#FilmBuffs alert.

Terminological exactitude people. What would people have said in the early 60s instead of 'stop winding me up'? Wind up is 70s onwards. What would have been common parlance a decade before that? Asking for a novel.

Reader: it was! #GetIn!

Good to see a marking of Arena's 50th anniversary today. Today Programme, a pile of shows added to the iplayer, and there's a BFI event this evening. What a shame the BBC don't really promote the ones they now make. There have been eight in the past year and I bet you would struggle to name one.

Oh. Might be worth a listen then...

SHE'S 90 TODAY FOLKS

'Farage Boats' is a useful term and should be normalised.

You are kidding! www.ft.com/content/998e...

Agree with all this. There are many reasons to wish Orwell could pop back for a bit, but one is to read the essay he'd write on Farage.

Post a fictional comedian who definitely would accept an invitation to the Riyadh Comedy Festival.

And all around me Bright music and voices Singing in a language Not known to me. I'd like to go that way, Tired and glad, With all my future before me, Hungry still For the fat and visible globe. BP

Pipe Dream If I could choose the hour in which Death chooses me And the way in which It will make its arbitrary choice I can think of nothing better than To fall asleep near midnight In a boat as it enters a new port, In a boat with a clarity of stars Above and below it;

RIP Brian Patten. May all your afterlives be lazylives.

Damn. And blast.

No, it isn't.

One good thing about AI is when some git says did you read the article, you can say no did you write it?

"I can't help but I can see what Customer Service would advise". Me: I thought you were Customer Service... "No, we're Customer Relations. Customer Service is different"

I only read this after Trump's inauguration. So many details ring true - even 2ndary stuff like the acquiescence of the press. Great book.

Is it comedy or horror? Vicki Mortimer tells me about her favourite play: Caryl Churchill’s extraordinarily daring, typically genre-busting 2016 Escaped Alone starring Linda Bassett, Deborah Findlay, Kika Markham and June Watson, directed by James Macdonald. www.thestage.co.uk/my-favourite...

I know you generally go to #Hamlet to see how Mr & Mrs Dane and son are doing but I have to say that it was the Poloniouses that won my heart last night @nationaltheatre.org.uk. Francesca Mills searing, Geoffrey Streatfield seriously, sadly funny. Cheers!

I’m begging of you please don’t take my man.

Who needs Netflix and Prime? The BBC offers a terrific collection of free movies. Here's our updated list of the best films on iPlayer. filmstories.co.uk/features/the...

Something under-discussed as Donald Trump and the White House rail against George Soros and promise to crack down on OSF (Open Society Foundations) – Soros himself no longer runs it, and in reality the OSF itself has been in something close to crisis for years. Short thread:

And anyway, what do writers know? www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/serie...

September 30/October 1st

Best analysis below by @benansell.bsky.social of who is voting for what and where Morgan McSweeney's efforts should be directed. But I guess MMc (as The Secretary of the Writers' Union) always knows better...

On the morning of Keir Starmer's conference speech here's a new post on an odd psychopathology in British politics - our main parties don't like the people who vote for them - the dreaded Professional Managerial Class. And so they are acting out like a divorced dad seeking cooler voters. 1/n

I'm guessing the answer to this question is "to engender & encourage thoughtless rage and misinformation" but only @thetimes.com can confirm that.

Now at #BBCSounds link below. #Kraftwerk

@kirkdalebooks.bsky.social Adjudication, Humph...

You'd just wish both factions could hire writers like Michael Dobbs or Jack Rosenthal. Instead, interns, innit...

These were fun.

"Everyone must see the beautifully American 'One Battle After Another'! Thank you for your attention in this matter".

Age yourself with a film you saw in a cinema as a kid.

This is like a literary essay compared to the upcoming movie #WitheringHeights #FennelsFantasy

Quite taken with Paul Thomas Anderson's superb casting coup, getting Sean Penn in to play the batshit Colonel Lockjaw, both a nod at batshit RFKjr & his batshit Strangelove antecedents, Jack Ripper &/or 'Bat' Guano. #OneBattleAfterAnother not #batshit...

Taking meself out of meself by catching up on an old album of his and now listening to the ever-adventurous #JohnSurman 's latest, #CanticaProfana. I know Spoti's an evil thing but #ArsLongaVitaBrevis. open.spotify.com/album/2YCfEV...

Too many books in the bedside pile so I don't think I'll ever get round to Vineland, but after #OneBattleAfterAnother, I feel I ought to. Advice...?

There have been 6 mass shootings in the USA over the past 24 hours. The casualty count stands at 41. Here’s the President of the United States of America.

Bangin'

Important to remember it is possible to mobilise coalitions against the radical/far right.

#OneBattleAfterAnother flew by. Contender for a GAM #GreatAmericanMovie & awards for all concerned: every woman has grace & resilience, lots of potential nom's there & for Penn's Kubrick tribute. But make-up & Jonny Greenwood's score are outstanding, the latter peaking a pure #SoundOfCinema moment.

Nothing on the #BBC #BBCNews website on #TonyHarrison after a day... #disappointing, not that they'd notice...

Penguin Press has published a Shadow Ticket playlist Seems I won't be updating the Pynchon wiki on the day of publication, like I did for Inherent Vice 😂 Unless of course, it's just scene setting music🤷 "No funny business, solemn promise - I could lose my licence" open.spotify.com/playlist/0dp...

Quite like that David Willetts reverses the cliché of the older you get, the more you move to the right.

I wish govt would change the term from 'ILR' to 'legal residence', as other countries use.