s, so women in action often kick more than they punch.”
We’ve just started watching The Queen’s Gambit which seems excellent so far. I know nothing about chess but I found this this NPR interview (listen and read) with Linda Diaz (chess expert, fantastic musician) reassuring; apparently the chess is played authentically. Which made me realise that there must be some sort of corollary to Gell-man Amnesia. ie when the movies show something that you know about they probably get it wrong and you find it annoying. But with everything else you barely notice. As this article points out, unexpected checkmates happen all the time in movies but almost never in real chess. Hadn’t occurred to me.
I also know nothing about dance but I liked the idea of a choreographer - Yanira Castro - organising zoom performances of dance pieces with non-dancers. I would obviously run a mile rather than participate in anything like this but I have to admit this is a good description of something someone else might enjoy:
“This group activity, based on a choreographic score called “Thunderous Clash,” was an online introduction to a largely offline project, Yanira Castro’s “Last Audience: A Performance Manual.” Before participants left the Zoom event, they received a PDF of the score — basically a set of written instructions — so that they could try it in full on their own. (The complete “Thunderous Clash,” inspired by the form of pot-banging protest known as a cacerolazo, Spanish for casserole, calls for running and shouting with a large group of people, “for a good long time.”) “
The title of the piece also echoed with this lovely sign.
Speaking of echoes. Matt Webb tweeted this about the Presidential result:
"Feels like there should be a word from Old English that means the very moment of the slow turning of the tide Whatever it is.. that.”
And got this reply:
“In Scots, Ari(s) n. ARI(S), n. gen. pl. The first slight movement of the water after the turn of the tide. Sh. 1908 Jak . (1928): De aris o' de tide, o' de brost. Sh.4 1932. [See Ar, v., and Arel, move feebly.]”
And twenty minutes later I read this in The Ministry for the Future, about a future COP meeting:
“The 58th COP meeting of the Paris Agreement signatories, which included the sixth mandated global stocktake, concluded with a special supplementary two-day summing up of the previous decade and indeed the entire period of the Agreement’s existence, which was looking more and more like a break point in the history of both humans and the Earth itself, the start of something new. Indeed it can never be emphasized enough how important the Paris Agreement had been; weak though it might have been at its start, it was perhaps like the moment the tide turns: first barely perceptible, then unstoppable. The greatest turning point in human history, what some called the first big spark of planetary mind. The birth of a good Anthropocene.”
I’m very glad the US is rejoining.
And here’s a bonus thing: Kamala Harris on how to be good at public speaking. Brilliant.
(There are 631 of you. 631 is prime! The next prime is 641. If we’re going to go up let’s try and do it in primes.)