Everything we know about plans for new £600m UK theme park 'with no rides' The Puy du Fou resort has been an enormous success in France for more than four decades, and now plans to open a theme park near Bicester, Oxfordshire.

I've seen little coverage of the fact that Le Puy de Fou is now (inevitably) planning to open a UK site.

Le Puy du Fou - Wikipedia

Incidentally, the interview also mentions Philippe de Villiers, founder of Le Puy du Fou in Vendée - an extraordinary 'historical' theme park which one writer has described as 'a war machine that feeds the entire historical imagination of European nationalism'.

Standing by the window I heard it,
while waiting for the turn. In hot light
and chill air it was the crossing flow
of even life, hurt in the mouth but
exhausted with passion and joy -

RIP J.H. Prynne

"Hi folks, William Gibson here! I wrote novels about AI and computer crime in the 1980s and now I'm an AI computer-criminal myself" 🤖🦹‍♂️

Bolloré's takeover of Grasset: 'Bookshops now serve as sentinels of resistance to the radical rightward shift of society' Christian Thorel, a prominent figure in independent book selling, was among the first to sound the alarm about billionaire Vincent Bolloré's ideological grip on the publishing sector, starting with th...

Fascinating interview with a French bookseller about the radical rightward shift being engineered in French publishing and book selling by billionaire ideologues. We have no counterparts to this type of merchant intellectual.

Un peu niche peut-être, mais quand même…

www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/a...

Why didn’t it occur to me that if the Iron Rose wasn’t an imaginary character, Molly Millions would have been being compared to her for decades? *sigh*

(2 of 2) There’s a deluge of these things now, pretending not only to be from contemporary authors but dead ones as well: James Joyce, Agatha Christie etc. (And bad actors are also posing as publishing executives, btw.)

Please repost to help spread the word!

(1 of 2) WARNING: SCAM EMAILS PRETENDING TO BE FROM ME. They offer very specific feedback on writing in progress/posted or self-published works, then propose an offline conversation. They are coming from this address:

williamgibsonauthor@gmail.com.

One of my favourite memories is going for a long walk with JHP in the Palatinate Forest and his MANIFEST delight at encountering a pen full of pygmy goats, for which he instantly gathered food from the herbage by the path 1/2

'Mornington Crescent' (1910) by Spencer Gore

(Private collection)

Not so niche, in fact. Last week, as you may have read, more than 200 authors quit Grasset, one of France's finest publishing houses, following its takeover by billionaire Vincent Bolloré. Bolloré also owns the railway bookshop chain Relay, whose windows are now full of titles by far-right figures.

I'd like to see you go down the water chute.

I lost Richard - I think he must have fallen out.

I do think tech companies are underestimating the amount of
- new account fatigue
- new app fatigue
- useless upgrade fatigue
- terms of service fatigue

Grovelling in the mud every now and then.

41

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DUBSTAR archive returns this Friday!

www.youtube.com/@stevehillie...

8 photos of the same woman in various poses

Contact sheet of Billie Holiday recording the album Music for Touching
Phil Stern, 1955

Play for Today: Leeds United Talking Pictures TV Sky 328 Freeview 82 Virgin 445 Freesat 306

Coming Soon! Channel Premiere Saturday 2nd May, 9:05pm PLAY FOR TODAY: LEEDS UNITED (1974) Stars #LynnePerrie #ElizabethSpriggs #LoriWills #StanSennett drama #TPTVsubtitles

Getting reports that J H Prynne has died and oh no. Vale, old friend. Saluting you.

She keeps me up most nights in the hotel disco.

Surprising there wasn’t a song and dance number.

Prog Prom wish list: In the Region of the Summer Stars, Mockingbird, From The Undertow, Spectral Mornings, Survival, Fat Old Sun, Starless and Fitter Stoke Has A Bath.

Should potholing be banned?

You'll only drive it underground.

We hear a lot about how the nonhuman world is fragile. With so many species on the brink, I understand that. But, in fact, the nonhuman world is incredibly resilient. It is just under an onslaught by humans unlike anything in the history of the planet. Trillions of organisms obliterated every year.

A golden retriever has both paws up at a bank teller’s window.

“Are you the branch manager?”
“Yes I am, how can I help you?”
“I would like two branches, please.”
“How would you like that?”
“Two big sticks, four little sticks.”

Robert ‘Didfyman’ Smith

Happy birthday Robert Smith - The Cure

Looks Unfamiliar: Tim Worthington – You Can’t Exactly Wash The Dishes To You Suffer By Napalm Death Tim Worthington joins Garreth Hirons to talk about comedy on BBC Radio 3, featuring some very familiar names in long-forgotten shows including Armando Iannucci, Chris Morris and Peter Cook.

Chris Morris and Peter Cook's silly series of ridiculous highbrow discussions Why Bother? is one of the funniest comedy shows ever broadcast. If you've never heard it, or if you just wanted to hear me talking about how much I love it, step right this way...

timworthington.org/2019/04/06/l...