Sam
@spinebusterkeaton.bsky.social
I enjoy all the meats of our cultural stew.
London-based. Film, television, games, politics, Charlton Athletic Football Club.
He/him.
London-based. Film, television, games, politics, Charlton Athletic Football Club.
He/him.
You don’t gotta hand it to ‘em, etc. but Prime Video is probably the only app with the necessary library and an algorithm good enough to be like, hey, I think this guy just likes well made movies from before the year 2000 - you want some more of those?
genuinely baffled at how despite how rapidly we've made progress in recommender systems, actual recommendations have gotten worse
I miss the days when the streaming services actually tried to suggest things you'd like to watch.
November 29, 2025 at 10:47 PM
You don’t gotta hand it to ‘em, etc. but Prime Video is probably the only app with the necessary library and an algorithm good enough to be like, hey, I think this guy just likes well made movies from before the year 2000 - you want some more of those?
Someone gifted me a box of Quality Street and I’m not even sure what I did to upset them?
November 27, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Someone gifted me a box of Quality Street and I’m not even sure what I did to upset them?
Not the definitive answer but The Umbrella Academy goes from being a very fun, pulpy, watchable show to an incoherent middle finger to its own audience and life itself by the end. Rarely have I seen something simultaneously so low effort and mean-spirited.
while I am posting trivia, which TV show do you think showed the sharpest fall in quality from first to last seasons? I ask because the answer is obviously The Morning Show, the last series of which was garbage
November 25, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Not the definitive answer but The Umbrella Academy goes from being a very fun, pulpy, watchable show to an incoherent middle finger to its own audience and life itself by the end. Rarely have I seen something simultaneously so low effort and mean-spirited.
Reposted by Sam
yes I don't really see how you can go "oh yikes these people have changed their political views incredibly quickly, mostly because of what Very Online people talk about on social media" and also think that people who went from never talking about gender to calling trans women predators are....normal
I don’t like subtweeting people I consider online friends, but there is a subset of people who are very worried about the ongoing radicalisation of our political elite but won’t ever acknowledge the echoes with the radicalisation of their colleagues on trans rights
And few who are sympathetic to us, some who are friendly with me on here, will ever stick their head above the parapet
November 25, 2025 at 12:55 PM
yes I don't really see how you can go "oh yikes these people have changed their political views incredibly quickly, mostly because of what Very Online people talk about on social media" and also think that people who went from never talking about gender to calling trans women predators are....normal
Reposted by Sam
In light of who is saying this & where it’s being published, this is a pretty serious indicator that the political class is in a middle of a serious intellectual & emotional crisis
They’re starting to inch closer to the position of elites in the Kingdom of Italy after WW1
They’re starting to inch closer to the position of elites in the Kingdom of Italy after WW1
November 24, 2025 at 10:44 PM
In light of who is saying this & where it’s being published, this is a pretty serious indicator that the political class is in a middle of a serious intellectual & emotional crisis
They’re starting to inch closer to the position of elites in the Kingdom of Italy after WW1
They’re starting to inch closer to the position of elites in the Kingdom of Italy after WW1
The Planet of the Apes films are quietly the best franchise going, though I’m probably the only person whose favourites are the first (Franco) one and the latest one.
Caesar’s first “No!” is absolute, distilled cinema.
Caesar’s first “No!” is absolute, distilled cinema.
anyway the only film franchise i actually care about these days is THE PLANET OF THE APES (which i did write a column about)
November 24, 2025 at 10:08 PM
The Planet of the Apes films are quietly the best franchise going, though I’m probably the only person whose favourites are the first (Franco) one and the latest one.
Caesar’s first “No!” is absolute, distilled cinema.
Caesar’s first “No!” is absolute, distilled cinema.
People without any pathologies proving how well adjusted they are replying to this one.
I sometimes think there's something about the internet, and the way it helps you locate a bunch of people who'll validate any ludicrous shit you happen to think or do, that lies at the root of most of these pathologies. Like, it leads to conspiracism and naziism but also...
November 24, 2025 at 7:04 PM
People without any pathologies proving how well adjusted they are replying to this one.
Reposted by Sam
Just one more policy that polls well in total isolation, bro, I’m begging you. Just one more. One more and it’ll fix the whole problem. Please, bro.
November 24, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Just one more policy that polls well in total isolation, bro, I’m begging you. Just one more. One more and it’ll fix the whole problem. Please, bro.
“You want your fries to be ’large’, child? My uncle died after being hit by a ‘large’ truck. The scales fell from my eyes that day! Yes, the toy is included with the meal.”
There are some truly unhinged bits in the piece about Glasman, as to be expected when dealing with Glasman, but seriously what the actual? That's...one hell of a conflation of terminology.
November 23, 2025 at 3:37 PM
“You want your fries to be ’large’, child? My uncle died after being hit by a ‘large’ truck. The scales fell from my eyes that day! Yes, the toy is included with the meal.”
Unsure how much you can blame AI and how much social media but a significant portion of people are becoming functionally illiterate.
this website is literally free and that’s beautiful
November 21, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Unsure how much you can blame AI and how much social media but a significant portion of people are becoming functionally illiterate.
Reposted by Sam
obvs you would get the big letters out of the upper case here and the little letters out of the lower case, hence the terms we now use instead of ‘majuscule and minuscule’
November 21, 2025 at 10:31 AM
obvs you would get the big letters out of the upper case here and the little letters out of the lower case, hence the terms we now use instead of ‘majuscule and minuscule’
Reposted by Sam
type for books used to be set using little metal letters built into words in racks and then inked and pressed on to paper. If you had stock phrases you wanted to reuse a lot you could make a cast of them called a ‘stereotype’. The sound of them *clicking* into place, in French, is ‘cliché’
Man, everything is so bleak, anyone got a fun fact or little bit of trivia they want to share
November 21, 2025 at 10:17 AM
type for books used to be set using little metal letters built into words in racks and then inked and pressed on to paper. If you had stock phrases you wanted to reuse a lot you could make a cast of them called a ‘stereotype’. The sound of them *clicking* into place, in French, is ‘cliché’
I think this actually illustrates Labour’s strategy, such as it is:
Reform isn’t a racist enterprise - in fact, most Reform voters are noble, ordinary, salt of the earth people. It’s just that they’re being let down by their leadership.
Reform isn’t a racist enterprise - in fact, most Reform voters are noble, ordinary, salt of the earth people. It’s just that they’re being let down by their leadership.
Good that he’s going on the attack but deploy the appropriate weapon: the issue is not a failure to root out a few bad apples; the issue is that the entire enterprise is racist and that is the point.
November 21, 2025 at 9:29 AM
I think this actually illustrates Labour’s strategy, such as it is:
Reform isn’t a racist enterprise - in fact, most Reform voters are noble, ordinary, salt of the earth people. It’s just that they’re being let down by their leadership.
Reform isn’t a racist enterprise - in fact, most Reform voters are noble, ordinary, salt of the earth people. It’s just that they’re being let down by their leadership.
Mustn’t import. Must wait tor UK release.
November 20, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Mustn’t import. Must wait tor UK release.
Reposted by Sam
Mahmoods argument is that migrants and their families in britain are perpetual guests whose behaviour must be collectively flawless otherwise our white hosts will violently kick us out. Thats an anti integration argument!
November 18, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Mahmoods argument is that migrants and their families in britain are perpetual guests whose behaviour must be collectively flawless otherwise our white hosts will violently kick us out. Thats an anti integration argument!
Reposted by Sam
It's true. If Labour raise income taxes, the party might slump to around a quarter of the vote, and its PM and Chancellor might be even more unpopular than Rishi Sunak in 2024 or Jeremy Corbyn in 2019 - wait, sorry, just got an email from Ipsos with some new polling, I'm sure it's nothing important.
Quite a contrast to the BlueSky consensus the last 24 hours
Do you think the government was right or wrong to decide not to raise income tax at the Budget?
Right: 58%
Wrong: 21%
yougov.co.uk/topics/polit...
Right: 58%
Wrong: 21%
yougov.co.uk/topics/polit...
November 14, 2025 at 5:28 PM
It's true. If Labour raise income taxes, the party might slump to around a quarter of the vote, and its PM and Chancellor might be even more unpopular than Rishi Sunak in 2024 or Jeremy Corbyn in 2019 - wait, sorry, just got an email from Ipsos with some new polling, I'm sure it's nothing important.
Reposted by Sam
Yes, I think this is what the “it’s smart not to do income tax” stuff is missing. If you remove salary sacrifice on someone’s pension contributions you are increasing their income tax! If you freeze thresholds you are increasing their income tax!
Issue for Labour now isn't whether they break their manifesto pledge on tax. It is whether they do so in a way which is blatant, honest but sustainable - or whether they do so by a myriad of complex and likely insufficient means whilst arguing they are not.
Imho, one seems more toxic than the other
Imho, one seems more toxic than the other
November 14, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Yes, I think this is what the “it’s smart not to do income tax” stuff is missing. If you remove salary sacrifice on someone’s pension contributions you are increasing their income tax! If you freeze thresholds you are increasing their income tax!
Reposted by Sam
The James Bond franchise faces a big problem: me, the viewer, has been shot at the start of the movie through the barrel of my gun, and I'm dripping blood over my own eye balls (they're in the gun)
November 11, 2025 at 7:40 PM
The James Bond franchise faces a big problem: me, the viewer, has been shot at the start of the movie through the barrel of my gun, and I'm dripping blood over my own eye balls (they're in the gun)
This does rather betray that Reform’s ultimate plan is to steal the chaos emeralds.
November 10, 2025 at 11:19 AM
This does rather betray that Reform’s ultimate plan is to steal the chaos emeralds.
Reposted by Sam
The new Apes movies are all quietly pretty good (though I’m weird and like the first and last ones most).
The bairn came back from her friend’s house while we were watching Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and was hooked by it. She just watched Rise and is going absolutely daft for it. She’s seven.
November 7, 2025 at 9:07 PM
The new Apes movies are all quietly pretty good (though I’m weird and like the first and last ones most).