Steve Bowbrick
@bowbrick.bsky.social
GROSS is a materialist history of Hollywood.
It’s almost 90 years old, it’s cheesy and it’s a travesty of English history but it became the model for every action movie that followed. The Adventures of Robin Hood was 1938’s top-grossing movie… bit.ly/3Lsn62Q
November 8, 2025 at 11:51 PM
It’s almost 90 years old, it’s cheesy and it’s a travesty of English history but it became the model for every action movie that followed. The Adventures of Robin Hood was 1938’s top-grossing movie… bit.ly/3Lsn62Q
If you want a preview of the world imagined for us by the monarchists, accelerationists, integralists and AI oligarchs look no further than the Dune movies…
GROSS: Villeneueve's Dune - aristocratic excess: bit.ly/48EhUCq
GROSS: Villeneueve's Dune - aristocratic excess: bit.ly/48EhUCq
October 19, 2025 at 1:42 PM
If you want a preview of the world imagined for us by the monarchists, accelerationists, integralists and AI oligarchs look no further than the Dune movies…
GROSS: Villeneueve's Dune - aristocratic excess: bit.ly/48EhUCq
GROSS: Villeneueve's Dune - aristocratic excess: bit.ly/48EhUCq
Emotions and a kind of approximate sense of what time it is
October 13, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Emotions and a kind of approximate sense of what time it is
Thing is I'm pretty sure that, when it comes to it, when you're allowed a second to rise from your work and look along the line of toiling miners, one of them is going to be Mr. Bezos himself.
This is from a post I've called 'Paragraphs about AI', where I keep all this nonsense: bit.ly/3XpHiVU
This is from a post I've called 'Paragraphs about AI', where I keep all this nonsense: bit.ly/3XpHiVU
October 5, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Thing is I'm pretty sure that, when it comes to it, when you're allowed a second to rise from your work and look along the line of toiling miners, one of them is going to be Mr. Bezos himself.
This is from a post I've called 'Paragraphs about AI', where I keep all this nonsense: bit.ly/3XpHiVU
This is from a post I've called 'Paragraphs about AI', where I keep all this nonsense: bit.ly/3XpHiVU
When America’s only free-form independent radio station - not part of the American public radio system - feels the need to send physical mail to a fan who’s 3,000 miles from the transmitter on another continent. Must be tough times!
September 30, 2025 at 9:06 AM
When America’s only free-form independent radio station - not part of the American public radio system - feels the need to send physical mail to a fan who’s 3,000 miles from the transmitter on another continent. Must be tough times!
"Money begets money, my dear…" Mercantile capitalism explained by a shifty-looking old gent during the Restoration. Honestly, Forever Amber is a brilliant movie - wildly silly - essentially the first bonkbuster and the biggest movie of 1947. bit.ly/4cjF001
September 28, 2025 at 11:52 AM
"Money begets money, my dear…" Mercantile capitalism explained by a shifty-looking old gent during the Restoration. Honestly, Forever Amber is a brilliant movie - wildly silly - essentially the first bonkbuster and the biggest movie of 1947. bit.ly/4cjF001
It's forty years since i first saw My Dinner with Andre. I keep changing my mind. Last night I think I did so again, thanks to David Runciman and the @ppfideas.bsky.social crew who put on a screening at the Regent Street Cinema
September 26, 2025 at 9:03 AM
It's forty years since i first saw My Dinner with Andre. I keep changing my mind. Last night I think I did so again, thanks to David Runciman and the @ppfideas.bsky.social crew who put on a screening at the Regent Street Cinema
Eddington is Ari Aster's dark COVID Western: its culture war themes are becoming more relevant daily. Tomorrow, on the GROSS Substack, I'll be discussing the movie with influential @UCIrvine film studies Prof Catherine Liu at 11am PDT/7pm UK. Free and open to all: open.substack.com/live-stream/...
September 15, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Eddington is Ari Aster's dark COVID Western: its culture war themes are becoming more relevant daily. Tomorrow, on the GROSS Substack, I'll be discussing the movie with influential @UCIrvine film studies Prof Catherine Liu at 11am PDT/7pm UK. Free and open to all: open.substack.com/live-stream/...
The Exorcist isn’t a horror movie, it’s a Catholic evangelical text. The film’s muscular Jesuit priests send the demon packing and heroic Father Karras sacrifices his own life in saving Regan’s, as a true priest should. The Exorcist is the next review in GROSS, the cinema history newsletter gross.ly
September 8, 2025 at 1:47 PM
The Exorcist isn’t a horror movie, it’s a Catholic evangelical text. The film’s muscular Jesuit priests send the demon packing and heroic Father Karras sacrifices his own life in saving Regan’s, as a true priest should. The Exorcist is the next review in GROSS, the cinema history newsletter gross.ly
The Godfather is a melodrama and The Long Good Friday is an epic. Not going to argue about this. GROSS is cinema history with a bit of politics, a bit of historic context, sometimes some gags. bit.ly/4mGBYbm
August 31, 2025 at 6:55 PM
The Godfather is a melodrama and The Long Good Friday is an epic. Not going to argue about this. GROSS is cinema history with a bit of politics, a bit of historic context, sometimes some gags. bit.ly/4mGBYbm
I've been in touch with these people. Apparently the transformation involves the insertion of small, velvety horns at the front of the scalp and the replacement of your silly, old feet with two handsome cloven hooves. Pain is minimal and you'll definitely see the benefit when it comes to the rut.
August 30, 2025 at 10:14 PM
I've been in touch with these people. Apparently the transformation involves the insertion of small, velvety horns at the front of the scalp and the replacement of your silly, old feet with two handsome cloven hooves. Pain is minimal and you'll definitely see the benefit when it comes to the rut.
Amy Madigan brings a demented Mrs Doubtfire to Aunt Gladys that you have to see. I do hope this is a kind of third-age genre reboot for Madigan and that we now get a sequence of these unhinged characters. She's brilliant. bit.ly/4lBQobn
August 18, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Amy Madigan brings a demented Mrs Doubtfire to Aunt Gladys that you have to see. I do hope this is a kind of third-age genre reboot for Madigan and that we now get a sequence of these unhinged characters. She's brilliant. bit.ly/4lBQobn
Tip: read Les Misérables one chapter per day - there are 365 chapters, you'll be done in a year and everything else you read will be filtered through Victor Hugo's mind-altering, super-immersive VR goggles. It'll make you dizzy.
August 15, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Tip: read Les Misérables one chapter per day - there are 365 chapters, you'll be done in a year and everything else you read will be filtered through Victor Hugo's mind-altering, super-immersive VR goggles. It'll make you dizzy.
Finally some recognition. Thank you Professor van Loon,
August 12, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Finally some recognition. Thank you Professor van Loon,
Don't become ungovernable, become GOVERNMENT! bit.ly/4m8zy51
August 10, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Don't become ungovernable, become GOVERNMENT! bit.ly/4m8zy51
There are so many movies and books and works of art from that period that reflect the odd, background dread that we all got used to - sometimes implicitly, sometimes right there in the plot. Andrei Tarkovsky's final movie, from 1986, makes it explicit. It's a beautiful thing: bit.ly/4l6GNJy
August 2, 2025 at 8:53 AM
There are so many movies and books and works of art from that period that reflect the odd, background dread that we all got used to - sometimes implicitly, sometimes right there in the plot. Andrei Tarkovsky's final movie, from 1986, makes it explicit. It's a beautiful thing: bit.ly/4l6GNJy
There's a dry cleaner on Kilburn High Road that's turning into a bike shop bit.ly/44UJeu3
July 31, 2025 at 7:03 PM
There's a dry cleaner on Kilburn High Road that's turning into a bike shop bit.ly/44UJeu3
Obvs there's a phone case too bit.ly/455ewNo
July 25, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Obvs there's a phone case too bit.ly/455ewNo
In about 1973 Cornelius Cardew had a revelation. Avant-garde art had been captured and neutered by capitalism. A true revolutionary music would have to return to accessible, popular forms. He wrote a book called Stockhausen Serves Imperialism. Here's a throw cushion based on the cover bit.ly/4favGy3
July 25, 2025 at 11:30 AM
In about 1973 Cornelius Cardew had a revelation. Avant-garde art had been captured and neutered by capitalism. A true revolutionary music would have to return to accessible, popular forms. He wrote a book called Stockhausen Serves Imperialism. Here's a throw cushion based on the cover bit.ly/4favGy3
Today’s obscure radio merch is this t-shirt (mugs, mouse mats etc. too) celebrating WEVD, the remarkable New York City radio station started in honour of Eugene Victor Debs that went on air in 1927. bit.ly/3TF6lSL
July 15, 2025 at 5:50 AM
Today’s obscure radio merch is this t-shirt (mugs, mouse mats etc. too) celebrating WEVD, the remarkable New York City radio station started in honour of Eugene Victor Debs that went on air in 1927. bit.ly/3TF6lSL
What you Russian absurdism fans need is a 19th Century literature gag on your chest (or a mug or a mouse mat or whatever). It's Ukrainian-born novelist/playwright Nikolai Gogol's name in the Google font with a little picture of the great man alongside it. bit.ly/4nLTCvi
July 13, 2025 at 11:28 AM
What you Russian absurdism fans need is a 19th Century literature gag on your chest (or a mug or a mouse mat or whatever). It's Ukrainian-born novelist/playwright Nikolai Gogol's name in the Google font with a little picture of the great man alongside it. bit.ly/4nLTCvi
Doric is a a classical order of architecture characterized by a sturdy fluted column and a thick square abacus resting on a rounded moulding.
July 12, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Doric is a a classical order of architecture characterized by a sturdy fluted column and a thick square abacus resting on a rounded moulding.
Got a few art books on eBay so here's a list on the blog in case that's your thing. Most of these are quite rare but they're priced to sell! There's a great big gorgeous Gerhard Richter, a bonkers Semiotext(e), a Jean-Luc Godard box-set, Deleuze on Francis Bacon, Kertész Polaroids… bit.ly/4kAHnz3
July 11, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Got a few art books on eBay so here's a list on the blog in case that's your thing. Most of these are quite rare but they're priced to sell! There's a great big gorgeous Gerhard Richter, a bonkers Semiotext(e), a Jean-Luc Godard box-set, Deleuze on Francis Bacon, Kertész Polaroids… bit.ly/4kAHnz3
Amazon's AI creates these slightly distressing montages to keep customers permanently slightly tense. It probably boosts sales.
July 6, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Amazon's AI creates these slightly distressing montages to keep customers permanently slightly tense. It probably boosts sales.
This coin is too big and of no practical use. I’d be surprised if you sell any at all
July 5, 2025 at 10:27 AM
This coin is too big and of no practical use. I’d be surprised if you sell any at all