a few (rambling) thoughts on Journey to Italy. It's been quite a journey for me, too letterboxd.com/jamesewand/f...

What a dreary spring it’s been so far. Good for having something to complain about though.

Please performatively read my novel.

Lying down and scratching at the same time. This is living.

[movie studio] ME: BUT HOW DOES THE INVISIBLE MAN KNOW WHEN TO STOP WIPING? TOUR GUIDE: *into walkie talkie* code orange, he’s back.

Watching Murderbot and I keep asking my partner who has read the books “are the human characters this stupid/irritating in the books?” Apparently they are not.

I've got a fresh batch of paperbacks in if anyone wants to buy directly from me for Christmas. Same deal as back in July: £13 each, or both for £25, including UK postage. precastreinforced.co.uk/2025/07/25/a...

Got these new trainers today but I can't get it out of my head that they look like fuckin DC Tosh Lines from The Bill

Italian poster for the film noir hidden gem MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS (1945) Directed by Joseph H. Lewis Starring Nina Foch

As promised ... "Lady Marmalade" was first recorded by The Eleventh Hour and released in summer 1974. "Psycho Killer" was first recorded as a demo by The Artistics in spring 1974. Therefore, two songs notable for including phrases in French were first recorded within weeks of each other in 1974.

If you don’t like death metal don’t listen to this because it is indisputably death metal

I interviewed the awesome Roddy Bottum www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...

#nowplaying #cdfriday Rowland S. Howard - Six Strings That Drew Blood (2014) (No relation to me afaik.)

You saw or heard something made by ai that sucks? I believe you 100% and am happy to take your word for it

TV shows need to stop doing the thing where you see the main character doing something but then it turns out they were just fantasising about doing it. At least have some harp music and make the screen go wavy so we know what’s up.

“Why are people souring on social media? Yeah I wonder.

if you don’t spend several hours a day on your phone you’ll miss all the Crap and Bullshit

Always a bit sad to finish a season of Slow Horses but on the bright side now I don’t have to hear the song for another twelve months.

congrats to all my friends in new york. you were right. bodegas are a whole different kind of thing and not just corner shops where cats sometimes live

MEAT JUICE

Hearty congratulations to Helen Garner who has won the Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction with her collected diaries, How to End a Story. A glorious book - confession, analysis, memory store, comedy - which shows all the things words can do: often on the same page. AND it’s mega good value.

"Madonna in a Fur Coat is a tale of passion set against the economic turmoil of the 1920s: why wouldn't it appeal to readers living through the economic turmoil of the 2020s?" I spoke to Penguin's publisher and "the internet's librarian" Jack Edwards about why existential classics are on the up:

Will this do?

Partner and I once drove past someone who looked exactly like Wallace Shawn, but we thought "why would Wallace Shawn be randomly walking around Melbourne?" But then we learned that one of his plays was being produced in town, so we decided that we did officially see Wallace Shawn that day.

Godzilla represents a desire in all of us for our reputation to shift from being seen as a villain to a good guy while changing our behaviour in no way, shape or form.

ah great Primal Scream are back.

I have seen I think ten of Brian DePalma’s films in my life and I can’t think of another director whose work divides so sharply between “wow brilliant absolute favourite” and “what a fucking load of shit fuck off”.

you know what i would actually believe that there are racists on x: the everything app without you screenshotting them

RIP Adam Greenberg He was the superb cinematographer who shot Near Dark (watch it!), Terminator 2: Judgment Day and, of course, The Terminator, which means he’s responsible for one of my favourite shots in cinema that also coined a new genre for its film:

Last night I watched the 1954 movie Suddenly, in which Frank Sinatra plays a would be assassin of the US President. Supposedly Lee Harvey Oswald had seen the film, and legend has it that after the Kennedy assassination Sinatra tried to have the film suppressed. (Untrue.)

There's a creep in the cellar and I'm gonna ask him if he needs anything from the shops

RIP to a homegrown radical: Peter Watkins www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...

New Aephanemer record out today. I haven’t listened to it yet but their other albums are great. Melodic-symphonic-folk death.

The ultimate metal move is when a song introduces a second, more evil riff as a coda.

Happy Halloween from the terrifying catbat

I remain convinced that the Lamp of Murmuur guy is deliberately doing “black metal Grover voice.”

I go to the book shop, I buy the books

Carl Kolchak: An Appreciation New post from me on a great collision of actor and character, and the films, shows and post-cancellation afterlife of one of the greats arowofopengraves.co.uk/2025/10/29/c...

Just watched this lol holy shit

Paedo prince is out of luck/overturning monkey truck

Not super keen on Hades II so far. It plays well etc, but it feels like more of the same with significantly less charm.

I’m kind of amazed that this hasn’t caught on in Australia, given how insane we are generally about our military history. (Excluding the war we lost to emus which for some reason never comes up.)

Before he completed his training, Scooby-Doo would rip the faces off men who weren't wearing masks.

Caved and got a switch 2. The lure of the Mario Galaxy siren.

This is Gizmo, he goes to the shops in a pram

Five words every woman wants to hear

A ghost named TIM

Cops in pre-mobile phone era movies about stalkers love telling women there's nothing they can do and "get yourself a whistle and blow it down the phone next time this creep calls".

Margaret Atwood writing The Handmaid’s Tale, West Berlin, 1984 (Photo by Isolde Ohlbaum)