Brian David Stevens

J.G. Ballard on the greatest gig he was ever at (from a 1995 issue of Q magazine).

I buy autobiographies from charity shops, 'sign' them after googling authors autographs, then donate them to charity shops in other towns. Thatcher my best result yet, bought for £1.50 unsigned, priced at £95 when 'signed'. I'm Robin Hood with a biro.

Kaiserwald concentration camp, Mežaparks (forest park), Riga, Latvia, 2018.
Before Kaiserwald’s prisoners were evacuated to other camps, including Stutthof, all prisoners under 18, those over 30, the infirm, anyone deemed unfit for work and convicted criminals were murdered in the Biķernieki forest.

AI-Brian now charges more than I do, the bastard!

“Comment is free” because is could have been written by AI?

most cutting thing you can say is "who's this clown?" because it implies they're a) a clown & b) not even one of the better-known clowns

Celebrated Italian photographer Gianni Berengo Gardin dies at 94 Gianni Berengo Gardin, the celebrated Italian photographer famed for his iconic black-and-white images of life in post-war Italy, died in Genoa aged 94.

Gianni Berengo Gardin, the celebrated Italian photographer famed for his iconic black-and-white images of social and cultural changes in Italy over the past 60 years, has died aged 94.

Had an excellent conversation with @marcwilson.co.uk yesterday about his forthcoming book, The Edge of Ruin. This morning, I am working on the signature mapping and image sequence. There are still a couple of hours left if you would like to back Marc's project. www.kickstarter.com/projects/107...

I did a review of the revived King of the Hill.
Bobby's turned out surprisingly ok!

A sense of movement is given in this dramatically lit painting by William Nicholson by the figure moving out of the picture frame towards a downhill sunlit path. 'Le debit de la Rue Montaigne, Sainte Geneviève,' was painted in 1911.

Number 3 means you miss out on Paraboot Michaels and Clark’s Wallabees though?

Black and white photo of a protest scene. In the foreground, two young men kiss while holding a sign that reads: “YOUNG, IN LOVE, AND ANGRY.” Both wear jackets and badges, and the mood is intimate and defiant. Behind them, other demonstrators are visible, one woman mid-chant. The image conveys themes of LGBTQ+ love, activism, and protest.

A lecture date for the diary… Photographers Pam Isherwood and Maggie Murray are discussing Format: the Women’s Photography Agency, founded in 1983. (© Pam Isherwood, Stop Clause 28 March, Whitehall, London, 9 January 1988) www.nationalgalleries.org/event/resist...

Jaws but the shark is a cow in a field

Bullfighter

Bullfighter https://www.wikiart.org/en/juan-gris/bullfighter-1913

Although still-life ensembles were an important element in many of the major paintings of the avant-garde artist Édouard Manet, his most sustained interest in the genre itself was from 1864 to 1865, when Fish was painted. Manet’s focus on still lifes coincided with the gradual reacceptance of the genre during the nineteenth century, due in part to the growth of the middle class, whose tastes ran to intimate, moderately priced works. This painting, like many of Manet’s still-life compositions, recalls seventeenth-century Dutch models. The directness of execution, bold brushwork, and immediacy of vision displayed in the canvas, however, suggest why the public found Manet’s work so unorthodox and confrontational. While Fish is indeed an image of “dead nature” (nature morte is the French term for still life), there is nothing still about the work: the produce seems fresh and the handling of paint vigorous. Further enliven-ing the composition is the placement of the carp, which offsets the strong diagonal of the other elements. Manet never submitted his still lifes to the official French Salon but rather sold them through the burgeoning network of art galleries in Paris and gave them to friends. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection

Fish (Still Life)

What’s the truth behind two images of starving children in Gaza? Two pictures from Gaza provoked intense reaction and criticism this week. What’s the story behind the pictures?

STUFF: What’s the truth behind two images of starving children in Gaza? www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/3... ‪@stuff.co.nz‬ ‪@paulapenfold.bsky.social‬ #photojournalism #journalism #photography

Drought in Utah.

Nothing says climate policy like skipping brunch and hoping the sky notices.

Open Your Eyes - OPEN CALL - The Northern Eye Photography Festival - Oct 2025, Colwyn Bay, Wales. — The Northern Eye Photography Festival 2025 Northern Eye Photography Festival is thrilled to announce its first-ever open call for photographers — and we’d love you to be part of it. Introducing OPEN YOUR EYES: a brand-new unmissable group exh...

Be a part of this year's Northern Eye Photography Festival

Show us what you see..

Open Call
Free to Submit

www.northerneyefestival.co.uk/open-your-eyes

Good morning all.
97%!
I’m on the road again this morning.
But today feels like the day.
Saturday - the perfect day to make that pledge with just 4 days left now to support the making of this book.
If we don’t teach the goal it can’t be made.
Just 6 or so backers away now!

shorturl.at/MgbKh

Lee Brackstone reflects on how #AndrewWeatherall led bandmates Gary Burns and Jagz Kooner on a determined excursion through the twinkling, psychedelic sonic margins

#TheSabresOfParadise - Sabresonic and Haunted Dancehall are tQ's Reissues of the Week

buff.ly/ck4saIH

A couple of potential backers to the Kickstarter have been unable to pledge their support today.
If you are trying to, and can not...which is a pain as we are getting close...please do let me know via the message system on Kickstarter and we can find a work around.
Thanks, Marc

New Viz on sale today. And to show that there's more to Viz than smutty jokes and puerile innuendo, there's a sophisticated cartoon strip about the composer Frédéric Chopin performing a piano recital for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Lancaster House in 1848

We should definitely buy the franchise though

No. 37: Emma-Jean Thackray Wakefield, weirdness and The Way with the trumpeting polymath

OKAYYYYYY, there she is, I love doing all of these but there's just something about EJT's crispness of expression and analysis that really zngs off the page here. She's been through a LOT and come through with amazing insight. Also as I say understand her process REALLY brings her records to life.

In France they call them a royale with breeze.

Amazon review of Pride and Prejudice, left by carlton p morgan on 30 July 2010: "Just a bunch of people going to each other's houses"

Happy 15th anniversary of the peak achievement of literary criticism, to all who celebrate

A new set of knives, a new set of knives, a new set of knives, a new set of knives, ++kill all humans++ a new set of knives, a new set of knives, ++kill all humans++ a new set of knives

Pan Amsterdam blends experimental hip-hop, jazz, funk, and electronic influences, resulting in shapeshifting, genre-defying tracks.

Check out his new album 'Confines' and purchase a copy on translucent red vinyl.

panamsterdam.bandcamp.com/album/confines

Emma-Jean Thackray talking of the diversity of people at Trinity Laban and in the jazz scene.

Some artists occupy different positions in her life story, but she doesn't hierarchicalise them: her music is as it is because that has been her life and those are her tastes. Other people bring different ultra-diverse influences to bear. This isn't abstract cultural glut, it's real people's lives.