Creepy Santa on great-neph’s windowsill wishes you a merry eve.
Status:
Christmas Eve happened. Went to visit Fi’s family south of Birmingham for an hour, which was nice. Then I had a nap while she went to the Bournville carols-on-the-green, returning with a couple of chill friends for dinner. Probably reached my limit of activity and we’ll see how it affects tomorrow, but tomorrow is traditionally a do-very-little day for us, so it’s all good.
Overnight listening:
Reading:
- Landslide; a ghost story - long and essential looking piece by Erin Kissane about “the societal problem of collective derangement” which I will be slowly digesting this week. The first bit, about an earthquake in Alaska, is fascinating even if you don’t read on.
- Further thoughts from Adam Greenfield, which again, I haven’t read properly yet.
- The Best Films I Saw in 2025 - my chum Joel has good taste.
- In Berlin, I took an evening class on fascism – and found out how to stop the AfD
- Truth in fantasy: what Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials taught us over its 30-year run - I haven’t read, or heard much about, the second trilogy. I love that he apparently lays into Dawkins-style atheism. In The Book of Dust, a 20-year-old Lyra falls victim to the writings of two popular authors who are determined to see the world as a collection of meaningless facts and circumstances: “It was nothing more than what it was,” one writes. The authors are so enamored of doubt that they question the very existence of daemons in a world full of them.