It's All Experiments

In partnership with

Hello from out here on the Thames Delta. As you read this, I’m using tools to add a leather strap to a 1989 Swatch Metropolis, loading new music into the old Sony mp3 player that is somehow still going strong, boxing up old notebooks and rueing the day I bought a hundred quid’s worth of new plants just to see them all get dug up and destroyed by local animals. Every summer I start a new garden plan for next summer. It’s all experiments. We like experiments.

I once did a comic that I wrote an associated wiki for. All lost to the mists of time, of course. Some years later, a publisher and I were talking about a notion I had for a digital novel. Like a cellphone novel, but living in its own app, popping a new “chapter” or piece once every few days, and not necessarily ever ending. A story like a river. We referred to it as “the endless novel.” It never worked out, of course: it’s a mad idea, and I couldn’t land it creatively for several reasons, not least of which being that the throughline would be murder to sustain and digressions would be difficult to manage. Novel-as-river requires the ability to spring tributaries off.

So I’m sitting with my notebook on Monday night and realising that those two things should probably have been one thing. A “novel” - or more likely, a series — that lives like a digital garden, stories and asides and digressions and lore all managed by tags and categories.

Julian Simpson is already doing something similar to this with the Pleasant Green site, of course, and there are precedents like the SCP Wiki. Built on the open web, a sprawling map of a thing. Created on WordPress, Ghost, a wiki or even Obsidian. It’d require handling Stripe, which worries me. Not sure I could pull it off on Beehiiv, the tag system on the web page is iffy.

But! That would be an experiment, would it not?

Image by Johnny Greenteeth, found on his IG. He has a shop - t-shirts, posters and pins. I think we can all sympathise with this image. Which is sadly not on a t-shirt or poster or pin yet.

1. Always be smartly dressed, well groomed relaxed and friendly polite and in complete control.

2. Make the world to believe in you and to pay heavily for this privilege.

3. Never worry assess discuss or criticize but remain quiet respectful and calm.

4. The lord chisels still, so don’t leave your bench for long.

THE LAWS OF SCULPTORS, Gilbert and George

I discovered the Drehgriffel pen in January 2024. It’s inspired by Bauhaus design - metal case, and you twist the cap on the end to deploy the nib. I take out the ballpoint they usually come with and refit a gel refill, and it becomes my perfect pen. Proper weight, nice to hold, feels solid and real. You can find them at any decent stationers in your country - being in the UK, I use Cult Pens.

I have four of these now, in different colours. The first time I handled one, I just thought, I’ve found my pen.

MUBI is having a moment. Oscars and Golden Globes and all. A platform for indie art films that just got an additional hundred million dollars in financing and is now considered to be worth one billion dollars.

It’s the streaming service I use the most. Films can cycle in and out faster than I’d like, but it’s amazing for discovering new things. Like RETURN TO REASON, four experimental silent films made by Man Ray, scored by Jim Jarmusch’s band. That’s a hell of a thing to both preserve and provide access to.

Take a look at MUBI. With that funding and their taste, the next 18 months will be very interesting. Also, at the time of writing, they’re a few days away from putting all three seasons of TWIN PEAKS up. If you haven’t seen the third season, this is your actual appointment streaming.

(The only big downside is that I discover stuff on there and then buy it on blu-ray, because physical media is still better than streaming)

A message from our supporters:

Learn how to make AI work for you

AI won’t take your job, but a person using AI might. That’s why 1,000,000+ professionals read The Rundown AI – the free newsletter that keeps you updated on the latest AI news and teaches you how to use it in just 5 minutes a day.

Sign up to start learning.

This looks like a hell of a thing:

The list of interviewees on this show is a serious roll of seriously talented people.

Here’s a wonderful thing: a monthly radio show from Italy called 1971 by Paolo Ippoliti. He says:

And it’s actually amazing. Of the 28 pieces on the most recent edition, I’ve only heard of five of the artists, and the pieces themselves were all new to me.

I can’t find a podcast link for it.

GUITARSCAPES VOLUME 4 is Spotify-only, which meant I had to create a damn Spotify account to listen to it, but it’s some ragged-edged guitar pieces from Kevin Mellon that stagger between late prog and early post-rock, feeling constantly on the edge of collapse the deeper into it you get.

Same day I saw that, I read this article about Four Tet’s endless playlist on Spotify

Thanks for all the photos of your watches, by the way. Turns out this list is full of watch people, and I had fun looking at the various beautiful, old, rugged and plain weird watches you all own.

If you’re making or doing something that you’d like to bring to a wider audience, hit reply. Let’s share the new things and weave the web a little tighter.

Now: THE DEPARTMENT OF MIDNIGHT audio drama podcast, DESOLATION JONES: THE BIOHZARD EDITION, THE STORMWATCH COMPENDIUM. 2025: FELL: FERAL CITY new printing, THE AUTHORITY Compact Edition, the LIGHTS OUT Anthology.

GOT MORE TIME?

LTD

I keep a digital writer’s notebook and you’re invited to read over my shoulder.

Morning Computer: a few useful things first thing in my day

Nine Bells: evening notes

HOB’S LANE: new this week, parts 16-20

Notes on the new Jesse Armstrong film MOUNTAINHEAD

This letter has been zapped to you via Beehiiv and is sponsored by:

The portfolio that's automatically up to date with your work.

• Authory saves you hours with a portfolio that's always up to date.

• Get backups of all your articles.

• Be ready to impress potential clients and employers, anytime.

Get your free portfolio today

And that’s everything on my desk this week. Take care of yourself, because no other fucker will. See you next week, I hope.

W