Superb actor. Dig around to see her as the mother in Ibsen’s Ghosts (filmed theatre) and Marlene the Thatcherite in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls (BBC TV version 1990s)

Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate is spot on (the story of Robert Redford being first choice is very well-known). Michael Plain is always a delight, including in Small Prophets, but he is playing a 90 year old […]

Once you mention it, you cannot unsee that shitty railing. Bizarre.

That is sad: SCTV is one of those things you discover years later on YouTube and fall in love with. Thanks for everything.

A recent, commercially published English “translation” of a Japanese novel turned out to be some chancer running the entire document through Deep L. Yep, enshittifcation.

The Pink Toothbrush in Rayleigh? Them were the days.

In no particular order: The Fall: Totale Turns (yes, really; better versions than the singles) Can: Live In Paris 1973 ( a latecomer, but worth it for peak Damo ) Television: The Blow Up (sounds rough, but […]

It’s sad of course, although her outspoken, unpleasant politics will also define her reputation in France. But I like her Gainsbourg-era pop turn, as in this very French take on psychedelia.

Good call. Also, The Shamen went in quick with Acid House in 1988, after the XTC-like debut and before the Mr C stuff .

And Flowered Up at Shoreditch Town Hall (?!) was a memorable gig: it seemed like all their families (kids and OAPS) were there.

That wasn’t on my list (althought I suspect it would have been) as it has been surprisingly diffcult to find an import copy round my way (downloads don’t count)

1: V/A: Space: Light Years from Home (compiled by Jon Savage) 2: Wilco: A Ghost is Born (Expanded Edition) 3: V/A: All the Young Droids: Junkshop Synthpop 1978-1985 4: V/A: Histoire de Coeur: Lost French […]

I am not well informed I am afraid, but I find Safari pretty unreliable with a host of platforms: in fact, I have to regularly use Chrome instead.

There are a number of disappointingly young people on X who now seem unashamedly racist (a taboo has been lifted), but I do not know if they are with Reform. I still cling to the belief that they are largely a […]

Shame, if undeniably amusing. Reminds me how the Lush reunion tour in the US (where they enjoy some legacy as a former Lollapalooza band) fell apart as Miki and Emma couldn’t work together anymore.

Thanks for the review. I still remember the part about her going to a wedding and noticing the groom has strange, Celtic tattoos on his arm before he gives an unexpectedly menacing wedding speech: a realisation of […]

Thanks for the review: I may get around to reading the book if I have the time. Does it mention The Residents’ 1976 album “Third Reich n’ Roll”? The musical concept was an American “culture industry” parody, but […]

I accept that Trump’s motives on January 9th were dangerous and unconstitutional—but editing the speeches so badly that it would have been thrown out of a court is such an own goal.

As a “left-social-democrat/ democratic socialist,” I wish him well…but there are so many ways he could screw up. Please proceed carefully.

Good thing it was just a load of Bourbon Restoration crap rather than real artworks, eh?