A day late, for obvious reasons, so here's 5. Lady with an Ermine - Leonardo da Vinci.

Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you - one painting a day (or thereabouts) for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews , just paintings. 1. James Guthrie's A Hind's Daughter.

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

Learn to speak the language of my people with the dear, departed Stanley Baxter: youtu.be/T_Lk7qivXbw?...

You know the deal by now. One last time... www.404ink.com/shop

almost felt you liked the forest? that’s uncommonly kind of you lil Treebeard cosplay for #tolktober2025

Realised I hadn't yet posted a picture of my first(!) tattoo. Mae at www.snakeandcranetattoo.com was an absolute joy to work with and the detail is incredible. In case you're wondering, it's based on an image from Le Morte d'Arthur by Aubrey Beardsley, because I am nothing if not pretentious.

If you don't know what's going on with anti-trans stuff in the UK, read this. If you're similarly disgusted with the way anti-trans people have gotten away with demonising and assaulting an innocent minority, send this to your friends, family and MP to demand change. They won't stop with us.

Square go.

Seeing as we went to see Chappell Roan this week, it's high time I posted this by the always great @pjbond.offregister.press

Share some of the best eyes in movies.

It's official, I will be launching the new 'Space Captain: Collected Edition' kickstarter on Monday! If you fancy signing up early for an alert you can do so here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/chr...

This is how I flirt.

Everyone's sharing the love & rightly so, @sequential-scot.bsky.social was fantastic. Ridiculous ammount of talented people in one room showcasing the beauty & variety of what can be achieved in comics. This show's gonna run for years getting bigger & bigger. Proud to have been part of year one.

The scene in Let The Right One In when a character who's becoming a vampire is attacked by a crazy cat guy's crazy cats. A woman on a date was clearly very upset by it and rushed out in tears. Her date slowly, reluctantly trudged after her, mournfully looking up at the screen as he left.

That feeling when the parcel you're waiting for has the wrong delivery address (despite you checking three times when asked); the delivery company subcontracted Evri; they assured you (via Chatbot) that they'd change the address...

Go visit the small (but perfectly formed) Fragment Found exhibition at Make it Glasgow if you can. It's great. fragmentfound.com

Important #JDTwitch of @optimo-espacio.bsky.social news to share -- a Crowdfunder for Keith's continuing care has now been set up. The proceeds from the album I am coordinating, #OneMoreTune, will be going here. Of course, you are also strongly encouraged to contribute to this Crowdfunder directly.

⚜️ The 2025 collection is now LIVE on Kickstarter! ⚜️ Three fantastic autobiographical comics about relationships - with our family, with where we come from, and with partners - from Ashling Larkin, Judy Powell, and Hel Mel. 🐉 Support the campaign: kickstarter.com/projects/qui...

In a popular series of books by a well known writer dealing with contemporary culture and the fantastical, the description of one character as being dressed in "Neil Gaiman black" should not be a thing in the year of our lord 2025. Unless he's a shit. And even then, maybe just don't.

Post a kick-ass woman

Made the mistake of getting a buzz-cut right before a scorchingly hot T in the Park. Got to meet Kylie whilst wearing a tee shirt on my head as my scalp felt like a swimming cap three sizes too small. She said "you look hot". I was extremely warm and she was lovely.

Ten writers by whom I’ve read more than 5 books (not including comics): Iain (M) Banks Douglas Coupland Jasper Fforde William Gibson Nick Harkaway N. K. Jemisin T. Kingfisher China Mieville Adrian Tchaikovsky Jeff Vandermeer I may read a little tiny bit of sci fi/fantasy/weird fiction.

Reminder that Mark Millar is an edgelord narcissist and will constantly search for mentions online. I think it took him just 7 minutes to block me when I asked if he'd please do what he threatened to do and move to Canada even if Scottish Indy didn't happen.

Lots of what I see on here is historyl/archaeology/architecture and boy, you really need to start with the alt text. I mean, think how much more you get to say (2000 characters!) about your geeky obssessions using descriptions in addition to the initial post. Also, I'm not going to repost you.

I made a 90s albums quiz for @discodave75.bsky.social today. Four user reviews per album nabbed from an online music site. Let's see how you fare.

“I could see a backlash coming, for trans & LGBTQ+ people. I wanted to write a book about joy. It was very deliberate – I wanted to talk about queer artists as the positive forces that they are. This music has made your life better!” The wonderful @carriem.co.uk spoke to me about her new book

CARDINALS WHAT HAVE YOU DONE YOU ELECTED A POPE WHO ROOTS FOR THE CUBS THE WHITE SMOKE SHOWS POPE LEO HAS WON RIGHT WING TWITTER IS MAD AND WE'RE POSTING OUR JOKES ABOUT THE WOKE MARXIST POPE I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY ELECTED A WOKE MARXIST POPE

A grey heron in Kelvingrove Park.

Y'all, I promise you that it's possible to defend trans people without conceding "legitimate concerns about sports" or similar bs. 1) No, there aren't. It's all just bigotry and propaganda. 2) Cede no ground to fascists. None, ever. Reject the question and just fight them.

The moral panic they have cooked up about trans people is a textbook one 15 year olds learn about in sociology GCSE. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so gravely dangerous.

Today and every day trans rights are human rights (and JK Rowling will have no lasting legacy beyond a lot of blacked-out tattoos.)

Any time I wonder why Generation X turned out so awful, I remember that Douglas Coupland has become an absolutely awful person who wrote this love letter to Elon three years ago. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Some of my better, and less well known, films (feature length and short) are for free on my website markcousins.cargo.site/home-1 Some hidden links (and maybe revelations)...

Ah, crap...

Congratulations to @kariebookish.bsky.social and Hector, Tom and Nicky for an amazing run on University Challenge. It's been one part exhilarating and one part terrifying watching the whole OU team.

To all the trans folks out there on this Trans Day of Visibility, you're awesome and I'm glad you're here. Whether you're visible or choose to stay invisible, you matter and the world is a better place with you in it. ❤️🏳️‍⚧️❤️

UB40's cover of Red Red Wine. When I got my first Walkman, they left tape one of Now That's What I Call Music in it - I dread to think how many times I tried to fast forward through that mawkish whining travesty of a song.

Post-covid cons have had an influx of attendees who have never been to a con before, and that's great! But I've also seen a rise in some slightly inconsiderate behaviour so I'd like to do a little thread on what is generally considered good manners when attending a convention 🧵

...this is a bed design(ed) for someone who's going to be experiencing enforced celibacy.

Going, Going, gone. Three of the local tower blocks were demolished today. Lack of a klaxon (I blame youthful exposure to Fred Dibnah) meant I almost missed the big moment.

Continuing the trend of me buying art books I would have killed for 30 years ago:

I think this is c.1983 Dave

@kariebookish.bsky.social just told me her last read unexpectedly contained werewolves and I asked if the title "Bareback with the Pack" didn't give it away? That was after like a second's pause - have I discovered my calling?

Got my copy of The Wicked and Divine: The Covers Version and it is so very, very pretty.

I did use the phrase Wish Wolverine until she threatened to "snikt!" me to death.

The "feminism" in Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism functions the same way as the "socialism" in National Socialism. It's there to convince you that they're addressing material issues of an oppressed class, when they're actually just exploiting said class to hurt others.

Guessing that Ed Hodgson guy is not the sort of person ANYONE would call in an emergency because my god, he would throw you to the wolves in a heartbeat. Seriously, if you don't think some views SHOULD be utterly unacceptable, get bent.