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Ray Newman

@raynewman.bsky.social

He/him. From Bridgwater, in Bristol. Writer, content designer. Ghost stories, films. No alt text = no repost. Not here for politics. Linktree: https://linktr.ee/raynewman Header: my book Thin Places in Hard Concrete https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DC5PL7T4

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Ray Newman@raynewman.bsky.social · 45m ago

“Auntie Zou must have had the job of purging and destroying forbidden books from the library of the Workers’ Club. She must have had to tear their hardcovers off, then tear a few more pages at the front and back where the library seal of the Workers’ Club could be found.”

The Missing Pages | China Books Review

Sixty years after the Cultural Revolution began, a writer looks back to her childhood in Beijing during its peak, and the banned books that sustained her through the tumult.

chinabooksreview.com

Marie Gardiner@mariegardiner.bsky.social · 12h ago

Local (history) FB groups have gone through a few metamorphoses when it comes to 'do you have any information on [object/picture]'. From replies based on speculation/experience, replies that are copy/paste of the first thing a Google search brought up, and now a copy/paste of an AI answer.

Pete Prodge@peteprodge.com · 16h ago

YouTubers: Let everybody know you thoroughly intend to continue producing videos by making one titled "THIS IS THE END!" with a big sad/shocked face in the thumbnail.

Richard Littler@richardlittler.bsky.social · 21h ago

My family had the Red & Blue on tape (with the fancy gold covers). Fortunately, we also had this. One of the 1st LPs I ever listened to in my life. I know every single pop & crackle of this copy. By the time I was 9, I was Beatles *obsessed* (although I had to skip Revolution 9 because it scared me)

A copy of Revolver by The Beatles.
David Quantick@quantick.bsky.social · 21h ago

My generation raised on the Red and the Blue with their omissions didn't know it. What an album to discover.

LF Lightning-Barugh@cheeseford.bsky.social · 19h ago

Revolver wasn't one of the Beatles albums my mum had. She tapped out after Beatles for Sale, then came back for Abbey Road. As a result, I didn't hear Revolver until a girl I was seeing at university had it on in her room. On a cassette, taped off her dad's LP. As a result, it has connotations.

Ray Newman@raynewman.bsky.social · 19h ago

Everyone is talking about Revolver! I love Revolver! The first substantial thing I ever wrote was a short eBook about the album back in 2006. More on that here, including a link to a PDF of the book itself. precastreinforced.co.uk/2026/04/26/3...

3: Unreleased – Thin Places in Hard Concrete, story by story

The third story in my new collection, Thin Places in Hard Concrete, is called ‘Unreleased’ and is about a haunted Mellotron tape bank. It isn’t about The Beatles, exactly, but it is very clearly in…

precastreinforced.co.uk

David Collard@davidcollard.bsky.social · 2d ago

Benchley's novel is far more about small town politics and male power. He was apparently inspired by the image of the car (with fins)sticking out of the water following the Chappaquidick 'incident' in which Mary Jo Kopechne drowned inside the Oldsmobile Delmont 88 driven by U.S. senator Ted Kennedy.

Oldsmobile Delmont 88 half submerged after plunging off the Chapppaquidick bridge. The image reportedly inspired Peter Benchley to write the novel 'Jaws' (1974)
Chris Routledge@chrisroutledge.bsky.social · 2d ago

The *novel's* sensibility owes a lot to Hemingway I think, though it lacks Hemingway's linguistic focus and is more explicit and obvious. A kind of corrupted aficion. It's a good read though. I wonder if a more restrained, more psychological sequel (maybe with no visible shark) might work.

Ray Newman@raynewman.bsky.social · 2d ago

I'm just not that interested in famous people. When they die I very rarely feel the need to make an ANNOUNCEMENT declaring whether they were great (oh, oops, except for The Allegations) or bad.

Ray Newman@raynewman.bsky.social · 2d ago

This is an interesting book, by a Brazilian writer living in the US. I was quite struck last night by a story whose narrator is homesick for the brutalism of Brasília but finds some comfort in the Guggenheim Museum.

The cover of ‘Craft: stories I wrote for the Devil’ by Ananda Lima.She stood on the corner across from the museum. She felt the winter air on her forehead, but she was well covered other-wise: scarf over half her face, gloves, her hands in her pockets, the right socks. Her puffy jacket was optimized for utility rather than looks. She had learned well, to live here. She appreciated now, how New York winters were often sunny, the skies bright blue, as they were today. She liked the clarity of this crisp air, the angle of the sun in winter. It was as if an optometrist cleaned her lenses, the way she couldn't do herself: completely clear. A perfect day to see the building. She loved the exterior. That matte-white concrete could be a stylized picture in a postcard, textureless, blank. But also, that white concrete was a delicious contradiction of textures. It was paper, and the freshly painted walls of the apartments of her childhood, and the chalky white concrete of Brasília.
Ray Newman@raynewman.bsky.social · 2d ago

“Cult auteurs aren’t above tackling a strong video game story either, as Takashi Miike showed with his confidentially wacky film based on Capcom’s courtroom simulator, Ace Attorney.” www.bfi.org.uk/features/wat...

Watch to play: the rise of the video game adaptation

With the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, The Last of Us and Fallout, the film and TV industries are plugged into video games like never before. A genre historically spurned as a merchandising ...

bfi.org.uk