Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social
Music, comics, assorted grousing, he/him. CURRENT THINGS are Discourse 2000, a 2000AD blog and Popular, about the UK’s No 1 hits. I also waste my time (and maybe yours!) with @peoples-pop-polls.bsky.com
https://freakytrigger.co.uk
https://freakytrigger.co.uk
Pinned
I didn't know it was a DEATH PLANET, I always thought it was a Dojo - #Discourse2000 gets romantic with Captain Lorna Varn and the first ever* #2000AD story with a female lead. Do Tharg and the lads make a good job of it? Well...
freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2026/0...
*not counting FLESH
freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2026/0...
*not counting FLESH
Reposted by Tom Ewing
Don't forget... www.bbc.com/news/uk-poli...
Singer James Blunt 'prevented World War III'
Singer James Blunt tells the BBC how he refused an order to attack Russian troops when he was a British army officer in Kosovo.
www.bbc.com
January 18, 2026 at 3:37 PM
Don't forget... www.bbc.com/news/uk-poli...
A NEW POPULAR ENTRY, of all things! A hit that gave its maker two careers - the pop one, and then a second one as a social media guy downplaying it all
popular-number1s.com/2026/01/18/j...
popular-number1s.com/2026/01/18/j...
JAMES BLUNT – “You’re Beautiful”
“Proof that one song is all it takes” as James Blunt’s Twitter biography put it. He knows what he’s known for, and in his post-superstar era he’s played his hand with great skill, cultivating a self-d...
popular-number1s.com
January 18, 2026 at 3:19 PM
A NEW POPULAR ENTRY, of all things! A hit that gave its maker two careers - the pop one, and then a second one as a social media guy downplaying it all
popular-number1s.com/2026/01/18/j...
popular-number1s.com/2026/01/18/j...
Spending an hour googling some guy you then don’t ever mention in the piece, one of the many sweet writing feelings the machines can never replace
January 18, 2026 at 2:29 PM
Spending an hour googling some guy you then don’t ever mention in the piece, one of the many sweet writing feelings the machines can never replace
Reposted by Tom Ewing
I’m keeping this one open for a few more hours (cos my wife hasn’t voted yet) so give It a go if you haven’t already!
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
#PeoplesPop25 DAY 6
Welcome to THE WORLD CUP OF 2025! Throughout January we'll be polling the best tracks of 2025 until we reach an ultimate winner.
Vote in each of the 6 groups and then choose one track from the whole ...
docs.google.com
January 18, 2026 at 12:45 PM
I’m keeping this one open for a few more hours (cos my wife hasn’t voted yet) so give It a go if you haven’t already!
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Reposted by Tom Ewing
Blog update: The Smiths "Panic" was, predictably enough, number one in the NME indie charts in August 1986 - a song in which Morrissey discarded wit and lyrical dexterity for brash slogans, accompanied by interviews which made things even worse.
indienumber1s.blogspot.com/2026/01/84-s...
indienumber1s.blogspot.com/2026/01/84-s...
84. The Smiths - Panic (Rough Trade)
All the singles to top the NME Indie Charts since its launch in 1981, complete with an overview of the other music in the charts each week.
indienumber1s.blogspot.com
January 18, 2026 at 8:50 AM
Blog update: The Smiths "Panic" was, predictably enough, number one in the NME indie charts in August 1986 - a song in which Morrissey discarded wit and lyrical dexterity for brash slogans, accompanied by interviews which made things even worse.
indienumber1s.blogspot.com/2026/01/84-s...
indienumber1s.blogspot.com/2026/01/84-s...
In terms of how ready for it I was it has to be THE SWIMMER (1968), I caught it randomly on TV as a kid one night and found it really inexplicable and haunting (I suspect it is actually extremely clunky!)
January 18, 2026 at 12:37 AM
In terms of how ready for it I was it has to be THE SWIMMER (1968), I caught it randomly on TV as a kid one night and found it really inexplicable and haunting (I suspect it is actually extremely clunky!)
#ProjectBossBaby reaches Thrill Power Overload in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981) in which the hardest man in the world takes on a city of lawless perps. My thoughts -
January 18, 2026 at 12:05 AM
#ProjectBossBaby reaches Thrill Power Overload in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981) in which the hardest man in the world takes on a city of lawless perps. My thoughts -
Pop Poll regulars will fondly remember “Imarhan” by Imarhan from the album Imarhan - well they’re back with a new LP and it rules
January 17, 2026 at 1:20 PM
Pop Poll regulars will fondly remember “Imarhan” by Imarhan from the album Imarhan - well they’re back with a new LP and it rules
Reposted by Tom Ewing
I didn't know it was a DEATH PLANET, I always thought it was a Dojo - #Discourse2000 gets romantic with Captain Lorna Varn and the first ever* #2000AD story with a female lead. Do Tharg and the lads make a good job of it? Well...
freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2026/0...
*not counting FLESH
freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2026/0...
*not counting FLESH
January 16, 2026 at 10:02 PM
I didn't know it was a DEATH PLANET, I always thought it was a Dojo - #Discourse2000 gets romantic with Captain Lorna Varn and the first ever* #2000AD story with a female lead. Do Tharg and the lads make a good job of it? Well...
freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2026/0...
*not counting FLESH
freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2026/0...
*not counting FLESH
I was pretty lucky to have young kids who didn’t really fixate on films but I had three or four go-rounds with the first Harry Potter film and it decayed fast from “fine I guess” to “unseemly hustle from setpiece to setpiece”
What is the movie you have seen the most times that you would say you do NOT like?
January 17, 2026 at 7:39 AM
I was pretty lucky to have young kids who didn’t really fixate on films but I had three or four go-rounds with the first Harry Potter film and it decayed fast from “fine I guess” to “unseemly hustle from setpiece to setpiece”
I didn't know it was a DEATH PLANET, I always thought it was a Dojo - #Discourse2000 gets romantic with Captain Lorna Varn and the first ever* #2000AD story with a female lead. Do Tharg and the lads make a good job of it? Well...
freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2026/0...
*not counting FLESH
freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2026/0...
*not counting FLESH
January 16, 2026 at 10:02 PM
I didn't know it was a DEATH PLANET, I always thought it was a Dojo - #Discourse2000 gets romantic with Captain Lorna Varn and the first ever* #2000AD story with a female lead. Do Tharg and the lads make a good job of it? Well...
freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2026/0...
*not counting FLESH
freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2026/0...
*not counting FLESH
Rare to find such a detailed study of useful idiocy told by one of said idiots
this is a rollicking great read
it's a story of a bunch of tenured idealists who believed that they were building a university dedicated to free speech and free inquiry, but then lost control of their project to... the right-wing megadonors who funded the university
www.politico.com/news/magazin...
it's a story of a bunch of tenured idealists who believed that they were building a university dedicated to free speech and free inquiry, but then lost control of their project to... the right-wing megadonors who funded the university
www.politico.com/news/magazin...
They Wanted a University Without Cancel Culture. Then Dissenters Were Ousted.
Inside the civil war at the anti-woke university backed by Bari Weiss.
www.politico.com
January 16, 2026 at 6:37 PM
Rare to find such a detailed study of useful idiocy told by one of said idiots
There’s some real bangers in the polls today
We can VOTE IN POP POLLS in it while you drive it real far - it's
THE WORLD CUP OF 2025 Day 8 #PeoplesPop25
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
THE WORLD CUP OF 2025 Day 8 #PeoplesPop25
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
#PeoplesPop25 DAY 8
Welcome to THE WORLD CUP OF 2025! Throughout January we'll be polling the best tracks of 2025 until we reach an ultimate winner.
Vote in each of the 6 groups and then choose one track from the whole ...
docs.google.com
January 16, 2026 at 6:11 PM
There’s some real bangers in the polls today
An anti-ICE latin rave banger with an effigy of Donald Trump AND a load of llamas in the video?? How can I not vote for Cain Culto and Xiuhtezcatl here?
#PeoplesPop25 MATCH 47
1 KOCEE! www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBRe...
2 ANO! www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OUT...
3 CAIN CULTO & XIUHTEZCATL! www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKQO...
4 JUANA ROZAS! www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TOX...
Vote! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
1 KOCEE! www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBRe...
2 ANO! www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OUT...
3 CAIN CULTO & XIUHTEZCATL! www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKQO...
4 JUANA ROZAS! www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TOX...
Vote! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
January 16, 2026 at 5:57 PM
An anti-ICE latin rave banger with an effigy of Donald Trump AND a load of llamas in the video?? How can I not vote for Cain Culto and Xiuhtezcatl here?
Reposted by Tom Ewing
Demonetised songs have fewer than 1000 streams a year. There’s no world in which music that unpopular makes money
The 88% of Spotify songs demonetised thing really brings home the scale of Spotify - the sheer bulk of stuff that’s on there, huge amounts of which just gathers virtual dust
January 16, 2026 at 4:08 PM
Demonetised songs have fewer than 1000 streams a year. There’s no world in which music that unpopular makes money
Reposted by Tom Ewing
It’s so funny to be like “this is when women were WOMEN”
January 16, 2026 at 1:50 PM
It’s so funny to be like “this is when women were WOMEN”
The 88% of Spotify songs demonetised thing really brings home the scale of Spotify - the sheer bulk of stuff that’s on there, huge amounts of which just gathers virtual dust
January 16, 2026 at 10:07 AM
The 88% of Spotify songs demonetised thing really brings home the scale of Spotify - the sheer bulk of stuff that’s on there, huge amounts of which just gathers virtual dust
Reposted by Tom Ewing
Like many other elder millennials in the throes of a midlife crisis it appears Lady Gaga is in her modular synth era. She had a Eurorack setup front and center on the Requiem stage and seemed to play a lot of the vocoder harmonies herself
January 15, 2026 at 9:33 PM
Like many other elder millennials in the throes of a midlife crisis it appears Lady Gaga is in her modular synth era. She had a Eurorack setup front and center on the Requiem stage and seemed to play a lot of the vocoder harmonies herself
More polls!
I gotta know you're meant to be the POLL I NEED -
It's Day 7 of
THE WORLD CUP OF 2025 #PeoplesPop25
You have votes in each of 6 matches and a BONUS VOTE -
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
It's Day 7 of
THE WORLD CUP OF 2025 #PeoplesPop25
You have votes in each of 6 matches and a BONUS VOTE -
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
#PeoplesPop25 DAY 7
Welcome to THE WORLD CUP OF 2025! Throughout January we'll be polling the best tracks of 2025 until we reach an ultimate winner.
Vote in each of the 6 groups and then choose one track from the whole ...
docs.google.com
January 15, 2026 at 8:11 PM
More polls!
Reposted by Tom Ewing
Enjoyed the vulnerability of jasmine.4.t (did it need the bit where it got loud and noisy? idk, probably, for the song arc) and it’s not been mentioned much by the commentariat, so there’s my vote. Sextile and Badger left me stony faced, soz
January 15, 2026 at 4:48 PM
Enjoyed the vulnerability of jasmine.4.t (did it need the bit where it got loud and noisy? idk, probably, for the song arc) and it’s not been mentioned much by the commentariat, so there’s my vote. Sextile and Badger left me stony faced, soz
Oof. Well, I guess that‘s an answer to “why wasn’t the racism enough to sack him?”
NEW: Kemi Badenoch confirms that Nick Timothy -Theresa May's former chief of staff at No 10 - will be the new shadow justice secretary.
January 15, 2026 at 4:34 PM
Oof. Well, I guess that‘s an answer to “why wasn’t the racism enough to sack him?”
Reposted by Tom Ewing
Reposted by Tom Ewing
If you want to know what Greene was like in his 20s before he'd learnt to write fiction: davidbelbin.substack.com
Greeneland | Substack
A serial novel set a hundred years ago when the author Graham Greene moved to Nottingham, where he trained to be a journalist, lived among the working classes, cared for a puppy, wooed the woman he lo...
davidbelbin.substack.com
January 15, 2026 at 12:46 PM
If you want to know what Greene was like in his 20s before he'd learnt to write fiction: davidbelbin.substack.com
I’m into this but it feels so obviously a young book, there’s a certain lordly way he gets into the heads of his characters that yells “I’m very talented but I’m also very in my twenties”
January 15, 2026 at 12:38 PM
I’m into this but it feels so obviously a young book, there’s a certain lordly way he gets into the heads of his characters that yells “I’m very talented but I’m also very in my twenties”
Reposted by Tom Ewing
