I note in passing on this early-morning start day, that The Monkees (or songwriter John Stewart) had to get up earlier than The Clash, pre-fame. ‘Ring, ring, it’s seven am’ vs ‘The six o’clock alarm would never ring.’

🎥 Forgot to mention we watched Holiday Inn over the Christmas period. A singer gives up show-business because it’s hard work, to become a farmer! After a year he realises the obvious, and turns his house into a supper club that’s only open on the fifteen holidays in the US year. Great songs.

Trying out mb-cli, a command-line Micro.blog client from @timapple.

I fail to understand anyone who considers themself to be even vaguely ‘progressive’ or ‘liberal’ or ‘on the right side of history’ can not stand with the people of Iran. Sure, the US taking action might not be the best result, but as long as the Islamic Republic falls, the world will be better.

Five under par in today’s Minute Cryptic! Minute Cryptic - 12 January, 2026 “7-Eleven uniform among ugliest uniforms” (5,4) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 0 hints – 5 under the community par (47,960 solvers so far). www.minutecryptic.com

Brief thoughts on seeing The Book of Mormon.

Going to see The Book of Mormon tonight. I’ve no real idea what it’s about, which may be the best way to approach it, I don’t know.

The American President is another Sorkin/Reiner collab, and another one we watched over the Christmas break. it’s also Sorkin’s dry run for The West Wing, being the story of — well, you can guess the post of the main character. it’s pretty good. Feels weird, having Martin Sheen in the Leo role, but you get used to it.

Very weird. I’m trying to sign in to YouTube on my Mac. The signin page gets intercepted by Microsoft’s SSO page, which wants me to log on with my City Lit account. I did a course there last term. They used Google Classroom, so that was the last way I signed in to anything Google. But I want to sign in with my Google account.

Can’t remember if we watched this on Christmas Day or Boxing Day, but it turns out to be a Christmas movie itself. At least in part, and as much as Die Hard is. Or maybe not quite. The point is it does have a scene — quite an important one — at Christmas. Anyway. I thought I had seen this before. I mean I had, I watched it. But I couldn’t remember anything of the story after the famous horse’s head scene.

Watched: Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl 🎥 Another one we watched over Christmas. Rewatched, actually, as we saw it when it came out last year. Tons of fun, of course. Four stars.

Watched: A Few Good Men 🎥 I’m trying the Micro.blog films feature, for more control than the Letterboxd RSS feed. We introduced our daughter to The West Wing over the last few months, and needed more Sorkin. Also RIP Rob Reiner. It’s a great film. I’d give it four stars if this had them.

It’s interesting to discover that this is a great read even though I’ve seen the TV series. An interesting parallel with early last year, or rather last thing in 2024, when I read Conclave, not long after seeing the film. If you’re unfamiliar with Mick Herron’s ‘Slough House’ stories, the series is up to four seasons now — or is it five? — on Apple TV. And it’s really good. This is the book that started it all, and it’s excellent.

My personal tradition requires me to post a brief summary of last year’s posts, early in the new year. I also note how many books I read. In 2025 I read — I’m going to call it 30 books, even though there are only 28 posts so tagged at the time of writing. I’ve finished two in the last week or so that I consider 2025 books, and I’ll be posting about them soon.

The world turns, and just like that, it’s a new year. Happy New Year, everybody! I didn’t know creating a list on Letterboxd would add an entry to my feed, and thereby create a post on my blog. It was only meant to be a place to record the films we watched recently, prior to me writing about them. Oh well.

Incredibly, and contrary to my previous post, I remain unwhammed after shopping in the West End on the Saturday before Christmas. Wow. It was busy, you won’t be surprised to hear.

It is the 20th of December, and incredibly, I have not yet been Whammed! Which probably just shows how little I go out. I’m shopping in the West End today, though, so Whamaggedon seems inevitable.

‘[W]e might have to wait two years for the conclusion’ I wrote almost six years ago. The conclusion of The Book of Dust arrived the other day. I haven’t started it yet, and now I’m thinking I might go back and reread the previous one first.

Variety's list of the 100 best comedy movies of all time includes 'Annie Hall,' 'Pretty Woman,' 'Waiting for Guffman' and 'Young Frankenstein.'

My notes an drawings of a lecture on how the novel was put together.