Podcast bits worth listening to this month - Patrick Stewart, Ben Travers on WG Grace, AUKUS, David Kynaston, Disney, Coffin Ships,, some brilliant stand-up about Northern Ireland, the bloke from Judas Priest and a proto-fascist
Stuff I’ve enjoyed listening to
Fresh Air - Actor Patrick Stewart - Patrick Stewart says he is responsible for his colleague in Star Trek being pronounced as the English ‘day-ta’ rather than the American ‘dah-ta’
TMS View from the boundary - Ben Travers - the 93-year-old playwright remembers WG Grace as having a “curiously falsetto voive in such a large frame”
The Hated and the Dead - Australia’s Aukus sceptics - “Australia’s greatest defensive asset is distance…..Beijing is closer to Berlin than it is to Sydney "
[1960s Britain: smashing the status quo?
- History Extra podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/bb/podcast/1960s-britain-smashing-the-status-quo/id256580326?i=1000631611944) - David Kynaston quotes Dominic Sandbrook’s “killer fact” - the best selling LP of the 1960s wasn’t Sgt Peppers, it was the Sound of Music
History Extra - Slave Traders - the men who built a brutal empire - a fifth of the enslaved people transported across the Atlantic died on the journey. A further sixth were too sick to sell once they got off the ship
History Extra - Disney at 100 I either didnt know or had forgotten that the Diney corporation wanted to create a theme park of American history, called Disney’s America. I’m not sure whether it would’ve been A Good Thing, but it might have been interesting.
Borderline: A postcard from the edge of the Union - “One day I’ll tell them all about their grandad, and what happened to them, but just not yet”. A very sad line from Patrick Kielty’s stand-up show on the BBC…but the rest is very funny. Information, education and entertainment in every line.
Wtf with Marc Maron - Rob Halford - apparently, the case against Judas Priest was based on a judge’s ruling that the First Amendment right to free speech wouldn’t protect backwards messages on records
The Rest is Entertainment - Titanic, tattoos, and Trade Wars - the Titanic film was pre-digital cinema. The reels for the film were three miles long
RTE The History Show - Myles talks to Cian McMahon, author of the book “The Coffin Ship: Life and Death at Sea during the Great Irish Famine” - during the Famine there were cases of people committing small non-violent crimes so that they can be sentenced to transportation to Australia. The author says that conditions on some migrant ship were indeed dreadful, earning the description of ‘coffin ships’, but many weren’t that bad for the time.
The Hated and the Dead - Gabriele D’Annunzio - Fascinating podcast episode about Gabriele D’Annunzio, who Mussolini called “The John the Baptist of Italian fascism”
Bill Bailey is auctioning his rather good drawings of swifts, to raise money for conservation
Auction for Bill Bailey’s swift drawings
We’ve got swifts around where we live. They are lovely to see flying around…but they make a horrible racket when they’re not
It’s very hot in The Shire today
I’m wondering whether it’s better to read a book set somewhere else hot, or somewhere cold in such conditions
Olivia Rodrigo introduced Robert Smith of The Cure as “perhaps the best songwriter to come out of England”.
Must have had a touch of sunstroke.
winding — day 29 of the #mbjune photoblogging challenge
A slightly winding path at Hengistbury Head, at the start of the Bournemouth half marathon. It doesn’t really have anything to do with the Juteish Hengist
Micro.blog challenge word for day 28: “ephemeral” #mbjune
According to the signs this is an “ephemeral pond”. At the time I took the photo it was more ephemeral then pond
📷 #mbjune Day 27: Collective 2 photos
The plaque is from Magna Carta. The barons collectively got King John to accept limits on his power. It wasn’t #NoKings , but it was a start
The slightly knackered signposting features the NHS logo. The NHS is marvellous, and it was made by collective action
I’m still watching Endgame in Ireland, and it struck me that building the peace process involved subtlety, emotional intelligence, occasional tactical dishonesty and just hard work, over many years
I can see why Mr Trump is getting a bit sweary
Endgame in Ireland, Series 1: 1. Bomb and the Ballot Box - BBC iPlayer
decay — day 25 of the micro.blog june 2025 photoblogging challenge 📷
You can just about see that there was a Led By Donkeys poster here
I’m watching Endgame in Ireland. It’s excellent.
Endgame in Ireland, Series 1: 1. Bomb and the Ballot Box - BBC iPlayer
I just created a time-shifted version of a podcast.
I got the rss feed - https://feeds.megaphone.fm/GLT4787413333
Then mucked about a bit with it in vim
:%sort
:%s/<Enclosure url="//
:%s/?..*//
…then pasted the list of mp3’s into Create a Podcast | Fourble
This gives me a feed for the podcast beginning at the beginning - The Rest is History (Goalhanger) podcast | Fourble
I’m not yet sure if it will be in the right order :)
I was talking to someone about a film the other night, but I couldn’t remember what it was called
I’ve remembered the name of the film now, but I can’t remember who it was I was talking to
Day 22 Day of the Micro.blog photo challenge - hometown
This is the High Street Gate of the Cathedral Close. I think I’d been running when I took the photo, which might explain why it’s a bit wonky
Day 21 of the Micro.blog photo challenge - silhouette #mbjune
I took this at a (London) tube station - you can probably guess which one!
I was pleased to learn that Marc Bolan was a nice bloke and that Bowie had a stupid sense of humour
Rick Wakeman in Mojo magazine
One week you were so skint that Marc Bolan asked you to play piano glissandos on Get It On, just so you could get the session fee?
He did. I was nine quid short on my rent, so I went in to do Get It On. He said, “All I want is… when I nod at you, do a gliss.” After, I said, You could have done this. He said, “You needed your rent. I could have lent you the nine quid, or given it to you, but you wouldn’t have taken it.” I loved Marc. All the guys around Trident Studios were absolutely fantastic.
Later, I got a call from Tony: “I’m at Trident Studios with Gus Dudgeon and David Bowie. David desperately wants the mellotron to go with the other strings, and nobody can keep the effing thing in tune.” So I walked into Trident and met David for the first time. He said, “Gus and Tony say, for you, this is a piece of cake. Ever played a piece of cake before?”
Day 19 of the Micro.blog photo challenge — equal
This stone is about a mile from where I live. It’s beneath Old Sarum, and marks the fact that until the Great Reform Act, Old Sarum (population: 3 people and a dog) returned two Members of Parliament, whereas Manchester returned none. #mbjune
Of all of the good days of the year, fixture list day is one of my favourites.
A day of hope and optimism, of innocence and expectation
Every Premier League player saying their own name, twice
The Chelsea players start at about 21minutes
(‘recommended’ on The Rest is Entertainment podcast)