I’m sure there are people out there who think Reform councils are doing a great job, generative AI is the future, Trump is a visionary, Man City are hard done by, and that Badenoch is playing a blinder, but I don’t want to hear from them. I love my Bluesky bubble!

Word of the day: matriculate. To enrol at a university to study for a degree. A lot of matriculation going on right now, methinks.

My favourite Jeffrey Archer story is the one where he was a judge for a local short story competition. The winner was a story about the day in the life of a cat. A year or so later he published a book of his short stories - and the winning entry was included in his collection.

Just went into the dentist for a checkup as The Last Time by the Rolling Stones started playing in reception. I came out from my checkup, and the song was still playing. Result!

"Please enter a new password. It must be 12 letters long, include every button on your keyboard in a random order, must be different from every other password you have, and you can't write it down." For a magazine subscription FFS!

Never trust someone who talks in round figures, such as £100k. It is a very clear demonstration that they haven’t done any research. Decent rule for life, that.

This was so much fun! (That’s me starring in the final 2 seconds of the clip).

Ian Beestin@ianbeestin.bsky.social · 4d ago

30 seconds of the Green Fighters set from the 100 Club this week. #greenday

Troubadour, J.J.Cale. The original, and greatest, #SundayMorningMusic

#Dartmoor

Sometimes that UK US divide seems wider than ever youtu.be/TH_ODa805D0?...

There Ain't Nothing Like Shagging The Tams

YouTube video by Martin Edwards

youtu.be

Outside Paddington station, a sausage dog on a lead barks at a portly railways worker who leans over to mollify it, while the dogs owner looks on, continuing her telephone call.

Breakfast in London this morning. Scrambled eggs, bacon, brown sauce; poorly tuned radio slipping between pop hits and white noise; cheery cockney builder getting breakfast for him and his silent young apprentice; French couple asking for mayonnaise with their fried breakfast. Marvellous.

My shelves are full of biographies of musicians. My Dad would cry when listening to Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony because he understood the pain the composer was going through and he wrote it. And so on.

Dan of the Year@downwithdan.bsky.social · last wk.

When you have no concept of how people engage with music

Sven And The Ragged Tiger #MakeAnAlbumSwedish

But late, but I finally get the first toddler dancing, so Save Tonight by Eagle Eye Cherry #sellingvinyl

Chatting with a customer, he tells me about when he tried his hand at being a supply teacher. Very first class he took, walked into the classroom, and all the kids burst out laughing. Changed career not long afterwards! #sellingvinyl

I’m #Sellingvinyl at Tobacco Fsctory Sunday Market today. Chap tells me about when he worked in a chain record store and was sent to Florida to buy a collection of 25,000 albums. My dream job!

Went to the annual RWA exhibition of their members' art today, in Bristol. As ever, some I liked, some I didn't, but all of high quality, and quite a few truly stunning pieces. Recommend.

Most riveting thing I've seen all week

Hey BBC news, please use people’s correct titles. It’s not ‘anti-migrant activist’. It’s ’racist knobhead’. Thank you. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Daniel Thomas pleads not guilty after dinghy slashed in Channel

Daniel Thomas is accused of criminal damage after a video appeared to show him slashing at a dinghy.

bbc.co.uk

There’s a film on ITV right now which has the gall to call itself The Magnificent Seven. From 2016. Absolutely the worst Hollywood trash. 7 minutes is all I could manage.

Racist knobhead arrested for slashing a dinghy and endangering lives. Good. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Daniel Thomas arrested over video of dinghy slashing

Police had been looking into footage appearing to show the man, also known as Danny Tommo, slashing at a boat in the English Channel with a knife.

bbc.co.uk

My son's band, Blackhorse Hotel, has a new single out, Hive Mind. That's 3 singles now, I think this is possibly the best of the three. Please like (if you like!) and subscribe etc Bandcamp: blackhorsehotel.bandcamp.com/track/hive-m... Spotify: open.spotify.com/track/4xktlN...

Hive Mind, by Blackhorse Hotel

track by Blackhorse Hotel

blackhorsehotel.bandcamp.com

Lots of posts in my timeline about the racist knobheads in the Channel, saying “Why aren’t the Government doing anything about this”, but none saying “Why are the racist knobheads doing this”.

I’m on a train, in the Quiet Carriage. 3 American ladies have got on and are happily - but noisily - chatting. The train is not busy. So, the question arises - do I?

To conflate two news stories, I’d love to think that a few of the far right balaclava wearing knobheads might look at the news that RNLI donations have rocketed and think: Are we the baddies?

Had a meeting yesterday with someone who had just finished reading my novel The Vanishing Point. First thing he did was come over and shake my hand. Which was nice.

Nothing quite so exciting as receiving an email entitled 'North Somerset Council: Recycling and waste news."

Been on a beautiful drive through the Welsh hills, the Black Mountains the Brecon Beacons. Stopping in little towns like Crickhowell, where all you can hear is the banging and deafening growling of motorbikes ridden by middle aged men. They are a blight.

Well THAT’S confusing