Jasper Sharp

It’s a new foreword and a new closing chapter running over the 15 years after the first edition. Plus a hard cover.

‘Transcending Dimensions’ Review: Inner Space Meets Outer Space in a Cosmicomic Phantasmagoria What renegade Japanese auteur Toshiaki Toyada claims may be his last feature is part spiritual quest, part absurdist lark, part indefinable whatsit.

The latest Toshiaki Toyoda film is reviewed @variety.com!
Plays next in London on Aug 22 @frightfest.bsky.social!

I don't think its on the cards, but best ask @fabpress.bsky.social

Gladly!

Behind the Pink Curtain (hardback) Jasper Sharp (author) FAB Press: Quality Publications for Cult Connoisseurs

Your weekly reminder that the updated and amended new 3rd edition of Behind the Pink Curtain is coming up from @fabpress.bsky.social this very month - and you can grab a hardback at the knockdown price of £25 right now: www.fabpress.com/books/behind...

Fun fact: we devote ten times more space to golf courses in England than we do to allotments (source: OS Greenspace data) www.independent.co.uk/climate-chan...

bsky.app/profile/josi...

I remember watching James Corden in Hollyoaks and thinking, “wow, this guy is quite funny. Interesting to see where he will go.” I’ll say no more.

I prosecute and defend the most serious sexual offences in our courts.

The overwhelming majority of offenders are British-born. Overwhelmingly the victim is someone known to them, either a partner or relative.

Anybody purporting to care about protecting women might start there.

BBC news bias hits peak irony

My complaint👇

It seems to be pretty common round these parts (West Kent), although I guess wherever wood chip is imported en masse, this is sure to appear.

Yes indeed, and they used to be able to communicate for 1000s of miles, now reduced to tens of miles due to the undersea cacophony. Humans are dreadful things.

Another great mushroom find, which I initially dismissed as a generic rustgill, is the Magenta Rustgill (Gymnopilus dilepsis), apparently very rare in the UK and only recorded from wood chip piles in southeast of England, which is where I found it- an alien species but not a harmful one it seems.

Here's one of my nicest findings from a recent #fungi foray - Russula risigallina, or in that complex, one of the rarer brittlegill mushrooms. Sadly a slug got to it first. #mycology #fungifriends

How whale poop and phytoplankton fight climate change | IFAW Did you know that whale poop acts as phytoplankton fertiliser? Discover the surprising relationship between whale poop, phytoplankton, and climate change.

And just to continue on my train of thought about how endlessly fascinating and complex the non-human world is, I also learned that whale shit plays a vital role in cycling nitrogen around the world's oceans to the parts that otherwise don't get it. www.ifaw.org/uk/journal/w...

Sonic Sea This Emmy award–winning film shows viewers how the underwater racket caused by human activities is destroying marine life.

I remember screening a wonderful documentary on noise pollution in our oceans and its effect on marine wildlife a few years back. Sonic Sea, it's called, and well worth a watch if you get a chance. www.nrdc.org/sonicsea

What did 9/11 tell us about whales? In the aftermath of 9/11, the absence of commercial shipping proved to be a unique opportunity to study whale behaviour.

Wow, this is fascinating. Just learned that after 911, when all global commercial shipping stopped for a couple of days, the number of stress-induced hormones in whale poo decreased dramatically. www.weforum.org/stories/2018...

Yes, surreal was definitely the word! Would love to revisit the film in a more normal environment to see if it was actually as impactful as I remember.

The 'Middle England' comment is quite interesting, as this is a pretty provincial, parochial rural area and the characters in the film are clearly incomers, isolated in their huis clos divorced from the reality of the area.

Yeah, it's a really strong cast and performance-driven drama that really hit me with its mood at the time I was seated alone in a cinema in central London not knowing what was going on in the real world.

Yes, these are the ones that always spring to my mind. Polanski's Cul-de-Sac and Grau's Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue too. And another Polish director, Paweł Pawlikowski, really encapsulated the grotty reality of Margate back in 2000.

Nice to have this bad boy I produced in my hands!

Love this film - set in North Devon where I grew up up and the Braunton Burrows dunes. It’s always foreign directors who seem to make the best use of the English landscape.

I remember being up in London during the 7 July 2005 terrorist attacks and, having come up by bus, don’t have a clue what was going on, so retreated to a cinema in the afternoon to watch a film called We Don't Live Here Anymore, with Mark Ruffalo which I’ve never heard anyone ever talk about.

Labour says firms will be penalised for late payments to suppliers Government drive to support small business will include startup loans for 69,000 companies worth £4bn

I'm very mixed on my feelings on Labour, but ignore the naysayers, for freelancers such as myself, this is an amazing initiative, seeing as UK companies are some of the worst offenders when it comes to coughing up for the work they've commissioned. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Assault! Jack the Ripper review on @dvdbeaver.bsky.social : "Fans should be happy with the 88 Films Blu-ray - it looks and sounds pleasing and has an expert commentary and introduction." www.dvdbeaver.com/film12/blu-r...

Tokyo Emmanuelle review "The audio commentary by David Flint and Jasper Sharp is a highlight, offering detailed analysis of the film’s production, Nikkatsu’s strategies, and its international reach, enriched by Sharp’s expertise in Japanese cinema." www.dvdbeaver.com/film12/blu-r...

“Mubi’s financial growth as a company is now explicitly tied to the genocide in Gaza, which implicates all of us that work with Mubi”

To be fair, I don't remember there being much more there, unless you are into pâté.

I hope it’s still there, the museum in the Namur. I visited in the 90s. strangely when I moved to Machida in Japan 5 years later, the whole connection temporarily came to the local art museum about five minutes down the road from me so I got to see them all again!

Do you know Felicien Rops? There’s a fabulous museum of his work in Namur.