The river carves the land. Collects its gossip, hears all its spirited stories. Blends them into its own song. Witches listen to this fluid singing of place, gathers omens as they float by. She runs with the river and absorbs its wisdom. – #EmilyCBanting, 1982 #WitchSky

Oooooo! It always tends to be the way of it that I’m on stage at the same time as the bands I want to see. Hoping for better scheduling in 2026 😆

A Telecaster with humbuckers is not a Telecaster.

Oh thats good.

☹️

“Walk through the long empty streets, Seek out the old stories, Trace the marks carved in stone, Disappear into the sun”

Thousands of rare American songs spanning jazz, blues and gospel. That’s thanks to a collaboration between UC Santa Barbara and the non-profit Dust-to-Digital Foundation , which digitized the recordings from rare and aging vinyl collections.

Happy 40th birthday to Bill Waterson’s ‘Calvin and Hobbes’. A work of consummate, stubborn, human, and more-than-human art.

Writing CVs is bad enough, but self promotional press releases etc is much worse. “Everyone look at MEEEEEEE!”

Career aims.

The Ashes - known to me as my biennial attempt to pass myself off as a cricket fan - gets underway this week. There's something really very wonderful about 5 day, unlimited over test cricket that, for me at least, cannot be reproduced in T20, ODIs or any other audience friendly format.

The “independent musician distribution mechanism” landscape is fracturing as people anticipate the crushing of Bandcamp by various corporate owners. @ampwall.com, @subvert.fm and now @mirlo.space, who I’d not heard of until this post, and likely others. It’s going to get difficult to keep track.

Pithy summary. Not without merit.

Every time I hear a politician say that an issue is “dividing” this country they always then come down on the side of the right wing view of it. Just once I’d love to hear someone say “this issue is divisive, which is why I’m making the argument that kindness and compassion is important”

Call it a metaphor for the state of the country www.politico.eu/article/fina...

David’s kitchen was busy on Friday night! Come along and hear the results on Friday 28th November, at 7.30pm. We’ll be playing original music together in support of the Phoenix Café - come hear some lovely songs in support of a great wee local venue.

I would suggest that the Scotland team not show their faces in any Edinburgh pubs tonight. FFS 🤬 #SCOARG

Shirley’s on the ball with the socials!! Yes, we’re playing a set in Nairn at The Bandstand this coming Wednesday. Come and say hello!

👀

Thirty years ago and I still think of it as a “new era” film 😳

This is Donald Trump levels of stupidity. Do not, for the love of all that is holy, use emojis in file names.

Wes Streeting as PM has the same appeal as an a capella Ian Brown solo album.

This is one of those things that means something different in each side of the Atlantic, isn’t it?

CHUK collects bagasse, the fibrous residue remaining after juice extraction from sugarcane, which is typically a waste product in sugar production. chukusa.com/products/ #environment #sustainability #climate #science #technology #business

Happy There Is A Circulatory System Walking Through The Kitchen Day to all who celebrate.

No other word has done more damage to the craft of writing in recent years than “content”. Even if you’re using the word “content” ironically, or as a cute little joke, don’t. When someone calls writing “content” they’re pissing on someone’s hard work & passion. “Content” is Technosatan’s henchword.

Niche Insults #154: "He's about as effective as the unsubscribe button on a mailout from a plugin seller."

Instead, basically every headline has been "Hooray! Notorious shithead racist misogynist credit thief James Watson finally dies! Here's ten reasons we're glad the bastard has snuffed it, by his closest friends and colleagues"

Went to an am-dram panto this evening (@shirley-sings.bsky.social’s partner was playing the dame) and had a bloody brilliant time. Lots of heartfelt laughter which felt really good. I prescribe pantos for everyone to chase those blues away!

having become a young adult in the late 80s I feel pretty well qualified to say that independent music is more vital now than it’s ever been, and that the opportunities for creativity and community within it are endless

I was told this joke at dinner by a senior physiology professor at Cambridge in the early 2000s…

Disappointingly, folk horror tinsel is not a valid “what 3 words” location.

Today, a friend involved in the Esna restoration project has shared with me his latest stunning photos of the restored ceiling and columns of the Temple of Khnum in Esna, Upper #Egypt. During a multi-year restoration project, the dirt and soot that had obscured the ...🧵1/3 📷 D. v. Recklinghausen 🏺

Rejected shot for the first Peter Gabriel album cover.

Dear Lord in Heaven, wasn’t head measuring (the Bertillon system?) debunked YEARS ago?? 😱

Til Tuesday (Aimee Mann’s band before going solo) got me through my university finals. “Welcome Home” was a speculative purchase in the Virgin Megastore in Manchester. And I’ve been buying her records ever since.

And- blowing our own trumpet- here’s a link to a song our band, Riggwelter, did a while back about what an influence her music has been over the years riggwelter.bandcamp.com/track/aimee?...

I’m With Stupid was released 30 years ago 🤯😱 Thirty MONTHS maybe 🤔 😱😱

Shirley and I had such a good time doing our gig in Ullapool a few months ago that we’re doing it again! It would be great to see you at The Bandstand in Nairn on 19th November. Check out Shirley’s other upcoming gigs as well- details below.

Just going to leave this here for @mole9.bsky.social because I am eeeeeeevilllll. Bwahahahahaaaaa…

When a chatbot gets something wrong, it’s not because it made an error. It’s because on that roll of the dice, it happened to string together a group of words that, when read by a human, represents something false. But it was working entirely as designed. It was supposed to make a sentence & it did.

Hoping this helps our colleagues across the industry

Electricity Pylons doing the Macarena.

And there, laydeezangennelmen, is my potted biography!

Fan. Tastic. 😆

Rilke's letters almost always start off with an apology for how long it's taken him to write, exactly how I feel answering my email: "When actually facing another human being, I gather myself for his sake... but when I am supposed to approach someone with my pen, I grow tired as if in deep sand."

BEWARE!! I'm getting near-daily spam emails promising sales/reviews in exchange for PDFs of my books. NEVER GIVE A PDF OF YOUR WORK TO A STRANGER! They'll upload it to every pirate site on the net and/or change the title, make a new cover, and sell it as their own on Amazon. #BookSky #IndieAuthors