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possible self-indulgent waffle; art, books, music, stuff
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henrik palm and the releases of the year 2024 (with typically lengthy disclaimer!)
most things don’t exist
who’d have them
nostalgia isn’t going to be what it was, or something like that
an alan smithee war
passive-digressive
the book even of my secret soul (about books, again)
2024 – welcome to a/the future(s)
jack told him about the thing – re-writing children’s books
a portrait of the author as a young arse
music of my mind (whether I like it or not)
the semi-obligatory album of the year type thing (2022 edition)
bounders in oiks’ clothing – the reign of the ordinary bloke
gateways to horror: the watch house by robert westall
church, going*
chocolate eggs & bunnies & blood: happy Easter!
forget my fate: saints and sex workers; the art of violence & martyrdom
cycle; woods and fields and little rivers
the cult of maimed perfection
ghost cities of cyberspace
shooting the messenger; moral panics, the 1980s, American Psycho turns 30
the law won – police academy and 80s pop culture
inside the doll’s house
dancing about architecture: the non-art and non-science of music reviews
sleepwalking through geography – doodling and the automatic muse
7.6 billion mirrors – the value of art
the television will not be revolutionised; Stranger Things, Dark and blockbuster TV
time for a change; the death of a decade
courbet’s birthday – the case for conscious iconoclasm
chosen ones and dark lords and everything in between
yesterday was crazy; D’Angelo’s Voodoo by Faith A. Pennick
“Ane doolie sessoun” covid-19 and the art of isolation
music in quarantine: march 2020
the crossroads of hamburgers & boys: Bowie and Diamond Dogs (and Glenn Hendler’s “Diamond Dogs”
how it felt to be alive in February 2020
what January 2020 sounded like
New Year, New Decade, New…
crafting a memory of Christmas
messages from the past for the future
You Shouldn’t Always Get What You Want; cautionary tales of the 80s by Stephen King & Ramsey Campbell
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere; notes on the margins of everywhere
a true state – cut and paste and the art of collage (Edinburgh, summer 2019)
a conflict of ghosts
birds & murderers; raptorama
Enter Title Here: unblocking
Inevitably, the releases of the year, 2018
old books, old eyes, new readings
‘Cheryl Heard A Wet Thud’: Tread Softly by Richard Laymon
Aretha Louise Franklin 1942-2018
A continuous chain of little inventions; art in Edinburgh summer 2018
It’s time for your six-monthly review…
11 June 1936: The International Surrealist Exhibition
It’s not real if you don’t feel it – but what is ‘it’ and what is ‘real’ and who’s to say?
The Dead Cannot Contradict: R.I.P. M.E.S. 1957 – 2018
The Vanishing Everything of Everywhere; Goodbye 2017
Review of the Year – the paradox of realism
Inevitably, the Releases of the Year 2017 (part two)
Inevitably, the releases of the year 2017 (part one)
Anatomy of an Earworm
“Turmoil, Ecstasy, Violence and Isolation” – a conversation with Wreche
Right vs. Good – a rambling digression about the arts
Weekly Update: Complicated Comforts
Someone Of No Importance: Evelyn Waugh and inter-war Futilitarianism
Belated weekly update: If You Want To Feel…
MEAM, Myself & I: Part One: the formative years
A Reading of Orwell (and others) in 2017
Inevitably, the releases of the year, 2016 (grand finale!)
Inevitably, the releases of the year, 2016 (Part Three)
Inevitably, the releases of the year, 2016 (Part Two)
Inevitably, the releases of the year, 2016 (Part One)
Not the Releases of the Year 2016
You Were In My Dreams – Kristin Hersh at Summerhall, November 17, 2016
Releases of the Year 2016! Preliminary note…
Weekly Update: Halloween Horror – Outsider Music & Venusian Death Cell
Weekly update: the charm of the EP
Album Review – Kristin Hersh – Wyatt at the Coyote Palace
Album Review: Rachel Mason – Das Ram
Weekly Wafflings
Ride On A Golden Wave: Uriah Heep’s …Very ‘Eavy …Very ‘Umble
Difficult, But Fascinating: The Gail Carriger interview
Symphonies of Sadness, Dirges of Disgust, Noxious Noise: Musical Masochism
Not JUST a genius: the Eternal Fire of Jimi Hendrix
No hierarchy In the world of sounds: Kib Elektra interview
REAL-TIME REVIEWS: YAADON KE BAARAAT (1973)
Tea-table Books 1: Dust & Grooves by Eilon Paz
The Third Monthly Report: March 2016
All the stuff and more; why bands should split up and never, ever reform
The Second Monthly Report: February 2016
The First Monthly Report: January 2016
An Illuminated Eccentric; the art of Christophe Szpajdel
The Slinky Vagabond: David Bowie 1947-2016
PLAY FOR TODAY
Play For Today: special summer bonanza edition Part One
Play For Today – Current Playlist 26th June 2017
Play For Today – Current Playlist 8th February 2017
Play For Today – Current Playlist 3rd January 2017
Play For Today – Current Playlist 25th November 2016
Play For Today – current playlist 27 October 2016
Play For Today – current playlist
Play for Today: 21st January 2016
Play for Today: 9th January 2016
A Cure for Culture: Die Brücke at Moritzburg
Copy? Compliment? Coincidence? Incestuous album covers!
WAIT! Best releases of 2015; those glaring omissions in full*
Inevitably, the releases of the year 2015 (grand finale!)
Inevitably, the releases of the year 2015 (part four)
Inevitably, the releases of the year 2015 (part three)
Inevitably, the releases of the year 2015 (part two)
Inevitably, the releases of the year, 2015 (part one)
Soft As Snow (But Warm Inside) – “shoegaze” 1988 – 1993
La Flamme et le Lys: Métal Noir Québécois
The Lucky Ones Were The First To Die! The 1980s post-Mad Max Apocalypse
For Whom The Cowbell Tolls…
Woman Power! Ms Marvel & 1970s ‘Farrah Fawcett Feminism’
Constructive Misanthropy: Wyndham Lewis – Tyros & Portraits
Independence as a State of Mind: the Bosque Records story (1988-2001)
The Story of an Artist; Daniel Johnston covered
Once Upon a Time in Argentina: Swords & Sorcery, 1980s style
LIVE DEAD: Mayhem 1990
Petty Obsession: Hair Metal you never hear in the movies
“Cheap Turd”: the mysterious charm of Valet Girls (1987)
(Don’t) Lower Your Expectations; the evolution of Oblivionized
NSBM (and possibly NSFW)
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