The cumbersome truth behind shedding unwanted kilos. — In early August, slumped on the sofa like a sonsie haggis stuffed into a sports sock, I finally accepted it. My trousers were too tight. During spring lockdown, while Covid case numbers were happily decreasing, the numbers on my bathroom scale had been surging in the opposite direction. Like many…

Bucharest’s Memorial of Rebirth and the enduring tension between vandalism and art. — Vandalistic behaviour is a feature of malfunctioning, inegalitarian communication channels. It constitutes the speech of the dumb, the powerless and of minorities. There can be no doubt that it is a striking form of interrogation — and that it calls for an appropriate response. - J. Sélosse, Vandalism: Speech Acts

In every photograph taken, there exists profound potential. — We will all end in failure, but that’s not the most important thing. What really matters is how we fail and what we gain in the process. - Costica Bradatan, In Praise of Failure An artist’s life is a never-ending, unresolvable, inconclusive search for the perfect expression of an internal…

During lockdown, our individual perspectives of time were shaken. If time is subjective, what do we do with it? — Time and space are modes by which we think not conditions in which we live. — Albert Einstein. The defining feature of work as a commercial lawyer is not the suit, the intellectual discussion, the clients, the office politics, or the sloshing around of money. It’s something they never show…

Nina Simone’s Pastel Blues is a true embodiment of duende — the rare depth and darkness that impels her work. — Her distinctive warble permeates thousands of movie soundtracks, hip hop samples and advertisements, let alone the countless personal moments by which people demarcate their lives. This omnipresence allows us to forget who Nina Simone was, and the outright value of her music. For the streaming generation, knowledge of such an…

Why film is the solution to diminishing human involvement in the photographic process. — All forms of digitisation have the effect, and typically the intention, of reducing “imperfection”. Audible highs and lows are shaved off music by MP3s; ultra-HD televisions output more detail than is perceptible by the human eye; Google Maps eradicates the risk of getting lost; AI assistants inform us of what…

As anchor episodes go, what makes Watchmen episode six so… Extraordinary? Beside the rest, it’s a masterclass of meta. In its entirety, HBO’s Watchmen is deserving of tremendous praise: “woke” without patronising, intellectual without pomposity, indulgent without narcissism, complex without confusing. Its best trick is to make the fanciful believable…

Beyoncé’s new movie is big, bold and bodacious, but what does it express about the Africa she portrays? Innumerable questions arise, thudding inside my skull to the rhythm of jovial afrobeats… I really enjoy watching old music videos on YouTube. …

Is white guilt the solution to the failings of American public schools, or does Nice White Parents simply miss the point on race? I recently began listening to Nice White Parents, a new podcast hosted by self-confessed nice white parent, Channa Joffe-Walt. It’s produced by the people in and around…