Simon Williams
@urmstonguy78.bsky.social
Music | Film | TV | Martinis
A 'glass half empty' kind of guy
A 'glass half empty' kind of guy
Reposted by Simon Williams
Bring Me The Skull Of St. Thomas Aquinas is the Peckinpah film we didn't know we needed.
'Skull of St. Thomas Aquinas being transported to Fossanova Abbey.'
Photograph by Daniel Ibanez
Photograph by Daniel Ibanez
December 10, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Bring Me The Skull Of St. Thomas Aquinas is the Peckinpah film we didn't know we needed.
Reposted by Simon Williams
Tubi is such a crazy streaming service. It’s like if the Criterion Closet was in a gas station
December 9, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Tubi is such a crazy streaming service. It’s like if the Criterion Closet was in a gas station
Reposted by Simon Williams
The magnificent John Cassavetes was born 96 years ago today.
a man in a suit and tie is standing next to a woman in a pink dress
ALT: a man in a suit and tie is standing next to a woman in a pink dress
media.tenor.com
December 9, 2025 at 2:35 PM
The magnificent John Cassavetes was born 96 years ago today.
Reposted by Simon Williams
then, the transphobes , feeling victorious at how many people they have made unhappy and despairing in the previous week, move on to anything else that has a spectrum and the possibility of more colours than they can conceive - such hateful people - they cannot understand anything that is not THEM
December 7, 2025 at 7:07 PM
then, the transphobes , feeling victorious at how many people they have made unhappy and despairing in the previous week, move on to anything else that has a spectrum and the possibility of more colours than they can conceive - such hateful people - they cannot understand anything that is not THEM
Reposted by Simon Williams
My dad abhors any negative comments about immigrants. Asked him recently why he’s so strong on it: ‘Because we’re always happy to take the rich and clever ones. Which means it’s not about disliking immigrants. It’s about disliking the poor and vulnerable. And that’s a bad human instinct.’
December 7, 2025 at 8:31 AM
My dad abhors any negative comments about immigrants. Asked him recently why he’s so strong on it: ‘Because we’re always happy to take the rich and clever ones. Which means it’s not about disliking immigrants. It’s about disliking the poor and vulnerable. And that’s a bad human instinct.’
Reposted by Simon Williams
Spot Alan Moore in his 6th form Northampton Grammar School photo, taken two days before he was expelled
December 1, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Spot Alan Moore in his 6th form Northampton Grammar School photo, taken two days before he was expelled
Reposted by Simon Williams
there is a seething, contemptuous outrage on the part of the Dem elder statesman subcategory of the Epstein caucus (your Clintons, your Cuomos, your Pelosis, etc) for the younger generations who are openly rejecting their obsolete way of doing things, and the mask slips a little more every day
December 2, 2025 at 10:53 PM
there is a seething, contemptuous outrage on the part of the Dem elder statesman subcategory of the Epstein caucus (your Clintons, your Cuomos, your Pelosis, etc) for the younger generations who are openly rejecting their obsolete way of doing things, and the mask slips a little more every day
Reposted by Simon Williams
it is hard to think of another political figure in my lifetime I have turned on harder than Hillary Clinton. I am exactly the right flavor of Middle Aged White Lady to have been DEEPLY emotionally invested in her way back when, but every time she opens her mouth now I’m like “holy shit lady 🤯”
Hillary Clinton blames TikTok and “totally made up” videos for young people’s views on Israel and Palestine.
She says social media influenced “not just the usual suspects” but also “young Jewish Americans who don’t know the history and don’t understand.”
She says social media influenced “not just the usual suspects” but also “young Jewish Americans who don’t know the history and don’t understand.”
December 2, 2025 at 10:49 PM
it is hard to think of another political figure in my lifetime I have turned on harder than Hillary Clinton. I am exactly the right flavor of Middle Aged White Lady to have been DEEPLY emotionally invested in her way back when, but every time she opens her mouth now I’m like “holy shit lady 🤯”
Reposted by Simon Williams
I know I rant about this all the time but the rabid - and omnipresence - anti immigrant line on BBC 6 music news is so jarring
Feels like a text book example of how an Overton window is shifted
Feels like a text book example of how an Overton window is shifted
November 29, 2025 at 8:35 AM
I know I rant about this all the time but the rabid - and omnipresence - anti immigrant line on BBC 6 music news is so jarring
Feels like a text book example of how an Overton window is shifted
Feels like a text book example of how an Overton window is shifted
Reposted by Simon Williams
Is welfare spending ''out of control''?
Total welfare spending in Britain in 2025-26 is estimated to be 10.8 per cent of GDP.
That's just 0.8 per cent of GDP higher than in 2007-08, and total welfare spending has actually fallen fallen by 1.2 per cent of GDP since 2012-13⤵️
buff.ly/s5mz97u
Total welfare spending in Britain in 2025-26 is estimated to be 10.8 per cent of GDP.
That's just 0.8 per cent of GDP higher than in 2007-08, and total welfare spending has actually fallen fallen by 1.2 per cent of GDP since 2012-13⤵️
buff.ly/s5mz97u
November 25, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Is welfare spending ''out of control''?
Total welfare spending in Britain in 2025-26 is estimated to be 10.8 per cent of GDP.
That's just 0.8 per cent of GDP higher than in 2007-08, and total welfare spending has actually fallen fallen by 1.2 per cent of GDP since 2012-13⤵️
buff.ly/s5mz97u
Total welfare spending in Britain in 2025-26 is estimated to be 10.8 per cent of GDP.
That's just 0.8 per cent of GDP higher than in 2007-08, and total welfare spending has actually fallen fallen by 1.2 per cent of GDP since 2012-13⤵️
buff.ly/s5mz97u
Reposted by Simon Williams
Happy Birthday to William Blake, who knows where the wild things are...
November 28, 2025 at 6:17 AM
Happy Birthday to William Blake, who knows where the wild things are...
Reposted by Simon Williams
Reflecting again on how John Cale’s piano playing on Nick Drake’s “Northern Sky” is one of the single most moving things I’ve ever heard, and also how it's like the thirtieth most historical thing to occur over the course of his career in music. A remarkably passionate oracle. Truly no one like him.
November 27, 2025 at 5:18 AM
Reflecting again on how John Cale’s piano playing on Nick Drake’s “Northern Sky” is one of the single most moving things I’ve ever heard, and also how it's like the thirtieth most historical thing to occur over the course of his career in music. A remarkably passionate oracle. Truly no one like him.
Reposted by Simon Williams
A very moving and generous account of interactions with our music. And from a fellow suburban contrarian too, which makes it all the better.
A new instalment of INVENTORY is available now via the @backlisted.bsky.social Patreon. Sign up as a Locklistener today, read about the Clientele and the ‘suburban uncanny’, support the podcast. @theclientele.bsky.social
This week: God Save the Clientele.
www.patreon.com/backlisted
This week: God Save the Clientele.
www.patreon.com/backlisted
November 26, 2025 at 1:25 PM
A very moving and generous account of interactions with our music. And from a fellow suburban contrarian too, which makes it all the better.
Reposted by Simon Williams
In future, if a company asks me for feedback, I will simply send them this:
November 25, 2025 at 8:52 AM
In future, if a company asks me for feedback, I will simply send them this:
Reposted by Simon Williams
Deeply delighted to share out @zachschonfeld.bsky.social's @pitchfork.com Sunday Reviews piece on one of my all time fave albums, the #BooRadleys 1993 masterwork _Giant Steps_. I helped Zach a touch with research and he kindly quoted from my 1993 interview with bassist Tim Brown.
The Boo Radleys: Giant Steps
Read Zach Schoenfeld’s review of the album.
pitchfork.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Deeply delighted to share out @zachschonfeld.bsky.social's @pitchfork.com Sunday Reviews piece on one of my all time fave albums, the #BooRadleys 1993 masterwork _Giant Steps_. I helped Zach a touch with research and he kindly quoted from my 1993 interview with bassist Tim Brown.
Reposted by Simon Williams
‘Sweet Smell of Success’ is “a bleak and unsparing depiction of obeisance before power in a morally bankrupt culture,” @splicedpersonality.bsky.social writes: crookedmarquee.com/classic-corn...
November 22, 2025 at 12:15 AM
‘Sweet Smell of Success’ is “a bleak and unsparing depiction of obeisance before power in a morally bankrupt culture,” @splicedpersonality.bsky.social writes: crookedmarquee.com/classic-corn...
Reposted by Simon Williams
Nathan Gill has been sentenced to 10.5 years for endangering national security and taking Russian bribes.
Nigel Farage and Reform are a danger to national security, the Liberal Democrats will continue to hold them to account and defend our democracy.
Nigel Farage and Reform are a danger to national security, the Liberal Democrats will continue to hold them to account and defend our democracy.
November 21, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Nathan Gill has been sentenced to 10.5 years for endangering national security and taking Russian bribes.
Nigel Farage and Reform are a danger to national security, the Liberal Democrats will continue to hold them to account and defend our democracy.
Nigel Farage and Reform are a danger to national security, the Liberal Democrats will continue to hold them to account and defend our democracy.
Reposted by Simon Williams
Crumb holding a copy of Zap #2, fresh off the press, 1968.
I have a complete set, mostly 1st prints. Original Zap publisher Don Donahue offered me a 1st printing of #1 back in the 1990s. $1000 in high grade. A $10k book now, but that was a lot of dough then. That miss still smarts.
I have a complete set, mostly 1st prints. Original Zap publisher Don Donahue offered me a 1st printing of #1 back in the 1990s. $1000 in high grade. A $10k book now, but that was a lot of dough then. That miss still smarts.
November 20, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Crumb holding a copy of Zap #2, fresh off the press, 1968.
I have a complete set, mostly 1st prints. Original Zap publisher Don Donahue offered me a 1st printing of #1 back in the 1990s. $1000 in high grade. A $10k book now, but that was a lot of dough then. That miss still smarts.
I have a complete set, mostly 1st prints. Original Zap publisher Don Donahue offered me a 1st printing of #1 back in the 1990s. $1000 in high grade. A $10k book now, but that was a lot of dough then. That miss still smarts.
Reposted by Simon Williams
Late to this, but if the Sunday Times is correct that Morgan McSweeney spent one and a half hours last week with Lord Glasman then he isn't fit to fill any senior position in government.
November 16, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Late to this, but if the Sunday Times is correct that Morgan McSweeney spent one and a half hours last week with Lord Glasman then he isn't fit to fill any senior position in government.
Reposted by Simon Williams
Reposted by Simon Williams
Arthur Lee at the Vancouver Pop Festival - the other big festival that took place one week after Woodstock.
#ArthurLee
#ArthurLee
November 15, 2025 at 3:11 AM
Arthur Lee at the Vancouver Pop Festival - the other big festival that took place one week after Woodstock.
#ArthurLee
#ArthurLee
Reposted by Simon Williams
Reposted by Simon Williams
