Jasper Sharp
@jaspersharp.bsky.social
Movies and mushrooms. Writer, film critic, Japanese film lover, amateur mycologist, co-director of CREEPING GARDEN and J-HORROR VIRUS and author of a few books. https://jaspersharp.squarespace.com
Just back from a New Year's pilgrimage to Canterbury on a tip off to find the elusive Cobalt Crust (Terana caerulea) fungi, a bucket list species for me. Mission accomplished! A great find for me, hopefully auguring a successful 2026 of more fungi photography!
January 2, 2026 at 4:19 PM
Just back from a New Year's pilgrimage to Canterbury on a tip off to find the elusive Cobalt Crust (Terana caerulea) fungi, a bucket list species for me. Mission accomplished! A great find for me, hopefully auguring a successful 2026 of more fungi photography!
“More leisure time, better health performance, less inequality and lower carbon emissions, all with broadly comparable productivity: Europeans can be proud of their development model, which is on the whole significantly more convincing.”
Europe is not falling behind the USA, writes Gabriel Zucman. It is choosing a different – and arguably superior – development model. We should stop apologising for it.
eastangliabylines.co.uk/business/eco...
eastangliabylines.co.uk/business/eco...
Decline, what decline? The myth of dying Europe
There is a widespread view that, by comparison with the USA, Europe is in economic and social decline. But, Zucman argues, it's not true
eastangliabylines.co.uk
January 2, 2026 at 3:05 PM
“More leisure time, better health performance, less inequality and lower carbon emissions, all with broadly comparable productivity: Europeans can be proud of their development model, which is on the whole significantly more convincing.”
Had a lot of fun watching Alice in Borderland series 3 the past week. I always thought the show was a bit uneven, but this one is darker than the previous ones, and I think the last two series of Squid Game much more kindly disposed to it.
January 2, 2026 at 1:14 PM
Had a lot of fun watching Alice in Borderland series 3 the past week. I always thought the show was a bit uneven, but this one is darker than the previous ones, and I think the last two series of Squid Game much more kindly disposed to it.
Happy New Year to you all! 2025 was the year I married this beautiful creature!
December 31, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Happy New Year to you all! 2025 was the year I married this beautiful creature!
I guess one only has to look at pugs and other “pure breeds” that suffer from congenital health problems to see that there’s nothing natural about selective breeding according to individual desired aesthetic traits - the obsession with a pure race and culture is inherently unhealthy.
This is from Bardot's memoir "Un cri dans le silence" btw. I've seen a lot of people mentioning her "right wing politics" with a hand wave, so they can talk about her beauty or animal activism, but not actually sitting with the ugliness of her legacy.
December 29, 2025 at 1:42 PM
I guess one only has to look at pugs and other “pure breeds” that suffer from congenital health problems to see that there’s nothing natural about selective breeding according to individual desired aesthetic traits - the obsession with a pure race and culture is inherently unhealthy.
Sad news just in - Brigitte Bardot RIP
RIP Brigitte Bardot. Your politics sucked, but I'll always remember you for your "ionic" dance scene in Et Dieu... créa la femme (1956).
Brigitte Bardot's ionic (at the time controversial) dance scene from "And God Created Woman" 1956
YouTube video by modelsfirst
www.youtube.com
December 28, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Sad news just in - Brigitte Bardot RIP
Reposted by Jasper Sharp
Fujimoto Akio's Passage of Life (2017) is available on Sakka Films: www.sakkafilms.com/film/passage...
SAKKA | Passage of Life
Living with fear and uncertainty takes a toll on a young refugee family in Japan. An emotional tale of a family who struggles to find home.
www.sakkafilms.com
December 28, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Fujimoto Akio's Passage of Life (2017) is available on Sakka Films: www.sakkafilms.com/film/passage...
Great to see Somai’s Love Hotel listed as one of Sean Baker‘s discoveries of the year.
Two of our films picked by Anora dir Sean Baker as his discoveries of the year @screenslate.bsky.social
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes ドロステのはてで僕ら directed by Junta Yamaguchi / written by Makoto Ueda
Love Hotel ラブホテル directed by Shinji Somai / written by Takashi Ishii
Buy @terracottadist.bsky.social
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes ドロステのはてで僕ら directed by Junta Yamaguchi / written by Makoto Ueda
Love Hotel ラブホテル directed by Shinji Somai / written by Takashi Ishii
Buy @terracottadist.bsky.social
December 26, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Great to see Somai’s Love Hotel listed as one of Sean Baker‘s discoveries of the year.
If there was one question I’d like to ask one particular person, it would be to Alice Cooper about what was the reason for the inclusionof the cover version of Rolf Harris’ Sun Arise on the Love it to Death album.
December 26, 2025 at 9:43 AM
If there was one question I’d like to ask one particular person, it would be to Alice Cooper about what was the reason for the inclusionof the cover version of Rolf Harris’ Sun Arise on the Love it to Death album.
Wow! This album was created a solely with me in mind.
December 25, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Wow! This album was created a solely with me in mind.
Just realised that the old German Christmas folksong "O Tannenbaum" has the same tune as the socialist anthem "The Red Flag" - www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eab...
Citizen Smith - Theme / Opening
YouTube video by Weliketvthemes
www.youtube.com
December 23, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Just realised that the old German Christmas folksong "O Tannenbaum" has the same tune as the socialist anthem "The Red Flag" - www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eab...
Back in the graveyard before Christmas, another mini-mushroom, Moss Navel (Arrhenia rickenii), hiding amongst the moss on a tombstone. If you don't seek, you don't find. #fungifriends #fungi #mycology
December 23, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Back in the graveyard before Christmas, another mini-mushroom, Moss Navel (Arrhenia rickenii), hiding amongst the moss on a tombstone. If you don't seek, you don't find. #fungifriends #fungi #mycology
Reposted by Jasper Sharp
For the Monday crowd, Koji Shiraishi’s KINKI is another jaw-dropping mixed-media odyssey from Japan’s found-footage poet laureate, whose deft use of narrative and faux-documentary gives striking emotional weight to what its characters choose not to capture on camera. Review via @cinapse.bsky.social:
December 22, 2025 at 4:00 PM
For the Monday crowd, Koji Shiraishi’s KINKI is another jaw-dropping mixed-media odyssey from Japan’s found-footage poet laureate, whose deft use of narrative and faux-documentary gives striking emotional weight to what its characters choose not to capture on camera. Review via @cinapse.bsky.social:
Reposted by Jasper Sharp
The 2026 Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme has unveiled a fantastic lineup in 33 locations all over the U.K.. Check it out here: www.jpf-film.org.uk
Home - Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme
Japanese film news in the UK, the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme, and information on all Japanese releases, screenings and film festivals.
www.jpf-film.org.uk
December 20, 2025 at 11:33 AM
The 2026 Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme has unveiled a fantastic lineup in 33 locations all over the U.K.. Check it out here: www.jpf-film.org.uk
Reposted by Jasper Sharp
Available now: Field Mycology Vol 26(4) December 2025. On the front cover: Ascospores of Spirodecospora melnikii - a new genus for Western Europe, characterised by spores with spiralling ornamentation (article on page 132). Micrograph image by Jacques Fournier.
➡️ fieldmycology.org/index.php/jo...
➡️ fieldmycology.org/index.php/jo...
December 18, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Available now: Field Mycology Vol 26(4) December 2025. On the front cover: Ascospores of Spirodecospora melnikii - a new genus for Western Europe, characterised by spores with spiralling ornamentation (article on page 132). Micrograph image by Jacques Fournier.
➡️ fieldmycology.org/index.php/jo...
➡️ fieldmycology.org/index.php/jo...
The Erasmus scheme is all about giving choices and opportunities for those that want them.
Erasmus+ an accessible and well-supported programme.
UK to re-join Erasmus+ – here are six benefits of the European exchange scheme
Erasmus+ an accessible and well-supported programme.
tcnv.link
December 18, 2025 at 9:19 AM
The Erasmus scheme is all about giving choices and opportunities for those that want them.
Reposted by Jasper Sharp
This is what persistence looks like. Rejoining Erasmus+ shows that change is possible when people keep pushing for it, and it strengthens the case for going further in rebuilding our relationship with Europe.
UK to rejoin Erasmus+ in 2027
The government announced today that the UK will rejoin Erasmus+ in January 2027, unlocking millions of opportunities for young people.
www.europeanmovement.co.uk
December 17, 2025 at 3:14 PM
This is what persistence looks like. Rejoining Erasmus+ shows that change is possible when people keep pushing for it, and it strengthens the case for going further in rebuilding our relationship with Europe.
Angel Guts is back, with commentaries on a couple of these by yours truly - revisiting the films I recorded my first ever commentaries for some 20 years ago!
***ANNOUNCEMENT***
Coming on February 23rd on Blu-ray in the UK @thirdwindowfilms.com: The #AngleGuts Collection (1979-1984)!
A collection of 5 films from 1979 to 1994 adapted from Takashi Ishii’s cult manga, all featuring new HD masters alongside a variety of bonus features in
Coming on February 23rd on Blu-ray in the UK @thirdwindowfilms.com: The #AngleGuts Collection (1979-1984)!
A collection of 5 films from 1979 to 1994 adapted from Takashi Ishii’s cult manga, all featuring new HD masters alongside a variety of bonus features in
December 17, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Angel Guts is back, with commentaries on a couple of these by yours truly - revisiting the films I recorded my first ever commentaries for some 20 years ago!
Am so bloody excited about these! Little did I think when I stumbled across a poster of one of these when writing Behind the Pink Curtain 20 years ago we'd ever get a chance to see these cross-cultural curios. Now thanks to o#KlubbSuper8, we get the full six-film range of #NikkatsuSwedenPoruno !
December 17, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Am so bloody excited about these! Little did I think when I stumbled across a poster of one of these when writing Behind the Pink Curtain 20 years ago we'd ever get a chance to see these cross-cultural curios. Now thanks to o#KlubbSuper8, we get the full six-film range of #NikkatsuSwedenPoruno !
Reposted by Jasper Sharp
December 15, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Another teeny tiny mushroom, the Frosty Bonnet (Mycena tenerrima). Very common in UK woodlands pretty much all year round - you just have to know where to look for them.
December 16, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Another teeny tiny mushroom, the Frosty Bonnet (Mycena tenerrima). Very common in UK woodlands pretty much all year round - you just have to know where to look for them.
Looking forward to digging into this!
The last issue of the @britmycolsoc.org.uk journal Field Mycology is available to download from the website #FungiFriends fieldmycology.org/index.php/jo...
December 16, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Looking forward to digging into this!
Still processing the tragic news of the loss of Rob Reiner. I'm of the age when he was a huge part of my film-viewing in the 80s, and about ten years ago wrote a piece for the BFI celebrating to my mind some of his finest work. www.bfi.org.uk/lists/rob-re...
Rob Reiner: 5 essential films
Revisit the astonishing run of films that Rob Reiner made in his early career.
www.bfi.org.uk
December 15, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Still processing the tragic news of the loss of Rob Reiner. I'm of the age when he was a huge part of my film-viewing in the 80s, and about ten years ago wrote a piece for the BFI celebrating to my mind some of his finest work. www.bfi.org.uk/lists/rob-re...
The legendary Rotterdam 2000 premiere of Miike’s Audition, when over half of the audience got up to leave in the closing reel; Aleksei Balabanov’s Morphine at Thessaloniki 2009, when the film had to be stopped to allow one of the viewers to be carried out by stretcher after the amputation scene…
This is my response whenever this question comes up: Watching “Mallrats” with the local band Squirtgun (whose song is in the opening credits) playing a set in the theater beforehand. (You can see me in the audience.)
The music was far better than the movie.
The music was far better than the movie.
December 13, 2025 at 3:57 PM
The legendary Rotterdam 2000 premiere of Miike’s Audition, when over half of the audience got up to leave in the closing reel; Aleksei Balabanov’s Morphine at Thessaloniki 2009, when the film had to be stopped to allow one of the viewers to be carried out by stretcher after the amputation scene…
The Company of Wolves was a firm favourite in my teenage years. It seems an age since I last saw it, but rewatched last night and was astonished by how intelligently it was constructed and its themes realised. Amazing to think how early on in Neil Jordan’s career this was.
December 13, 2025 at 12:43 PM
The Company of Wolves was a firm favourite in my teenage years. It seems an age since I last saw it, but rewatched last night and was astonished by how intelligently it was constructed and its themes realised. Amazing to think how early on in Neil Jordan’s career this was.