December 2009
70 posts
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-12-27) →
Passion Pit (26)
Sufjan Stevens (20)
Bowerbirds (16)
Bellowhead (14)
Mumford & Sons (13)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Alma by Rodrigo Blaas
Beautiful, and dark animation by a former Pixar employee. (Watch in HD) (via)
The Pootling Albums Of The Year 2009 as a Spotify... →
Listen to all of the albums I’ve reviewed in the comfort of your (Europe-based, broadband-enabled) home. If you need an invite, I’ve got a couple. Tweet me.
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Every ten years a man should give himself a good kick in the pants.
– Edward Steichen
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Christmas is the one time of year when people of all religions come together to...
– Bart Simpson
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Sleepover for snowbound shoppers →
The relatively tiny amount of money this must have cost John Lewis has more than paid for itself in amazing PR. I hope Deborah Strazza’s getting a raise.
Where angels fear to tread →
My god, it’s a relief to read a well-argued, intelligent post about climate change and science on a right-of-centre blog. The comments are littered with inane drivel of course, but one step at a time.
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thomyk Podcast 55: Ending →
Could this be the last ever Thom & Michael podcast? You’ll just have to listen and find out.
It certainly isn’t a cliffhanger for our podcast pantomime, which’ll be available to download on Christmas Eve…
Copenhagen's failure belongs to Obama →
I guess a president that came in with the wave of hope Obama did was always going to be a disappointment, but this much of a disappointment? Naomi Klein’s right about how much better it could have…
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-12-20) →
Madvillain (22)
Nirvana (15)
Bellowhead (11)
Bowerbirds (10)
Allen Toussaint (7)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
I’d rather be a rising ape than a fallen angel.
– Terry Pratchett
Rage Against the Machine? Raging within the... →
Charlie Brooker on the Joe McElderry single: “Listening to it from beginning to end is like watching a bored cleaner methodically wiping a smudge from a Formica worksurface.”
Matters of Honour →
The Heresiarch on the case of Munir Hussain who battered a burglar and got sent to jail for it. I don’t think this could be more perfectly pitched.
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Our blight is ideologies — they are the long-expected Antichrist!
– Carl Jung, The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation
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How to write a 'Christmas is under attack' scare... →
From Five Chinese Crackers “Just follow this handy template and you’re away.”
thomyk Podcast 54: Burlesque →
In which Thom and Michael meet in the concrete warren of the Barbican Centre to discuss their recent activities (or lack thereof), ahead of attending the Bad Film Club’s Christmas festivities.
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Digested read: Driven to Distraction by Clarkson →
John Crace’s digested version of Clarkson’s book sure beats reading it in full.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-12-13) →
The Wonder Stuff (28)
George Shearing (18)
Sufjan Stevens (10)
Nirvana (9)
Portico Quartet (9)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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Christmas to a child is the first terrible proof that to travel hopefully is...
– Stephen Fry
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Mind Hacks on fan violence and its relation to... →
“A win did not increase happiness but losing or drawing decreased it”. Ahh, the joys of sport.
Where Does My Money Go? →
Fantastic visualisation of UK public spending.
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thomyk Podcast: Ensemble →
In which Thom and Michael and Billy and Will make strange noises which give a hint of future audio treats!
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Stone of Contention →
Great post from Heresy Corner on why objects such as the Rosetta Stone should not returned to their country of origin.
Streaming will never stop downloading →
The Doctorow has spoken. And he’s right: “Hard problems can’t be solved with technical denialism.”
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The most important part of the story is the part you don’t know yet.
– Barbara Kingsolver to Kurt Andersen (via bobulate) (via merlin)
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thomyk Podcast 53: Kapoor →
In which Michael returns from the Royal Academy to chart the trajectory of Anish Kapoor’s career from the shiny to the lumpy and Thom laments the amount of negativity found on the internet after having engaged in a fair amount of it himself.
Rod Liddle - more racist than the BNP? →
It’s a pretty persuasive case that Liddle actually goes further than the delightful Richard Barnbrook in being a racist.