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/
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.
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...
Off to dissolve parliament...
May 5, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Off to dissolve parliament...
"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...
"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...
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...
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...
"The leading course is wine, the second course is bread..."
February 27, 2025 at 2:25 PM
"The leading course is wine, the second course is bread..."
"One truth refreshed in tumult is that uniforms come with expectations which are not uniform themselves." open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
February 16, 2025 at 12:23 PM
"One truth refreshed in tumult is that uniforms come with expectations which are not uniform themselves." open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
"We long to be where others are not, and yet, somewhere inside those spaces - having done all we can to be included – we then do our best to lose ourselves." Where Sigmund meets Iggy - the nightclub's decline and fall. open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
February 9, 2025 at 11:18 AM
"We long to be where others are not, and yet, somewhere inside those spaces - having done all we can to be included – we then do our best to lose ourselves." Where Sigmund meets Iggy - the nightclub's decline and fall. open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
This week's frail, travelling coincidence. Not messing about on trains - but definitely Larkin. On the decline of The Way.
preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/p/this-frail...
preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/p/this-frail...
January 26, 2025 at 1:30 PM
This week's frail, travelling coincidence. Not messing about on trains - but definitely Larkin. On the decline of The Way.
preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/p/this-frail...
preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/p/this-frail...
"The abundance of belief, that’s what I miss about childhood, sometimes. The sheer faith and credulity of it all" Part two of the pencil paen, with full support from Supertramp & Mishima.
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
January 19, 2025 at 5:46 PM
"The abundance of belief, that’s what I miss about childhood, sometimes. The sheer faith and credulity of it all" Part two of the pencil paen, with full support from Supertramp & Mishima.
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
I'm in love with a German pencil...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
January 12, 2025 at 2:34 PM
I'm in love with a German pencil...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
"What we took for a meal was really just a canape, and they will not require, desire or permit us at the banquet. From that point on, it’s go hard or go home."
Anora dances, Tudor romances and more...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Anora dances, Tudor romances and more...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
January 8, 2025 at 3:07 PM
"What we took for a meal was really just a canape, and they will not require, desire or permit us at the banquet. From that point on, it’s go hard or go home."
Anora dances, Tudor romances and more...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Anora dances, Tudor romances and more...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
As 'Where Eagles Dare' makes a seasonal return to iPlayer it seems a good moment to reflect on the no-nonsense literalism of its Hungarian poster.
January 5, 2025 at 8:43 PM
As 'Where Eagles Dare' makes a seasonal return to iPlayer it seems a good moment to reflect on the no-nonsense literalism of its Hungarian poster.
Meditations on the marriage plot. Anora, Wolf Hall, Billy Wilder and (psych-nerd bonus)... Wilfrid Bion!
preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/p/the-marria...
preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/p/the-marria...
January 5, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Meditations on the marriage plot. Anora, Wolf Hall, Billy Wilder and (psych-nerd bonus)... Wilfrid Bion!
preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/p/the-marria...
preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/p/the-marria...
"I’m reaching out specifically to those of you that have drunk and suffered levels of pain and psychedelic internal torment that have caused you to question your sanity, humanity and the wisdom of continued living."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
December 29, 2024 at 10:37 AM
"I’m reaching out specifically to those of you that have drunk and suffered levels of pain and psychedelic internal torment that have caused you to question your sanity, humanity and the wisdom of continued living."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
"Decades pass, the promise becomes the actual, and here might be where disappointment and revelation become the same thing."
Public transport, poetry, Lee Marvin, Theodore Roethke, Curtis Mayfield - together, only under my scratchy auspices: open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Public transport, poetry, Lee Marvin, Theodore Roethke, Curtis Mayfield - together, only under my scratchy auspices: open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
December 27, 2024 at 12:15 PM
"Decades pass, the promise becomes the actual, and here might be where disappointment and revelation become the same thing."
Public transport, poetry, Lee Marvin, Theodore Roethke, Curtis Mayfield - together, only under my scratchy auspices: open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
Public transport, poetry, Lee Marvin, Theodore Roethke, Curtis Mayfield - together, only under my scratchy auspices: open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
I will say this about disappointment, it's not all it's cracked up to be.
preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/p/to-be-tran...
preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/p/to-be-tran...
December 22, 2024 at 11:15 AM
I will say this about disappointment, it's not all it's cracked up to be.
preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/p/to-be-tran...
preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/p/to-be-tran...
"The tithe of being male sometimes is the pretence of being unaffected. This is a hill well worth being over. If you are lucky enough to make it to your mid-fifties then certain aspects of the game have been non-negotiably lost or won."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
December 15, 2024 at 11:05 AM
"The tithe of being male sometimes is the pretence of being unaffected. This is a hill well worth being over. If you are lucky enough to make it to your mid-fifties then certain aspects of the game have been non-negotiably lost or won."
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
open.substack.com/pub/precisei...
"Punk is not dead. It just attempts to shop offline."
Thoughts on retail spaces, Gladiator II, The Shawshank Redemption, The Clash, and life in public places.
preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/p/all-lost-i...
Thoughts on retail spaces, Gladiator II, The Shawshank Redemption, The Clash, and life in public places.
preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/p/all-lost-i...
December 8, 2024 at 10:11 AM
"Punk is not dead. It just attempts to shop offline."
Thoughts on retail spaces, Gladiator II, The Shawshank Redemption, The Clash, and life in public places.
preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/p/all-lost-i...
Thoughts on retail spaces, Gladiator II, The Shawshank Redemption, The Clash, and life in public places.
preciseinstructions4everydaylife.substack.com/p/all-lost-i...