Simon Harper
@onesharper.bsky.social
Web/UX, writer, comedy/music nerd & uncle. Lapsed cynic smiling politely. Like cult music/radio/TV/film/books/art & sport. Beard growth comes in 3 colours.
Ach, you know what? Why not. Here’s Alan Bennett’s closing monologue from ‘On the Margin’, missing for nearly 60 years, and found on a Sony CV2000 tape in the Galton and Simpson archive You, dear viewer, are one of the few people ever to have seen this. Enjoy! discover.york.ac.uk/collections/...
“There is no ethical use of generative AI. The labour of working creatives has already been steadily devalued over the years, and now it has arrived at a place where it only holds financial merit when fed to the machine.” www.anxietyshark.ca/an-empty-bit...
An empty bit of good.
Let the machine work and drain and sputter and purge, may we dance and clap at what meagre pleasures it can conjure.
anxietyshark.ca
I keep thinking about a part of this interview where they talk about how increasingly, popular culture/underground arts don’t reflect what we’re living through. Its like an amalgamation of past culture with a thin veneer of contemporary life without engaging with the tragedy/hardship of our times.
Adam McKay@ghostpanther.bsky.social · last mo.A sprawling, enjoyable conversation with the always curious, engaged @rushkoff.com podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Monday morning mail delivers the goods. Signed paperback copy of @markabowles.bsky.social's new book, How Do People Stay the Same. Absolutely loved All My Precious Madness, so looking forward to this.
Just finished reading On the Calculation of Volume Book 1. It's obviously a really good novel, and I got a lot out of it, but (and I'm sure I'm not the first person to think or say this) the heavy repetition of the phrase, "No one had died," just made me think of this every single time...
Mini Stag assemble! Fun day w/ best man, brother-in-law & nephew (who's too young for the whisky tasting lined up for the main stag do). Ice-free curling (!), electric darts & mini golf, followed by pizza & some cold drinks. 👍🙏🎉 (Bold move to have a stag do before the invitations have gone out?!)
In much the same way that Stuart Pearce got to banish the demons of his penalty miss years later at Euro 96, I do hope Diana Ross is afforded the same chance at redemption at this upcoming World Cup.
Playing chill music for chill people on the radio air & streams from 10am-Noon ET. Hudson Valley folk hit 91.3FM, everyone else tune in at a link wvkr.org Apple: music.apple.com/us/station/w...
WVKR 91.3 FM – Independent Radio
wvkr.org
a horse walks into a bar and says to the barman, "on a right angled triangle with sides x, y and z, if x and z are perpendicular which side is opposite the right angle?", and the barman says "y, the long face"
Another great day at the #GreatBirminghamRun New 10k PB achieved of 51:12 🥳 Convinced @onesharper.bsky.social to do it this year 💕 Also what a medal this year! A nod to Birmingham’s musical history 💜💿
I'm not a Capital 'R' Runner, merely Someone Who Runs, but today I did my first ever race, running the Birmingham 10k with @stephthorpe.bsky.social in the year we're getting married. I'm now quite tired & achey but I might have... enjoyed it? Yeah, I'm disturbed by that as well. Playlist helped. 🏃♂️🎧
If we can move past having usable peripheral sockets on a laptop, we can move past the Boiling Hot Lying And Stealing Machine That Only Helps Billionaires.
Top weekend with @stephthorpe.bsky.social. Yesterday: lunch in the sun, visited Bodleian Library for the Tradecraft exhibition from the John le Carré archive, conversation between John Finnemore & Mick Herron at Oxford Literary Festival. Today: afternoon walk followed by Tim Key at Birmingham Rep. 🙏
A podcast episode of the James Bond Book Club to salute and celebrate The late great Len Deighton podcasts.apple.com/it/podcast/t...
Len Deighton RIP
Podcast Episode · The James Bond Book Club · 19 March · 1h 3m
podcasts.apple.com
Waking up to news of missing Doctor Who episodes being found certainly beats the usual news.
Increasingly of the opinion that the correct answer to the Trolley Problem is "fuck you, why are you so fixated on finding reasons to justify killing people?"
A by-no-means definitive #IWD composer playlist I made in 2023. You can listen to it on whatever streaming service you like via this link: www.tunemymusic.com/share/GfxCb4...
I wrote a ‘Remember Them’ piece for @thequietus.com about the wonderful Éliane Radigue. I hope I’ve done her justice thequietus.com/news/remembe...
"Sounds can have their own meaning" – Remembering Éliane Radigue | The Quietus
Warren Hatter reflects on the life of an extraordinary, innovative artist, ignored for most of her life before being celebrated this century
thequietus.com
Every promo shot of every British electronica trio c. 1997.
Good Trailcams@goodtrailcams.bsky.social · 6mo ago
If you use AI for writing anything, or “making” anything creative, you know what that says about you? That you have fuck all to offer the world, and the sad thing is: you don’t even want to change that. It’s just so fucking pathetic.
I'm genuinely impressed at how Evernote continues, against all odds, to somehow find ways to keep getting even worse. Superb commitment to the bit. Imagine thinking that forcing ads into a *note-taking app* will make people pay you rather than, say, lead to them binning off using your app entirely.
I wrote a listicle like in the good old days of the internet where I've ranked the lairs of Bond villains from worst to best. dissecting007.blogspot.com/2026/02/clau...
Clausewitz's First Principle
There are many essential elements necessary for a good Bond film. 007 himself. A girl. A villain. And, somewhere in the mix, a lair. Bo...
dissecting007.blogspot.com
