Adam Wood
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David Lynch 1946–2025
Few artists in any field produce work so singular as to give rise to use of their name as a descriptor. Just as we speak of the surreal, labyrinthine or illogical as Kafkaesque however, so too cinema of a particular uncanny, enigmatic bent will forever bear the label: Lynchian. I was a fan, of course. Of the work, of the sensibility, and of the man. Any occasion on which I read, watched or…
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I’ve been walking the loop around Christ Church Meadow almost as long as I’ve lived in Oxford. It’s a short, easy walk, on which you get to see a little of both Merton College and Christ Church College, and pass alongside a stretch of the Thames. There’s also a broad avenue lined with poplar trees, leading down to the river, which is quite spectacular around autumn in particular.…
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I got a little lazy with my coffee consumption last year, just sticking with a subscription of the same beans from the same roastery. This year, I’m making the effort to switch things up a little bit, with the intention of choosing a wider variety of options from roasters around the UK . First up: this Mexican offering from Welsh roaster Hard Lines .
HNY25
The calendar page flips and we’re embarking on another orbit. Hi folks, how are you? I’m just checking in with a little proof-of-life post, or—as Craig Mod phrases it in his despatch today from Tokyo—‘mainly as a way to measure distance traveled’. I watched 98 films last year, and I’m fairly sure that I saved the best until last: an annual re-watch of David Lowery’s The Green Knight (2021), on…
The List 2024
At the end of each year I make a list of the twenty albums I enjoyed the most. To be eligible, a record has to be of album length (at least ~30 mins), and contain entirely (or almost entirely) new material; live albums, cover records, and compilations are ineligible. 20. Heems, Lapgan — LAFANDAR Back in 2011, the new-to-me rap trio Das Racist swooped in late in the year and put their stamp on…
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The Substance dir. Coralie Fargeat (2024)
Picture a small, local café or diner. You are obliged to sit at a table, alone, for a whole day. The only thing on that table, is a glass of water. If you drink from the glass in the morning, it contains less water in the afternoon. But, if you drink from—or spill—the glass in the afternoon, the action doesn’t change the amount of water that was in the glass that morning. This is the nature of…
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If it proves to be the case that last night’s 3-0 victory over the Reds was Kyle Hendricks’ final game in a Chicago Cubs uniform, he ends on the high note that he deserves. Across 7.1 innings he allowed only two hits, and he looked poised and in command throughout. The only remaining Cub from the 2016 World Series-winning roster, and one of my absolute favourite players to watch — I don’t…
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My special lady friend is out of town this weekend, and my plans are minimal, aside from the final two Cubs games of the year of course. I’m playing a game of ‘will they; won’t they’ with a courier whose delivery window currently reports as ‘by Monday’, and it’s something I very much need to be here to take receipt of. I read the first ~50 pages of Lillian…
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It is done. Twelve weeks and 1,211 pages since our little group started reading, the tenth volume of the annual Sipped Ink read-along is complete. Over the last three months I’ve written 24,715 words about Stephen King’s novel The Stand (Complete & Uncut) (1990), and I just sent out the final issue of this year’s newsletter today, on the author’s 77th birthday. If ever you…
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R.E.M. have always had good art direction, and this cover — for the digital compilation We Are Hope Despite the Times , newly-released for National Voter Registration Day in the US — is no exception. If anyone knows the designer, can you drop me a line ?
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The final Syzygy Business issue of the 2024 online season is now with subscribers. If that’s not you, it’s still available to read at this link right here : bicycles, violins, Sheryl Crow and more.
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A pair of five-star records turn 20 years old today: Tegan & Sara’s So Jealous and Arcade Fire’s Funeral were both released on 14 September 2004. I remember that the CD insert for the latter was formatted like the order of service for a funeral, and had the date printed on the front. I’ve played both this afternoon, and can confirm that they’re still great.
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I’ve mentioned this to newsletter subscribers, but it occurs to me that I’ve not said anything here in the online notebook — autumn is here, and the annual closedown is at hand . If you’ve read this site for a while, you might recall that it tends to follow a certain rhythm: I’m online when the Chicago Cubs are playing baseball. I’ve made several attempts to explain…
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I just sent out the tenth issue of this year’s Sipped Ink read-along newsletter, taking the number of words I’ve written about Stephen King’s The Stand since 1 July just north of 20,000. There are two weeks (and about 200 pages of the novel) to go between now and King’s birthday on 21 September.
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I update the Now page too infrequently, but I got around to it this morning!
Monument Valley
A few months ago, developers ustwo games celebrated the tenth anniversary of their debut title — Monument Valley — by posting a short montage video . The clip ends with a tantalising timeline, pointing past the first two games, towards a potential future instalment. Sure enough, a couple of weeks ago, they finally confirmed Monument Valley 3 , to be released this December. That announcement was…
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Silvio Rizzi just launched an all-new version of Reeder — his excellent RSS client. I’ve used every iteration of the app over the last 15 years, and I bet there have been far more days when I’ve opened it than days when I’ve not. 1 I’ve written a bunch here about the ways in which the current state of the social web feels like fertile ground for a resurgence of RSS , as…
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For apps / services that support both manual and auto-saving on text entry fields, I would be interested to see a chart of manual save frequency plotted against age. I’d be willing to bet that, even though autosaving has been pretty near ubiquitous for a while, folks my age still hammer that manual save icon / shortcut more regularly. I know for me it’s still almost habitual to hit a quick Cmd+S…
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Wishing a happy Hobonichi Techo launch day to all who celebrate. I just spent an enjoyable half hour selecting some neat accoutrements to accompany my 2025 planner.