That Was The Week That Was – 16th November 2025
This week saw me travel to New York for the third time this year. During the short three night trip myself and Gary Hustwit were revealing what we'd been working on for ESPN at the ESPN Edge conference which was taking place at the Walt Disney building in Soho. In addition to the main event we were also showing Evil Landload Hum – our generative real-time reworking of Mulholland Drive at Offline gallery in The Bowery on the Friday night.
The flight departed bang-on time and even arrived an hour earlier than scheduled. The flight had gone pretty quickly anyway as I was engrossed reading Jaron Lanier's Ten Reasons to Delete Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. You can not read this and come way thinking social media is not something bad. Last year I deleted my Twitter account and felt much better for it, only now it pains me I still have Insta, yet I still find it useful for the time being. I also got chatting to the person next to me who was travelling to New York for the first time. That was the good part of the journey. As usual the shit-show that is JFK was in full effect with a two wait to get through immigration, which seemed to be due to lack of TSA staff, no doubt due to the recently ended government shut-down. How a government can shut-down is beyond me. Then it took two hours to travel into the city via a cab. The things is though, yes it could have been better, but when you see that skyline, especially at night, it still takes your breath away. I've been coming to NYC for twenty-five years and I still love it. If they could just do something with JFK or Newark like have a dedicated Heathrow Express type train like in London, that could get you into the city in fifteen minutes, well that would be the dream. Like the city itself, things work, but only barely.
The morning of the ESPN event I took a walk to a coffee place called Maman. I was in there a good hour or so, writing things in my notebook and reading a book called Sum, when it started to get busier. When I saw someone looking for a table I said "you can have this one – it's been a great table." to which the guy quickly replied "well I hope it's as good to me as it was to you." Small interactions like these give me hope.
I can't really say too much about what went on at the Edge conference – we were on last for a reason so the live stream could be cut as the thing we made was just for the people in the room. That said, it all went really well and the reaction was everything we hoped for. Now we need to get going on the next stage of this project. Have to say, the backstage team running the conference were incredible – everyone at the top of their game to make sure everything ran smoothly. We finished the evening at the after party at a rooftop bar in Soho with stunning views of the city, sipping a Cosmopolitan – a drink I was introduced to many years before in New York City thanks to my late friend Hillman Curtis.
The next day we had the opening of Evil Landlord Hum at Offline gallery, so myself and Gary spent the morning getting the system ready for the evening. The gallery space is one large cavernous room which you descend into. We had to cover the screens we weren't using as the ambient light from the screens was still too much and we wanted it dark apart from the light from the projector and the eerie red light from the exit sign. The system is the latest iteration of the system we used for Nothing Can Ever Be The Same, only we've now added live sound generation as well as live audio glitching which really adds to the work. The whole thing was like a fragmented fever dream, with Lynch's visuals, dialogue and music being cut up and remixed, combining and juxtaposing in brand new ways, all in real-time.
Many people stayed for several hours, unable to pull themselves away, fearing they might miss something.
As it so happened, my friend Mr. Bingo was also in town so myself, Gary and Bingo ended up going for dinner at a great place called Freemans. As the three of us walked over there, a random stranger saw us and shouted "wow, you guys are a real unit! I mean seriously I'm not kidding!" Just a normal everyday thing in New York.
The next day I managed to get time to meet my friend Yuko Shimizu to have a return trip to the amazing Sushi W in the Upper West side. It did not disappoint. The attention to the details, as the head chef watched over the other chefs was wonderful to witness. I then jumped into an Uber – after trying to get into another car which was definitely not an Uber – and wound my way back to JFK to fly home via Paris, courtesy of Air France. I managed to get some sleep in the lovely flat bed seat, arriving at CDG only to find my flight was delayed for a few hours – which seems normal in Paris. As I sat reading Mick Herron's Slow Horses, a bunch of kids were running up and down the concourse, all various ages. Then a few minutes later the youngest one appeared on her own, looking distressed, no doubt trying to find her parents in the large expansive gate area. Myself and a few others instantly saw the distress she was under – there's something primal about seeing a small child wander around lost that sends out distress signals. One of the other passengers managed to get a member of staff and a few minutes later reunited her with her parents, just as the other older kids came running back. You see things like this and you're reminded that the majority of people are good, no matter what the prevailing narrative is in the media.
Getting home on Sunday afternoon I fell into bed for a few hours before waking up ready for the obligatory Sunday lunch. It was a great trip but it was good to be home.
