There’s a relish in maximising death and terror here that would befit a comic book villain. But no, this is the US Secretary of Defense.

velvet underground researchers have apparently confirmed that this audio from a random youtube user is genuinely the long-lost july '67 performance from upbeat, a cleveland teen tv show, doing the unreleased "guess i'm falling in love" complete with screaming girls. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU2U...

Hospital waiting room reading (or rather rereading, but it’s so long since I read it…)

My last outing before an operation tomorrow that will leave me housebound for a couple of weeks — a wander around Blickling, sunshine, crocuses and Guinness Zero in a beer garden… heaven!

My last outing before an operation tomorrow that will leave me housebound for a couple of weeks — a wander around Blickling, sunshine, crocuses and Guinness Zero in a beer garden… heaven!

Utterly grim reading but a valuable illustration of life in the Russian army four years into the war. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Remembering the late, great Ken Parker who was born on this day in 1948. Few in Jamaican music had a voice as pure as Ken's. On this 1969 Studio 1 recording he turns a William Bell Stax tune into a reggae classic... youtu.be/vNtJjdg9wG8?... #reggae #reggaesky #vinylsky #vinyl #musicsky

Reading this beautifully written discussion of Kenneth Williams’ TV appearances in the 1980s is an excellent way to spend ten minutes on what would have been Williams’ 100th birthday.

More superb reporting in London Centric on the Aziz family, this time evicting hundreds of tenants from residential properties, which comes on top of dodgy tax evading gift shops, trying to close the Prince Charles Cinema etc – absolutely depressing that politicians can't do anything about this lot.

Can any Blueskyers help? I'm trying to track down Gilbert Adair's 1988 obituary of Kenneth Williams which appeared (I think) in the Sunday Correspondent (of fond memeory), or possibly Independent on Sunday.

American Jews: hey, there’s a lot of antisemitism happening under the cover of pro-Palestine rhetoric and it’s increasingly hard to tell the difference between pro-Palestine people and actual Nazis y’all: you’re just covering for Israel

Eighteen months since I moved to Aylsham and never again will I say that nothing ever happens here…

Talmud according to white supremacist: the guide book to Jewish world domination. Talmud in real life: that guy from 300 years ago was a fucking dumbass. Here is why he is wrong.

“This week is all about me … Time to put something back into me before the rest of the world starts sucking it out in all their greed and demands.” Plenty of time to yourself where you’re going, old boy, don’t you worry about that.

Best advice I’ve seen on here for a long time.

Just remembered how beautiful this is and thought I’d share it. Joe Higgs, aka ‘The Godfather of Reggae’, singing an acoustic version of ‘There’s a Reward for Me’ youtu.be/UZtlcp5ZSqw?...

The ‘Arabs are Semites too actually’ argument is a cue for me to stop debating antisemitism with someone as they’re clearly too stupid or uninformed to waste time on. The Green Party is at risk of adopting it as policy.

Me, this morning: I’ve had enough of this bloody rain now, I wish the weather would change. The weather gods: Sure! Have some near-freezing sleet.

This piece is so much better than the pull-quote. It’s a beautiful profile of a fascinating brave strong woman and I urge you to read it.

It is important that party members understand why so many Jewish members, regardless of their own relationship with Zionism (indeed many are anti-Zionists themselves), are - at the very least - really unhappy with this motion, and have a think about what kind of party we want.

Here is an explanation on why Jewish Greens (who obviously don't speak for every single Jewish person in the party, etc) are so opposed to the Zionism is Racism motion brought to the #GreenParty's spring conference. jewishgreens.greenparty.org.uk/2026/02/12/w...

NEW What the Palestine Action judgment means - and what it does not mean How the High Court ruled against the government, but not with enthusiasm By me: emptycity.substack.com/p/what-the-p... (A follow up to my Prospect post this morning.)

And yes, I feel very strongly about it. If you don't understand why a Jew, and a very progressive one at that, would feel so strongly about it, and assuming you're not an antisemite yourself, you're simply an ignorant, uninformed person. And you are definitely not a progressive.

It was amazing what you could get for free off food and drink packets in the 1970s. Ken Boothe's amazing version of Syl Johnson's Is It Because I'm Black was given away by Nutrament... youtu.be/VuU2k-7G2Vc?... #reggae #reggaesky #vinylsky #vinyl #musicsky #kenboothe

Rise of the idiocracy, part 9567…

TUNDE’S FILM (1973) really should be better known — it’s a gritty, authentic portrayal of East End life in the early ’70s created by 18-year-old actor, writer and co-director Tunde Ikoli. There’s much to love about it, not least this scene showing Tunde’s friends’ glorious dancing to Prince Buster!

TUNDE’S FILM (1973) really should be better known — it’s a gritty, authentic portrayal of East End life in the early ’70s created by 18-year-old actor, writer and co-director Tunde Ikoli. There’s much to love about it, not least this scene showing Tunde’s friends’ glorious dancing to Prince Buster!

Okay, I’m bored of people on snowboards doing quadruple flips in mid-air now. Can’t they spice it up with a bit of rifle-shooting at the apex of their jump?

Just add Writing Tutor to the list and that’s my entire ‘career’ up in smoke. Perhaps I’ll retrain as a Switchboard Operator. Looks like a relatively safe bet.

A former book critic at Washington Post Book World wrote about last week's cuts, and while the whole thing is worth reading, the end cuts through the bullshit of algorithm/click-driven generated content to articulate the need for actual criticism and culture. www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...

Clive Lewis MP continues not to be suspended from the PLP for some fucking reason.

The new spiky iguanodontian #dinosaur #Haolong is really exciting, congrats to the team behind it. Thanks to Filippo Bertozzo and Pascal Godefroit for this help with this article... www.discoverwildlife.com/dinosaurs/ha... #Cretaceous #fossils #science #dinosaurs

With fortuitous timing, here's my review of an illuminating new biography of a Labour prime minister www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f...

Wrongdoing: illegal, immoral or unethical behaviour. The word the BBC is looking for is ‘criminality’.

The legendary King Curtis on fine form. Bernard Purdie’s opening drum fill in the Live at Fillmore West version of this tune is in my top ten all time musical moments.

The Green Party conference motion in question, which casts the October 7 attacks as legitimate under international law, calls for Israel’s destruction & calls Jews liars for observing that anti-Zionist criticisms of Israel can recycle old anti-Jewish tropes. Antisemitic drivel, in other words.

I was just about to join the @greenparty.org.uk. Then I saw that they had a conference motion that effectively calls for the armed destruction of the State of Israel, tacitly supports Hamas and Hezbollah, denies the very obvious existence of antisemitic forms of antizionism...

Getatchew Kassa – Yene Alem [Ethopia - Ethio Soul/Tradional] (1974) Beautiful traditional, altered into heartfelt Ethiopian soul, arrranged by Girma Beyene and accompanied by The Walias. https://redd.it/s6006b https://youtu.be/DZBXMA7UCfs

Subscribe to the Backlisted Patreon now and you can read almost 100,000 words of Andy Miller’s Inventory which will be, when the right publisher grabs it, one of the finest music memoirs ever written. Well, it already is, but you know how these things work. The most recent instalment confirms it.

Sly and Robbie’s drums and bass to the fore in this gorgeous dub of the Leroy Smart classic ‘Ballistic Affair’. What a rhythm section they were!

This’ll kickstart your morning!

A selection of poems from new books I'm reading, beginning with a beauty by @ravoon.bsky.social someflowerssoon.substack.com/p/pinks-39-t...

When the interior ministry declares its militia to be above the law in terms that equate dissent with treason there really isn’t any question of whether or not we are looking at an authoritarian regime.

The Bure at Drabblegate in Aylsham, north Norfolk

Some of you have never had to contend with the fact that you, personally, would not exist had it not been for a massive genocide that eradicated your ancestors and ancestral way of life and it shows

Just as I was about to brave the ice and snow to attend a gym induction session, they called to say the instructor had been taken ill. I appear to have gone to the pub instead.

Right. Today is the day. For January, if you would care to join me, we are doing a 200 words a day creative writing reset, adventure, challenge - whatever you want to call it. Prose, nonfiction, poetry. I'll offer a simple daily prompt if you're stuck but feel free to ignore. discord.gg/WmZuTjtRq

In no particular order, my dozen favourite books I’ve read this year, old and new, fiction and nonfiction — as pictured, plus the novel Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, which I seem to have mislaid. Happy New Year one and all!

In no particular order, my dozen favourite books I’ve read this year, old and new, fiction and nonfiction — as pictured, plus the novel Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, which I seem to have mislaid. Happy New Year one and all!

I asked for this for Christmas after interviewing Dan Cruickshank in Spitalfields a few weeks ago for my East End book. It’s brilliant! An authoritative, accessible and characteristically enthusiastic celebration of the world’s best buildings.