🚨I have a new website and am open for work from journalism to copywriting to commercial content - previously covered everything from workplace law to drill music to literary scenes.🚨
You can see what I've been up to & what I'd be good at for you, here: https://t.co/nu8lCU3CFy
Pleasure to be part of the journey for the brilliant first book by @MattColeWorks at @vocebooks - excoriating, educative and hopeful as he lays out how wage theft happens and how we might get past it. Everyone needs to read this book.
Backrooms is v much a cultural output of the lockdown generation, I think — it reminds me of Houellebecq saying right at the outset of covid that lockdown would be “both scary and boring.” In Feb 2020, global lockdown seemed beyond impossible; in April, it was mundane.
Pleasure to be part of the journey for the brilliant first book by @MattColeWorks at @vocebooks - excoriating, educative and hopeful as he lays out how wage theft happens and how we might get past it. Everyone needs to read this book.
it still strikes me as so horrible and upsetting that we live in a world where billions of adorable baby chicks are constantly being fed into machines that grind and shred them to pieces because they are not useful to us
I find it interesting how the degradation of good manners is so often centred around phone use.
We talk about protecting kids from smart phones but most adults frankly can’t handle them either.
Whether it’s filming strangers without consent (my absolute bugbear) or being anti-socially loud - these machines have messed with our brains & we need to talk about it.
NEWS: The Grade II listed Coventry Central Baths (1962-66), once described as ‘one of the finest swimming pools in the world’, is to be demolished by Coventry City Council after Steve Reed MP - Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government - formally approved the bulldozing of the building.
The Olympic-sized pool and adjoining leisure centre on Fairfax Street has sat empty since it was shut in February 2020 to save money. In his letter to the Council, dated 21 May, Reed explained Listed Building Consent has been granted, subject to work being carried out within three years, and archaeological investigations.
C20 Society and the Coventry Society strongly objected to the Council’s plans, arguing that there was insufficient justification for total demolition, that proposals to adaptively reuse the building had not been meaningfully explored, and the lack of any viable use - civic or otherwise - assigned to the site following demolition. The Society had requested application be referred to the Secretary of State for determination, as per section 5(b) of the Arrangements for Handling Heritage Applications. Historic England did not object to the proposals.
The Coventry Baths site had been marketed by the Council since February 2021 via agents Avison Young, on a leasehold basis and for the buildings in part or whole. Documents reveal the site was viewed by seven interested parties during that period, with two formal bids received - one for an artisanal food hall and conferencing space, and one for padel tennis.
The Council classified both bids as ‘unviable’ after ‘more detailed due diligence on refurbishment costs by the prospective purchaser/tenant’, however there was no indication of what the Council was willing to invest to help reactivate the publicly owned buildings. Given the the quoted annual costs of £400,000 for holding, security, and maintenance of the vacant buildings, tax-payers may well ask if demolition to create ‘an area of hard standing’ represents the best possible outcome.
Designed in 1956 by Coventry City Architect's Department, Coventry Baths is in a highly sensitive city centre location; adjacent the Grade I listed Cathedral of St Michael (1956-62), and within the Hill Top and Cathedral Conservation Area. The adjoining dry-sports Elephant building (1977) is to be retained and detached from the Baths; both were highlighted on C20’s Risk List in 2017.
Given the undoubted challenges presented by the current condition of the Baths and there being no prospect of aquatic activities returning, The Society would have welcomed a pragmatic approach to retain the radical W-shaped roof structure - described at its opening as “like a great garden-pavilion roof afloat above glass walls” - while creating a space for bold new uses beneath. What an opportunity missed to showcase a radical yet respectful reinvention of the city’s post-war heritage. Now, nothing but the later Elephant will survive.
➡️https://t.co/eWZdGkmUmP
My takeaway is a negative one: this tells me that Movies will soon learn the lesson of Music: they will no longer spend the time/money to DEVELOP new stars…they’ll shift that labor over to the creatives themselves, & only fund artists who’ve ALREADY created their own fanbases.
@Dr_Gavin_Brewis Just whacked heating on when last week I was trying to figure how to keep the gaff colder than a million degrees. Bet it's wild north of border.
Pleasure to be in the latest @VICE magazine reporting on AI. It looks fucking beaut.
Lovely to be alongside writers and documentarians I really respect.