I did a podcast about documentaries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Empire klassiki.online/mark-cousins...

Mark Cousins tells the history of documentary film

Mark Cousins joins host Sam Goff to discuss his epic Story of Documentary Film and the role of Eastern Europe in non-fiction history.

klassiki.online

My forties have really hit, I’ve welcomed an exercise bike into my home. Trying to decide what soundtrack to go with this month…opting for the new David Sedaris audiobook because at-home aerobic workouts don’t define me.

Happy release day to the wonder that is Ed Askew: whose musical life began with the 10-stringed tiple in the 1950s & ended with his death last year, aged 84, on the verge of releasing this final record. I wrote all about him here – give it a read: listen to the music, spread the word:

‘His chords are like sheets of diamond ice’: the beguiling psych-folk of late cult songwriter Ed Askew

The late songwriter released around 50 records, writing gay love songs and effortless folk songs from folk’s fringes. Fans including Bill Callahan explain his singular brilliance

theguardian.com

Just to add to the convo around social care: I remember being told by Pat’s hospice that our only alternative for care (hospices don’t have the resources to house residents for more than 2 weeks – & that’s another huge failing in this country) was a care home for the under-55s.

One of my prized possessions at school in the nineties was a GCSE history folder that I painstakingly laminated with cut-outs of various male actors that I fancied and let's just say that most of that folder would need to be redacted now.

I asked my dad if he fancied going to see some Mahler with me at the Proms this summer & forgive me if I take a moment to applaud his reply – that he's "a bit Mahlered out at the moment" – because it's made my week.

I rewatched Paris, Texas over the weekend and, my god, those one-way mirror scenes between Harry Dean Stanton and Nastassja Kinski inhabit me with a supernaturality I hope to never get to the bottom of.

I know the fashion is for short, “clean” sentences these days but I yearn for lengthier lines from time to time – how old fashioned of me! – & I love this from László Krasznahorkai in the New Yorker:

“He was living in a world that was for people who didn’t fit in.” ‘His chords are like sheets of diamond ice’ — the beguiling psych-folk of late cult songwriter Ed Askew:

‘His chords are like sheets of diamond ice’: the beguiling psych-folk of late cult songwriter Ed Askew

The late songwriter released around 50 records, writing gay love songs and effortless folk songs from folk’s fringes. Fans including Bill Callahan explain his singular brilliance

theguardian.com

How do you write a thousand words on Ed Askew when his music evokes a sea of them? As his pal Jay Pluck said before Askew died last year: “Ed was a brave gay songwriter from the beginning & I hope more come to know this.” I hope so, too. May this be the first feature of many – lord knows it’s time

‘His chords are like sheets of diamond ice’: the beguiling psych-folk of late cult songwriter Ed Askew

The late songwriter released around 50 records, writing gay love songs and effortless folk songs from folk’s fringes. Fans including Bill Callahan explain his singular brilliance

theguardian.com

A thug handing out a trophy to thugs would be very 2026, wouldn’t it..

Well…that was a final in my heart.

LET’S JUST PRETEND THIS IS THE FINAL, YEAH!

Kat Lister@katlister.bsky.social · 3w ago

Let’s just pretend this is the final, yeah?

Let’s just pretend this is the final, yeah?

We all knew it was over when Mick Jagger started shaking his head.

I'm compiling a mega spreadsheet for my book permissions & I've got to say I'm a little unnerved by how much I'm relishing the process: a yellow highlight for secondary references? (why not?!), a green highlight for out of copyright quotes? (hell yes – how satisfying!)...should I be worried here?

I’ve developed a strange habit of replying “your mum” every time a commentator says “Yamal” & very much looking forward to this continuing into the final.

Any other actor playing Ada’s brutal husband in The Piano could have made him an entirely one dimensional character but Sam Neill played him with such complexity that that brutality became something else entirely: frayed & shatterable. He acted as he lived it seems to me – with such integrity.

Has Agassi ever been asked to narrate a philosophical epic like Moby-Dick because I’d be curious to try that audio book

My social media has been throwing out back-to-back clips of Bellingham doing-good-deeds-in-the-world & I hope by typing out these words with a JUDE BELLINGHAM it continues to do so because it’s an algorithm I can 100% embrace.

I’ll be honest, developing an inexplicable crush on Thomas – still waters run deep – Tuchel wasn’t on my bingo card this summer, but life moves us in unexpected directions, doesn't it.

equalizing all by yourself, handsome?

Things you love to see

Uncontested claim after uncontested claim. There is no need for this to be streamed live. Vet it, then clip it. He is not entitled to an open ended PPB on national networks. Sets a terrible, dangerous precedent.

My boyfriend wanted to watch the match this morning spoiler free and, as predicted, that was FAR too much excitement and anxiety for a 7am replay. Just bought a carton of the fancy M&S orange juice to celebrate.

Pirkko Saisio’s Helsinki Trilogy has been sitting on my bookshelf for longer than it should have, but her writing melts time anyway. The layers she finds, the dreams she collects:

I can't remember the last time I cried at the end of the play. Arcadia at the Duke of York's Theatre: cerebral and tender and playful – that delicate dance – with the kind of perceptive staging that made me audibly gasp in its final moment. If I can afford to go again, I will. If you haven't – BOOK.

Just in case you thought the energy consumption of AI was a detail we are literally sawing the branch of the tree we’re sitting on.

Naomi Klein@naomiaklein.bsky.social · last mo.

Everybody in the "climate space" (which means everyone on earth...) needs to understand these mind-blowing figures. Google's "total electricity consumption jumped from 31 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2024 to 43 TWh in 2025." In ONE year. The AI corporate arms race is eating the world.

Given myself the rest of the afternoon off to watch Sinner and England play The Sport and, frankly, I don’t know who I am anymore.