SUCH A HATEFUL WASTE OF TIME. Honestly, we need a national hobby service so that people can find nice things to do in their spare time like watering plants or being nice to donkeys rather than inventing stupid things to be cross about.

The legal situation for trans people is now deeply incoherent and means that it is untenable for them to be able live their lives with dignity. This is completely out of line with the values of equality that a Labour government is meant to champion. [4/5]

Quote with a fictional band that isn't Spinal Tap. youtu.be/Kemtdq34Lq4?...

Remarkable medieval panel in the Courtauld Gallery depicting the bathing of the infant Van Morrison

"The Table" approaches, rumbling ominously. A fierce row immediately breaks out as to whether All Options are On It, or whether we need to Just Get Round It

The only good thing about local election coverage today is the surreal imagery that passes through your brain when you read a phrase like "Tories lose control of Hampshire".

Ugh.

Post your warning sign.

Continental Breakfast at Tiffany's and Travelodge Du Lac

Cardiacs - Stoneage Dinosaurs Half Man Half Biscuit - National Shite Day The Kinks - Days The Slits - Ping Pong Affair Sandy Denny - Who Knows Where the Time Goes Nick Drake - Cello Song PJ Harvey - Rid of Me Datblygu - Y Teimlad Van Morrison - Madame George The Fall - Wings

Sudden urge to watch the new film of M John Harrison's 'Climbers', directed by Daniel Kokotajlo or Mark Jenkin, but unfortunately it doesn't exist.

This is so similar to my own thoughts about Prynne. I was briefly a baffled graduate student of his. Baffled as well mostly by his poetry, but oddly compelled to return to it from time to time, scratching a surface, making tiny inroads here and there. 1/2

More to the point Krapp's Last Tape with Harold Pinter as Krapp is on the BBC iplayer, so everyone should go and watch it and marvel.

A third-hand story, but apropos of the anniversary. An EFL author I once worked with had a friend who studied in Paris in the mid-80s. A huge admirer of Beckett, he plucked up the courage to go to Beckett's apartment - the address was quite well-known - and ring the bell. 1/2

Just working on my article "The decline in nominative determinism in world-class sprinting: from Usain Bolt to Gout Gout"

Incredible.

Greatest ever pub sign, 10/10 (St David's, Pembrokeshire)

Borshch looks so pleasing.

The so-called 'Tufted Puffin'. Clearly just a seagull in a shoddy, home-made puffin disguise.

I see Nick Timothy has been imposing himself again.

Cardiacs, Albert Hall, Manchester. Incredible.

Surely that is the young Mark E Smith, pondering lyrics for his notebook ("the junior clergy demand more cash / we spit in their plate and wait for the ice to melt")

Hannah Spencer walking into Westminster, sucking her teeth, tutting, and muttering "tell you what, you've had some cowboys in here."

Finally, the sequel that De Sica's 'Bicycle Thieves' deserves

Terry "Carry On" Scott, David "Sunday Sport" Sullivan, Grant "Multiple Aliases" Shapps

The Winter Olympics needs some kind of snowball fight event as well

If there's doubles luge in the Winter games, there should be a piggyback race in the Summer games

Book of film Book on station track Book of book with soundtrack #fallfriday youtu.be/TNkQmYvoh8A?...

Looks like she's won a gameshow in front of a studio audience of the undead

Cometh the hour...

Mornings on BBC2 consisting entirely of Pages From Ceefax

I didn't expect miracles from Starmer, but I did expect him at least to show occasional signs of being conscious

I gave myself a rope burn teaching myself to abseil down the stairs at home.

Remarkable medieval panel in the Courtauld Gallery depicting the bathing of the infant Van Morrison

Switched on Radio 4 to what sounded like a really dark episode of The Archers - residents of Ambridge moaning about lambs blood, God has left us, etc. Turned out it was TS Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral.

Alan soliloquises amongst the limestone geology of the Arno valley until lunchtime. Meanwhile, Mark Rylance (as Leonardo) gets a trip to Wookey Hole

Absolutely heroic expense account bashing from Alan Yentob in this 2003 Mona Lisa documentary on BBC4. Extemporising over a glass of red, brandishing cigar at a hotel bar. "The only way to clear this up is to go to Milan", yeah sure Alan

Also this one. By An Ebb, published by @pressfuturist.bsky.social

(Odd how these lines, written in 1975 or thereabouts, kind of work as a foreshadowing of social media algorithms, motivations and codes of behaviour).

W.S. Graham, from 'What is the language using us for?'

Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence of Arabia How Green Was My Valley of the Dolls The Railway Children of the Corn

The Wicker Man Who Knew Too Much The Empire of the Sun Strikes Back Carry On Doctor Zhivago

I used to use Spotify only for work-from-home wallpaper, a loop of indifferent Brian Eno ambient stuff, just because it was boring / non-distracting. Imagine my horror when the Wrapped thing said I was in top 2% of Eno fans, and then Brian's shiny pate popped up to thank me earnestly for my support

I hate the I hate the Die Hard discourse discourse

Remember when budgets were one-offs, like Play For Today, instead of the disappointing series finale of a self-indulgent 115-episode Netflix series?

Watched Edge of Darkness on the iplayer last week, having never seen it - it's brilliant (and weirder than it first appears)