This week we noted the similarity of the cartoon of local radio personality Nic Tuff with @theblender.online's very own national treasure @rikward.com. What do you think, readers?

Somewhat proud and yet mildly upset to have been mentioned in this episode in comparison to a drawing of a person (who I am sure looks lovely in real life, and has an ace name) which has made them look a bit like a gently-melting wax effigy.

Coming up this Thursday... episode 5

THE PERIPHERY is back on @noiseboxradio.com today at 5pm! Expect medieval drone, ambient harp electronica, kosmische musik-influenced pastoral indiepop and more! Make sure you stay for A-POP! with @wcba.bsky.social straight after too!

Laardvarks on tour

Lads on tour @benbaker.bsky.social @alfsplaining.bsky.social @thecubanboys.bsky.social

Where Is The Lube?

You Can't Hurry Lube

From Russia With Lube

Moments In Lube

Lube Changes (Everything)

I Lube U Baby

Lube Shine A Light

Save Your Lube

Lube Will Tear Us Apart

The NOW 13 holy trinity... I Want Your Lube I Don't Want Your Lube Lube Is All That Matters

Nothing's Gonna Change My Lube For You

What Is Lube?

Bizarre Lube Triangle

Lube In An Elevator

I Believe In A Thing Called Lube

You Give Your Lube A Bad Name

[I am your] Automatic Luber

What Time Is Lube?

Your annual reminder that your monthly metrics will be 9% lower in February because February is 9% shorter than January.

Thanks to everyone who listens to the live show I do. Its all over the place but hopefully fun with it. The show is on my Patreon now for those lovely people who support me. And there's a special alternate ending! www.patreon.com/BenBaker2000

The last of my 2025 list vids is up: the best albums, EPs, deluxe editions and compilations that had some notable focus on remixes to them. But that would be a terrible title, so I'm just going with Best Remix Albums Of 2025. youtu.be/xg8IJOa7nd4?...

Count the purple dots

Fancy seeing the top 10 budget games from January 1987? Ignoring the obvious error at the top about the games being over £4 but a shout out to 180, I loved playing that darts game. Still do now nearly 40 years on! #80s #retrogaming From @ttxarchaeologist.bsky.social

God forbid that we accept that some quite specific, but legitimate problems are better solved by sensibly implemented <iframe>s than anything else, I suppose.

🏮CONTENT WARNING!🏮 🏮NUDITY!🏮 🏮MICHAEL WINNER!🏮 This month on PantoSplaining: once again we get distracted onto topics that have nothing to do with the poster we're discussing. Linktr.ee/PantoSplaining

From the album Failure Is Inevitable here's 'I Wonder Where The Wonder Goes'

🚨 ⏸️ THE BLENDER IS GOING ON PAUSE TEMPORARILY ⏸️ 🚨 Not that we want to, you understand, believe it or not (we wouldn't blame you either way). We'll be back as soon as we can. In the meantime we're going to have one final blowout. THE BLENDER'S ONE FOR THE ROAD Saturday 17th Jan @ 12pm Join us!

Oh, Dizzy. How far you've fallen :(

Tailwind CSS has had to layoff 3 out of 4 developers due to impact of AI on their business. Their business model is to upsell to their paid UI components from their developer docs. But AI usage has caused traffic to their docs to drop -40% and revenue has dropped -80%. Another victim of AI tool use

It bears repeating: music lovers use their hi-fi to listen to music. Audiophiles use music to listen to their hi-fi.

* Clap your hands * Sleep * Wave your hands * Hitch a ride * Sneeze * Go for a walk * Lets see you swim * Now ski * Spray * Macho man * Sound your horn * Ring the bell * Okay * Kiss * Comb your hair * Wave your hands * Come on wave your hands * Superman!

My unachieveable goal for 2026 is to make something as good as this photo I took when cat-sitting Bella

REMINDER

Happy New Year to all my tiny friends who live in my phone, from an 11% stout and a dog called Frank.

On the final day of the year: This is a Manifesto, the final page. What's next? 🔊 Movement in That, the final extract.

For my last review of 2025, we're looking at the new queen of sample-based dance pop, PinkPantheress, who celebrated her breakout mixtape Fancy That with a star-studded 22 track remix version titled Fancy Some More? But will you? youtu.be/lqQWe2eeP9s

Far too many people are like "those are not the same windows" and like... I'm sorry you're unable to do pattern recognition, you should talk to someone about that.

this is a beautiful homage by my friend and colleague Claer Barrett to recently-departed FT reader Bruce Dalton, which she read at his funeral last week

Finally, technology has achieved what mankind has been dreaming of since time immemorial

Cunk spittin Christmas cheer

I always forget to hype this until it's too late youtu.be/kIQbdkF4nZw?... It's one of the best things I've ever been involved with. @helenlove1.bsky.social

Tonight's after party after yesterday was a cash grab on my emotions. But happiness was unlocked! Highlights from the war against beige drinking conversating

I attended an absolute fever dream last night @ricardoautobahn.co.uk

Take a listen to this! Chock full of new, old, and unreleased stuff from all over the place, tons of new stuff from us at The Blender studios and hopefully all the effort everyone put in really shows. And if it doesn't, at least you get to listen to the best band in the universe.