Mark Doyle
@markdoyle.bsky.social
Historian & writer. Britain, Ireland, empire, music. Latest book is on John Cale's Paris 1919 for 33 1/3. Next: histories of African people/music in Ireland. “Pipe-sucking radical”-Mail on Sunday. Views here are my own, not my employer's.
Pinned
Mark Doyle
@markdoyle.bsky.social
· Oct 19
This is an essay I wrote about music and grief and sunsets and water and grief and brothers and grief. It’d mean a hell of a lot if you set aside a little time to read it.
The Consolations of Waterloo Sunsets
mcblogs.montgomerycollege.edu/potomacrevie...
The Consolations of Waterloo Sunsets
mcblogs.montgomerycollege.edu/potomacrevie...
Pour one out. youtu.be/ya6gEGpCieI?...
Grateful Dead - Weather Report Suite (Winterland 10/18/74) (Official Live Video)
YouTube video by Grateful Dead
youtu.be
January 11, 2026 at 1:52 AM
Pour one out. youtu.be/ya6gEGpCieI?...
Reposted by Mark Doyle
Goodbye to a legend and the greatest shorts wearer of all time
January 11, 2026 at 12:19 AM
Goodbye to a legend and the greatest shorts wearer of all time
Being a parent means making sacrifices, e.g., going to see the new and totally unnecessary Anaconda movie for a child's birthday party instead of going to see the new and totally unnecessary Jim Jarmusch movie that's playing at the same time just down the road.
January 10, 2026 at 4:56 PM
Being a parent means making sacrifices, e.g., going to see the new and totally unnecessary Anaconda movie for a child's birthday party instead of going to see the new and totally unnecessary Jim Jarmusch movie that's playing at the same time just down the road.
This year I'll be marking 20 years since I defended my dissertation. Back then I wanted to write history like EP Thompson. These days I want to write more like Julian Barnes. Progress?
January 9, 2026 at 7:15 PM
This year I'll be marking 20 years since I defended my dissertation. Back then I wanted to write history like EP Thompson. These days I want to write more like Julian Barnes. Progress?
Reposted by Mark Doyle
An early example of the cartoon trope of a character not realizing they have run off a cliff until they look down. (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in The Ocean Hop 1927)
January 9, 2026 at 1:15 AM
An early example of the cartoon trope of a character not realizing they have run off a cliff until they look down. (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in The Ocean Hop 1927)
Happy Blackstar day to all who celebrate.
January 8, 2026 at 10:41 PM
Happy Blackstar day to all who celebrate.
Reposted by Mark Doyle
Really excited to be teaching my course "Music and the Politics of Cool," which asks students to unpack the cultural implications required to name some as "cool"
Here's the syllabus!
cvarun7.wixsite.com/website/post...
Here's the syllabus!
cvarun7.wixsite.com/website/post...
Music and the Politics of Cool
Course SummaryBe it the slight crease in Miles Davis's back, Chuck Berry's energetic duck walks, or the boisterous self-confidence of Missy Elliott's bombastic rhymes, each of these musicians uses the...
cvarun7.wixsite.com
January 7, 2026 at 12:37 AM
Really excited to be teaching my course "Music and the Politics of Cool," which asks students to unpack the cultural implications required to name some as "cool"
Here's the syllabus!
cvarun7.wixsite.com/website/post...
Here's the syllabus!
cvarun7.wixsite.com/website/post...
Today is a day for obscure 60s-70s French pop if ever there was one. (This is really good.) wizzzcompilation.bandcamp.com/album/french...
French psychorama - 1967/1979 - Volume 5, by various
17 track album
wizzzcompilation.bandcamp.com
January 6, 2026 at 8:06 PM
Today is a day for obscure 60s-70s French pop if ever there was one. (This is really good.) wizzzcompilation.bandcamp.com/album/french...
Greetings from East Nashville
January 6, 2026 at 4:24 PM
Greetings from East Nashville
Nico - My Funny Valentine
YouTube video by Wall of Sound, Memories & Visions
youtu.be
January 5, 2026 at 9:37 PM
Just shoehorned the word Pecksniffian (accurately and appropriately) into a sentence, taking the rest of the day off.
January 5, 2026 at 5:29 PM
Just shoehorned the word Pecksniffian (accurately and appropriately) into a sentence, taking the rest of the day off.
I miss Jimmy Buffett. Yes, yes, I know. But still I miss him.
January 4, 2026 at 2:43 AM
I miss Jimmy Buffett. Yes, yes, I know. But still I miss him.
The nerve of Venezuela sitting on our oil like that.
January 3, 2026 at 5:31 PM
The nerve of Venezuela sitting on our oil like that.
Reposted by Mark Doyle
Last summer, Venezuelan ex-pat Alejandro Puyana wrote this wonderful @texashighways.bsky.social essay on his fraught relationship with his homeland.
texashighways.com/culture/essa...
texashighways.com/culture/essa...
Cueing Peace at Austin Pool Halls
A Venezuelan ex-pat finds the heart of Texas in the corner pocket
texashighways.com
January 3, 2026 at 4:00 PM
Last summer, Venezuelan ex-pat Alejandro Puyana wrote this wonderful @texashighways.bsky.social essay on his fraught relationship with his homeland.
texashighways.com/culture/essa...
texashighways.com/culture/essa...
Pleased to learn I'll be going to my first ever writing retreat this summer, doubly so because it's at the Dickens Universe conference in Santa Cruz, CA.
January 3, 2026 at 12:40 PM
Pleased to learn I'll be going to my first ever writing retreat this summer, doubly so because it's at the Dickens Universe conference in Santa Cruz, CA.
Reposted by Mark Doyle
Steven Mintz's substack post may have gone unnoticed since he published it as the holiday season kicked in.
If you missed, it, it's very useful for anyone currently doing course planning for the spring who wants students to learn things in the dystopian era of AI substack.com/inbox/post/1...
If you missed, it, it's very useful for anyone currently doing course planning for the spring who wants students to learn things in the dystopian era of AI substack.com/inbox/post/1...
AI Killed the Take-Home Essay. COVID Killed Attendance. Now What?
Reclaiming Learning in an Age of Distraction and Artificial Intelligence
substack.com
January 2, 2026 at 3:15 PM
Steven Mintz's substack post may have gone unnoticed since he published it as the holiday season kicked in.
If you missed, it, it's very useful for anyone currently doing course planning for the spring who wants students to learn things in the dystopian era of AI substack.com/inbox/post/1...
If you missed, it, it's very useful for anyone currently doing course planning for the spring who wants students to learn things in the dystopian era of AI substack.com/inbox/post/1...
Reposted by Mark Doyle
For the BFI, 10 great films from 1926 www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-gre...
10 great films of 1926
As we hurtle into 2026, take a 10-film trip back in time to celebrate these 100th anniversaries.
www.bfi.org.uk
January 2, 2026 at 12:33 PM
For the BFI, 10 great films from 1926 www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-gre...
Ooh, this works for my book about the Kinks!
Get the book that led the Mail on Sunday to deride me as a "pipe-sucking radical" for under a tenner (but only if you're in the UK). reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/the-kinks
Get the book that led the Mail on Sunday to deride me as a "pipe-sucking radical" for under a tenner (but only if you're in the UK). reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/the-kinks
January 1, 2026 at 6:06 PM
Ooh, this works for my book about the Kinks!
Get the book that led the Mail on Sunday to deride me as a "pipe-sucking radical" for under a tenner (but only if you're in the UK). reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/the-kinks
Get the book that led the Mail on Sunday to deride me as a "pipe-sucking radical" for under a tenner (but only if you're in the UK). reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/the-kinks
Those of you who suggested I read Ian Penman's book about Erik Satie were right, as usual.
January 1, 2026 at 11:45 AM
Those of you who suggested I read Ian Penman's book about Erik Satie were right, as usual.
Making a fresh start tonight by closing, and rendering unreopenable, all browser tabs.
January 1, 2026 at 3:01 AM
Making a fresh start tonight by closing, and rendering unreopenable, all browser tabs.
I'm pretty excited for this chat with a couple of fellow 33 1/3 authors and the one and only Ann Powers. If you're in Nashville at the end of January, come by and say hi! thebookshopnashville.com/events/43092...
33 1/3 Author Panel | The Bookshop
thebookshopnashville.com
December 31, 2025 at 5:06 PM
I'm pretty excited for this chat with a couple of fellow 33 1/3 authors and the one and only Ann Powers. If you're in Nashville at the end of January, come by and say hi! thebookshopnashville.com/events/43092...
Really need today to last 72 hours so I can meet the end-of-year deadlines I set myself. Maybe 96, just to be safe.
December 31, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Really need today to last 72 hours so I can meet the end-of-year deadlines I set myself. Maybe 96, just to be safe.
If the airports today are any indication, a bunch of people got some ugly damn coats for Christmas.
December 31, 2025 at 1:47 AM
If the airports today are any indication, a bunch of people got some ugly damn coats for Christmas.
Homage to Eggleston
December 30, 2025 at 2:38 AM
Homage to Eggleston
Reposted by Mark Doyle
I have just finished Paris 1919 by @markdoyle.bsky.social a wittily written, penetrating analysis of John Cale’s 1973 album. He is especially interesting on Cale’s debt to Dylan Thomas, Dada and Surrealism, and the geopolitical consequences of the 1919 Peace Conference. Antarctica starts here…
December 27, 2025 at 7:56 PM
I have just finished Paris 1919 by @markdoyle.bsky.social a wittily written, penetrating analysis of John Cale’s 1973 album. He is especially interesting on Cale’s debt to Dylan Thomas, Dada and Surrealism, and the geopolitical consequences of the 1919 Peace Conference. Antarctica starts here…