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Michael Shallcross

@michaelshallcross.bsky.social

2.8K followers 2.3K following 3K posts

Wrote a book about G.K. Chesterton and literary modernism. Now working in uni admin, but still doing research - see pinned thread for info on my current project, 'Inscribing Pandemonium'. Also posting about music, culture, politics, random nonsense.

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Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · Nov 15

I started a blog to post excerpts from my research project on the Devil and parody, while I build a website to host the final version. Here's the first extract, in which a pandemonium of parrots heralds the appearance of J.C. Squire, a writer whose parodic devilry is threaded throughout the project.

Parakeets Arise!

In which I recruit some talkative birds to introduce the main themes of my project, and the reader first encounters squawker-in-chief, Sir John Collings Squire.

inscribingpandemonium.wordpress.com

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Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 17h

Yikes! - will give it a long-overdue spin later on... Wasn't previously aware of the issue with pvc inner sleeves either, a lot of '90s records had them - pretty sure at least one of my GBV and Flaming Lips original pressings are in those sleeves.

Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 17h

Holy shit, no word of a lie - I've been using this as the turntable mat on every record player I've owned for the last 30 years. It's had no noticeable corrosive effect on any of my vinyl though... Maybe only an issue if it's stored inside the sleeve for a long period? I'm very attached to it!

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Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 1d

I maintain that the 3rd album is sorely underrated - worth giving it another chance imho

Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 2d

Interesting interview, focusing on woods' thoughts about global politics and revolutionary struggle, influenced by his upbringing in 1980s Zimbabwe.

billy woods: “My Music Is Radical, in Its Own Way”

Rapper billy woods is a leading figure in contemporary underground hip-hop. He spoke to Jacobin about the inspiration for his music and his left-wing politics.

jacobin.com

Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 2d

And home in time to put my feet up with a nice mug of hot chocolate. Aah, that's better.

A nice mug of hot chocolate, with a picture of Eeyore on it, resting on a man's right leg, in front of two feet that have been put up on the arm of a sofa.

Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 2d

billy woods, shown here being *extremely good* in Leeds

billy woods on stage at the Belgravia Music Hall in Leeds

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Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 2d

Very strong recommend for 'You Can't Take It with You' if you haven't seen that one yet

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Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 3d

Absolutely smashing it on the bramley apple preservation front this weekend

Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 4d

Tfw your street is a few hundred yards from one of the country's biggest racecourses

A sign recently pasted on a lamppost on my street, instructing members of the public not to poo or wee in people's doorways

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Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 4d

I've never had easy access to them until this year - lots of recipes to be tried! Cooking them really is like alchemy. God bless whoever it was who first thought "hmmm what if I warm up this disgusting fruit?"

Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 4d

Just cooked up a small batch of this and it is gooood stuff

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Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 4d

The most startling revelation is that Select initially wanted to digitally retouch this photo to render each band member as a different ethnicity, apparently to cast them as representatives of modern multicultural Britain!? Yikes. Imagine how notorious that image would be now if it had gone ahead.

Four individual portrait photos of the members of Blur c.1994

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Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 4d

Happened upon this earlier, which - despite the silly clickbait image - is a really interesting interview with Harry Borden, who photographed Blur around 1993-94.

I Photographed Damon Albarn and It Wasn't The Easiest Shoot

YouTube video by Fred and Harry Borden

youtu.be

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Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 5d

That's a shame - it's one of the very best pubs in the city. Your guide may have mentioned, but Dickens' visits arose because his friend, Richard Chicken, lived on the same street. Chicken is reputed to be the model for Mr Micawber. His grave can be found nearby, in Fulford Road cemetery.

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Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 5d

The stained glass artworks hanging inside the pub are made by my wife 👇

Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · Oct 12

Some of my partner's splendid stained glass pieces, currently hanging in the Golden Ball pub in York. Designs inspired by Edward Lear and Massive Attack, and a panel commemorating the founding of the Golden Ball co-op in 2012.

Stained glass panel including a line from Edward Lear's poem, 'The Owl and the Pussy Cat', and a magic lantern slide of a boat at sea as the sun sets.

Stained glass panel, including a lyric from the Massive Attack song, 'Unfinished Sympathy', and a magic lantern slide of a cat with glasses on reading a book. The window it's hanging in has frosted glass, and the words 'Magnet Ales'.

Stained glass panel reading 'Golden Ball est. 2012', behind the bar in the pub, next to a chalkboard listing the beers currently on.

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Reposted by Michael Shallcross

University of York Library @uoylibrary.bsky.social · 5d

The Morrell Library is 59 years old today!

Join us on a brief pictorial trip back in time with his much loved* brutalist building, starting with this cracking picture of the mid-60s campus, with the Morrell behind Central Hall.

Look at those crisp architectural lines. Woof.

Next up: plans >> 🧵

Black & white image showing the lake (very still), Central Hall looking alien, Vanbrugh College and behind that a very white and clean Morrell Library

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Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 5d

You'd really think the council would have the wherewithal to take down the flags that have been flying for weeks in front of the city's most famous tourist attraction, considering that a bunch of locals got it together to pull down dozens of flags in more suburban areas.

A George Cross flag flying in front of York Minster, put there by a set of cunts

Reposted by Michael Shallcross

Dr Luke Gilfedder @lukegilfedder.bsky.social · 7d

Thank you to The Miskatonian for publishing an excerpt from my book, "Wyndham Lewis: Modernism and the New Radical Right."

Read it here:
www.miskatonian.com/2025/10/01/m...

Modernism and Time Part I: Wyndham Lewis versus the ‘Eternal Return’

Explore Modernism and Time Part I: Wyndham Lewis versus the ‘Eternal Return’. Discover the interplay between time and modern experience.

www.miskatonian.com

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Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 7d

I tried to get 2 for Manchester and it kept sending me back to the queue. A box at the bottom of the screen said minimum order of 4. When I put 4 in it went straight to payment. Weird! Anyway it's a big birthday and she loves them but somehow never saw them before, so will try to be philosophical...

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Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 7d

How many did you have to buy? I was trying to get one as a birthday present for my wife and the online system refused to sell less than 4, so I panic-bought them🤕 Now trying to figure out how I'll offload the spares when 'my phone is the ticket'

a man with long curly hair is sitting in front of a tv logo

Alt: Robert Smith facepalming

media.tenor.com

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Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 9d

The Yummy Fur playing 'Policeman', with Calvin Johnson dancing along, sometime in the late '90s I guess.

The Yummy Fur and Calvin Johnson at CCA

YouTube video by Annie Spandex

www.youtube.com

Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 9d

I know Far Out is a tacky phoned-in content-scraping site and I shouldn't have clicked the link, but I'm genuinely very confused about why these two otherwise unremarkable paragraphs have a random f-bomb thrown into them. AI going haywire? Authorial cry for help?

Text reading "Throughout the 20th century, New York developed a unique urban identity of subversive decadence, political disaffection and pioneering art. The Velvet Underground co-founder, Lou Reed, embodied his hometown like no other, rising to cult fucking fame in the flower power era."

Text reading "It wasn't until 1972, when Reed released his second solo album, the David Bowie and Mick
Ronson-produced Transformer, that the tides really began to fucking turn. Thanks to hits like 'Perfect Day' and 'Walk on the Wild Side', this glam-steeped chapter drew attention from around the world to the artist's earlier work with The Velvets. Now a household name, Reed was primed for an enduring solo career varied critical and of commercial appeal."

Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 10d

Off to see him in Leeds in a week or so 😊

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Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 10d

I've been thinking for a while that he's turning into a toby jug

Michael Shallcross @michaelshallcross.bsky.social · 15d

This is the exact reason I've been assuming it was a name for sleeping pills until literally yesterday