I posted an interview with Rebecca Solnit some months back and continue to be impressed and inspired by how well she manages to combine emotion and intelligence in her writing, a fine example of what I once termed a “hybrid imagination”. Here’s her latest piece in the Guardian:
Yes, indeed. While the bathroom in the apartment upstairs has been identified as the source of the leakage in the store the ceiling in our art-music-nature etc room has been fixed, dear Liza. Oh, and speaking of Liza, or actually Eliza, here’s a little history lesson about artificial intelligence for all you AI boycotters out there.
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Anyway, to celebrate that not just the hole in the ceiling but also the lights have been fixed Andy’s Corner will be open today from 2 to 5. Now that’s what I call loverly.
Finally! Antisocial media on trial. Could this be the start of something big?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/27/social-media-trial-meta-tiktok-youtube
On Martin Luther King Day let us remember that there once lived among us a man who was truly worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize, which has recently become an object of ridicule as the latest prize-winner has tried to give hers away to the conman-in-chief. I had the honor of seeing King speak at the March on Washington in August 1963 and, as the years have passed and the US has sunk lower and lower, I have often thought of that day and King’s speech as representing America at its best. Here he is accepting the prize in 1964, less than four years before he was killed at the age of 39.
Amidst all the nonsense and horror stories that fill the media and our heads these days I saw this inspiring piece in the Guardian about a garden of eden that really exists. I will definitely be visiting this place on one of my next trips to Spain. How about one of you out there arranging group tours?
Never a dull moment at Andy’s Corner! When I opened the shop after the holidays on January 2 one of the rooms was covered with water that had leaked through the ceiling from the apartment above. Luckily, there was almost no damage to the books below, but there is now a big hole in the ceiling where the water leaked through. It will be quite a while before the room is back to normal and in the meantime there are books that have been moved to a storage room that were once on the shelves. Just ask if there’s something you can’t find that used to be there. Sorry for the inconvenience. Anyway, it brings to mind that wonderful old song:
Now this is what I call annoying: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/11/google-ai-overviews-health-guardian-investigation
But there are alternatives. Check this out: Ecosia plants trees when you search the web! 🌳
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It’s been nearly eight years since the marvelous French oboeist Antoine Torunczyk visited the shop, but on February 6 he’ll be back – together with our beloved Bellevue String Quartet. Antoine will be in the area to perform with Concerto Copenhagen – among other places in Lund on February 5 – and he and the quartet have graciously squeezed a concert at the corner into their busy schedule.
In the meantime you might enjoy listening to Antoine and Concerto Copenhagen playing what they call the “new Brandenburg concertos” that Antoine has expanded from Bach’s organ sonatas into six new concertos and which they will be performing in Lund and at various places in Denmark (https://coco.dk).
At Andy’s Corner the program will consist of
Georg Druschetzky, Oboe and stringquartet, C-major
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jagdquartet
Johan Christian Bach, Oboequintet op11, No1
I have often wondered why so few, if any of our so-called leaders and/or opinion-makers do or say anything meaningful about the technologies that have recently emerged from the academic-industrial money-making machine that go under the alias of “artificial intelligence”. Like so many of the so-called innovations that so many people devote so much of their time, money and human intelligence to making and propagating, AI is a real problem-creator of astounding proportions and, as far as I can tell, of little real use in solving or even helping to solve any of the problems the people of the world already have. There are undoubtedly some potential benefits to be had from AI but, as with all “innovations” there needs to be a lot of active governance, that is, policy-making, rule-making and decision-making, if the benefits are to outweigh the problems or even be developed at all. We have already lost many of the positive benefits of the internet because we have left its development and use to the “market” – ie, greedy con-men – and it seems that much the same is the case with AI. So until there are meaningful forms of governance and regulation, how about joining me in a boycott and simply refuse to have anything to do with AI? Not so easy perhaps but as with antisocial media it is possible. For some motivation to join with me just click:
AndrewJamison