Alan A
@alanake.bsky.social
Ancient and Late Antique history | Stone circles | Model kits | Learning the violin | Tomb Raider and Red Dead | Railways and locomotives | Soviet aircraft | Horror stories | Nile valley | Bob Dylan
But, you know, next week might be different
But, you know, next week might be different
#nowreading just picked up Lonesome Dove again
October 5, 2025 at 11:41 AM
#nowreading just picked up Lonesome Dove again
Take your favourite bits of The Thing. Add your favourite bits of Annihilation. Stir them up in a pot with Nick Cage ramping it up to eleven. Chuck in some alpacas to garnish. What have you made? You’ve made Color Out Of Space, that’s what you’ve made. Rubbish but loved it #justwatched #horrorsky
October 4, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Take your favourite bits of The Thing. Add your favourite bits of Annihilation. Stir them up in a pot with Nick Cage ramping it up to eleven. Chuck in some alpacas to garnish. What have you made? You’ve made Color Out Of Space, that’s what you’ve made. Rubbish but loved it #justwatched #horrorsky
#nowlistening Eagles first album from 1972.
We may lose and we may win,
Though we will never be here again
So open up, I'm climbin' in
So … take it easy
We may lose and we may win,
Though we will never be here again
So open up, I'm climbin' in
So … take it easy
September 7, 2025 at 9:26 AM
#nowlistening Eagles first album from 1972.
We may lose and we may win,
Though we will never be here again
So open up, I'm climbin' in
So … take it easy
We may lose and we may win,
Though we will never be here again
So open up, I'm climbin' in
So … take it easy
#justwatched Miami Vice (2006) again. I only discovered this film last year and thought on first viewing it was just ok. Michael Mann has made much better films than this. MV is shallow, nihilistic, pretty to look at but strangely edited.
Now, of course, I think it’s near perfect
Now, of course, I think it’s near perfect
September 7, 2025 at 9:07 AM
#justwatched Miami Vice (2006) again. I only discovered this film last year and thought on first viewing it was just ok. Michael Mann has made much better films than this. MV is shallow, nihilistic, pretty to look at but strangely edited.
Now, of course, I think it’s near perfect
Now, of course, I think it’s near perfect
959 Red, an East German MiG-21 SPS-K now at the Midlands Air Museum, UK. Photo by me. The SPS-K was a specifically East German version, armed with a cannon #MiGMondays
August 18, 2025 at 9:59 AM
959 Red, an East German MiG-21 SPS-K now at the Midlands Air Museum, UK. Photo by me. The SPS-K was a specifically East German version, armed with a cannon #MiGMondays
Picked up this 1:48 scale kit of a Sukhoi Su-17 Fitter at the Midlands Air Museum over the weekend. I love these Su-17 beauties but IDK when I’ll get to make it, am still only halfway through a kit of the Vasa #SukhoiSundays
August 17, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Picked up this 1:48 scale kit of a Sukhoi Su-17 Fitter at the Midlands Air Museum over the weekend. I love these Su-17 beauties but IDK when I’ll get to make it, am still only halfway through a kit of the Vasa #SukhoiSundays
#nowwatching The Batman. What a grim film this is. Reminds me of Se7en. But Gotham feels like a real living city, for once; and wow the car is beautiful. After decades of Batmobile-tanks it lifts my heart to see just a car, a proper 70s muscle car, ok it’s got a jet engine but still; it’s a car.
August 3, 2025 at 5:40 PM
#nowwatching The Batman. What a grim film this is. Reminds me of Se7en. But Gotham feels like a real living city, for once; and wow the car is beautiful. After decades of Batmobile-tanks it lifts my heart to see just a car, a proper 70s muscle car, ok it’s got a jet engine but still; it’s a car.
Greeks on the beach at Alexandria, 1930s. From Michael Haag’s blog michaelhaag.blogspot.com/2013/08/lawr... #alexandriaquartet
July 27, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Greeks on the beach at Alexandria, 1930s. From Michael Haag’s blog michaelhaag.blogspot.com/2013/08/lawr... #alexandriaquartet
#nowreading Patrick O’Brian, Master and Commander. Better than The Lodestone; not as good as The Alexandria Quartet. But, yes, so far this is a cracking good read
July 20, 2025 at 7:23 PM
#nowreading Patrick O’Brian, Master and Commander. Better than The Lodestone; not as good as The Alexandria Quartet. But, yes, so far this is a cracking good read
#nowreading lol no I’m not. I started to read this but it’s too awful even for me. I managed about fifty pages but, you know, life is too short #dnf
July 20, 2025 at 5:54 PM
#nowreading lol no I’m not. I started to read this but it’s too awful even for me. I managed about fifty pages but, you know, life is too short #dnf
#nowreading a Yefim Gordon classic #yefimgordon
July 18, 2025 at 7:34 PM
#nowreading a Yefim Gordon classic #yefimgordon
#justfinished The Alexandria Quartet, all 900 pages. Loved it, and I mean I absolutely LOVED it. I ❤️ the AQ. I did not want it ever to end. Am very, very tempted to read it all over again.
Yet weirdly it’s also pretentious shit that means nothing. How very odd! Ah well
Yet weirdly it’s also pretentious shit that means nothing. How very odd! Ah well
July 18, 2025 at 7:16 PM
#justfinished The Alexandria Quartet, all 900 pages. Loved it, and I mean I absolutely LOVED it. I ❤️ the AQ. I did not want it ever to end. Am very, very tempted to read it all over again.
Yet weirdly it’s also pretentious shit that means nothing. How very odd! Ah well
Yet weirdly it’s also pretentious shit that means nothing. How very odd! Ah well
#hellraiserwatch 5: Inferno. An unpleasant slab of shit. The ‘twist’ is so obvious after 10 minutes that you think ‘surely they must subvert it?’ and then at the end it’s ‘OMG they didn’t subvert it, they went with the really obvious twist.’ Probably the worst Hellraiser movie of the whole lot
June 28, 2025 at 6:20 AM
#hellraiserwatch 5: Inferno. An unpleasant slab of shit. The ‘twist’ is so obvious after 10 minutes that you think ‘surely they must subvert it?’ and then at the end it’s ‘OMG they didn’t subvert it, they went with the really obvious twist.’ Probably the worst Hellraiser movie of the whole lot
#MiGMondays North Korean Shenyang J-6 number 339 Red taking the limelight on stage during a performance of ‘We Will Follow You Only Kim Jong-un.’ The J-6 is China’s MiG-19 derivative. #k-pop
youtu.be/rQEgjWWjed4?...
youtu.be/rQEgjWWjed4?...
June 23, 2025 at 6:50 AM
#MiGMondays North Korean Shenyang J-6 number 339 Red taking the limelight on stage during a performance of ‘We Will Follow You Only Kim Jong-un.’ The J-6 is China’s MiG-19 derivative. #k-pop
youtu.be/rQEgjWWjed4?...
youtu.be/rQEgjWWjed4?...
#alexandriaquartet Lawrence Durrell’s wife Eve, perhaps the model for the character Justine in his novels. Am now reading Clea, the last novel of the quartet. I do not want this story to end. Photo source: www.theguardian.com/books/galler...
June 15, 2025 at 6:30 PM
#alexandriaquartet Lawrence Durrell’s wife Eve, perhaps the model for the character Justine in his novels. Am now reading Clea, the last novel of the quartet. I do not want this story to end. Photo source: www.theguardian.com/books/galler...
#hellraiserwatch 4: Bloodline. Follows consistently (ish) from no.3 while including the origin of the box in 18th century France (awesome) and the end of Pinhead on a space station in 2127 (not awesome). Angelique is great, Pinhead just a villain. But it wraps up all 4 films; so you could stop here.
June 14, 2025 at 12:38 PM
#hellraiserwatch 4: Bloodline. Follows consistently (ish) from no.3 while including the origin of the box in 18th century France (awesome) and the end of Pinhead on a space station in 2127 (not awesome). Angelique is great, Pinhead just a villain. But it wraps up all 4 films; so you could stop here.
#hellraiserwatch Hell on Earth, though Ham on Cheese would be better. Surprisingly coherent. Its 1992 budget feels large-ish and the story fits well with the first two films. Sadly Pinhead is now a Freddy-style villain (although this is explained in-plot) and the new cenobites are just bdsm zombies
June 7, 2025 at 2:04 PM
#hellraiserwatch Hell on Earth, though Ham on Cheese would be better. Surprisingly coherent. Its 1992 budget feels large-ish and the story fits well with the first two films. Sadly Pinhead is now a Freddy-style villain (although this is explained in-plot) and the new cenobites are just bdsm zombies
#hellraiserwatch Hellbound, 1988. A direct sequel (“a family reunion?” Julia says at one point) that seems a mess but greatly improves on rewatches. Kenneth Cranham gives it proper heft. The film understands that Julia is the true villain; Pinhead and the cenobites are victims of the box #horrorsky
May 31, 2025 at 9:07 AM
#hellraiserwatch Hellbound, 1988. A direct sequel (“a family reunion?” Julia says at one point) that seems a mess but greatly improves on rewatches. Kenneth Cranham gives it proper heft. The film understands that Julia is the true villain; Pinhead and the cenobites are victims of the box #horrorsky
#hellraiserwatch Watched the 1987 original and best, a film about how far Julia (perfectly played by Clare Higgins) will go to get her lover back. A comfort film for me these days. Its successors are explorations of individual facets of this first film, like footnotes to a master text #horrorsky
May 27, 2025 at 5:29 PM
#hellraiserwatch Watched the 1987 original and best, a film about how far Julia (perfectly played by Clare Higgins) will go to get her lover back. A comfort film for me these days. Its successors are explorations of individual facets of this first film, like footnotes to a master text #horrorsky
#MiGMondays the nose and cockpit of Czech MiG-23 BN number 9863 Black, displayed at Kbely. Nice sharkmouth. This aircraft was built in 1983 and was retired in 1992; the nose area was preserved but the rest of it was scrapped. #MiGs #Sovietaircraft
May 26, 2025 at 3:05 PM
#MiGMondays the nose and cockpit of Czech MiG-23 BN number 9863 Black, displayed at Kbely. Nice sharkmouth. This aircraft was built in 1983 and was retired in 1992; the nose area was preserved but the rest of it was scrapped. #MiGs #Sovietaircraft
A view of Alexandria. #nowreading Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet (just started book three) and so I have been tracking down old photos and postcards of the pre-revolutionary city #egypt #alexandriaquartet
May 25, 2025 at 5:10 PM
A view of Alexandria. #nowreading Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet (just started book three) and so I have been tracking down old photos and postcards of the pre-revolutionary city #egypt #alexandriaquartet
Marathon for Mac, 1990s: the original boxes. Wish I had kept mine. The games came flat-packed, but if you pushed in the edges then they turned into prism shapes. Totally fantastic Source: www.reddit.com/r/Marathon/c...
May 23, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Marathon for Mac, 1990s: the original boxes. Wish I had kept mine. The games came flat-packed, but if you pushed in the edges then they turned into prism shapes. Totally fantastic Source: www.reddit.com/r/Marathon/c...
#allbobdylan 63: Bootleg 17, 90s sessions, with a surprisingly cheery melody for Not Dark Yet and a brisk pace for Highlands. And fittingly it is with Highlands that my playthru ends as I have now played all my CDs; and Highlands is my fave Bob song ever.
And that’s good enough for now. #bobdylan
And that’s good enough for now. #bobdylan
May 15, 2025 at 8:14 PM
#allbobdylan 63: Bootleg 17, 90s sessions, with a surprisingly cheery melody for Not Dark Yet and a brisk pace for Highlands. And fittingly it is with Highlands that my playthru ends as I have now played all my CDs; and Highlands is my fave Bob song ever.
And that’s good enough for now. #bobdylan
And that’s good enough for now. #bobdylan