I’ve been fascinated by these Nordic ancestors since childhood, and through visits to Sweden, Denmark and Iceland as an adult. Here are a few photos from an exhibition we visited at the end of last year, with some friends in Nottingham. If I’d been more on the ball in January I could have posted them before the exhibition finished, but they’re still worth a look.
My third visit to Sydney in three years meant I could finish off a batch of panoramas of New South Wales, with non-panoramic photos to come, someday.
It’s a few years since I’ve commented much at Popular, partly because Tom’s reviewing slowed down once he reached 2002. I broke my silence in January, not with a redundant comment about the greatness of “Freak Like Me” (I was away when that came up, and missed the boat), but with a defence of an Elvis/electronica hybrid...
Permafrost may thaw far faster than expected.
The climate reality few dare mention.
The quietest place in America increasingly isn’t.
How music stopped meaning everything.
Skim reading is the new normal.
I’m so used to Rip-Off Britain that it’s reassuring (sort of) to be reminded that my home country can be a rip-off too, especially since the Australian dollar strengthened against the pound. Books are the worst, and this example I saw at Sydney Airport a few weeks ago was the worst of all:
On 31 August 2018, £8.99 was worth A$16.07. Even if you add 10% GST (payable on books in Australia, unlike British VAT), that’s still only A$17.68—which makes the Sydney Airport price a markup of 126%. It can’t all be the cost of shipping.
I was away for a while in August and September, and have had too much going on to be here much. For a while I considered shuttering the site for a bit, but instead I’ve shut down Twitter. I’d become addicted to it, checking for the latest depressing news about Brexit. (None of it’s news any more, really. It’s going to happen, it’s going to happen without a deal, it’s going to be awful, and the names of those who caused it are going to live in infamy.)
Maybe clearing my head of some of that will make room for happier stuff.