One of the lucky ones

28.01.2025/01.34

The last time I had a proper birthday party—where you invite your friends—was pre-COVID. And my group of friends was, and is, eclectic. Individuals from all walks of life, many of whom are being authentic to themselves. In many cases, they are people who have looked at restrictions placed on them by society or norms […]

A tribute to Helen Baxter, 1973–2024

13.10.2024/11.44

[Originally published in Lucire] Not only did we lose Mandi Kingsbury last month, we lost a good friend of this magazine, and a dear personal friend, Helen Baxter, who tragically took her own life aged 51 on September 23. This is a reminder that physical changes to one’s health can manifest as depression, and to […]

Suspension might expose Mastodon’s following bugs

24.05.2023/11.18

Mastodon continues to be buggy, and it reminds me of the failures I have seen on other platforms. As detailed earlier, spammers hit Mastodon.social (and, eventually, others), causing admins to limit their own instances’ connections with it. Two, Mastodon.nz and Koletiva.social, went further and suspended the connections. Due to poor documentation, as far as I […]

Latest podcast; and both Twitter and Facebook appear to be down on IFTTT

04.04.2023/12.25

I had recorded an earlier podcast but deemed it too controversial; instead, here’s something I uploaded to Anchor last week on the day Paul O’Grady passed away. It’s a little tribute to him (and Lily Veronica Mae Savage). There’s a little bit about a racist builder, and I conclude with the Business Book Awards. No, […]

Autocade is about to turn 15

03.03.2023/12.16

Above: The 1966 Alfa Romeo Giulia, the most recent entry to Autocade. Next week, Autocade will turn 15. I don’t expect big editorials extolling its history, mainly because the site has not changed much in principle or appearance since it was first conceived in 2008. We did a single video under the Autocade name, […]

The expectation of invisibility

03.01.2023/02.27

I rewatched Princess of Chaos, the TV drama centred around my friend, Bevan Chuang. I’m proud to have stood by her at the time, because, well, that’s what you do for your friends. I’m not here to revisit any of the happenings that the TV movie deals with—Bevan says it brings her closure so that […]

Farewell, Sergei Mitrofanov

05.08.2022/12.19

Farewell, my dear friend Sergei. Taken far too soon. Sergei trying to corral us for a photograph in London in 2015. I’m pretty upset by this so rather than write a fresh tribute (which I will have to do in time in an official capacity), I’m going to quote from what I wrote […]

Here’s the latest book I worked on: Panos: My Life, My Odyssey out May 26

17.05.2022/10.31

[Originally posted in Lucire] Toward the end of next week, Panos Papadopoulos’s autobiography, Panos: My Life, My Odyssey, comes out in London, with an event in Stockholm following. This is an intimate memoir about Panos’s rise, from childhood poverty in Greece to the ‘king of swimwear’ in Scandinavia. Not only do I have an […]

Back, on the new box

28.03.2022/00.50

There are a few experiments going on here now that this blog is on the new server. Massive thanks to my friend who has been working tirelessly to get us on to the new box and into the 2020s. First, there’s a post counter, though as it’s freshly installed, it doesn’t show a true count. […]

Stanley Moss’s latest Global Brand Letter out now

10.01.2022/08.39

Finally, a happier post. For many years (since 2004), my dear friend Stanley Moss has been publishing his Global Brand Letter, which is not only a wonderful summary of the year (or the last half-year, since he often writes every six months) in branding, but an excellent record of the evolution of culture. He […]