olivermantell

olivermantell, 13 days ago to random

Sometimes it's difficult, when writing up population survey results, not to presume that people are logical and/or consistent.

'If people think [x], then it follows that...'. No. It really doesn't.

People (both collectively and individually) are perfectly capable of believing mutually incompatible things at once.

But it really makes it difficult to write about...

olivermantell, 18 days ago to Sheffield

Wow: English Touring #Opera are moving their base to #Sheffield(!): https://englishtouringopera.org.uk/news/eto-makes-sheffield-its-new-home

olivermantell, 25 days ago to random

#GE2024 #poem

olivermantell, 27 days ago to random

As desperate attempts to make use of FOMO go, Argos’ email about ‘the LAST CHANCE to review your recent purchase’ [a curtain track] is one of the most amusingly pointless.

olivermantell, 1 month ago to random

I was listening to some contemporary jazz piano when in the garden earlier, with only one headphone in.

It took me a while to realise that the strange syncopated doubling of the piano part was in fact next door’s ten year old practising piano…

olivermantell, 1 month ago to random

Re last boost, one of my fanciful ideas for when [ha!] I am rich, is a lovely big study, the entrance to which is via a small maze of bookshelves, so I’ll have plenty of time to finish what I’m reading, even if someone comes into the room…

(This room will also contain the stairs up to a turret room, set up as a cosy pad to listen to music/read in softer chairs, watch films, with a view out over a landscape full of trees etc).

olivermantell, 1 month ago to random

I’ve just finished the first of a three conference week…:

1. Digital Works re digital in the arts
2. Clore’s Climate Assembly on arts and climate change
3. European Cultural Data Alliance - on international cultural data sharing

…and my brain is already so full and fizzing, with so many new lines of thought to explore and areas of thinking cracked open, that I’m a little worried about how coherent I’ll be by the end of it…

olivermantell, 1 month ago to random

The yellows and purply reds of the bruising on my sprained ankle are looking so much like a Turner sunset, my wife offered to draw a boat on it…

olivermantell, 2 months ago to Theatre

Does anyone have recommendations of #NTatHome titles? I’ve enjoyed The Habit of Art and Leopoldstadt so far…

#theatre

olivermantell, 2 months ago to random

I had a joyful, emotional and satisfying morning at the official opening of Grimm & Co’s new Emporium of Stories in Rotherham (I’m a trustee there): https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnl70zkyneeo

Seeing the building full of people was magical: it was such a pleasure to celebrate all of those who helped make it happen, along with seeing and hearing about the ways Grimm & Co benefits young lives…

olivermantell, 2 months ago to random

My one criticism of #København is that there’s a disappointing lack of Kierkegaard-themed tourist tat: Hans Christian Andersen everywhere, but no Søren plushie (with matching Regine Olsen doll), no Tivoli ride called ‘Fear and Trembling’ (where you reread bits of the Bible until they scare you) and no immersive Kierkegaard experience (where you contemplate dioramas of the absurdity of existence)…

olivermantell, 3 months ago to random

Next up in my day of intense, non-stop leisure and relaxation: Manon Lescaut by English Touring Opera…

olivermantell, 3 months ago to random

Pre-Monday-morning-coffee thought:

Having seven days in the week (specifically, it being a prime number) disrupts thinking about how often to do things.

The weekend being 2 out of 7 days, leaving another prime number of week days, only accentuates it.

If there were six days in a week, I reckon we’d use the ideas of ‘every other day’ or ‘every third day’ much more often.

olivermantell, 5 months ago to random

Chatted to a friend about ‘slow art’ last night: an idea I’m getting increasingly passionate about (from aesthetic, environmental, political, even existential perspectives).

As much as it’s about getting more out of an art work, I think it also liberates the self in all sorts of interesting ways.

Some useful links:

Claire Brown, Thinking Museum: https://thinkingmuseum.com/2020/02/12/learning-to-look-slow-looking/

Jennifer Roberts: https://www.harvardmagazine.com/node/42920

TEDx talk by Susan Moore: https://youtu.be/C7vLBY-B19o?si=S5xu0VYaDG6fq6wy

#SlowArt

olivermantell, 5 months ago to random

olivermantell, 6 months ago to random

This evening I watched the #ReadingFC vs Oxford derby with my son, sat on our sofa in Sheffield.

A strange thought, that the last time that fixture was played (when I was there live, in 2000) - streaming a game like that wasn’t a thing, I had never even been to Sheffield (let alone lived here 20 years), or even met my son’s mother - but here we now were.

I feel almost as different from that ‘me’ in the stadium then as the line-ups in those two matches from each other…

olivermantell, 6 months ago to random

Does anyone have recommendations of #Danish or #German books? (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, philosophy etc: either classics or contemporary classics).

#bookstodon

olivermantell, 6 months ago to AncientHistory

Amazing #archeology story: 'Remarkable' 1,400-year-old possible temple found near Sutton Hoo’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-67496541

(Sutton Hoo is one of the most captivating places I’ve been in recent years: exciting to think this is only c. 4 miles away and could be Raedwald’s temple…)

olivermantell, 6 months ago to random

@emmaaum Morning! Hope you have a nice day.

olivermantell, 6 months ago to dadjokes

I am witheringly informed by my kids that singing “I like tabouleh” to the tune of “I like to boogie” is “cringe”.

#DadJokes

olivermantell, 7 months ago to random

Funny how there are some #opera titles it's helpful to translate (die Zauberflöte = The Magic Flute; die lustige Witwe = The Merry Widow; Il barbiere di Siviglia = The Barber of Seville etc) and others where it feels positively perverse (la traviata = The Fallen Woman; Cavalleria Rusticana = Rural Chivalry; Così fan tutte = So Do They All).

And no obvious rhyme or reason why some fall into each category...

olivermantell, 7 months ago to random

I've just used an Oxford comma in a report after the word 'Oxford', which was far too satisfying...

olivermantell, 7 months ago to random

“Close looking, above all requires time. It actively opposes the image flow... It means sitting with confusion and ambiguity, and avoiding distraction, which is exactly what the image flow does not want you to do. The endless visual stream is meant to keep you distracted because if you look closely you will see more clearly.”

Grace Linden (via the Thinking Museum newsletter):

https://psyche.co/ideas/to-master-the-art-of-close-looking-learn-to-hold-time-still?mc_cid=6bb0fa802e&mc_eid=bf6cc8c18c

olivermantell, 7 months ago to random

I hadn’t realised that the ending of La rondine would be so brutally abrupt. Explains why an #opera with such beautiful music isn’t more widely celebrated…

olivermantell, 7 months ago to random

I invented a new word with a typo: 'infrustructure' - systems, technologies, structures and facilities that are meant to help, but instead are just frustrating...