October 27th 2025年10月27日

Ever looked out of the window on a long haul flight and thought: I can’t see any borders down there.…Alaska looks like Russia…what’s the difference? What’s going on? Why are people fighting and killing each other? Why can’t they just get on with life and enjoy this rich planet where we live?”

Now go a bit higher and observe from the International Space Station…..The world……a beautifully coloured jewel spinning in a deep blackness. Samantha Harvey describes all this with profound simplicity and humanity in her novel Orbital.

“…..six of them in a great H of metal hanging over the earth. They turn head on heel, four astronauts (American, Japanese, British, Italian) and two cosmonauts (both Russian)……..travelling at seventeen and a half thousand miles an hour….”

…….🌏

They have a strict routine of scientific procedures to follow, but mainly they look….Chie gets an email to say her mother has died…she cannot be there for the ceremonies 🙏…Anton gets a message that only the Russians may use the toilet in the Russian section…🚽..they all laugh at this…..they drink each others recycled urine, they breath the same air….they feel as one team. And they look at this earth and realize how fragile it is….How can we be so stupid as to destroy it? “.

The perspective from space which Samantha Harvey describes is extraordinary as it is moving.

The six see a planet shaped by the sheer amazing force of human want, she writes….and I would add…and seems to be run by three men and their puppets. A narcissistic “King”👑 on one side, a psychopathic monster in the middle 💀 and a machiavellian teddy bear on the other side 🧸. It’s like a sort of grotesque kindergarten.

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Whilst down on earth, in order to take a break from our idiotic and tragic politics, I am reduced to orbiting Brussel sprouts….🍴….https://www.instagram.com/p/DQO3iiGDOu9KjGmFEr5BsoTVQp2G4aw4YZraX40/

一方、政治から少し離れて、私は芽キャベツについて書いている。

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But we human beings have something called culture don’t we? Even if it has to be Beethoven’s 9th, which I will not be in a hurry to sing again 🎶

But in last week’s performance in Darmstadt they were damn good : the soloists Nina Bennet (soprano), Stefanie Schaefer (Mezzo), Theodore Browne (Tenor) and Taras Konoshchenko (Bass). So was the orchestra – the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck..🎻…..not to mention the Figural Chor (that’s my one), the Kantorei and the Singakademie 🗣️ – all from Frankfurt.

As a contrast, it was a relief to go to hear the Broken Frames Syndicate last week. They (Katrin Szamatulski, Lola Rubio, Moritz Schneidewent, Peng-Hui Wang, Talvi Hunt and Yu-Ling Ciu) played on the most amazing instruments, constructed with the help of artists Paul Pape and Moritz Schneidewendt……

…..we were transported into the underwater sound world of coral reefs – alive, healthy ones 🐠 and ones which had died….because of our stupidness ☠️

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I was determined to go hiking this weekend, and wangled my way into a walking group as a “guest” (thank you, Phe). Starting at the famous Neroberg funicular railway in Wiesbaden, we strode up into the woods, accompanied by shafts of sunlight flashing through the autumnal foliage…..

There were strange gnarled trees…..

…an idyllic lake…..

…monstrous growths reminiscent of a ghibli film….

strange beings who appeared on the rocky outcrops….😂

….all in a palette of soft colours to bath our eyes…..

…and at the end, the gaudy domes of Czar Nicholas’ church……

Could you have seen this glint of gold from space? I doubt it, though the lights of cities at night betray the contours of human habitation.

Well that’s all for now

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Thank you for reading, and feel free to forward on to anyone who might be interested.

読んでくれてありがとう！。ご興味がある方にはお気軽に転送してください。

See you またね 💥

nigelwruddock@gmail.com

The End

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終わり