The BBC has asked me to make some predictions about the coming year, something I’m always loath to do because I seem to get it wrong. Anyway, here are my notes. They’re based in part on my own bath-time musings, and partly inspired by the thoughts of others. 1999 just took longer than we thought,… Read More »
I don’t know whether to be delighted or depressed, but it seems many of my musical heroes are now writing music for computers. And it’s emerging as something of an art form in itself. Robert Fripp, for example, is doing the music for the Windows Vista startup sound, as part of an 18 month project,… Read More »
Another day, another launch. Thanks to everyone who came last night to the book launch. I’m not actually sure how many book launches one is allowed, but that’s our second in Indonesia (a few photos are here; more to come. Please send me any you have from either Jakarta or Ubud). We hope to do… Read More »
Are the days of the wet hand over? A few months ago I wrote in the WSJ about the Mitsubishi Jet Towel (subscription only; I did a version of the piece for the BBC World Service which you can download as a podcast here), which has been drying hands effectively around Asia for some time, now… Read More »
Perhaps it exists already, in which case please let me know why everyone doesn’t have one. But as I was listening to a guy answering his cellphone earlier today in a Beijing coffee shop and then, as everyone seems to do, automatically raising his voice to a shout, I thought: Why don’t I shoot him… Read More »