Uncomfortable and not numb
hello,
I should start with an apology. Earlier this week I was supposed to do an online talk but I cancelled it at the last minute because of ‘illness’. The illness was this. I was running around Regents Park (because) and got stung in the face by a bee. Just as I recovered my composure and started again I got stung on the other side of my face by another bee. This was alarming. Then, over the next couple of days, my face swelled up and my cheeks felt, in the words of Pink Floyd, like two balloons. Uncomfortable and not numb.
And apart from the discomfort I was just too embarrassed to appear on a screen.
I’ve got to admit I was a bit anxious about the whole thing anyway. I hadn’t really prepared properly. So, sorry. I’ll rearrange for the new year. My face is fine now, by the way, all went back to normal.
And on with the music.
I have this very ancient, very infrequently updated tumblr called Analogy Library. It’s for things that will probably be useful as metaphors, I’m just not sure what for yet. Here’s a new one (tiktok); the chaotic spinning of the double pendulum. “It’s amazing how often you think it’s finished, and it’s settled down and then it manages to get some energy from somewhere and do another loop.” As they say on the socials, watch to the end.
Zadie Smith is magnificent in this interview (podcast).
And Helen Castor is brilliant in this one (podcast).
There is nothing more compelling that expertise and enthusiasm worn lightly. Deborah Ann Woll explaining Dungeons and Dragons (youtube), through playing and teaching it, is the best example I’ve ever seen. (via tiktok). Watch to the end!
PROMOTIONAL NEWS
Still some tickets left for Interesting Do. (Just to manage your expectations. That’s just going to be an evening in a bar, there’ll be some music, there’ll be some nice people, you’ll be able to buy drinks, I might issue name badges, but there’ll be No Talks)
You can still sponsor me. Don’t let the bees win.
I’ll give you back your day.
russell
(I scrubbed out some subscribers that Buttondown describes as ‘spammy’ and there are now only 969 of you. Methuselah lived to be 969, but maybe that was just pension fraud.)