ARBird
@anthonyrbird.bsky.social
Intellectually ambitious. Knows a bit about music & buttons. No corporate streaming, Zuckerberg et al. located in deepest darkest East Kent.
Reposted by ARBird
A U.S. customs officer having to go through my social media history
December 11, 2025 at 12:11 PM
A U.S. customs officer having to go through my social media history
Reposted by ARBird
‘Here’s a snide way of summarising modern British history: a 400-year campaign by the propertied classes to make the English forget about the 1640s.’
Neal Ascherson on England’s monarchism problem:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Neal Ascherson on England’s monarchism problem:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Neal Ascherson | No Kings
England doesn’t know how to say: ‘No Kings.’ Instead, it says: ‘Not this one, but perhaps his brother or his son...
www.lrb.co.uk
December 6, 2025 at 4:33 PM
‘Here’s a snide way of summarising modern British history: a 400-year campaign by the propertied classes to make the English forget about the 1640s.’
Neal Ascherson on England’s monarchism problem:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Neal Ascherson on England’s monarchism problem:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Reposted by ARBird
SOTL posted a 2016 tour diary this week. I never mourned someone famous i had never met until Brian died, there’s a void in my heart knowing I will never see this band again. truly I hope everyone in this world feels this way aboit one artist at some point in their life. youtu.be/I5zCV7RJR50?...
Stars of the Lid in Europe (2016 Tour Diary)
YouTube video by STARS OF THE LID
youtu.be
December 6, 2025 at 12:41 AM
SOTL posted a 2016 tour diary this week. I never mourned someone famous i had never met until Brian died, there’s a void in my heart knowing I will never see this band again. truly I hope everyone in this world feels this way aboit one artist at some point in their life. youtu.be/I5zCV7RJR50?...
Reposted by ARBird
I put it to you that Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime” is not merely the worst Christmas song but is also in fact the worst song in the history of recorded sound.
December 4, 2025 at 1:15 PM
I put it to you that Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime” is not merely the worst Christmas song but is also in fact the worst song in the history of recorded sound.
Reposted by ARBird
Reposted by ARBird
We really need a Link Wray historical marker at the old Fredericksburg VA armory where he performed Rumble for the first time. I always think about his line in Shine A Light about stopping at a country store on Route 301.
November 22, 2025 at 5:58 PM
We really need a Link Wray historical marker at the old Fredericksburg VA armory where he performed Rumble for the first time. I always think about his line in Shine A Light about stopping at a country store on Route 301.
Reposted by ARBird
Salami Advent Calendar, Czech Republic. podnikovka.cz/uzeniny_c103...
November 20, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Salami Advent Calendar, Czech Republic. podnikovka.cz/uzeniny_c103...
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Deeply moving/human experimental music / noise / field recordings from Beirut artist Yara Asmar. Listened to this obsessively since first hearing a few weeks ago.
My album of the year I think.
Yara Asmar - everyone I love is sleeping and I love them so so much (2025)
My album of the year I think.
Yara Asmar - everyone I love is sleeping and I love them so so much (2025)
November 19, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Deeply moving/human experimental music / noise / field recordings from Beirut artist Yara Asmar. Listened to this obsessively since first hearing a few weeks ago.
My album of the year I think.
Yara Asmar - everyone I love is sleeping and I love them so so much (2025)
My album of the year I think.
Yara Asmar - everyone I love is sleeping and I love them so so much (2025)
Reposted by ARBird
'They do not want my kind of pictures in their paper, spoiling their day.'
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
‘It’s been a cesspit, really, my life’: war photographer Don McCullin on 19 of his greatest pictures
At 90, McCullin has spent seven decades recording conflict and tragedy – while escaping snipers, mortar fire and capture. He reflects on pain, pride and regret
www.theguardian.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:53 PM
'They do not want my kind of pictures in their paper, spoiling their day.'
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Reposted by ARBird
Reposted by ARBird
Read about Ernst Stavro Blofeld's White Cat of Evil! the audition for his screen debut in From Russia With Love; his semi-retirement & thoughts on his stand-in's freak-out in You Only Live Twice; his unsatisfactory comeback in Spectre etc
CATS ON FILM (kindle or paperback)
"possibly the greatest book ever"
"one of the finest pieces of specialist film scholarship published in recent years”
“Bonus: includes My Day by Jones, AKA Alien from the cat's PoV. Fun!”
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1978038747
"possibly the greatest book ever"
"one of the finest pieces of specialist film scholarship published in recent years”
“Bonus: includes My Day by Jones, AKA Alien from the cat's PoV. Fun!”
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1978038747
September 25, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Read about Ernst Stavro Blofeld's White Cat of Evil! the audition for his screen debut in From Russia With Love; his semi-retirement & thoughts on his stand-in's freak-out in You Only Live Twice; his unsatisfactory comeback in Spectre etc
Reposted by ARBird
‘At his best, Brian Eno is a model of how to inhabit the role of unlikely national treasure with verve and mischief; at other times you may wonder how exactly he went from playing Cornelius Cardew to producing Coldplay.’
Ian Penman: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Ian Penman: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Ian Penman · Infinite Wibble: Brian v. Eno
At a time when most conversation about the arts remained stuck in an Oxbridge common room, Eno was a one-man laboratory...
www.lrb.co.uk
September 25, 2025 at 8:10 PM
‘At his best, Brian Eno is a model of how to inhabit the role of unlikely national treasure with verve and mischief; at other times you may wonder how exactly he went from playing Cornelius Cardew to producing Coldplay.’
Ian Penman: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Ian Penman: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by ARBird
Reposted by ARBird
Always enlightening to read Eco on fascism. 11 seems particularly prescient at the moment
www.openculture.com/2024/11/umbe...
www.openculture.com/2024/11/umbe...
Umberto Eco’s List of the 14 Common Features of Fascism
Creative Commons image by Rob Bogaerts, via the National Archives in Holland
One of the key questions facing both journalists and loyal oppositions these days is how do we stay honest as euphemisms an...
www.openculture.com
September 18, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Always enlightening to read Eco on fascism. 11 seems particularly prescient at the moment
www.openculture.com/2024/11/umbe...
www.openculture.com/2024/11/umbe...
Reposted by ARBird
This essay, by an Egyptian-American former New Yorker staff fact-checker, is an incredible read
And incredibly damning
Huge recommendation
And incredibly damning
Huge recommendation
House Arab
I was working at the magazine as a fact-checker and my parents no longer considered me a failure, not because they read or admired it, but because when they said its name to friends and relatives it s...
bidoun.org
September 17, 2025 at 2:16 PM
This essay, by an Egyptian-American former New Yorker staff fact-checker, is an incredible read
And incredibly damning
Huge recommendation
And incredibly damning
Huge recommendation
Reposted by ARBird
Years ago I wrote this piece about national treasure and dreadful old c**t Peter Blake. Have just dredged it up for my new best friend @typetheclouds.bsky.social who had the good sense to buy my fucking book™ at the Hastings book fair.
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/ja...
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/ja...
The Curious Case of the Disappearing Artist
We all have pet causes. Mine include Amnesty International, Yorkshire Cat Rescue and re-writing the artist Jann Haworth back into art history.
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk
September 13, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Years ago I wrote this piece about national treasure and dreadful old c**t Peter Blake. Have just dredged it up for my new best friend @typetheclouds.bsky.social who had the good sense to buy my fucking book™ at the Hastings book fair.
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/ja...
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/ja...
Reposted by ARBird
CATS ON FILM (kindle or paperback)
"possibly the greatest book ever"
"one of the finest pieces of specialist film scholarship published in recent years”
“Bonus: includes My Day by Jones, AKA Alien from the cat's PoV. Fun!”
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1978038747
"possibly the greatest book ever"
"one of the finest pieces of specialist film scholarship published in recent years”
“Bonus: includes My Day by Jones, AKA Alien from the cat's PoV. Fun!”
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1978038747
August 30, 2025 at 9:46 AM
CATS ON FILM (kindle or paperback)
"possibly the greatest book ever"
"one of the finest pieces of specialist film scholarship published in recent years”
“Bonus: includes My Day by Jones, AKA Alien from the cat's PoV. Fun!”
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1978038747
"possibly the greatest book ever"
"one of the finest pieces of specialist film scholarship published in recent years”
“Bonus: includes My Day by Jones, AKA Alien from the cat's PoV. Fun!”
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1978038747
Reposted by ARBird
Bank of England show to remember lost splendours of Sir John Soane building
Bank of England show to remember lost splendours of Sir John Soane building
Exhibition explores Bank’s former grandeur and its rebuilding under Sir Herbert Baker that began 100 years ago
www.theguardian.com
August 29, 2025 at 5:57 AM
Bank of England show to remember lost splendours of Sir John Soane building
August 2, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by ARBird
Where’s the lie?
Fuck Netanyahu.
Fuck Netanyahu.
July 26, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Where’s the lie?
Fuck Netanyahu.
Fuck Netanyahu.
Reposted by ARBird
Excellent new video from @moreperfectunion.bsky.social and @lizpelly.bsky.social youtu.be/I8zBkQFDpsg
Why Spotify’s CEO Is Worth Billions While Musicians Make Pennies
YouTube video by More Perfect Union
youtu.be
July 26, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Excellent new video from @moreperfectunion.bsky.social and @lizpelly.bsky.social youtu.be/I8zBkQFDpsg
Reposted by ARBird
What a life and career. RIP.
July 22, 2025 at 6:28 PM
What a life and career. RIP.
Reposted by ARBird
In this month’s antidote to the algorithm Mat Colegate rips it to shreds with the ‘orrible racket that emerged in the early-80s, from S.P.K to Ramleh and 23 Skidoo
Organic Intelligence XLVI: The UK Industrial Diaspora
buff.ly/LyI4MYw
Organic Intelligence XLVI: The UK Industrial Diaspora
buff.ly/LyI4MYw
July 18, 2025 at 1:00 PM
In this month’s antidote to the algorithm Mat Colegate rips it to shreds with the ‘orrible racket that emerged in the early-80s, from S.P.K to Ramleh and 23 Skidoo
Organic Intelligence XLVI: The UK Industrial Diaspora
buff.ly/LyI4MYw
Organic Intelligence XLVI: The UK Industrial Diaspora
buff.ly/LyI4MYw