You: This is the hill I will die on Me: This is the hill they will die on

This image, from the Sisters of Mercy’s Body and Soul EP, shows Dante and the poet Virgil in the lowest levels of the Inferno. Here there is only silence, as the sinners are engulfed in ice. This and more fun facts can be learned in my Goths for Breakfast talk!

Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick

Although Castle Pieterstein is an avowedly secular institution we do still maintain a small chapel on the eastern fringes of the grounds. Haunted, decrepit and glowering. But enough about me!

What’s a better haunted house than Hell itself? I’ll be speaking about Dante’s deeply gothic Inferno at this day-long event but, more importantly, so will @anatomicalcat.bsky.social and @gothicbodies.bsky.social !

“But the Court of Appeal ruled in December 2024 that the term "milk" can only be used to describe animal products.” We’re just straight up ignoring the fact that coconut milk’s been called milk forever? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Today in 1938 saw the first televised broadcast of a science fiction story, a BBC adaptation of Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R. The play concerns a hapless man who invents an artificial lifeform which eventually turns on its creators. Thankfully a piece of fancy which could never happen today…

Genre has an etymological link with gender which, as we know, is not a matter of immovable boundaries.

I find myself in need of £130 to join a trade union with, so here I am, shilling books with a hopeful expression. ko-fi.com/s/7292dd0671

The problem with AI is that it has no way to understand the depth of my disinterest in sports.

Co-worker, in London: Don’t you get hot with that beard? Me, in Scotland:

One of THOSE nights

They should rebrand that vehicle as a Wangoneer

People often asked me when I was radicalised and my answer is always the same. When I was separated from my worker solidarity and driven to overthrow a tyrannical government involving the then Prince Charles. Head Over Heels (Jon Ritman, 1987)

This is as mad as the cast is excellent. Gielgud dies in the first minute but an excellent outing for cackling Helena Bonham-Carter and even cacklier Miranda Richardson. Merlin (Steve Barron, 1998)

The young squire Raskolnikov is one of Castle Pieterstein’s more enigmatic denizens, and he keeps his own counsel, but his loyalty to La Contessa is absolute. [CW snake]

The juxtaposition between North & South Leith Patish Church and the nearby flats is always weird but some nights it’s a wee bit weirder.

Don’t forget we have two live #Betwixt shows coming your way in May! We’re in Edinburgh on 23rd May and London Town on the 25th. Get our tickets through the link in my bio or go to fane.co.uk/betwixt and I will see you there!

Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas) By They Might Be Giants youtu.be/3JdWlSF195Y

Today I have Hit by The Sugarcubes stuck in my head. A song of which I am not fond.

The Love Market (Filmmaker, 2019) filmmaker.bandcamp.com/album/the-lo... #NowPlaying

The Purgatory Chapel of St Michael’s Church in Untergriesbach, Bavaria displays a small collection of bones, included skulls that have been painted, usually with the name and dates of the person, sometimes their occupation, and other decoration.

Did you miss this week's fantastic talk? Worry not! You can catch Dr Lauren Stephenson talking here about 'Revolting Women: Final Girls as Anti-Capitalist Symbols' in Modern Horror here! youtu.be/Youv3TENe2A

Catherine O’Hara Memorial Double Bill Beetlejuice (Tim Burton, 1988) Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Tim Burton, 2024)

Beyond the Knife is back for 2026! In a not-so-romantic pre-Valentine’s special, our Human Remains Conservator Cat Irving unpacks the fascinating history of syphilis. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts. shows.acast.com/beyond-the-k...

SickElixir (Blawan, 2025) blawan.bandcamp.com/album/sickel... #NowPlaying

Whenever Stalker 2 stumbles with occasionally janky gameplay it also immediately recovers with some impeccable vibes.

Did you miss this week's talk on Irish Bogs and Abject Femininity in Irish Horror? Don't miss it! Find it here! youtu.be/0uleaR0aP8M

Never forget that the fear is not a by-product but the aim of the project in and of itself. The right-wing want people to spend their time scared that they or their loved ones will be shot dead, then blamed for having been shot. They’d rather kill you than allow you to live free of fear.

Self-portrait with existential dread

And here am I, doing one of my very successful online lectures for Romancing The Gothic.

The Blackridge Tapes (Lost Trail & The Implict Order, 2013) wholenessrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/the-bl... #NowPlaying

Comics retailing legend Greg Ketter standing up to ICE in Minneapolis. Yes, that's tear gas. He's 70 years old.

Me: Can I turn this Liquid Glass update off? Apple: No Me: Can I at least change the font colour? Apple: Hah! Also, no. Absolutely dogshit UI design from Apple in this new update. How folk with visual impairment will cope is beyond me cos the accessibility options do apparently fuck all.

The only med’cine is drink

Whether this is any good is debatable but it’s a lot of fun once you realise it’s cut from the same cloth as the wackier end of the AvP comics series. Predator: Badlands (Dan Trachtenberg, 2025)

If you need me I will be in 1994, listening to the newly-released Mortal Kombat Original Soundtrack by Various Artists

The only thing Coco likes more than jumping on walls is jumping off walls.

Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black, revisited. Faffing about with portfolio work.

There’s a really weird, cultish desperation to AI bros. We had a survey about its adoption at work and the least enthusiastic you could be was “sign me up to learn more!”

Me making @anatomicalcat.bsky.social watch this is payback for the time she made me watch Cats (2019) “You can’t flense a skull that quickly!”

A zombie apocalypse in the north east would make somewhere like Redcar actually inhabitable

The worst episode of Byker Grove 28 Years Later (Danny Boyle, 2025)

Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you’ve been to (Q Magazine’s patronising ‘women in music’ cover edition) Madonna Kate Bush PJ Harvey Bjork Tori Amos

We had a particularly fine waitress at dinner this evening

Watching this again ahead of the new films and it’s an undeniable fact that the first half is flawlessly beautiful while the bit with the soldiers is actually quite dull. 28 Days Later (Danny Boyle, 2002)

Folk seem to be doing a 2016 look back so here’s some photos of our trip to Borneo, where we stayed with a lovely Iban family. One of us weathered the intense jungle heat with grace and elan. One of us… did not.

Someone’s surely done a joke about how Frankenstein is less concerned with how we got there and is more about the friends we made along the way…

Folk seem to be doing a 2016 look back so here’s some photos of our trip to Borneo, where we stayed with a lovely Iban family. One of us weathered the intense jungle heat with grace and elan. One of us… did not.