James Caig
@jamescaig.bsky.social
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Books, music, writing.
Ian Penman on the Beach Boys - impeccable. My word, heās good at this.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
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Ian Penman Ā· Iām just a sound: Back to the Beach Boys
To an extent rivalled only by the Beatles, the Beach Boys have become the tales told about them, the ever expanding...
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/ian-penman/i-m-just-a-sound
about 18 hours ago
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2 days ago
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Found a Mad Men box set in a charity shop. Ā£2 - couldnāt not. (Some sense is kicking in I should be prepping for streamer collapse.) The media outlet calling depictions (S1 alone) of brutal misogyny, blatant racism, forced adoption and workplace bullying āsheer joyā? Thatāll be the Mail On Sunday.
8 days ago
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Finished this over the weekend. Itās very good. Thereās a recurring line that defines America as āan adolescence without endā and I keep thinking about that.
11 days ago
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Happy April 5th, everyone. Here she comesā¦
medium.com/a-longing-lo...
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Waiting for the colour of spring
A love letter to the lyrics of April 5th by Talk Talk
https://medium.com/a-longing-look/waiting-for-the-colour-of-spring-1b2c1b549f27
13 days ago
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š¶ *bryan ferry voice* āDisposable darling Youāve made so much money My new hobby is flags Itās a national emergencyā
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17 days ago
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19 days ago
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Yes itās the most Partridge moment ever but also, having just read the book thanks to
@iammilliam.bsky.social
and
@andrewmale.bsky.social
, I canā see Goodwin as a akin to Elizabeth Taylorās Angel - brittle, self-regarding, impervious to reflection, a laughing stock who will never realise it.
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20 days ago
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As a radio DJ Craig Charles is a great reader-out of words other people have written for him to say, other than he also sounds totally wooden doing that.
21 days ago
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My friend fields sometimes 6 calls a day from people demanding he collect his cat. The cat goes missing for days and has been found in pubs, schools, peopleās homes. Heās been in the cathedral, the zoo, followed a guy home from the Thekla once.
21 days ago
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New McCartney is just lovely. Feels somewhere between Rubin-produced Johnny Cash and Sufjanās Carrie And Lowell. Hazy, melancholy, voice soft and occasionally cracking
23 days ago
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#nowplaying
, special weather turning/refressing edition
25 days ago
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#nowplaying
27 days ago
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Jimmy Webb producing the Supremes doing a motorik sprint through a Joni Mitchell song. Just takes it somewhere else. A whole new energy.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_Bi...
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30 days ago
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30 days ago
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My gratitude to
@andrewwasylyk.bsky.social
for his magical ensemble show the other night, and to
@bristol247.bsky.social
for letting me write a review. A case of place transposed to music which I have attempted to capture in words.
www.bristol247.com/culture/musi...
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Review: Andrew Wasylyk, Bristol Beacon - 'An oasis of light and warmth'
The Scottish artist's set is evocative and transporting
https://www.bristol247.com/culture/music/review-andrew-wasylyk-bristol-beacon-an-oasis-of-light-and-warmth/
about 1 month ago
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I didnāt march against the Criminal Justice Bill for this.
about 1 month ago
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about 1 month ago
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reposted by
James Caig
John Bull
about 1 month ago
The last time a Tudor got this badly embarrassed by the Spanish, England schismed christianity.
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about 2 months ago
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It would have been Lou Reedās 86th birthday today. Hereās something I wrote the day he died, back in 2013.
jamescaig.medium.com/sunday-mourn...
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Sunday Mourning
How I felt when I heard about Lou Reed
https://jamescaig.medium.com/sunday-mourning-7c97be7600af
about 2 months ago
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Watched Total Recall last night. Something familiar about the car driven by the stooge of the mindvirus-wielding authorian bad guy...
about 2 months ago
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Also brilliantly put
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about 2 months ago
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Brilliantly put
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about 2 months ago
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Cold Champs In With Flavor Flav
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/f...
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Flavor Flav to host Las Vegas event for winning US womenās Olympic ice hockey team
Rapper Flavor Flav will host a Las Vegas event in July to honour the US womenās ice hockey teamās gold medal at the Milano Cortina Olympics
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/feb/27/flavor-flav-to-host-las-vegas-event-for-winning-us-womens-olympic-ice-hockey-team
about 2 months ago
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Name a cover of a song that you love more than the original.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2m6...
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about 2 months ago
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Your outdated pop music references got me in the rush hour
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about 2 months ago
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Oh my, just clocked that Jesse Jackson and Andrew Weatherall both died on the 17th Feb, so that this speech, which AW sampled for Come Together, now has an even greater cosmic significance.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTVw...
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Jesse Jacksonās - Wattstax Music Festival Opening Speech (1972)
YouTube video by Nightloop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTVwT3j_zqY
about 2 months ago
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āWell, my heartās in a Charing Cross Road basement, gentle and fairā¦ā
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2 months ago
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Only 30,000 people saw Melania on its cinema release, but everyone who did became a documentary filmmaker.
2 months ago
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Seconded. This is my favourite podcast these days.
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3 months ago
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Hazel Irvine very much the Michel Barnier of this Masters semi-final discourse. Fear for the Hendry/Parrott camp tbh
3 months ago
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reposted by
James Caig
ceej
3 months ago
By now, asteroid 2026 Dreadstone has impacted the Indian Ocean, sparking a firestorm not seen on this planet since the KāPg Extinction Event. Most people just want to be with their families. Here are three ways effective business leaders can leverage targeted KPIs to turn tragedy š into triumph šŖ
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Started that Guardian list of live albums thinking, well, itās Bill Withers isnāt it, then got to #1 and remembered, no theyāre right, itās this. Ferocious, sexy, all Killer. Perking me right up after daaaays in bed.
3 months ago
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3 months ago
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Ten years - thats all itās been!
open.substack.com/pub/jamescai...
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Something happened on the day he died
On the 10th anniversary I thought I'd share the thing I wrote the day the news broke.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jamescaig/p/something-happened-on-the-day-he?r=gvfm&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
3 months ago
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Trigger warning needed on
#thetraitors
. Some of us have only just emerged from a gift scenario with our own boomer narcissists, you know.
3 months ago
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I have now in turn ranted like a madman on this post. I also couldnāt help myself.
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3 months ago
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This is ostensibly about my three favourite albums of 2025, but itās also about what life felt like before and after getting a late ADHD diagnosis, and perhaps, underneath that, about what music can do when weāre feeling unsettled and confused.
open.substack.com/pub/jamescai...
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This blanket I seem to be making
End of year lists donāt count for much, and opinions from others on their favourite records even less. But these three records from this year really matter to me. I want to tell you why.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jamescaig/p/this-blanket-i-seem-to-be-making?r=gvfm&utm_medium=ios
4 months ago
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What an unexpected writing retreat feels like
open.substack.com/pub/jamescai...
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Woodshedding
A week at a writing retreat I didn't know was coming.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jamescaig/p/woodshedding?r=gvfm&utm_medium=ios
4 months ago
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I am at a writing retreat and as I debriefed on my morning over lunch someone said in response, āwow youāre well up the magic mountain, arenāt you?ā and Iām taking that as a compliment, I think.
5 months ago
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Happy Sandy Denny Weekend to all who celebrate.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQiW...
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Sandy Denny - Late November
YouTube video by Sandy Denny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQiWL0HfIJs
5 months ago
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āThe harder I try to paint the picture Of the way it was back then The more I miss the good times, baby. Let it roll again.ā
open.substack.com/pub/jamescai...
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Gold's just around the corner...
...breakdown's coming up 'round the bend.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jamescaig/p/golds-just-around-the-corner?r=gvfm&utm_medium=ios
5 months ago
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Published on the what, now?
5 months ago
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What a title.
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5 months ago
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Not been able to stop listening to, watching and thinking about the Stone Roses since Mani died. I tried to write about their elusive and compulsive essence. The album they didnāt make, the promise unfulfilled - always the thing that wasnāt there.
open.substack.com/pub/jamescai...
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Gold's just around the corner...
...breakdown's coming up 'round the bend.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jamescaig/p/golds-just-around-the-corner?r=gvfm&utm_medium=ios
5 months ago
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Shut up and deal, Charlie Brown.
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5 months ago
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āLodge 49 is that feeling, the Buick and ājunkyard angelā feeling, that idea, the sense thereās something else, something more to all this, a secret harmony we might all see and believe if only weād develop the awareness for it, trust in it.ā
open.substack.com/pub/jamescai...
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The thinking of Lodge 49
My favourite TV of the year was a short-lived, pre-Covid show filled with signs, symbols and serendipity.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jamescaig/p/the-thinking-of-lodge-49?r=gvfm&utm_medium=ios
5 months ago
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The Roses could be The Meters when they wanted. Obvious to say they should have recorded more, but I wish in particular they could have done more of this. Proper funk.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESid...
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Stone Roses - Breakout (B-side to Love Spreads Single)
YouTube video by stoneroses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESidbicf8TA
5 months ago
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My eternal gratitude to
@andrewmale.bsky.social
for guiding me towards the āeternal veritiesā of Lodge 49. I realised writing this that I miss these characters. Iām sad weāll never get to know how it ends, but thereās even something appropriate about that.
open.substack.com/pub/jamescai...
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The thinking of Lodge 49
My favourite TV of the year was a short-lived, pre-Covid show filled with signs, symbols and serendipity.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jamescaig/p/the-thinking-of-lodge-49?r=gvfm&utm_medium=ios
5 months ago
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