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stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
Simon Williams
@stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
100 followers 230 following 180 posts
Gog. Manceinion. In angello cum libello.
(Abuse on my timeline = block.)


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stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
Bit of a surprise to open up spotify's wrapped earlier to Meic Williams' Gwenllian being played to me and a listening age of 69. Perhaps Don Leisure's Tyrchu Sain the cause for having artists from the 60s and 70s credited for the samples used?
tbf last fm's lists probably more accurate for me.
Spotify Wrapped screenshot saying 'Your Listening Age 69. You were into music from the early 70s. You're an old soul'. List of songs from spotify wrapped. 1. Superted by Angel Hotel 2. Cynnau Tân by Don Leisure and Carwyn Ellis (single release) 3. Dŵr y Mynydd by Don Leisure 4. Dal Dig by Buddug 5. Cynnau Tân by Don Leisure and Carwyn Ellis (album)
December 3, 2025 at 8:52 PM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
Just going through a second time, a completionist run of Clair Obscur was needed. Such a beautifully composed game in so many ways. Think a third ending is needed where everyone holes up in the manor's library until they can figure a way through.
November 14, 2025 at 4:04 AM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
Finished Clair Obscur a couple of days back. Still in that lovely post game buzz. I think it pulls from so many influences, quite obviously too, in a lot of what it does but has the skill and depth of knowledge to make the whole its own. One of my favourites from this year most definitely.
Ending slide for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It is a hand drawn styled 'Thank You' with many of the game's characters surrounding a piano.
November 12, 2025 at 12:08 AM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
Finally succumbed to trying Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Doing things which I didn't get from some other recent takes on the JRPGish formula. Can see why people are suggesting it for game of the year, hard to argue it shouldn't be up there. So well crafted. And that soundtrack...!
Screenshot from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 A gestal is sitting surrounded by flames - it says 'this is fine'. Screenshot from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Maelle wins screen. A young woman is holding up a rapier horizontally in front of her face. Screenshot from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 A very cold blue coloured screen. In the foreground a woman in black is standing next to a sign which reads '33' and a dark figure walks away from her in the background. Screenshot from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. A black and white screen, close-up on part of a woman's very white face, with a black superhero-esque mask across the nose and around the eyes and cheeks.
November 7, 2025 at 10:14 AM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
Playing about with the '10 games to get to know me' and coming away with picking up the Steam version of Papers Please (very clever game, on sale for buttons) and a wish to play some of these for the first time again.
Cover art for the following games: Return of the Obra Dinn, Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice, Mass Effect 2, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, The Temple of Elemental Evil, Dishonored, Transistor, Elite, Signalis, and Crusader Kings.
November 4, 2025 at 2:50 AM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
No lying or making yourself out to be a cool kid.
Post the first record you bought.
If you can remember the shop or circumstances add that too. Local color appreciated.

A girl in school I quite liked expressed a desire to listen to it so I bought it on tape from Woolie's so I could lend it to her.
The cover for R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People. It's grey with white writing, and has an even darker grey cube with multiple long pyramid shapes sticked out from each side in its centre.
November 3, 2025 at 11:06 AM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
Have come to the ending for Outer Worlds 2 - I wish I'd done some things differently to get different results! Very, very good dialogue driven RPG where choices from the build screen on have consequences. No major issues,some little bugs but nothing outrageous. Already planning a second playthrough.
An end slide from Outer Worlds 2. It's done in a comic book style showing Commander Zane and Buddy from the game's setting giving a thumbs up beneath Mission Completed!.
October 31, 2025 at 2:47 PM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
The Outer Worlds 2 is giving me a lot of pleasure. My three favourite companions of the six, not got a pic of GARY who'd also rank.... It's all so very well done with the voice acting and the options of what and how, and the questions it's asking around the swiftian satires it plays against.
Tristan, from The Outer Worlds 2, in heavy armour. Looking bearded and vaguely like Oscar Isaac in the last Dune film Aza, from The Outer Worlds 2. She has short hair and a gold eye patch. Her right arm is a full sleeve tattoo and she is in gold and black clothing or light armour. Very rogue or assassin vibe. Marisol, from The Outer Worlds 2. She is in white with flowing clothes and cape, her clothing is patterned with blue circles. She is wearing a head scarf and a huge blue visor with yellow lights.
October 30, 2025 at 2:05 PM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
Picked up The Outer Worlds 2, Obsidian's latest RPG. Was very mixed on the original game but this sequel is ticking a lot of boxes for me. Very much enjoying leaning into the dialogue options unlocked by a build, and the consequences of them. Fun game.
October 28, 2025 at 1:30 PM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
Cofiwn Aberfan.
Aber - fan (21 Hydref 1966) I Hamelin erstalwm, os yw'r hen stori'n ffaith, fe ddaeth rhyw bibydd rhyfedd yn gwisgo mantell fraith. A'r pibydd creulon hwnnw â aeth a'r plant i gyd a'u cloi, yn ôl yr hanes, o fewn y mynydd mud. A Hamelin oedd ddistaw a'r holl gartrefi'n brudd, a mawr fu'r galar yno tros lawer nos a dydd. Distawodd chwerthin llawen y plant wrth chwarae 'nghyd, pob tegan bach yn segur, a sŵn pob troed yn fud. Trist iawn fu hanes colli y plant diniwed, gwan - yn Hamelin erstalwm, heddiw yn Aber-fan. gan T.Llew Jones
October 21, 2025 at 8:23 AM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
Yaryna Chornohuz's [dasein: defence of presence] arrived this morning. Translation into English by Amelia Glaser, and published by Jantar. Really good short essays by Prof. Hugh Roberts, to introduce, and Prof. Glaser, in conclusion, to help guide the reader.
The front cover of Yaryna Chornohuz's [dasein: defence of presence]. It is largely golds or dark browns. A woman in a hat wearing army camouflage, with pink backpack straps and dark hair, stands in a field of wheat with a big blue sky above her head and the horizon. [wind from the steppe] you're like wind from the steppe I don't care if it sounds old-fashioned I'll say it again you're like wind from the steppe even after you left the world of the living no matter how far I run into the woods no matter how deep the running cuts my breath you keep lifting me on your back so I can rest a little and not get left behind like wind from the steppe and when you pray to your gods you're like wind from the steppe and when your grasses greet me with their touch I know there's no escape except to heal through the pain remembering how blue those eyes were in the wind from the steppe
October 15, 2025 at 12:12 PM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
Last four albums listened to.
The cover of Milktuth's What A Time To Be Alive. It is blurry black and white picture of a woman holding something up in each hand. The cover is black with green writing. The cover of Jamin Winans' soundtrack to Myth of Man. It has steampunk-ish looking characters from the film in a collage. The Gentle Good's Elan. The main picture is what looks to be a line drawing or perhaps a woodcut of a view down a lightly wooded valley. A shepherd is walking with some sheep in the foreground. Vøvk's Litera. It is a black cover with pink and gold writing - there are seven golden symbols (the album has seven songs) beneath the album name. There is a colour picture beneath that of what seems to be a field of grain on fire.
October 4, 2025 at 6:38 PM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
One other thing about the Museum it's one of the local hubs for community here - there's the Irish centre and the Ukrainian centre too among others - so lots of events from musical evenings through to cookery and kids things. A few more pics from last I popped in a few weeks back.
Stained glass window - there is writing in Hebrew at the bottom and a cloud of smoke perhaps and a six pointed star. Dark reds, and different shades of blue and yellow/orange. In one of the upper galleries of the synagogue, looking towards the stained glass showing a candle holder and underneath that where scrolls are kept. A stained glass window. It has writing in Hebrew and the image is of a castle or walled town besides the sea, reds and greys and purples and blues. Another stained glass window. A scene of country side (I think). It has writing in Hebrew and it seems to be a picture of a valley besides mountains. Very red and orange and green with some blue.
October 4, 2025 at 7:06 AM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
It is very beautiful.

When I first moved to Cheetham Hill, I just saw museum on the bus so threw what little stuff I had down in this barren flat and part of Manchester I did not know and went there and was guided around.
A circular stained glass window, in blues and reds and yellows.
October 3, 2025 at 6:04 PM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
Some #RSThomas while I remember it's been Monday.
Lore Job Davies, eighty-five Winters old, and still alive After the slow poison And treachery of the seasons. Miserable? Kick my arse! It needs more than the rain's hearse, Wind-drawn, to pull me off The great perch of my laugh. What's living but courage? Paunch full of hot porridge, Nerves strengthened with tea, Peat-black, dawn found me Mowing where the grass grew, Bearded with golden dew. Rhythm of the long scythe Kept this tall frame lithe. What to do? Stay green. Never mind the machine, Whose fuel is human souls. Live large, man, and dream small.
September 29, 2025 at 11:19 PM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
RS Thomas' Moorland.
Moorland It is beautiful and still; the air rarified as the interior of a cathedral expecting a presence. It is where, also, the harrier occurs, materialising from nothing, snow- soft, but with claws of fire quartering the bare earth for the prety that esacpes it; hovering over the incipient scream, here a moment, then not here, like my belief in God.
September 21, 2025 at 9:01 PM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
Got the English translation of Yuliya Musakovska's The God of Freedom yesterday. Very glad to have been introduced to her own work. Just the one poem from it, Summer's End.
Summer's End Summer has passed. Good friends and bad poems. People leave to vacate a place in your heart for others. Too little space. You should let go of what isn't yours. Time marks all comfort spots on the maps. Walk boldly. Fireflies will light your routes in the fog. God napping on a pine branch probably won't get involved. Dancing fountains, the water's whisper, and fragments of light. A white trail that is visible up high every night. Gray roofs that the morning wishes so much to gild. This will not disappear with the summer's end. The power of nature is present in every single drop. There are too many losses and scratches ahead. Lighten your backpack. Keep the knife and notebook. Breathe more easily. And move faster as you move on. A book. It's The God of Freedom by Yuliya Musakovska. Translated from Ukrainian by Olena Jennings and the author. The cover is a scarlet red, the text on it is in the bottom third in black ink. Above the text is a bird's body - black with gold picking out the feathers. But it has a yellow flower, in shape it looks a bit like a poppy to me but i know nothing about flowers, growing from its neck rather than a head. And its legs and feet are roots growing downwards.
September 20, 2025 at 8:04 PM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
Yesterday, I got my copy of the full English translation of Malevich's autobiographical notes called He and I. (Full title is a quote from within 'He and I Were Ukrainians'.) Absolutely stunning book. Tetyana Filevska has done some very sensible notes to help guide a reader to context and meaning.
A copy of He + I. It is pink with black lettering - two huge letters to a line. It is sitting on top of other books.
September 19, 2025 at 6:55 AM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
i too am surprised.
A message from Jeremy Corbyn saying the e-mail Zarah Sultana sent out was not authorised and nobody should sign up to her membership portal. A message from Zarah Sultana saying that her email was unauthorised but there's a sexist boys club running things and she was just trying to avoid Corbyn's friends holding the money and could Jeremy Corbyn now arrange a meeting with her.
September 18, 2025 at 2:03 PM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
Picked up The Gentle Good's Elan at release. So good. Lovely to see it shortlisted for the Welsh Music Prize this year. A nice little nod to RS Thomas tucked in the lyrics of my favourite song on it too.
The album Elan by the Gentle Good, on CD with the lyric booklet out of the case, sitting on top of a collected edition of RS Thomas' poetry.
August 30, 2025 at 2:14 PM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
Jude Rogers' article in The Observer last week has led me to listening to Jon Gower remembering RS Thomas again. One of the poems discussed in the programme.
Sea-watching Grey waters, vast as an area of prayer that one enters. Daily, over a period of years I have let the eye rest on them. Was I waiting for something? Nothing but that continuous waving that is without meaning occurred. Ah, but a rare bird is rare. It is when one is not looking, at times one is not there that it comes. You must wear your eyes out, as others their knees. I became the hermit of the rocks habited with the wind and the mist. There were days, so beautiful the emptiness it might have filled, its absence was as its presence; not to be told any more, so single my mind after its long fast, my watching from praying.
August 3, 2025 at 10:20 AM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
A little more RS Thomas. The old question from Evan Evans (Ieuan Fardd) comes to mind, "What have I, who am a Welshman, to do with English poetry?".

(his answer was 'facit indignatio versum')
Confessions of an Anglo-Welshman For my own country's part Her lore and language I should have by heart. 'Twas she who raised me, Built me bone by bone Out of the teeming earth, the dreaming stone. Even at my christening it was she decreed Uprooted I should bleed. And yet for another's sake No wound deletes, No patriotism dulls The true and the beautiful Bequeathed to me by Blake, Shelley and Shakespeare and the ravished Keats. 1943
July 12, 2025 at 7:47 PM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
RS Thomas from 1969, year of another investiture of an English Prince of Wales. (Finally picked up the full Uncollected Poems - thank you Bloodaxe.)
Symbols An introduction to Welsh history — what Out of its packed happenings shall I select? Llywelyn's head On its spear, that sightless Lantern? A morning in Ceri: The Archdeacon triumphant Among the yews, the bishop In flight? The sob of arrows At Hyddgen? Morgan shaking The words from the great tree of Language? Rebecca's daughters At play? Penderyn's body Tolling above the dark Pits? I choose that map Of an old woman with England Upon her back, weary of Her lot, and punishing her children's Rejection of the privilege of it. 1969
July 3, 2025 at 11:29 PM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
incidentally, the laws on that also apply to social media users.
A pdf from the Attorney General's Office setting out the law arount Contempt of court and social media, including examples. It can be downloaded from here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/60d4a59dd3bf7f7c3716c60d/Contempt_of_court_-_fact_sheet.pdf
June 12, 2025 at 3:59 AM
stjohnbaptiste.bsky.social
You could hear them being applauded and cheered all the way up The Mall even before the BBC commentators picked up on it.
May 5, 2025 at 8:48 PM