Some Melodious Plot

More thoughts on Zurbarán at the National Gallery. The two Saint Francis paintings almost have me rushing off to join a monastery. somemelodiousplot.blogspot.com/2026/08/a-kn...

Watch out, Beadle's about ...

'Nocturne: Grey and Gold, Westminster Bridge' (1874) by James McNeill Whistler (The Burrell Collection)

Halloween inbound, so this afternoon is a trip to the cinema. This morning’s dilemma all resolved, but which way did it go? Halloween at the Prince Charles or The Pit and the Pendulum at the BFI?

Obviously I want the utmost damage to Trump in the midterms, for Congress to constrain him & for a Democrat president in a couple years time. But honestly something broke in my relationship w America when Trump won the second time. I can't imagine feeling excited for an American president again.

Trumpets and trombones. Perfect for a windy Sunday morning. #Poulenc #Radio 3

‘I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by …’

Who is filing the Villa v City match report at The Guardian? Sheikh Mansour? 😏

Oh my! Before I even look, my scores on the doors. 3. Famous Blue Raincoat 2. Alexandra Leaving 1. Take This Longing www.theguardian.com/music/2026/o...

A quick drink with colleagues post work, then home by seven for soup and an episode of Endeavour. From the top deck of the bus gone 11.

‘I hide down in my corner, because I like my corner!’ Blistering Mountain Goats gig at St John’s in Hackney, with fabulous support from Craig Finn and the Band of Forgiveness.

To Hackney for The Mountain Goats and Craig Finn. There’s gonna be a party when the 🐺 comes home! Got my Hold Steady T-shirt on to show a bit of love for Craig too!

Shelagh take a bow. @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

I reckon that's my Dad's old Cortina! :-)

I wish I could still walk fast enough to get annoyed by things like this. 🤣

Fucking ghastly. And just a note on strange semantics, because Polymarket deals in a binary yes or no outcome, apparently it isn’t classed as betting and thus wheedles its way through numerous loopholes.

Wonderful tributes to Carol Rumens who died this week, and her column Poem of the Week. She’ll be much missed. Loved discussing this column with friends. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...

Is Gordon Brown the first prime minister to feature on a top 20 album? Good pop quiz fact if so.

Guy Siner – 79 today. One of the few actors to have completed the 'Allo 'Allo, Chucklevision and Seinfeld triple crown!

I didn’t half do some moping to Room in Your Heart. #totp

Explaining Buster Bloodvessel to my 13-year-old. #TOTP

In bed listening to the new Susanne Sundfør and it’s strange and perfect. Channelling Julian of Norwich.

Went to a lecture at the Business School on ending the need for food banks. Made a Baroness belly laugh and spit out her wine. I’m firmly in the credit column today.

I enjoyed Glenn Richards & the Venus Lakes at the Water Rats last night. But I would have loved to have seen them beefed up with a rhythm section.

This might be my song of the summer from the lead singer of Augie March (wait, it's not October yet, surely?) And just one of the reasons that I'm off to see Glenn Richards and The Venus Lakes at the Water Rats tonight. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G-v...

‘We have given the world our passion, We have naught for death but toys.’ Yeats on Mabel Beardsley on her deathbed.

Another recommendation (around 2009) that I’ve finally got around to reading. It’s heartbreaking …. Daniel Keyes and ‘Flowers for Algernon’.

Car, coffee, cannoli. One of these three things ain’t mine.

It was, if the spirit of Iain Banks will forgive me, the day the pope exploded. Well, to be strictly accurate, today is the 68th anniversary of the day a botched embalming saw Pius XII’s rotting torso break open while he was lying in state. (Yes, sorry. This thread is absolutely disgusting)

Sunday morning and lots of coffee to keep an hangover at bay, and the final leg of Radio 3’s magnificent broadcasts from lighthouse. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Out with a few old shipmates for drinks tonight and it’s knocked years off me being called by my old ‘Jack name’! Ken, in case you’re asking! :-) ⚓️

I’m very suggestible …

I love the internet. Proust’s Bergotte describing ‘Berma’ to the narrator.

On this day in 1982, Glenn Gould died in Toronto. Born in 1932 in Toronto, he was one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century. He won three Grammys, three Junos and is a member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. His music is also on the Voyager Golden Record. 📸 Fred Plaut

Happy St Francis/San Francesco d'Assisi day, who died 800 years ago. Italy's co-patron saint (along with Santa Caterina da Siena) and also the patron saint of nature, animals and ecology. www.saltproject.org/progressive-...

‘She’s made you some kind of laughing stock / because you dance to disco and you don't like rock’. #PetShopBoys #BBC

Love Comes Quickly. Quietly sublime. #PetShopBoys #BBC