I love George Harrison, but I have to say he has gone down severely in my estimation now I know he had a coat fashioned for himself out of a whole wookiee.

What is the most underrated Bob Dylan album, and why is it this one?

The latest episode of THREADS is all about OPPOSITE SONGS. "Yesterday" vs. "Tomorrow"! "Stairway To Heaven" vs. "Highway To Hell"! "Love Will Keep Us Together" vs. "Love Will Tear Us Apart"! Spoiler: you won't hear any of those. But you'll hear lots of others. Link in reply.

When I saw this Panorama-based story about the torments inflicted upon British Jews in their home country, on the BBC News site, c. 7.15 am, it had been filed to "Middle East". Minutes later, it had been corrected to "UK". I would be interested to hear the BBC's explanation for the original error.

Want to know what I made of the whole Kanye West/Wireless Festival farrago? Of course you do. Read all about it in @jewishchron.bsky.social - link in reply.

ngl, they can name their price for me to watch this on pay-per-view.

Blasting off from the archive and splashing down on your weekend via the far side of the moon, it's a topical THREADS packed with space songs and cosmic tunes. You can voyage to infinity and beyond with the link in reply.

It's Easter Sunday, and the current edition of THREADS - on @slackcityradio.bsky.social via @totallyradio.bsky.social - covers EASTER EVERYWHERE. Hear it via the link in the reply, if you want a deep dive into Easter-related music variously sacred, secular, profane or other. And if you don't, don't.

Happy "Let my people go"/"YOU KILLED CHRIST!" weekend (delete as applicable) to all who celebrate. I'm in this week's @jewishchron.bsky.social, writing about how I still love the art of people who seemingly hate me. (Link in reply.)

I interviewed Will Self for @jewishchron.bsky.social, and found a man in some ways profoundly changed from the one who notoriously "resigned" as a Jew twenty years ago, while in others still very much at odds with mainstream Jewry - but seeking to mend fences. Link in reply.

It's Tuesday, and there's a new episode of THREADS up, on the hotly topical theme of EASTER EVERYWHERE. You can hear it on @slackcityradio.bsky.social, via @totallyradio.bsky.social, through the link in the comments. Or, if you prefer, you can not do that. Free will innit.

New THREADS is up, y'all, on @slackcityradio.bsky.social via @totallyradio.bsky.social, and this episode is about MISLEADING INTROS - when you think a song is going to be one thing, and it turns out to be quite another. Link in reply, natch.

I believe this is what is known as "failing to read the room".

10/10 conceptual gag, no notes.

I mean, technically, it probably was, but I'm not sure that's what you meant.

After it was discovered blu-tacked to the door of Mr and Mrs Rembrandt's fridge.

Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

And is currently sitting unanswered in my email inbox.

JUST WATCH ME.

Friends and companions of THREADS - you may have noticed, or you may not have, that there was no new episode this week, owing to various bits of me falling off. BUT! There is an updated repeat with much improved audio, on the theme of ANIMALS, and you can find the link in reply.

Yes, and I remain outraged at this kink-shaming assault on my civil liberties.

We all love "Running Up That Hill", but nobody actually likes dancing to it.

Worst. Superhero movie. Ever.

I wonder what his tactical approach is?

The latest episode of THREADS, the radio show about musical connections, is up on @slackcityradio.bsky.social, via @totallyradio.bsky.social, and it's all about ALTER EGOs. You, or your doppelgänger, can hear it via the link in reply.

On reading this headline I immediately pictured a bunch of coppers doing a Kenneth Williams impression and now I'm going to hell.

This really shouldn't need saying in 2026 but apparently does: if you have a problem with the "revealing" outfit a woman pop star wears to the Grammys, that is exclusively, 100% your problem and 0% hers or anyone else's.

This is what would have happened if the waxworks on the cover of Sgt. Pepper had.replaced the actual Beatles for the next three years.

Rejoice*, for the latest episode of THREADS is here! This time our theme is FAMOUS BUT UNDERRATED - big (or biggish) names in music who don't get the artistic credit or the cultural cred they're due. Link in reply, natch.

Who wore it better?

GARY LARSON WAS RIGHT

TIL that AI engines will not create an image of a Japanese Mayor Quimby for you, because it would violate The Simpsons' intellectual property.

"He was a moral writer from the outset, as is Dostoevsky, whose life is not there to be emulated, or Tolstoy. Yet we tend to forgive them in ways we refuse to forgive Roth.” Steven J. Zipperstein tells me about his excellent new book on Philip Roth in @jewishchron.bsky.social . (Link in reply.)

New year new THREADS. The first episode of 2026 is up (link in reply), and now playtime is over, it's all about FINEST WORKSONGS - the tunes you hear in your head or in your headphones when getting things done. Now grease yourselves up and go in, you guff-speaking work-slackers!

"Have you found Sir Keir yet?" "Er... no, Prime Minister." "Well, keep looking, he has to be in here somewhere. Have you tried the meter cupboard?"

No new THREADS this week on @slackcityradio.bsky.social via @totallyradio.bsky.social: the studio was closed for business on Boxing Day, and so was I. BUT! You can, if you care to, hear an improved edit of this seasonally appropriate repeat to bring in the new year: SONGS OF RENEWAL. Link in reply.

I'm calling it: time of political death: 10 am, Friday 19th December, 2025.

Ruh-roh.

At last, you can stop holding your breath - here are my ten favourite albums of the year for @metro.co.uk, in alphabetical order, featuring @cmatbaby.bsky.social, @immersionhq.bsky.social, @gweniferraymond.bsky.social and @theweatherstation.bsky.social.

"In many ways The Effingers is a traditional family saga. In one particular way, it is quite unlike any other, and that is in the way it has to end." I reviewed a new translation of Gabriele Tergit’s magnificent 1951 roman-fleuve of German Jewish life for @jewishchron.bsky.social. (Link in reply.)

The final new THREADS episode of the year is up, on @slackcityradio.bsky.social via @totallyradio.bsky.social, and there's nothing complicated about the theme: ICYMI: 2025 - a roundup of my favourite new music of the year. Link in reply, for them as wants it.

"Melancholia bathes Wish You Were Here like cold moonlight. It is so very sad, and so very lovely." I revisited the album I consider Pink Floyd's true masterpiece for its 50th anniversary edition, in Metro.

Well, I'm glad he's cleared that up at last, the uncertainty was starting to eat away at me.

>Nobody so exactly represents the evolution of mainstream American pop from 1960s teen bubblegum to 1970s singer-songwriter introspection, because nobody else ever stood at the pinnacle of both. I reviewed Jane Eisner's illuminating Carole King bio for @jewishchron.bsky.social: link in reply.

Enjoying the byline of this article's author. Presumably Kate Busset, Alex Khachatrain and Mike Onyabike were busy on other assignments.

No new THREADS on @slackcityradio.bsky.social this week coz I is sick innit and not in the good way. BUT! You can hear a new, improved edit from the archive, care of @totallyradio.bsky.social, if you care to, on the theme of ANIMALS. Link in reply, natch.

Your Tiny Hand Is Frozen

Happy Black Friday, y'all.

The budget will cost my necessarily frugal household money we could well use, but I won't be complaining, because I'm not 12, I can grasp that a functioning country needs paying for, and I can understand the difference between something that isn't fair and something I simply don't like.

Ninja-level trolling by the Guardian picture desk to find a photo where he appears to have had a Social Justice Warrior hairdo.