mattypenny

This is worth a listen if you have an interest in UK politics - Matt Forde interviewing Rob Burley about political interviewing.

The Political Party Show 317 - Rob Burley - Tuesday, May 30, 2023

It’s particularly good on the friendship between Brian Walden, an ex-Labour MP who became a TV interviewer, and Margaret Thatcher. The friendship came to an end with a bruising hour long interview

Steve Coogan is making a film about it

Want to read: Why Is This Lying Bastard Lying to Me? by Rob Burley 📚

You would think that Spotify, with all its money and its smarts and its AI, would be able to distinguish between:

• the Showmen who were “a New Orleans–based American doo-wop and R&B group formed in 1961.”

and

• the Showmen who were “an Italian soul/pop/R&B group from Naples.”

Watching an episode of the Cleaner and they refer to a sea monster called the Oilliphéist

Apparently

“an Oilliphéist cuts the route of the River Shannon when it hears that Saint Patrick has come to drive out it and its kind.

In a comic addition to the story, the monster swallows a drunken piper named Ó Ruairc (O’Rourke). The piper is either unaware of his predicament or is completely unperturbed and continues to play inside the Oilliphéist’s stomach. The monster becomes so annoyed with Ó Ruairc’s music that it coughs him up and spits him out.” The Olliphéist - Wikipedia

Nick Hayward, of Haircut 100, recounts how shocked he was seeing Sparks wandering around his home town - Beckenham.

There is something particularly arresting about seeing someone famous, not on stage and not in London, but just mooching about the place in which you grew up

These are the only two famous people I’ve seen walking around Salisbury, and, coincidentally, I’m a huge fan of both

Nick Heyward reboots ‘the fragrance of rock’ - Word in Your Ear

Thoughts on the Bournemouth half marathon yesterday

• Hengistbury Head is nice. Outdoors-y but with a nice cafe and visitor centre

• lovely route…I didn’t realise how much I missed the sea

• the steep climb, at about 8 miles, up the side of Boscombe Chine was…. challenging (swears omitted here)

• just two portaloos at the three mile point is nowhere near enough

• we were lucky with the weather

• I didn’t win

• trying to spot my young, bearded, skinny chum coming the other away among lots and lots of other young, bearded, skinny people is enough to make you go cross-eyed. It’s like an endurance version of Where’s Wally

• it’s a nice medal. It looks a bit on-the-nose, but the detail is nice

• I’m very grateful to the organisers and volunteers for putting it on

wish me luck! 🏃

Hengistbury Head and the Needles in the background

Hengistbury Head - I read that it doesn’t really have much to do with Hengist

Enjoying a stand-up LP by the-lady-from-Fisk on Spotify

Kitty Flanagan - Seriously?

Theresa May gets it right here. It was appalling that Putin tried to assassinate someone on British soil, and it was just unbelievable that they didn’t care about who else got poisoned

“May said the men acted with “utter recklessness”. She said: “You felt they just didn’t care about anything.”

Novichok poisonings Justice ‘highly unlikely’ over Salisbury novichok attack, says Theresa May - The Guardian

the temperature has dropped, and the fingerless gloves are back on

I feel Dickensian

Some music-related AI pub signs

Oasis:

The Pogues:

The fifth Beatle:

The Waterloo Sunset:

James Cleverly has been knocked out of the Conservative leadership race

This seems like fantastic news for Labour, and probably also for Nigel Farage….but it doesn’t seem like great news for the country

Beautiful day in The Shire…if you can avoid the rain

After years and years of having an Android phone, I’ve only just discovered the usefulness of the Gboard personal dictionary, with the suggestion bar turned on.

I’ve got ‘xxm’ set up to generate a markdown link

Gboard settings can be accessed by long pressing the comma

Smartprix page about Gboard

I enjoyed Supacell, but it did make South east London seem a bit grim.

I was hoping a bit for superheroes in capes laying waste to Lewisham High Street.

That didn’t happen…but it’s a great show

As the commentator pointed out, it looks a bit like Everton are playing Saudi Arabia :(

Pam Ayers has a pile of wood and rubbish in her garden which provides a habitat for hedgehogs and insects and such

She has a genius word for it. It’s her ‘nonfire’

Midnight Meets - Pam Ayres

A friend has met Paul McCartney a couple of times

I thought about what I’d say if I ever met him.

I came to the conclusion that I’d ask him what his favourite Elvis song was

I dreamt last night that I met Sir Paul in a cafe. I’m a bit disgruntled that in my dream I neglected to ask the question