@xlorentzen @WomackPhilip The Odyssey - I think that’s where this thread starts
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Tim Coates
8.1K posts
Tim Coates
@coates_tim
Tim Coates, former ceo, Waterstones, is a consultant in publishing and library industries in the US and Europe. He is the author of 'The Freckle Report 2021'
Katılım Mayıs 2014
335 Takip Edilen363 Takipçiler
@musicandroots I don't think they do Wagner - - I might be wrong - but I think you aren't understanding my point. For Italians opera is part of their lives. Never mind.
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@coates_tim Wagner supposedly said that the perfect Ring existed only in his mind. I run up against the same dramatic limitations when I *watch* any opera that he did for his. Wonderful music, coherent stories (mostly). Too many dramatic vicissitudes.
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For me opera as a concept asks a lot and only delivers musically and narratively. It isn’t convincing as theater. I don’t feel a great deal of difference between it and oratorio.
rfbogardus@rfbogardus
@musicandroots @bencobley @rbo_org Singing also—yes. Opera must be the most difficult art to present. One of my favorite novels happens to be on Opera making: Robertson Davies’s “The Lyre of Orpheus.”
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@musicandroots I don't think you quite understand what I'm saying - but if not, go to Italy and see. Just enjoy it.
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@coates_tim I enjoy the heck out of opera. Just not especially as drama.
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@musicandroots I don't know which country you are in - but we can all learn from how Italians enjoy their opera - and they really do. I don't think they would say 'I can always watch a movie' - they understand the difference.
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@coates_tim I’d rather just focus on the music I guess. I can always watch a movie…
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In some areas of social life we encourage addiction, isolation and the seduction of powerful influence
I am thinking of most religions, many political parties, careers, most sports... and reading
I'm only saying that this debate about 'social media' needs to much more specific
Tim Coates@coates_tim
This is a very bad thing I am about to say. 'Reading (books) is, for me, an addiction. I use them to escape from reality and from other people. I can't stop myself. I am seduced by the industry of authors. It doesn't matter what they convey. I'll take anything - night and day.'
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This is a very bad thing I am about to say. 'Reading (books) is, for me, an addiction. I use them to escape from reality and from other people. I can't stop myself. I am seduced by the industry of authors. It doesn't matter what they convey. I'll take anything - night and day.'
Fred Thomas MP@FredThomasUK
Bold intervention from Wes, thought I would share: “Social media should be treated like tobacco – it’s extremely addictive, bad for our health, and big tech is borrowing the big tobacco playbook to avoid regulation. We’ve got to give our children their childhood back.” theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/m…
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@paul_jkrause Not at all ! It is one of my very favourite poems - I read it in the Longfellow translation - it’s so very beautiful.
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@coates_tim Ah, sorry. I took it the rhetorical question as an attack on Art as Storytelling. A lot of people think that, sadly. I often have to combat this in the classroom.
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The mirror of Francesca and Paolo is a warning to Dante of what could have been, what can be, and what is also a reality for many. Art leads to mimesis in life and that can lead us to heaven or hell. Choose wisely. Don't fool yourself about love and lust. Especially as Artist.
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@paul_jkrause All I meant was that the story of Paolo and Francesca is of them reading a book.
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@coates_tim Literature is Art. Stories are Art. Not controversial.
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@MichaelLCrick “In the Kingdom” - do you think there might be spouses in other countries who would just have let it pass ?
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Nicola Sturgeon can't just run away. She says she had "no knowledge or suspicion" her husband was using SNP funds for "personal purposes". Where did she think the money came from then? Did she never ask? Any other spouse in the kindgom would surely have asked.
Hannah Brown@HannahMargBrown
Nicola Sturgeon says she was “deceived” and “let down” by her “former husband” Peter Murrell which has caused her “acute pain”, in a statement. She reiterates in her statement she had “no knowledge or suspicion” that he was using SNP funds for personal purposes.
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@CultureExploreX Too much of the telling of history is about 'kings, battles and towers' - and about Emperors and generals. So much of it is about - for example - engineers and surveyors, draftsmen and builders, sailors and carpenters.
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An Anglo-Saxon mortar-mixer was found at Bamburgh Castle. At first, that sounds like a small detail.
But it changes how we see the castle.
Bamburgh was a royal center of Northumbria between the sixth and ninth centuries. This mortar-mixer shows that people here were building with stone and lime long before the later medieval castle took shape. It was likely worked by an animal walking in circles, mixing the material that held buildings together.
We remember castles for kings, battles, and towers.
But Bamburgh also reminds us of the builders.
Power needed hands, tools, animals, and mortar before it ever became a wall.
Culture Explorer@CultureExploreX
Bamburgh Castle is more than 1,400 years old, and it looks ready for war. Before England existed, this place was already a seat of kings and a symbol of who controlled the North Sea coast. Today, we build glass boxes that can't last one lifetime.
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@Yorkshire_Life Some brass band music - if anyone wants to play...
Goathland youtube.com/watch?v=glTRx0…
Grosmont youtube.com/watch?v=ZAtUUP…
Whitby youtube.com/watch?v=jumZ4K…
Pickering youtube.com/watch?v=cT-3H8…
The Moors and the Sea youtube.com/watch?v=3xRtMW…
6 Christmas Carols youtube.com/watch?v=NdQ1C5…
YouTube
YouTube
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North Yorkshire country home with acres of land on the market at £1.45m. ift.tt/uIbPpqw
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@paul_jkrause If anyone contemplates writing a book (as they do); it is, on the one hand, a personal challenge, like solving a large homemade crossword. That's private. But then the would-be author has to face 'literature' - which is the reality that the whole thing has been done already.
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Literature is an expression of human nature. Understanding literature requires understanding human nature. That's a lot. It's tough. It requires deep thought. It requires a lot of things to be aware of. But if you approach it with that breadth of requirements, it's very awesome.
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@antlerboy I agree that there is a problem - but I don’t agree with the report’s view about what the problem is and I don’t agree with the solutions it offers
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The challenges and changing landscape of public library collections buff.ly/6zrkAEO
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@GeorgyKantor @amwilson_opera Georgy - of course there are also 'problems at the publisher end' - and at the bank, too, I should think. But if you are going to criticise and cite 'problems' on here, I think it's fair to suggest that you engage with them properly. If I could help you I would.
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@coates_tim @amwilson_opera I don't think that's on offer, unfortunately - and some of the problems are at the publishers' end, too. I'd rather not comment any further on here, but while I agree with you in principle, there are genuine practical difficulties.
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This strikes me as incorrect. Yes of course Oxford has the big Blackwell's and a Waterstones (less good since moving), plus Daunts in Summertown, but it doesn't really have any independent bookshops of substance. Bath is FAR superior in this regard.
timeout.com/uk/news/this-b…
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@GeorgyKantor @amwilson_opera Perhaps you should make yourself known to the 'higher management above' ... believe me, they are not that 'high' and they are conscious of the complexities - they face them every day; they are not some royal family who might seek glory. You and they share common aims.
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@coates_tim @amwilson_opera I have nothing but respect for the booksellers of Oxford. But sadly we've lost a large number of independent second-hand bookshops in the last 20 years, and the higher management now above Waterstone's / Blackwell's isn't covering itself in glory by its decisions.
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