xmas gift to myself was a nice bottle of scotch. for years I had a lot of scotch in. finally finished it & was left with bourbon. decent stuff too, gift from my sister, but the dna is not from kentucky. I get a headache. glass & a half of good scotch though - delicious anasthesia. no headache. wild.

You know I have mixed feelings about the Britpop period, but the reason why there were suddenly loads of interesting bands 1992-93 is everybody who grew up on great 60s-70s music GOT THE DOLE & was able to play long enough to get good. Soon after this became impossible.

All Tenn is hard but the big ones are aircraft carriers. You can fuck it up & there's still something to impress people. IGUANA is different. Everyone is wounded but no one entirely admits it. It comes out in subtext & silence, as does the brief but profound connections. It's closer to Chekhov.

I feel rough. AMA here or @ ngl.link/wychstreet1 if you like -

Anniversary of Joe Strummer's death. My only complaint about him is he was too modest. 'We're just like other bands, we just rehearse more.' Oh come on Joe, do us a favour.

Anniversary of Beckett's death. Edna O'Brien asks him where he'd be buried: - Here in Paris. - Not Ireland? Your works are strewn with Irish graves. - No, no. I'm not going back. I own a grave. A lovely grave. - I will be buried in Ireland. - So you're going back for an eternal dose of disgust?

Striking that in SCOOP - the movie about the BBC destroying Prince Andrew - there are a few direct exteriors of Buckingham Palace. Driving in/out then emerging from a corridor into the yard/Mall. No reason to use latter shot if it's fake. Interiors filmed elsewhere, of course, but Charles was King..

Beano #566, May 23, 1953

Again, the Sixth Floor Museum is maybe the best museum I've ever seen. It's extremely detailed, extremely clear, & it even squares the circle by saying, in effect, there's overwhelming evidence Oswald did it, but given the people he hung out with it's fair to ask why he did.

I did not have a receipt. I think purely because I was nice the cashier broke the shop's holiday rules, looked up my receipt & took the thing back anyway 🤪 I say this not to brag but as one who did his job for years, I'd go out of my way for good & ill depending on how people treated me..

The purity of my hatred for Oasis surprised/scared some.. rest assured I’m capable of applying it to other, even worse people…😎

With respect he didn’t use all his money, he also used quite a lot of it to revive the Welsh National Theatre. It’s sad it’s necessary, but there we are.

I'm a playwright, not a historian, but I was taught the process of history by a great historian. One of the most gratifying things I ever did was write about a real person of whom there's scant record. Their family saw the play & told me I was right. Not always in fact - it's drama - but character.

Without commenting on its use in politics - I don't care - there's generally a difference between people who LIKE the theatre - gee-whiz-let's-put-on-a-show, cheat upstage & smile, dear heart - & those who compelled to do it. 'Look at me' gets old 'Let's investigate something' is different

Always been a flawed question. Joy Division were becoming a version of New Order. Of course Ian was missing, and Gillian made it different, but you can't argue this isn't the case.

Every 3-5 years since 2010 there's a new Godlike Genius Indie Band that's going to Change Everything & somehow they all sound like the 13th most interesting band of 1993

The late Queen entered Pratt's, the most exclusive club in London & the most shabby-genteel - it resembles a hunting lodge or captain's cabin. It's full of gaming trophies, dominated by an ancient rhinoceros head. 'What a large rhinoceros for such a small room,' she said.

Take time to read this. The extraordinary, disturbing story of a woman who died alone & anonymous in an institution where she never belonged, & a journalist who identified her after being assigned what he thought was a bullshit obit - thartribune.com/the-haunting... @elongreen.bsky.social

This is unspeakably beautiful. They're in the Church of St Anne & St Agnes in the City of London - a Lutheran Church from 1966 after being rebuilt from the Blitz, from 2013 a non-working Anglican church given to the choir & their education programme.

In my play MICKEY MOUSE IS DEAD, the animators' strike (1941) takes place in 1950. This isn't a material change. Using the Red Scare brings the themes into sharper focus. This isn't the same as claiming off-camera that in 1991 there was an ongoing cover-up of a gay-led CIA cabal that killed JFK.

I wanna be your dog is a christmas song because it sounds like sleigh bells youtu.be/IbLRf0j80wU?...

In the play of mine that is on next year a bizarre & shocking event occurs on Christmas Eve. Now the night approaches the actors & director are making filthy jokes about it. Success 😎

A truly great movie that like all works of art shouldn’t work for 1000 reasons, yet it does. But as history it’s garbage. Garrison was a crank & worse, & going to bat for him as Stone did - as opposed to Scorsese with THE IRISHMAN, which he made clear is a fable - was a bad influence on society

Every December Mariah Carey could be like, ‘Ah yeah good song isn’t it, don’t forget my others too’ But she simply… doesn’t do that

Beano #917, February 13, 1960

I have just been served an ad for Karl Ove Knausgaard talking to Patricia Lockwood. It’s good to know the algo doesn’t own me, because I’d rather get root canal from a Navy dentist in 1953.

This guy is a professional musician. He’s recently started posting videos of himself playing trumpet into his cat, called Ichiro. Ichiro appears to like it.

I just saw the video of @number10cat.bsky.social during the Zelenskyy visit. When dignitaries come Larry tends to appear early to have his picture taken. I'm serious. The press say he tends to want his own shot. But this time he was at the door - his back turned - when Zelenskyy drove up.

@nedraggett.bsky.social You may know it but Rosalie Williams - in her way as memorable a Mrs Hudson as Brett/Burke/Hardwicke are to Holmes & Watson - was a close associate of Joan Littlewood & founding member of Theatre Workshop.

Alan Bennett’s A Question of Attribution is a conversation between the late Queen & Anthony Blunt. Blunt’s past is never mentioned but it implies HM knew everything about the art on her walls & everything about Blunt’s spying. Blunt is fascinated & disturbed - he stops resisting exposure.

Make no mistake Nixon would have a horror of anything named after him. He'd see his own grave being dug. The Nixon Center (now CNFI) was an exception but that was shortly before the brief unpleasant episode in '94, which we all know he recovered from.

One of the worst kept secrets in the business 🙄

Today's find, researching podcast episodes and stumbling upon gold: the platonic ideal of a headline for me from 1924 Chicago.

An actor should just watch people and notice that almost no one in real life ever stands in neutral stance. It’s meant to be a beginning state over which you build a physicality, not a default character posture. (It’s boring onstage.)

I have been sent this evening - a photograph of me dj'ing - a photograph of me shirtless, wearing a rainbow boa, with my arms round a girl called Beth, whom I remember nothing else of these photos are at least 20 years old & I apologise to those who need it

Rare free (safe) stream of Peter Watkins' THE WAR GAME, one of the most disturbing & unique films I've ever seen - made for the BBC in 1966, banned until 1985 - real political & artistic daring, only 45 mins. m.ok.ru/video/475689...

Suchet, who I’ve met, is the definition of an English gentleman in all the best ways. He even smells good. I’M attracted to him

Terry died 3 years ago today. The Specials & Fun Boy Three need no introduction. The sound of London, a gent, he overcame a hard youth, brought white & black music together to make the future. But he also had a gorgeous voice & could sing anything - youtu.be/mEohOUsgMkE?...

The number of people who’ve sent this to me with similar messages is.. not insignificant 😂

Probably ‘If fashion is your trade, then when you’re naked / I guess you must be unemployed’

Rachel Aviv reviewed four decades’ worth of Oliver Sack’s journals—many of which had never been read before. What she found reveals how the neurologist’s own stories shaped the ones he told about his patients. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/Ada7VN

Unconventional Director Sets Shakespeare Play In Time, Place Shakespeare Intended https://theonion.com/unconventional-director-sets-shakespeare-play-in-time-1819569151/

None us are immune but he was 47 when he got elected. I don't think it's that. It's that his taste - we've seen a lot of it now - goes strongly to the illusion of challenge but not much that's actually challenging. Which is a metaphor, really. 'Old' is not unchallenging. Dylan is challenging.

You can absolutely see Obama loving JAY KELLY, but it’s impossible to imagine him watching DIE MY LOVE - a movie with two huge stars, cult director but produced by Scorsese - without shifting in his seat

There are movies here I liked, others I didn’t, but good lord do his choices always feel assembled by a 2009 algorithm

Good of David Attenborough to make a film just for me - that is, about wildlife in London. Airs 1 January. He says when he moved to London he would've considered the thought of watching wild beavers there 'mad.'

This is how it’s done

Coral Browne had a notoriously foul mouth. She was also a devout Catholic. She was was once approached after Mass at Brompton Oratory by another actor, wanting to gossip about who was fucking who. She replied, ‘Not now, not while I’m in a state of fucking grace!’