Fantastic x

We're thrilled to announce a two-book deal with @robpalk.bsky.social . 📚 The Crowd Pleaser (Feb 2027) and a reissue of Animal Lovers (Oct 2026) – funny, tender, and quietly devastating comic fiction. We can't wait to share them.

A very eloquent way of putting it. Time to get offscreen and tangible. To quote the late and oft-preposterous Richard Neville. “THINK INK”.

fuck sam altman forever for taking away the last places where we could engage in good faith: the creative arts, which should be a testament to human ingenuity. i am so mad that everything i read or listen to or admire is now tainted with doubt. do you understand? he is a thief of joy and i HATE HIM

I prefer to think it trails clouds of glory. A throwback to a simpler age.

I’ll save meeting really rum characters in pubs for another thread. That’s a long one.

Then there is having people come up to me in the street, only for mischance to befall me. It’s happened twice: a Traveller gave me a sprig of heather & I got measles; & an Indian gentleman crossed the street, made a waving gesture me, said I’d live a long life & very soon after I had a nosebleed.

Animals, vittals, and fruits of the vintners trade. Somewhat Breughuelian.

Beautiful

I only noticed that whilst writing them down…

8. Starting - inadvertently - a tulip bulb riot at a gig.
9. Being warned by cops whilst wearing bear costume during a drugs awareness gathering for teens (I was in my 40s) & stopped by cops dressed as a cat for being a suspect raver in 1989 (I’d been drinking Trent mild and had been sick in my paw)

6. Being cut out of a Tellytubbies costume by an ambulance crew.
7. Somehow being invited on German TV and talking about Can’s legacy in a hall full of German farmers.

4. Wearing a cow costume on Leazes Moor for a week and standing with the cow herd. No one - cows, humans - noticed. I was a bit down at the time (1990).
5. Doing an (inadvertent) commando roll over a 4 foot high plant pot in Antwerp.

2. Blagging a scoop interview with Kevin Keegan & Terry McDermott in 1992 when KK became NUFC manager. I notated on my art history lecture notes & wore a homemade Cocteau Twins teeshirt.

3. Eating 3 main courses in a row at the Rybářsky Club in Prague, 1992. The staff played St Peppers on cassette.

Currently updating my CV, which is a chore, but got me thinking. What are the remarkable things that have happened to me, that I am actually amazed by? Not the work “achievements” but the stuff that is wild / unique? I’m going to list some: 1. Eating the last cloves of Damo Suzuki’s pickled garlic.

Anyway, how are you, Roy?

Nope: can’t say I’m a fan of them, or any of those records. I had a soft spot for the first Oadis lp when it came out but I was more into SFA, Cope/Thighpaulsandra, Ochre Records, Aphex, Spiritualised & lots of Mo Wax back then. Boo Radleys or Shack were as Britpop as I got.

Puts British political scandal into perspective

Certainly not! What is, is John Shuttleworth’s The Yamaha Years. And that’s no joke.

The European right is pivoting away from America Electoral logic is driving a shift as polls lay bare European disgust at the US administration

The European right is pivoting away from America ft.trib.al/5b9MJsg | opinion

Passed away on this day in 2020: Florian Schneider #Kraftwerk
Pics;
Ellen Poppinga
Gie Knaeps
youtu.be/iukUMRlaBBE?...

It’s the age of the grand masque and coffee house pamphlets - digitized.

A vaccine for Lyme disease could be on the horizon The vaccine candidate is the furthest any shot has gotten since the last one was pulled in 2002. Scientists are testing other ways to block infection.

New clinical trial data from vaccine makers show that their Lyme disease vaccine reduced cases by about 70%.
www.sciencenews.org/article/lyme...

Coachella is trying to wipe all of the footage of The Strokes protest set so I’m gonna post it here. The last images on the screen made me cry.

Just that, in my memory. The Fat Cat was always a bit solemn, maybe as a reaction to all the swearing elsewhere in Sheffield? I always found it one of the more polite cities tbh

‘She’d been drinking with Julie Walters. I heard a crash’: Victoria Wood’s genius – by her friends, fans and actors Dazzling performer, brilliant writer, maddening perfectionist, Easter Egg hunt maestro … on the 10th anniversary of Wood’s death, those who knew her best celebrate the shy introvert who redefined come...

On the 10th anniversary of her death, people who worked with Victoria Wood reinforce the things that came across strongly in Jasper Rees's biography: that she was painfully shy, often a nightmare to work with, and an unqualified linguistic genius.

May I ask why, worthy Doctor?

The ONLY PLACE I got told off - told to leave in fact - for swearing was in the Fat Cat in Sheff. I was just being ebullient.

Good stuff! A go-to book.

Also NL - read Ajax and the War by Simon Kuper