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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 1d

I wasn't aware that cut and paste spam was a public service.

It would also be honest, I think, to be more transparent about the ideological underpinnings of the medium offering that 'counterview'. Of course The Critic is more likely to reject comparisons to fascism given its ERG roots.

Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 1d

Why are you spamming almost every thread posting the Derbyshire-Heseltine clip with an identical post linking to an article in a magazine founded by individuals associated with the European Research Group, and which continued to employ David Starkey after his 'damn blacks in Africa' comments?

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Reposted by Alasdair Brooks

Middleport Pottery @middleportpottery.bsky.social · 1d

16th & 23rd November and 14th December
NEW – Merry Makes with Santa
Time: 11.30am to 1.30pm
Tickets: Child £12, Adult £4
Enjoy our Christmas crafty clay activity with a packed lunch, a visit from Father Christmas and a gift!
Tickets: re-form.org/heritage-bui...
#santa #stokeontrent #staffordshire

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 1d

#5debutalbums8084, and I have formal confirmation from
@richards7370.bsky.social that this is eligible...

Spın̈al Tap's debut in our reality - the soundtrack to This is Spın̈al Tap. It's such a fine line between stupid and clever.

The cover to the real life soundtrack album for the 1984 film This is Spinal Tap, which is identical to the cover to the fictional in-film album Smell the Glove. It's black. All black. Nothing but black. How much more black could it be? The answer is none... none more black.

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Reposted by Alasdair Brooks

Middleport Pottery @middleportpottery.bsky.social · 2d

18th October
Festival of Craft – Celebrating Stoke 100
10am to 4pm
FREE ENTRY
Join us for this celebration of Stoke-on-Trent’s Arts & Crafts heritage
Featuring a Maker’s Market, Demonstrations and a range of Have-a-Go workshops
Tickets: re-form.org/heritage-bui...
#stokeontrent #stoke100 #craft

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 2d

This is precisely why the work of Aonghus Duncan MacGruer and his Scottish Bat Kilt Pin Trust is so vital. For decades now, members of the SBKPT have been traipsing through forest and glen pinning down the kilts of Vespertilio scoticus in an attempt to save the species. <nods sagely>

Wil Eelsing @wileelsing.bsky.social · 3d

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you. There is, of course, a different reality where 1967's "Spinal Tap Sings '(Listen to the) Flower People' and Other Favourites" is the band's debut album - but in this reality we'll go with the 1984 soundtrack (not to be confused with Smell the Glove, despite the identical covers).

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 3d

A #5debutalbums8084 eligibility question, Richard...

Spinal Tap have now released four albums:

1984: This is Spinal Tap (soundtrack)
1992: Break Like the Wind
2009: Back From the Dead
2025: The End Continues

Does a parody act's first album count if it's a film soundtrack?

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 3d

Released 11 January 1980 - and therefore just eligible for #5debutalbums8084

The cover of the Pretenders self-titled debut album. Under the name of the band we have, from left to right, bassist Pete Farndon standing slightly to the side, facing away from the rest of the band, wearing a black leather jacket, Chrissie Hynde wearing a bright red jacket with some extra zips on the arm, drummer Martin Chambers slightly incongruously wearing a black and white jacket and tie combination (the tie is black and white stripes), and guitarist James Honeyman-Scott also wearing black, matched with black sunglasses. That the men are mostly in black really makes red-clad Chrissie Hynde stand out.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 5d

#5debutalbums0004
You can't make me surrender my faith in the light from above / I just try to remember that light might be driven by love.

1) Candidate - Taking on the Enemy's Sound
2) A Camp - A Camp
3) The Spazzys - Aloha! Go Bananas
4) Arcade Fire - Funeral
5) Killers - Hot Fuss

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Reposted by Alasdair Brooks

Middleport Pottery @middleportpottery.bsky.social · 6d

18th October
Festival of Craft – Celebrating Stoke 100
10am to 4pm
FREE ENTRY
Come & join us for this celebration of Stoke-on-Trent’s rich Arts & Crafts heritage
More Info: re-form.org/heritage-bui...
#craft #craftfestival #stoke100 #middleportpottery #middleport #stokeontrent #staffordshire

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 7d

"Oh poo" seems the only rational reaction.

Irreplaceable, but a good life richly lived.

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist, dies aged 91

Jane Goodall Institute says ‘tireless advocate’ for natural world died in California during US speaking tour

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Alasdair Brooks

Middleport Pottery @middleportpottery.bsky.social · 8d

15th November
Christmas Festival 2025
11am to 4pm
Children (8 & under) – FREE
Over 8 & Adults - £6
Join us for our new look Christmas Festival. We even have a visit from Father Christmas! Free car parking at Steelite
More Info: re-form.org/heritage-bui...
#stokeontrent

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Reposted by Alasdair Brooks

Middleport Pottery @middleportpottery.bsky.social · 8d

25th November
THEATRE NIGHT – Sherlock Holmes Christmas Case Book
Tickets: £16
Take a trip to Baker Street and spend Christmas with Sherlock Holmes in this engaging stage show starring award-winning actor Jonathan Goodwin as the famed detective
Tickets: re-form.org/heritage-bui...
#stokeontrent #

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Reposted by Alasdair Brooks

Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory @memoryplace.bsky.social · 9d

Our researcher, @tmcasimiro.bsky.social, is going to be there talking about the presence of British Ceramics in Portuguese 19th-century households

Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 12d

Delighted to be co-organising the official Stoke-on-Trent Centenary Ceramics Symposium "Legacy and Continuity" at Stoke Civic Centre, 21-22 November. The symposium is free to attend and is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

See link for details!

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/legacy-and...

Legacy and Continuity Ceramic Symposium

This two-day symposium celebrates the rich ceramics heritage of the city and its modern World Craft City status

www.eventbrite.co.uk

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 12d

Heritage job klaxon!

We're recruiting for a fixed-term project officer role to help deliver an exciting new Stoke100 heritage initiative in partnership with Stoke-on-Trent City Council, and funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. See link for details...

re-form.org/careers/

Careers at Re-Form Heritage | Job Opportunities

Be part of a team that helps support the regeneration of Stoke-on-Trent’s heritage buildings. Apply for our job vacancies at our website.

re-form.org

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 12d

Delighted to be co-organising the official Stoke-on-Trent Centenary Ceramics Symposium "Legacy and Continuity" at Stoke Civic Centre, 21-22 November. The symposium is free to attend and is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

See link for details!

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/legacy-and...

Legacy and Continuity Ceramic Symposium

This two-day symposium celebrates the rich ceramics heritage of the city and its modern World Craft City status

www.eventbrite.co.uk

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 12d

Coming out of a minor internet rabbit hole, it seems that "worldwide, deltiology [postcard collecting] is the third-largest collecting hobby after stamp collecting and coin/banknote collecting". I've learned something new today...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deltiol...

Deltiology - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 12d

My late father was a keen stamp collector, and included postcards in his collections. I've just been doing a bit of ad hoc googling on the basis of the little I absorbed from him, and it's clear that postcard collecting could remain a strong market. Example:
mospostcards.co.uk/collections/

Collections

Mo's postcards is an established family business. From the Edwardian era to the modern day we offer an eclectic mix of picture postcards from all around the world. Over 17,000 topographical and subjec...

mospostcards.co.uk

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 12d

Not someone who studies postcards, but I think they'll live on, though not necessarily to be posted. When I say I think they'll increasingly turn into collectors' items, I mean that literally; that a market for postcard collectors will remain, separately from the supposed function of postcards.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 15d

Spotify has just started playing adverts for Christmas song playlists.

Leaving aside for the moment the question of whether or not I should still be using Spotify, it's _September_. I'm not ready to hear Last Christmas yet.

Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 16d

My wife had indefinite leave to remain status for roughly 15 years before becoming a UK citizen earlier this year. Different families have different needs and approaches to the citizenship path. Flexibility, kindness, and understanding are more important than politically driven cruelty.

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 16d

And for a small good news counterpoint, here's a link to a story about Moorcroft restarting operations (which, it should be noted, contains plenty of bleaker news)... 2/2

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Moorcroft pottery boss 'emotional' as work in Stoke-on-Trent restarts

The reopening comes three months after the collapsed firm was bought by the founder's grandson.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 16d

"Wedgwood’s challenges: potteries face an existential crisis"

Slight shame the editorial is so Wedgwood-focussed, and doesn't address the challenges faced by other firms (or that Moorcroft recently restarted operations), but the basic points are valid. 1/2

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Guardian view on Wedgwood’s challenges: potteries face an existential crisis | Editorial

Editorial: Further redundancies would be a blow to artisanal craft skills and to the remaining pillars of Staffordshire ceramics

www.theguardian.com

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Alasdair Brooks @alasdairbrooks.bsky.social · 19d

My favourite Theodore of Tarsus story is the one in Bede where he's so exasperated by St Chad's humble insistence on walking to his new see in Mercia that Theodore bodily picks up Chad and plonks him on the horse himself.

From which we can surmise that both Chad and the horse were fairly small.

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