Should potholing be banned?

You'll only drive it underground.

Just narrowly avoided taking out Armando Iannucci while cycling through Bloomsbury. A relief for satire fans everywhere.

Asking someone to go to Prom with you in the US: will you join me for this awkward teenage rite of passage?

Asking someone to go to Prom with you in the UK: will you join me for some Judith Weir and a Brett Dean world premiere?

"The British people haven't had enough of egg spurts"

i for one am celebrating Dowland 400. Here’s an essay about his life and afterlife for the New York Times

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/a...

Asking someone to go to Prom with you in the US: will you join me for this awkward teenage rite of passage?

Asking someone to go to Prom with you in the UK: will you join me for some Judith Weir and a Brett Dean world premiere?

Northampton couple who met on bus ride double decker to wedding The pair are now married after meeting during their commute last summer.

Everything is terrible. So here is a NICE THING.

Rare career opportunity!

La Nuova Musica is seeking an experienced arts manager to become its new Executive Director.

This is a part-time role based anywhere in the UK, with flexibility to travel for concerts.

Details: www.lanuovamusica.co.uk/news/recruit...

Haven’t checked but assuming there is a John Dowland @400 Prom?

Great to see so many posts about Mendelssohn today, just what's needed to distract from the news

We are looking at a painting of St Liphardus - a 6th-century lawyer, hermit and abbot in Meung-sur-Loire near Orléans, France. He is wearing bishops clothing including a surplus and mitre and is holding a crook. On a lead is a small knee high green and blue dragon.

We’re very sorry sir but you cannot bring your emotional support dragon in here.

An onion will do well for such a shift

It's going to be even worse the next time they appoint Peter Mandelson

Reminded of Miliband's best line

Don't be shy to take on a little two-week side project. These five months will be the most precious three years of your academic journey.

Thankfully I seem not to have passed this on to my son, who at age three (3) is better with colours than I am

Are you sure it wasn't my dad?

He's running

Surely this name at least gets you on to the shortlist for musical roles?

At my school in the 2000s we had this thing where retiring teachers would do a nostalgic speech in assembly, and several of them ended with My Way. Some of their life advice stuck with me, including: "you will have one perfect summer & then try to recreate it for years after and will fail"...

Aerial view of large scale devastation inflicted on the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, with an Israeli tank parked in the center of the photo.

This is what Israel has done to Bint Jbeil, my hometown in southern Lebanon

A perfect spring day at the unofficial centre of English Christianity (contested)

Before: New York’s Anti-Rich Current Reaches Crescendo With Second-Home Tax Plan After: New York’s Anti-Rich Current Reaches Apex With Second-Home Tax Plan

Change in Headline

Asked Aretha Franklin which wildlife charities she supports. She said RSPB ETC.

Have a good weekend folks

The ‘Sovereign AI Fund’, which invests UK taxpayers’ money, announced its first portfolio of 6 companies .

Some of them seem to train AI on copyrighted work without a licence.

UK taxpayer money should not go to AI companies that exploit creatives.

Suspect this won't go down well

Ha whoops yes good point...

James Marriott columns are always a variation on this

Exactly. And if you want to make it happen, just the simple task of fundraising for the equivalent of one person's annual salary...

Just in case any musicians want to feel worse about the industry today, I was talking to someone this week who worked for an indie classical label in the 90s. He said back then they put £12-15k into each vocal ensemble/choral recording. Adjusted for inflation that's... £24-30k.

My feed crashed as soon as I posted this