First of a new era

I haven’t written much on here this year – and I miss it. I’ve largely been writing on LinkedIn about work stuff, where it is much easier to get attention. I understand from my ex-Channel 4 colleague Jen Topping of Business of Television that Google has rendered blogs practically invisible – I can’t tell if that deprioritization is true. Whatever the case, I am in the mood to write again, whether it’s for the void or not…

I was in Waterstones in Sutton High Street, Sarf Lunden the other day, just mooching around with my Other Half, enjoying the lemon-coloured walls in some rare December sunlight, the exotic tea and the option to flick through the books whilst sipping it, when I came across a book of Stoic philosophy comprising a quote a day plus commentary. ‘The Daily Stoic’ is probably useful at this particular juncture in human history and television evolution but I didn’t agree with a lot of the thoughts of Seneca, Epicurus and Marcus Aurelius that had been selected by Ryan Holiday (author of ‘Ego is the Enemy’ which seemed a bit amateur when I started reading it but perhaps he is a more serious writer than I give him credit for). However, what the quotations lacked by way of inspiration, the format made up for. It gave me the idea to try to write a post here a day from now till next Christmas Eve with a not-the-usual-suspects quotation and a short commentary. So here’s the 1st. I spotted it on Facebook on that mooching day… 

a Nick Cave quotation

I was struck by the realisation of just how powerful live music is – that a group of individuals can come together and concoct a sound unique to them, and that people can connect with that distinctive vision as if it were their own experience. I could feel its moral quality – how this singular force has the capacity to repair the world with its goodness.

Live music is something very close to my heart. Here singer-songwriter- musician Nick Cave is recounting going to see one of his first stadium concerts, Radiohead at the O2, London. (As it happens, seeing Nick Cave at the O2 was one of my live music highlights in 2024.) Among a crowd of 20,000 he “was stunned by the depth of love in the room”. His reference to its “moral quality” really resonated for me, as did his phrase “repair the world” which reminded me of the Hebraic phrase “repair the world”/Tikkun Olam which involves acts of social justice, improving society, and restoring divine light in the world. It derives from rabbinic texts and prayers, rather than the Bible itself. The concept emphasises humanity’s role in creating a better, more just world through acts of kindness and service. 

With Midnight Mass just five hours away and this very challenging year limping across the finish line, this seems like the perfect time to focus on kindness and service, and goodness.

May 2026 be a year of goodness for us and our world…

4 of the best

This week I’m staying in S. Agata, on the coast about an hour south of Naples, and today I’m off to see for the first time Pompeii, so buried stuff is on my mind. It’s in the nature of a blog that stuff gets buried – this post is me resurrecting 4 of my favourite posts from this blog:

1 Starless and Bible Black

on titles, jazz, Dylan Thomas and Joyce’s Ulysses

2 What Is It Worth?

on Buffalo Springfield, Belsen and what’s of true value

3 Fear & Sex

a survey of the Daily Mail, anxiety and sex

4 In the beginning of the End (serpent mix)

a remix of The Doors’ The End and the first chapter of Genesis (the bible book not the band)

And on the subject of great songs, the soundtrack for today (fortunately it’s on the ol’ iPod) must be Siouxsie & the Banshees’ Cities in Dust – after all these years it’s going to come into its own:

“Water was running, children were running
We found you hiding, we found you lying
Your city lies in dust
Ohh oh your city lies in dust, my friend

Hot and burning in your nostrils
Pouring down your gaping mouth
Your molten bodies blanket of cinders
Caught in the throes

Ohh oh your city lies in dust, my friend
Ohh oh your city lies in dust, my friend”

Giving me excitations

What an exciting day! I get in to work this morning and this plops on the electronic doormat:

“Dear Adam,
I’m delighted to inform you that your entry ‘Big Art Mob‘ has been short-listed in the Community Engagement category of the inaugural MediaGuardian Innovation Awards. The shortlist will be formerly announced in MediaGuardian on 28 January and the winner at the awards ceremony and dinner on 6 March at Indigo2, O2, Greenwich. The debate at the judging day was lively and hard fought, so congratulations on reaching the shortlist stage of an event which we hope will become a benchmark for innovation in media in the UK.”

Next up a message from the fellas at LG15 that they’re coming a’visitin’.

Then a note from the boys at Preloaded that Picture This has 11.4% of its audience staying for over 30 minutes at a time and 4.7% over an hour.

Then the gorgeous Slugger O’Toole over in Beal Feirste points his dedicated audience in the direction of the excellent ‘3 Minute Wonder’ tomorrow night on Channel4 (at 19.55) complementing the Picture This series. It looks at the disappearance of the fortified RUC police stations in Northern Ireland. As someone who got married in Derry, I’ve a certain familiarity with these particular architectural fantasias. I remember sitting in a pub in Forkhill in South Armagh and admiring the painting on the wall of the locality from which the police station had already been disappeared, years before the Good Friday Agreement.

Finally a lovely young laydee comes up to introduce herself at the climax of the Cultural and Creative Leadership Mentoring Programme at the ICA (on which I have been mentoring Caroline Bottomley of the Radar Festival). Said laydee is none other than Zoe Margolis aka Abby Lee, the Girl with the One-track Mind, in the flesh.

Now that’s a good day by anyone’s standards.

But not as good as yesterday when I found out my mum’s cancer had not come back. Now there’s really good vibrations.