Six Things, Volume 90

Sit | Hit | Bite | Look | Eat | Night

Thing 1 – Sit

The ‘sitting or standing’ debate was resurrected a few weeks ago by the publication of a study. Standing desks bad! Sitting also bad! Solution: don’t work!

In my usual facetious, flippant and facile way, I proposed an alternative.

Typically, and far more constructively, The Pudding took the subject and made something interesting out of it.

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Thing 2 – Hit

As one whose ‘day job’ (mostly practised in the evenings) involves listening closely to music, I enjoyed this very much. It’s an elegant demonstration of the effect of a space’s acoustics on the listening experience.

There’s an equally enjoyable version for singers, just so they don’t feel left out.

This, on the other hand, isn’t elegant, and exactly what it’s a demonstration of I’m not quite sure. Coordination, perhaps. And shouting. But it is nevertheless, in its own way, mesmerising.

While I’m on drums, allow me to recommend the noodlings of Ensemble Bash – magnificent purveyors of quality hitting for several decades now, and recently arrived on Substack.

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Thing 3 – Bite

A thing of beauty is this edible flowers alphabet by Jack Hughes (who is also responsible for the wonderful colour clock as featured in Volume 35).

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Thing 4 – Look

And while we’re on beauty, these aerial photographs by Tom Hegen are stunning, and a fine example of how to engage people with environmental issues without using a sledgehammer.

Of the dozens of collections on his site I’m particularly taken by the tree crowns, the olive fields and the sand dunes.

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Thing 5 – Eat

The capacity for infinite pains is a fine thing. Childish glee also. When you combine the two, magical things can happen.

Wonderful, then, to know that there’s a new Wallace & Gromit in the offing.

It’s on British telly on Christmas Day, and then on Netflix in the New Year. A thing made with massive love and patience.

Also combining the c. for i. p. with a healthy dose of c. g. is Joseph Herscher, maker of Joseph’s Machines – solving everyday problems using familiar objects in unfamiliar ways.

These contraptions are of course magnificently silly, and all the better for it. As Kurt Vonnegut said, “We are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you any different.” (I’m thinking of making this the Six Things strapline.)

Joseph, a master fart-arounder, is very lazy. So lazy that he’s devoted a large chunk of his life to designing and making machines whose sole purpose is to feed him while he doesn’t move a muscle. This utterly ridiculous “make-and-feed-me-a-sandwich” contraption, for example.

His latest project is an attempt to reproduce one of the great movie food scenes.

It’s going… OK.

You can watch Joseph’s video diary here.

The Wallace & Gromit Breakfast Machine - VIDEO DIARY #2

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Thing 6 – Night

For those of us in London, the good news is that 12th December was the date of earliest sunset (we ignore anyone pointing out that sunrise will also get later until 30th December – as long as you keep your curtains closed until 8.00 in the morning it will seem as if the hours of daylight are getting longer.)

Your experience varies, of course, depending on where you live. I like these visualisations by Krisztina Szucs of night length around the world.