Riff Cliche
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orthobob.bsky.social
Riff Cliche
@orthobob.bsky.social
Austin-based curmudgeonly Englishman reinventing himself as last year's thing. Likes 16th century Flemish art, Marmite, and some other stuff.
Pinned
Was in the process of signing up for Blue Sky when I discovered I was already here, had posted 400 times back in 2023 and had approximately 3 followers. So hey, life is good innit?
Could be my album of the year. A shame the year is 1968...
Given Time
YouTube video by Diane Hildebrand - Topic
youtu.be
November 15, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Podcasts with less than 100 views/listens, Bluesky posts with neither comments nor likes — these are my people, sayeth the Lord... or more likely me.
November 15, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Healthcare? Doctors? Why waste your money when you can buy your own scalpel, gauze and a big bottle of horse dewormer?
November 8, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Imagine a TV show like Saturday Night Live but funny.
November 3, 2025 at 12:53 AM
It's like one of those HP Lovecraft stories where the narrator manages to write down his last words as the eldritch things gets him.
Clearing up those "had a stroke" rumors with some impeccable StrokePosting™. Masterful gambit sir!
October 29, 2025 at 10:32 PM
I was right, wasn't I?
First gathering of Trump's nominees.
October 17, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Disturbed to find an error in Shadow Ticket.The FBI was not called the FBI until 1935, Tom. Not sure that I can go on...
October 10, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Rewatching LOST for the first time since it was broadcast and impressed at how well it holds up: it certainly shows how lugubrious "prestige" TV currently is. An episode like "The Shape of Things to Come" from Season 4 has more going on on every level than an entire season of most HBO or FX product.
October 6, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Today's update;
October 5, 2025 at 3:26 PM
It's a bit of a dilemma when one thinks creators should be paid for their work but can't bring oneself to pay $10 a month for less than half a dozen Substack posts. I mean, I could get a secondhand copy of Anna Karenina for that.
October 5, 2025 at 3:23 PM
"I can't be the only one confusing Russ Vought with Brock Vond," as Zoyd Wheeler said to Bob Ferguson.
October 4, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Possibly the most late-60s-pop-thing ever.
1968 Alan Copeland Singers - Mission: Impossible Theme / Norwegian Wood (mono 45)
YouTube video by The45Prof
youtu.be
October 4, 2025 at 4:51 PM
I'm so old I remember a decade going by thinking Gravity's Rainbow would be Thomas Pynchon's last novel.
September 30, 2025 at 5:36 PM
SOME PEOPLE ARE SAYINGS EMMY'S ARE A DEMOCRAT HOAX BECAUSE "BEST" PRESIDENT EVER WAS "ROBBED" OF AWARD FOR "MOST WARS STOPPED BY A HANDSOME FOX NEWS GUEST NOT IN ANY EPSTEIN BOOK."
September 15, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Now playing on X*:

"I was a Marxist leader of Antifa until yesterday when I heard that someone had heard someone say something slightly disrespectful of St. Charlie of Kirk so I immediately sent all my money to Elon Musk."

*And possibly the NYT Opinion pages.
September 13, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Now that it looks like Kirk's assassin may have come from the Groyper contingency (or even deeper in the 8chan world) we're likely to see the blabbermouths on the right switch from "ALL LEFTISTS MUST DIE FOR THIS!!!" rhetoric to "The left should be ashamed of politicising this tragic incident."
September 13, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Starting to see this on the precious things I need to see me through the Great Discontinuity.
September 7, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Wait until Trump discovers there isn't a Nobel War Prize.
September 6, 2025 at 5:48 PM
America has concerns...
August 31, 2025 at 9:01 PM
As a crime-loving 90 year old white communist hippy, I quake at the sight of these prime specimens of the master race.
August 21, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Once again, AI has nothing to fear when humans churn out mulch like this. (And remember, when writing about books always show a shot from a film.)
From V to Vineland and Inherent Vice: Thomas Pynchon’s books – ranked!
With fans eagerly awaiting the reclusive author’s first book in more than a decade, the noir caper Shadow Ticket, we assess his best fiction of the past 60 years
www.theguardian.com
August 18, 2025 at 3:56 PM
August 13, 2025 at 3:15 AM
A bit half- nay, quarter-arsed. Lacking...
youtu.be/o7MwHGHWgLk
July 31, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Search "Epstein" in X right now and I challenge you to find a single tweet taking Trump's side.
July 12, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Only seems like yesterday when he set up Verrit to blast anyone who didn't worship Hillary Clinton...
July 5, 2025 at 4:55 PM