Simon Harper

This has tickled me immensely

It's had absolutely awful UX for ages, but I stuck with it through grim dedication. It's going in the bin now.

I'm genuinely impressed at how Evernote continues, against all odds, to somehow find ways to keep getting even worse. Superb commitment to the bit.

Imagine thinking that forcing ads into a *note-taking app* will make people pay you rather than, say, lead to them binning off using your app entirely.

Clausewitz's First Principle There are many essential elements necessary for a good Bond film.  007 himself.  A girl.  A villain.  And, somewhere in the mix, a lair.  Bo...

I wrote a listicle like in the good old days of the internet where I've ranked the lairs of Bond villains from worst to best. dissecting007.blogspot.com/2026/02/clau...

A still from Keeping Up Appearances, in which Hyacinth Bucket is delivering the line “this is not a cornflake establishment”

Tori Amos in 1994:

Listening to some jams while writing. Loving the new Wet Tuna track.

Tune in!

Arrived yesterday! 🙏

Would prefer keeping it as its own feed. Maybe just a tweak to the name rather than a new one, to cover how it started & where it's going? The Book Club: James Bond & Beyond, something like that (but better)?

Really enjoying the podcast btw, and it's spurred me on to read the continuation novels. 🙏

Here’s my most recent radio show archive. It’s a little survey of *some* of my favorite music of 2025. Become a paid sub to Ambient Audiophile and get access to more shows www.mixcloud.com/jeff-conklin...

Sick Sad Motherslug | Ana Gavrilovska | Substack Sick Sad Motherslug is mostly about music I like, sometimes about books and movies I like, and occasionally about other things I like. Click to read Sick Sad Motherslug, by Ana Gavrilovska, a Substack...

Working feverishly on my Fave Jazz of 2025 list to get it out the door tomorrow. It's a great day to sign up for my little newsletter if you haven't yet. 🙃

motherslug.substack.com

RIP 2025 Namewall of some noteworthy names who died in 2025. There was too much text for one ALT description, so Part 2 and 3 to follow. Part 1: Jan - Apr JAN: A.D.O.R. / David Lodge / Wayne Osmond / The Vivienne / Brenton Wood / Barbara Clegg Laurie Holloway Christopher Benjamin / Sam Moore Keith Dewhurst / Merle Louise / Joel Paley Tony Slattery / Gwen Watkins Paul Danan / Diane Langton / Linda Nolan David Lynch / Joan Plowright Jules Feiffer / Denis Law Geoff Nicholson / Claire van Kampen John Sykes / Garth Hudson Charlotte Raven Elisa Rae Shupe Christopher Hughes Marianne Faithfull FEB: Brian Murphy Dave Jerden / Mike Ratledge Dafydd Elis-Thomas / Tony Roberts Tom Robbins Tony Kinsey Nike Arrighi / Tommy Hunt / Simon Mawer Steve Hodson / Julian Holloway / Kim Sae-ron Rick Buckler / Jamie Muir Gene Hackman Jerry Butler Gwen McCrae Bill Fay Chris Jasper Roberta Flack / Robert John Henry Kelly Boris Spassky MAR: Bill Dare / Marged Esli / Joey Molland / Angie Stone Kathryn Apanowicz / Geraint Jarman Roy Ayers Brian James / Troy Seals Richard Fortey / D’Wayne Wiggins Bill Ashton / Athol Fugard Stedman Pearson Cocoa Tea Sofia Gubaidulina Eddie Jordan George Foreman Gillian Baxter / Andy Peebles Jemini the Gifted One Richard Chamberlain Lee Montague APR Val Kilmer / Johnny Tillotson Clem Burke Ted Kotcheff / Nino Tempo Mike Berry / Max Romeo Roy Thomas Baker Jean Marsh / Mario Vargas Llosa Wink Martindale Mac Gayden Colin Berry Clodagh Rodgers Pope Francis David Thomas Virginia Giuffre / Philip Lowrie Jane Gardam / Mike Peters

Just some of those we lost in 2025. The gaps are there for us to remember those close to us. Wishing us all a better 2026. x

Some 2025 favourites...

Album: Gwenifer Raymond - Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark
Fiction: Mark Bowles - All My Precious Madness
Non-fiction: John Higgs - Exterminate/Regenerate
Film: Ballad of Wallis Island
Cinema experience: Hundreds of Beavers, GoldenEye
Podcast: A Wheezing Groaning Sound

Listening to this right now, and really enjoying. Thanks as always for your recs, Geoff, and wishing you and yours a happy and safe holiday season. 🙏

Hope they're well soon!

It's a great record. If you like that I strongly recommend Nicklas' other band, Edena Gardens, too!

IX, by Papir 7 track album

papir.bandcamp.com/album/ix-2

Screenshot from Strava showing my Papir-powered PR (15k).

The new Papir record, 'IX', sounded fantastic on my run this morning. 👍

Ah, I'm at a matinee of the Penny Dreadfuls/Sherlock Holmes thing at the Rep that afternoon, so not sure if I'll make it to this afterwards.

As another failed COP conference now sentences future generations to a hell we refuse to even imagine, now would be a great time for US arts/music writers to get creative working with climate science communications, writing on artists affected by disaster, protest music, etc. as much as we can.

A moment, please, to consider the absolute majesty of Daphne Oram's unbelievable score to this. A pitch shifted, time stretched, frequency agile glimpse of the future of music production; a liberty-taking all analogue remix of Sandy Nelson's Teen Beat realised in real time with the visuals.

November 16th

I know it's a Sunday. It's no bloody excuse! One week from now get off your bum and down to The Kitchen Garden Cafe in Birmingham.

www.kitchengardencafe.co.uk/event/gwenif...

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House.

Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.

They are not the same.

I do commissions of cards like these. I'm assured they make for excellent gifts. #TwoMonthsToChristmas

When the drone of the massed just intonation violins you’re cranking playfully twines with the sound of vacuuming next door, creating billowing and resolving beating tones.

There are certain writers whose styles just dovetail neatly with my tastes, and Pynchon already feels like one of them.

That said, before I finished I'd already bought a copy of Against the Day, like a sicko.

Life & distractions got in the way so I recently went back to the start of this. Enjoyed it a lot - I really connected with Pynchon's freewheeling, maximalist style (and his jokes) & am a sucker for a shaggy dog story. Where should I go next? Preferably one of the shorter books: maybe Inherent Vice?

Saint Bernhard King of complaints.

"And that’s Bernhard’s genius: a spiral is the perfect style for writing self-hatred." An enjoyable piece on how Thomas Bernhard's work still resonates with readers now, and an apparent "renaissance" of his style (fair to say, comparing a book to Bernhard gets my attention). dirt.fyi/article/2025...

It’s gone so quickly from ‘boat people’ to all immigrants. So quickly from ‘I don’t mind if they come here legally and pay taxes’ to ‘actually it’s anyone foreign’. We are living in the ‘first they came for’ poem. All to give the population a scapegoat so the super rich can hoard yet more wealth.

Not sure who it'd be for - hardcore fans can find that story in the books & comics, and can't see it pleasing casual cinema-goers. There's a rare thrill in seeing *fully-realised* Bond in naval uniform, but that's it.

He's going to meet a young German soldier called Hugo von der Drache, isn't he?