Michael Holden
@michaelholden.bsky.social
Words for pictures, words for papers.
http://michaelholden.net/
Also https://reluctantcarer.com/
But now more at https://preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/
http://michaelholden.net/
Also https://reluctantcarer.com/
But now more at https://preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/
Reposted by Michael Holden
I wrote one of the episodes for the newly relaunched Play For Today, which starts tonight (my episode is on in a couple of weeks). This is an article about that .
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
Play for Today: The revival hoping to save British TV from a class crisis
Play for Today’s one-off films were a seminal moment in television in the Seventies and Eighties, writes Hannah J Davies. Decades later, Channel 5 is bringing them back, and aiming to diversify small-...
www.independent.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 8:32 AM
I wrote one of the episodes for the newly relaunched Play For Today, which starts tonight (my episode is on in a couple of weeks). This is an article about that .
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
Karma, Kim n' Elon. "Influence is a coproduction. Perhaps the brightest future is one in which we learn to look away." open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
November 9, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Karma, Kim n' Elon. "Influence is a coproduction. Perhaps the brightest future is one in which we learn to look away." open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Drama series about a man who wakes up in the middle of the night profoundly depressed about the possibility that 'Faith' will also be the main character's name.
September 28, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Drama series about a man who wakes up in the middle of the night profoundly depressed about the possibility that 'Faith' will also be the main character's name.
If only I had thought of this "Greetings, Pope pickers," joke whilst watching Conclave months ago, instead of today, at the shops.
August 29, 2025 at 12:22 PM
If only I had thought of this "Greetings, Pope pickers," joke whilst watching Conclave months ago, instead of today, at the shops.
Pulp Friction “The object that behaves perfectly becomes no better than a hallucination.” open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
August 17, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Pulp Friction “The object that behaves perfectly becomes no better than a hallucination.” open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
"The Attention Casino" a piece I wrote for
@vice now liberated from their paywall.
"The ‘zone’ in the casino where we find ourselves is not one of comfort. In fact, it runs on stress, anxiety, and a replica of togetherness experienced mostly while alone."
www.vice.com/en/article/a...
@vice now liberated from their paywall.
"The ‘zone’ in the casino where we find ourselves is not one of comfort. In fact, it runs on stress, anxiety, and a replica of togetherness experienced mostly while alone."
www.vice.com/en/article/a...
Is Our Relationship With Tech Turning Life Into One Giant Casino?
Modern life has become an inescapable attention casino where we're perpetually distracted, stressed, and seeking a state of total absorption.
www.vice.com
August 4, 2025 at 2:43 PM
"The Attention Casino" a piece I wrote for
@vice now liberated from their paywall.
"The ‘zone’ in the casino where we find ourselves is not one of comfort. In fact, it runs on stress, anxiety, and a replica of togetherness experienced mostly while alone."
www.vice.com/en/article/a...
@vice now liberated from their paywall.
"The ‘zone’ in the casino where we find ourselves is not one of comfort. In fact, it runs on stress, anxiety, and a replica of togetherness experienced mostly while alone."
www.vice.com/en/article/a...
Sheared, slaughtered and scorned. Ruminations on the ruminant. Of sheep, and eating menus. open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Sheared, slaughtered and scorned.
Ruminations on the ruminant. Of sheep, and eating menus.
open.substack.com
July 27, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Sheared, slaughtered and scorned. Ruminations on the ruminant. Of sheep, and eating menus. open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
The Fridge Magnet at the End of the Universe… "The pressure to know (internal and cultural) and our appetite and skills to do so are getting further apart, and in the widening distance between the two, we have the bullshit."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
The Fridge Magnet at the End of the Universe…
(Don’t) Do the Hustle (part two)
open.substack.com
July 13, 2025 at 9:57 AM
The Fridge Magnet at the End of the Universe… "The pressure to know (internal and cultural) and our appetite and skills to do so are getting further apart, and in the widening distance between the two, we have the bullshit."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Not with a bang, but…
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Not with a bang, but…
What are the appropriate emotions for the end of everything?
open.substack.com
June 29, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Not with a bang, but…
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Publish, and be Scammed
The rickety rise of the fake author biography
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
The rickety rise of the fake author biography
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Publish, and be Scammed
Eyes down for the new meaninglessness
open.substack.com
June 15, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Publish, and be Scammed
The rickety rise of the fake author biography
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
The rickety rise of the fake author biography
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Our Mother the Mountain - Greed, growing older and getting down with the uphill struggle.
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Our Mother the Mountain
Greed, growing older and getting down with the uphill struggle.
open.substack.com
June 1, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Our Mother the Mountain - Greed, growing older and getting down with the uphill struggle.
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Reposted by Michael Holden
My book is out in two weeks. The self-promotional push! It begins!
May 27, 2025 at 6:33 AM
My book is out in two weeks. The self-promotional push! It begins!
"It would be a shame to be wise all your life – and to a large degree, pointless. What else are we here for – if not to change?" Sunday Mourning open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Sunday Mourning
On Weakening the Weekend.
open.substack.com
May 18, 2025 at 6:36 AM
"It would be a shame to be wise all your life – and to a large degree, pointless. What else are we here for – if not to change?" Sunday Mourning open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Off to dissolve parliament...
May 5, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Off to dissolve parliament...
Back Off to What?
"The “Grandpa Gang,” a clutch of French hoodlums in their 60s and 70s who, in 2016, disguised themselves as police and robbed Kim Kardashian in Paris without - they claim - having any idea who she was, is a tale of our age, as well as our aged."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
"The “Grandpa Gang,” a clutch of French hoodlums in their 60s and 70s who, in 2016, disguised themselves as police and robbed Kim Kardashian in Paris without - they claim - having any idea who she was, is a tale of our age, as well as our aged."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Back Off to What?
On older people and organised crime
open.substack.com
May 4, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Back Off to What?
"The “Grandpa Gang,” a clutch of French hoodlums in their 60s and 70s who, in 2016, disguised themselves as police and robbed Kim Kardashian in Paris without - they claim - having any idea who she was, is a tale of our age, as well as our aged."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
"The “Grandpa Gang,” a clutch of French hoodlums in their 60s and 70s who, in 2016, disguised themselves as police and robbed Kim Kardashian in Paris without - they claim - having any idea who she was, is a tale of our age, as well as our aged."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
"I doubt any child of that era can forget the glaring disparity between the implied Bond villain universe of the packaging and the simplistic plastic reality it contained, but in that landscape of distractions this thing of pegs and guesswork was a global hit." open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
April 30, 2025 at 2:54 PM
"I doubt any child of that era can forget the glaring disparity between the implied Bond villain universe of the packaging and the simplistic plastic reality it contained, but in that landscape of distractions this thing of pegs and guesswork was a global hit." open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
"Having spent a good part of the last five years moving between higher education and second hand bookshops, I did what a character in a video game based on me would resort to as a special move – I took a book off the shelf and looked it up."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
April 13, 2025 at 12:21 PM
"Having spent a good part of the last five years moving between higher education and second hand bookshops, I did what a character in a video game based on me would resort to as a special move – I took a book off the shelf and looked it up."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Reposted by Michael Holden
I've written a true story about how I spent 9/11 helping hundreds of terrified men to reach orgasm, in the new issue of The Fence.
April 10, 2025 at 1:59 PM
I've written a true story about how I spent 9/11 helping hundreds of terrified men to reach orgasm, in the new issue of The Fence.
"The young, forlorn-faced baker looked at me with an expression of defeat that would grace any Don McCullin picture and said, “we are not allowed to heat things up."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
April 9, 2025 at 10:16 AM
"The young, forlorn-faced baker looked at me with an expression of defeat that would grace any Don McCullin picture and said, “we are not allowed to heat things up."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
"Soon, nothing on any screen will be credible as fact, incredulity will be the only constant and those feelings… will be the only proof we have."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Forget about keeping it real
Reality is unkempt, but also needs reclaiming.
open.substack.com
April 2, 2025 at 8:30 AM
"Soon, nothing on any screen will be credible as fact, incredulity will be the only constant and those feelings… will be the only proof we have."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
"The car of the imagination eats up the open road towards a better tomorrow – the car of reality loiters at the lights and may yet be towed away and crushed like (or even by) those dreams with which it was mis-sold."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Life is Traffic
But we are sold on the open road.
open.substack.com
March 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
"The car of the imagination eats up the open road towards a better tomorrow – the car of reality loiters at the lights and may yet be towed away and crushed like (or even by) those dreams with which it was mis-sold."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Real Life is Not a Headline
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
March 9, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Real Life is Not a Headline
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Congrats to Anora! Unpaywalled: probably the ONLY piece to link it the work of best adapted screenplay winner Peter Straughan’s Wolf Hall and definitely the only one to bring in psychoanalytic pioneer Wilfrid Bion, proabably…The Marriage Plot open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
The Marriage Plot
Why it’s more crisis than lysis in the best of modern cinema
open.substack.com
March 3, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Congrats to Anora! Unpaywalled: probably the ONLY piece to link it the work of best adapted screenplay winner Peter Straughan’s Wolf Hall and definitely the only one to bring in psychoanalytic pioneer Wilfrid Bion, proabably…The Marriage Plot open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Die, Beautiful Launderettes. This week finds me in a spin open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
March 2, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Die, Beautiful Launderettes. This week finds me in a spin open.substack.com/pub/precisei...