I am seething at myself for missing this post. There is only one correct answer: 1. Summer of Soul … a very big gap… 2. The Rory Gallagher Irish Tour 1974 film directed by Tony Palmer 3. Your favourite. 4. Everything else. That I rate SoS over my fave bands is the highest praise possible.

A swift, sincere apology when we cause harm goes an awfully long way. Being told directly when we mess up is a *gift* because it allows us to make amends & do better instead of continuing to mess up. An apology doesn’t erase context but it does acknowledge harm. Why wouldn’t we do that?

Cúchullain didn't die defending Ireland from Margaret Thatcher at the Battle Of Clontarf for you to put something other than plain, Catholic sugar on your pancakes

production of The Muppet Show should not be dependent on petty vulgarities like “ratings” or “revenue.” it should be preserved as a vital function of american culture. it should have a taxpayer-funded budget rivaling the CIA

“So let’s get this straight. Your god is a storyteller. He’s born a fugitive, he dies an outlaw. He has the fucking audacity to come back.” Dr Martin Shaw gives the best description of Jesus of all time during a live episode of @blindboyboatclub.bsky.social podcast. I needed that, man.

My Richmas quest is done. Yay me or pity me depending on perspective. www.patreon.com/posts/on-thi...

This is my favourite moment in MTV history. youtu.be/yNcSlmnBV5s?...

I'm eating dinner at nearly midnight bc I got off a train at the wrong stop & also needed to divert to the supermarket to pick up a thing I forgot earlier in the day... then got so caught up writing abt Richard fucking Burton that I didn't realise how much time passed. Le sigh.

My ridiculous quest to post about #RichardBurton each day in December got derailed by lurgi but I’ve caught up and even managed to post today’s today. A Richmas miracle or something. Thanks to @kermodemovie.bsky.social for his kind chat on Monday post-1984, pre-Look Back In Anger also.

Cruelty is anhedonic. It rarely delivers the euphoria promised because, in the abstract, what feels righteous and joyful inevitably reveals itself to be sordid and small. Then it's "No not like that". "No not enough". "No the real battle, the forever war to make this feel good starts now". Forever.

This one post derailed my entire evening and I’m not even mad. However good you think Casablanca is, it’s actually better. It’s nearly 1am but I have to go watch it now.

"they don't know how to express the idea" here's rian johnson's storyboard for knives out pick up a pencil and a napkin

Eight Palestine Action activists are being left to die in prison – all without even facing trial. We must force the government to act, before it’s too late ⬇️ https://goodlaw.social/3e3320

This is cinema

I suddenly remembered this existed earlier and it is my Tom Holland Umbrella. But then so it Tom Holland’s umbrella.

Holy Mary mother of dragons, 1984 is a tough watch but in a cinema it’s almost unbearable. John Hurt is immense & I think Richard Burton concentrated his extensive experience of playing bastards into scumbag O’Brien. I feel I could actually surrender to total panic. it’s just a film. Jaysus, Rich

Can't wait for Robin Ince to get as many column inches in the national press over his actual establishment silencing due to his stance on lgbt+ rights as phobes get over their former friends not wanting to hang out so much any more

Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.

Imagine being such a bigoted fuck (or group thereof) that you drive out Robin Ince, a decent, principled, kind human, from a show such as Infinite Monkey Cage. Fuck them and fuck this timeline. May they perpetually step on Lego and find their waking hours haunted by their inadequacies.

Day 5 of Richmas found me once again at @britishfilminstitute and instead of just The Night of the Iguana, I switched screenings of My Cousin Rachel to today from tomorrow. So I got to hang out with Ava Gardner *and* Olivia De Havilland too. Both were introduced by Kate Burton, which was v cool.

It’s a bit weird to be listening to #JeffWaynesWaroftheWorlds as I walk along the millennium bridge just as #RichardBurton gets to the bit about the “sad, weary exodus” as the Martians cut through bridges as though they were paper. The terror he captures in “one appeared above Big Ben”

I’ll post more later but I begin Richmas Day 1 by sharing one of the absolute best talk show segments I’ve ever seen. #RichardBurton on Ivor Novello, the Great Atlantic Fault, class strata within mining communities & alcoholism. All w/ outrageous charm & in his socks. Is it all true? Eh…

Just going to leave one of my all-time fave Christmas songs here. #ThinLizzy and some #SexPistols. I also love Philip’s lasseiz faire approach to miming on TOTP. youtu.be/ZN2bcS9shuY?...

I’m thinking of doing a post per day in December about #RichardBurton, given I’ll be spending a good proportion of the month at the BFI for their Rich B season. Maybe on here or instagram or patreon. Who knows. What I *do* know is that it will be called Richmas, as nobody else is calling it.

I think AI slop is going to ruin the internet as we know it. So many search results are now AI. Articles, videos, images, fake AI. You just feel like giving up when it happens.

Listening to @blindboyboatclub.bsky.social talk about social scarcity and trying to track down a song and I’m reminded of this. youtu.be/KnL4HmxnepE?... which reminds me of all those near-miss songs & films & fleeting moments. Awesome

Look what I picked up today for one of my niblings @athenakugblenu.bsky.social

What with one thing and another, I actually think I might try to do a “31 days of Richmas” thing here or on threads, instagram or on my patreon (or all of em) where I write something each day on Richard Burton, not least bc of the BFI season. Might as well yell into the void with a theme.

Yo @simonmayo.bsky.social & @kermodemovie.bsky.social at the risk of sounding sincere, you should know that hearing you read out my email on @kermodeandmayo.bsky.social take 2 on a pretty difficult Sunday didn’t make the day better but it kept me from falling completely to pieces. Thank you.

An hour late but happy centenary to this dude. youtu.be/1ptWQz7WTsk?...

Crying… CRYING at @pftompkins.bsky.social trying to figure out how exactly Joe Pasquale is woven into the pop culture fabric on the @taskmaster.tv podcast.

This is what is happening. It is cynical. It is strategic. It is organised. It is well funded. And we need to pay attention. The far right - and their cheerleaders, mimics, tribute acts, and handmaidens have identified two presentational frameworks that give them cut-through and traction. 1/7

This whole entire thread.

I believe people who misuse Tolkien to advance fascism should have a brief but life-changing encounter with World War II–era Christopher Lee

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my works and let me know if you have any questions! 🤗

Adverts should be representative of traditional British families

The BFI are doing a Richard Burton season in December. It’s true, Theo… Christmas is a time for miracles.

Designer: all right Mr. Del Toro here’s those Frankenstein’s monster designs, real sexy just like you asked for. Del Toro: (nodding) this is exactly as sexy as I asked for.

Ok, so for real, I think if I’d seen the GdT Frankenstein as my 18 year old self, it would absolutely become a cornerstone of my entire life and personality. He simply cannot just give us a long-haired rock star aesthetic Creature and expect anything else.

The cinema is reassuringly busy for Frankenstein given it’s a fairly late screening on a wednesday… in del Toro we trust…

Who robbed the Louvre? Right answers only.

After the last few days, deciding at 2:30am to watch videos of the musicians I love the most, who have been gone nearly 40 years and just over 30 respectively… Is a bit like picking at a scar, except the scar is my actual fucking soul. Why am I like this (rhetorical question of course)

I’m reminded of Andy Hamilton’s brilliant radio comedy Old Harry’s Game, in which he plays a hilariously crotchety, petty Satan and has to break it to some new arrivals that they have not in fact ended up where they assumed they would.

Saw #Bacchae at @nationaltheatre.org.uk tonight. Epic & brilliant. Now going home the long way to listen to as much of Black Messiah as I can. Nah, I’m not crying. Why do you ask? Oh yeah I always clean my contact lenses this way during Really Love. Honest.

This is why the Greens are rising in the polls, and why Labour have fallen so far. Labour’s ’natural supporters’ aren’t anti-immigrant. They’re not xenophobic. Labour’s leadership are alienating them, and now they have somewhere to go. Well said.

White people’s insistence that other white people—especially the ones exhibiting morally questionable behavior—deserve the benefit of the doubt is going to kill us all.

This is a great piece but I wish it hadn’t had to be written yet. And while the vid of him & Princess playing Sometimes It Snows In April is understandably getting shared a lot right now, it’s the one I’m still avoiding. I know it’ll take me out.

I have so many things I want to say about D’Angelo but it comes down to this: his music is woven into the fabric of my heart & soul. Everything else has either been said already and said better, or it can wait.

you, too, should be here, D'angelo... raphael saadiq feat. d'angelo BE HERE youtu.be/vCJY2NSSU1g?...