Pete Ashton's Notes & Links
This is my notebook. Stuff I’m doing, stuff I’m thinking about, stuff I’ve seen online and feel is worth sharing.
This is my notebook. Stuff I’m doing, stuff I’m thinking about, stuff I’ve seen online and feel is worth sharing.
Can You Put Dead Animals In Compost?
In short, yes, sensibly, but it’s not really worth it. (I’ve chucked the odd dead mouse and a drowned bird found in the water butt in mine - just made sure they were buried in the middle).
A lovely comic by Scott Finch who I came across randomly the other day and wish I could remember from where. More here.
Apotris is what Tetris looks like in the 2020s. I played the original DOS version back in 1990 or whenever until I saw blocks in my sleep. I’m shite now but this was surprisingly good fun.
(via)
The Covid Alarmists Were Closer to the Truth Than Anyone Else
Not that it will make any difference to the prevailing consensus reality, and I’m not sure it makes me feel any better, but still, good to know, I guess?
A profile of Linder, whose art appeared on the cover of of the Buzzcock’s Orgasm Addict, to mark a long overdue retrospective of her work. Fascinating.
Am loving TCJ’s Edward Gorey week. This deep dive analysis of a 26 page alphabetical bestiary goes hard.
The Ippagoggy’s presumably fiendish face is hidden behind a flurry of paper. This page demonstrates the way a single-panel cartoon can imply sequentiality without satisfying its attendant expectations, like a melody without a resolving note.
I’ve been using hot spicy noodles from the East Asian supermarket for medicinal purposes (they do wonders for my sinus pain) but hadn’t tried this brand before. Reader, they are TOO HOT. Be warned. Epic pain, like needles on my lips.
My family’s curious correspondence with Edward Gorey
A delightful account of being a teenage pen-pal with Gorey
Over time, we discussed a range of topics: the Moors murders, the benefits provided by a ha-ha, Gustave Doré’s views about the London slums, Lillian Gish in The Wind, Japanese ghost behaviour in the Edo era, spirit photography, London’s cheap bookstores, Rudolf Nureyev’s feet, illicit dissections and why green wallpaper had killed Victorians.
TCJ is doing a series of features on Gorey for his centenary.
An excellent issue of Just Two Things covering the seemingly mundane (the high hidden costs of free parking) and the utterly sublime (C.P. Cavafy’s poem Waiting for the Barbarians). Read to the end for Laurie Anderson’s performance of the latter.
How to help hedgehogs this spring
A short but essential guide to getting your garden hog-friendly. (Hedgehogs are becoming endangered in the UK.)
I’ve been using various tools to surface random Wikipedia pages in an effort to avoid doomscrolling the news and have been bookmarking the ones that held my attention. Filtering the random through my brain, if you like. Curious to see what patterns emerge.
On phone: WikiTok
On desktop: Bookmarklet
Was reminded today that there’s a track on Queen’s Flash Gordon soundtrack album titled “Crash Dive on Mingo City” which is the best title of anything ever.
Thanks to some help from Laura’s muscles we started spreading the mature compost onto the beds today. It looks great. I hate having chronic fatigue but it does mean my compost has time to really mature well.
A figure from the 80s UK small press scene (of whom I’m rather jealous as he was basically adopted as a kid by some of my favourite cartoonists) who has returned with his anthology Ugly Mug. I have ordered the latest issue and will report back.
Was reminded recently of Ed Pinsent’s Sound Projector radio show which has been running on Resonance FM for 20 years now and is a fantastic collection of the very odd and weird in sound and, occasionally, music. Latest shows on Mixcloud, older ones on Internet Archive.
I stopped seeking new music about a decade back, in hindsight because after years of vigorous activity I probably had enough music for one lifetime and there were other things to seek out. I also stopped going to gigs due to what turned out to be autistic sensory overload (the performances were fine - everything else was unbearable). But music continues to be an important part of my environment and I noticed I’d had a few new-ish albums on rotation recently.
Nothing particularly revolutionary, entirely by men my age or older, but it is what it is.
(I don’t know how to link to music these days. Music artist websites continue to be goddamn awful pieces of shit and I’m reluctant to link to one of the streaming sites over another, so go old school and copy/paste these into the search bar of your choice.)
When explaining the English language I generally say the common stuff is Germanic with some Norse, while the posh stuff is French, because of the Normans. Turns out there’s a movement to discard the Norman influence and establish a modern English as it might have evolved from Anglo-Saxon speech. As an intellectual game it seems a lot of fun (though I do have concerns about any attempts at “purity”).
A solid history, starting with the Norman invasion, through the industrial revolution and Thatcherism, to explain the continued dominance of the south east. I learned a lot.
A nice, meaty but very accessible interview. I always find Butler clear and to the point.
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Where does the British public stand on transgender rights in 2024/25?
A frankly terrifying survey from YouGov that clearly illustrates how relentless anti-trans propaganda has made the wider public way more hostile than they were a decade ago. Well done everyone.
Molly Soda interviews an artist mining early Flickr
I was a very early adopter of Flickr and the people and communities there were very important to me and my photography. So when I hear about a young artist fascinated by when she finds when she searches the site around the date of her birth, I feel old, and weirded out that it was really 20-odd years ago, but mostly I think it’s cool that what we left there was interesting enough. Like me discovering punk singles in the 90s.
Seth’s Dominion and the Realm of an Artist’s Interest
Seth’s cardboard city, not made for public consumption, was exhibited in Paris last year as part of a big show of original comic art. It kinda didn’t fit, which is really interesting, says Tiffany Babb.
(Really wish I’d seen this…)
Found myself shouting “nasal hair is not a joke” up the stairs to my wife. #middleagedmanproblemsarerealproblems
My Libro.fm subscription is proving very fruitful. After a couple of heavy history books I plumped for Lucy Sante’s autobiography of her gender transition in her 60s. I’d very much enjoyed Sante’s portrait of New York in the 80s featured in the Beastie Boys book and this had come highly recommended by someone on my feed. It’s beautifully written, bringing out the fear and uncertainty of not fitting in and knowing something is clearly wrong but not wanting to accept the inevitable. 10/10.