Absolute scumbag.

Confirmed as fake by Ballyscullion:

www.facebook.com/sha...

Apparently doing the rounds.

As a poet, a festival like this could make a huge difference. Parasites like this Rosalind need punishing.

Also, fyi Becky Tuch

When there's 'no food' in the house.

Finished three books this last week and a bit, one excellent, one very fun, one utterly dire. Wolf Solent was spectacular. Mehmed, the Hawk was loads of fun. Kavan's Ice... Deary me what self indulgent tripe.

Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted? New interviews and closely guarded documents shed light on the persistent doubts about the head of OpenAI.

Have to hand it to the @NewYorker on this one. Phenomenal reporting:

My lack of engagement with meme culture always makes me feel better when I encounter meme culture.
It's like encountering a nomadic tribe that embraces leprosy as a spiritual means for growth. Whenever I see them, I think: "Ah, fuck yeah, I'm glad I don't have leprosy."

Heavenly

Orban is out. Yahoo!!!!

Orban is out. Uahoo

Catherine Liu on taking down the cultural elite We tend to think that today’s progressive politics advances equality through moral awareness and identity. But Catherine Liu argues that it has been captured by the professional managerial class, which replaces material redistribution with virtue signalling and cultural status. In this interview, Liu examines how universities, identity politics and trauma culture can obscure class struggle and what a renewed working-class politics might look like.

"I was appalled by the way trauma has been instrumentalised ... particularly around the very basis of their politics ... the gentrification of pain."

Only listened to the first three minutes (have to subscribe to listen further), but thus far, I agree.

Was looking at descriptions of events at a few literary festivals there.

So many contained: X's work has "explored" shame and identity.

Can we have a year without literary events being stuffed with people who 'explore' shame, identity, and trauma?

One year about art?

Please.

I have zero respect for anyone who says who a person is should in any way influence whether or not their work should receive institutional support. One criteria matters: quality. Solipsism is not a quality.

Ah it's good to have a pint in the Dublin local.

One day soon rappers will boast of their wealth by rhyming about drinking civet coffee.

There's not a day that goes by that I don't wonder how half the US electorate was so idiotic in voting for putrid bilge in a barely viable skin suit.

There's not a single thing that wouldn't be improved by having an inanimate carbon rod instead.

One of my longest held beliefs is we should reintroduce horses in cities and ban cars, excepting the countryside.

Excerpt from a reading at Edinburgh's the Alcove event, run by Hadley James Hoyles. The first public reading of a work in progress.

An excerpt of a reading, featuring a little bit of a work in progress.

www.youtube.com/watc...

#writing #literature #irishwriting #ireland #dublin #poetry #art

New work in StepAway magazine.

The Spanish Arch

stepawaymagazine.com...

The whole issue is very much worth a read!

@StepAwayMag @StepAwayMag.bsky.social

#writing #poetry #literature #art #Galway #Ireland #irishwriting

Solipsism, the little word that explains a lot.

90% of contemporary literature is neoliberalism made manifest.

My thoughts exactly.

Enormous heart, and I enjoyed it. Enjoyed in a way I haven't for ages. I feel like the trappatoni era kinda killed that total energy. Nice to see it again.

The Irish ability to say how'r'yah, while locking eyes and being happy serves us all well.

When being eyeballed by burly men angry at my decision to ponce around in bright pink, it is even more delightful

Reading some new work at The Alcove: Poetry in Edinburgh this Friday, in The Strathmore Bar Leith, from 7 PM.

You should come. It'll be fun.

For sure, there'll be reading from myself & Hadley Jaemes Hoyles, and Anton playing the blues, as Mr. Springwater, and many others booked!

Has anyone made a nice looking car since the 50s?

I know nothing about cars, and I don't drive.

Mainly I just they're all ugly.

The beauty is both have the choice to learn. The immoral can reflect, grow and rehabilitate themselves. The moral can learn craft, history, technique, style, and develop a genuine practice.

Virtue is developed, and it applies, albeit differently, to the art of being, and to art.

The immoral person should be punished for any crimes, but the art is separate. The moral should be praised for their good works, but the art is separate.

An artist's politics are categorically irrelevant when assessing the quality of their art.

This also means bad work by good people should not be lauded for who they are.

It's just got to sing. That's all that matters.

The inclusion of language that could be a LinkedIn marketing post about a £10,000 spa (for 'wellness,' another ghastly new word), it's never a good thing.

I am not nutrient sourcing, I eat.
I am not conditioning, I am going for a walk.
I am not skills training, I'm reading a book.

Something I could never ever say: 'I'm detoxxing.'

There's a level of ghastly cringeworthy language that's naff, dweeby, and aesthetically horrifying, which has crept into normal speech. It's also v. narcissitic. Why not just: 'No pints this week, I'm giving my liver a holiday.'

Buy this book: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/...

It will improve your sex life.

It will improve your reason.

It will make you a better person.

Buy the book.

So strange things in life. Friend needs to know what tea a northern Irish man drinks, for work. Honestly, I've no idea. Turns out, unless I'm told else wise... Unionists: Thompson's, easily: punjana, otherwise the classic trio of Barry's, Lyon's and Bewley's.