Some Melodious Plot
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Invasive Species - Chloé Zhao's 'Hamnet'
This week, I’ve been worrying that I’ve been harsh on Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel Hamnet . My bugbear was that I f...
somemelodiousplot.blogspot.com
Trailers can put you in a bad mood. As can drafting in the wrong raptor. Thoughts on Chloé Zhao’s adaption of 'Hamnet'.
somemelodiousplot.blogspot.com/2026/01/inva...
somemelodiousplot.blogspot.com/2026/01/inva...
It’s not even ten and I’m dozing off. To bed then with a bit of Roddy and Aztec Camera.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Radio 2 In Concert - Aztec Camera (1993) - BBC Sounds
Aztec Camera performing at Manchester's Palace Theatre in 1993.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 14, 2026 at 9:50 PM
It’s not even ten and I’m dozing off. To bed then with a bit of Roddy and Aztec Camera.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
I’ve been reading Richard Siken’s Crush over the past few weeks, and I keep coming back, like Scheherazade herself, to the opening poem in the collection.
February 14, 2026 at 5:42 PM
I’ve been reading Richard Siken’s Crush over the past few weeks, and I keep coming back, like Scheherazade herself, to the opening poem in the collection.
Reposted by Some Melodious Plot
Frank O´Hara reads "Having a coke with you"
YouTube video by Modo de Usar
youtu.be
February 14, 2026 at 12:51 PM
Twenty-five years ago, I scoffed at Tracey Emin and her art. ‘Insufferable and talentless’, reads my journal.
What a dick! She’s amazing and a quite brilliant artist. Can’t wait for the Tate show!
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
What a dick! She’s amazing and a quite brilliant artist. Can’t wait for the Tate show!
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
‘Regrets? Number one: smoking. Number two: taking it up the wrong hole’: Tracey Emin on reputation, radical honesty – and Reform
She scandalised the art world in the 1990s with her unmade bed, partied hard in the 2000s – then a brush with death turned the artist’s life upside down. Now she’s as frank as ever
www.theguardian.com
February 14, 2026 at 2:55 PM
Twenty-five years ago, I scoffed at Tracey Emin and her art. ‘Insufferable and talentless’, reads my journal.
What a dick! She’s amazing and a quite brilliant artist. Can’t wait for the Tate show!
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
What a dick! She’s amazing and a quite brilliant artist. Can’t wait for the Tate show!
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Reposted by Some Melodious Plot
Do yourself a favour. Take ten minutes to read this.
‘Regrets? Number one: smoking. Number two: taking it up the wrong hole’: Tracey Emin on reputation, radical honesty – and Reform
She scandalised the art world in the 1990s with her unmade bed, partied hard in the 2000s – then a brush with death turned the artist’s life upside down. Now she’s as frank as ever
www.theguardian.com
February 14, 2026 at 11:59 AM
Do yourself a favour. Take ten minutes to read this.
Watching Jaws with my 12-year old last night at the cinema. He loved it! But awkward questions:
"Dad, what does Quint mean by "Here's to swimmin' with bow-legged women!"
I'm a sailor, and I don't even know the answer to that! :-)
"Dad, what does Quint mean by "Here's to swimmin' with bow-legged women!"
I'm a sailor, and I don't even know the answer to that! :-)
February 14, 2026 at 11:45 AM
Watching Jaws with my 12-year old last night at the cinema. He loved it! But awkward questions:
"Dad, what does Quint mean by "Here's to swimmin' with bow-legged women!"
I'm a sailor, and I don't even know the answer to that! :-)
"Dad, what does Quint mean by "Here's to swimmin' with bow-legged women!"
I'm a sailor, and I don't even know the answer to that! :-)
Good dad or bad dad? About to traumatise / thrill the boy with the greatest film ever made on the big screen. Jaws!
Side-eye inbound for the Ben Gardener head scene! 🎬
Side-eye inbound for the Ben Gardener head scene! 🎬
February 13, 2026 at 8:16 PM
Good dad or bad dad? About to traumatise / thrill the boy with the greatest film ever made on the big screen. Jaws!
Side-eye inbound for the Ben Gardener head scene! 🎬
Side-eye inbound for the Ben Gardener head scene! 🎬
Call me Old Fashioned! Chin Chin, shipmates! And happy weekend!
February 13, 2026 at 5:37 PM
Call me Old Fashioned! Chin Chin, shipmates! And happy weekend!
Fantastic feel-good television, every bit as good as The Detectorists. Favourite character: the annoyingly uncurious and ridiculous 'Get your fucking hedge cut' next door neighbour Clive.
"My neighbour has got monkeys in his shed!"
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
"My neighbour has got monkeys in his shed!"
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
Small Prophets
The magical and the mundane unfolds in a suburban shed as a lonely man stumbles into the supernatural. A weird and wonderful world from Mackenzie Crook, starring Michael Palin.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 13, 2026 at 11:01 AM
Fantastic feel-good television, every bit as good as The Detectorists. Favourite character: the annoyingly uncurious and ridiculous 'Get your fucking hedge cut' next door neighbour Clive.
"My neighbour has got monkeys in his shed!"
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
"My neighbour has got monkeys in his shed!"
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
At the Old Vic for Arcadia. Third Tom Stoppard in a year. I’m practically a groupie.
February 11, 2026 at 8:39 PM
At the Old Vic for Arcadia. Third Tom Stoppard in a year. I’m practically a groupie.
Excellent and informative piece in the @lrb.co.uk on Barnett Newman.
It’s convinced me that I can do better than dismissively saying ‘Rothko with a zipper’.
It’s convinced me that I can do better than dismissively saying ‘Rothko with a zipper’.
‘Who did the first monochrome? The first black painting? Whose pictorial ground was the first to be “incident-free”? Who invented “the open space concept”? Newman claimed them all.’
Hal Foster on the Abstract Expressionist painter Barnett Newman.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Hal Foster on the Abstract Expressionist painter Barnett Newman.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Hal Foster · Zip it: Barnett Newman’s Anarchism
For Barnett Newman, what was required was a new kind of painting produced ‘as if painting never existed before’, a...
www.lrb.co.uk
February 8, 2026 at 3:31 PM
Excellent and informative piece in the @lrb.co.uk on Barnett Newman.
It’s convinced me that I can do better than dismissively saying ‘Rothko with a zipper’.
It’s convinced me that I can do better than dismissively saying ‘Rothko with a zipper’.
“Let us eat, drink and be merry. There are sausages in the scrutoire; there is beer in the green jug. I shall regale myself on toasted cheese.”
Stephen Maturin is coming very close to being my favourite character in literature.
Stephen Maturin is coming very close to being my favourite character in literature.
February 5, 2026 at 8:44 PM
“Let us eat, drink and be merry. There are sausages in the scrutoire; there is beer in the green jug. I shall regale myself on toasted cheese.”
Stephen Maturin is coming very close to being my favourite character in literature.
Stephen Maturin is coming very close to being my favourite character in literature.
Troublemaker
February 4, 2026 at 12:34 PM
Troublemaker
Reposted by Some Melodious Plot
1. Noam Chomsky's response to the first tranche of Epstein docs - arrogant, high-handed, obfuscatory and, we now know, dishonest - reminded me of something: his response to my questions about genocide denial, 15 years ago. 🧵
www.monbiot.com/2012/05/21/2...
www.monbiot.com/2012/05/21/2...
Correspondence with Noam Chomsky
This is supporting material for the article See No Evil.
www.monbiot.com
February 4, 2026 at 7:49 AM
1. Noam Chomsky's response to the first tranche of Epstein docs - arrogant, high-handed, obfuscatory and, we now know, dishonest - reminded me of something: his response to my questions about genocide denial, 15 years ago. 🧵
www.monbiot.com/2012/05/21/2...
www.monbiot.com/2012/05/21/2...
Tate Britain this afternoon. I’ve really learned to love John Constable over the past ten years … he dazzles and charms and makes you want to stomp out into the meadows for a brisk walk.
But he’s no Turner!
But he’s no Turner!
February 1, 2026 at 6:43 PM
Tate Britain this afternoon. I’ve really learned to love John Constable over the past ten years … he dazzles and charms and makes you want to stomp out into the meadows for a brisk walk.
But he’s no Turner!
But he’s no Turner!
Reposted by Some Melodious Plot
If you get chance have a peek outside. It’s a full moon, except for the tiniest edge. Brilliant and mottled, with Venus bright and clear, up and to the right. Tomorrow it counts as the proper full moon, the Snow Moon. A treat.
January 31, 2026 at 7:12 PM
If you get chance have a peek outside. It’s a full moon, except for the tiniest edge. Brilliant and mottled, with Venus bright and clear, up and to the right. Tomorrow it counts as the proper full moon, the Snow Moon. A treat.
A pint, a bit of shore-time with Aubrey and Maturin, and 4-0 to the Arsenal.
January 31, 2026 at 4:58 PM
A pint, a bit of shore-time with Aubrey and Maturin, and 4-0 to the Arsenal.
Ah nuts! It’s boring reading Frank O’Hara in London as if I were a 1950s hipster waiting for my Vodka Martini …
Not true of course. Reading Frank O’Hara is never being boring.
Not true of course. Reading Frank O’Hara is never being boring.
January 31, 2026 at 2:19 PM
Ah nuts! It’s boring reading Frank O’Hara in London as if I were a 1950s hipster waiting for my Vodka Martini …
Not true of course. Reading Frank O’Hara is never being boring.
Not true of course. Reading Frank O’Hara is never being boring.
Somewhere between Minneapolis and the Angel of Islington. Craig Finn and the Band of Forgiveness at the Union Chapel.
January 30, 2026 at 11:45 PM
Somewhere between Minneapolis and the Angel of Islington. Craig Finn and the Band of Forgiveness at the Union Chapel.
33 years of gig going in London and only now is it my first time at the Union Chapel. Craig Finn without The Hold Steady. The latter will be next month.
Also, ‘church with a bar klaxon’!
Also, ‘church with a bar klaxon’!
January 30, 2026 at 7:23 PM
33 years of gig going in London and only now is it my first time at the Union Chapel. Craig Finn without The Hold Steady. The latter will be next month.
Also, ‘church with a bar klaxon’!
Also, ‘church with a bar klaxon’!
At the Hampstead Theatre for Indian Ink. Felicity Kendall in a Tom Stoppard play. Just don’t tell Miriam.
January 29, 2026 at 7:12 PM
At the Hampstead Theatre for Indian Ink. Felicity Kendall in a Tom Stoppard play. Just don’t tell Miriam.
Currently ranting out loud in the office that this man is not from Wigan. Next steps will be sending around a google maps link of Astley to show just how far away from Wigan it is.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Wigan lottery winner, 80, helped build counterfeit drugs empire, court told
John Eric Spiby is one of four jailed for being part of gang running operation worth up to £288m
www.theguardian.com
January 29, 2026 at 11:44 AM
Currently ranting out loud in the office that this man is not from Wigan. Next steps will be sending around a google maps link of Astley to show just how far away from Wigan it is.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
This morning in Tottenham
January 28, 2026 at 7:48 PM
This morning in Tottenham
I miss Frank Sidebottom, Terry Hall and you! :-)
January 27, 2026 at 10:31 PM
I miss Frank Sidebottom, Terry Hall and you! :-)