Oh my, Judi Dench’s liddle face on Channel 4

With talk about podcasts this morning (to film or not to film), seems the moment to plug my 'textcast' again: #FirstLastAnything, on all types of music, with some very special guests indeed. You read the chat, you listen to the playlists. Archive of 36 episodes here. firstlastanything.co.uk/about

youtube.com/watch?v=ENXI... Here’s a Christmas treat. Amadeus, with the original London cast. Recorded for BBC radio in 1983. Paul Scofield, Simon Callow, Felicity Kendal. Sublime!

This beautiful butterfly caught my eye and turned out to be the rusted blade of a Stanley knife

On @bbc6music.bsky.social this afternoon at (apparently) around 2pm, chatting to @craigcharles.bsky.social about my recently published book, #IntoTheGroove.

I just made a sale so I’m going to the post office first thing Monday morning anyway so if you want a print for Christmas order it this weekend because another thing I’m doing on Monday is resting the shop for a fortnight. marswasrubbish.etsy.com

Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.

I’ve only just found out that George Clooney’s middle name is Timothy and I might have to sit down for a while, have a little think.

Here I am again in the toilet at work. Almost every day we have a conversation of some sort.

Here I am again in the toilet at work. Almost every day we have a conversation of some sort.

Just doing last night’s orders. About ten days until I’ll have to stop for Christmas. marswasrubbish.etsy.com

As long as there are archives to catalogue and hidden libraries to uncover, new fragments of the original Pepys diary will continue to be brought to light.

Sometimes colleagues in the library are thrown by an unfamiliar author’s name, or multi barrelled one. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Mario Vargas Llosa and W. Somerset Maugham can all cause a pause. Yesterday I advised a colleague ‘Try looking for Of Human Bondage in S and M’ #librarylife

She shouldn't have to keep doing this by herself. She is supposedly a member of a political party and every single one of her *colleagues* should be BLASTING the fascist in chief. ALL OF THEM. Where is the solidarity???

“F*ck him, Dano“

2025 and still no live-action remake of Wait Till Your Father Gets Home?

Step 1: Sign up for a FREE library card at your local library today. Step 2: Enter a world of possibilities. Step 3: Share some of the library joy that is sure to come.

So President Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act? Presumably he did it at a football stadium or at the podium at a rally? I’m guessing the world’s press was there and he handed out ceremonial sharpies to survivors of Epstein’s crimes. He’s a good man, isn’t he?

Also this Christmas card is coming back. Quite genuinely due to popular demand. The

After all these years watching telly and film, I’ve realised I’m very tired indeed of this particular trope. The villain, the supervillain, the bomber, the terrorist in person or on the phone speaking in that affectionate, unruffled, super precise educated way, hot on grammar and tutting.

Floating Weeds (1959) Opening shot #filmstills #beauty #simplicity #composition

“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide,” President Trump, always leading from the front.

Magic The Gadarene

Who’s Afraid of Michael Wolff?

Trump now threatening to take over Sark.

“The way you do faces is like your signature isn’t it?” Yes it’s definitely not because I find faces really hard.

One of my favourite line deliveries. The late, great Tony Roberts in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) “Pull your pants up Al, we’re going downtown”

Rage consumes me.

How come everybody’s so familiar with Nosferatu? I still call him Nosferavous. Is this a good or new joke?

Fans of #totp repeats might enjoy this! Associated with my new book, #IntoTheGroove, the story of 80s pop history, OUT NOW.

something something Hewlett Packard Lovecraft

Fancy a print? Of course you do. Most of my money goes on ink and paper so please consider my work. That gold ballroom won’t pay for itself. marswasrubbish.etsy.com

“This was the very last thing we wanted to happen”

If the remaining bakers were musicians, Iain would play rhythm guitar in an 80s British heavy metal band, Tom leads a Scandinavian boy band, Jasmine plays the bass for Bryan Ferry, Toby plays tuba in Fleet Foxes and I can’t quite place Aaron #GBBO

My "Perky The Thing" painting from a few years ago.

Looks like Tope is gunning for van Lustbader’s job on the Ludlum franchise #LibraryLife

I think the police should check the area for clues. DNA and fingerprints, for example. I saw a programme on the telly where they did that. Has anybody thought of putting some tape up? What about footprints? If you follow it usually leads to the hideout.

Here’s a fine and funny title, spoiled by a horrid design.

Hmm. Can't help noticing that I don't sell anything if I never mention my prints. Could there be a connection? Buy a print. Here's one here look. marswasrubbish.etsy.com/uk/listing/1...

Oi, ukulele-fanciers! I mean you, @swansonian.bsky.social Supposing there was such a thing as a ukulele library and these were the axes on offer, where would the uke-curious guitar man start?

…and yet, somehow there’s no causal link between disastrous economic policies and a disastrous economy.

How many of our loved ones died because of inadequate or faulty PPE? And yet we still have to pay those who provided it? An outrageous insult. Part-time covid anti-fraud commissioner Tom Hayhoe's year-long contract expires soon. Then what? What exactly is the plan?

Saw this reassuring notice in a hospital the other day. Relax lads.

In London towards the end of the war, these two Joans were Queens of the West End

I’m old so I put in the blu-ray of All the President’s Men. Up comes a picture of Robert Redford and the menu says ‘Special Features’ Cool nickname.

I was today years old when I learned that simply having an iphone means I have more sheer digital processing power in my pocket than was carried by the world- beating steam locomotive ‘Mallard’ or indeed any of the A4 class ‘Pacific’ locos (designed by Nigel Gresley, obviously)

A comical and geometrical marvel from @joedator.bsky.social in the current @privateeyenews.bsky.social - at your newsstands now!

New work.

President Trump surprises and delights the world’s press by spending 35 minutes speaking in the local Aleut language, thanking the native people and celebrating the art of the seal.

Him and Hegseth and all of them are like the discarded soft toys that bin-men cable-tie to the grille of the bin lorry, and there’s a madman at the wheel with his foot down.