ANZAC Day Service - Cromer RSL Whilst I have studied the history of the First and Second World Wars and firmly believe that understanding that history, why and how it happened, is important in understanding the contemporary world, something about the memorial ceremonies sets my teeth on edge. I think it's the way they become an excuse for mawkishness and fawning over the military, which I find more than moderately distasteful.  Remembrance Day, ANZAC Day and others are also used by the jingoistic to goad and brow-beat those less inclined to take the 'my country, right or wrong' approach to these conflicts. We are asked to remember the fallen without also necessarily remembering the cavalcade of negligence, incompetence and stupidity from their leaders that set them on the path to death. ANZAC Day at least has slightly less of this as Australia and New Zealand commemorate those sent to die at Gallipoli by their leaders half a world away; although I will qualify this with t...

I have been going back through my old notebooks and using voice transcription to get old things into type. This has advanced and confused my writing projects in equal measure, dangit. There are also various old scribbles and drawings that I don't really know what to do with. They aren't great, but I'm no visual artist and have never tried to be one.

It's been a while and I need to refresh some things starting with some more regular posts on here to replace some of the doomscrolling from elsewhere. Audiobooks I listen to a fair few audiobooks but often it's the same ones again and again to try and get me to sleep when I have about of insomnia. However I take on new ones which I listen to whilst doing chores and gardening so that I've heard them properly. There have been some new accessions into the collection which I can recommend. Both are noir detective type genre fiction but take a very different approach. Nick Harkaway's work is something I almost always enjoy and he has some real strength in depth (ake on Gnomon if you want a real challenge). His book Titanium Noir is a lot of fun with some really great ideas in it. It's more sci-fi than straight detective fiction. I've also been enjoying the Fetch Phillips stories by Aussie actor and author Luke Arnold (you might have seen him as Long John SIlver in ...

Thinking about Notebooks in B6 size. Hmmm, B6, you say? I don't have many of them, and there are lots of accessories I can obsess over? Perfect. This is all you need. Do not obsess over....oh. Don't do this... ...it will shit on you. Music A German Electro Pop Metal band? It seems unlikely, and yet... Stuck in my head The Prodigy make themselves sound like Daleks intent on destroying Middlesex General The Chemical Brothers and Beck, it was obviously going to be an earworm.

With the increasing exodus from the toxic and decaying corpse of Twitter interesting things are popping up elsewhere. I managed to avoid the opening ceremony of the Olympic games, as is my habit. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to miss the ensuing culture war horseshit about which the less is said the better. That sad episode seems to have overshadowed the below which seems unfair. In case any of you missed the metal band Gojira opening the Olympics while playing on a castle with an army of headless Marie Antoinette behind them... streamable.com/4qdjv2?src=p... [image or embed] — Hillary Monahan ( @hillarymonahan.bsky.social ) Jul 30, 2024 at 1:01 AM The castle is called La conciergerie and this is the exact place where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned for her last night before being beheaded. And the song they sang is a revolutionary one involving hanging aristocrats — winyyy⁷ ( @winy.bsky.social ) Jul 30, 2024 at 8:28 AM

 ...then really lean into it. And if you're an odd filmmaker who happens to make odd films and loves fountain pens and  has been commissioned to make an ad for probably the most famous fountain pen maker in the world then you should really lean into it. Like this: