My dear friend @thememoryband.bsky.social has put together a little tribute to the recently departed Danny Thompson in the form of this YouTube playlist peppered with gems from the great man's career. www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

You can say AI is stupid and useless but on this matter it is basically repeating the British Government’s logic around Partition in 1921, and again during post-Brexit chicanery in the years following 2016.

LinkedIn changed my settings to allow my profile data to be hoovered up by AI models, and here’s what it taught me about Data Privacy and the onslaught of slop on what is already the world’s most sociopathic platform: ✈️ - Go to Settings 🤫 - Data Privacy 🤡 - Data for Gen AI improvement 🖕- Off

Very good. Endless ‘I am not a robot’ verification puzzles.

I saw Escapee Pregnancy Test Frogs supporting Stereolab in 1991. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wale...

This Man U v Chelsea game needs a punch up, and I think we’ll get it. I won’t be satisfied until the commentators say, “This is not the sort of thing we want to see”

This is cracking stuff, if you like long rabbit hole threads about pop records. Which of course you do.

My Tech Bros in Christ, I used to work in Popular Music Studies academia, a large chunk of which is people using obscure French theory to justify their Kate Bush fandom, and even I was able to write some pretty successful impact narratives.

By adopting ChatGPT there is a real danger Oxford University could soon be turning out Prime Ministers as bad as Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and David Cameron.

I’m enjoying the Sabrina Carpenter album and am NOT A GRASS, but let’s just say that the chorus of “Never Getting Laid” makes me want to go to IKEA, eat picked herring, and watch Wallander, some time around 1981.

I’m going to be early adopter of not buying these things.

“Come on, own up. Which one of you ordered Reichs?”

I have no empirical evidence for this claim, but it is my firm belief that a score of roughly 43% on Rotten Tomatoes is actually the sweet spot for highly watchable movies.

I, too, am pivoting to Quantum. Simultaneously, I am also not pivoting to Quantum.

Avril Lavigne has called her wine Complicated, but Lavigne Yard was sitting right there. Amateur hour stuff. Jesus Christ.

Lulu is 2 today. 🐾🎂

Telly Football people would rather clutter your screen up with loads of unwanted data visualisations than go to therapy* (*get rid of Danny Murphy, Lee Dixon, etc)

The New Eves at the Hare & Hounds tonight. They’ve got a good Velvets / Raincoats / 1970s Harvest thing going on, and the drummer plays a flute. First night of the UK tour. Go see ‘em.

New guitarist joins The Fall, declaring his interest in having input to the musical direction of the band. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Not sure about Julian Asange as a 10, but with Dr David Kelly pulling the strings at the head of a midfield diamond I can see Dando notching 20 goals and giving Tuchel a headache.

“Brother. What are you ordering at Buffalo Wild Wings?” really needs to catch on. And quick. It’s the perfect response to Get Up At 3AM influencer culture, and - more importantly- those dudes would really hate it.

This is very true. If Charlie Kirk had instead built a platform moaning about VAR, or the price of VG+ Steely Dan vinyl, he would likely be a) alive, b) on my radar.

Takeaway Klaxon, and I am very pleased to announce that it will involve a Balti Garlic Chicken Chilli Bahar from The Diwan. 💥

RIP to this joke, which had a good run.

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

Reminder of the rules: Hellfire by Nick Tosches in the best pop biography ever, and Head On/Repossessed by Julian Cope is the best pop autobiography ever.

It’s not good, but this sort of thing is inevitable now that HE is a service, students are customers, and Universities are diversified hospitality businesses run by people with MBAs. Why run two history departments into the ground, or two admissions teams, when you can ruin one more efficiently?

There are going to be 66 group stage games at the World Cup next summer, and about 50 of them will follow the pattern of these England qualifiers. Low block v Endless Passing. Obviously I’ll watch every single game and so will you, but bloody hell, lads. What are we doing with our lives? #SRBENG

There is surely an ever-growing, untapped market for a Smartphone that has: - absolutely no AI in it - a goddamn headphone jack port

Awks

That Emergency Alert was the most excitement we’re going to get during this International Break.

England struggling to break down Andorra for a second time is the purest example of exactly how much Pep Guardiola has ruined football. That we’re all watching it is entirely our own fault, though. Gluttons for punishment. #EngAnd

Me & the youngest had a hankering for pork dumplings and - because you should always follow your dreams - we went ahead and made pork dumplings. It’s pointless making a few, so we made loads. Behold: just some of the pork dumplings. #dumplingchat

For the first time in a while I’m listening to Queen of Denmark and - bloody hell - I am reminded that Queen of Denmark is possibly the best ever record made about having your heart broken, mainly because you hear him working through the classic seven stages of grief. And Midlake were on fire.

Well, fancy that. And, yes, it makes perfect sense.

Thanks to @stirchleywines.bsky.social for pointing out that attractive bottle of German Dunk non alcoholic beer I thought I was buying just now was - in fact - 9% loopy juice.

'They're toxic but popular' was my main takeaway after reading The Dirt by Motley Crue.

SELF-PROMOTION POST: trying to make sense of Morrissey’s claim he’s selling half of his “share” of The Smiths (including malfunctioning Gmail address). www.theguardian.com/music/2025/s...

I don’t think this means Crypto and Web3.0 are completely useless ideas that nobody sane would want to get involved with. It simply means that 37% of all men and nearly half of all women only need to try a bit harder to understand it. After that, it’s 🚀🚀🚀

Current Favourite Bob: 1969-1970 Bob

This is an incredible resource. An interactive explorer of In Our Time episodes, organised thematically.

St Etienne here are giving off very strong ‘University PR team have forced the Sociology research group to have some new photos done for the website’ vibes. And, this being St Etienne, the above can be read as a compliment.

We see the last days of commercial carrying and the early days of leisure boating existing side by side, while around them the new Birmingham has arisen. Soon Cliff Richard will arrive to make Take Me High.

Americans. I say this for your own good: You should never, ever start social media arguments about food with the British. You’re bringing Mac & Cheese with (for some reason) Cranberry Sauce to a vicious 2am punch up in a pub car park.

Went to a wedding today of an old school friend. There was a lad there I hadn’t seen since a bunch of us went to Glastonbury. In 1992.

Ghosted I is amazing. Ghosted II is amazing. Soon there will be a Ghosted III. You know the rest. @orenambarchi.bsky.social - have you considered adding movie sequel-style suffixes to these album titles? Eg: Ghosted II: The Ghosterer; Ghosted III: Ghosted In Space, etc. Up to you, like.

A club from Manchester has faced loads of penalties and ended up losing. No, the other one.

Lovely stuff. Don’t you DARE sack him, Man U.

Whatever happens to Grimsby in this penalty shoot out, this much is clear: Ruben Amorim needs to be given more time. And money. Lots more time, and lots more money.

All eyes suddenly turn to Grimsby, where something genuinely hilarious is unfolding…