→ A tough start to this week. First, we learned that the brilliant Mimi Parker had died. Low mean a lot to me. The album The Great Destroyer especially is very important to me for a whole host of reasons (the song ‘When I Go deaf’ was very nearly the first dance at my wedding) and every time I saw Low live they were nothing short of incredible. Mimi’s voice was exquisite.
→ The next day, it was announced that the comic book artist Kevin O’Neill had died. 2000AD was a massive part of my childhood, and A.B.C. Warriors, and Nemesis the Warlock were these fantastical, sometimes-terrifying, always-fascinating stories that stayed with me long past my teenage years. I bought collections of both A.B.C. Warriors, and Nemesis the Warlock in recent years to relive that joy and to wallow in O’Neill’s strangely beautiful imagination again. I wasn’t disapppointed. Don’t even get me started on League of Extraordinary Gentlemen!
→ Some interesting things I’ve read this week:
This in the Verge by Nilay Patel is the most concise and pithy description of the challenge facing Elon Musk, I.e. it’s a people/political problem, not a software/tech problem.
What Moneyball-for-Everything Has Done to American Culture In the Atlantic is about the algorithimification of culture. It’s a little doom-mongerY, but makes some good points.
→ Listening to: