Andrew Mitchell
@chaconato.bsky.social
🇺🇳 🏳️🌈 classical music audience member since 1976, insufficiently gay, greenish-socialist, CPTSD survivor #InsertTibetanFlag
Always amused that by closing at 19.00 hours a pharmacy in Islington can officially call itself “late night”.
December 18, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Always amused that by closing at 19.00 hours a pharmacy in Islington can officially call itself “late night”.
Life imitating art (as it should): had a Tintin/Haddock sticky tape moment at the bus stop with an empty small square brown paper bag. (ps please note correct adjective sequence).
December 17, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Life imitating art (as it should): had a Tintin/Haddock sticky tape moment at the bus stop with an empty small square brown paper bag. (ps please note correct adjective sequence).
I doubt I’m the only person who actually likes graffiti. I thought my street was going down the drain (three separate young men seen carrying sets of golf clubs, this month alone), but then some huge white letters on a brick wall appeared overnight creatively insulting a notorious far-right racist.
December 17, 2025 at 12:04 PM
I doubt I’m the only person who actually likes graffiti. I thought my street was going down the drain (three separate young men seen carrying sets of golf clubs, this month alone), but then some huge white letters on a brick wall appeared overnight creatively insulting a notorious far-right racist.
Reposted by Andrew Mitchell
If the grotesque clowns who cling to well paid jobs at @artscouncilengland.bsky.social try to put a positive spin on today's excoriating review, they'll deserve all the effluent that gets spat at them.
"...unclear as to how and why decisions were taken in the last round to cut the English National Opera and the touring grants for the Welsh National Opera and Glyndebourne at the same time. It is difficult to understand how careful consideration of all the relevant factors was given."
#LetsCremate
#LetsCremate
"We are heartened to read of the “overwhelming” backing for the principles - of excellence and access - that underpin our strategy, Let’s Create." Um, I think ACE may have read the report having left their specs at home...
December 16, 2025 at 6:24 PM
If the grotesque clowns who cling to well paid jobs at @artscouncilengland.bsky.social try to put a positive spin on today's excoriating review, they'll deserve all the effluent that gets spat at them.
Punch&Judy Frankfurt Opera: dramatic experience, photos here don’t show the excitement of staging’s transverse split truck with four mini-sets raised above arena. Hugely complex action which singers carried out tirelessly. Minor reservation was the reverb, Birtwistle’s dry wit became a lyrical mush.
December 16, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Punch&Judy Frankfurt Opera: dramatic experience, photos here don’t show the excitement of staging’s transverse split truck with four mini-sets raised above arena. Hugely complex action which singers carried out tirelessly. Minor reservation was the reverb, Birtwistle’s dry wit became a lyrical mush.
The worry is that the same DCMS civil servants who have drawn up smug and complacent briefings for their arts ministers during the past decade will also be the one responding to the review.
December 16, 2025 at 4:29 PM
The worry is that the same DCMS civil servants who have drawn up smug and complacent briefings for their arts ministers during the past decade will also be the one responding to the review.
And before long recent illness break, I had sent several Freedom of Information requests to DCMS: all were sidestepped/ dismissed. Instead they fobbed me off with patronising, ideological slogans entirely unconnected with reality. Won’t be forgiving the culture team of civil servants at DCMS, ever.
December 16, 2025 at 4:00 PM
And before long recent illness break, I had sent several Freedom of Information requests to DCMS: all were sidestepped/ dismissed. Instead they fobbed me off with patronising, ideological slogans entirely unconnected with reality. Won’t be forgiving the culture team of civil servants at DCMS, ever.
Will never forget a senior ACE music person describing a performance of a 220-year-old work in an utterly unsuitable acoustic as “the type of innovation ACE should be funding”.
December 16, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Will never forget a senior ACE music person describing a performance of a 220-year-old work in an utterly unsuitable acoustic as “the type of innovation ACE should be funding”.
Reposted by Andrew Mitchell
Hodge report pretty brutal on Let's Create
December 16, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Hodge report pretty brutal on Let's Create
Arms length began in wake of 1930s totalitarian censorship, also to protect/prevent ministers taking sides when Beecham/others squabbled over ££. But, AL depended on civil servants/council who had a shared understanding of the value of arts above faddish ideology; not true for DCMS/ACE staff today.
Arts Council England (ACE) must “rigorously uphold” its arm’s length status and resist politicisation, a review into the funding body has found.
ACE must resist politicisation and overhaul systems, Hodge review finds - Arts Professional
Arts Council England (ACE) must "rigorously uphold" its arm's length status and resist politicisation, a review into the funding body has found.
www.artsprofessional.co.uk
December 16, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Arms length began in wake of 1930s totalitarian censorship, also to protect/prevent ministers taking sides when Beecham/others squabbled over ££. But, AL depended on civil servants/council who had a shared understanding of the value of arts above faddish ideology; not true for DCMS/ACE staff today.
Reposted by Andrew Mitchell
"...unclear as to how and why decisions were taken in the last round to cut the English National Opera and the touring grants for the Welsh National Opera and Glyndebourne at the same time. It is difficult to understand how careful consideration of all the relevant factors was given."
#LetsCremate
#LetsCremate
"We are heartened to read of the “overwhelming” backing for the principles - of excellence and access - that underpin our strategy, Let’s Create." Um, I think ACE may have read the report having left their specs at home...
Boom! "The Arts Council should replace Let's Create"
www.gov.uk/government/p...
www.gov.uk/government/p...
December 16, 2025 at 3:13 PM
"...unclear as to how and why decisions were taken in the last round to cut the English National Opera and the touring grants for the Welsh National Opera and Glyndebourne at the same time. It is difficult to understand how careful consideration of all the relevant factors was given."
#LetsCremate
#LetsCremate
Hooray, Hooray, Let’s Create has had its day
Such a shame on DCMS and ACE that they have destroyed so much in the name of fake creativity.
Such a shame on DCMS and ACE that they have destroyed so much in the name of fake creativity.
December 16, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Hooray, Hooray, Let’s Create has had its day
Such a shame on DCMS and ACE that they have destroyed so much in the name of fake creativity.
Such a shame on DCMS and ACE that they have destroyed so much in the name of fake creativity.
“After you”, “No, after you”…. Böcklin’s The Honeymoon (c. 1876). Hope my own honeymoon in Svalbard will be less ambiguous.
December 14, 2025 at 2:21 PM
“After you”, “No, after you”…. Böcklin’s The Honeymoon (c. 1876). Hope my own honeymoon in Svalbard will be less ambiguous.
Beckmann at the Städel: useful chronological overview. Opinion - his skills in drawing were far superior to his painting technique.
December 14, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Beckmann at the Städel: useful chronological overview. Opinion - his skills in drawing were far superior to his painting technique.
Hindemith’s A2 drawing book, illustrating his travels in 1924 and showing the Kuhhirtenturm in Frankfurt where he lived from 1923-1927.
December 14, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Hindemith’s A2 drawing book, illustrating his travels in 1924 and showing the Kuhhirtenturm in Frankfurt where he lived from 1923-1927.
Sunday in Frankfurt am Main means one thing* - the Tower of the Cow Herders is open!
(* for those interested in major-but-forgotten twentieth century composers)
(* for those interested in major-but-forgotten twentieth century composers)
December 14, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Sunday in Frankfurt am Main means one thing* - the Tower of the Cow Herders is open!
(* for those interested in major-but-forgotten twentieth century composers)
(* for those interested in major-but-forgotten twentieth century composers)
The petrogenic Clyfford Still cheers up your Sunday morning with ‘Untitled’ (1948-1949).
December 14, 2025 at 9:37 AM
The petrogenic Clyfford Still cheers up your Sunday morning with ‘Untitled’ (1948-1949).
A wonderfully perceptive review by @fionahmaddocks.bsky.social of Copson and Leith’s superb music drama about isolation and emotional inadequacies. The music is breathtaking, the drama disturbing. Really deserves to be seen. observer.co.uk/music/classi...
The Kurt Cobain opera is hallucinogenic | The Observer
observer.co.uk
December 14, 2025 at 8:38 AM
A wonderfully perceptive review by @fionahmaddocks.bsky.social of Copson and Leith’s superb music drama about isolation and emotional inadequacies. The music is breathtaking, the drama disturbing. Really deserves to be seen. observer.co.uk/music/classi...
Hotel pillows softer than whipped cream, do you all have detachable heads? At home I use two bricks wrapped in a towel.
December 14, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Hotel pillows softer than whipped cream, do you all have detachable heads? At home I use two bricks wrapped in a towel.
An evening in after a queer few days (Sargent, Cadmus, Toyen, von Hofmann, Philpot, Cage, et al). Listening to some acceptable Hindemith. classical.music.apple.com/gb/album/691...
Hindemith: Kammermusik 1-7 by Claudio Abbado — Apple Music Classical
Listen to Hindemith: Kammermusik 1-7 by Claudio Abbado. 2007. 31 tracks. 2 hours, 29 minutes.
classical.music.apple.com
December 13, 2025 at 7:42 PM
An evening in after a queer few days (Sargent, Cadmus, Toyen, von Hofmann, Philpot, Cage, et al). Listening to some acceptable Hindemith. classical.music.apple.com/gb/album/691...
Another day, another audio-visual art/music/dance exhibition. The huge (and sprawled out) Five Friends at Museum Ludwig documenting the intertwined aesthetic revolutions and sex lives of Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, Twombly during the 1950s and 1960s.
December 13, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Another day, another audio-visual art/music/dance exhibition. The huge (and sprawled out) Five Friends at Museum Ludwig documenting the intertwined aesthetic revolutions and sex lives of Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, Twombly during the 1950s and 1960s.
Listening to Cage’s The Perilous Night (played Benjamin Kobler) ahead of exhibition Fünf Freunde - Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, Twombly at Museum Ludwig.
classical.music.apple.com/gb/album/177...
classical.music.apple.com/gb/album/177...
Cage: The Perilous Night - EP by Benjamin Kobler — Apple Music Classical
Listen to Cage: The Perilous Night - EP by Benjamin Kobler. 2024. 1 tracks. 14 minutes.
classical.music.apple.com
December 13, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Listening to Cage’s The Perilous Night (played Benjamin Kobler) ahead of exhibition Fünf Freunde - Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, Twombly at Museum Ludwig.
classical.music.apple.com/gb/album/177...
classical.music.apple.com/gb/album/177...
Connecting with my (historic) people.
December 13, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Connecting with my (historic) people.
Loud, long ovations at Frankfurt Opera’s last night of Die ersten Menschen, the erotic mystery by Borngräber/Stephan. Deliciously sick and sensual, as the best operas can be.
December 13, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Loud, long ovations at Frankfurt Opera’s last night of Die ersten Menschen, the erotic mystery by Borngräber/Stephan. Deliciously sick and sensual, as the best operas can be.
Hope tonight answers the question, “When Adam delved and Eve span, who then procreated their grandchildren?”
December 12, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Hope tonight answers the question, “When Adam delved and Eve span, who then procreated their grandchildren?”