it’s stupid to not use ai just because it can induce psychosis and generate child porn. it’s like saying you’re hungry when there’s a hot dog on the ground outside that induces psychosis and generates child porn

Only by suffering crippling insomnia do you get to hear documentaries about one of the founding members of Sha Na Na, who went on to become a fluent in Swahili forensic linguist. Funny ole world www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

01. Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story (BBC, 2025) I've lost track of the various Jaws docs. It's endlessly fascinating but I didn't really learn anything new here. Still very watchable.

232. Islands (BFI, 2025) A fairly unremarkable last film of the year, more of a mood than a mystery. It admirably swerves spelling everything out but that doesn't leave much plotwise.

2025 was really, really bad. I'm going to bed with my book now and I shall awake into a new year full of goodness and kindness and all the lovely stuff.

1. Sirom - Halifax Victoria Theatre 2. Des Demonas - Newcastle Cluny 3. Tunng - Hebden Bridge Trades Club 4. Caroline - Leeds Brudenell 5. Lisa O'Neill - Gateshead Glasshouse

231. The Master (torrent, 2012) For the second time, I didn't really get on with this although I liked it a little more than the first time. Maybe Phoenix's performance is too much of a performance, maybe it makes me feel cold and tense. PTA is a genius but this one evades me a bit.

Started in on The Lowdown and it's pretty great so far. New from Sterlin Harjo who was behind Reservation Dogs - there's some Res Dogs regulars in this too, in a strong ensemble cast including Killer Mike, Macon Blair, Kyle Machlachlan, DALE DICKEY (obvs)! ... 1/2

In 2012, an Icelandic newspaper translated an interview where Jessica Biel said that Justin Timberlake excels at everything he does. The translation went a bit wrong though and the article said that Timberlake was constantly using Microsoft Excel (the headline read "Can't live without Excel files")

Filling up nicely at Lazy Sunday. Games are being played, chats are being had, booze is being sunk. Here till 9pm. Join us

Haven't bought much older stuff lately but I'd been meaning to pick this up for years youtu.be/goJhS37zTbg?...

I also finished Plur1bus. Fantastic TV, maybe the best of the year (although Dying For Sex runs close). Complex, funny, hugely original (the concept but also the very personal way it's presented). Gilligan is an all-timer. Rhea Seehorn is the best - again -  and every shot is beautiful - again 1/2

Hid away for Christmas. (Re) watched a lot of films. Mostly old favourites, except the Speilberg, which wasn't really very good The Apartment * The Fabelmans The Holdovers * Hobson's Choice Parasite * Elvis Lone Star *

Bought this second hand in Bournemouth. Was equal parts scared and intrigued. There was clearly something going on here that was more than just music somehow. Something forbidden. Something beyond... I liked it so much I got the ink...

Christmas cabin fever? Want some comfort, conviviality and good beer? Come join us in the cosy back room of the Cumberland Arms tomorrow for Lazy Sunday With Stagger Lee. A five-hour session of laid-back, lovely tunes to warm your Merrineum Join us for tunes like this youtu.be/ojfMCYpDda8?...

Next

29. John Higgs - Lynchian (2025) An enjoyable, brief, fairly simple read. No massive insights or revelations but it tackles Lynch from every angle - including his mental health and his creative processes. Left me wanting more, tbh

Mood youtu.be/-Np8PJDGq_A?...

Next...

Tavare and Fela Kuti

Fuck this government

28. Jacqueline Harpman - I Who Have Never Known Men (1995) Blimey. I read most of this in one insomniac night - it's now 6am. It's bleak and brutal and austere but what Harpman has done is incredible: by stripping life back to its barest essentials... 1/2

Gnight folks youtu.be/Uo-HhAeGml8?...

A brilliant watch

D Boon. Forty years gone. Imagine what he could still have done youtu.be/UDr25zjd4yM?...

223. L.A. Confidential (Amazon, 1997) Perfectly watchable but there's something a bit stilted about it I hadn't picked up on before, a bit by numbers.

Not sure if I've banged on about Marshland before but I've just noticed it's on Prime. Really excellent Spanish movie, think season one True Detective with the shadows of Franco, that kinda thing. youtu.be/mmZbl6VYDLQ?...

This coming Sunday - December 28th - Lazy Sunday With Stagger Lee will be back at the Cumberland Arms for another warm and lovely session. Join us from 4pm for a soothing mélange of soul, jazz, folk, blues, reggae, country, electronics, ambient and such in the cosy back room. Join us

Damn

Magic, fear and superstition This is the curse of The Mekons youtu.be/jVgAU5_cGVs?... Gnight folks

222. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Disney, 2014) Just exactly what I needed.

Ten pages in. Already thinking this is a *terrible* fucking choice given my current mental state. Still. Onwards...

27. Patricia Lockwood - Will There Ever Be Another You (2025) This was quite a challenging read - a stream of illness journey through a COVID ravaged mind. Knowing Lockwood's life and work helped, and it's full of brilliant imagery and daft gags but meanings are slippery.

221. Black Bag (torrent, 2025) Nope.

Mood youtu.be/ppzoBclWpaA?...

Still holding out for a chance to wheel out my 'Raging Seehorn' gag, which up to 4 people find funny. 4 *excellent* people

Have seen a number of the ads in this campaign around London. It's fascinating how heavily targetted it is at the people who come up to London once in December, go to Oxford Street and Winter Wonderland, then spend the rest of the year banging on about how terrible London is.

220. The Ice Storm (BFI, 1997) Barely remember seeing this at the time and I can see why. It's... fine. 🤷 Stellar cast but it's all very flat, most everybody is reciting not acting. Kline in particular is flat out terrible. It captures the era well but there's something missing.

Me every new year

Always comes back to this... youtu.be/dfx4vefHdKs?...

219. On Falling (BFI, 2024) Christ. Isolation. Loneliness. The precariat. The gig economy. Being broke. And so on. Joana Santos is brilliant - understated, quiet - and the movie is the same. Absolutely zero fun.

The final version of this, having fucked it up numerous times. Every band I saw in 2025

Finally replaced my lost copy of this

Yes, please.

A year in Bandcamp 1/2

'TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY

218. The Shrouds (torrent, 2024) I think of myself as a Cronenberg fan but I couldn't connect with this. Too arid, too sterile, too much clunky exposition. I know this tech-noir quasi cyberpunk approach is Cronenberg working through his own grief but I felt locked out somehow.

Twenty five years gone youtu.be/46gRoPQ8i9A?...

I tried this earlier and messed it up so here's another stab at it... This year I saw 104 bands (some numerous times), in 9 towns and cities at 60 gigs. Sirom were the best in a very strong list, a total game changer. The top 15 are in the second image. The full list in the third. 1/2

Reviewed Mermaid Chunky + Me Lost Me It was EXCELLENT narcmagazine.com/live-review-...