Ian Robinson’s Weekly Digest – 25th April 2021
Another weekly digest post has arrived! There are 11 items in this week’s, plus 10 pointers to new music that I found in the last week.
Use this link to view: https://shrtm.nu/oQHx
Ian Robinson’s Weekly Digest – 18th April 2021
A short post this week. With just three items, one film, and pointers to six music releases that I liked.
Ian Robinson’s Weekly Digest 12th April 2021
Another weekly post with things that caught my eye in the last week that I think are worth sharing. I’ve moved back to Revue from HEY World for these weekly posts. The editor is just better for what I’m doing. Plus, if you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know how bullish I am on Twitter generally and Revue is now part of the Twitter family.
I still love HEY for email. But I’m a staunch believer in using the right tool for each job. And Revue is a newsletter tool first and foremost.
This week’s post has 8 items, and also 8 new music pointers. Read more at:
https://www.getrevue.co/profile/ianrobinson/issues/ian-robinson-s-weekly-digest-12th-april-2021-539785
https://www.getrevue.co/profile/ianrobinson/issues/ian-robinson-s-weekly-digest-12th-april-2021-539785
Ian Robinson’s Weekly Digest 4th April 2021
Here’s my latest Weekly Digest with pointers to things that have caught my eye in the last week. It has nine items, including pointers to three new music releases. I’ve switched back to Twitter Revue for these weekly posts.
Ian Robinson’s Weekly Digest 28th March 2021
The latest Weekly Digest with pointers to things that have caught my eye has been published. A few days late! It has eleven items, including three new music releases.
https://world.hey.com/ianrobinson/ian-robinson-s-weekly-digest-28th-march-2021-a708a276
Another Spring Reboot
I hit 92 Kg on the scales again last week. I feel sluggish in all areas when that happens. So I’m rebooting my life (dramatic or what?) this morning. Back on several wagons that have been gathering moss for a few weeks or more. Healthy eating (and less eating overall), more walking and exercise bike use, more studying for things that I need to have mastered before I die, and lots more writing. Both for paid technical clients and for my own pleasure in the fiction and non-fiction spaces.
Ian Robinson’s Weekly Digest 21st March 2021
My latest Weekly Digest on things that have caught my eye in the last seven days. Ten items, including two films, a brilliant streaming series, a musical drama, two music pointers, a few science items, and a cybersecurity article.
https://world.hey.com/ianrobinson/ian-robinson-s-weekly-digest-21st-march-2021-39f5254e
Ian Robinson’s Weekly Digest 14th March 2021
This week’s post has seven items plus one awful film, one good film, and five new music pointers! The music pointers now have both Apple Music and Spotify links.
https://world.hey.com/ianrobinson/ian-robinson-s-weekly-digest-14th-march-2021-d09dfa28
Ian Robinson’s Weekly Digest 7th March 2021
Now on HEY World. My Weekly Digest with pointers and commentary on things that have caught my eye in the last week. This week’s post has four items plus six new music pointers! An some of those music finds are song of the year contenders 😊
https://world.hey.com/ianrobinson/ian-robinson-s-weekly-digest-7th-march-2021-9e677954
Ending a 40-year relationship…
I ended a 40-year relationship this week. It was a relationship that started in my teens, and over the years it made me laugh, taught me a lot, and on several occasions, made me mad! But circumstances change, and it was time to end it and move on.
I’m talking about my subscription to New Scientist magazine. It was announced this week that the DMGT group was buying New Scientist. The DMGT group is Daily Mail and General Trust, which owns and controls the vile Daily Mail.
Of course, the usual assurances have been given about editorial independence. But do you know what? I don’t care if nothing changes at New Scientist as a result of this takeover. I refuse to give the £260 a year the subscription costs to anything owned by the DMGT group.
So, after 40 years. My relationship with New Scientist is over.
Ian Robinson’s Weekly Digest – 26th February 2021
Hot off the press: “Ian Robinson’s Weekly Digest – 26th February 2021”. This week’s issue has 8 items, plus a list of the books I’m currently reading. No new films or music pointers this week! (Apart from two embedded playlists in one item.
Dickinson Season 2
I binge-watched Season 2 of Dickinson this week. The finale was released today. Both seasons are so good. It takes the 19th-century source material and imbibes it with 21st-century themes. I realise now that the themes from the 1850s are much the same as today. If you haven’t seen it, then I can highly recommend it. It’s worth the cost of an AppleTV+ subscription on its own. Looking forward to Season 3!
There is an excellent interview-based article with Alena Smith, the show-runner of Dickinson, in the latest issue of The New Yorker.
The show inspired me to read some of Emily Dickinson’s poems. I bought a copy of The Folio Society’s Selected Poems last year when watching Season 1 and started reading it this week. I’ve never really been into poetry. And that’s still the case! I’m about a third of the way through the selection in the book. So far only the only one that’s grabbed me is this one about the exultation of going to sea (and other things, no doubt). Still, even if the poems don’t speak to me, they obviously speak to Alena Smith, and they inspired her to create the TV show. And that’s great news for all of us who get to watch.
It also inspired me to buy a Stephen Fry book on how to write poetry. Something that passed me by in school. I can’t recall if that’s my fault or the fault of my school. I suspect the former as my school was excellent.
The music that peppers each episode is fantastic. This article in Rolling Stone discusses how the tracks are chosen. If you are on Apple Music, there is a playlist with the songs from Season 1 and another for Season 2.
Starting a Weekly Digest Newsletter
I’m starting a Weekly Digest newsletter tomorrow. The first issue is ready to go. This is a reboot of an idea I had in the middle of last year, but it petered out at the start of August. I’ve decided to start doing it again, but this time as a Twitter Revue email newsletter as well as the blog post. Email newsletters are the new hot thing. What goes around comes around! The blog version will be posted on my site (with RSS feed available), Medium, and LinkedIn. That might change when I see where people are reading it – if anywhere!
I plan to publish a new edition every Saturday. That’s a guarantee – there will only be one email on the Revue Newsletter feed each week. I won’t be spamming anyone who subscribes with loads of emails.
Each issue will have links and comments (where appropriate) on the things I’ve found interesting in the previous week. The content will be drawn from across news & current affairs, science, technology, any music, films, books I’ve discovered, and more topics that will be included when they pass in front of my radar and I think they are worth including. This first issue has a section of some COVID-19 articles that are worth reading. Hopefully at some point this year there will be no need for that section!. There will also be occasional longer opinion pieces that I will use to talk about subjects in more detail. When I think they are worthwhile.
Hopefully, this Weekly Digest will be useful to some people. It’ll be helpful for me as a way of marshalling my thoughts on topics, as I discovered when doing the blog only version in 2020.
Sign up here.
Favourite Books from 2020
I read 25 books in 2020. Here are my favourites. In no particular order.
Favourite Podcasts from 2020
Here are the podcasts that I enjoyed the most in 2020.
Favourite Tracks From 2020
There was a lot of good music released in 2020. The Apple Music playlist embedded below has a list of my favourite 20. I was going to cut it down to a top 10. But it was too hard. So it is a top 20!
Favourite Films from 2020
The pandemic scuppered One Film Per Week in 2020. It was on track until the 29th of February when I saw Pixar’s Onward in the cinema. It was the 11th film I’d seen in a cinema in 2020. Then I did a personal lockdown before it was official. I wasn’t back in the cinema until the 29th of August to see TENET. My final 20202 cinema trip was on the 14th of September to see The Broken Hearts Gallery. Making a total of 13 films seen in the cinema during 2020. Hopefully, vaccination will allow 2021 cinema-going to get back to normal.
From the 13 films seen I’ve picked a top 5 for the year. I think that these 5 would have been on, or very close to a top 10 list.
2020 Walking Stats
I took 1,937,711 steps in 2020. This equated to 1,086 miles walked in total. Surprisingly these figures were very similar to the 2019 totals. The 2020 data is presented in chart and table forms below.
Jolyon Maugham QC on Covid cronyism
The work that The Good Law Project is doing to hold the UK Government to account is fantastic stuff. It’s well worth reading this piece published in The Observer about its founder and public face, Jolyon Maugham.
The return of American fascism
Fascinating article by Sarah Churchwell in The New Statesman on the history of American dalliances with fascism in art and in reality. Some excepts below. But read the whole thing. Its a marvellous piece of writing.