Was looking at descriptions of events at a few literary festivals there. So many contained: X's work has "explored" shame and identity. Can we have a year without literary events being stuffed with people who 'explore' shame, identity, and trauma? One year about art? Please.

I have zero respect for anyone who says who a person is should in any way influence whether or not their work should receive institutional support. One criteria matters: quality. Solipsism is not a quality.

Ah it's good to have a pint in the Dublin local.

One day soon rappers will boast of their wealth by rhyming about drinking civet coffee.

There's not a day that goes by that I don't wonder how half the US electorate was so idiotic in voting for putrid bilge in a barely viable skin suit. There's not a single thing that wouldn't be improved by having an inanimate carbon rod instead.

One of my longest held beliefs is we should reintroduce horses in cities and ban cars, excepting the countryside.

An excerpt of a reading, featuring a little bit of a work in progress. www.youtube.com/watc... #writing #literature #irishwriting #ireland #dublin #poetry #art

New work in StepAway magazine. The Spanish Arch stepawaymagazine.com... The whole issue is very much worth a read! @StepAwayMag @StepAwayMag.bsky.social #writing #poetry #literature #art #Galway #Ireland #irishwriting

Solipsism, the little word that explains a lot.

90% of contemporary literature is neoliberalism made manifest.

The Irish ability to say how'r'yah, while locking eyes and being happy serves us all well. When being eyeballed by burly men angry at my decision to ponce around in bright pink, it is even more delightful

Reading some new work at The Alcove: Poetry in Edinburgh this Friday, in The Strathmore Bar Leith, from 7 PM. You should come. It'll be fun. For sure, there'll be reading from myself & Hadley Jaemes Hoyles, and Anton playing the blues, as Mr. Springwater, and many others booked!

Has anyone made a nice looking car since the 50s? I know nothing about cars, and I don't drive. Mainly I just they're all ugly.

An artist's politics are categorically irrelevant when assessing the quality of their art. This also means bad work by good people should not be lauded for who they are. It's just got to sing. That's all that matters.

Something I could never ever say: 'I'm detoxxing.' There's a level of ghastly cringeworthy language that's naff, dweeby, and aesthetically horrifying, which has crept into normal speech. It's also v. narcissitic. Why not just: 'No pints this week, I'm giving my liver a holiday.'

Buy this book: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/... It will improve your sex life. It will improve your reason. It will make you a better person. Buy the book.

So strange things in life. Friend needs to know what tea a northern Irish man drinks, for work. Honestly, I've no idea. Turns out, unless I'm told else wise... Unionists: Thompson's, easily: punjana, otherwise the classic trio of Barry's, Lyon's and Bewley's.

Strange quirks of life. Friend needs to know what tea a 'sleb drinks in Northern Ireland. Final concl

Okay, so, I need to be able to rate things 3/5 without it being a complaint. No Chris, 3/5 does not mean I have to explain issues. It means it was totally and utterly banal and fine. I do not give someone five stars for fine. I'm European. Adapt your flipping software.

8am taxi to the orthodontist. Wonderful woman. Deary me, I've never had a fourth minute chat about pickles before. Woe

"etchings of a complex choral unity ... promp[t] fat fruits to turn host and heavy womb." Formicidae, 1st published in Dreich, '20 A new work, a wild epic, is coming later this year, the Kerygma, through Salmon #Poetry #writingcommunity #art #writing #books #publishing

Going to start sharing my published work again, as I did between '24 and '25, not including the work in books. Partly, because I feel like it, and partly because, with a book coming out relatively soon, it makes perfect sense :)

A wee blast from the past www.youtube.com/watc... @Liac_Scot

If you missed it, today's (correct) lit pile on slams the awful quality & that it somehow = an $150,000 award. I too adore bathing equatorial sweat and pheromones, but prefer being slick as seal-pups. Adds extra dimensions - the transgressive jouissance of love in an age of decentralized speciation

Me: perform complex tasks to deadlines, juggling multiple priorities, aye yeah. Also me: take old but good boots eight minutes to shoe repair guy - takes almost two years.

I've just finished Strumpet City. It's a masterpiece.

Anyone stating that writers don't need to read is a charlatan. Anyone who tries to counter this by saying it's ableist to say so is a charlatan who works in admin. If you don't read, you'll make a dreadful writer. Moreover, if you don't read, you'll be a lesser person.

Dumb question, but how cold does it have to get on a Friday night for a northern Innuit to go, 'yeah, screw that, I'm staying in, it's too cold'? -40 perhaps?

Just finished watching Brideshead Revisited (1981) ... absolutely stunning. Masterpiece.

Be careful, or the Chinese will steal your ice hockey... Next up: how time travel saved curling from the clutches of Mao Zedong.

Whenever I see anyone in hippy garb, advising another to do their research, I sigh. Somehow their research always results in the need to roll a six sided dice near a moderately cantankerous cat to discover that the solution is a documentary about 5g sea lice and oatcakes.

I propose a one year ban on jeans and white trainers, to remind people it is possible to wear something different.

90% of the human race dresses like a grumpy mother had to dress her child in a hurry in an outlet ski store in the dark.

One of the oddest things in modernity is how much so many people undervalue the joy of food. A delicious late Sunday breakfast provides so much happiness.

Back in the 90s, as a teen, I supported the 'blue ribbon campaign' to stop government censorship of the internet. I now realise, I was absolutely and categorically wrong. We should have let government take control, then and there.

On WashPo, are there any old legacy minded philanthropists who could give the 300 fired start-up cash to bootstrap a trust-owned paper? There's literally the exact talent to start a full paper next week, with some ad men and finance needed. Lean, mean, & angry. It's perfect.

One day, perhaps, the 90% of Gen-Z, who can't stop waggling their feet or wiggling their legs, at all times, will learn how to sit still. I've never quite understood why they are such ferocious adepts of constantly fidgeting. Did their parents never say, stop fidgeting?

I'd recommend people in the US read this book today.

Remembering the guy at house parties who always tries to take over the music to play you 'real hot shit,' in other words, the seven millionth attempt to play arcade five, the flaming lips, and, maybe, Beirut. Is he still a thing?

Strumpet City What a line.

Good stuff for a Saturday afternoon.

From now on, imagine Trump's speeches in valley girl vocal fry. 'oh my gawd, it's juhst soh unfair, we got everything, then we wanted more and they said no? Like worst people ever!' Then you realise how small, how weak the man really is. A petulant embarrassment.

Slightly surreal listening to Schwab's do-de-da-do-de-da-do earnings call pre-call muzak for work, when everyone in the world is listening to the orange nitwit at Davos.

Christ, minus 7 outside, inside this taxi, his thermostat's at 35... And he's wearing a bubble boiler coat... God damn, why!? Just because it's freezing out, doesn't mean beach weather inside... I'm dressed for the cold, this cab is ghastly as a result.

Where did all the adults in the US go? Can we ask the bond market to do us a favour and force someone like Mario Draghi on them? You know... Boring ... Competent... Dull... Not utterly fucking mental. It's not a big ask, right? An actual adult in charge? They elect movie & TV stars. It's weird.

Isn't there an incompetence article in the US constitution? You'd think now might be an appropriate time.

I've been accosted by a Styrian truck driver who keeps buying me shots. Amazingly my German is vaguely holding out.

Went to an Eng lit event in a European city. Was sure it'd suck (it largely did, bar 2, and 2 nice people in crowd), but it strikes me just how homogeneous these things now are. No risk taking, no attempt at art, just drab beige and authenticity bingo.

How it's taken me 40 years to read Strumpet City...