Linoprint of Samuel Beckett's face, black ink on white/cream paper.

So perhaps I might be finding my linocut/linoprint niche in... portraiture? This was last night's first attempt to depict Samuel Beckett. Turns out, in a medium where you're constantly working in little line carvings, wrinkles are really helpful. Grateful to Sam for being never using retinol!

Remember when people speculated that Karl Jenkins attending the King's coronation was actually Meghan Markle in disguise? What a timeline

So - and I cannot stress this enough - what

I do not want to create an account or open a subscription I just want to buy a thing and never hear from you again why is this so hard.

As a show-runner, he was consistently writing cheques he couldn't cash.

Then he did what he always does: set up endless deferrals to an eventual pay-off that never comes. He did this in Doctor Who as well.

Charismatic performances from the cast and shiny production choices really convinced us that he could write.

Sometimes I wonder: were we just younger and stupider, or were we all under some kind of collective mass-delusion about Stephen Moffat's Sherlock series being good. What do you mean a boomerang did it

A man sitting at a working desk, in 1540 setting, with a drinking cup, a few books, a writing desk with paper sheets, and lots of more details.

Working the morning shift as a scholar in 1540, a browser tab and a word document opened on two screens, other needed texts opened and handy, an overfull mail account nearby, and a hot beverage in reach to make for the best working condition. Bonus: wearing a thinking hat. #academicchatter

As someone who married a balding ginger man I find this utterly repulsive as an excuse

There are mistakes, there are errors of judgment, there are indiscretions. Then there are men like this who simply can no longer be trusted with a platform or influence. If you abuse it this badly, you don't get a second chance. Don't keep grabbing the mic. And don't give them a fucking Grammy.

He used this self-awareness to gain popularity and success, and then used this success to abuse others in exactly the way he'd talked about on-stage. This man knew the rules and etiquette, and painted himself as the good guy, precisely so he could gain people's trust enough to break those rules.

This is why the sexual assaults perpetuated by Louis CK were so galling. He had performed sets that showed he was aware of the necessity of consent. A huge part of his popularity was his genuine honesty about his libido and the fact that he acknowledged men could be awful when horny.

....and I'm like "what are you out of your fucking mind? You think I'm just gonna rape you on the off-chance that hopefully you're into that shit?'

(link here to the bit www.instagram.com/reel/DNMBN2r...)

...she says "I'm kind of weird, I get turned on when a guy gets frustrated and just holds me down and fucks me, like that's a big turn on for me". And I was like "well, you should have told me, I'd have happily done that for you". And she says "no, it has to feel real and dangerous"...

'...I was like, what? And she goes "how come we didn't have sex?" I was like "cause you didn't want to"; she's like "yes I did, I was really into it". I was like "why did you keep stopping me?" and she said "cause I wanted you to just go for it". I was like, "what does that mean?"...

'I put my hand up her shirt, and she stops me. I'm like hmm okay. So then we're making out more, and I start putting my hand on her ass, and she stops me. So after a while she went home, nothing happened, and then the next night I saw her in the club and she goes "hey what happened last night?"...

Let me talk about one of the things that disturbed me most about the whole Louis CK scandal. Here's a transcript from one of his bits where he's talking about a hookup he had in his 20s (I can't remember exactly when this is from, but I remember watching this c. 2011)...

The first rule of an adequate response to climate collapse is "You must change the assumptions of normality that politics/economics/society-as-usual has been built on since before you were born."

Every day, we watch people fail to do this.

I don't want to encourage anyone's impostor syndrome but if you are using ChatGPT to write for you, you're literally an impostor. Literally!!! Of the worst kind! Either stop or get out of the way!!! Sigh... I guess this stuff makes me made because the actual work IS hard, and THAT. IS. THE. POINT.

+ some more stuff he said

“A recent meta-analysis found “that consuming short-form video content…is assoc’ed w/poorer cognition &reduced attn, &the results of a clever expmnt from ‘23 found that the mere presence of participants’ smartphones in a room signf’ly reduced their ability to concentrate”🧪

Geoff Harper Can't say I'm a fan but I'm interested to find out how's he's offended the bbc . 7h Like Reply 129 (b Graham Stovold Geoff Harper probably by doing something 'far right' like going down the pub with a few mates.

The Scott Mills news has brought out all the most normal people on Facebook.

News headline: ‘Woman who had sex with identical twins told it is “not possible” to identify father of baby’. The headline is accompanied by a photo of a pregnant person in a pink shirt cradling a baby bump.

The director’s cut of The Comedy of Errors is wild

Re-post for the weekday crowd. The thing about linocutting is that it becomes very addictive: I have various very doable tasks ahead of me today but all I want to do is go back to the table with my tools.

Oh how terrific: I'll look out for this! I have so many ideas about changing concepts of desirability and I think early modern fatness is such a rich topic.

This looks fascinating, Holly: congratulations! I’ve been thinking about early modern fatness recently, especially re: Falstaff. I was wondering how much of your research is applicable to England too? Naturally I assume some cultural differences, but I’m wondering to what extent.

MA Scholarship Award for scholars of colour. In 2026, we plan to offer two scholarships of £4,000 each, to contribute to the costs of postgraduate study. This scholarship is open to candidates studying on either a full time or a part time basis. Apply by 15 July 2026

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Here’s the print reveal of my Spanish Tragedy linocut, where I’m genuinely surprised it worked. VERY satisfying! The carving is very fiddly and takes a long time, and while you’re in progress you think it’ll look terrible. Just another necessary lesson in trusting the process.

If you want a new-found appreciation of early modern visual culture, teach yourself linocut and try and replicate famous woodcuts from the period. Here’s The Spanish Tragedy.

the girl guides in the UK just kicked out all their trans members specifically bc they were threatened with a lawsuit from a rowling-funded group