Michael Shallcross
@michaelshallcross.bsky.social
Wrote a book about G.K. Chesterton and literary modernism. Now working in uni admin, but still doing research - see pinned thread for info on my current project, 'Inscribing Pandemonium'. Also posting about music, culture, politics, random nonsense.
Finally finished refining my Macca post-Beatles playlist, after listening to pretty much everything he's recorded since '69. Couldn't bring myself to reduce it to 50 tracks as originally planned, so settled on 64 as an appropriate cut-off. A pretty whizz-bang compendium of his many moods, I think.
Backwards Traveller: 64 Post-Beatles Macca Bangers
Playlist - Backwards Traveller: 64 Post-Beatles Macca Bangers - 64 items
tidal.com
I wrote about Barrie's film in this (open access) journal article. Chesterton's later account of his involvement is more self-reproachful than might be expected of an apparently harmless escapade, because he connects it directly to the outbreak of war.
‘This odd game called war’: The Ethics of Game Playing in the War Writing of H. G. Wells, G. K. Chesterton, and Wyndham Lewis | The Wellsian: The Journal of the H. G. Wells Society
thewellsian.awh.durham.ac.uk
Matthew Sangster@mjrsangster.bsky.social · 2d agoYour occasional reminder that in the year the First World War began, J.M. Barrie wrote a comedy cowboy film called How Men Love, which was filmed in Essex with G.K. Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw as two of the cowboys. www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1274695
He should give Corbyn a peerage, bring the whole bit full circle
James Heale@jaheale.bsky.social · 3d agoSunday Times reports that Keir Starmer is, in fact, drawing up a resignation honours’ list, despite promising not to do so.
Remember starter packs? Well I just added @anthonypowellsoc.bsky.social to this one.
#NowPlaying 'Another Place', 10" E.P. by Moths of the Moon - excellent Pram side project, heavily mining their hauntological side. Apparently there are still tickets left for the penultimate Pram tour date in Nottingham tonight. If you're remotely nearby you'd be a fool to yourself not to go along.
Book covers illustrated with art from the Chronicle of the Nuremberg Carnival (1449 to 1539)
Piece of cake, this football league business
🧵The rugged coastline of North Yorkshire holds many secrets, but none are as enduringly bleak as the legend of the Staithes mermaids. Rooted in the folklore of this historic fishing village, the story serves as a chilling cautionary tale about human cruelty and supernatural retribution
I interviewed the magnificent Kristin Hersh for Bandcamp Daily. She was a delight, as you’d expect. @bandcamp.com @kristinhersh.bsky.social #throwingmuses daily.bandcamp.com/features/kri...
Kristin Hersh Comes Home
The Throwing Muses co-founder reflects on her deeply personal new album and the people who inspired it.
daily.bandcamp.com
Fascinating 15min audio interview with Muriel Spark from 1993, done to promote her memoir, 𝐶𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑢𝑚 𝑉𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑒, discovered by scouring the endnotes of @drjamesbailey.bsky.social's excellent 𝐿𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑎 𝐶𝑎𝑡 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑎 𝐵𝑖𝑟𝑑: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑁𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝐿𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑙 𝑆𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑘.
Spark, Muriel, 1918-2006
freshairarchive.org
🎵 Every car I see is always picking on me, They take a left turn when I cross, guaranteed They park on the pavement 🎵 #FallFriday youtu.be/9oc_zbKzUls?...
Howard Kirk, AI pioneer, on the defeat of privacy. From 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐻𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑀𝑎𝑛 by Malcolm Bradbury, 1975.
Pop Crave@popcrave.com · 5d agoApple announces 'Live Rewind' for the new Apple Watch, letting users pull up the last 15 seconds of nearby conversation.
The Labour Party is made up in its entirety of people who simply don't know how to pick a fight against a target that will fight back, which is why it is just grotesquely underprepared for the current moment.
"I was getting to the point where I was thinking, I don’t want to be a cabaret revival band. All we were doing is playing songs we wrote 20 years ago...” “Sometimes you just need a bit of time to think” – The Yummy Fur Interviewed buff.ly/lySCFD6
2) and 3) are intimately linked, in that the BBC (the organisation that really matters in the modern environment) treats 'claims by rival parties' as the operating frame for how it covers everything. The failure from Labour and the Conservatives to say 'this stuff is bad' is really, really bad.
John Oxley@joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · last wk.So in one week: 1) Reform get stung for dodgy finances, and the regulators play pass the parcel about enforcement 2) Farage announces plans to largely dismantle independent scrutiny of govt, and barely any press discussion of it 3) Masked thugs blockade a port, with narry a word from senior govt
I'm going to experiment by also posting a version of this as a thread... It’s amazing to think that we can pinpoint the most magical two seconds in pop music, which occur exactly one minute into ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ by The Beatles, as Take 7 melts into Take 26.
Ray Newman@raynewman.bsky.social · last wk.BLOG POST: “In the finished mix... at the 1-minute mark... we go down, we’re pulled in, and the song folds over us like a blanket of sweet, warm jam.” precastreinforced.co.uk/2026/09/05/t...
#NowPlaying picked up the other day from Relics in Leeds, 'Chocolat-Art', a Television Personalities live album, recorded in Germany in September 1984. Always striking to me how Dan Treacy would change the lyrics, structures, and even the vocal melodies of songs from one gig to the next.
Spotted in FortyFive Vinyl Cafe, York - if anyone's feeling flush on #FallFriday this'll set you back a mere £75. Calorific!
The latest episode of A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs is now up! Hanna-Barbera! Danny Hutton! The Monkees! David Gates of Bread! It can only be the family-friendly adventures of that wacky Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band!
Song 186: “Frownland” by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
This episode is on “Frownland” by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, and is the third part of a trilogy following the episodes on the GTOs and Frank Zappa. Click the full post to rea…
500songs.com
“[W]e are left with the fact that a man who built a lifetime reputation as a sensitive paragon of moral conscience denouncing the evils of predatory capitalism had in fact cultivated a yearslong personal friendship … with someone who could not have been a more blatant and literal embodiment of it.”
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 2w ago"Besides being deeply cynical, Chomsky’s supposed pragmatism has not stood the test of time...We may have manufactured consent once upon a time, but America has long since transitioned to a post-manufacturing economy." Very harsh but worthwhile read. strangematters.coop/noam-chomsky...
Proof positive that uni admins and academics can live together in perfect harmony: an enormous box of cheese presented to me by the staff of York Law School, at the end of a year's secondment spent improving the department's management of academic workloads... 🧀🧀🧀
Stained glass commission my wife's currently working on, inspired by 'Hit the North' by the Fall 🎵 Those northern lights so pretty 🎵 #FallFriday
Off to see Stereolab two nights on the bounce: Hebden Bridge tonight, Krankenhaus fest tomorrow. Feeling as chipper as Tim Gane on The Word!
In 2025 trade unions gave £4.9 million to Labour. Individual donors gave £16 million to Reform & £9 million to the Tories. In total Labour raised £10 mill, Reform £19 mill & the Tories £21 mill. If the *unions* are blocking a donor cap, they've lost their minds www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Massive honour to write for @thequietus.com about 40 years of ‘Wasted Years’ (released 25.08.86) and “Somewhere in Time” by #IronMaiden. I hope all the #metalsky clan enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Shout out to @metalclassicist.bsky.social who features therein. Up the Irons! 🤘🏻
Iron Maiden - Walking On Glass (Philadelphia - 1987) • FULL HD REMASTER
YouTube video by IRON BEAST
youtu.be
The Quietus@thequietus.com · 3w agoJamie Stephenson revisits a crucial turning point 40 years ago, marking the moment when the Irons stopped simply writing songs about history and became a band haunted by time itself Haunted By Time: #IronMaiden’s Wasted Years & Somewhere In Time Revisited buff.ly/TyIjMuP
