Spare a thought for thems of us watching the Superbowl in weird time zones. It’s nearly midnight for me. One of my best friends is watching the game in Egypt where it’s already nearly 2am.

I have so many Seattle friends that I’d always be supporting the Seahawks, but as an Englishman, I also really struggle to support the New England Patriots. Some sort of weird history echo that just refuses.

What a movie The Exorcism of Emily Rose is. Stunned I hadn’t watched it in full before today

Saw the wicked @cynefins4c.bsky.social yesterday night. Beautiful melodic folk all in Welsh. I didn't understand the words, but the vibes were restoratively great. @missmariapants.bsky.social you would love this.

I run all of these in one deck, with no clever way of assembling them. While I do have synergies with them individually, I love the sense of hope that comes from the never assembled combo.

I reckon I could easily record an hour plus of me talking about all the reasons not to brazenly cut lands from your Commander deck, as audio to fall asleep to. People would still do it, but maybe they’d get some more sleep, which is good too?

RottenTomatoes is a wild hellscape as soon as a movie is politicised. Its scores were always a bit weird, as the % is the proportion of reviewers who liked a movie, not average rating, but when the public reviews are wildly different to press ones there more at play.

One of my prouder achievements is that I wrote the DVD box blurb for one of Catherine O’Hara’s lesser known movies, A Mighty Wind. It is a joyful, heartfelt, silly take on folk music that I thoroughly recommend. As I wrote over 20 years ago; “A Mighty Wind will blow you away”

RIP Kai. Obviously an insanely talented Magic player, but also a really nice person in my experience. May we aspire to be both, but if in doubt the latter.

This looks like it might be grand, and this specific poster feels like it could easily be framed and adorn the walls of @bdm.bsky.social’s Dog’s Ear bar/bookshop.

While Groundhog Day remains my favourite movie, as close to perfect as anyone could hope for, I do still wonder if Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio would have been better casting for the Andi MacDowell role.

Well I guess I’m figuring out where/how I’m watching the Superbowl…

In England, when someone passes away of old age, it’s traditional to ask old they were, then wistfully say ‘A good innings’, because a really good innings in cricket would be a score that’s also a grand old age to reach. I don’t know if that alone makes cricket a good sport, but it helps.

I really hope that Raye finds her husband, because that would be a wonderful joyful story, with an adorable announcement video. I also hope that doesn’t stop her from continuing to sing about looking for him, because the song is a perfect banger.

My sleep patterns at the moment are wild, and super dream wracked. Yesterday I was in a horror setting, helping PK to rescue his kidnapped wife. Today, I met a friend from 20 years ago and went dumpster diving for guitars, getting a weird lego guitar for my wall and a lime green telecaster to play

In 2017, I spent a month in Minneapolis. While the weather ranged from murderously cold to chilly, the people were wonderful, and the vibe was welcoming and inclusive. It breaks my heart the trouble it is facing, but the people’s response warms it. Stay safe, shout loud. The world’s on your side.

How many owls would you need to see in the wild during the day before you got really worried?

I don't play enough Premodern to speak to metagame concerns leading to Parallax Tide's ban. I think it's a bit of a shame. With a non-rotating format, there's a lot to be said for taking out cards if they don't just make for bad games, but make people not want to play full stop. Was PT there? Maybe

Some topics get visited all the time by songwriters, which is rad. But every now and then you get a tune that speaks about something else. This song is kind of sad, but I love it all the same. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGks...

My year of trying to watch more good films continues with Decision to Leave. Beautiful direction, and some very cool themes. The pacing on it feels weird by western standards, and some of the dialogue is a little dense to keep up with given the subtitles, but still definitely worth a watch.

In the year of our lord 2026 I reckon that if these ads aired on British TV, and the gum was available, it would sell pretty well, even though the joke is at this point old enough to be walking and talking. youtu.be/LQsMp4Oo6xM?...

Having a good weekend for films! Friday night, watched Compulsion, which is great, then Orson Welles appears late on to make it even better. Saturday night, watched The Vanishing, which is utterly chilling and amazing (has subtitles, but don't let that put you off). Tonight maybe The Thin Man?

Not saying Roger Ebert was the perfect film critic, but I just read the first sentence of one of his reviews for a film I know nothing about; "William Powell is to dialogue as Fred Astaire is to dance." Love it. Stopped reading there. I shall now watch this movie. Good enough for me.

Just had a dream where my friend Graham, who is lovely and adores making friends playing board games, revealed that he has copies of Love Letter in many different languages, so that when travelling he can introduce folks to a great game even if they don’t share a common language.

It turns out I have a real soft spot for weird little sci-fi romantic comedies. Groundhog Day Safety Not Guaranteed Meet Cute Self Reliance TiMER The Lobster Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Jeff, Who Lives at Home If it feels like a thought experiment, I’m probably sold.

This video really scratched an itch for me in terms of well researched/interogated data. A satisfying search for truth in numbers. youtu.be/eipZ4hVV1R4?...

Today I bought a bottle of lemonade so carbonated that it is painful to drink. The world is presenting me new and innovative reasons to randomly drink alcohol at home on a Monday night.

2025 can fuck right off. Here’s to 2026!

Between watching pre 2000 Pro Tour matches, and reading @rebell.bsky.social’s year end review, I’m all the more jazzed to own a lot of old Pro Tour/World Championship decks to play against one another. Going forward I’m going to aim to have 4 with me at events, for battling on the fly.

Goals for 2026 1. Make more money than I did in 2025. It sounds mercenary/bad, but being essentially broke all year hampered doing much of anything. 2. Look after myself better. Eat better. Exercise. Take time to enjoy things. 3. Consume less, create more. 4. Stay in touch with friends better.

I have the most straightforward routine for new profile pics. They basically only happen when I get a haircut from my favourite barbers in London. New profile pic coming later today.

I spent a whole Bush gig stood directly behind a cute short girl with pink hair who was loving the show. 2 songs before the end someone shouted ‘Hey Gwen!’ and she turned around. Yes folks, it was Gwen Stefani.

As someone who believes that painlands and tapped duals are pretty much the pinnacle of well balanced mana fixing, I should really play more pre-modern.

When that one song you want to learn uses a weird guitar tuning…

Really hope that the Gävle Goat’s defeat this Christmas is a portent for a great 2026. I feel like I’m due a year that feels ‘better than last year’.

Wake Up Dead Man leaves me with that warm feeling I had in the early days of Marvel movies (e.g. Winter Soldier/GotG) where there was the world of potential of movies that didn’t have to be wholly defined by genre expectations. It’s a good murder mystery, but a great film.

Heading out guitar shopping with my dad (for him not for me). Neither of us *needs* a guitar, but sometimes taking them for a test drive is kind of the whole point.

When there were only four or five channels, Christmas TV was a real competition for eyeballs, and there were some proper gems on to suit a lot of tastes. Now, back home visiting the folks, there is legitimately nothing I’m that fussed about watching.

Sky Atlantic choosing to show all 8 seasons of Game of Thrones back to back, rather than letting me catch up on their new show Amadeus, seems wiiiild. 2 reruns of GoT tonight, then from 4pm Sunday to early Weds morning, followed by 2 seasons House of the Dragon, then… 5 eps of Game of Thrones…

Imagine being the exact right level of celebrity to make consistently helpful Cameo money.

For the month of December, who do you think gets paid more? A) Every single person being paid to dress up as Santa B) Mariah Carey

Best films by characters in the title. My biased list M Up Pig Jaws Rocky Psycho Die Hard The Thing Labyrinth Goodfellas

2026 might be the year that I make a point of using the word 'za' to describe pizza, such that I don't feel as guilty about using it in Scrabble.

When you cannot sleep and elect to spend the early hours of Christmas Eve tracking down and practicing weird bits of sleight of hand for a project that will likely never be seen by anyone...

Happy Winter solstice to all my fellow sun dodgers. Tonight is our night, before George Harrison’s dark prophecy comes to pass. youtu.be/GKdl-GCsNJ0?...

For those of you who have not seen my handwriting, would you guess that it’s A) Great - easily legible, nice to look at B) Functional - not a challenge to read, but not notable to look at C) Fugly and tricky to read without a warmup D) Illegible scrawl, only legible (presumably) to the writer

I would be such a terrible catch for someone looking to marry for flashy wealth. In addition to simply not having a lot of money, I have a gigantic speech ready to go about why diamonds are not the way, and zircon is a scientific wonder.

@bdm.bsky.social is American parmesan functionally the same as parmigiano reggiano? Looking at chicken parm recipes, and the amount of parm in them seems… a lot.

I think tomorrow I might aim at having a 1996 day. My phone doesn't seem to be charging, my wifi isn't working, time to lean into it, read some books and pay with cash for things.

My iPhone updated with the ‘liquid glass’ thing, and it is such a strict downgrade on accessibility, which I cannot find a way of turning off. Was this update just people at Apple being bored and wanting to mess with people?