Col Bond
@colinbond.bsky.social
Music, books, nature. Walks like a jerk, but he could eat you with a fork and a spoon. Judgy introvert. Bespoke librarian. Wales.
Reposted by Col Bond
Tapping the Vonnegut sign again:
"Yes, this planet is in a terrible mess. But it has always been a mess. There have never been any “Good Old Days,” there have just been days."
"Yes, this planet is in a terrible mess. But it has always been a mess. There have never been any “Good Old Days,” there have just been days."
"What is certain, and felt instinctively by almost everybody, is that things cannot go on in their present way" – The Times, May 1975
“It is difficult to imagine a previous period when such an all-pervasive hopelessness was exhibited at all levels of British life” – Professor Stephen Haseler, 1975
“It is difficult to imagine a previous period when such an all-pervasive hopelessness was exhibited at all levels of British life” – Professor Stephen Haseler, 1975
November 14, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Tapping the Vonnegut sign again:
"Yes, this planet is in a terrible mess. But it has always been a mess. There have never been any “Good Old Days,” there have just been days."
"Yes, this planet is in a terrible mess. But it has always been a mess. There have never been any “Good Old Days,” there have just been days."
Reposted by Col Bond
everything is a joke but nothing is funny anymore
October 8, 2025 at 5:13 AM
everything is a joke but nothing is funny anymore
Reposted by Col Bond
ever since I learned about three-cueing I've developed infinitely more patience for replies on social media. mfers literally do not know how to read. people are walking around conjuring random meanings into words they don't know, and they don't know a lot of words. it's crazy
November 11, 2025 at 6:15 PM
ever since I learned about three-cueing I've developed infinitely more patience for replies on social media. mfers literally do not know how to read. people are walking around conjuring random meanings into words they don't know, and they don't know a lot of words. it's crazy
Reposted by Col Bond
Every office has an executive tier whose emails are like:
saw on news , , can we replce complianc dept with web 3
and a worker tier whose emails are like:
Dear Jim,
First of all, I *love* this idea! Unfortunately, I spoke with Legal and identified a few issues with this approach. For starters…
saw on news , , can we replce complianc dept with web 3
and a worker tier whose emails are like:
Dear Jim,
First of all, I *love* this idea! Unfortunately, I spoke with Legal and identified a few issues with this approach. For starters…
Well, it's a little clearer now why billionaires are so invested in technology that produces better written emails.
November 13, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Every office has an executive tier whose emails are like:
saw on news , , can we replce complianc dept with web 3
and a worker tier whose emails are like:
Dear Jim,
First of all, I *love* this idea! Unfortunately, I spoke with Legal and identified a few issues with this approach. For starters…
saw on news , , can we replce complianc dept with web 3
and a worker tier whose emails are like:
Dear Jim,
First of all, I *love* this idea! Unfortunately, I spoke with Legal and identified a few issues with this approach. For starters…
Reposted by Col Bond
Music is basically a detective novel where the musicians are the suspects/criminals, the listener is the detective and of course the music is the crime. The listener tries to determine what happened and what was the motivation, while the musicians try to obscure this, so they can get away with it.
November 13, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Music is basically a detective novel where the musicians are the suspects/criminals, the listener is the detective and of course the music is the crime. The listener tries to determine what happened and what was the motivation, while the musicians try to obscure this, so they can get away with it.
Reposted by Col Bond
Reposted by Col Bond
Like I say: you’re usually not wrong if you assume any new bizarre stunts are just really dumb, dishonest and irritating bullshit that insiders think is very clever, actually. Find out about it in the sizzling new political tell-all “Get Fucked”, available in all good bookshops from December 2028
November 12, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Like I say: you’re usually not wrong if you assume any new bizarre stunts are just really dumb, dishonest and irritating bullshit that insiders think is very clever, actually. Find out about it in the sizzling new political tell-all “Get Fucked”, available in all good bookshops from December 2028
Reposted by Col Bond
You: but what do you mean when you talk about writing in the “Third Person Wanker”?
Me: I think I sort of mean something like *this* owen-booth.com/2025/11/11/i...
Me: I think I sort of mean something like *this* owen-booth.com/2025/11/11/i...
In Arcadia
(A story that never quite found its place – but its 90% there) -1- Nick can’t sleep. It’s been going on for months and it’s starting to affect his mental health. It’s starting to affect his b…
owen-booth.com
November 11, 2025 at 11:15 AM
You: but what do you mean when you talk about writing in the “Third Person Wanker”?
Me: I think I sort of mean something like *this* owen-booth.com/2025/11/11/i...
Me: I think I sort of mean something like *this* owen-booth.com/2025/11/11/i...
Reposted by Col Bond
My last word on the matter
November 11, 2025 at 2:27 PM
My last word on the matter
Reposted by Col Bond
Nowhere in the hysterical pile-on against the BBC in the British press has anyone mentioned that BBC News now has 77 million viewers & listeners in the US and has established itself as the second most trusted news source there.
November 11, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Nowhere in the hysterical pile-on against the BBC in the British press has anyone mentioned that BBC News now has 77 million viewers & listeners in the US and has established itself as the second most trusted news source there.
Reposted by Col Bond
there's a moment in PARADISE LOST where Satan arrives in Eden and realizes Hell isn't a place; it's a thing he carries within him and it'll follow him wherever he goes. and i think about that when i see these awful rich men whose monstrous wealth has enriched them not at all
“whatever club he’s invited to join has been devalued by the invitation”
November 11, 2025 at 6:31 AM
there's a moment in PARADISE LOST where Satan arrives in Eden and realizes Hell isn't a place; it's a thing he carries within him and it'll follow him wherever he goes. and i think about that when i see these awful rich men whose monstrous wealth has enriched them not at all
But how is this new version of Hamlet going to explain the fact that he died at the end of the last one?
November 11, 2025 at 1:59 PM
But how is this new version of Hamlet going to explain the fact that he died at the end of the last one?
Reposted by Col Bond
John Le Carre was right about the British establishment and how the alumni of the best schools will sell out their own country for status and money and in particular a desperate desire for American attention
November 11, 2025 at 10:52 AM
John Le Carre was right about the British establishment and how the alumni of the best schools will sell out their own country for status and money and in particular a desperate desire for American attention
Reposted by Col Bond
Who up gruntin & sweatin under a weary life
November 11, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Who up gruntin & sweatin under a weary life
Reposted by Col Bond
Who up bearin they fardels
November 11, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Who up bearin they fardels
Reposted by Col Bond
A radio programme like the Shipping Forecast but it’s called Bin Day and it just reads out every single council in the country’s bin schedule
November 10, 2025 at 11:53 PM
A radio programme like the Shipping Forecast but it’s called Bin Day and it just reads out every single council in the country’s bin schedule
Reposted by Col Bond
Good God, someone's just uploaded to YouTube a nearly 2-hour long video of one of the original Vic Reeves Big Night Out live shows at the Albany Empire from 1989. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKPU...
Vic Reeves Big Night Out - 30 April 1989
YouTube video by Peter Brooke Turner
www.youtube.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Good God, someone's just uploaded to YouTube a nearly 2-hour long video of one of the original Vic Reeves Big Night Out live shows at the Albany Empire from 1989. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKPU...
Reposted by Col Bond
A company at the heart of the government’s PPE operation was paid about £1.4bn during the pandemic, after being steered into the VIP lane.
PPE worth £178.5m from its contracts ended up on a “do not supply” list.
theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
🧵
1/7
PPE worth £178.5m from its contracts ended up on a “do not supply” list.
theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
🧵
1/7
Revealed: the billion-pound PPE contractor with a Tory MP on site
Special report: Uniserve was paid £1.4bn for Covid contracts that included supply of £178.5m in never-used equipment
theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 12:05 PM
A company at the heart of the government’s PPE operation was paid about £1.4bn during the pandemic, after being steered into the VIP lane.
PPE worth £178.5m from its contracts ended up on a “do not supply” list.
theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
🧵
1/7
PPE worth £178.5m from its contracts ended up on a “do not supply” list.
theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
🧵
1/7
Reposted by Col Bond
This is why the Right jumped on the trans issue. They know their politics is based on disgust. If your reaction to trans people is disgust, they can start you on the journey down the road of legally enshrined prejudice and discrimination, and fury at people who dare point out what you're doing.
Transphobia is a pipeline to the far right. An example:
Suzanne Moore used to be a left wing columnist at the Guardian.
Then came the anti-trans panic. Despite the Guardian also promoting it, it wasn’t enough & she left.
Moore is now complaining about wokeness over the Irish famine & colonialism.
Suzanne Moore used to be a left wing columnist at the Guardian.
Then came the anti-trans panic. Despite the Guardian also promoting it, it wasn’t enough & she left.
Moore is now complaining about wokeness over the Irish famine & colonialism.
Suzanne Moore, who would rather be locked up than pay her BBC licence fee because the BBC is too nice to trans people for her liking.
November 10, 2025 at 9:33 AM
This is why the Right jumped on the trans issue. They know their politics is based on disgust. If your reaction to trans people is disgust, they can start you on the journey down the road of legally enshrined prejudice and discrimination, and fury at people who dare point out what you're doing.
Reposted by Col Bond
Reposted by Col Bond
Reposted by Col Bond
“I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time.”
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
November 9, 2025 at 5:26 PM
“I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time.”
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
Reposted by Col Bond
“The elites are ecstatic about imagining a vast, uneducated, and unproductive population forced to pay companies like OpenAI to access the written word and to approximate thought.”
Must read piece by Noah McCormack with too many quotaboe lines to select one! thebaffler.com/salvos/we-us...
Must read piece by Noah McCormack with too many quotaboe lines to select one! thebaffler.com/salvos/we-us...
We Used to Read Things in This Country | Noah McCormack
Technology changes us—and it is currently changing us for the worse.
thebaffler.com
November 2, 2025 at 5:12 PM
“The elites are ecstatic about imagining a vast, uneducated, and unproductive population forced to pay companies like OpenAI to access the written word and to approximate thought.”
Must read piece by Noah McCormack with too many quotaboe lines to select one! thebaffler.com/salvos/we-us...
Must read piece by Noah McCormack with too many quotaboe lines to select one! thebaffler.com/salvos/we-us...
Reposted by Col Bond
Excellent essay here on the slow strangling of mass literary culture in the West - most clearly in the US, but it's obviously happening here too
November 9, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Excellent essay here on the slow strangling of mass literary culture in the West - most clearly in the US, but it's obviously happening here too
Reposted by Col Bond
November 8, 2025 at 10:49 AM