The whole world tonight

Planet of the apes the musical

I hate every bot I see. From gpa to gpt

Radcliffe Camera in Oxford, with blue sky and sunshine behind it.

Top weekend with @stephthorpe.bsky.social. Yesterday: lunch in the sun, visited Bodleian Library for the Tradecraft exhibition from the John le Carré archive, conversation between John Finnemore & Mick Herron at Oxford Literary Festival. Today: afternoon walk followed by Tim Key at Birmingham Rep. 🙏

Really enjoyed this conversation. As a Deighton newcomer it was an interesting & insightful chat.

Looking forward to Solo pod - just started reading. Bond being in his 40s, depressed & not wanting to work on his birthday is the most I've related to him since the week I ate scrambled eggs every day.

Len Deighton RIP Podcast Episode · The James Bond Book Club · 19 March · 1h 3m

A podcast episode of the James Bond Book Club to salute and celebrate
The late great Len Deighton
podcasts.apple.com/it/podcast/t...

Waking up to news of missing Doctor Who episodes being found certainly beats the usual news.

Increasingly of the opinion that the correct answer to the Trolley Problem is "fuck you, why are you so fixated on finding reasons to justify killing people?"

A by-no-means definitive #IWD composer playlist I made in 2023. You can listen to it on whatever streaming service you like via this link: www.tunemymusic.com/share/GfxCb4...

World Book Day

This is superb. Beautiful and essential.

"Sounds can have their own meaning" – Remembering Éliane Radigue | The Quietus Warren Hatter reflects on the life of an extraordinary, innovative artist, ignored for most of her life before being celebrated this century

I wrote a ‘Remember Them’ piece for @thequietus.com about the wonderful Éliane Radigue. I hope I’ve done her justice thequietus.com/news/remembe...

Every promo shot of every British electronica trio c. 1997.

Plans for the day:

1. Gaze into the abyss, while somehow preventing the abyss from gazing back

2. Pancakes

AFAIK you don't get ads if you pay for premium. Otherwise, it's ads all the way and some of them don't even allow you to dismiss after they've 'finished'. A dismal end to what used to be a great app, but hasn't been for several years now.

If you use AI for writing anything, or “making” anything creative, you know what that says about you?

That you have fuck all to offer the world, and the sad thing is: you don’t even want to change that.

It’s just so fucking pathetic.

This has tickled me immensely

It's had absolutely awful UX for ages, but I stuck with it through grim dedication. It's going in the bin now.

I'm genuinely impressed at how Evernote continues, against all odds, to somehow find ways to keep getting even worse. Superb commitment to the bit.

Imagine thinking that forcing ads into a *note-taking app* will make people pay you rather than, say, lead to them binning off using your app entirely.

Clausewitz's First Principle There are many essential elements necessary for a good Bond film.  007 himself.  A girl.  A villain.  And, somewhere in the mix, a lair.  Bo...

I wrote a listicle like in the good old days of the internet where I've ranked the lairs of Bond villains from worst to best. dissecting007.blogspot.com/2026/02/clau...

A still from Keeping Up Appearances, in which Hyacinth Bucket is delivering the line “this is not a cornflake establishment”

Tori Amos in 1994:

Listening to some jams while writing. Loving the new Wet Tuna track.

Tune in!

Arrived yesterday! 🙏

Would prefer keeping it as its own feed. Maybe just a tweak to the name rather than a new one, to cover how it started & where it's going? The Book Club: James Bond & Beyond, something like that (but better)?

Really enjoying the podcast btw, and it's spurred me on to read the continuation novels. 🙏

Here’s my most recent radio show archive. It’s a little survey of *some* of my favorite music of 2025. Become a paid sub to Ambient Audiophile and get access to more shows www.mixcloud.com/jeff-conklin...

Sick Sad Motherslug | Ana Gavrilovska | Substack Sick Sad Motherslug is mostly about music I like, sometimes about books and movies I like, and occasionally about other things I like. Click to read Sick Sad Motherslug, by Ana Gavrilovska, a Substack...

Working feverishly on my Fave Jazz of 2025 list to get it out the door tomorrow. It's a great day to sign up for my little newsletter if you haven't yet. 🙃

motherslug.substack.com

RIP 2025 Namewall of some noteworthy names who died in 2025. There was too much text for one ALT description, so Part 2 and 3 to follow. Part 1: Jan - Apr JAN: A.D.O.R. / David Lodge / Wayne Osmond / The Vivienne / Brenton Wood / Barbara Clegg Laurie Holloway Christopher Benjamin / Sam Moore Keith Dewhurst / Merle Louise / Joel Paley Tony Slattery / Gwen Watkins Paul Danan / Diane Langton / Linda Nolan David Lynch / Joan Plowright Jules Feiffer / Denis Law Geoff Nicholson / Claire van Kampen John Sykes / Garth Hudson Charlotte Raven Elisa Rae Shupe Christopher Hughes Marianne Faithfull FEB: Brian Murphy Dave Jerden / Mike Ratledge Dafydd Elis-Thomas / Tony Roberts Tom Robbins Tony Kinsey Nike Arrighi / Tommy Hunt / Simon Mawer Steve Hodson / Julian Holloway / Kim Sae-ron Rick Buckler / Jamie Muir Gene Hackman Jerry Butler Gwen McCrae Bill Fay Chris Jasper Roberta Flack / Robert John Henry Kelly Boris Spassky MAR: Bill Dare / Marged Esli / Joey Molland / Angie Stone Kathryn Apanowicz / Geraint Jarman Roy Ayers Brian James / Troy Seals Richard Fortey / D’Wayne Wiggins Bill Ashton / Athol Fugard Stedman Pearson Cocoa Tea Sofia Gubaidulina Eddie Jordan George Foreman Gillian Baxter / Andy Peebles Jemini the Gifted One Richard Chamberlain Lee Montague APR Val Kilmer / Johnny Tillotson Clem Burke Ted Kotcheff / Nino Tempo Mike Berry / Max Romeo Roy Thomas Baker Jean Marsh / Mario Vargas Llosa Wink Martindale Mac Gayden Colin Berry Clodagh Rodgers Pope Francis David Thomas Virginia Giuffre / Philip Lowrie Jane Gardam / Mike Peters

Just some of those we lost in 2025. The gaps are there for us to remember those close to us. Wishing us all a better 2026. x

Some 2025 favourites...

Album: Gwenifer Raymond - Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark
Fiction: Mark Bowles - All My Precious Madness
Non-fiction: John Higgs - Exterminate/Regenerate
Film: Ballad of Wallis Island
Cinema experience: Hundreds of Beavers, GoldenEye
Podcast: A Wheezing Groaning Sound

Listening to this right now, and really enjoying. Thanks as always for your recs, Geoff, and wishing you and yours a happy and safe holiday season. 🙏

Hope they're well soon!