Category Archives: Writing

2021

Posted on 31 December, 2021 by Guy

Last year’s round-up didn’t include anything on the environment or politics; it was difficult to write about it because it was all bad news. Things haven’t changed, and COP26 was a failure. Here’s the latest data on CO2 levels: My … Continue reading →

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NYZ – Unknowable Determinism

Posted on 26 February, 2021 by Guy

I wrote a blurb for the new album Unknowable Determinism by NYZ (Dave Burraston). The album comprises tracks made from 2013 to 2016, marking a significant new direction for NYZ, based on an original approach to mapping between cellular automata … Continue reading →

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2017

Posted on 22 December, 2017 by Guy

So, 2017. Like 2016 but worse. Political incompetence, dishonour and deceit in UK and US governments. “Social murder” – inequality exposed in the Grenfell Tower fire and its aftermath. “Economic murder” – evidence of a correlation between austerity policies and … Continue reading →

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Present Shock

Posted on 23 October, 2016 by Guy

Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock is about the experience of living in accelerating complexity. It looks at the social, economic and political conditions that are changing increasingly rapidly and the psychological effects this is having on our perception of the world … Continue reading →

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Critical Reading and Listening

Posted on 12 July, 2016 by Guy

Political and economic turbulence in the UK since the EU referendum. A lot of news and uncertainty. Amongst all this, some things offer orientation, clarity and hope – critical analyses for times of crisis. And there’s been lots of good … Continue reading →

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Update

Posted on 21 May, 2016 by Guy

Apologies for neglecting this blog for a while. Here’s a brief update on things. For The Wire magazine I wrote a review of Timothy D Taylor’s latest book, Music and Capitalism: A History of the Present. Review published in the … Continue reading →

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2015 reading

Posted on 10 January, 2016 by Guy

Most of the stuff I read in 2015 was about economics and politics. This was a deliberate effort to plug some gaps in my knowledge, prompted by following the news on the deepening economic crisis in Greece, the subsequent rise … Continue reading →

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Aesthetic + Complexity Word Frequency

Posted on 29 July, 2015 by Guy

Google Ngram Viewer shows the frequency of words or phrases in books. This the chart for the words aesthetic and complexity between the years 1700 and 2000:Complexity overtakes aesthetic from 1962, and the frequency of both dip around the time of … Continue reading →

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Railways and Reading

Posted on 7 April, 2013 by Guy

Since starting a job in Leicester six months ago, I’ve been travelling to work by rail. On the return journey, the railway follows the river Soar going North out of Leicester all the way up to Ratcliffe, then takes a … Continue reading →

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From 2011 to 2012

Posted on 23 January, 2012 by Guy

January is named after Janus, the Roman god of gateways who represents transitions or beginnings and endings. His two faces look simultaneously forward to the future and back to the past. Similarly, January is a time for reflection and planning, … Continue reading →

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