You and me both, Wally.

Status:

Taking it easy in the heat today. Had a brief visit from my sister this morning and a long-overdue visit from one of my Loaf colleagues though we mostly talked about other things. It was all nice.

House continues to be 4-5 degrees cooler than outside, which is a win. Last night was a bit warm though — still haven’t got a good draft going between the bedrooms yet. (The idea of opening the loft hatch so it worked like a chimney had to be quickly abandoned on Tuesday when it became an oven and started heating the landing. Probably needs a temperature controlled extractor fan up there.)

Hogwatching:

• Hedgehog Cam 3—9 July 2026 — We’ve moved the feeding station to a slightly more secluded area so they hang about more and we’re already seeing some fascinating behaviour. Look for timestamp links to a couple of face-to-face clashes over the water bowl.

Reading:

• Beat legend, ‘boy lover’: how should we reckon with Allen Ginsberg’s complex legacy? — I’d forgotten Ginsberg was a supporter of the North American Man/Boy Love Association, one of those groups that makes even the most transgressive freedom-loving freak pause and back away. I have a memory of NAMBLA cropping up in some of the zines back in the day, usually in the cataloguing of far-out shit, though it seems even Ivan Stang didn’t include it in High Weirdness by Mail, which is saying something given some of the evil nutjobs in there. It’s basically pedophilia advocacy, and would have rightly faded into history, except for Ginsberg, one of the greatest writers and countercultural figures of his time. Kids today with their “problematic faves” don’t know how easy they have it.
  • While checking that last sentence I discovered that the Milkshake Duck was 10 years old last month.
• Flock and Ring are champions of the privatized surveillance state — Someone on our street chat was encouraging the rest of us to get a CCTV doorbell after a spate of Amazon packages were snatched. I’m not sure that’s the right solution.
• How the heck does GPS work? — One of those things I mostly knew (triangulation of satellite signals, right?) but didn’t completely understand, until now.
• Summer of Ludd schedule — This finished a few days ago in New York but I was curious to see what compromised a “week of free, public, and participatory events to get people off big tech, into public space, and re-enchanting each other."
• I trust in TextEdit — The Mac’s basic text editor hasn’t changed in aeons so you always know what you’re going to get when you load it. All software should be like this. I’ve tried using Apple Notes a few times over the years and each time it’s like a completely different app, and will likely change again. No software should be like this.
• UK has ‘no future’ if it fails to act on ecosystem collapse threatening national security — A report by intelligence services painting ‌a devastating picture of severe food shortages, price rises, migration, political destabilisation and possible war, resulting from the collapse of ecosystems, fuelled by the human-induced climate crisis and over-exploitation was blocked by Downing Street for reasons not given but I’m guessing because a) it’s fucking terrifying and b) would require global cooperation. But if they did publish the whole thing would the public take any notice? It’s not like this hasn’t been known for years already. ‌“The government can summon billions of pounds for new military hardware when the defence sector calls for it. We need an equally decisive mobilisation of investment to restore the natural world on which we rely for our food, water, and clean air. Without these essentials our country has no future.”
• I survived a cold plunge and all I got was everything I ever wanted 🪜
• Tremble before my gracious heat!

Looking:

• Tish Murtha & Kuba Ryniewicz Close to Home — an exhibition at the Baltic which I’m clearly not going to get to see but it’s good to see Murtha’s documentary photography getting a showing. I really enjoyed the documentary Tish which is still on iPlayer and well worth your time.

Watching:

• Dune Part 3 - trailer ‌(2:49) — No idea how this is going to land — the trailer looks all over the place but so is the source material at this point. I’m committed now. Bring it on.