Simon Harper
@onesharper.bsky.social
Web/UX, writer, comedy/music nerd & uncle. Lapsed cynic smiling politely. Like cult music/radio/TV/film/books/art & sport. Beard growth comes in 3 colours.
Reposted by Simon Harper
As another failed COP conference now sentences future generations to a hell we refuse to even imagine, now would be a great time for US arts/music writers to get creative working with climate science communications, writing on artists affected by disaster, protest music, etc. as much as we can.
November 22, 2025 at 6:34 PM
As another failed COP conference now sentences future generations to a hell we refuse to even imagine, now would be a great time for US arts/music writers to get creative working with climate science communications, writing on artists affected by disaster, protest music, etc. as much as we can.
Reposted by Simon Harper
A moment, please, to consider the absolute majesty of Daphne Oram's unbelievable score to this. A pitch shifted, time stretched, frequency agile glimpse of the future of music production; a liberty-taking all analogue remix of Sandy Nelson's Teen Beat realised in real time with the visuals.
November 18, 2025 at 6:01 PM
A moment, please, to consider the absolute majesty of Daphne Oram's unbelievable score to this. A pitch shifted, time stretched, frequency agile glimpse of the future of music production; a liberty-taking all analogue remix of Sandy Nelson's Teen Beat realised in real time with the visuals.
Reposted by Simon Harper
November 16th
I know it's a Sunday. It's no bloody excuse! One week from now get off your bum and down to The Kitchen Garden Cafe in Birmingham.
www.kitchengardencafe.co.uk/event/gwenif...
I know it's a Sunday. It's no bloody excuse! One week from now get off your bum and down to The Kitchen Garden Cafe in Birmingham.
www.kitchengardencafe.co.uk/event/gwenif...
November 9, 2025 at 12:00 PM
November 16th
I know it's a Sunday. It's no bloody excuse! One week from now get off your bum and down to The Kitchen Garden Cafe in Birmingham.
www.kitchengardencafe.co.uk/event/gwenif...
I know it's a Sunday. It's no bloody excuse! One week from now get off your bum and down to The Kitchen Garden Cafe in Birmingham.
www.kitchengardencafe.co.uk/event/gwenif...
Reposted by Simon Harper
Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House.
Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.
They are not the same.
Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.
They are not the same.
October 30, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House.
Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.
They are not the same.
Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.
They are not the same.
Reposted by Simon Harper
I do commissions of cards like these. I'm assured they make for excellent gifts. #TwoMonthsToChristmas
Forty years ago, at 11pm, on Sat 26 Oct 1985, Channel 4 premiered An Audience with Billy Connolly. (S4C showed it nine days later.) It was watched by 4.8m people and practically everyone who saw has been word-perfect ever since. #
Here's some of what else happened in Oct 85. #WhenWasThings
Here's some of what else happened in Oct 85. #WhenWasThings
October 26, 2025 at 11:23 AM
I do commissions of cards like these. I'm assured they make for excellent gifts. #TwoMonthsToChristmas
Reposted by Simon Harper
When the drone of the massed just intonation violins you’re cranking playfully twines with the sound of vacuuming next door, creating billowing and resolving beating tones.
October 16, 2025 at 10:15 AM
When the drone of the massed just intonation violins you’re cranking playfully twines with the sound of vacuuming next door, creating billowing and resolving beating tones.
Life & distractions got in the way so I recently went back to the start of this. Enjoyed it a lot - I really connected with Pynchon's freewheeling, maximalist style (and his jokes) & am a sucker for a shaggy dog story. Where should I go next? Preferably one of the shorter books: maybe Inherent Vice?
Inspired by Ana, I've finally taken the plunge & started reading my first Pynchon. Dove in while bench-sitting in a park in Antwerp, waiting for @stephthorpe.bsky.social to finish her run. Followed by picnic, gallery, wine, lots of fries & good beer. Really enjoying the book, and Belgium, so far. 🙏😎
October 18, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Life & distractions got in the way so I recently went back to the start of this. Enjoyed it a lot - I really connected with Pynchon's freewheeling, maximalist style (and his jokes) & am a sucker for a shaggy dog story. Where should I go next? Preferably one of the shorter books: maybe Inherent Vice?
"And that’s Bernhard’s genius: a spiral is the perfect style for writing self-hatred." An enjoyable piece on how Thomas Bernhard's work still resonates with readers now, and an apparent "renaissance" of his style (fair to say, comparing a book to Bernhard gets my attention). dirt.fyi/article/2025...
Saint Bernhard
King of complaints.
dirt.fyi
September 25, 2025 at 4:13 PM
"And that’s Bernhard’s genius: a spiral is the perfect style for writing self-hatred." An enjoyable piece on how Thomas Bernhard's work still resonates with readers now, and an apparent "renaissance" of his style (fair to say, comparing a book to Bernhard gets my attention). dirt.fyi/article/2025...
Reposted by Simon Harper
It’s gone so quickly from ‘boat people’ to all immigrants. So quickly from ‘I don’t mind if they come here legally and pay taxes’ to ‘actually it’s anyone foreign’. We are living in the ‘first they came for’ poem. All to give the population a scapegoat so the super rich can hoard yet more wealth.
September 25, 2025 at 7:38 AM
It’s gone so quickly from ‘boat people’ to all immigrants. So quickly from ‘I don’t mind if they come here legally and pay taxes’ to ‘actually it’s anyone foreign’. We are living in the ‘first they came for’ poem. All to give the population a scapegoat so the super rich can hoard yet more wealth.
Reposted by Simon Harper
RIP Danny Thompson. Here's a playlist featuring just some of the hundreds of songs that were graced by his bass playing. Includes Nick Drake, Pentangle, Donovan, John Martyn, Sandy Denny, Marc Bolan, David Sylvian, Kate Bush, Talk Talk, Lilac Time, Julian Cope etc
▶️ open.spotify.com/playlist/4XS...
▶️ open.spotify.com/playlist/4XS...
RIP Danny Thompson
open.spotify.com
September 24, 2025 at 9:05 PM
RIP Danny Thompson. Here's a playlist featuring just some of the hundreds of songs that were graced by his bass playing. Includes Nick Drake, Pentangle, Donovan, John Martyn, Sandy Denny, Marc Bolan, David Sylvian, Kate Bush, Talk Talk, Lilac Time, Julian Cope etc
▶️ open.spotify.com/playlist/4XS...
▶️ open.spotify.com/playlist/4XS...
Reposted by Simon Harper
The only thing I'd insist upon in a new Bond movie, other than it not being an origin story, is that they should have Timothy Dalton back to play M.
September 25, 2025 at 6:33 AM
The only thing I'd insist upon in a new Bond movie, other than it not being an origin story, is that they should have Timothy Dalton back to play M.
Reposted by Simon Harper
The appeal of Bond is that he’s cool and strange. The fascination is “how d’you learn to do the things you do?” Y’know like in the Carly Simon song.
Answering that, with an origin tale, is the wrong story. Like most prequels, it’s data not story. He’s interesting because we don’t know, we guess.
Answering that, with an origin tale, is the wrong story. Like most prequels, it’s data not story. He’s interesting because we don’t know, we guess.
September 25, 2025 at 6:22 AM
The appeal of Bond is that he’s cool and strange. The fascination is “how d’you learn to do the things you do?” Y’know like in the Carly Simon song.
Answering that, with an origin tale, is the wrong story. Like most prequels, it’s data not story. He’s interesting because we don’t know, we guess.
Answering that, with an origin tale, is the wrong story. Like most prequels, it’s data not story. He’s interesting because we don’t know, we guess.
Reposted by Simon Harper
I'm honestly getting really tired of being lectured about how 'health' works by utterly clueless narcissistic old men who all look like they drank from the wrong grail
September 23, 2025 at 9:08 PM
I'm honestly getting really tired of being lectured about how 'health' works by utterly clueless narcissistic old men who all look like they drank from the wrong grail
Reposted by Simon Harper
Galton and Simpson hit on the perfect formula. You take two people, both of them idiots. One is (usually) slightly younger, thinks of themself as a bit of an intellectual, and has social climbing ambitions. The other is (usually) slightly older, proudly working class, and savvier.
September 21, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Galton and Simpson hit on the perfect formula. You take two people, both of them idiots. One is (usually) slightly younger, thinks of themself as a bit of an intellectual, and has social climbing ambitions. The other is (usually) slightly older, proudly working class, and savvier.
Reposted by Simon Harper
Was going to do that "ten best sitcoms" meme, but then I remembered that about 90% of all sitcoms worth watching are just Hancock's Half Hour lightly reskinned.
September 21, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Was going to do that "ten best sitcoms" meme, but then I remembered that about 90% of all sitcoms worth watching are just Hancock's Half Hour lightly reskinned.
Reposted by Simon Harper
so much is bad right now but the AI stuff in particular is making me insane. a desperate attempt to smother all human creative labor at an absurd cost to the planet by some of the most short-sighted, rapacious, and pathetic people who have ever lived
September 9, 2025 at 9:06 PM
so much is bad right now but the AI stuff in particular is making me insane. a desperate attempt to smother all human creative labor at an absurd cost to the planet by some of the most short-sighted, rapacious, and pathetic people who have ever lived
Reposted by Simon Harper
becoming a bit of a pet complaint at this stage but I'd love to see a study that shows that British readers actually prefer a massive chunky book, because I love a little paperback so much I can't imagine everyone else loving these huge editions
Nice to see Daphne du Maurier’s spooky short stories get a fresh airing, but did it have to be an a massive £25, 600-page fuck-off beribboned hardback? What’s wrong with a nice manageable paperback? Esp since most of the stories are in the existing Penguin and NYRB collections of her stories.
September 6, 2025 at 9:21 AM
becoming a bit of a pet complaint at this stage but I'd love to see a study that shows that British readers actually prefer a massive chunky book, because I love a little paperback so much I can't imagine everyone else loving these huge editions
Reposted by Simon Harper
When critics complain that a piece of music “doesn't go anywhere,” where, exactly, do they want it to go? Maybe music can be interesting just hovering and vibrating and shimmering and ululating and grinding in one place? Don't they realize repetition can breed transcendence?
September 6, 2025 at 5:22 PM
When critics complain that a piece of music “doesn't go anywhere,” where, exactly, do they want it to go? Maybe music can be interesting just hovering and vibrating and shimmering and ululating and grinding in one place? Don't they realize repetition can breed transcendence?
Reposted by Simon Harper
Pleased to say I’m going to drawing fortnightly cartoons for @faroutmagazine.co.uk on the subject of music and film (couldn’t resist one small football reference in my first one, though). faroutmagazine.co.uk/david-squire...
David Squires' comic on the cranky capers Van Morrison
David Squires delves into cultural comics for the first time, as he depicts the cranky antics of 'Astral Weeks' singer Van Morrison following his 80th.
faroutmagazine.co.uk
September 7, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Pleased to say I’m going to drawing fortnightly cartoons for @faroutmagazine.co.uk on the subject of music and film (couldn’t resist one small football reference in my first one, though). faroutmagazine.co.uk/david-squire...
Reposted by Simon Harper
This week in the newsletter - what your three favourite films reveal about the story you most like to look out for, and maybe the story you most like to tell.
open.substack.com/pub/joznorri...
open.substack.com/pub/joznorri...
Tape 189: The Story You Keep Looking For
Gamifying My Favourite Things Again
open.substack.com
September 5, 2025 at 10:11 AM
This week in the newsletter - what your three favourite films reveal about the story you most like to look out for, and maybe the story you most like to tell.
open.substack.com/pub/joznorri...
open.substack.com/pub/joznorri...
Recent arrivals in the mail:
Ian Thompson's book on the French musical underground
New album by Edena Gardens
CD box set of Terry Riley albums
Ian Thompson's book on the French musical underground
New album by Edena Gardens
CD box set of Terry Riley albums
September 6, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Recent arrivals in the mail:
Ian Thompson's book on the French musical underground
New album by Edena Gardens
CD box set of Terry Riley albums
Ian Thompson's book on the French musical underground
New album by Edena Gardens
CD box set of Terry Riley albums
Another year of #SupersonicFestival done. Day 2 highlights: Smote & One Leg One Eye, Death Goals and ZD Grafters. Day 3 highlights: Abdullah Miniawy, Cinder Well and a special performance of/by Funeral Folk; especially enjoyed Six Organs of Admittance and Jackie-O Motherfucker. What a festival. 🙏🤘👏
September 1, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Another year of #SupersonicFestival done. Day 2 highlights: Smote & One Leg One Eye, Death Goals and ZD Grafters. Day 3 highlights: Abdullah Miniawy, Cinder Well and a special performance of/by Funeral Folk; especially enjoyed Six Organs of Admittance and Jackie-O Motherfucker. What a festival. 🙏🤘👏
Reposted by Simon Harper
This thread is exactly how I feel about genAI. Completely turned off by it on all artistic, intellectual and moral levels. I have no interest in anything it can say or generate. It is anti-human.
AI's best use case will always be scams. It's scamtech, top to bottom. Everything about it is crooked. Its bedrock is theft and its legacy is the destruction of the environment, both physical and virtual.
Even most of its 'legitimate' uses are a form of lying.
"I wrote this."
"I created this."
Even most of its 'legitimate' uses are a form of lying.
"I wrote this."
"I created this."
BBC reveals web of spammers profiting from AI Holocaust images
August 31, 2025 at 8:50 AM
This thread is exactly how I feel about genAI. Completely turned off by it on all artistic, intellectual and moral levels. I have no interest in anything it can say or generate. It is anti-human.
Reposted by Simon Harper
Reflections while being serenaded by a playlist of [artists redacted] at the garden store just now:
For 30 years we’ve had a strain of indie rock that sounds like Neil Young fronting an incompetent high school orchestra, and the verdict of history, when it comes, will be merciless and unforgiving.
For 30 years we’ve had a strain of indie rock that sounds like Neil Young fronting an incompetent high school orchestra, and the verdict of history, when it comes, will be merciless and unforgiving.
August 28, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Reflections while being serenaded by a playlist of [artists redacted] at the garden store just now:
For 30 years we’ve had a strain of indie rock that sounds like Neil Young fronting an incompetent high school orchestra, and the verdict of history, when it comes, will be merciless and unforgiving.
For 30 years we’ve had a strain of indie rock that sounds like Neil Young fronting an incompetent high school orchestra, and the verdict of history, when it comes, will be merciless and unforgiving.