Football fans! Get ready for the World Cup with our author event on Thursday.

I found it! The algorithm brought it back to me

Love a World Cup year. Adverts lose their minds. Hi I'm Jordan Pickford, and I know a thing or two about a safe pair of hands, which is why I use Infurnos for all my pet cremation needs.

Look at this AI crap. From indiepop 'DIY' people. I saw a clearly AI video clip from a band this week as well. Did the Sarah Records guys live through bedsit linocut copydex payphone hell for you to press the magic world-draining button and call it creative work? Stick it up your arse.

On 25th June we’re delighted to welcome author @emilygarside.bsky.social to discuss Rainbow Wales: Queer Icons Past and Present, an exciting, inspiring tour of figures from culture and sport to politics and activism. Tickets: tinyurl.com/yrcxyc5e @cardiff-hub.bsky.social

Come and warm up for the World Cup, as we’re joined by three football experts on Thursday 11th June – authors James Bennett, Mark Orton and Rhys Richards. Tickets are free - book now! tinyurl.com/yrcxyc5e @cardiff-hub.bsky.social

Something I think about far too often is when a magazine took the band Sugababes to meet Lionel Richie, and he announced himself into the room with the words "Hello... is it me you're looking for?" HE ACTUALLY DOES THAT.

I'm sorry what? As part of its 1987 rebrand British Rail's sectorised freight business Railfreight had its own branded After Eight mints and called them AFTER FREIGHT!?

Fin de saison Martin Salter

Anthony Head was an Ambassador for Battersea Dogs and Cats home for more than two decades. Thanks for everything Tony x

What's the Frenchest film you've ever seen? Because I have just watched Jean-Paul Belmondo batter someone with a croissant.

We never shut up about it!! And we decided. If you've ever worn a verucca sock in a dilapidated victorian swimming pool, you're British.

Nice piece below from Bill Cummings on the Slippers record - out today on Bandcamp. Would add that it sounds more natural and direct than her old band Le Pain, while also reminiscent of Tony Molina's On This Day; another record of short, Beatlesy songs. tonymolina650.bandcamp.com/album/on-thi...

Look, I'm not falling for this twice.

"My art does not require explanation."

Me with the guys at Green Man festival, waiting for Father Jean Mitski.

Uh-oh. Think I've just enjoyed my first Father John Misty song. Don't wanna be one of those guys, but it's just so nouveau-Gainsbourg, the bastard.

Me, flirting.

I'm now seeing indiepop bands using AI for content. FUCK OFF. AI IS THE ENEMY OF DIY.

Westminster MPs have until the end of the month to reject the proposed anti-trans guidance. If you haven’t written to your MP yet, here’s a good template for you to use. writetheletter.bimini.workers.dev

Repost the Leather Dachshund from Seattle Pride 1991 to be blessed this Pride Month!

‘Menagerie Street’ by @poetryhilary.bsky.social is a striking debut inspired by Thrutopia. With wit, tenderness and hope, she asks how we live, love and act together, offering poems that are by turns funny, unsettling and quietly exhilarating. Publishing 22 July www.serenbooks.com/book/menager...

A little note to Cardiff people that you can watch films and TV series for free on Kanopy, if you have a library card. And they now have both Bait and Enys Men by Mark Jenkin. Oh and Lukas Moodyson's Lilya 4-Ever, if you wanna be haunted for several years.

The Christopher Wool piece below seems kinda Manics-y, with the stencilling and slightly military feel. Might well have been an inspiration. Reminds me of the band's later album Know Your Enemy from 2001, its cover itself a Neale Howells painting beneath the lettering.

When you support artists, you're supporting real people who put their heart and soul into their work. When you use genAI images, you're contributing to excessive energy and water usage, plus the theft from human artists who have had their work fed into AI without consent.

Nothing like coming in from a pleasant day out to find one of the largest house spiders you've ever seen on the bedroom curtain. 😬

The only correct policy. Always.

Just seen a call-out for poets where the festival will be "showcasing writing on the general theme of 'togetherness'". Oh, is it for children? Are we making a fucking quilt? Kum by ya, lads, so I can kick you in your banal, pathetic chops. Less earnest shit, more weirdness plz.

Eaten out twice.

Painting by John Sloan ‘Sunday, Women Drying Their Hair.’ 1912. Oil on canvas. Size 66.3 x 81.7 cm.

She promptly escaped to the Los Angeles underground where she survives as a soldier of fortune…

beautiful piece of art from a small child at my work today

this poncy middle class festival is getting ripped on Facebook for having a dress code lol

New dictionary definition of 'inessential' unlocked: I've just found out there's a Warren Zevon tribute album from 2004 on which Werewolves of London is performed by ADAM SANDLER.

so...shirtless

There are many annoying things about Girls & Boys by Blur - a patronising barrel of nonsense, a waste of a disco bassline. But perhaps the worst is, after "following the herd / down to Greece", the inclusion of the totally unnecessary words "on holiday". WE UNDERSTAND.

"Got any booze for t'baby?"

I'd forgotten the string coda at the end of Getting Away With It by Electronic! What a lovely touch, reminiscent of the string sound on early Bjork records. Arguably launches the 90s vogue for strings on indie records, explored here by Bill Cummings... www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2024/04/18/s...

NEW EXAMPLE FOR FONT LESSON JUST DROPPED

I think one thing the AI age has taught me is how many of my colleagues: 1. genuinely hate writing. 2. are bad at writing. 3. are bad at assessing writing. 4. really do not care about how the writing gets done. Which seems bad, because writing=thinking.

Cunt now looks like Steven Berkoff phoning in a Bond villain.

Quite rough but enjoyable.

Save our books/ achubwch ein llyfrau: Sign and share Arwyddwch a rhannwch: tinyurltinyurl.digital/qhc4cs #saveourassl #library #uniquebooks #silentstudyspace #booksunderthreat

Sign our petition Arwyddwch ein deiseb tinyurl.digital/qhc4cs Library assistant and poet Catrin Mari uses one book, 'Afonydd' (Arachne Press) to discuss reasons why you should support #saveourassl Instagram @catrinmari.poetry #saveourassl Have you signed yet/ ydych chi wedi arwyddo eto?

Vermeer’s Girl With The Pearl Earring will be shown in Osaka, later this year, and the press conference was as Japanese as you’d expect #Vermeer

Under a trans flag sky, a metal mayfly escapes the moon. 🌔

Anyone fancy some tapes? Recently dug through a box and found (note original price stickers!): The Police - Outlandos D'Amour Radiohead - Kid A PJ Harvey - Dry Mansun - Little Kix Audio on the Police album is faded and boomy, others are pretty good. Offers considered. I sure don't need 'em.

This Saturday, I'm teaching online my workshop on getting your poetry into better and better magazines. Please share, and feel free to ask any questions! My work has been published in Boston Review, The New Republic, The New Statesman, Poetry Review, TLS, etc....

*Partridge voice* I actually bought one of these from Leigh Delamere services in 2004; a place I've always considered one of the classier stops along the M4 corridor. A rest, a discreet wee, and you're back underway - just a few miles from the amenities of Swindon.