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APHEX TWIN [THIS DOES NOT COMPUTE] After a career fuelled by strange rumours and obstinate behaviour, Richard James – the contrary, sleep-deprived, tank-driving genius behind Aphex Twin – is finally ready to open up, or is he? Ken Micallef flies to London for a closer look at James’ sunnier disposition. Photos by Tim Owen. Back in the summer of 1994, when Richard James was still the poster boy for ambient …

TT Combat released new miniatures for Rumbleslam and Carnevale:Link: TT Combat

CHOPPER (C1-10P) STAR WARS: RETRO COLLECTION (HASBRO) Fun FiQ Fact #0040: There are two characters in Ahsoka whose original actors reprise the roles. The first was David Tennant as Huyang, and the second was Dave Filloni as Chopper. You gotta keep those Daves around! Can you be into Star Wars toys and not just love a good Astromech Droid? Of course not! Every good story’s got at least one of …

I lovd the dear haunts of the sweet solitudesThat round its lome walls in the circle do lyeWere no living thing all the season intrudesBut a bird or a bee humming wearisome bye& Ive hunted for spots by the brook & have foundThe lonliest existing an hour to abideWith nought but the green light of trees flitting round& the shadow that seemed stretchd asleep by my sideFollow me for daily …

One of the most humbling aspects of our Universe is the knowledge that, with enough time, all things will eventually pass away. New stars and stellar systems, while they’re expected to keep forming for many billions or even trillions of years to come, are on the decline, with the current star-formation rate only about 3% of what it was at its peak some 11 billion years ago. Planets like Earth …

There are some books so raw with emotion that it is almost painful to read them: My Name is Million is one of these. Published anonymously in 1940, it is a memoir of the terrifying first months of the war by Lucy Zoe Girling Zajdler, an Anglo-Irish writer (who published as Martin Hare) who was married to a Pole and living in Warsaw when the war broke out. Writing from …

This essay originally was published on December 14, 2023, with the email subject line "CT No. 195: Moving past the Buzzfeed mythos."I'll admit that I talked up Buzzfeed as much as any pundit in the early 2010s. The new digital darlings were more upbeat and generalized than the folks in the Gawker network. They were innovating with digital tools and interaction, especially in their quiz department, and hiring talent whose …

Solar panels can dramatically cut the running costs of a home – but usually, only the well-off can afford them. How do we help those who can’t? CC-licensed photo by Oregon State University on Flickr. You can sign up to receive each day’s Start Up post by email. You’ll need to click a confirmation link, so no spam. It’s Friday, so there’s another post due at the Social Warming Substack …

Here's a first. All being well, as you read this, I will be taking park in Model Rail Scotland with the World of Railways stand. Glasgow is a show I always wanted to do with Melbridge Dock, but never had an invite. It's a very long journey, a 5.5 hour drive I've not looking forward to if I'm honest, but we are exhibiting, and they need someone who can talk …

As of this writing I have 8 drafts in WordPress. Some of them are more than a year old. Aaron Jorbin has a post called Leap Day is Delete Your Drafts Day! Jeremy Felt replied with a post saying that he would be participating. He wrote something I identify with: Some drafts are fun markers in time and are hard to delete, yet still somehow impossible to publish. Even just …

As you may have heard a brand new bus route is set to hit the streets of south east London tomorrow as SL3 begins between Thamesmead and Bromley. The route will bring the New Routemaster bus (which isn’t very new anymore) to areas such as Thamesmead, Abbey Wood and Bexleyheath for the first time in routine service. And when it does, the limited stop nature of the route will greatly …

Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today! As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Davy Jones, The Bell Records Story (7a) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 7a Records reissues and expands the late Davy Jones' second solo LP, 1971's Davy Jones as part […]

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by Elisa Giudici L'EMPIRE © Tessalit Productions If I think about the typical film competing at Berlin, I imagine something quite dramatic, decidedly political, and sometimes rather heavy. This edition of the Berlinale has added the adjective "bizarre" to this profile of mine. Here are four films seen in these hours that deserve this adjective. L’EMPIRE by Bruno DumontLet me preface this one: Dumont and I just don't see eye …

Linearity is a blessing and a curse; if the fragrance smells good, it's the former, and if not, the latter. But what happens when a linear fragrance smells neither good nor bad, but just "so-so?" At what point do we decide that linearity is a driver of something other than one's subjective level of enjoyment? At what point is it automatically something undesirable? Replica By the Fireplace