profile image - pencil sketch of a man with grey hair and beard seated next to a small table. The man is reading a book and there is a glass of red wine on the table A twitter of inconsequent vitality
Ian Mason | @thedimpause

the dim pause

Now listening: Any Woman’s Blues - Bessie Smith

Playlist:

🔗 Jackie Kay on Bessie Smith 📚🎵

🏷 Photography 🏷 Books 🏷 Links 🏷 Music | 📆

🔗 Some thoughts on International Women’s Day

Speaking truth to the power of the patriarchy is unimaginably difficult, even as I live a life of relative privilege. In the past, I’ve experienced deep levels of discomfort at writing one small truth because there’s the worry that I’ll be branded a troublemaker, a man hater, a difficult woman to work with. All of which heightens my respect for those women across global history who’ve had to fight like lions for the barest modicum of political and/or cultural change.

🏷 Links 🏷 Poetry 🏷 Politics | 📆

Currently reading: Bessie Smith by Jackie Kay 📚

🏷 Books | 📆

🔗 The Long Wait

Implement a genuine progress index in place of GDP

At the moment, every attempt to create a greener and fairer country is hampered by the way we measure progress. So my third big policy is to dethrone our use of GDP as a general indicator of how well we are doing, and replace it with more appropriate measures.

🏷 Links | 📆

🔗 Outrage Farming

Sunak leads a government that has introduced the most draconian anti-protest laws in our democratic history. These laws are deployed exclusively against official enemies: environmental campaigners, republicans, feminists, Muslims. If you belong to one of these groups and you block a road, you might go to prison. If you are a farmer and you block a road, the prime minister might join you.

The protest the prime minister attended displayed the banners of No Farmers, No Food, a group convened by a notorious conspiracy theorist, James Melville.

🏷 Links | 📆

Microbrewery 🍺

A sunny outdoor scene with a black pickup truck parked in front of a modern building with large windows and an outdoor seating area. There are multiple metal beer kegs stacked on the ground near the vehicle and around the patio. A clear blue sky with fluffy clouds

🏷 Photography 🏷 Beer | 📆

Lunch at the Bunch of Grapes, Pontypridd 🍺

A pub interior with wooden tables and chairs, a half-full glass of beer on a table, and a book titled Bessie Smith by Jackie Kay. A bar with taps and bottles in the background, and a coat draped over a chair.

🏷 Photography 🏷 Beer | 📆
Sharper, 2023 - ★★★½

Watched on Monday March 4, 2024.

🏷 FilmTV | 📆
The Hunger Games, 2012 - ★★★½

Watched on Sunday March 3, 2024.

🏷 FilmTV | 📆

🎵 My Top weekly artists as logged by last.fm:

Nadine Shah (16 plays)
Brittany Howard (12)
Portishead (12)
Christy Moore (10)
The Passions (10)

🏷 Music | 📆
Shop window

🏷 Photography 🏷 Glass Photo | 📆

Location check in 🗺 — Hay Distillery, sampling gins

Google satellite map showing location pin

🔎 Zoom in

🏷 Location | 📆

Staying at The Old Black Lion, Hay-on-Wye. They do excellent Wye Valley Smokery kippers for breakfast.

An old white-painted building with signage for The Old Black Lion inn, featuring lanterns, stone accents, and a person standing at the entrance. A sign indicates the inn offers food, drinks, and accommodations. A dimly lit room featuring a traditional wooden loft with a ladder, a bed on the lower level, antique furniture including a dresser with a mirror, and a wicker trunk at the foot of the bed. Light filters in through a window A breakfast table with two kipper fillets garnished with herbs on a plate, accompanied by a French press with coffee, orange juice, and another plate with fried eggs, spinach, and beans in the background.

🏷 Photography 🏷 Coffee | 📆

Starter

A table with gourmet dishes and wine glasses; in the foreground, a plate with breaded appetizers garnished with green leaves, sprinkled with paprika; in the background, two glasses of red wine, another dish with colorful food

Main course

A nearly empty speckled dinner plate with remnants of food and a pair of crossed utensils on it, resting on a wooden table, surrounded by a half-empty wine glass, water glasses, and a wine bottle

Dessert

A cheese platter with various cheese types, grapes, crackers, honey, and pickled items, accompanied by glasses of port and dessert wine. A person is dining in the background.

(I got distracted midway 😊)

🏷 Photography | 📆

Captain on deck 🫡

A life-size cardboard cutout of a Star Trek character stands at the entrance of a bookstore with rows of bookshelves filled with various books. A cardboard cutout of a character in a red and black Starfleet uniform from Star Trek inside a bookstore with a woman carrying books walking in the background.

(A little upset that AI alt text generator didn’t recognise Kirk or Picard 😆🖖)

🏷 Photography | 📆
Follow me via Micro.blog, email, RSS or on Telegram | More links at ianmason.me


Tinylytics Webring
← IndieWeb Webring →

Want to help support this site? Buy me an espresso 👇 or take a look at my ebooks 📕

Buy me a coffee

👀