patrick
@marginalgloss.bsky.social
There is a very loud amusement park right in front of my present lodgings.
it's cute that my local soft play emails me with offers for adults only sessions in the evenings - with cocktails and a DJ and presumably other illicit thrills - but they are *vastly* overestimating how much their regular customers want to be there when they have the chance not to be
December 27, 2025 at 10:03 AM
it's cute that my local soft play emails me with offers for adults only sessions in the evenings - with cocktails and a DJ and presumably other illicit thrills - but they are *vastly* overestimating how much their regular customers want to be there when they have the chance not to be
Boys are watching a YouTube video about steam trains made by an American museum and in the first five minutes the guy starts talking about the 1860s and "a lil thing called Manifest Destiny!" 😬
December 26, 2025 at 7:47 AM
Boys are watching a YouTube video about steam trains made by an American museum and in the first five minutes the guy starts talking about the 1860s and "a lil thing called Manifest Destiny!" 😬
Watching a favourite jolly Christmas film (currently free to stream in the UK on the Plex app, if you can stand the ad breaks).
December 24, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Watching a favourite jolly Christmas film (currently free to stream in the UK on the Plex app, if you can stand the ad breaks).
Tbh the most joyous thing this season has been going through Super Mario Odyssey together with the 5 y/o. It is his first proper game in the sense of being a continuous adventure to return to, & the only slight letdown is that it sets the bar impossibly high for every other game to follow.
December 24, 2025 at 7:55 AM
Tbh the most joyous thing this season has been going through Super Mario Odyssey together with the 5 y/o. It is his first proper game in the sense of being a continuous adventure to return to, & the only slight letdown is that it sets the bar impossibly high for every other game to follow.
Life has been too much to post about recently; as ever I'm jealous of anyone able to switch off and relax over the Xmas break. Related: why is it our 3 y/o gets out of his bed and barrels into our bedroom once or twice every night when our now 5 y/o virtually never gets out of his bed for anything.
December 24, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Life has been too much to post about recently; as ever I'm jealous of anyone able to switch off and relax over the Xmas break. Related: why is it our 3 y/o gets out of his bed and barrels into our bedroom once or twice every night when our now 5 y/o virtually never gets out of his bed for anything.
Reposted by patrick
this is good and you should read it kenbaumann.substack.com/p/notes-on-p...
Notes on Pain & Pleasure
On some lessons from agony and ecstasy
kenbaumann.substack.com
December 14, 2025 at 2:42 PM
this is good and you should read it kenbaumann.substack.com/p/notes-on-p...
Hey look I already got the platinum, don't make me boot this up again youtu.be/fHrEootHhlc?...
Cyberpunk 2077 5th Anniversary Trailer — City of Legends
YouTube video by Cyberpunk 2077
youtu.be
December 11, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Hey look I already got the platinum, don't make me boot this up again youtu.be/fHrEootHhlc?...
Somehow it escaped my notice till yesterday that Steve Cropper died; probably the GOAT in terms of rhythm guitar in popular music, with a peerless list of co-writing credits to boot. Feel like you wouldn't be allowed to drag a beat so hard like this today: open.spotify.com/track/6K5pZK...
634-5789 - 2006 Remaster; Single Version
open.spotify.com
December 10, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Somehow it escaped my notice till yesterday that Steve Cropper died; probably the GOAT in terms of rhythm guitar in popular music, with a peerless list of co-writing credits to boot. Feel like you wouldn't be allowed to drag a beat so hard like this today: open.spotify.com/track/6K5pZK...
We've been rewatching The Sopranos on the tier of Now TV that includes adverts; one of the most regular ads is Chris Rock endorsing MGM's glossy online sports/slots gambling platform. Quite a bit of tonal whiplash cutting from this to a sobbing Robert Patrick losing his sporting goods store.
every time I see an A-list actor in an ad for some slot machine phone game, I think about how Bill Murray's character in Lost in Translation doing advertisements is framed as basically the highest form of humiliation an actor could go through.
December 8, 2025 at 3:35 PM
We've been rewatching The Sopranos on the tier of Now TV that includes adverts; one of the most regular ads is Chris Rock endorsing MGM's glossy online sports/slots gambling platform. Quite a bit of tonal whiplash cutting from this to a sobbing Robert Patrick losing his sporting goods store.
My spotify unwrapped is too dadworthy & muddled by kids to be worth sharing, but it was mostly also based around my running playlist - which is nice because starting & getting much better at running is probably my only significant personal achievement for the year?
December 3, 2025 at 7:58 PM
My spotify unwrapped is too dadworthy & muddled by kids to be worth sharing, but it was mostly also based around my running playlist - which is nice because starting & getting much better at running is probably my only significant personal achievement for the year?
I'm mostly enjoying this novel I'm reading (I won't name it) but it has some really agonising examples of writerly prose. "Around them, the hills of England are sentient like mattresses stuffed with secrets." I think you are supposed to just go with it but this is scarcely comprehensible?
December 3, 2025 at 12:19 PM
I'm mostly enjoying this novel I'm reading (I won't name it) but it has some really agonising examples of writerly prose. "Around them, the hills of England are sentient like mattresses stuffed with secrets." I think you are supposed to just go with it but this is scarcely comprehensible?
Finally got around to watching The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Frequently visually striking but a rough ride on the whole; however Jonathan Pryce is tremendous throughout, and in my head the whole thing works nicely considered as an extended Sam Lowry feverdream coda to the ending of Brazil.
November 30, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Finally got around to watching The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Frequently visually striking but a rough ride on the whole; however Jonathan Pryce is tremendous throughout, and in my head the whole thing works nicely considered as an extended Sam Lowry feverdream coda to the ending of Brazil.
Perfect song for a cold clear morning; perfect song regardless open.spotify.com/track/5j216b...
Isis
open.spotify.com
November 26, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Perfect song for a cold clear morning; perfect song regardless open.spotify.com/track/5j216b...
No One Will Save You: a pretty competent haunted house movie spirals into dream logic via almost every conceivable horror trope. It's not really scary but it hits all the right notes in 90 minutes, & the whole thing pretty much pivots on Kaitlyn Dever's performance; fortunately she is *fantastic*.
November 24, 2025 at 10:30 PM
No One Will Save You: a pretty competent haunted house movie spirals into dream logic via almost every conceivable horror trope. It's not really scary but it hits all the right notes in 90 minutes, & the whole thing pretty much pivots on Kaitlyn Dever's performance; fortunately she is *fantastic*.
Very interesting and balanced; hard to escape the depressing conclusion that a permanent car-free reopening solution is too much of a political hot potato for anyone with any clout to champion.
I really cannot recommend this excellent piece on Hammersmith Bridge highly enough
Hammersmith Bridge
Where did 25,000 vehicles go?
nickmaini.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Very interesting and balanced; hard to escape the depressing conclusion that a permanent car-free reopening solution is too much of a political hot potato for anyone with any clout to champion.
Got through a huge/exhausting whole-class birthday party for our 5 y/o yesterday & now blearily living through the fallout. Happy to not do another one of those for two years until his brother is 5 tbh.
November 23, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Got through a huge/exhausting whole-class birthday party for our 5 y/o yesterday & now blearily living through the fallout. Happy to not do another one of those for two years until his brother is 5 tbh.
Reposted by patrick
looking at a poetry anthology from 1947 at the British Library, obscure enough that I had to ask them to cut some of the pages (!)
here’s a poem by Oswell Blakeston and Max Chapman, artists and writers who were pretty much a lifelong couple
here’s a poem by Oswell Blakeston and Max Chapman, artists and writers who were pretty much a lifelong couple
November 20, 2025 at 5:10 PM
looking at a poetry anthology from 1947 at the British Library, obscure enough that I had to ask them to cut some of the pages (!)
here’s a poem by Oswell Blakeston and Max Chapman, artists and writers who were pretty much a lifelong couple
here’s a poem by Oswell Blakeston and Max Chapman, artists and writers who were pretty much a lifelong couple
Put on Radio 4 while waiting in the car as the 3 y/o sleeps in the back. "Wombats can offer solace where no other solace can be found," says the voice on a documentary. Sure, why not.
November 20, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Put on Radio 4 while waiting in the car as the 3 y/o sleeps in the back. "Wombats can offer solace where no other solace can be found," says the voice on a documentary. Sure, why not.
"If someone comes over with a bag of gold rings" - what is this, are we going after Sonic the Hedgehog now www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Asylum seekers’ jewellery could be seized to pay for processing costs, says Home Office minister
Idea borrowed from Denmark is latest attempt to reduce number of people seeking asylum in UK
www.theguardian.com
November 17, 2025 at 9:59 AM
"If someone comes over with a bag of gold rings" - what is this, are we going after Sonic the Hedgehog now www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
I watched The Apprentice: enjoyable for J Strong's vampish reptilian scenery-chewing, but it feels half baked, like two thirds of its way towards being a good film. Also the faux-videotape filter is one of the worst looking things I've ever seen in a major film.
November 16, 2025 at 6:52 PM
I watched The Apprentice: enjoyable for J Strong's vampish reptilian scenery-chewing, but it feels half baked, like two thirds of its way towards being a good film. Also the faux-videotape filter is one of the worst looking things I've ever seen in a major film.
Silent Hill has always been a bit of a blind spot for me so I have no idea how this compares to the original, but the opening hours of the SH2 remake are an appropriately horrid time. With headphones it is one of the most aurally unpleasant things I've played in a while.
November 15, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Silent Hill has always been a bit of a blind spot for me so I have no idea how this compares to the original, but the opening hours of the SH2 remake are an appropriately horrid time. With headphones it is one of the most aurally unpleasant things I've played in a while.
This song has become a lot of things to me but especially so on days where everything looms ahead like a mile high concrete wall five inches from my eyes open.spotify.com/track/7pLeI8...
Sweet Little Mystery
open.spotify.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:48 PM
This song has become a lot of things to me but especially so on days where everything looms ahead like a mile high concrete wall five inches from my eyes open.spotify.com/track/7pLeI8...
Gentle reminder that whatever you think of the BBC you can watch Manhunter on iPlayer right now and it is still one of the best-looking films ever made.
November 10, 2025 at 11:27 PM
Gentle reminder that whatever you think of the BBC you can watch Manhunter on iPlayer right now and it is still one of the best-looking films ever made.
Reposted by patrick
Robert Graves recalls seeing a ghost during the Great War
November 10, 2024 at 9:44 AM
Robert Graves recalls seeing a ghost during the Great War