DJ Punctum
@djpunctum.bsky.social
"Modern medicine is not a line where you left your fossils." Married to an American so watch it. Co-author of the now completed Then Play Long blog (https://nobilliards.blogspot.com).
Pinned
It's Sunday afternoon, it's been a fortnight and it's time for yet another retro UK Top 40 singles chart countdown...this week we go back to the week ending 4 December 1982! How long before you succumb(er)?
November 30, 2025 at 12:46 PM
It's Sunday afternoon, it's been a fortnight and it's time for yet another retro UK Top 40 singles chart countdown...this week we go back to the week ending 4 December 1982! How long before you succumb(er)?
In today's Observer, "A manifesto for the imagination" by Julian Barnes. I wonder whether he prefers Night Dubbing to In The Heat Of The Night.
November 30, 2025 at 10:53 AM
In today's Observer, "A manifesto for the imagination" by Julian Barnes. I wonder whether he prefers Night Dubbing to In The Heat Of The Night.
Isn't she just being honest, spectacle revealed etc.?
November 30, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Isn't she just being honest, spectacle revealed etc.?
It me in shops generally.
November 30, 2025 at 10:08 AM
It me in shops generally.
"used to." My long-term experience of record shops here in the UK is that they are staffed by sullen bad-life-choice types who do their utmost to pretend the customer doesn't exist, even, or especially, when they plan to give them some money. Then people wonder why so many record shops closed.
November 30, 2025 at 10:07 AM
"used to." My long-term experience of record shops here in the UK is that they are staffed by sullen bad-life-choice types who do their utmost to pretend the customer doesn't exist, even, or especially, when they plan to give them some money. Then people wonder why so many record shops closed.
This is great writing:
archive.ph/USRZm
archive.ph/USRZm
archive.ph
November 30, 2025 at 10:01 AM
This is great writing:
archive.ph/USRZm
archive.ph/USRZm
Sick and tired of the inbuilt ineptitude of this place. If you're going to build a realistic alternative to the other place, get your tech sorted out in the first instance. Pushing a year and you still haven't managed it or more realistically can't be arsed to fix things. Other things to do.
November 29, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Sick and tired of the inbuilt ineptitude of this place. If you're going to build a realistic alternative to the other place, get your tech sorted out in the first instance. Pushing a year and you still haven't managed it or more realistically can't be arsed to fix things. Other things to do.
FIP just played a track from Out Of Season by Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man from 23 years ago, the first major album I reviewed for Uncut. It remains remarkable, astonishing and inventive. Everything that Lux a generation later strives to be but isn't.
November 29, 2025 at 9:56 PM
FIP just played a track from Out Of Season by Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man from 23 years ago, the first major album I reviewed for Uncut. It remains remarkable, astonishing and inventive. Everything that Lux a generation later strives to be but isn't.
The thing about Ben W's Bailey book is that he circles hawklike round the "why did Derek B & Evan P split" question but never actually answers it. Whereas David Keenan asked DB straight out about it in the Wire six months later and DB gave him an immediate and direct explanation.
November 29, 2025 at 7:58 PM
The thing about Ben W's Bailey book is that he circles hawklike round the "why did Derek B & Evan P split" question but never actually answers it. Whereas David Keenan asked DB straight out about it in the Wire six months later and DB gave him an immediate and direct explanation.
We once stood in front of Tom Stoppard in the queue at Sands End Sainsbury's circa 2009. At the time he lived just up the road from us in Imperial Wharf. He was buying a lot of readymade meals so I guess he was organising a bit of a social gathering.
November 29, 2025 at 7:51 PM
We once stood in front of Tom Stoppard in the queue at Sands End Sainsbury's circa 2009. At the time he lived just up the road from us in Imperial Wharf. He was buying a lot of readymade meals so I guess he was organising a bit of a social gathering.
Reposted by DJ Punctum
from "Arcadia": "We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it."
November 29, 2025 at 5:23 PM
from "Arcadia": "We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it."
It's the new Spycatcher.
Rowing out to a middle of a lake in Scotland to pick up a watertight package containing 10 new copies of "Conversations with Friends"
November 29, 2025 at 7:48 PM
It's the new Spycatcher.
Nicely put, emoji-wise.
Turns out there are only two colours of UK politics:
💩
and 💚.
Try it. Take red, blue, orange and cyan paints and mix them together.
#AllOutGreen the politics of truth, equity, empathy and justice
💩
and 💚.
Try it. Take red, blue, orange and cyan paints and mix them together.
#AllOutGreen the politics of truth, equity, empathy and justice
The Labour Government refused a 1% asset tax on the super rich, yet raised taxes on people already struggling.
All whilst their "black hole" turned out to be utter nonsense.
Active choices to refuse to fund our communities which they desperately need.
Join.greenparty.org.uk
All whilst their "black hole" turned out to be utter nonsense.
Active choices to refuse to fund our communities which they desperately need.
Join.greenparty.org.uk
November 29, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Nicely put, emoji-wise.
Reposted by DJ Punctum
Perfect Tom Stoppard story from DTel obituary:
His response to a letter from Harold Pinter canvassing support for a proposal to have the Comedy Theatre in London rechristened the Pinter Theatre, “Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?”
His response to a letter from Harold Pinter canvassing support for a proposal to have the Comedy Theatre in London rechristened the Pinter Theatre, “Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?”
November 29, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Perfect Tom Stoppard story from DTel obituary:
His response to a letter from Harold Pinter canvassing support for a proposal to have the Comedy Theatre in London rechristened the Pinter Theatre, “Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?”
His response to a letter from Harold Pinter canvassing support for a proposal to have the Comedy Theatre in London rechristened the Pinter Theatre, “Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?”
Reposted by DJ Punctum
Tom Stoppard, playwright of dazzling wit and playful erudition, dies aged 88
www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/n...
Tom Stoppard, playwright of dazzling wit and playful erudition, dies aged 88
A theatrical sensation since the 1960s, whose dramas included Arcadia, The Real Thing and Leopoldstadt, Stoppard also had huge success as a screenwriter
www.theguardian.com
November 29, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Tom Stoppard, playwright of dazzling wit and playful erudition, dies aged 88
www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/n...
Reposted by DJ Punctum
Finally getting some theological clarity on the ethics of reclining in one’s plane seat
November 29, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Finally getting some theological clarity on the ethics of reclining in one’s plane seat
"The Beatles" oh shut up.
November 29, 2025 at 1:57 PM
"The Beatles" oh shut up.
what in heck were any of these people doing at a RAINBOW concert?
Eno diary, 28 November 1995: Damien Hirst reminds E. of the young John Lydon. "Still making that hippy music, then?"
November 29, 2025 at 1:48 PM
what in heck were any of these people doing at a RAINBOW concert?
"in their own words" so where are "Don't Know Really," "That One That Goes You Know" and "Someone Special"?
It’s Rudolph The Red Nosed Reggae by Paul McCartney.
What is Britain's favourite Christmas song?
Fairytale of New York: 19%
Last Christmas: 13%
All I Want for Christmas is You: 7%
Merry Christmas Everybody: 5%
Driving Home for Christmas: 5%
White Christmas: 5%
Merry Christmas Everyone: 4%
Do They Know It's Christmas: 3%
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...
Fairytale of New York: 19%
Last Christmas: 13%
All I Want for Christmas is You: 7%
Merry Christmas Everybody: 5%
Driving Home for Christmas: 5%
White Christmas: 5%
Merry Christmas Everyone: 4%
Do They Know It's Christmas: 3%
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...
November 29, 2025 at 1:47 PM
"in their own words" so where are "Don't Know Really," "That One That Goes You Know" and "Someone Special"?
You know, FIP, there are an awful lot of artists whose work you shouldn't be playing.
November 29, 2025 at 1:06 PM
You know, FIP, there are an awful lot of artists whose work you shouldn't be playing.
Actually I think you'll find most people do want Mariah, again and again. And Wham! and Slade because it's Christmas and the world's horrible and people want to forget about that and just have fun. They aren't interested in being trendy hipsters. Most normal people aren't. Remember normal people?
November 29, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Actually I think you'll find most people do want Mariah, again and again. And Wham! and Slade because it's Christmas and the world's horrible and people want to forget about that and just have fun. They aren't interested in being trendy hipsters. Most normal people aren't. Remember normal people?
"I Told Ya" by Dexter in the Newsagent; nice enough (if overly playlist-friendly) tune but sounds 'phone-generated and has no bottom to it (not really danceable). Whereas "Excellent Birds" by Laurie Anderson & Peter Gabriel's production is three-dimensional, surrounds you.
November 29, 2025 at 11:41 AM
"I Told Ya" by Dexter in the Newsagent; nice enough (if overly playlist-friendly) tune but sounds 'phone-generated and has no bottom to it (not really danceable). Whereas "Excellent Birds" by Laurie Anderson & Peter Gabriel's production is three-dimensional, surrounds you.
Hey, lazy radio stations, play the full "Thieves Like Us" off Substance, not the edit off Singles. That's the sort of thing robots do.
November 29, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Hey, lazy radio stations, play the full "Thieves Like Us" off Substance, not the edit off Singles. That's the sort of thing robots do.
When's Edwyn Collins going to ban St@rmer from liking, or pretending to have liked, Orange Juice (why do I think at the time he would more likely have been scoffed at for buying "Classic" by Adrian Gurvitz)?
November 29, 2025 at 10:56 AM
When's Edwyn Collins going to ban St@rmer from liking, or pretending to have liked, Orange Juice (why do I think at the time he would more likely have been scoffed at for buying "Classic" by Adrian Gurvitz)?
"I've been sacked from my job and replaced by A.I., can't afford to feed or heat my children and am about to be thrown into the gutter to rot. But at least I won't have to look at any more Sally Rooney novels."
November 29, 2025 at 10:30 AM
"I've been sacked from my job and replaced by A.I., can't afford to feed or heat my children and am about to be thrown into the gutter to rot. But at least I won't have to look at any more Sally Rooney novels."