Some Melodious Plot

Letters from America Michael LaPointe celebrates a century of The Great Gatsby; Miranda France discusses an epistolary novel by Natalia Ginzburg

Interesting TLS discussion on The Great Gatsby at 100. But the breezy aside that you can read Gatsby in just two hours left me shaking my head. I know it's a short novel, but how quick do people read? I average - and I know this is slow - 25-30 pages an hour.

www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...

I'm still struggling. Is this bacon in the fridge okay, it's got green bits!

Dexys at the BBC Kevin Rowland looks back on his unique career as he introduces the best of Dexys’ BBC performances.

Watching that Dexy's at the BBC compilation. What a band they were! I hope we get some of their full on live performances. Kevin Rowland, what a strange, glorious man!

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

It makes me furious! My brother from back home, sharing stuff on Faceache about the 'no go area' that is Tower Hamlets, as I'm picking my boy up from school right in the centre of Tower Hamlets and chatting with a fellow parent about what she's growing in her allotment just round the corner. Twats!

Chris Woakes! Up there with Terry Butcher! Up there with the Black Knight!

You know what. Despite the result, that was quite brilliant

Barbara Everett · An East Wind behind it: Farewell to ‘Hamlet’ For many years, if asked about Hamlet’s poetic quality, I would have quoted not ‘To be, or not to be’ (which...

I was reminded of this wonderful Barbara Everett piece on Hamlet in the @lrb.co.uk when rewatching Al Pacino's superb Looking for Richard last night. She is one of the film's academic talking heads. And I've only just learned that she died in April.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

:-)

I'm having to TMS as I'm at my desk. People keep mithering me though and I'm too polite to say 'go away'. :-)

Is any England or India fan actually enjoying this? I guess that depends on what happens in the next few minutes.

Still from the 1941 film "Love on the Dole", with the unfortunate subtitle "She's a strange lassie's arsehole".

Catastrophic subtitling on the 1941 movie "Love on the Dole".

(It should read "She's a strange lass, is our Sal"...)

Good luck!

I really hope so. It'll be like the Black Knight scene in Monty Python's Holy Grail. :-)

At least it reminded me to bring the washing in.

Fantastic ton from Joe Root and a lovely headband tribute to Graham Thorpe.

Let's hope Root keeps on doing Root things. :-)

Why don't I just shut up! :-(

A quiet afternoon of reading has been waylaid by the cricket. Get this finished, Brook and Root (what a lovely ring that has to it) and I get back to my book.

The London Review of Books, always educating. Today I’ve learned what a ‘pink sock’ is.

A fantastic piece, Ioan. Didn’t Simon Jenkins place Wells at number one in that wonderful book he wrote? Although, he did let himself down massively in yesterday’s Guardian bizarrely praising Trump for his love of beauty.

A fantastic piece, Ioan. Didn’t Simon Jenkins place Wells at number one in that wonderful book he wrote? Although, he did let himself down massively in yesterday’s Guardian bizarrely praising Trump for his love of beauty.

My tour of England’s glorious cathedrals produced a clear winner Crypts, cloisters and stained glass that left him giddy: Ioan Marc Jones and his dog saw it all. What’s your favourite?

I wrote about visiting England’s Cathedrals (sometimes with my whippet) for @thetimes.com:

www.thetimes.com/uk/religion/...

FLA 25: Matthew Rudd (03/08/2025) Matthew Rudd pic (c) Jamie Stephenson If you work Mondays to Fridays, Sunday nights don’t have a good reputation. They’re about winding down the weekend, and about preparing for another week of gri…

NEW! Beginning Series 3 of my music textcast #FirstLastAnything, broadcaster/writer Matthew Rudd @matthewjrudd.bsky.social talks about his ace long-running Sunday radio show #Forgotten80s, his home city of Hull and its fourth best band, and much more besides. firstlastanything.co.uk/2025/08/02/f...

I do love the opening lines and those young bones groaning.

I’ve seen Amadeus in the theatre but never at the cinema. What an amazing film. Hopefully I’m not the only one, though, who has spent the last 40 years thinking that Falco’s ‘Rock Me Amadeus’ was an integral part of the film. Not even in the credits. 😅

We’re in a right old fix, with journalists - too many of them - looking for contrarian views on monsters.

All on the imminent list, with Blue Nights on order and next. I read this a few weeks ago and it was superb.

He may talk rubbish but Trump has an eye for beauty, and that is a breath of fresh air | Simon Jenkins The US president promotes classical architecture and loathes ‘ugly’ wind turbines. Keir Starmer would dismiss him as a nimby, but on this Trump has a point, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

A President with ‘an eye for beauty’ and an ‘aesthetic sensitivity’? Trump has the same eye for beauty and aesthetic sensitivity as Tony Montana.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The asides do so much wonderful work in Frank O’Hara. Isn’t it odd?

Friday night vibes. Emily Dickinson, a Negroni, and Arvo Pärt from last night’s Prom playing.

I’m feeling very old tonight, but contented old. So there’s always that. Chin Chin, shipmates!