大衛霍克尼是我的朋友，也是一位傑出的畫家。我與他相識於上世紀六十年代，友誼一直延續到他於6月11日星期四去世。他非常聰明風趣，和他在一起總是充滿樂趣。
他的畫作常常給人一種無比喜悅的感覺。我和南希很喜歡去他位於加州的工作室拜訪，我們會沿著穆赫蘭道兜風，這條路因他那些驚豔的畫作而再次聞名遐邇。
或去他位於倫敦的工作室。房間裡擺滿了畫作，其中不乏他最新的作品。他會談論這些畫作，以及他對藝術的獨特見解。他認為正確地觀察至關重要。他不太喜歡透視法，總是致力於探索觀察世界的新方式。他創作了許多繪畫、素描、電影以及其他媒介的作品，例如iPad繪畫，他都能輕鬆駕馭並精通。
他是個老煙民，認為每個人都有吸煙的權利，就像我們小時候在煙霧繚繞的房間裡長大一樣。我們曾經去約克郡布里德靈頓拜訪過他一次。他到火車站接我們，然後開著一輛煙霧瀰漫的車把我們送到他家。
我們會懷念他那迷人的個性、他簡潔的幽默以及他對世界深刻的見解。
安息吧，大衛。我們愛你。
保羅麥卡尼
David Hockney was a friend and an incredible painter. I knew him during the 1960s and kept a friendship going till he died on Thursday, the 11th of June. He was very clever witty and fun to be with.
His paintings often gave off a feeling of great joy. Nancy and I enjoyed visiting his studios in California where we took a drive along Mulholland Drive which he made famous all over again in his sensational paintings.
Or in his London studio. The rooms were filled with paintings. Often some of the most recent pictures that he had done. He would talk about them and his very particular views on art. He felt that it was important to see correctly. He wasn’t a great fan of perspective and was always involved in inventing new ways to view the world. His many paintings, drawings, films and other media like iPad drawing he took readily to and mastered.
He was a serious Chain Smoker and believed it was everyone’s right to smoke like the days when he and I had been brought up in smoke filled rooms. We visited him once in Bridlington, Yorkshire. He met us at the train station and drove us to his house in a smoke filled car.
We will miss his fabulous personality, his laconic wit and his erudite views on how to look at the world.
Rest in peace, David. We love you.
Paul McCartney
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根據伊德里斯·卡倫報道，在一代之前，英國還是一個全球強國。如今，英國的經濟產出僅略高於美國最貧窮的州。 https://theatln.tc/By6A7iPI
卡倫寫道：「在全球金融危機爆發之前，英國正處於後帝國時代的鼎盛時期。」 自那以後，英國的工資水平遠遠落後於美國及其歐洲鄰國。英國引以為傲的國民醫療服務體系（NHS）積壓的病人數量幾乎佔總人口的十分之一。牙科治療變得如此昂貴或難以獲得，以至於根據2023年的一項調查，十分之一的英國人表示他們不得不自己動手治療牙齒——在極端情況下，甚至“自己拔牙或用膠水粘起斷裂的牙冠”，卡倫報道說。
卡倫寫道：「隨著英國越來越意識到自身的衰落，它已徹底退縮到防禦姿態。」「政治已淪為零和博弈，演變成互相指責誰搶了誰的爭鬥。人們的懷疑主要集中在移民身上，兩大政黨都對他們抱有敵意。」某種英國例外論依然存在——其形式比美國例外論更為內斂思維，這表明低元論依然可以向英國例外論依然為內斂形式，這一點依然可以重振英國。 「令人驚訝的是，或許也在意料之中，隨著國家問題的日益惡化，這種例外論反而愈演愈烈，」卡倫寫道。
A generation ago, Britain was a global power. Today, the nation’s output is barely above that of America’s poorest state, Idrees Kahloon reports. https://theatln.tc/By6A7iPI
“Before the global financial crisis, Britain was at its postimperial zenith,” Kahloon writes. Since then, wages have lagged well behind the U.S. and its European neighbors. The country’s celebrated National Health Service has a patient backlog of nearly one-tenth of the population. Dentistry has become so unaffordable or unobtainable that, according to a 2023 survey, one in 10 Brits reported resorting to their own dental work—in extreme examples “extracting their own teeth or gluing broken crowns back together,” Kahloon reports.
“As Britain has become more and more aware of its diminishment, it has retreated ever more fully into a defensive crouch,” Kahloon writes. “Politics have become zero-sum, descending into fights over who has robbed whom. Suspicion has fallen, above all, on immigrants, whom both major parties have turned against.” A certain strain of British exceptionalism remains pervasive—in a quieter, more understated form than the American version—which suggests that by retreating inward, Britain can make itself great again. “Astonishingly, or perhaps predictably, it is growing stronger as the country’s problems get worse,” Kahloon writes.
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