Books used to be like £5 and a hardback was £12 and now a paperback is £12 and a hardback is £20. It’s harder to just take a punt on an interesting premise.

Ah, The Armed Man - A Mass For Peace by Karl Jenkins is the classic FM number 1 this year, and it’s such a beautiful and timely work.

So we are all agreed that tomorrow is Easter Tuesday which is another bank holiday and we don’t need to go to work, yes?

So yesterday the tube was suspended because someone was walking down the track. I mean!

Erm, anyone speak German?

5 days a week for years and years, and now I could not do it.

That’s some bold naming.

Andrew O’Hagan · Stay Classy: Mummy’s Favourite The late queen can be held responsible for much, but nobody could accuse her of seeming to enjoy her role. For the...

jesus CHRIST.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Tix for Ben Platt in Midnight at the Never Get at Menier Chocolate Factory on pre sale warning. And yes I’ve got mine and yes I’m stupidly excited about it.

Not a big fan of crowds of hen parties in LGBT spaces, decided to leave a bar tonight for that reason

Far more likely a pointless shiny thought up by PMs that engineers are told to build. Actually solving problems requires making the hard decisions.

One of my major bugbears with tech in general and consumer tech in particular is the amount of engineering effort that goes into creating pointless features. Like “you can send a singing emoji” which no one has done more than once. Solve actual problems!

Nasty cold still will not go away so tomorrow I brave the GPs new booking system. But today, some 5th Doctor shenanigans. Four To Doomsday (better than I recall), now Kinda

The seven dials club on Netflix is rather a fun watch for a Saturday evening. Roaring 20s, much derring do, plucky young gals and a host of the sort of British actors one would expect to see in this sort of thing.

I can understand that, but I’d argue that film is a different beast, its structure is (trilogies etc aside) to create a world and tell a story in one sitting, and the comfort / resilience / attention span /need to deal with bodily functions requirements of an audience need to be considered.

Happy Bullshit Monday everyone. Remember that Blue Monday was a marketing campaign 20 years ago and the “equation” is utter horse shit.

Make films shorter if you want them shown in cinemas, says Picturehouse director Clare Binns says three-hour runtimes deter audiences as she is named Bafta recipient for outstanding British contribution to cinema

Kinda agree here, there are very few 3 hour plus films that need to be that long.

www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja...

What did we learn from RPDR season 18. What I learned is I never need listen to Cardi B again.

Feeling the need to do something creative like build something or create something. Need to find space to set up the sewing machine I think.

Starting New Years in the right way, by watching the New Years Concert from Vienna and drinking Buck’s Fizz

This years Hootenanny line up reminds me of that Doctor Who episode where they unfreeze the singer every Christmas. I mean, how long can these people be wheeled out.

Drag panto of Snow White

Snow White with a little artistic license

This is the way

Shopping for shirts is like “here’s the plain one, here’s the stripey ones, here’s the small checked one, here’s the big checked one”. There must be somewhere that doesn’t just sell the same 4 shirts !

Waking up when you are ready to, relaxed days, no pressure. I love this bit of the Christmas holidays.

But have you got your slightly punny but not actually funny tour name? I offer up On his Todd (a solo show) or 12 Gays of Chris-mas.

Barbican revamp to give ‘bewildering’ arts centre a new lease of life Project will make the famously confusing London landmark easier to navigate and more accessible “Everything leaks,” says Philippa Simpson, the director of buildings and renewal at the Barbican, who is standing outside the venue’s lakeside area and inspecting the tired-looking tiles beneath her feet. Water seeps through the cracks into the building below and serves as a reminder of the job facing Simpson and the team who are overhauling the 43-year-old landmark. Continue reading...

Barbican revamp to give ‘bewildering’ arts centre a new lease of life

This year the pre Christmas slump in motivation is hitting hard. Got to battle through another 2 weeks of work and I’d really much rather be enjoying Christmas lights, going to the cinema, baking mince pies, virtually anything else.

Was she actually hit with a tax bill, or was the estate of the deceased person hit with a tax bill. Because given that tax is essential to fund public services, taxing the dead seems like the least painful way of doing it.

Went to a gig last night which was really good but I fell a little short changed. I feel that the headliner should be playing for about 90 minutes, not calling it after an hour, coming back on to play a 2 song encore and the entire thing finishing after 75 minutes. Is this a thing now?