blakeyfrench.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

What fascinates me about the late Jack Vettriano is his skill in presenting distillations of that which fascinates most people most - also that his images now strike me as being AI art ‘avant la lettre’:

submitted 1 hour ago • 1 comment

Two images ... 250 years apart... this is the tree the Resolution used as their gangway in Pickersgill Harbour in Dusky Sound NZ in March & April 1773. Time portal to George Forster #research

submitted 23 hours ago • 0 comments

Dark days .. call for Nana:

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

Beam me back to … the resting place of Hermann Hesse in Gentilino, Ticino (August 2023):

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

I don't know what this creature is but am 100% certain "Stayin' Alive" plays as he walks

submitted 7 days ago • 12 comments

We need as much of this - heartfelt and unsparing admonishment from Elders - as we can muster; a first video from @timothysnyder.bsky.social … pls keep on going:

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It is the wanton cruelty, paraded and revelled in by abusers of power, that so sickens me; watching America wilt in Spring:

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This US govt. even manages to get me on the same political page as my elderly mother (in England) - first thing she said to me tonight: “I’m so angry! Did you see what they did today, in the White House. It was absolutely vile and disgraceful.” Yes, it was.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

From the Mayor of Amsterdam: “All media that describe this as ' quarrel', 'a shouting match' etc. give Zelensky responsibility for the unimaginably embarrassing treatment he had. Here sat an honourable person opposite the worst bullies in the schoolyard. Terrible.” [original auto-translated]

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Meanwhile, here in Amsterdam: nltimes.nl/2025/02/28/a...

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In shame, the Jacobin calendar ‘day of the hare’ passed me by a fortnight ago; better late … etc.

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James Baldwin: His wardrobe was a form of code-switching, a sartorial dialect he adapted to navigate different worlds….a man who dressed as thoughtfully as he wrote—always intentional, always eloquent. www.pbs.org/wnet/america...

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Seems that relishing a bit of sassy belting has yet to be outlawed; at least on Friday nights; Dakota Staton’s version of Cry Me A River sends any louse running for cover:

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Let’s call it Spring, they’re taking down the ice rink; in other news … the ‘American dream’, in Europe, melts like frost:

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Feeling overwhelmed … ‘time for me to retreat, a while, and grapple with Proust ‘in the French’ :

submitted 13 days ago • 3 comments

👇 looks lively, upcoming programme of ‘folklore’ events @britishacademy.bsky.social (some live-streamed): www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/seasons/folk...

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Early oligarchs (such as the oil-garchs) peddled stuff that kept us warm, housed and fed - but, in late modernity, the power of the very richest few stems from invites to a digital circus - that we can choose to shun:

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Now playing: ‘The Merciful Road’ from The Brothers Gillespie … who enchanted us this week, live at Mezrab (A’dam):

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Feels like -4° outside; put some warmth on inside:

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

👇 we are so plastified:

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👇 @radiolento.bsky.social for every season, there is a soundscape; I need a windy tree-topped hill:

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Canals are freezing & magpies hunting for nest-worthy twigs; seems the world keeps on turning … for today:

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

“You took advantage of a world that loved you well … a town that has already been burnt down … I'm so tired of you, America.” (Rufus Wainwright)

submitted 30 days ago • 1 comment

All this talk of AI reminds me of that early moment in primary school, when you mix all the lovely colours together, to make the best ever painting … but just get shitty sludge:

submitted 34 days ago • 2 comments

Quote-posting justifications #13 - use of the word ‘arborous’:

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

‘Nipkern’ - (n.) an extremely stingy person, someone who’d only nibble at the edge of a nut; not a word from dictionaries, but mother still has the Cumbrian - sharing so as not to lose:

submitted 35 days ago • 1 comment

A sobering long-read, from Peter Yates: ‘… this coming famine, will be the decisive moment when the old story of human exceptionalism, productivism and separation collapses along with the competitive, consumerist societies it has spawned.’ open.substack.com/pub/towardse...

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

‘here’s wishing Ireland, after that storm battering, a calm & restful night:

submitted 38 days ago • 1 comment

Keys found embedded in jam sandwich. Apologies.

submitted 40 days ago • 13 comments

At least there’s still jazz:

submitted 40 days ago • 1 comment

It’s impossible, by now, not to have seen ‘that salute’ … we need to shun it, not share it - my response is mute/block; just tapping my sign here:

submitted 40 days ago • 1 comment

I prefer not to … what’s up?.. no more WhatsApp; I still have some trust left - that Spring will do its thing, for example:

submitted 41 days ago • 0 comments

I prefer not to … bye-bye Google Maps; instead I’m with Chet - ‘let’s get lost’:

submitted 42 days ago • 1 comment

I prefer not to … so my Instagram is now deleted; instead, let’s just play ‘spot the huge heron sneak- watching TV’:

submitted 44 days ago • 4 comments

Slept rather badly, upset about the passing of David Lynch - brought back what a teenage blessing it was to encounter Eraserhead …(… just adding a strange image, because you can):

submitted 46 days ago • 0 comments

“We dream of a journey through the universe. But is the universe then not in us? We do not know the depths of our spirit. Inward goes the secret path. Eternity with its worlds, the past and future, is in us or nowhere.” — Novalis

submitted 46 days ago • 0 comments

We really need to listen to the actuaries who have an intimate understanding of risk management as we face the expanding #ClimateCrisis Do this ASAP: 1. Read Planetary Solvency actuaries.org.uk/document-lib... 2. Then listen to @racheldonald.bsky.social’s excellent interview with Sandy Trust

submitted 46 days ago • 2 comments

Blue Monday 2025, it’s so beyond me - I haven’t a clue what it’s all about anymore … but perhaps a web-footed satyr playing the accordion might have some clues to share?

submitted 49 days ago • 1 comment

This is how late-capitalism ends, not with a bang … but an absence of insurance coverage:

submitted 49 days ago • 3 comments