What a weird series, tonally very different from each other.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) Written and directed by Lotte Reiniger - BOTD in 1899

Sorry, America. The Shaggs have also decided to withdraw from the Freedom 250 festivities.

This November ‘51 Quick magazine article paints up-and-coming Marilyn Monroe as “The New Jean Harlow”, though it concedes Monroe lacks the “unmistakable Harlow aura of worldly-wisdom beyond her years”, which is objectively true:

Images from the films of Doris Wishman - BOTD in 1912 Nude on the Moon (1961) Blaze Starr Goes Nudist (1962) Keyholes Are for Peeping (1972) Let Me Die a Woman (1977)

James Whale 🐳

look how much craftsmanship we've lost in clothing in just a hundred years

Great gag photo of director Clarence Brown serving up some fresh film strips for dinner, 1926

@thebasementtan.bsky.social Have you ever been the Potato Museum? #potatosky

People just don’t write songs about spark plugs like they used to.

The 1921 French epic L'ATLANTIDE is slower than molasses and I love it so. Shot on location in Algeria and starring Stacia Napierkowska as Queen Antinea, who kidnaps French soldiers, drives them to their deaths and then bronzes their bodies for decor. God forbid a woman should have hobbies.

Gorilla Playing Saxophone with Balloons has dropped out of the White House concert

#PhantomsFriday Double exposure or real spirit images- sort of. The random accidents of less sophisticated photography & methods of development led to a plethora of wraiths & doppelgangers. Now they present as a ghostly gallery of past times & former lives.

There used to be a Toys R Us store in Sunnyvale, California that was haunted by the ghost of Johnny Johnson, a farmhand who was killed in a accident in the 1880s. He haunted the spot where he died and decades later, when the store was built on the same spot, he haunted that. #PhantomsFriday

Millis Vanilli.

I ranked movie corridors! (and didn't once write the word "liminal") This was a lot of fun.

90 years ago, May 28, 1936: Jean Harlow—or, Harlean Carpenter McGrew Bern Rosson on legal paper—files a petition in the LA Superior Court to change her ‘real’ name to her ‘reel’ name (which, of course, was her mother’s). She wouldn’t appear in court to transform into ‘Jean Harlow’ until June 30.

People just don’t compose songs about the burning question of the moment like they used to.

I just learned that Richard O'Brien posted his original ROCKY HORROR demos on Bandcamp, and it just sounds like a legendary lost folk punk album. Like if you told me this was actually Neutral Milk Hotel or @evangreer.bsky.social, I'd probably believe you. richardobrien.bandcamp.com/album/the-ro...

In honor of World Dracula Day, here's Dracutwig, a novel about Dracula’s daughter who becomes a Twiggy-inspired model in late 1960s Swingin’ London. This could have been a great Hammer, or maybe an Amicus, movie. I do, however, think Twigula is a better name for the character. #WorldDraculaDay

@stinasdemons.com Here's a cool Dell Mapback movie tie-in paperback.

And now they are all gone. RIP Sonny Rollins.

I feel like the photographer could have gotten a little closer tbh

William Hodges, 'River Landscape With Monks Conversing By a Pair of Megaliths', 18th Century. #StandingStoneSunday #megalith #landscape #artsky

Three years ago, I wrote about George Moor's The Pole and Whistle (1966), an utterly forgotten novel about the love of a quiet clerk for a petty thief. Thanks to Solar Press Books, it's now back in print after 60 years. neglectedbooks.com/?...

I love the composition of this Pach Bros studio shot of Jean Harlow taken in New York in the fall of 1930 during her eastward publicity tour for Hell’s Angels (1930). The elegant hands, color blocking, and textural contrasts are striking.

In case you were wondering.

I doubt Jeanette adored that billing, but this is the way movie theatres should look.

"She would," as her neighbour lady Violet Powell observed acidly at the time, "flirt with a dead man."

Yesterday was Adrienne Doré’s birthday and I forgot. I should be more respectful considering I am the person who outed her as being born in 1907, not 1910. 😁

@gjmaupin.bsky.social I don’t know if you have run across this site that traces the way that various British music hall songs morphed into folks songs and vice versa, but it seems pertinent your interests.

One of my favorite running gags on Andrew Hickey’s podcast is Rod Stewart trying, and failing, to join just about every British band in the 1960s. I just finished his look at The Who’s Pinball Wizard and there was a hint that Rod’s losing streak is going to end soon. @500songspodcast.bsky.social

#PhantomsFriday If you happen to be visiting a stately home this weekend, do be mindful of company unseen. (Can't make out the artist's signature)

There are days when I miss being an editor. I loved writing headlines. Whoever did this, I hope they took the rest of the day off.

Episode 264: Endangered Shellac A selection of things in the Dollar Country collection from the early days of recorded music. Listen at the website (linked below) or at apple podcasts. dollarcountry.org/items/show/3...

Because @stephengraves.co.uk just reminded me of it here's a piece I wrote a few years ago about the uncanny nature of post-war British new towns. precastreinforced.co.uk/2022/07/16/u...

Happy Birthday, Cher! I’ll always remember the time you dropped into a thread @lecinemadreams.bsky.social were involved with at The Other Place to defend Sonny’s acting ability.

NEW CANARY ALBUM Over 2 hours recorded by the great Deben Bhattacharya (b. 1921; d. 2001) of performances in Arabic, Hebrew, Spanish, Judeo-Malayalam, Bulharian, and Uzbek. Plus 2500 words of notes. Photo by Bhattacharya of two young Yemeni performers. The girl on the right is playing a gas can.

All this. Basically, unless you have read at least four books specifically about Robert Johnson, at least two of them published within the last decade, literally every single thing you think you know about him is not just wrong, but *risibly, ludicrously* wrong.

Junie looks like she poisoned all the other dogs at the banquet, the culmination of months of careful scheming.

Paid a visit to Mr. Link Wray today. Not the most chatty of fellows

An exceptionally produced book about Letraset, also new to the shop www.presentandcorrect.com/products/let...

90 years ago in Harlow History, May 18: 1936: Jean Harlow in wonderfully diaphanous accordion-pleated Dolly Tree dress featuring open-back panels records a take of an emotional scene in Suzy (1936), where her titular character performs the film’s theme, “Did I Remember?”, on piano.

Me: I really should become more culturally current so I can better connect with my peers and the kids in my life. Also me, seeing that The Patty Duke Show has been added to Kanopy: 2026 can eat shit.

@thebasementtan.bsky.social It looks like they were all in on 1990: The Bronx Warriors in Cornwall, Ontario in 1983.

The vampire hunt is ON! Do you have a beat up VHS, film print etc of the 1922 Nosferatu? Alexandre O Philippe and our team are making a doc about our global treasure hunt called IN SEARCH OF NOSFERATU. More info here, or email us at albingraufilms at gmail dot com deadline.com/2026/05/in-s...

Joan Crawford never costarred with a Luddite.

CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC (1980) lecinemadreams.blogspot.com/2013/11/cant... Originally titled “Discoland...Where the Music Never Ends” and conceived as a vehicle for Olivia Newton-John, it's ill-timed camp on steroids and largely a mess, but it's a so-bad-it's-good grown jewel. #villagepeople #disco

If I don't get another 10,000 followers in the next week, I'm taking this back!