Light Blue Movers, 1987 https://botfrens.com/collections/27/contents/5303

'I try and be the least I can be. Bring the least disruption, the least intrusion, the smallest footprint, do the least prettifying; shut up and be still.' www.jebloynichols.co.uk

On how a John Cage concert led me to recreate its incidental sounds at home, yielding a domestic approximation of the acoustic smoke and ash left over from the performance. (From 2012) www.bulldozia.com/2012/08/15/t...

Remembering when Glasgow's transport bosses chose to rewrite (and ruin) a slogan made famous by Alasdair Gray: www.flickr.com/photos/bulld...

Delighted to come across this radio show on SoundCloud from @robwalsh.bsky.social Will appeal to fans of On the Wire, perhaps even those dwelling in the fleshpots of the Fylde Coast. soundcloud.com/blowin-1

'Every manufacturer lives in his factory like the planters in the colonies in the midst of their slaves, one against hundred, and the rebellion in Lyon is another Haitian Revolution.' (Saint-Marc Girardin, 1831). archive.org/details/souv...

I cannot sufficiently underline how despicable it is that the IOC has required Haitian Olympic athletes to remove an image representing the leader of the Haitian Revolution (against SLAVERY) from their uniforms.

From Godard's La Chinoise (1967).

This is presumably taking the piss out of Robin William's 2009 suggestion that politicians should wear jackets with the logos of their 'sponsors' on them, like racing car-drivers, so the public would be able to tell who they really work for. www.snopes.com/fact-check/r...

Richard Skelton (@corbelstonepress.bsky.social) is the featured artist this month at www.patreon.com/HeadphoneCom... - in-depth interviews, tracks to stream, albums to download. Subscribe for as little as £1 a month. Well worth it.

On pork as a shibboleth and how conversos and moriscos in Spain sought to avoid persecution as heretics by hanging sausages in their homes or cooking ham they had no intention of eating. And how “¿come jamón?” has been revitalised as a test of national belonging. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

📣 Today @felicitycallard.bsky.social and I have published the first peer-reviewed response to the 'Sullivan Review' of research and data on sex and gender. doi.org/10.1111/tran... The Review could threaten trans rights and inclusion, erode academic freedom, and undermine research quality.

A fine appreciation of 'the song’s serpentine groove, a hypnotic inside-out drum pattern that’s difficult to resist and seemingly impossible for anyone but the late icon Sly Dunbar'—its origins and afterlife: pitchfork.com/reviews/trac...

'It was November. The girl looked up at the cloudy sky and sighed like a housewife disappointed in the whiteness of her wash.' You could spend a whole morning with a story by Leonora Brito nation.cymru/culture/revi...

#OtD 31 Jan 2006 200 postal workers in Belfast took part in a wildcat strike against management bullying. 100s more Catholic and Protestant workers joined the strike, bringing deliveries in the city almost to a complete halt until they won on Feb 17 stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1036...

Amid growing calls for the abolition of ICE, Rep. Delia Ramirez is calling for the entire DHS to be dismantled. Highlighting how much experience the officers who killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti had, Ramirez said, “DHS was built to violate our rights and has been empowered to act with impunity.”

Happy Burns' Night, everyone ❤️ I've seen the far-right trying to co-opt Burns (some even calling him a 'proud Brit' 😂), so I'm sharing again my favourite thing about Burns. I wrote this a few years ago now, but it's even more relevant now. graniteandsunlight.wordpress.com/2019/01/25/r...

Robert Burns' song 'Scots wha hae', as it was first printed (anonymously, sort of), in The Morning Chronicle, 8 May 1794.

Delighted to find this extract from a letter dated 21 January, 1775, published in the (London) Public Advertiser, 29 April 1775. 1/5

'The same people who are most skeptical regarding the intelligence and awareness of animals are often also those most credulous regarding the ability of computers to achieve consciousness or general intelligence': davidbentleyhart.substack.com/p/thoughts-i...

On the bus from Eglwswrw to Aberystwyth. Change of driver at Cardigan but otherwise no cause for alarm.

theconversation.com/travel-as-ac... Just out in the Conversation Africa: My take on moving to be free. A study of black working women in apartheid who “travelled to gain ground for the greater cause of freedom, while discovering new versions of themselves along the way.”

made something new today Stop the Violence! #freequ 2026 STOPtheVIOlens agf-poemproducer.bandcamp.com/album/stop-t...

'This is why the chant “Death to the tyrant, whether king or [supreme] leader” resonates so powerfully. Iranians are rejecting the Islamic Republic, but also foreign-backed alternatives promoted by exile figures such as Reza Pahlavi' www.972mag.com/iran-protest...

Please mind the gap between the brain and the mandible.

'In the UK, polishing is a national past-time. Shiny surfaces. Gloss. Gloss.' A killjoy new year message from @saranahmed.bsky.social feministkilljoys.substack.com/p/an-empire-...

It has long been known that in 1937 Winston Churchill gave a speech where he argued that profits from slavery helped finance the industrial revolution in Britain. Here Peter Hulme looks at newspaper reports of the occasion & casts light on the wider context of his remarks: brill.com/view/journal...

will also add - yes, this is my personal crusade - that turning podcasts into videos implicitly asks women to once again make more effort than men, as the bar for "camera-ready" for one gender is obviously higher than for the other

'“The Malay–took the Pearl–” is ... about being mistreated & stigmatized ... about having your humanity and your love ignored & denigrated. ... [Dickinson] responded ... by blaming Black people for her troubles. That’s how white supremacy works': www.everythingishorrible.net/p/emily-dick...

Excellent news. Someone I voted for actually got elected. By a convincing (60:40) margin.

I freely confess that I’d never even heard of C18th century poet Angharad James until this episode of @yrheniaith.bsky.social but her work is remarkable Read this lovely overview by @jerryhunter.bsky.social then please search your attic for the lost ‘llyfr coch’! nation.cymru/feature/yr-h...

Big fan of Sean Borodale. The bio Poetry Ireland provides here ignores his first book, 'Notes for an Atlas', which I enthuse about here: www.bulldozia.com/2011/11/27/s...

If you are addicted to heroin you can have your blood tested to help you manage the health risks. But if you are a child trying to access healthcare, in line with international norms, Wes Streeting's position is that you "must" be treated worse.

What a loathsome headline.

Preseli skies, an hour before sunset.

Interesting use of street-level graphics to transform a cross-walk into a data visualization in the Tuzla Municipality of Istanbul, to depict the stark and devastating figures of the number of people killed and injured (20,000) over the last 10 years at cross-walks across the country.

Choose your shibboleth carefully. A lesson from the Gordon Riots. In 1780 the Protestant Association recommended its supporters wear blue cockades as they marched on Parliament to protest the Catholic Relief Act. 1/3 www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/wp-content/u...

This book (and all others by @edinburghup.bsky.social) are half price this weekend from their website: edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-frederi...

the joy of not being sold anything. billboard by Banksy

To those of us following human rights in #Tibet, the #Uyghur regions & illegal rare earth mining in #Laos or #Myanmar the fact that #China derailed the inclusion of mining & critical minerals in the #COP30 #JustTransition program is no surprise for @codastory.com www.codastory.com/climate-cris...

Flaubert proved the same - and with more humour - in 'Bouvard and Pecuchet', though 'Googling and reading about it' was shown to be not much better.

Two middle-aged blokes talking about music of yesteryear (a bit too laid back and smooth for me), but the chat about the ambient underground scene in South London in the early 1990s is very interesting. Strictly Kev talks us through the Telepathic Fish compilation: www.mixcloud.com/do_you_radio...

Trains cancelled.

HAITI ARE INTO THEIR FIRST WORLD CUP IN HALF A CENTURY ❤️

A wee wander round the Green today + spotted this banner someone has put at the front of the People's Palace - Elseth King RIP 🐦🌳🔔🐟

Just came across this podcast from @jemgilbert.bsky.social and Tim Lawrence. No indication of when it was made, but their discussion of the political nuances of the summer of love & the momentous influence of David Mancuso was excellent: www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk/series1/welc...

What a great Pick of the Week from @scouttzofiya.bsky.social with cod-slam poetry, the word 'cistension', the sound of agoraphobia, Walt Whitman, Johnny Cash, an introduction to musique concrète and a closing snippet of strangeness from LINTD: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Handbill advertising a debate hosted by Robert Wedderburn in London in August 1819, a week before Peterloo. 1/2

What's the linguistically correct term for Santa's little helpers? Subordinate clauses 👍