Reading Nabokov and once again remembering that there is only one writer who is so insane that they in the end discover some other unknown, strange type of sanity

When I met Iain Sinclair for a piece last year, he showed me this text he had written for someone's university project. It detailed a walk around Dungeness and a reflection on Derek Jarman. He said there were only 2 or 3 printed (outside of the uni project) and asked if I wanted it. Classic Sinclair

'The Thames' (1914-1915) by Pierre Paulus (National Museum Wales)

deathcrash's sprawling 'Somersaults' is our Album Of The Week

Think this is showing tomorrow. What a ride it will be. youtu.be/-eisWdJM-pU?...

Finished a long-term writing project, so can finally return to my comfort reads - unhinged books on finance and banking. This one is spectacular and unending in its narrative understanding of the economy and the stock market.

My Belgian mother-in-law saw I had bought some records while out and said "oh did I ever show you the record an Englishman from Twickenham gave me when I was younger". Just was ready to say "that's cool" regardless. But this was the record.

When I met Iain Sinclair for a piece last year, he showed me this text he had written for someone's university project. It detailed a walk around Dungeness and a reflection on Derek Jarman. He said there were only 2 or 3 printed (outside of the uni project) and asked if I wanted it. Classic Sinclair

I missed the anniversary by a week. But I always think about the bombing of monte cassino by the allies this time of year. One of the more tragic cultural casualties of WW2 (along with all the unnecessary civilian deaths). My dad took me there ten years ago and it was the most sublime experience

Right now, my favourite of theirs. Just astonishing. And by my favourite of 'theirs', I mean Black Sabbath AND Led Zeppelin. Because besides Physical Graffiti, this would somehow also be the best LZ record imo

All this time of American Psycho being one of my all time fav films and never knowing John Cale did the music

Justice as a concept was defined by Plato as an eventual balancing (hence why it would extend into the afterlife). Because to quote William Gaddis "justice, you get justice in the next life, in this life you have the law". It's beautiful when the two overlap tho

A war foretold: how the CIA and MI6 got hold of Putin’s Ukraine plans and why nobody believed them

It's been said that The Board of Peace is pure Orwellian right? It's astonishing that it's just there right in front of us.

This is one of the best interviews I've read in a very long time. Not just insight into one of the greatest bands of all time This Heat, but a rare reveal of the artistic process at the highest, most conceptual level. @calcash.in thanks to you!

This is one of the best interviews I've read in a very long time. Not just insight into one of the greatest bands of all time This Heat, but a rare reveal of the artistic process at the highest, most conceptual level. @calcash.in thanks to you!

I know it's the obvious one, but it really is: "In 1984 I was hospitalised for approaching perfection"

RIP Robert Duvall. One of my all-time favourites. As everyone will rightly cover the huge roles, I want to mention my love of his performance in The Judge. It was so good that it made me want to reach-out to my own father and mend our hostile history, despite having none whatsoever

Looking for recommendations on writers in the vein of Don Delillo's New York novels (Mao II, Underworld, Cosmopolis) who creates characters who are indentations of the city they live within. Serious request despite how vague & pretentious this is

There's something to be said about an artist so clearly unsure-borderline-uncomfortable playing older songs (at that point Ziggy LP was 30 years old), compared to major artists now who would love to retire on the heat of a mediocre back catalogue. There's something about how we clamour for it too

We start strong.

Dark night of the scroll

Turned 36 today. Treating myself to a few more pages of this before the day is done. I fear the day I run out of stuff to read concerning Kafka.

Happy publication day to the deep, dark, beautiful ride that is Keshed by Stu Hennigan. We’re incredibly proud to be publishing this bold, uncompromising novel. Congratulations @stuhennigan.bsky.social, and thanks to @turnarounduk.bsky.social, Jack Smyth, Tom and Jaime Witcomb and Alex Billington.

"NYC" is a rumbling, fuzzed-out five-minute slowcore tidal wave

deathcrash finally released the stand-out song from their huge new album. I didn't think a new song could mean the same thing to me as those of when I was younger. But this is burrowed deep within me youtu.be/PuBQL40I0f8?...

Good morning. MPTL Microplastics providing some post-industrial zoomer Comus goblin folk. AOTY contender mptlmicroplastics.bandcamp.com/album/sod-in...

Can books be clickbait? Yes.

By the standards of anything, Bluey is at times sublimely beautiful. One of the few cultural products where I feel like 'we have got better at this'.

One of the enduring mysteries of literature to me is how William Gaddis made no reference to Jan Van Eyck in The Recognitions. More than any artist in history, he is the master of having no idea what is his, what isn't.

Nearly 20 years since my 1st gig at Hammersmith Palais. My sister was massive Nine Black Alps fan & i went for Testicles. After Wolfmother opened (somehow 1st band I saw) they announced Testicles broke up few days before gig. My dad drove us from N London & parked at fire station (he was a fireman)

This song had a stranglehold on a 16 year old me even tho I think it was meant to be a parody. I did not enjoy growing up in London at all, but it was exciting to hear songs that sounded like they were done by your mates on the playground gain notoriety youtu.be/t-BeGk6lfmU?...

At last!

Not sure how I feel about Aladdin Sane-era imagery with Scary Monsters and Super Creeps-era calligraphy

I’ve done a little Substack thingy… I’d love you to read it! 😊 Featuring: @ortacpress.bsky.social @richardjamesfoster.bsky.social @stuhennigan.bsky.social @ofmooseandmen.bsky.social @deadinkbooks.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/beardedb...

I wonder if the cat from the Smog album cover is related to the cat from Gabby's Dollhouse. #showbizcats

What a book, a bridge towards Lud Heat that I've never travelled. This section in particular is like watching a fight between the most violent fervour of The Cantos and the softest geometrical manoeuvring of The White Stones

When the thing you most hate is the thing you most need

Just finished this. What a beautiful book. What he appeared to be building across these lectures, that I presume was to become 'Acid Communism', would have really been quite something. RIP Mr. Fisher

Accidental NYRB book cover

Finally getting around to this. When I met Iain, he said this was a cobbled together reproduction of the book, 'made from scraps', as the original was lost and there were only ever a few copies made. He mentioned he found the original Red Eye manuscript and that it could emerge soon.

I read Infinite Jest 3 years ago. For me, it's an extremely successful testament to the notion of addiction in the age of boredom. In my reading, it was also a quasi-attempt to rescue literature from the same empty boredom that consumed culture by counterintuitively making a boring, heavy novel. 1/2

The after-life of the series for me

Never a royalist, but always had an interest in their portraiture. This one by Pietro Annigoni (1955) is strangely affecting. Ceremonial but melancholy. Truly alone

One of the most beautiful records of the century.

It's irrelevant to the entire picture, but I had to drive to Ypres to pick something up last week. The streets around the Menenpoort / Menin Gate were all closed, as they are every single night, to play the Last Post to remember the fallen soldiers who fought together. That was over 100 years ago

Not going to lie, I have no idea what the through-line is of this article (maybe national identity, but also maybe mortality?), but sometimes you just need a long-read about Auden, Yeats, and Eliot on a Sunday morning

They're worse than The Fall

Continuing the read around of Mark Fisher. This one takes 'egress', a term used by Fisher in Weird & Eerie to describe the escape from present circumstances by characters in weird fiction, as a way to consider his legacy.