Vincent O'Connell
@vincentoconnell.co.uk
Writer and film maker, here for distraction, information and (occasional) enlightenment. www.vincentoconnell.co.uk
The Three Stages of Woman (Sphinx). 1894 https://botfrens.com/collections/90/contents/25097
20 years ago this headline would have been incomprehensible.
Mexican influencer shot dead while streaming live on social media
César Gastélum was filming outside a fast-food outlet in Sinaloa state when he was killed by a motorbike driver
theguardian.com
Aaww heck. Never a word or a move out of place. Always on target. RIP Peter Gill.
David Benedict@eggsbened.bsky.social · yesterdayNo-one in British theatre had a finer ear for dialogue than Peter Gill (1939-2026). The most meticulous of directors, unfashionably loyal to talent not stardom, he was also a superbly compassionate writer whose charged, emotional plays charted gay sexuality and working-class lives like no other. RIP
This film of the story is extraordinary, but don't watch it if you're feeling in any way fragile. youtu.be/4oxP3TyuQx0?...
Будет ласковый дождь / There Will Come Soft Rains (1984) [Eng CC]
YouTube video by Алекс Кэрролл
youtu.be
Aaron Meyers@aaronmeyers.bsky.social · yesterday"Today is August 4, 2026" There Will Come Soft Rains By: Ray Bradbury
Play for Today - Series 4: The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil
The 1974 TV adaptation of John McGrath's iconic 7:84 play about the exploitation of the Scottish people through history, from the aftermath of Culloden to the oil boom.
bbc.co.uk
Mike Elrick@elrick1.bsky.social · 3d agoWatching The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil #BBC4
#OnThisDay in London's anti-fascist history, 1962: Would-be fuhrer Oswald Mosley gets a kicking, Dalston wp.me/p74yfw-1Bq
Today in London’s anti-fascist history, 1962: Would-be fuhrer Oswald Mosley gets a kicking, Dalston
The first half of the 1950s was a quiet time for anti-fascists in the UK. The postwar threat of fascist revival, in the form of Oswald Mosley’s Union Movement, had been battered off the streets lar…
wp.me
Meta will train its AI on far-right media outlet open.substack.com/pub/populari...
Meta will train its AI on far-right media outlet
This week, Newsmax — a far-right news organization with a strong allegiance to President Trump and a history of pushing wild conspiracy theories — announced it had struck a deal with Meta.
open.substack.com
AI is intimately aligned with Fascism. Once we can take that on board, we understand what the fight is.
Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele@drdragases.bsky.social · last wk.No longer content with pillaging intellectual work and dismembering our environment (already critically weakened), AI companies are now hellbent on destroying books galore including rare editions. Shut down these nefarious enterprises already.
We're joining @creatorsrights.bsky.social in calling on Government to protect creators from the existential threat of GenAI Help get the petition to 10,000 signatures - sign the petition 🔽 petition.parliament.uk/petitions/76...
There aren't many examples of a country self-inflicted ignorance of its national successes as glaring as how little is made of the tremendous, really wild footprint of the British stage/TV/movie educational pipeline on the global scene
Mina Kimes@minakimes.bsky.social · last wk.People know him from Industry but I encourage everyone to watch RYE LANE, quietly one of the best romcoms of the last decade
Hello book people. I'm sure you probably know already, but in case you don't, I just want to big up World Of Books... They're amazing! Whatever you're looking for, have a look at their website... I've just spent a small fortune on Virago titles there...💙🙏
The new Prime Minister is writing a "10-year plan" for the UK. The arts & culture MUST be part of it. We've signed @campaignforthearts.org's petition urging @andyburnham.bsky.social to revitalise the arts – to revitalise the whole nation 🌱 Join us: www.campaignforthearts.org/petitions/10-year-plan/
Prime Minister – put the arts in your 10-year plan for the UK | Campaign for the Arts
Sign our petition urging the UK Government to build a country where the arts are available from childhood, accessible to all and thriving everywhere.
campaignforthearts.org
Sorry folks, if you're constantly posting AI images I really don't want to know.
Fred Judge, founder of the eponymous postcard company, took a series of photos of London By Night, published in book form in 1924.
This is an extract from the amazing Hiroshima memoir by Kiyoshi Tanimoto, which was mysteriously buried in the archive of the writer John Hersey. (My interview with his fab daughter Koko, the baby of Hiroshima, is linked to it) www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
‘Everywhere there were pitifully injured people’: how a newly unearthed memoir captures the devastation of Hiroshima
In an exclusive extract from his memoir, Kiyoshi Tanimoto describes the terrifying trip across the city to locate his wife and child
theguardian.com
George Best plays cricket with neighbours' kids while lodging on Aycliffe Avenue, Chorlton, Manchester, 1965. Photo by Bill Cross.
Perhaps I've lost my sense of humour, or am missing the irony or something, but I find this cartoon really unpleasant. It feels snide. What, actually, is it saying?
Martin Rowson on Andy Burnham’s first week as prime minister – cartoon
The new PM has opened No 10 North in Manchester in an effort to devolve power away from London
theguardian.com
Sure, you could ask ChatGPT for a book recommendation OR you could ask someone who literally wrote a book on bookselling without guzzling gallons of water...though...I probably should some more. Anyway, I'm around for #BookSky recommendations!
Someone said to me, "I'm sorry but I got your book from a library." Nobody should ever apologise for that. You read my book! That's brilliant! I grew up hanging out in libraries and the idea of a world without them fills me with dread. Without libraries, authors, like readers, will only suffer.
“Here he comes, Earl. … Remember, be gentle but firm … we are absolutely, positively, NOT driving him south this winter.”
In case you haven't already watched it the Ken Burns series on the American Revolution is on iPlayer and as you'd imagine it's great.
Guardian, you’re at the wrong party with the wrong people trying to make the wrong loud jokes, just apologise and go home.
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 4w agoIs it time to enter the Tillyverse? Seven things you need to know about AI ‘actor’ Tilly Norwood
This touches me somewhere primal every time I read it.
Matthew Stewart@roguestrands.bsky.social · 2y agoAs parents, we're supposed to remember the first time we did stuff with our kids, but the last time is equally as significant, if not more. This poem is from Whatever You Do, Just Don't (HappenStance Press, 2023), my second full collection...
2/ These cuts will undoubtedly impact social mobility for young people, cut off pathways into the creative industries + undermine those very industries Creativity and the arts matter - Government must do better
1/ Impossible to square these cuts to creative + performing arts teaching grants with the Government's pledge to put the creative industries at the heart of its growth strategy www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/dfe-sla...
DfE slashes creative and performing arts teaching grants for universities - Arts Professional
Performing and creative arts university courses will no longer receive funding from a government teaching grant as part of "difficult decisions" about
artsprofessional.co.uk
In a more logical world, the government would be piling money into the grassroots of a £150 billion industry with massive global reach which is growing at over twice the rate of the rest the economy as a whole.
Arts Professional@artsprofessional.co.uk · 4w agoPerforming and creative arts university courses will no longer receive funding from a government teaching grant as part of “difficult decisions” about spending priorities, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said.