Spotted in a hotel crockery cabinet today. "And the award for the least appealing plate design to have one's starter served on goes to...Pugsley Addams!"

My Friday night perfect heatwave music choice so far. A soundtrack of an Italian erotic 1970 movie dealing in voodoo called The Snake God. Who thought a track called "Beryl's Tune" could be so sultry? www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhNk...

The pain in her back is what my face looks like today.

More of my recent local cheapo LP finds. Two quid. Perfect music for me on a hot and balmy Thursday night. A 1979 disco tribute to Mork & Mindy called 'Nanu Nanu' (I Wanna Funky Wich Yo) I know @looksunfamiliar.bsky.social likes these old TV tie-ins. www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_iE...

On the train today I overheard two different people on their phones use the term 'triage' in conversation . I don't remember hearing anyone say 'triage' quite so much until recently. Still not sure what it means. Is it something to do with the manufacture of cheese?

Again. A recent chazza shop LP purchase with lame cover art that has no right to be this good. I frankly despise the fact I've used that rubbish phrase and duly feel ashamed. Good track, though! www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xpi...

Again. A recent chazza shop LP purchase with lame cover art that has no right to be this good. I frankly despise the fact I've used that rubbish phrase and duly feel ashamed. Good track, though! www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xpi...

I don't see any fidget spinners around these days. Did everybody manage to finally chill out?

Picked up this LP the other day for a tenner. There is a stomping track on here I've been after for a long time. 30-60-90 from the nightclub scene in the film, Get Carter (1971). The whole album is surprisingly much better than the sleeve suggests. www.youtube.com/watch?v=fohN...

Just spotted this misspelt curry house poster tonight. Now, is that a Sunday half price offer on meals or 50% off their sundries? This might decide my entire evening.

Los Angeles 1990. "You're in there, lad!"

Chazza shop 10" mini album sleeve of the week. Military band music for psychopaths who love tanks.

I ❤️ Hornsey!

I bought this soundtrack in a chazza shop yesterday. From the illustrations in the gatefold can you tell what British film this is. Clue: it's not a political thriller. Covered up some of the giveaways, but no IMDB cheating, yeah, like you won't.

Everybody’s favourite icon slot.

Recent chazza shop badge find of the week.

Record label boss: "I need an album cover that evokes the majesty of The Earth, The Sea & The Sky. What have you got?" Art designer: "How about a picture of some rotting fish left by a sea wall with some dead butterflies pinned to them?" Record label boss: "Done. Pub?"

Spotted this in a chazza shop yesterday The record care advice on the back of the sleeve is rather redundant seeing as I will undoubtedly burn for eternity in this impending armageddon. Also In the notes, Falwell proudly recommends 'a super aggressive local church'. Hmm, not sold it to me, Jerry😬

"Ooo, it was NOT like Piccadilly Circus today." If I was a visiting tourist, I'd be really cheesed off with this dreary spectacle, irrespective of any opinion I might hold about Swedish VPN providers. Look at the effort the sky is putting in though.

If you missed the radio show I do with @simonloverules.bsky.social tonight that also featured @realpaulputner.bsky.social, you can listen again here www.mixcloud.com/NoiseboxRadi...

Gen Z! Get in early with nostalgia and start reminiscing TODAY about the hot summer of '26. Proudly remember hosepipe bans, that brief power cut, Labour PMs resigning and tell people you formed a punk band for 10 minutes after seeing the Sex Pistols feat. Frank Turner at the Isle of Wight festival.

Bought this on Friday. I'm a sucker for late 60s bubblegum psychedelia. They made one album and then vanished. Check out the typical song titles: Lemonade Parade, Yellow Brick Rainbow, Mary Had a Little Man, Yumberry Park. Linked: Mr.Henry's Lollipop Shop www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wktp...

Back in 1990, I once did a stand up routine about what will happen to the rave generation when they become pensioners. Arf. FFWD to 2026 I just saw a gurning, bare chested, bucket hat bloke in his mid 60s(?), dancing and singing 'Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)' outside Tesco.🙂

SPOILERS Just watched 2001 and I never get over the scene where HAL kills Zippy.

More perfect heatwave tunes. This dusty funk track is taken from a soundtrack for a Greek movie called Girls In The Sun (1968). #NowPlaying www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWE8...

Everyday I log on social media, various accounts ask me what my favourite movies/ actors/ albums/bands/ crisps are, and I duly answer something. Are we merely providing data for some algorithm? Amazon has just recommended me Paul Giamatti's smoky bacon flavoured rubber soul jam.

You tell the youth today that the national catchphrase in the summer of '76 was randomly shouting out a 19th century Russian composer's name, some seal barking, an operatic warble, followed by a Mike Reid impression, all while having a seizure? They won't believe you. www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9fD...

The Thing flopped at the time because apparently "audiences in 1982 were looking for heartwarming alien encounters, not a shape-shifting, Lovecraftian nightmare ending in despair" It's true. I walked out of Ghandi, Porky's and Rocky 3 because there were no heartwarming alien encounters.

The final, final round up of 2000AD stuff. The weekly alphabetical primer guide published around their 10th anniversary. Part three. S to Z.

#NowPlaying Picked up this LP for a few quid last week. Perfect heatwave music. You might know C.C.S. for the best Top Of The Pops theme (via Zep's Whole Lotta Love). Here's their beefy version of Cream's 'Sunshine Of Your Love'. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt1_...

I can't accept the possibility of having a PM called Andy. Andy is your best mate at school, Andy is that reliable plumber, Andy is a marionette who lived in a picnic basket. Andy is not an appropriate name for PM. He must revert to 'Andrew' immediately. And grow a moustache.

I think they should reconfigure the 10 Downing Street lectern into a Segway. After the resignation speech, the PM can make a smooth transition out the gates and all the way home to their constituency. Maybe that's what Johnson meant when he said 'Them's the brakes'. He was asking about the controls.

A final round up of 2000AD stuff. The weekly alphabetical primer guide published around their 10th anniversary. Part Two: J to R

Taking my parents round a garden centre this afternoon. Me: (whispering) Mum, I need to quickly sneak off to get Dad a Father's Day card, so keep him occupied Mum: (whispering) Ok. We'll look at the puzzles. A moment later. Dad: Where's Paul going? Mum: (whispering) He's needs to find you a card.

A final round up of 2000AD stuff. The weekly alphabetical primer guide published around their 10th anniversary. Part One: A to I

2000AD back page advert. Rather curiously, I used to love orange flavour Hubba Bubba. Big bubbles, No troubles, my eye! Inhaling all that air gave me chronic stomach cramps through trapped gas. They should've come with a warning.

Tying up a few loose ends now I've completed my first ten years of 2000AD covers run. Who from this holy trinity of illustrious illustrators was your favourite art droid?

For those of you who will miss my regular 2000AD prog posts, fear not. Subscribe to @thetryingscotsman.co.uk website where this fine gentleman takes a more comprehensive look at the comic. I've linked to the next prog from where I left off. thetryingscotsman.co.uk/2025/06/11/2...

Prog 520 So, I'm Deca Thargo? After two years of posting progs this is where I eject in my escape pod. Back then, life got in the way, and I couldn't get on with some of the new art styles, but looking back has been ghafflebette! Splundig vur thrigg, and long live @2000ad.bsky.social

Prog 519 Editor memo to Ezquerra. 26/4/87 "No, Carlos, I asked for 'a big, stupid RAY GUN' on the cover!"

I just saw a kid playing hoop & stick, teens riding rocking horses instead of e scooters, a little girl with rickets hugging a Bagpuss outside an antiques shop, a game of tiddlywinks, a child going up a chimney, but NOT A PHONE IN SIGHT! The ban is already working. Let's make childhoods great again

Starmer has got it wrong. Social media should be banned for the OVER-16s not the other way round. It'd make the world a better place and would also be amusing watching certain people become vapour without it. Not me though...surely?

Prog 518 If you'd have told me ten years earlier in 1977, that a 2000 AD cover would depict a pervy old dwarf checking out his naked Sting lookalike master's junk while supervised by a druid in a animal skull hat, I would've choked on my Strawberry & Cream flavour Blobs.

Happy 80th birthday today to Noddy holder!

I'm winding up my 2000 ad prog cover posts this week😢 but they'll be a few little treats along the way. 🙂 Like these four back pages. From the very start, the comic always admirably recognised its artists and writers. Did you have a favourite art droid from this quartet?

Spotted in a Charing Cross Road bookshop yesterday. Pulp paperback cover of the week. Insert the 'DJ John Peel, "Three more from them later..." silly band name joke' here.

Things they don't tell you when you hit sixty. You'll start getting recommended multiple YouTube videos from men in their sixties telling you about the things they don't tell you when you hit sixty.

I just picked up the new Edinburgh Fringe guide. For how long has the brochure had the thickness of a paving stone? The purple comedy section alone is the size of the entire guide from six years ago. How the do all these hundreds of turns afford to put on shows in these lean times?

Prog 517 "MY EYES! MY BEAUTIFUL EYES!!!" They did this subtle trick on the previous issue; making the price tag the same colour as the background so it blends in without the reader noticing the galaxy's greatest comic has just gone up a penny. Devious.

Start your run up to the weekend by listening to the lilting tones of a brass band playing The Final Countdown by Europe. Or not. www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3kT...