Michael

Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite · Holed below the Waterline: Liverpool’s Losses Liverpool’s explosive growth followed the construction of a deep-water port in 1715. Soon it was a centre of the...

‘Massive new suburban council estates, replacing inner-city slums, broke up communities and isolated women and children in nuclear family homes with indoor bathrooms but few shops or amenities.’

Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite on why Liverpool got left behind.

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

He sleeps with the fishes.

Crewe: Joey the Swan

youtu.be/0uDZZJo6Tyk?... Robert Hughes on Albert Speer and the 'evil of banality': 'he knew one way to make a building, one way to turn a corner, one way to make a window frame ... a squared-off pseudo-classicism.' The poverty of their thought; the deadening hollowness of their art, is writ large.

1. Let's Get Lost - Chet Baker
2. Boots of Spanish Leather - Bob Dylan
3. California Stars - Wilco & Billy Bragg
4. Atlantic City - Bruce Springsteen
5. Los Angeles - Big Thief
#dadrock #fridayfive

I remember really enjoying A Glasgow Gang Observed by James Patrick: participant observation of gangs in 1960s Glasgow.

The text of Them and [uz] by Tony Harrison.

Rest in power, Tony Harrison.

YouTube video by Zombeels kingsbury manx - piss diary

youtu.be/nUSmT-TLCr0?... Never has a song title so been at odds with the beauty therein.

1. The Kingsbury Manx - Piss Diary
2. American Football - The Summer Ends
3. The Afghan Whigs - Summer's Kiss
4. Big Star - September Gurls
5. Neil Young - Thrasher
#FridayFive

I'm Literally on Fire
This Must Literally Be the Place (Naive Melody)
I Could Literally Never Take the Place of Your Man

Stopping now.

Don't Let the Sun Literally Go Down on Me

1. Death in Vegas - Aisha
2. The Hold Steady - One for the Cutters
3. Grandaddy - Jed the Humanoid
4. Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day
5. Art Brut - Emily Kane
#fridayfive

If you see this, repost with a vampire that is not Dracula.

Four books on a window ledge: Septology, The Doctor's Wife, The Things they Carried, The Memory Police.

August reading. #booksky

Elon Musk « x@elonmusk•6h Remigration is the only way Steve Laws @Steve_Laws_•18h Go anywhere in the UK and look around, you'll just see foreigners everywhere. It's truly sickening the damage that has been done to our nation and our people....

Steve Laws & @Steve_Laws_ X.com Epping is everywhere. 12:02•8/29/25 • 275K Views Elonmusk All Britain is Epping @Steve_Laws_ Keep highlighting this Elon, we appreciate it.

It is insane to me that the richest man in the world is using his global megaphone to call for millions of British people to be rounded up and deported (including my family) and somehow this isn’t even news.

Let’s be honest. Carswell is not alone. You don’t tweet unless you know it’s a popular belief. There are many in public roles, in pubs and at dinner tables who believe this. This is a persecution of Muslims in the UK and anyone with any sense of humanity, who cares about Britain must call this out .

A competent government comms strategy would make quite a big deal that this is actually the second Reform elected representative to be caught using the N-word this week.

Slightly diminish a band:

Can't

Image of text that says "When teachers know their students are gaming the system and students know their teachers know, the relationship frays. Why bother listening to feedback when we didn’t write the work anyway? Why respect a teacher’s guidance when the online “tutor,” the one that answers instantly, is open in another tab? Why bother learning when schools are encouraging their teachers to deploy AI tools in the classroom and thereby effectively telling us we don’t need to learn?"

ICYMI: This one, by a high school student and a high school teacher, has sparked a lot of discussion over on The Important Work. theimportantwork.substack.com/p/ai-is-crea...

A pile of paperback books on a window ledge: The Siege of Krishnapur, The Deserters, The Nickel Boys, Outline, Perfume, The Doomsters, On the Calculation of Volume, Part Two.

What I read in July. #booksky

A pile of books on a window ledge.

June's book pile. Enjoyed them all. Of the two International Booker nominees, I preferred Perfection but both were excellent. Read and thought a lot about character and place (Grindrod and Baron interesting side by side). Found Markovits a bit unconvincing in the end. Salter great. Onwards. #booksky

A pile of books on a window ledge.

June's book pile. Enjoyed them all. Of the two International Booker nominees, I preferred Perfection but both were excellent. Read and thought a lot about character and place (Grindrod and Baron interesting side by side). Found Markovits a bit unconvincing in the end. Salter great. Onwards. #booksky

We are currently doing a lot of work on how we assess and Matthew and Becky's substack has been invaluable in providing an evidence base for our work with leaders: lucid, concise and thought-provoking. A really brilliant piece of work.

DCD: the common SEND you’ve probably never heard of Developmental coordination disorder (dyspraxia) affects as many children as ADHD but is widely misunderstood. So, what do teachers need to know about this condition?

"DCD is a really prevalent neurodevelopmental condition that relatively few people know about"

Excellent Q&A drilling down into what teachers need to know about a mislabelled area of SEND that has a big impact in primary and beyond.

www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

There's definitely a correlation. Heavily colourised album covers and videos, with bonus points for liberal use of a fish eye lens were very much the dominant aesthetic. Also, Irvine Welsh has a lot to answer for.

In the mid 90s, all books prominently displayed in HMV looked like this. Some market research had taken place.

Read this last week and really enjoyed it.

Connections
Puzzle #733
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Comic that says Literature Class in a Nutshell. Panel 1) "What the author means" and Edgar Allan Poe saying "I love ravens" with heart bubble. 2) "What the student bullshits" Student in class saying "The raven is a bird." 3) What the teacher explains "Wrong the raven represents despair, remorse, etc." and Poe screaming at the teacher.

I try not to be hyperbolic but this is the single worst comic I have ever seen in my entire life.