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In Our Time Loses Melvyn Bragg

I woke a bit early this morning, and as one does when not quite ready to get up and embrace the day, I talked to the lady in the can to play an episode of In Our Time. The episode was preempted with a notification that Melvyn Bragg had retired so there would be an episode from the catalog.

I had completely missed that Bragg had retired on September 3rd. He was doing a lot of wonderful interviews the last few years that I’ve really enjoyed. As I had read them I was impressed how he just kept going and going with In Our Time. Bragg presided over and lead discussion and inquiry into each week’s subject for more than 1,000 episodes.

I got hooked on Bragg and his good interviewing method on The Southbank Show (it was broadcast on Bravo not long after each episode came out). I was pleased to find he had a radio show (In Our Time) and finally sorted out how to listen somewhere between 2001 and 2003, but listening wasn’t easy to do on a regular nor consistent basis.

In Our Time has been an utter gem of an offering as its half hour to hour of in depth and intelligent conversation around a specific subject. Bragg would bring in three academics (usually) with deep expertise on the subject having solid in depth conversations about the subject, while keeping the depth of the discussion to a level it is accessible to non-academic audiences.

I always learned something from each episode I listened to and they give me a better foothold to learn more. I also often look into who the people were that were part of the discussion for deeper dives into their works.

I feel a great sense of gratitude to Melvyn Bragg for all the enjoyment, discovery, and learning his leading In Our Time has brought me. There have been times where I will listen and have no idea what the subject is nor fits into anything I remotely know and in 30 minutes to an hour I have a relatively decent foothold to explore more, it not a solid understanding. I know of little else out like this.

I hope the BBC keeps In Our Time going as it is a real treasure. It won’t be the same without Melvyn Bragg, but it would a complete shame to lose something of this great quality and capability to provide a wonderful way to learn as a great value to civilization.

If you are new to In Our Time the BBC site is a good place to start, as is Braggoscope by Matt Webb who has built a great way to navigate all the episodes of In Out Time.

Second Person Bird Carnival

Sophia took on the September 2025 IndieWeb Carnival with the topic second person birds. I had some different takes, but settled into one…

Growing up on the US West Coast there were two birds I knew of birds that I had never seen, thanks to sports teams. Cardinals and Orioles are the two that stood out. We had robins, scrub jays, woodpeckers, and a multitude of other birds, but there were no orioles nor cardinals.

Moving east for grad school I saw my first oriole, which I found was more rare than I figured. But, cardinals are more abundant.

A few years back I found the Merlin Bird ID app and its ability to recognize bird songs. I hear many different bird calls and songs regularly. During the pandemic lockdown there became even more birds signing and calling out. Merlin helped me find out what my favorite discernible songs were. One I regularly heard and enjoyed, particularly in the morning on walks is the cardinal.

As we started coming out of lockdown I took my son to a workout with his trainer. The training sessions were outside and to fit in to the outside environment he asked, not what music, but what bird song he should play on the speakers. My son didn’t have any idea and he looked to me and I knew exactly what I would want another (second person) to play, the cardinal bird song (go ahead and go listen).

Getting the summary Complexity Lenses - An Overview Out

I finally got a “simple” overview post out and posted today to my Personal InfoCloud site - Complexity Lenses – An Overview – Personal InfoCloud.

This post isn’t really long. It is a short version of a few elevator pitches about my Complexity Lenses / Social Lenses. Today there are more than 90 Lenses (actually just shy of 100) and each have elements that are beneath them and many elements have components under them. My full outline in Outlining Software For Pros - OmniOutliner - The Omni Group has more than 1,500 nodes between the parents (lenses) and children combined.

Getting this boiled down to a few paragraphs is a bit of a chore, to get at a high level explanation why the Complexity Lenses are used to tease apart complex environments to see more clearly through the fog of complexity (and even help make a dent to find something to hold onto in times of chaos). Every attempt to tease this out and whittle it down turned into something I didn’t like. These also turned into something more dense than I wanted.

Breaking it down to sentences

Today I looked at the task item for the Overview on my list and then clicked to look at the current state of the draft (or more like multiple drafts) and decided to take a different route. I took the core sentences and put them into a box in an Obsidian Canvas and honed each sentence a bit. I had about 10 sentences and moved the boxes around to get an order. I put lines between the sentence boxes that would be a paragraph.

I then looked at what I had and started asking the editor’s questions: “What are the Lenses”; “What is the value to people using them”; and down the line was “What is the background”. I didn’t have the first answer to the first question at the top. This helped change my structure, which helped keep things relatively tight (for me). I then realized I had a gap in the middle around what are traits of people who use the Lenses and have success with them look like, so I pulled that in.

I had a set piece around “seeing through the fog of complexity” that often helps start the Complexity Lens portion of a talk, so I added that in. The final paragraph became a mixture of other summarizations I’ve used across the years and edited that down.

Wrapping it and Posting

With this in Obsidian Canvas I copied each sentence back into my draft and wiped the initial variations of drafts I had been trying to bludgeon for months. I did a quick read through and another light edit. Then I moved it into Personal InfoCloud and posted it.

I’m may tweak it a little in coming weeks. But, this post will likely be pinned to the top on the Personal InfoCloud, so I can regularly refer to it. This referring and pointing capability is something I haven’t been able to do and I’m happy to have it now.

Swan Song's AR Design and Creation

I have a serious soft spot for the movie Swan Song (which stars Mahershala Ali and Glenn Close that is set in the near future in the Pacific Northwest. I was a fan of its soft and deep thought invoking exploration of life and replication, but also its near future view of technology. While others have been excited by the Minority Report’s manic augmented reality (AR) interface, the design and use of near future AR as part of work and personal life was really good. To say I was fascinated, may be putting it lightly. Swan Song (2021 Benjamin Cleary film) - Wikipedia was released in 2021 and Apple had yet to have announce Apple Vision Pro with its visionOS and really good graphics and workable interface. The visual and interaction design of what the main character (Cameron) worked in was incredibly good. Once Apple Vision Pro was out it felt like Cameron’s interfaces and interactions were part of the future road map.

The Design Studio Behind the Digital Interfaces and Interaction Design

Being that Swan Song movie was part of Apple Studios - Wikipedia I was believing Apple had a part in the creation of the user interfaces and interaction design of the AR in the movie. But, poking around in Vimeo I stumbled on the design reel for Swan Song - Territory Studio, so I finally found the studio that created the AR and digital design elements in the film.

Territory Studio’s Design Overview

Territory Studio’s page for the high level design overview of what they created for Swan Song is really good. I had been feeling like Swan Song’s design and AR team were more closely tied to Apple as their AR interaction design is very much like Apple’s sensibilities, with a more muted palette from a calm future. A lot of things that are in Apple Vision Pro’s user interface and interaction design patterns seem to have been hinted at, if not felt like they were previewed in Swan Song. But, I’m not so sure of the connection or how specious it may be.

The Territory Studio page has highlights of their visual / virtual design language, personal UIs, home office AR, AR home gaming, speculative hardware, smart watch UIs, and virtual mimoji. I really would love an even deeper dive, as this is much of the virtual interactive world I’ve been waiting for, and been hoping to see come to life for years prior to the film.

There is a whole lot in Swan Song that I loved from the time it was released, which was a couple years or so ahead of Apple Vision Pro being released. The headset-less AR and interaction design is one piece. But, I also was deeply taken by the whole story, cinematography, and feelings the film evoked, but also the keep thinking and consideration it evoked.

Swan Song Demo Video from Territory Studio

The show real from Territory’s work on Swan Song is in Vimeo: Swan Song Breakdown Reel - Vimeo

James’ Gravity Button

Thinking about James’ gravity button, which I find to be fun.

It was in part was inspired by my gravity story about the time I was working in San Francisco and the bottom of a file box I was carrying gave out. Rather than picking up the files and papers, I turned to my desk and picked up the phone and called the property management office for our office to ask them to, “Turn down the gravity as it seems a bit too strong.” I then went and picked up the files and papers and put them back in the box, which I had reinforced the bottom with packing tape.

Gravity could (/ should?) be a controllable element much like a thermostat does with temperature. Right?

August IndieWeb Movie Club Intro for Local Hero

I volunteered for the IndieWeb Movie Club - IndieWeb August 2025 slot as it was open with months following booked. I selected the 1983 film Local Hero (1983) — The Movie Database (TMDB) (PG–13), which has an ensemble cast of American actors and British and Scottish actors. It an interesting cross cultural set piece where a mid-tier executive from an American oil company gets sent to a small rural coastal town in Scotland.

There are some well known actors of the time and currently (with Peter Capaldi, who played one of the regenerations of Dr. Who). The film being more than 40 years old has held up relatively well with its humor, coziness, and charm. There are an abundance of themes to sink into, which also adds to the entertainment of watching and discussing the film.

Personally I’ve watched this movie a lot (between 15 to 20 times) and most watchings I’m still seeing something new that adds to the humor or understanding of the film. There are few wasted lines that don’t have a pay off later, either directly or subtilely. But, on a first watching it can hold its own just fine, even though it has been a long time since my first watching.

How to Participate in the IndieWeb Movie Club

To participate in the Movie Club, write a post about your thoughts on Local Hero and post it on your site by the end of the August 2025. Once you have it posted you may give me the link to your post in a few different ways: Email me, or send a note in the IndieWeb chat, or mention me (vanderwal) on mastodon.social or Bluesky.

I will take the IndieWeb inputs and provide a round-up at the end of August.

On the IndieWeb Movie Club - IndieWeb you can see past Movie Club monthly movies and the introductions and round-ups.

Local Related Resources

• Local Hero (1983) — The Movie Database (TMDB)
• Local Hero (film) - Wikipedia
• Local Hero (1983) - IMDb
• Local Hero - TheTVDB.com

Where to Watch

In the US Local Hero is listed on Tubi - Watch Local Hero (1983) - Free Movies | Tubi.

There are other options to watch for free, rent, or purchase:
- Local Hero - Just Watch

I hope you choose to participate and I look forward to your posts about Local Hero

IndieWeb Carnival - Totems

This is following the prompt - IndieWeb Carnival July 2025: Totems | Maxwell’s Realm, as set by Maxwell Joslyn. All interpretations of totems have come to mind from things I’ve kept in my pockets, a Swatch watch on my belt loop from high school through much of college, my dad’s watch, to a regular cap. But, growing up in the Pacific Northwest the idea that comes to mind when someone says “totem” are the native tribes of the Pacific Northwest’s totem poles and art.

As a young child living in the Seattle area and Portland there were not only totem poles around, but a lot of Totem poles - (Wikipedia) around and I enjoyed them and if we were traveling and there were totem poles around, we needed to go see them. I picked up a couple replicas for my book shelves as a kid and had them for a long time (I swore I still had them). But, it was not just the poles, it was Northwest Coast art - (Wikipedia) that also drew me in.

We would take regular trips each year to Vancouver, British Columbia, which meant even more totem poles and art. Stanley Park had is large totem pole, which we needed to visit, but as I found or more we needed to go see those as well. I could stand and look at them for a long time, but my parents didn’t have the same interest in staring at them and walking around them.

Once my family moved to Portland, Oregon the opportunities weren’t as prevalent to see the totem poles, but the art was all around. In my perspective the best thing about Portland was being close to Lelooska Foundation & Cultural Center – Living History Museum. Going to see Chief Lelooska and the Cultural Center for school trip and cub scout trips, and any other opportunity, was a perfect time in my book. Going to the long house celebrations with the stories and dancing, which came with explanations were fantastic.

This art and gathering called out the local salmon, ravens, hawks, orcas, and more in celebration and made each of them seem even more special. The sometimes world around you that can get overlooked by the day to day (even for kids) gets pulled into pure focus.

The Triplets of Bellville for IndieWeb Movie Club

This month’s IndieWeb Movie Club selection is The Triplets of Bellville that kicked off with Mark Sutherland’s introduction - IndieWeb Movie Club July 2025 - Triplets of Bellville - Mark Sutherland. For background:

• Letterboxd: (https://letterboxd.com/film/the-triplets-of-belleville/)
• IMDB: (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286244/)
• TMDB: The Triplets of Belleville (2003) — The Movie Database (TMDB)
• TVDB: (https://www.thetvdb.com/movies/the-triplets-of-belleville)
• Wikipedia: (https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triplets_of_Belleville)

A First Take of Triplets

I knew very little about The Triplets of Belleville going into the movie. I had watched the trailer and rented it. I knew it was a French animation movie with a connection to cycling and the Tour de France, but that is all I had going in.

A very short review would be: This is a modern French animation silent-ish movie that has a storyline akin to a fever dream. It was like watching Brazil with a different storyline, genre, and milieu, but French animation.

A Second Take of Triplets

As I was watching the first 10 to 15 minutes I would think I has a foundation for, “Oh, this is what the film is going to be”, but there seemed to be five or six potential paths. Throughout, what really stood out was the animation in a semi-sketch and water color with sepia tones and grays. Some animated films lean toward clean comfortable aesthetics with a illustrated tilt at reality, but not Triplets as its leans more to the surreal and exaggerated caricatures that would be quite believably done by the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of Honoré Daumier. The somewhat rough environmental sketches set the atmospherics for a story of a boy and his grandmother in just above squalid conditions. This is clearly not a Disney movie, but the dog (a main character) would fit nicely in a draft quality of Aristocats (but, oh Triplets is not going anywhere near Disney type conventions as a movie and that is incredibly clear in the opening moments).

The film starts with us watching the screen that the character is watching, but that isn’t fully clear at first. But, this theme of looking in through eyes watching something created to be watched reoccurs and has layers. There are solid threads of commentary on “watching cultures” that are heavily invested in entertainment, no mater the human cost. The animated time transitions are sometimes rough and like many other twists and jags of plots and themes. But, the absurdity and unexpected twists are a part of charm and fun. Everything has quirks that could be annoying in reality, but are endearing in this framing.

To say this is a cycling film, which is what Triplets seems to start out as, is like saying Die Hard is a work place drama. The young man on a bike and his grandmother training him from trike with a pulsating whistle, along with very rudimentary and Rube Goldberg contraption devices for training and recovery, with cycling posters, and hints at Le Tour de France around their home would set the stage for a quaint rags to riches American cycling heroics movie. But, this isn’t American, it is French (you know the country with Sartre, surrealism, and existentialism) and this film leans into the surreal and the absurd in interesting (you know, the good kind of interesting) ways.

The rags to riches cycling animated film at Le Tour, takes a strong zig with a sinister plot, that comes to fruition, around a kidnapping of cyclists. The young man is taken by the mob / mafia along with two others. This is now a absurdist crime thriller. But, the creators of Triplets are playing with a deck of cards with six or seven suits and each suit as different cards from the other suits. This is all done wonderfully.

The grandmother and her dog go chasing the amazingly surreal ship to a different and unknown land with a city. It takes a while for this to settle and sort out what has happened to her grandson. They are so near, and yet so far. It is about halfway through before the Triplets themselves become apparent. But, how all of this fits together or comes together isn’t clear. There are more zigs, zags, and jags that are all perfectly enjoyable in unusual ways.

One of the Triplets goes frog fishing with grenades, because, of course. But, beyond this it starts getting into odd spoilers. With no words we watch as the grandmother is taken in by the Triplets with her dog and run through a myriad of odd house rules.

There is an ending to this film that is rather reminiscent of Brazil, which may be a nod, or strongly pointing. But, there is a layering of screens and being watched and observed that echoes in Triplets. What is real and perceived or watched is a lingering theme. A map to Hollywood and tour guide that is uncovered a long the way are more than a hint that this is one of the social commentary threads to hold onto.

The dark characters of the mob / mafia are comically draw and large boxy figures, that adhere to each other and things. There are many characters and animations that are purely comical and absurd in wonderful ways. Most of the prominent eyes are behind glasses, other than the cyclists (it may take a rewatch to sort this out, but it started to be noticeable).

The Third Take of Triplets is a Wrap

The Triplets of Belleville has the feeling of a film with a lot of layers, like one of my favorites to rewatch, Local Hero where the first watching or two you realize there are a lot of layers and things going on to watch for. I have a feeling I may watch this again, at least once, and discover more.

This was a gem of a movie and one heck of a fever dream. I’m thankful Mark Sutherland selected it for the IndieWeb Movie Club - IndieWeb watch for July.

Gutting Book Basics

I continually think I have written about gutting books in the past, but have only mentioned it and alluded to it. When I bring it up I often get asked about and want to point to my explanation, as there are few resources elsewhere (there is one that surfaced in 2009 from Naomi Standen guiding her students How to gut a book).

My Background with Gutting Books

I took my last semester / term of undergrad in England in the tutorial system. I ran into “gutting books” in a lecture in the naught week leading into the term at the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Oxford where it was pointed out that the tutorials with papers to be written each week, there would be more reading than there would be time. For each tutorial there would be required reading and ancillary reading that could be 800 to 1200 pages a week, for one tutorial. Many of us had more than one tutorial, so learning to gut books would be a very helpful practices.

Most tutorials are aimed at the student answering a question about a subject to fill in their gap of knowledge through teaching yourself and showing your understanding and the paper you write is the means to express that knowledge had been acquired. You then read the paper to the tutor and work through anything you many have missed and the paper may be marked by the tutor in more detail.

Gutting a Book

There are essential readings that need to be read closely, but if you are familiar with the subject you shouldn’t read what you know, but approach it looking for something new and / or contradictory to what you know and focus on that.

Then approach the related readings by focussing on what is relevant and what you don’t know. Using the table of contents and the index to get to the parts of a book you should or need to read is the primary focus. This can cut down a 500 page book into 40 to 90 pages or reading. Also focus on the book’s preface or introduction and skim the beginning of each of the chapters to get better context.

Pulling notes out of the readings and using multiple bookmarks to reference as you take notes, so you can do back and verify the passages as your are structuring your paper or writing.

Key Concepts

The key concepts are:

• Don’t read what you already know, but skim it looking for nuance and counter arguments or information that you may disagree with
• Use the table of content and index to focus your reading
• Read the preface and introductions (if there are any) as well as skim the beginnings of other chapters to look for shifts in context
• Read the chapter conclusions and look for changes in context, focus, and shifts in polarity (going form a great thinker to the conclusion alluding to the person being a hack or plagiarist – sort of shift, but also more nuanced)
• Find areas where you need to read more closely for better understanding

Naomi Standen’s Book Gutting Guide

For the last 15 years or so when somebody asked about where they could find out about gutting a books I would point them to Naomi Standen’s class guide for gutting books - How to gut a book. This has basically been the only resource that I’ve found that is the same practice as what I learned many years prior. I am a bit surprised that this page is still around and available and I’m deeply thankful that it is.

Naomi has a conclusion that I really appreciate:

My Writing Process with Obsidian

A few times lately my writing process has come up as it relies heavily on markdown for portability, longevity access, flexibility, and using the Shift Happened – Part 2: Small Apps Loosely Joined – Personal InfoCloud. The Small Apps Loosely Joined concept is something I use heavily for many things, but for writing the use of markdown I use the concept quite heavily.

Recently in a IndieWeb gathering, James who runs and writes James’ Coffee Blog shared his process and workflow for writing through to posting on his site, which was similar to my own process, but uses different tools along the way. He had something in his process he was looking to improve upon so I walked through my process.

My Process has Morphed Over the Years

My current writing process is an extension and evolution from my initial processes that trace back to college. But, it was in the late 1990s and early 2000s that my current process formed iterated upon. My early writing for blog posts and articles all start in markdown, which years back was well structured text and sometimes HTML for the structure.

My notes prior to formal blogging (started at the tail end of 2000) that I posted to my site were all hand coded HTML (or raw coding). If a note was going to turn into a blog post it quickly was marked up, and often as I was making the note or post.

Automate Early

One of the core elements I learned in the 1990s was to automate early for anything you can automate, use the tools you have at hand to help yourself be more productive. Most of my writing up through around 2010 was text and then quickly turned into HTML markup, as it is simple to do. But, the tough part is connecting related content, which is why I created my personal content management system (CMS) to run this vanderwal.net blog in 2000 and fully put it to use in 2001 (I used Blogger for a bit early on). Taking rote patterns and automating them was a great addition to help my process in 2000 to now.

In 2010 I shifted all of my note taking to markdown as moving across apps and devices made using other note making methods difficult to access and use. This shift to full markdown for notes, helped my writing move from notes to posts and articles much easier.

Markdown Workflow Process

Today and the last 5 years my notes start most often in Obsidian (and on mobile in Drafts, which is great for the good practice of get it out of your head and then sort out what to do with it). I have many notes flagged as “blogfodder” and track those through the writing process and moving them from a stub of an idea, to draft, not posted but ready, and posted (which includes a link to where it was posted). I’ll have another post about my new blogfodder process, which I’m really liking.

The writing starts as a note and gets fleshed out, if it is needed. If it is a short item I may stay in Obsidian and then grab and drag the markdown file in the Finder to the next step (I will get to this shortly).

Quite often I will leave Obsidian and from it click to open the Finder with the markdown file highlighted and then open that file in iA Writer - iA Writer, which is a nice focussed writing app for markdown, with additional capabilities. I often use the old journalism marker for needs attention (tk!) or “to correct” for things that need links, fact checks, or reference notes. Once I’m happy with the writing and structure in iA Writer (or Obsidian) I move to the next step.

Move to Prep for Posting

In years past I would take the markdown and quickly take the markdown structure and convert it to HTML markup by hand. Around 2013 or so I started scripting this transition, but the script was fussy. I’m not sure when, but it wasn’t long after this, I ran across Marked 2 - Marked 2. I think I started using Marked to convert markdown to PDFs and Word documents (for things that need to be sent out for formal article transformation in publications from Word). But, I realized Marked 2 had really good markdown to HTML conversion that was as good as my script, but not fussy. As I moved to Obsidian with properties in front matter and a footer with blogfodder tracking, it can remove all of that with ease, translate external links very nicely, and remove all backlink notation.

It is often in Marked 2 that I find markdown problems or the tk! marks. Marked 2 also includes some light grammar checking, which I appreciate and I’ll work through those suggestions. Then I flip to the HTML markup view and make edits, if needed, there.

Open My Blog Entry Form

Once I’m happy enough with the post I open my blog entry for for vanderwal.net or Personal InfoCloud and paste the HMTL into the form for the body of the post. On vanderwal.net I add in the title, location, type of post (these days everything is a weblog, but in the past it was more diverse), then select the related categories and submit it. Then I just to look at the post and review it again. If it needs an edit (up until July 5th) I would go into the database and make edits to the post there, but now have an edit process in my CMS (after 25 years, I figured it was about time). Once that is done, I go click to generate the RSS feed for the site, and send out alerts to services that share out links and summaries farther.

Wrap-up of the Workflow

This workflow is now done, except for seeing spelling errors or things not right and needing tweaks.

The process that starts in a markdown note, then progresses through to a more formal writing process and flow. I replaced a lot of manual steps that I didn’t think were difficult nor took a lot of time and automated the steps that do exactly what I had been doing with the same level of care, but saving time and reducing errors.

I don’t use AI in any of this writing process. I run across too much AI written content that is lifeless and doesn’t sound like the writer any longer. I’ve stopped reading many colleagues who used to have great ideas and a great personal voice, but are now just bland slop through the use of AI that tilts at, but doesn’t achieve mediocrity.

I have my own quirks and writing patterns, which I am fine with. I don’t write to impress, but to get honest ideas and understandings out. I blog and write to find connection with others of like or similar minds.