A Liverpool sailor named John Robinson spotted a mermaid combing her hair on Black Rock. Entranced by her beauty, he took her onto his boat. She gave him a ring as a token of a forced sea-marriage. He returned home safely but tragically died exactly five days later of a broken heart. #WyrdWednesday

So after spending years posing as a political martyr for being "debanked", we now find out Nigel Farage was also reported by bankers to the National Crime Agency over money laundering concerns, after secretly taking millions of pounds from a crypto billionaire

UK/US: A mysterious stranger visits a dysfunctional family in one of Takashi Miike’s most shocking and transgressive films, VISITOR Q. Using a new transfer of the original master beta tape, our release features new interviews with Miike as well as stars Kenichi Endo and Showko Nakahara.

It's worth stressing that we have rules around political funding to protect our entire democracy. The voters of one constituency might be fine with their MP breaking those rules. But they can't release their MP from them, because a single MP on the take is a danger to the whole system.

Goodbye to all that. I'm not the Children's Laureate any more. I hope people will be as supportive of @lawrencepatrice.bsky.social as they were of me ...

RIP Tony Rayns, British writer, commentator, film festival programmer, screenwriter, East Asian film specialist, died aged 78. He wrote for underground mag Cinema Rising before 21 years' worth of columns in Monthly Film Bulletin. Read all his BFI work here: www.bfi.org.uk/profile/tony...

In a more logical world, the government would be piling money into the grassroots of a £150 billion industry with massive global reach which is growing at over twice the rate of the rest the economy as a whole.

Sachiko Kazama: as politically and philosophically intense as Masamune Shirow, as artistically exacting as Hirohiko Araki. The artificial divisions between fine art and popular culture make less and less sense. www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2026...

A global franchise as a force for good in Japanese communities: the Pokemon With You Foundation is supporting those affected by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake at the airport, on railway stations and at local amenities and festivals. mainichi.jp/english/arti...

In 2028 #anime and #manga celebrate the birth centenary of OsamuTezuka. In 2029 we mourn the 40th anniversary of his passing and the end of the Showa era, and celebrate the 50th anniversary of #GUNDAM. There's still time for museums and galleries to add audience-pleasing events to their programmes.

SKIP AND LOAFER Vol. 12 The award-winning romantic comedy manga about a country girl chasing her dreams in Tokyo–and don’t miss the anime! Out today in print/digital! See RETAILERS section: sevenseasentertainment.com/books/skip-a...

Cast yourself as a villain

17th century kosode/kimono. Tokyo National Museum

Dan Dair N. 1 (1962) French cover of Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future

If the 60% of Britons who think Nigel Farage hasn't been honest all lived in Clacton, that might impact his latest publicity stunt. Yet Clacton voters think it's perfectly OK that he's not always told the whole story or even shown up to work very much. Is that their idea of "relatable"?

Does the world need more Elvis covers? Definitely, especially like this one.

Patrice is a brilliant choice, she's going to do great work in this role. Can't wait!

We really should stop buying things and dumping them. Behaving like an overindulged child is a choice, and not a flattering look.

This sounds like my kind of book!

Can we please make it illegal for anyone to kill ANYTHING "for recreational purposes"? In an allegedly animal-loving, allegedly Christian society, killing living things for fun is neither necessary nor civilised.

Stymied datacentre projects threaten global AI revolution

The Internet loves Jucika so I think it could go equally nuts for mademoiselle Jeanne from the Gaston Lagaffe comics by Franquin.

Today I learned that there are only three English cities with an electrical consumption greater than 200 megawatts: London, Manchester and Birmingham. By comparison, the people who want to build AI data centres here, which nobody asked for, want a supply of up to 1 gigawatt (1,000 megawatts) for […]

One of Studio Ghibli's more obscure productions was released on this day 20 years ago! The Night of Taneyamagahara is a half-hour straight-to-DVD release based on a Miyazawa Kenji story and directed by background artist Oga Kazuo.

#FarageLies #FarageBribes www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Gerard 'PJ' Browne - Sexy Lady [St. Kitts and Nevis, funk/disco] (1980) https://redd.it/5qzthg https://youtu.be/ak8T8DIRN_c

Agree. Genuinely believe dark forces and its money has been behind this and a mostly older female group has been radicalised. (Using Mumsnet & other platforms)

Labour asks Electoral Commission to investigate claims Farage broke electoral law by not disclosing gifts – UK politics live

Wild Fire - Sexy Lady You [Trinidad & Tobago, Calypso/Funk] (1979) https://redd.it/5uup49 https://youtu.be/P0zk4FYmBc0

#SomethingBeautiful - a charming visitor

Wake up, babe, cool genre dad's Criterion Closet just dropped. No surprising choices whatsoever but he's not wrong about any of them. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoXY...

Can't have too much Kenny Everett. Not at all American although never less than completely OTT.

This recalls Peter S. Beagle's beautiful and very disturbing story 'Julie's Unicorn'. What do we want from unicorns? Why do we want to trap them?

The Nomads - Where the wolfbane blooms [Sweden, garage] (1983/playbacking on TV 1985) https://redd.it/6mkylj https://youtu.be/NhI4LHfW8J8

I know it's a way off, but we will survive this climate disaster of a summer, and on 1st September I'll be in the glorious city of Exeter talking about #StudioGhibli for #SeedTalks - come and join me at the Phoenix! Tickets here: tinyurl.com/3vudahw7

Final stretch for our base goal for next year! Help us raise our pay rates and grab cool rewards in the process! 💜

La Kabala - El Cumbanchero [Mexico, Psych/Funk] (1972) https://redd.it/12iy95k https://youtu.be/yKruQrMNMH8

New Gengoroh Tagame: always worth a read.

Martian Successor Nadesico, Stellvia and 5 other series will be available for free on Youtube in honor of director Tatsuo Sato, who passed away in April. I always wanted to watch these two anime!

I think by saying "nothing is going to happen" you are basically ensuring nothing is going to happen. That sentiment is heard and understood by elected leaders who have the power and the means to make something happen.

If you love Lupin III, follow TabbieWolf on Ko-Fi for cool stickers, enamel pins and general Lupintic insanity. ko-fi.com/tabbiewolf

Hey butterflies, I've set up a Ko-Fi page - partly to give me a space for stuff that doesn't fit here/website, and partly to solicit donations for chocolate. Visit, invite your friends. No subscription needed, open access to all posts and an honesty box. ko-fi.com/helenmccarth...

Am melting, send firemen with hoses. Hunky is fine but TBH really cold water is the main thing.

チェリッシュ - 鬼遊び [Japan, Kayōkyoku] (1977) https://redd.it/kyzayy https://youtu.be/Y-5ZilLuMGg

Poetry can do so many things ...

Our current bestsellers! www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/booklists/ou...

Looks like the Sony PR team has begun its consent manufacturing operation among the media in the past 24 hours. I wonder how many other gaming outlets and influencers this week will also happen to put up posts/articles/videos declaring that eliminating physical media from consoles is good, actually?

Heh. but also an opportunity for a fun history fact: The Normans were more descendents of kids of Norse settlers in Britain setting up in France than Scandinavian. Partly why they worked so hard to paint themselves as the latter, culturally. Medieval version of Americans pretending to be Irish.