DEITIES Boost your followers and the global influence of your religions by doing some smiting.

I saw a chap in a beret, shirt, jumper, long beige shorts, socks pulled right up to the knee, riding a touring bike with panniers. He could've been in a character in a Jacques Tati film. He caught my eye and came over. Turns out, he's the Reform candidate for Witney East out canvassing 😩

(Mr Burns voice, rubs hands with glee) Excellent!

Saw Alan Titchmarsh at Whichford Pottery today, but didn’t get the chance to say hello.

INFERNO. 18 TRACKS. 70 MINUTES. 2xLP, CD, DIGITAL. 29 MAY 2026. boardsofcanada.com

The Qobuz Beta for desktop brings with it some big changes, so I've rebuilt my alternative theme to take these into account. The most prominent change is that they've combined Favourites, Playlists, Downloads and Purchases are now combined into ‘Library’. hicks.design/journal/qobu...

Just learnt that when you take a window screenshot in MacOS (the ol' Cmd + Shift + 4 then spacebar), if you hold option down before selecting the window, it takes it without the shadow.

20/4/26 - nocturn

If my call is so important to you, name three of my albums.

A whimsy I made for our sons’ birthday

Usborne's SUPERNATURAL GUIDES (1979): Following up on their seminal World of the Unknown trilogy, these fantastic pockets books gave kids a whole new set of nightmares (1/2)

A big shout out to all the staff of record shops across the country dealing with crowds of visitors this weekend. Record stores are the absolute best. And you can visit them most other days of the year. #RSD2026

Our “youngest” is 23 today. Crikey! It’s also Leigh and I’s 28th wedding anniversary. Double crikey!!

I’ll never forget watching The Wicker Man with my outer Hebridean mum. “I just don’t know where there got all that wicker from”

I got the @sisterraydavies.bsky.social remixes 10” and it came with a Florida style “Greetings from Holy Island” postcard 😂

Trying out the beta of Qobuz desktop, lots of nice updates in there ("order albums by release date” 😍) but a lot of new UI. Toggle switches everywhere, and I'm basically going to have to start again from scratch with my CSS theme Which is a bit like the feeling of ‘I know! I’ll redesign my site!”.

I’ve just discovered this Wikipedia page, and it’s like a Rosetta Stone of whatever the fuck young people are on about. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossar...

👉 Stop Reform t-shirts are back in my shop The UK local and Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament) elections are a few weeks away. If, like me, you want to say a resounding “no” to far-right Reform and its bigotry, racism, and xenophobia, you might like to show it stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/far-rig...

Was so sorry to leave my soup behind.

I just finished Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. I question the logic of having an introduction by another author that spoils THAT ending.

Thank you @hicks.design for this very nice write-up of Spite!

Life can be confusing.

About to attack.

Can’t bloody wait! For me the Patreon subscription was worth it just to hear @gralefrit.bsky.social and @willmac23.bsky.social talk about Logopolis.

April 15th. New BROKEN VEIL. Exclusively on Patreon Join the Broken Veil channel and we can keep making this… and so much more. For everyone who’s joined, sincere thanks from me and @willmac23.bsky.social Patreon.com/brokenveil

I’m just going to be playing this on repeat all day, apart from a short break when I go and pick up my vinyl version from TRUCK music. music.apple.com/gb/album/bir...

Hallelujah!!!

There's a new birding show on the way! Featuring Adrian Edmondson and Sam West, it'll see the pair birdwatching and talking the day away at beautiful nature reserves (including some of our own). Watch and stream on 5 from April 14th 🐦‍⬛ More details: www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen...

If by any chance you’re using my custom Qobuz theme, I’ve just posted the latest version to my site. For some reason my brain needs to see a sidebar in order for to feel like an app, so a sidebar it has got! hicks.design/journal/qobu...

My March in music, courtesy of Albums app. Blackwater Holylight’s ‘Not Here Not Gone’ got a lot of plays in this month…

Let's all chill, breathe in the wonderful @tomjnewell.bsky.social cover art and speak in colours for a while

Last night, Leigh and I got to see Tyler Ramsey (ex Band of Horses) at Oxford’s Jericho Tavern: hicks.design/journal/tyle...

OMG I FOUND IT. Literally by scrolling through my music library in release date order. I can get my life back now. www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8n1...

Having a ten minute break cos I’ve come up with today’s joke that justifies today. There’s always one. It doesn’t always make the cut. But you are allowed ten minutes to stand and salute.

Indie rock (maybe?) and in the last twenty years (maybe?)

Do you any of you know that song, that’s the last track on an album, that builds and builds and then goes: Da dadada dadada dadada DADADA dadada dadada!! Because it’s been driving me mad for weeks

do we have any Northumbrian friends here with knowledge on where to stay on Lindisfarne itself? eyeing a single night there while we’re over for tour, and all of the bookings seem to want a multi-day rental (understandably!), but thought we’d poll the folks who’d know just in case

buying the biggest waders i can find and stenciling old pete seeger lyrics onto them this is how podcasts work right, is this podcasti

Anti Far-right march, London 28th March.

Wife used “find my phone” to get my attention in Covent Garden. Nice that you get an email notification too

Go on, it's Friday, treat yourself to... a Q4 2025 edition of 'which premium streaming service pays the best / worst?'! No prizes for guessing that Spotify are easily outpaid by pretty much everyone else. Great stuff, guys! www.patreon.com/posts/stream...

Yesterday, Paul McCartney announced a new album “The Boys of Dungeon Lane”, named after where he played as a kid. In a brilliant piece of marketing, he’s inserted himself into Street View, stealing the street sign and running off with it! maps.app.goo.gl/WAGbbU9ubCuS...

Back on my music app criteria shtick again - in Tahoe 26.4, Apple Music has gained a (kind of) immersive view. Could be bigger tho.

Great Bruce Cockburn/Kim Gordon juxtaposition

Forgot the link for the aforementioned listening party. Oops, soz! deary.bandcamp.com/album/birding

Listening to the new (and debut) Deary album ‘Birding’ on the Bandcamp listening party, and it’s definitely going to feature highly on the end of year list. Absolutely sublime!! 😍

#taskmaster starts Thursday April 9th. See you there!

No other newspaper was willing to send me to Dorset to find out why half the residents of a village insisted on calling it “Sitterton”

Show somebody who absolutely rocks a hat and isn't Indiana Jones.