Eddie Robson

I'd be interested to know if she sees herself ever doing a book that isn't about contemporary sexual mores, or if she's concluded that's her best tool to talk about people and the world. (I think Intermezzo is her best book, so there's absolutely no sign of her exhausting that approach.)

IPSO have published their verdict on The Daily Telegraph’s fake £345,000-a year banker couple who claimed they couldn’t afford five holidays.

The paper declined to explain to the watchdog how the article came to be published - but our reporting at the time sets it out…

From Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 3: The Captive Castaways Mickey, covered in chains, looks down at a tube that rolled over to him, Opium written on the side. Mickey: Good gosh! Opium!

Very sad to hear from his wife that Kenith Trodd passed away on Sunday. A brilliant, fearless maker of tv and film, including a long and lively partnership with Dennis Potter. It was an honour to know him and interview him about his illustrious career. www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/14...

You don't want to know

Oh god, Inkpad, a simple plain text notes app I've been using for years, mainly for shopping lists & jotting notes for podcasts, but I also used it drafting my parents' eulogies... now has an AI that thinks all those rather different things are What My Life Is, and will vomit out advice accordingly

I think commissioners spent so long insisting anthology series didn't work, the only way they can rationalise the success of IN9 is that P&S had a specific genius for the form and so it was an unrepeatable trick. Which is bollocks of course.

Post Image

David Ferguson suggests some starting points for enjoying a huge range of Doctor Who adventures never seen on TV…

https://downthetubes.net/five-places-to-start-listening-to-doctor-who-audio-adventures/

You can take a virtual tour of the late Alasdair Gray’s wonderfully book-filled apartment on this site - alasdairgrayspace.net/head/post-gr... - which led me to the pleasing discovery he kept a toy Dalek on his shelves…

(Current listening: the excellent new Alan Cumming reading of ‘Lanark’)

When I was a kid I read in a science book that humans are the only animals that can sleep on their backs. Total bollocks, I've encountered several cats that do this.

incredible scenes where this is apparently a thing that Khameni has been wanting for ages and others on the council were pushing back against because optics but now council's all dead and congratulations on toppling the regime by giving the previous leader exactly what he wanted- a family throne

The CIA thumbing through their copy of 22 Covert Military Strategies That Always Work!

No, but that wasn't my point and I don't think it's Mark's point either. The point is, it's easy to say "prices need to come down" but only the top tier can afford to. Everyone else is just trying to make it work.

Someone on this train is wearing a scarf that looks so much like mince I did a double take.

Absolutely, in fact I was replying to the follow-up - the point I was trying to make (not very coherently) was that the ones who get the attention for the highest prices are the ones who can afford not to charge them, and that can obscure how artists in the mid tier *do* have to charge them.

It does seem mad that the economics now mean you get to sell loads more tickets at arenas and stadiums AND charge loads more for them.

I know I say this fairly often: people are right to complain concerts are too expensive, but they got that way because a lot of artists started to make almost no money out of their actual records. We have to look really hard at how we pay for music.

I think what's happened is that, while in theory streaming offers boundless choice, in practice most people have clustered around a handful of big artists, who can charge almost any amount because the demand is so huge.

This is what I find grim: newer artists who are making shit all from streaming are the ones you can see for about £20. But you also have a lot of artists in the sort of £30-£75 bracket, and yeah that is a lot more in real terms than it used to be, and they do need to charge that to make a living.

There's definitely a correlation between ticket prices rising and album sales collapsing, though I'd note pretty much *everyone* charging the truly eye-watering prices can afford not to: they're either big enough that their income hasn't collapsed, or legacy artists who've made their money already.

Who can reply: anyone, nobody, people who can be normal about it.

trying out a new feature, lmk if it works

BAFTAs host Alan Cumming criticises BBC after ‘triggering show’ BAFTAs host Alan Cumming has criticised the BBC and labelled the show as a ‘trauma-triggering s*** show’ following a racial slur controversy.

Glad to see Alan Cumming making a statement on the BBC failure:

“I’m so sorry for all the pain Black people have felt hearing that word echoed round the world. I’m so sorry the Tourettes community has been reminded of the lack of understanding and tolerance that abounds regarding their condition."

That does look a LOT like something you'd see in the Adidas Terrace Icons range.

1908: the Lancet, one of the most respected scientific journals, calls for 18 age limit on reading in bed amidst a moral panic surrounding children becoming "addicted" to novels, which were "designed to keep kids hooked" and destroy their attention/mental health

Decent strike from Kalinina TBF, and I'm a fan of her 90s indie haircut, she looks like she might have been in Elastica for a week at some point. #UKRENG

An expat in Dubai has a startling revelation: the Stephen Collins cartoon Reality check …

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

UK singles chart screenshot 39: Always Everywhere, Charli XCX 40: Wuthering Heights, Kate Bush

Pleasing to see Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights is next to a track from Charli XCX's Wuthering Heights in this week's top 40.

Weird. “Hostility to ethnic minorities en bloc” + “the social policy preferences of the craziest street preacher you can find” are not an attractive combo. Who would have guessed?

Amazing isn't it. Their failure to explain how it happened is quite damning by implication: they know full well how this happened, and they don't want to say it. I feel like they should have to say it.