The declining standard of subtitles came under the spotlight a few years ago, when Netflix's ROMA subtitles were criticised as piss-poor. I LOVED researching & writing this piece & BTL comments are unusually interesting. But the situation is getting worse all the time. Fucking AI spoils everything.

Did I mention the new podcast episode? Elvis Presleys manager and a Dub-Step titan! Dive in music heads. open.spotify.com/episode/2vNh...

According to the Irish Times, the poetry of Emily Bishop was on the Leaving Cert paper today.

This looks timely and fascinating.

Reading the audio version of the May chapter of Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear this morning involved negotiating the words “north Kent countryside”, so you bet I’ve earned a treat.

This is an absolute joy. Recommended. The last chapter is advice on completing a long and intense editing project and how to re-enter normal society without crashing your brain. It couldn’t have come at a better time. (Finished the edit, bar final tidies, on Broken Veil II yesterday. Phew.)

Doing my Patreon Q&A and one of the questions was about real gigs I wish I'd been able to go to. The NME poll-winners parties of 1964 and 65 are always among my go-to choices, as is the TAMI Show, but I suspect this one just has the edge (if nothing else because those others were at least filmed)

The Lawrence family say hi.

As noted by Private Eye a few issues back

Status update

Apart from everything else, I’m always just amazed by how content free Chris Mason’s reporting is. Mostly, he’s not saying anything at all.

just a little guy !

Indeed. In the 1960s many more people held racist attitudes but both the government and opposition were consistent in condemning open racism. We now have am emboldened and tolerated minority by both government and opposition.

4 years into the hype, and trillions of dollars, and can anyone give an example of where generative AI has made itself essential in the life of anyone who doesn't benefit from the valuation of the companies that make it? What trillion-dollar problem is being solved by this trillion-dollar solution?

I just had a horrifying lightning strike of a brainwave: the legendary viking sagas, looking back as they do on a lost age, are the norse equivalent of those "do you remember the milk man" facebook pages. I mean, better written, but still. Ubi sunt and kids today suck.

1. Another piece on 'We should be reasonable about this, look at the things AI could do for us' by a writer who's basing their assumptions on the hype, not on what it *can* actually do. 2. They focus on opera, where I'm sure careers are very secure. 3. The Guardian has a rights deal with OpenAI.

Like I say: you can tell what type of fox each one is, by looking at which henhouse it’s been asked to guard.

It is with great sadness I say: fuck off dude www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/b...

Liberal England: Professor Quatermass in Hemel Hempstead Quatermass II, the first road I remember living in and an unsolved Victorian murder.

"Erin Brockovich took on a corporation poisoning a town's water supply and won. Now she's turning her attention to the infrastructure powering artificial intelligence. She's launched Brockovich Data Center Reporting — a project designed to ma ..." www.facebook.com/permalink.ph... via Rate the Audits

After Monday's ghastliness we retreat back into the glorious world of Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes and David Burke's Dr Watson in A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA with #thefilmcrowd this Wednesday 3rd June from 8pm! www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWd0...

Cartoon by Steve Breen. Especially relevant to Ireland. #SpeirGorm

This book is PHENOMENAL

King of Comedy is a top five movie for me. Fuck Martin Scorsese.

Suddenly us white people with Eastern European surnames and UK citizenship are British. We weren't last week and won't be next week. `

Going to wait and see which influential figures in the arts *don’t* suddenly insist they’ll be embracing AI, and paying attention to them, since they aren’t sockpuppeting a dodgy investment scam. Just a guess, but they’ll probably be the interesting people with stuff to say.

"She's been gagged, but we haven't!" Facebook whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams was forced into silence onstage in the UK this weekend - by her former employer. Last year, she told us her story from 10 years inside Facebook....

I've just complained to the BBC about this. I suggest you do the same.

Beatles 35mm Negative Donated At the British Film Collectors’ Convention, on Saturday 30th May, John Franklin of Film is Fabulous was presented with a 35mm BBC negative of The Beatles, recorded on the 19th March 1964, in the original BBC film can.

Because I was looking online at 35mm film cameras last week, it’s all the algorithms are sending me. Can’t lie — I’m looking at every single one of them. I bought a camera days ago.

Good news, everybody!! Proper Saturday evening telly is back!!

Hilarious and deeply insightful writing by @brianphillips.lol.

Book your tickets for the Rome Express, the grand-daddy of all train films, at the BFI Southbank on 21st July. Introduced by one of the world's greatest writers. (Kazuo Ishiguro, I mean. I will also be speaking.)

It’s 100 years since Laurel & Hardy signed with Hal Roach Studios. To celebrate, why not listen to me singing the comedy duo’s genius on this double-bill of @gralefrit.bsky.social’s Comfort Blanket podcast. You bet your life it’s a good idea. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...

Oh, no reason.

This is a really good piece, busting a few myths about net zero and making a convincing case for why it's one of the government's (very few) triumphs. Bizarre that they don't feel able to do anything other than downplay it but that's culture war for you... (also, FUCK Tony Blair. Again.)

I see William Joyce has made another broadcast to the nation.

Oh my God, the ratio on this from a Labour MP...

23. A Man's Head, Georges Simenon More Maigret, one of the best so far, taut and relentless in its pacing. Simenon writes about waiting so well (Maigret's superpower is hanging out in the right bar/cafe/bistro/house for long enough). For such short books, they're amazing studies in patience.

At least we now know why Ofcom has been so useless at holding GB News to account. #AFishRotsFromTheHead

Buried this at the bottom of a thread, but bears repeating. Go and see Jaws on its current Spielberg-fuss re-release. People SCREAM LOUDLY. Lots of kids and partners and friends haven’t ever seen the movie, it turns out. And you get to feel a little of what it was like in 1975. Communal thrills.

@catgyoung.bsky.social www.npr.org/2026/06/01/n...

First watch: Dead End (1937). The William Wyler spree continues with this Samuel Goldwyn production adapted from Sidney Kingsley's Broadway play. Part crime flick, part social drama, it makes an interesting transatlantic analogue to poetic realism in France. 1/6

Very much enjoying Criminal Record on Apple TV. Peter Capaldi is especially brilliant as the saturnine, morally-ambiguous detective with his famous catchphrase ... ... 'You must go on. I can't go on. I'll go on.'

I bought a copy of this Cahiers du Cinéma but it hasn’t made it out of whatever box we put it in when we moved. This came up on FB memories today. I guess it’s an actual tweet. Remember them?

Yesterday I witnessed something extraordinary: the author Sarah Wynn-Williams sitting silent on a stage at @hayfestival.bsky.social. And she got a standing ovation. I hope the attempt to censor her backfires magnificently. I have just ordered her book. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Erm...it's got Sonny Chiba in it! Watchalong with #thefilmcrowd tonight as we endure INVASION OF THE NEPTUNE MEN from 8pm! Link 👇

My spoiler-free is up now on Womansplaining and it won't cost you a penny read. TLDR: Like being hit by a truck. 5 stars.