Two minor annoyances in This Heat (not the band): 1) Drinking so much liquid to avoid dehydration that you have to keep going to the loo. 2) Having to apply deodorant to the underboob area.

Nearly 400 local newspapers sue OpenAI, Microsoft over alleged copyright theft. newjerseyglobe.com/media/nearly...

It very much does, yes. As I recall, Ralph Thomas was generally really good on location - choosing wisely and integrating it into the storytelling.

Lovely bit of comedy timing when you see the goalkeepers.

Author career advice: MFA in creative writing ❌️ Years dedicated to reading literature ❌️ Risk personal security to hone craft ❌️ Years of writing/rewriting ❌ Become a minor celeb by exploiting the death of a snowman & another boy's work ✅️ Dry up after 2 paragraphs then ask ChatGPT to 'finish it off' ✅️

Clouded Yellow is one of my old, old favourites. I saw it one Saturday or Sunday afternoon in the 70 - very Thirty-Nine Steps-ish, but excellent nonetheless.

It's a good one. He also directed the very funny and overlooked HELTER SKELTER, and his version of THE 39 STEPS starring Kenneth More is obviously no Hitchcock, but it's a lot of fun on its own terms.

MTV let animators go wild with some insanely gruesome animated idents from the late 80s to mid 90s...

"The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day..." 🪨 Happy 'The Lottery' Day! 🪨 The wonderful 1969 adaptation would be another prime candidate to see restored and bunged onto one of those premium Folk Horror boxsets... youtu.be/HZyhVg31iaQ?...

Jun 27th 1912 - Playwright Richard Collier arrived in 1912, after using self-hypnosis to travel from the year 1972. 📽️📅 Somewhere in Time (1980)

Jun 27th 1897 - The Demeter set sail to take Dracula to England. 📽️📅 Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

This weather reminds me I have never seen HOT ENOUGH FOR JUNE (1964), a British spy comedy directed by Ralph Thomas (who I suspect is underrated, though haven't seen enough of his work to say for sure; THE CLOUDED YELLOW and DEADLIER THAN THE MALE are both excellent) and starring Dirk Bogarde.

Chris Stein, from his recent autobiography, on the trials encountered by teenagers trying to buy a little weed in New York c.1966. From long, long before there was a Blondie or a Sopranos.

Name a film with a title that is a full sentence.

Also, if you listen to Bo Diddley’s Where It All Began on Spotify it does not do this.

Barely a day goes by without me thinking about Jim McGuinn being urged by a guru to change his name to something more spiritual and him choosing ROGER

1/4. Frida Kahlo photographed by Nickolas Muray. Some of the photos in this thread are currently on display as part of Tate Britain's Frida: The Making of an Icon exhibition.

Catatonic #caturday

His nibs on #DisclosureDay. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/06/25/c...

Does anyone know of a definitive list of the concrete murals of Henry Collins and Joyce Pallot? This Surbiton example is a favourite of mine, and their work in places like Colchester (where they were based), Southampton and Newcastle is well known. But what of the rest?

he can be a little possessive

A man. Looking right at you. Painted by Giorgione, whose day was today.

Not to be all "this is what they took from us" about this but this is how they filmed the high speed train fight in the first film compared to how they filmed the high speed train fight in the penultimate film. Which of the two most looks like Tom Cruise is really on top of a fast moving train

Day 3: Gashed leg on language laboratory console podium.

Furiouser and Furiouser Seattle is lucky enough to be home to the best film critic on the topic of action movies in the business. His name is Vern and his blog is a... https://paulconstant.com/2026/06/26/furiouser-and-furiouser/

This is very good.

Not even going to attempt to sleep in the bedroom tonight, which is two crucial degrees warmer than the living-room (perhaps because it faces east, as opposed to north-east). So - sprawled on the sofa in front of the fan and with a constant drip-feed of water it is.

The sexual tension between these two is off the charts

"You have been out ALL DAY, human. This is not acceptable."

No ice cream in Sainsbury’s, all the freezers are fucked. Closest alternative was a can of beef madras, so I got four of those

Forecast originally predicted it would be cooler tomorrow, but obviously that was optimistic. Méteo is now predicting it will be almost as hot as today, day AND night (max 35°, min 23°). Will this fucking canicule never end? (The 2003 one went on for two weeks; not sure I could survive that again.)

I doubt ”Disclosure Day” will be anything like as good.

The famous airport scene climax of #TheBigCombo has drawn comparison to Casablanca as a kind of low-rent version of the latter film’s ending. But Casablanca had Van Nuys Airport and an army of little people to cheat perspective. Alton had two lights and a fog machine. #TheNoirCollective #FrightClub

Cat: I must adopt this peculiar pose in order to combat the infernal heat. Also cat: I intend to perform this act on the warmest blanket in the house. Still cat: Don’t even.

Does anyone else sing songs to their cats about how soft they are?

LINDA LINDA LINDA (2005) at De Cinema this evening. Two concerns: a) can I make it there without getting heatstroke if I walk eally slowly? (normally a fast walker, but suspect it's not a great idea in this heat) + b) can I sit through it without falling asleep thanks to last night being 25°?

It was so much fun to revisit this film, and I really think I nailed the liner notes.

Everyone really great. Met a girl called Jo.

The version of The Wicker Man that we would all love to see!

It might be a nasty little film – not in a good nasty way – but the Roy Budd soundtrack is super balearic. Frank Tope and Dan Foat did a masterful, pressed loud-as-fuck edit of it under their Wild Geese alias

This alert came through on our smartphones a few seconds before that quake.

I eventually learned that the movie's even more rabidly right-wing than it had seemed when I saw it; as a Canadian, I was just baffled by the use of "O Christmas Tree" over a list of terror attacks. I now know Labour Party anthem "The Red Flag" has the same melody. Fairport Convention were in this!

The Fourth Protocol is also an "interesting" rewatch for many similar reasons. There's a streak of pro-Tory/anti left wing layered on top of the plot ( iirc it's even worse in the book). Putting the hackneyed plot aside, seeing 80s London in WDW is a hoot. Yet to be scrubbed up.

The Tempest, 1505, the most unfathomable of Giorgione's paintings. Every interpretation of it feels so inadequate. Today is Giorgione's day.

Searching for images of Judy Davis in an evening frock with a Beretta M12 in WHO DARES WINS (1982)* I stumbled across this deranged dance number, which I don't remember AT ALL. (*reprehensible pro-SAS film that conflates CND with terrorism, though it might have acquired kitsch cachet over the years)

Am so thrilled that The Box in Plymouth has been named the 2026 Art Fund Museum of the Year. It truly is one of the best museums I've ever been to in the UK - and is such a lovely place to visit. No trip to the SW should miss it out.

I am currently in Bratislava where it is about the same temperature as Cambridge, and I can confidently assert that what Cambridge needs is a vast cavernous and reasonably cool restaurant in a former theatre serving beer and sausages. Cheers!

I went to college for criminology and I still remember the pit in my stomach hearing the portmanteau “murderabilia” for the first time, just the idea of it. I studied crime, I know firsthand there are absolutely ways to learn about it in non-sensational ways, but this? Nope. Absolutely despicable.