If you’re in the market for some vintage vinyl, or for a man in his fifties who likes vintage vinyl, the Groovy Fayre at the Mildmay Club, Newington Green, is currently packed to the rafters with both

Some Anita Brookner from my mother-in-law's shelves. Perhaps not canon, but hopefully something to get me started. Any recommendations among these @jacquiwine.bsky.social? 💙📚

If you see this, post an album cover with a motor vehicle on it. Or don’t. I just wanted to post the cover of Pentastar.

A thread on the visual authenticity of Shane (1953) & cowboy/artist Joe De Yong, the film's technical advisor:

Now available from @madebymutant.bsky.social is the beautiful score to @realgdt.bsky.social FRANKENSTEIN, music by Alexandre Desplat. The deluxe edition includes liner notes from Desplat and myself and is beautifully presented- check it out

Puzzums, 1920s.

Sunset reflected onto Liverpool.

The Dust-to-Digital Foundation and the University of California, Santa Barbara have partnered to make thousands of historic recordings freely accessible to the public.

Me: This has been a really tough day. Going to relax by having a bath with candles and listening to Radio Three. Radio Three: And now, live from Nottingham, the BBC Concert Orchestra with a medley of classic sports themes!

May/November.

The beginning to every Morrissey lyric

YES

#NowPlaying I got this at a knockdown price because somebody had written “yall” on Barbara Cheeseborough’s forehead but between you and me I bought it because someone had written “yall” on Barbara Cheeseborough’s forehead.

As soon as the leaves fall to the ground, this one comes on.

If there’s any of you who profess to be into noir and have not yet seen MR INBETWEEN, you need to fix that asap. If you need further convincing, my @crimereads.bsky.social piece from a few years ago #noirvember crimereads.com/mr-inbetween/

It's Daniel. Not Dan, never Danny.

My mum chose my name because it can’t be shortened. She hated everyone shortening her name all the time and yet every one did (except me, because you don’t shorten mum!).

Absolutely. It says ‘I think that you’re being pretentious/effete by not abbreviating your name therefore I’m doing it for you’. Quite unpleasant.

Anyway, here’s Maggot Brain

Andrew is the preference, but among friends I’ve accepted Drew and many variations thereof (Drewski, Drewsef). When I lived in Italy I was sometimes Andrea, and that was ok. But if you persist in calling my Andy after I’ve asked you not to, I’ll assume we’re not friends. Because that’s not my name.

"Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer a city where everyday residents have to work three jobs and are under constant threat of eviction. Anything short of an excruciating existence for the working class just doesn’t cut it for me."

Yep. I am Victoria and never Vicky - I hate that people who have never met me before assume that it's OK to shorten my name! Good friends call me Vic, which is fine, but never Vicky.

I flit between Andy and Andrew. Andy is a different person to Andrew. Andy is the person at work, for recent acquaintances and social media. Andrew is for family, old friends and me

I've been called Tim three times this week and it's not even quite the weekend.

If i introduce myself to you as Stu and you call me Stuart, we could end up knowing each other for years but we will never be close friends and secretly i will always want to deck ypu every time you say my name

The only one I get that I cannot bear is Mazza. I do not feel like a Mazza or a Maz.

Dogfull Chap.

"Can I call you Lozza?" "Not if you expect a response"

This. I've been Mags since I was about 6 years old. I'm not going to answer to the name I associate with my mum and nana. That's literally not me. If I do something stupid (like drop my phone in a bowl of raw eggs) I say, "Mags, you fucking eejit!"

I often say "The only person to call me Danny was my first ever dentist. He's dead now."

It is so hard to stop this when it spreads. I am Gordon, not Gord, but I can’t unfollow clients. I used to have a senior colleague who created his own nicknames for everyone, seemingly as a control mechanism.

He fucked around. He found out. Blocked.

I get abbreviated to all sorts of things and I just tend to roll with it (or embrace it - booking restaurants is much easier over the phone if I just call myself Ed). But I absolutely draw the line at Eddie, which the father of a school friend used to call me.

I am Katy. Not Katie and certainly not Kate. My name has already been shortened (though NOBODY calls me Kathryn. My dad wouldn’t allow Katy as it isn’t a “proper” name). You do not have permission to shorten it further

There is a little prison in my brain where I put all the people who have tried to nickname me Faz over the years. It is overcrowded.

I always used to be Rebecca but so many people just decided I would be called Bex to them, in the end I just gave up and went with it

My dad got so sick of being called David when he was palpably a Dave that he changed his name - by deed poll - to “Dave”.

Only my family call me James, I've been Jim to everyone else since secondary school. I really don't like it when others call me James of their own accord. My mum was the only one who ever called me Jamie sometimes and she's dead now. Wait. That sounds like I killed her for it, I didn't.

Petty I know, but anyone addressing me as John in emails (when my name is RIGHT THERE IN THE EMAIL ADDRESS) are frequently deprioritised.

Never, EVER call me Ellie

When i was a little boy I bounced around between two homes. One full of snooker on the telly noise, sharing a bed with coats on-top to keep warm, mince & tatties every night, and the other, empty, full of echoes and me with a room on my own on the top floor. You can guess where a kid felt safer.

I will not stand for people calling me solely by my surname. It’s weird, especially when no one involved went to a private school

I've named myself my preferred nickname on social media, as you know I tend to go by 'Frances', and yet STILL people 'Fran' me.

Right with you on this. People at work call me Stu without asking all the time, drives me round the bend.

I have unfollowed people on social media who have called me Andy. It’s not my name. I am not an Andy. You might as well call me Ronald. Call people by the name they want.

And: @victoriasegal.bsky.social on CMAT and Pulp. @andrewmale.bsky.social on Van. Plus Robert Forster, the Manics, Questlove, Nick Drake, Stiff Little Fingers, Ten Years After, Horsegirl, Jacob Alon, Snocaps, The Strawberry Alarm Clock and a handy Best Of 2025 CD. In UK shops Tuesday Nov 11. 3/3

Lana Turner by Clarence Sinclair Bull (1944)

This heat-of-the-moment comment may give the impression that I didn’t have the absolute best time watching #CelebrityTraitors. I did but I just wanted Joe to win so much. Still, Alan played a blinder.

MORONS! #CelebrityTraitors

"Today's the Day," "Pavlov's Bell," "How Am I Different,"... so many songs...