Quite hard to save for your pension when you are paying off someone else's mortgage.

Surely it's time for another @protomartyr.bsky.social album. Cmon guys I need this.

Reform UK Gone Since the Local Elections Dr David Bull has been sacked as Chair.

Brexit increasingly resembles a form of necropolitics through which the will of the living is outweighed by the will of the dead

Always worth remembering that Insider Higher Ed is owned by Times Higher Education, a one-time industry publication which has been remade as a data-analytic consultancy AND which is itself owned by Inflexion Private Equity.

irrelevant piece of news: I got bitten the shit out of by blandford flies 3 weeks ago and those bastards are *still* itching. Would not recommend.

New Video on Micro-Rhythm, explaining the basic concepts behind it, as well as a selection of different workflows for creating these nuanced groove variations in Bitwig Studio. Out now for channel members & patrons: youtu.be/LNQIwO0ytQs www.patreon.com/posts/approa...

Bloody hell. Justice reforms. How about some poverty reforms. How about that. How about going oh fuck me it turns out that poverty and the resultant lack of hope and access to opportunities is linked to the significant majority of crimes. Perhaps we could oh no hang on turns out we need a scapegoat.

The missus and I were having a light-hearted argument about whether we eat porridge or drink porridge. It escalated unexpectedly, words were exchanged, and she revealed she's been fucking someone on the side, so I suppose we're splitting up. Because of porridge.

Andy Burnham, every day:

Angine de Poitrine blowing up prompted me to return to Lightning Bolt and I see they have a new album out but anyway I'm listening to Wonderful Rainbow again for the firt time in maybe 12 years and yes it's still an absolute motherfucker of a record. lightningbolt.bandcamp.com/album/wonder...

I dreamed a thousand new paths. I woke and walked my old one. Chinese proverb

!!!

Venice is an eye-wateringly expensive city to buy a flat or a house. It's also half empty in a lot of areas. This makes no sense.

Any decent rock musician is a gambler/astrologer/heretic/fanatic. His inner life is a neon web of misery, ecstasy and desire m.youtube.com/watch?v=xaIV...

A pop-up has opened in New York City displaying every page and timeline from the Epstein files. Anyone can now walk in and read them for themselves.

Valie Export. 1940 - 2026

Even better than the album version, despite that being impossible. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN9b...

the stock market hidenberg omen …great

It's a wishlist thing

A vital paradox: you’re an improv group touring to support a new album, do you play the stuff from the album (which is no longer improv), or do you play stuff that isn’t on the album (which undermines promoting an album)?

that Greek Orthodox metal guy record is ok but not *that* amazing

if you want to know more than is necessary about the inside of my head this morning, then look at a picture of Wes Streeting for an extended period while this is looping in another browser tab www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd7q...

Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.

Good morning to the sparrows eating my bricks next to the back door.

Students, if you’re thinking about dropping a note to that teacher or professor about what their class/project/mentorship has meant to you, but you worry it will be cringe or cheesy, let me just tell you they will coast on the fuzzy feelings prompted by that note for months, if not years

The Blue Notes in Zurich, mid-1960s. From left to right: Louis Moholo, Dudu Pukwana, Chris McGregor, Mongezi Feza, Johnny Dyani. Dudu Pukwana wore the same suit at his marriage to Barbara. Photo courtesy of Barbara Pukwana

Men are using Meta AI glasses to secretly film women at beaches, shops, on the street & on nights out. They then post these clips online where they receive a barrage of misogynistic abuse. I’m campaigning to make this behaviour an offence. Women deserve to feel safe in public spaces.

Make a band out of two others? Bjorchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

We’re live. Two years ago, we released a plan. Today, our collectively owned music platform is open. Explore. Support artists directly. Join the co-op. It’s only the beginning. Sincerely Ours, Subvert

At some point there needs to be a *proper* conversation about how cruelty has become a new normal for so many people. And we can't just keep putting it down to structures. Too many people with plenty of agency are actively choosing this.

Slightly increase a band Joy Multiplication

I'm not even halfway through the first track but I think I can safely that this album kicks ass: ahmedquartet.bandcamp.com/album/play-m...

Brain this morning not knowing words. What's the word starting with v for when you know words.

Slightly increse a band Tres Bon Jovi.

Chris Mason stamping on a human face forever. Chris Mason with his stupid little middle management homilies and his stupid little middle management stance and his not with a bang but a whimper voice and his end days of the BBC corporate salary and his where are they now photo in 10 years time.

LARGE SHEET HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT THE PHONE. IT DICTATES WHAT EACH RELEASE SOUNDS LIKE. IF THE MICROPHONE IS CLOGGED THAT MONTH THEN THE RECORD SHOWS THAT.

if you want to experience the auditory equivalent of after-images then I recommend you listen to this at a decent volume. It's remarkable: dinzuartefacts.bandcamp.com/album/models...

All that stuff newly digitized and restored, and more. And the quadrophonic stuff available as Atmos files.

the only thing dumber than Starmer doubling down on the Reform-lite stuff is listening to people like Josh. The trans issue isn't salient for voters at all except when it comes to sports, prisons & children and then it's trans skeptical. Everyone just defaulting to their hobby horse here.

Nigel Farage has been a presence on our streets for much longer than people realise

WE DON'T NEED PETROLEUM-BASED PLASTICS ANYMORE! "The [bamboo plastic] outperforms most commercial plastics and bioplastics in mechanical and thermo-mechanical metrics while maintaining full biodegradability in soil within 50 days and closed-loop recyclability with 90% retained strength."

A sneak peak into the development of indie games:

I think a big part of reform's problem in Scotland might be that they are understood - rightly - as continuity-UKIP and therefore quintessentially English nationalists

It only helps with research that has always already been fed into the system. Do you realize how much information is out there that has not even been digitized, much less fed into the slop machine?

Pinker on the radio wanging on about the 18th century's 'humanitarian revolution' brought about by literacy and hence empathy. I'd be having serious doubts about my historical narrative arc pointing towards us all getting less violent after this year if I were him. Not sure that's happening though.

I remember a time when "crypto-fascist" used to mean a fascist hiding their bigotry. Now it means a fascist, open about their bigotry, and funded by crypto.

Just remarkable how suddenly the newfound interest in Welsh politics of the UK-wide commentariat evaporated the second Reform got beaten.

New album coming soon…

Joel Futterman & William Parker's TRANSCENDENT UNIVERSE is an hour-long set of piano-bass duets that'll slam you through the wall. RIYL Cecil Taylor, Don Pullen, Dave Burrell or Marilyn Crispell. joelfutterman-bam.bandcamp.com/album/transc...