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Who did I listen to most this week? #lastfm says: Peter Gabriel (64), Kate Bush (45), Glaring (35), Phase Fatale (29) & The Soft Moon (19) [via lastweekly]

During that same fateful spring of 1521 which brought triumph followed by death to Ferdinand Magellan in the Philippines, his adopted liege Charles was grappling with problems of his own half a world away. For Charles’s new kingdom of Spain was then in the closing stages of a brief but terrifying civil war. A year earlier, the city of Toledo, in the heart of old Castille, had instigated a rebellion …

Hello, and welcome to 2025. Is it that time already? The possessive apostrophe (or rather, the abuse of the possessive apostrophe) is a recurrent guest star here at Shady Characters, but usually in the English language. Recently, though, the Guardian reported that unneeded apostrophes are infecting German, too. The so-called Deppenapostroph, or “idiot’s apostrophe”, appears when a German-language expression uses it to indicate a possessive — despite the fact that …

Here's another Stargrave scenario, completely untested, as per usual. THE HERMIT Pagurus Titanicus is known for grabbing bits of debris to build itself a tough outer shell, and there's plenty of debris among the dead stars. There's loot too, and rumour has it this monster is carrying treasure on its back. SET-UP Place terrain as normal. Multi-level terrain is handy for jumping down on the

I was walking from Russell Square to Kings Cross today and, as I passed by these houses that end at Heathcote Street, I thought it was high time that I shared my idea that surely they face the wrong way. I mean to say, the front doors face Mecklenburgh Street, yet the walled back gardens abut Grays Inn Road here. I've only seen the like in two other London locations: …

WowHaus 1930s art deco house in Taunton, Somerset 1930s art deco house in Taunton, Somerset (image credit: Robert Cooney) This 1930s art deco house in Taunton, Somerset, is the best renovation project I have seen for quite some time. (image credit: Robert Cooney) Because 1930s houses in largely original condition just don’t come up very often these days. And especially 1930s houses with architectural merit, which is what we are …

Hove is a very acceptable place to spend a day. I was last in the area when visiting the Urchin, a seafood-specialist gastropub and microbrewery (I bet there aren't too many of them around) which made the (pretty easy actually) journey down from Battersea more than worth my while. Since then, I've discovered that we paid way too much for our train tickets (apparently we should have gone Thameslink, not …

Ben Ramanauskas wants to abolish the pensions triple lock. As a longstanding advocate of it, you'd expect me to disagree. And I do, but not violently. Ben proposes replacing the lock with simply raising the state pension in line with average earnings. This has two great merits. One, as Ben says, is that it aligns the interests of pensioners and workers. It tells today's pensioners: "you're in the same boat …

I visited Los Angeles for the first time in February of 2001. I’d passed on previous opportunities to visit because I assumed it would be a place I’d hate. The only things I knew about it was there were lots of earthquakes and fake people. I didn’t work in the movies, had no interest in plastic surgery or fancy cars and generally didn’t think there was anything I’d find interesting …

The Crimea Tavern, Castleford, Yorkshire A distinctive Victorian red-brick pub with an arched frontage, across the road from the River Aire on the north side of the town centre. It has been closed since 2009, and planning permission has now been granted for its demolition.

A cartoon coded in CSS from comiCSS.

The Voyage of Magellan, Interlude: The Mutineers’ Return

In this edition: Green Eyes and the explosion of cryptid festivals Appalachian folk horror Cryptid Media – Folk horror resurgence/British Cryptids Pop Cryptid – Jackalope or nope? Hello and welcome to the 3rd edition of the Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of observing the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. My interest is in exploring the expansion of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon – …

I saw this interview in 1999, around when "The Straight Story" came out, and it totally changed how I look at/understand art/the world. I am always looking for the eye of the duck.Rest in peace, David Lynch.