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Waffle 🧇 @wafflecut.bsky.social · 14h

Stravinsky saw Charlie Parker play at Birdland

club of all time by performing for Igor Stravinsky at Birdland. Alfred Appel tells it definitively in his book Jazz Modernism: From Ellington and Armstrong to Matisse and Joyce:
The house was almost full, even before the opening set - Billy Taylor's piano trio - except for the conspicuous empty table to my right, which bore a RESERVED sign, unusual for Birdland.
After the pianist finished his forty-five-minute set, a party of four men and a woman settled in at the table, rather clamorously, three waiters swooping in quickly to take their orders as a ripple of whispers and exclamations ran through Birdland at the sight of one of the men, Igor Stravinsky. He was a celebrity, and an icon to jazz fans because he sanctified modern jazz by composing Ebony Concerto for Woody Herman and his Orchestra (1946) - a Covarrubias
"Impossible Interview" come true.
As Parker's quintet walked onto the bandstand, trumpeter Red Rodney recognized Stravinsky, front and almost center. Rodney leaned over and told Parker, who did not look at Stravinsky.
Parker immediately called the first number for his band, and, forgoing the customary greeting to the crowd, was off like a shot. At the sound of the opening notes, played in unison by trumpet and alto, a chill went up and down the back of my neck.
They were playing "Koko, which, because of its epochal breakneck tempo
- over three hundred beats per minute on the metronome - Parker never assayed before his second set, when he was sufficiently warmed up. Parker's phrases were flying as fluently as ever on this particular daunting "Koko." At the beginning of his second chorus he interpolated the opening of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite as though it had always been there, a perfect fit, and then sailed on with the rest of the number. Stravinsky roared with delight, pounding his glass on the table, the upward arc of the glass sending its liquor and ice cubes onto the people behind him, who threw up their hands or ducked.
Parker didn't just happen to…

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Anne Billson @annebillson.bsky.social · 6h

De Studio, home of De Cinema, where I saw PSYCHO (1960) last week.

The side of a building, at night, with a colourful neon sign saying DE STUDIO, plus posters. Lots of bicycles parked outside and in the foreground, people hanging around, and a food delivery person cycling past.

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Anne Billson @annebillson.bsky.social · 6h

Ganterie (2025) photograph by Anne Billson

A man cycles past a glove shop, which is closed because it's night, but its windows are lit up, as are the displays of gloves therein.

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Postcard From The Past @pastpostcard.bsky.social · 8h

It's a dream I always have.

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Marie Phillips @mariephillips.bsky.social · 8h

My god the amount of time I waste trying to figure out if my new followers are human. Apologies to every handsome middle aged retired surgeon with a beard who loves his grandkids and God who I have ever blocked.

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The Onion @theonion.com · 19h

Health Experts Recommend Standing Up At Desk, Leaving Office, Never Coming Back https://theonion.com/health-experts-recommend-standing-up-at-desk-leaving-o-1819577456/

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Anton Bitel @antbit.projectedfigures.com · 8h

"a Marienbad-like labyrinth of winding corridors, false paths, hidden chambers and fragmentary narratives designed to entrap us in a web of confusion and contradiction": Dario Argento's Suspiria-sequel INFERNO (1980) screens 11.30pm tonight on @scream-tv.com UK projectedfigures.com/2015/06/29/i...

Inferno (1980) - Projected Figures

Dario Argento's second instalment in his 'Three Mothers' trilogy, INFERNO, is either a deliciously surreal labyrinth, or a godawful mess.

projectedfigures.com

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Patch Zircher @patrickzircher.bsky.social · 8h

I can tell you what Blink cuts out:
Everything that makes a book worth reading.
A plot synopsis isn't a novel-- and a plot synopsis has never made anyone Feel anything.

Carry on, world. Wonder why there's no meaning in your life.
I'll continue reading whole books written by people.

The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 14h

Abridging has always been in vogue. Now, apps like Blinkist take entire books and crunch them down to a series of what are called Blinks—which amount to around 2,000 words. “Is that what books are coming to, a handy social lubricant?” Anthony Lane asks.

Can You Read a Book in a Quarter of an Hour?

Phone apps now offer to boil down entire books into micro-synopses. What they leave out is revealing.

www.newyorker.com

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𝙹𝚘𝚑𝚗 𝙲𝚊𝚛𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛'𝚜 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐍𝚙𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚜 @outlawvern.bsky.social · 10h

I'm going to go with MALIGNANT because of the distinctive trophy knife used by Seattle's own Gabriel.

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Farran Smith Nehme @selfstyledsiren.bsky.social · 16h

As a romantic (in life) and a Romantic (in college studies) I loved Del Toro's Frankenstein—the sweep, the beauty and the headlong emotion of it. Its visual and thematic echoes range from Burke & Hare to Ingres to Hammer, but it's no pastiche—it's a vividly individual film.

Frankenstein's laboratory, with rose window

Edinburgh used as background in Frankenstein

Mia Goth calling up visions of Ingres' Comtesse d'Haussonville in Frankenstein

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Yo Gabapentin @yogabapentin.bsky.social · 18h

Obligatory Jenny Nicholson Tweet

Jenny Nicholson Tweet:

How come major film studios keep being like Jared Leto may have allegations, but at least he looks weird, stars in box office bombs, and is not a good actor

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 17h

Oscar Issac looking at some kind of electronic tablet.

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Daily Squibs @dailysquibs.bsky.social · 18h

CEMETERY MAN (Soavi, 1994)

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Anne Billson @annebillson.bsky.social · 1d

Selfie (mid-1980s) photograph by Anne Billson

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Anne Billson @annebillson.bsky.social · 18h

I have a story in this anthology. Haven't read any of the other stories yet, but they're all good writers, so will be dipping in over the next few days.

Birds, Strangers and Psychos: New stories inspired by Alfred Hitchcock

Birds, Strangers and Psychos: New stories inspired by Alfred Hitchcock : Jakubowski, Maxim: Amazon.co.uk: Books

www.amazon.co.uk

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Rob McCallum @robmccallum.bsky.social · 1d

I still like this one

Cthulhu priest with semi transparent skin, octopus head and claws in a spiffy red cloak

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John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 19h

“He’s 28 until he’s 29. That’s a fact.”

This never gets old.

martwah.bsky.social @martwah.bsky.social · 19h

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Andrew Male @andrewmale.bsky.social · 20h

#RIP Chris Steele-Perkins

Outside Divis Flats, West Belfast, 1978.

Youth with stone during riot in West Belfast, 1978.

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Rob McCallum @robmccallum.bsky.social · 23h

This is breaking my brain. I cannot read this

Cup O' Coffey @ammathor.bsky.social · 1d

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Anne Billson @annebillson.bsky.social · 1d

Polaroid selfie (mid-1980s) photograph by Anne Billson

Polaroid self-portrait of my face with eyes closed: red hair, blue eye shadow, fuchsia lipstick, on a fake ocelot stole with pink lining.

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Cold War Steve @coldwarsteve.bsky.social · 1d

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<Primary Salutation> @stevesparshott.bsky.social · 1d

I have an app running that’s supposed to block Bluesky, but it’s only half working, so I can’t see images but I can read the alt text. Looking forward to “Polaroid selfie of head in profile next to a rubber lobster.”

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Anne Billson @annebillson.bsky.social · 1d

I'm very fond of the French phrase "Je ne suis pas dans mon assiette," which I think means something similar.

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Postcard From The Past @pastpostcard.bsky.social · 1d

By the time I arrived, Rob was in love with someone else. He had told me he was seeing someone but that it wasn't important. I have been, as you can imagine, devastated & very unhappy.

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Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 1d

Yes of course he does. Next question?

bflmouse.bsky.social @bflmouse.bsky.social · 1d

I don't mind sharing the bed, but does he have to take his half of the bed out of the middle?
#proofofcat

A grey tabby cat stretched out in the middle of a blue and black plaid blanket

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