Martin O'Leary
@strangetea.bsky.social
2K followers 1K following 6.7K posts
London based filmmaker working on folk horror, weird shit, punk sci-fi satire and stuff that exudes a cosmic darkness. Progressive humane human. Obsessed with phantasmagoria, perpetually dreich. Sometimes a numpty, always the odd one out. He/him.
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strangetea.bsky.social
Clearly it was a cinema run by vampires. I'd expect nothing less from our Parisian friends.
tylerhuckabee.bsky.social
In 2004, Parisian police were conducting a training exercise in the french catacombs and found, after moving past a desk and a tape playing audio of snarling dogs, a fully functional movie theater and bar. When they returned 3 days later, the equipment was gone, with a note: “Do not try to find us.”
Members of the force's sports squad, responsible
- among other tasks - for policing the 170 miles of tunnels, caves, galleries and catacombs that underlie large parts of Paris, stumbled on the complex while on a training exercise beneath the Palais de Chaillot, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower.
After entering the network through a drain next to the Trocadero, the officers came across a tarpaulin marked: Building site, No access.
Behind that, a tunnel held a desk and a closed-circuit TV camera set to automatically record images of anyone passing. The mechanism also triggered a tape of dogs barking, "clearly designed to frighten people off," the spokesman said.
Further along, the tunnel opened into a vast 400 sq metre cave some 18m underground, "like an underground amphitheatre, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs". There the police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and tapes of a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers. None of the films were banned or even offensive, the spokesman said.
A smaller cave next door had been turned into an informal restaurant and bar. "There were bottles of whisky and other spirits behind a bar, tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous," the spokesman said.
"The whole thing ran off a professionally installed electricity system and there were at least three phone lines down there."
Three days later, when the police returned accompanied by experts from the French electricity board to see where the power was coming from, the phone and electricity lines had been cut and a note was lying in the middle of the floor: "Do not," it said, "try to find us."
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
sabinastent.bsky.social
New obsession
tylerhuckabee.bsky.social
In 2004, Parisian police were conducting a training exercise in the french catacombs and found, after moving past a desk and a tape playing audio of snarling dogs, a fully functional movie theater and bar. When they returned 3 days later, the equipment was gone, with a note: “Do not try to find us.”
Members of the force's sports squad, responsible
- among other tasks - for policing the 170 miles of tunnels, caves, galleries and catacombs that underlie large parts of Paris, stumbled on the complex while on a training exercise beneath the Palais de Chaillot, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower.
After entering the network through a drain next to the Trocadero, the officers came across a tarpaulin marked: Building site, No access.
Behind that, a tunnel held a desk and a closed-circuit TV camera set to automatically record images of anyone passing. The mechanism also triggered a tape of dogs barking, "clearly designed to frighten people off," the spokesman said.
Further along, the tunnel opened into a vast 400 sq metre cave some 18m underground, "like an underground amphitheatre, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs". There the police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and tapes of a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers. None of the films were banned or even offensive, the spokesman said.
A smaller cave next door had been turned into an informal restaurant and bar. "There were bottles of whisky and other spirits behind a bar, tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous," the spokesman said.
"The whole thing ran off a professionally installed electricity system and there were at least three phone lines down there."
Three days later, when the police returned accompanied by experts from the French electricity board to see where the power was coming from, the phone and electricity lines had been cut and a note was lying in the middle of the floor: "Do not," it said, "try to find us."
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
draylasays.bsky.social
This is what it’s like to be Palestinian: Israel threatening you with “severe consequences” if you express any joy at the homecoming of your loved ones from captivity in Israeli prisons, where they’ve been tortured for decades.
aljazeera.com
While Israelis celebrated the return of captives from Gaza, Israel warned Palestinian families against holding celebrations over the return of prisoners – some who had been held for decades. Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh explains.
strangetea.bsky.social
It's near impossible to find any peace these days. I'm not forgiving any of them for these lost, broken years. Also, damn people's willful blindness when it comes to what our society has done to the world. I'm not forgiving that either.
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
mrpussy.xyz
I love the inflatable costumes from a purely strategic standpoint because it quite effectively takes the wind out of the sails of "war-torn portland" "antifa supersoldier" type rhetoric. it happened organically and dare I say, memetically, but it works
razzball.bsky.social
STOP THE ANTIFA TERRORISTS
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
gonebabygone.bsky.social
You’d think the part of Serenity that aged worst is Joss Whedon getting to make a movie but it’s actually that broadcasting proof of an atrocity is the undoing of the people who committed it
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
orionjack.bsky.social
We don’t talk enough about the greatest wedding scene ever filmed 🎥
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
strangetea.bsky.social
It's all so depressing and unnecessary.
Solidarity, Beth. ✊
strangetea.bsky.social
Fucks sake...
bleary.off-the-records.com
If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.
Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing?
2? Questions
I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up.
Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
soozuk.bsky.social
If I shared this as a shitpost version of what Trump said at the Netanyahu celebration people would chuckle and say "you've done it again, Sooz" but it's just what he literally said.
yasharali.bsky.social
2. “…Bibi would call me so many times—“Can you get me this weapon? That weapon? That weapon?” Some of them I never even heard of. But we’d get them there, wouldn’t we? And they are the best. They are the best…and you obviously used them very well.”
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
samwhyte.bsky.social
I know people have mixed feelings about the term "hope", but Raymond Williams was on to something with “to be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing.”
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
samwhyte.bsky.social
I'm so relieved he's not engaging with any unserious jibes. Only dignifying reasonable questions with answers. We all need to stop being baited. I include myself in that.
junlper.beer
zack polanski is so good and i genuinely think if the left rallies around this guy and the green party in the UK, they can easily beat back the hysteria of the reform party
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
strangetea.bsky.social
An unresolvable divide between my age group of film lovers and the younger generations is that old fucks like me thinks stop motion animation is beautiful and full of character, while the younger, post digital generation thinks it looks like shit.

*falls asleep crying to Mad God*
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
strangetea.bsky.social
Get this man into a frog costume!
richraho.bsky.social
Pope to Chicago Labor Leaders: “Please know of my appreciation for your welcome of immigrants and refugees, especially your support of food pantries and shelters….I encourage you to continue to advocate for society to respect the human dignity of the most vulnerable.” www.vatican.va/content/leo-...
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
philralph.bsky.social
When I say ‘the crisis in TV isn’t a blip, it’s a paradigm shift’, this 👇👇👇 is why. The ground is shifting fast under our feet and ‘more of what worked before’ isn’t going to cut it. TV needs to see this as an opportunity for innovation, risk, experimentation and the new before it’s too late…
michaelsavage.bsky.social
Last month, something unusual happened in TV - none of the main channels got a million viewers at 9pm. The bigger problem was it happened a 2nd & 3rd time soon after.

Another unwelcome landmark for linear TV & our shrinking shared TV experience.

Does it matter?

www.theguardian.com/media/2025/o...
‘It was a binding experience’: TV producers mourn decline of hot 9pm slot
UK broadcasters used to rely on big audiences at 9pm, but as viewing habits change, figures are falling below the 1m mark
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
kaseygifford.bsky.social
We should be asking this
c o n s t a n t l y.
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
priscillapage.bsky.social
the Catholic church to all the people I hate right now
Prince of Darkness screenshot of old computer screen (blue-white text on black screen) that reads "In fact, YOU WILL NOT BE SAVED!"
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
cait.bsky.social
"well what are the Democrats supposed to do" I don't know! They're supposed to know! I'm not the one who sought and obtained a political position that would require me to know what to do when the ruling party attempts to install the President as a dictator!
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
suzettesmith.bsky.social
Portland’s Emergency World Naked Bike Ride arrives at ICE
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
ashleylynch.bsky.social
This is why the costumes are honestly brilliant. Ngo, who has never said a truthful thing in his entire life (remember the concrete milkshake?) now has to convince people inflatable Sesame Street and animal costumes are violent terrorists.

Sometimes you just need an image too silly to demonize.
michaelehayden.bsky.social
“They are highly organized … [they] have purchased their own animal costumes”
Andy ngo mad about muppets again — this time in Chicago
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
frovo.bsky.social
ME: if frankenstein is the name of the doctor not the monster then how is the bride of frankenstein the bride of the monster not the doctor

CHATGTP: *implodes*
Reposted by Martin O'Leary
ryanhatesthis.bsky.social
In the 2010s, this country's elites were thrown onto social platforms with everyone else and could finally read what we all think about them and it caused them so much psychic damage that they decided to destroy both the internet and democracy to make sure nothing like it ever happened again.
gbbranstetter.bsky.social
If this is what it took for you to be pushed into fascism you were probably already there
This predates the social media wars of the late 2010s: One Trump appointee told me that a radicalizing experience was being booted out of the Gawker comments section, way back in the day. But as progressive movements swept through social media, others were tossed off Twitter and Facebook for stepping over a variety of lines, from allegations of harassment to claims of election misinformation. Pandemic era public health rules and fevered enforcement cost others their accounts.
Reposted by Martin O'Leary