small hours big time night shift - colder, starry 0214 - a band of samurai movie rain it passes wet slate and Venus

11/9/25 - nocturn

Sainsbury's Corn Flakes from 1973 superimposing a outlined sun witha face over fields of wheat and corn

bring back the Wicker Man Corn Flakes

gertrude stein cracker barrel

gonna tell my kid this is gertrude stein

Crane bows its head on the centre panel of this triptych it’s crossed legs on the right hand panel

Oh Beauty I Am Undone.
Painted on 23 carat gold leaf laid on vintage Italian poplar wood panels.

Interviewer: On the other hand, some specific American realities have a draw for you. DeLillo: Certainly there are themes that recur. Perhaps a sense of secret patterns in our lives. A sense of ambiguity. Certainly the violence of contemporary life is a motif. I see contemporary violence as a kind of sardonic response to the promise of consumer fulfillment in America. Again we come back to these men in small rooms who can’t get out and who have to organize their desperation and their loneliness, who have to give it a destiny and who often end up doing this through violent means. I see this desperation against the backdrop of brightly colored packages and products and consumer happiness and every promise that American life makes day by day and minute by minute everywhere we go.

DeLillo, in 1988, being interviewed about Libra, argues that fiction can provide some simple emotional closure and comforting rhythm to the senseless horror of history, then he says:

"I see contemporary violence as a kind of sardonic response to the promise of consumer fulfillment in America."

more than 20 years on, i am still cross about the kaiser chiefs rhyming "watching the people get lairy" with "it's not very pretty, I tell thee"

We truly live in hell.

NEIL YOUNG 2025.06.28 Glastonbury Music Festival This is "NEIL YOUNG 2025.06.28 Glastonbury Music Festival" by JoeRay Skrha on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Neil at Glasto 2025

small hours big time 3am - Venus in the hole of a well thumbed pocket stone a thick night turning into Monday proper

29/6/25 - nocturn

Tom Spencer has been a regular recently at The NewSouth Bookstore — we’ve had to call him back several times to sign additional copies of his new book, The Mystery of the Crooked Man. The orders keep coming in! We are pleased the book is enjoying such success!

Paula Rego, Hey Diddle Diddle, 1989 etching from the nursery rhymes series #WomensArt

Beth Gibbons: Tiny Desk Concert YouTube video by NPR Music

This was a ton of fun. Twenty minutes’ gorgeousness for you.

youtu.be/G_-DftINZKg?...

Shelf Awareness for Readers for Friday, May 2, 2025 This week's issue is brimming with satisfying reading recommendations! Andrew Knighton crafts "a fresh take on the reluctant hero" in Forged for Destiny, turning ideas of valor and villainy upside…

NBCC member Nell Beram reviewed "The Mystery of the Crooked Man" by Tom Spencer for Shelf Awareness:

Print of a landscape under a stormy sky with swirling grey and light purple clouds and golden rising sunlight

Laura Boswell, contemporary printmaker based in Scotland specialising in wild landscape and coastal prints in linocut & woodblock

Goodnight

A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope

“chicago pope” is one of the shows jack donaghy greenlit when he was tanking nbc

LAST CALL! Author Tom Spencer will be in conversation at the Haunted Bookshop, 9 S. Joachim St., Mobile. It all starts at 5:30pm. I'll be emceeing, followed by an audience Q&A, and book signing. Call the bookshop to reserve your place or visit online: www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/events-detai...

Need a last minute mother's day gift? THE MYSTERY OF THE CROOKED MAN by Tom Spencer @tellmelieslater.bsky.social is the perfect gift for moms who enjoy mysteries, according to @nytimes.com of course! 🔍🕵️

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/b...

May is National Mystery Month. These are only a few of my favorite authors:

* Agatha Christie (or course)
* Dashiell Hammett (Thin Man series. Can't beat Nick and Nora)
* Anna Elliot & Charles Veley
* Kerry Underwood
* M.C. Beaton
* Carolyn Haines
* Tom Spencer

small hours big time night shift - looking out extra dark with low sky going fast it will clear at 3 but you'll be busy

7/5/25 - nocturn

greetings, pope pickers

Events details An indie bookstore in downtown Mobile, Alabama. We stock books that might be haunting you. And we have a cat.

A fun evening in store Thursday - the Haunted Bookshop in Mobile hosts a conversation with the author of “The Mystery of the Crooked Man,” Tom Spencer. I will be MC’ing the event. Make your reservation today.

www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/events-detai...

small hours big time a waking night no films to settle into weather followed by stars 0323 - put the bins out

5/5/25 - nocturn

'James' wins 2025 Pulitzer Prize for fiction The 2025 Pulitzer Prizes were announced Monday afternoon. Percival Everett won the award for fiction for his novel James, a powerful re-imagination of Huckleberry Finn.

The 2025 Pulitzer Prizes were announced Monday afternoon. Percival Everett won the award for fiction for his novel James, a powerful re-imagination of Huckleberry Finn.

Celt Flute, might delete later.

Poster for Carry on Up The Wicker Man. Sid James plays Sgt Howie, Barbara Windsor as Willow, Kenneth Williams as Lord Summerisle and Hattie Jacques as Oak. The tagline reads: May Day! May Day! The crafty Carry On crew are at it again! When Sergeant Howsyerfather sets out looking for a girl he'll soon find out that there's no smoke without pyre. What a flaming cheek!

Front cover of Sidneyfantastique magazine about Carry On Up The Wicker Man, a spoof of the famous Cinefantastique issue with Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle replaced with Kenneth Williams and Sid James and Barbara Windsor in the burning Wicker Man

Four lobby cards for Carry On Up The Wicker Man. Clockwise from top left: Sid James lying on a bed with the Hand of Glory next to him; Sid James sat at a table grinning with a cigar while Barbara Windsor looks on shocked; Kenneth Williams in drag as Lord Summerisle as the High Priest leading the procession of villagers; Charles Hawtrey dressed as Punch.

Can't wait to give this classic a rewatch this evening #WickerMan #CarryOn

All credit for these goes to @daniel-mcgachey.bsky.social

MUPPET WICKER MAN (Brian Henson, 1993)

Police Sergeant Kermie travels to the isolated town of Summerisle in search of a missing girl. He finds the locals to be a surly and suspicious lot, rustic practitioners of crude bawdiness and Celtic neo-paganism. Starring Vincent Price as Lord Summerisle.

Photo of an outdoor art installation featuring a woodland with a magical looking doorway created by wood and twigs in the forest

Passage, 2007 by installation artist Cornelia Konrads #womensart #Beltane #May1st

New mystery just dropped, and it's full of twists more crooked than the titular man himself...Happy Publication Day to The Mystery of the Crooked Man by @tellmelieslater.bsky.social

Perfect for fans of The Twyford Code, Magpie Murders, and Yellowface!