mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Gentleman Graphic Designer/Artist who wears many hats. Shoegazer, Birder and over-eater of eggs. Rivers of London is my comfort blanket.
Works on Troika music podcast, and The Supernatural Detective’s Field Guide in his spare time.
Work hard and be nice to people.
This is what I want Apple to do next. The current Liquid Glass doesn’t ‘elevate your content’ as they claim, it pushes it to the background.
Just learnt that when you take a window screenshot in MacOS (the ol' Cmd + Shift + 4 then spacebar), if you hold option down before selecting the window, it takes it without the shadow.
Just seen a man talking his barbecue for a walk - in this heat do try and walk your barbecues earlier in the day as the hot pavements are bad for their feet
Anti Far-right march, London 28th March.
Our “youngest” is 23 today. Crikey!
It’s also Leigh and I’s 28th wedding anniversary. Double crikey!!
Yesterday, Paul McCartney announced a new album “The Boys of Dungeon Lane”, named after where he played as a kid.
In a brilliant piece of marketing, he’s inserted himself into Street View using a child actor, stealing the street sign and running off with it!
Stars of the Lid Forever gains another new concert! This video, recorded in Reykjavik in 2017 turned out be their last ever performance, so I was over the moon when fan John Romero came forward with footage.
https://starsofthelidforever.com/shows/harpa-reykjavik-iceland
“…help nervous exhaustion and general feelings of annoyance”
My older brother (on the right) just sent me this photo of us, taken in Victoria Park, Leamington Spa in the early 70s. The way he’s dressed, it could be now, or any time over the last 50 years. The way I’m dressed, I was going to say no, but on second thoughts.
My hair shone always like a curly beacon of energy though, so there’s that.
A whimsy I made for our sons’ birthday
Trying out the beta of Qobuz desktop, lots of nice improvements in there ("order albums by release date” yes!!) but a lot of new UI. Toggle switches everywhere, and I'm basically going to have to start again from scratch with my CSS theme
Which is a bit like the feeling of ‘I know! I’ll redesign my site!”.
The Qobuz Beta for desktop brings with it some big changes, so I've rebuilt my alternative theme to take these into account.
The most prominent change is that Favourites, Playlists, Downloads and Purchases are now combined into one ‘Library’ tab. This features a sidebar that’s not present in the Discover and Magazine views, which means my theme can no longer support a global sidebar.
https://hicks.design/journal/qobuz-theme-v1-2-for-qobuz-beta
OMG I FOUND IT. Literally by scrolling through my music library in release date order. I can get my life back now.
It's the part from 2:58:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8n1GOEWLcg
Back on my music app criteria shtick again - in Tahoe 26.4, Apple Music has gained a (kind of) immersive view. Could be bigger tho.
Looking forward to this! Telly needs a good birding show! 🤗
https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/news/sam-and-ade-go-birding
Wife used “find my phone” to get my attention in Covent Garden. Nice that you get an email notification too
If by any chance you’re using my custom Qobuz theme, I’ve just posted the latest version to my site. For some reason my brain needs to see a sidebar in order for it to feel like an app, so a sidebar it has got!
Last night, Leigh and I got to see Tyler Ramsey (ex Band of Horses) at Oxford’s Jericho Tavern:
https://hicks.design/journal/tyler-ramsey-at-the-jericho-tavern
On this day, 30 years ago, Stars of the Lid visited NYC's Other Music. The 21-minute performance was taped and I’m pleased to say this bit of SOTL history is now available to watch in full on the Stars of the Lid Forever website: https://starsofthelidforever.com/shows/other-music-nyc
My March in music, courtesy of @albumstheapp@indieapps.space
Blackwater Holylight’s ‘Not Here Not Gone’ got a lot of plays in this month…
Listening to the new (and debut) Deary album ‘Birding’ on the Bandcamp listening party, and it’s definitely going to feature highly on the end of year list. Absolutely sublime!! 😍
Saw Alan Titchmarsh at Whichford Pottery today, but didn’t get the chance to say hello.
I just finished Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. I question the logic of having an introduction by another author that spoils THAT ending.
I’m just going to be playing this on repeat all day, apart from a short break when I go and pick up my vinyl version from TRUCK music.
Great Bruce Cockburn/Kim Gordon juxtaposition
