Holly Gramazio

@hollygramazio

Writing, game design, etc. Adelaide, London. Wrote a novel called “The Husbands”. book: newsletter: info: ig: pic: Diana Patient

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Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Jul 13

The Promise to Pay button is so good, I guess it came in as the result of some extremely intense arguments when the ticket machines stopped accepting cash payments

Screen reading:
Please press to confirm purchase
Promise to Pay
Press here to pay now

Screen reading:

By confirming that you Promise to Pay, you're stating that you have the cash to pay for your journey and promise to do so at the first opportunity. A voucher will be issued displaying the details of your intended journey and that you accept these conditions. It can be exchanged for a travel ticket on train or at a ticket office.
You can't pay with a credit or debit card.
Please select 'Accept conditions' to print your voucher if you agree to these conditions of issue.
Accept conditions
Do not accept conditions

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Jul 13

God I love how excited the Glasgow railway machines are to sell you a ticket

Screen reading

ScotRail
SCOTLAND'S RAILWAY
This is the new TicketXpress machine!
PLEASE TOUCH THE SCREEN!!!

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Jul 12

This is basically the only photo I have of @glasgowindiegamesfest.org but what a lovely time this weekend has been

Folded yellow paper saying”photos and videos will be taken” with a big bright crowd of people and umbrellas milling around in the background

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Jul 7

I’m reading an odd little 1950s pamphlet about reciting poetry and the writers keep breaking off to talk about how much they hate various modern tendencies including, most notably, people who listen to music out loud instead of using headphones

Small black pamphlet called “How to Say a Poem” by Dilys M. Turner and Oliver C. de C. Ellis

The growth of a crystal is an intensely individual affair. It must be undisturbed. External tranquillity is essential also to the Production of a poem. Railroads, said Bridges in 1918, have added greatly to the vain, feverish turmoil, which is the worst foe to spiritual life; but since then there have come the omnipresent omnibus, the aeroplane, and worst of all, the wireless. At first, since ideas of elementary courtesy were still prevalent, listeners used ear-telephones, as indeed gentlefolk who can bear to listen still do.
Now the monstrous "music while you work" not only fills every factory: it has also become a part of the din of the street, where, t00, loud-speaker vans roam at pleasure. The gramophone and wireless advertisers assert that suitable settings for their wares are Stonehenge at sunrise, the backwater reaches of the river, or Esthwaite under the moon. There is no refuge from the wireless or from the whistler even in the university, the post-office, the bank, the library, the hospital or the home; while the amenity of quiet conversation with a fellow-traveller on the railway or on the omnibus, or the opportunity to follow out a train of thought has not even been imagined by a present generation-supported by elders anxiously keeping up-to-date-that has been reared on the conveyor-belt of the monstrous combination of state " education" and "national service."
The enemy sedulously propagates the notion that it is "queer" want to be quiet, to breathe untainted air, to think. It is well-own that the enemy breaks its prisoners by a long-continued rivation of every kind of comfort, relaxation and tranquillity.
"They

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Jul 4

alternative 1937 British name for the platypus! Had never heard this before, lacks dignity but you’ve got to admit it’s descriptive

Slightly bedraggled old hardback book called “How to See Beasts” with an engraving (I think) of some field mice on the front

“Most beasts are born alive, but in three very remarkable creatures, eggs are laid and the young hatch from them after a time, just as do the chicks of birds. These curious beasts all live in Australia, Tasmania, or New Guinea, and are not only unlike all other mammals in that they lay eggs, but also in that the young, instead of suckling their mothers, lick up the milk provided for them as it is produced. These three egg-laying beasts are called the duckmole, the spiny echidna, and the spiny anteater.”

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Jul 2

Hmmm still mostly keeping up with Books Peckham's reading calendar but this month it's "One Big Book". Honestly I am a lazy reader and usually only go for the big guys in December, when I don't want to leave the house; any suggestions for something 600+ pages that feels summery?

A picture of a sketchily hand-drawn photocopied calendar saying "JULY: This month I'm reading ONE BIG BOOK" with an asterisk saying "must be 600 pages AT LEAST". There are various suggested books hand-written around: Middlemarch, One of the Tolstoys, The Sea The Sea, etc

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Jul 1

What a great catalogue of Japanese toys from 1891 to 1923 at @publicdomainrev.bsky.social , I have so many questions eg - what is the spurting whale - how does it work - why are these boars so smug - what do you do with the magnet mice and may I have one publicdomainreview.org/collection/u...

Toy catalogue illustration: a dark whale shown with water coming out a hole, and maybe you operate the flippers to make it do that? Plus some sort of skittle dressed as a lady.

Toy catalogue illustration: four boars of different sizes, the largest of which looks very pleased with itself

toy catalogue illustration: this is a confusing one, there's a mouse in a wheel, a mouse on a carriage, two mice on a stick around a central pivot, a mouse attached to a ball - these are presumably all wooden - and also there's a big magnet

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Jun 30

Look I love a mnemonic device but

A photo of a page in a book, showing an acrostic reading CAUTION! SAFETY FIRST!

Does that seem like a bit long for an acrostic? Yes! It is! Here are the sentences it acrostics:

Consider your own safety and that of other
people.
Act in a way that prevents incidents from
becoming accidents.
Use your common sense and think before
acting.
T
idy workplaces make safer workplaces. dentify hazards.
Observe the rule of Safety First.
Never underestimate the dangers.
S witch off! Always withdraw plug and
disconnect from mains.
Appliances vary - make sure you have a
suitable replacement part.
For screws use a screwdriver, for nuts a spanner, for knurled nuts use pliers.
Examine and clean all connections before
fitting new parts.
T
ighten all screws and nuts firmly.
Y our safety depends on these simple rules.
Fuses: Up to 250 watts 1 amp; 750 watts 3 amp; 750 to 3000 watts 13 amp. nsulation is for your protection. Don't interfere.
Renew worn or damaged appliance flex.
Secure flex clamps and all protective covers
correctly.
Test physically and electrically on
completion.

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Jun 26

couldn't sleep last night so I read J.R. Ackerley's 1956 book "My Dog Tulip", which the NYRB republication describes thus

The distinguished British man of letters J. R. Ackerley hardly thought of himself as a dog lover when, well into middle age, he came into possession of a German shepherd. To his surprise, she turned out to be the love of his life, the “ideal friend” he had been searching for in vain for years. My Dog Tulip is a bittersweet retrospective account of their sixteen-year companionship, as well as a profound and subtle meditation on the strangeness that lies at the heart of all relationships. In vivid and sometimes startling detail, Ackerley tells of Tulip’s often erratic behavior and very canine tastes, and of his own fumbling but determined efforts to ensure for her an existence of perfect happiness.

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Jun 23

Cardboard over the skylight, seems to be helping?

Large skylight - maybe 1 by 1.5 metres? - with a sheet of cardboard painted white messily taped on top, it’ll be FINE

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Jun 15

Author spam getting very assertive lately

Email opening reading “Dear Holly Gramazio, This email finds you well” (which as it happens was true)

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· May 22

okay it’s hermit crab day for the house plants, everyone get in line

A row of half a dozen different types of house plants in increasing sizes, crowded onto a countertop, with an empty tiny pot at one end and an empty big pot at the other

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· May 13

Yes great bookshop

Notice up in a bookshop named “Another Country English Language Bookshop” that says “prices marked in this handwriting are not valid” with an arrow to a circle and the price 9.50 in a very slightly distinctive handwriting

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· May 9

Came across an alternative title translation in Skoob once which I still slightly regret not having bought

The cover of a translation of “les liaisons dangereuses” but instead of the usual “dangerous liaisons” they have gone for “dangerous acquaintances”

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· May 2

This week I’m mostly getting ads for seeds and idk, I feel like you should have to pick EITHER “our archival British Heritage seeds bespeak history in your garden” OR “we’re cool and rebellious and a little bit misogynist” for your branding, I don’t think you can do both at once

Image of pink foxgloves - which it’s true my specific grandmother does not grow, she is 94 years old and gave up her garden a year ago and even before then she had a strong preference for Australian native plants - with text over it reading “NOT YOUR GRANDMA’S FLOWERS, Plant a piece of Britain’s Heritage in your garden, JOIN THE REVOLUTION.

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Apr 26

Good work whoever decided to put the buy-one-get-two-free Easter sale bit of Eataly right next to the wine bar bit of Eataly

Three large Baci-branded Easter eggs. £5 each! We bought one, and got two free!

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Apr 13

This Sunday 19 April is Good Decision Day! This is a fake festival I made up some years ago: a day when you must make only good decisions. I find it a weirdly refreshing thing to try for one spring day. Perhaps you would too? Some friends of mine also observe it, some others find it very upsetting

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Apr 12

I read this little aside, on language learning, in @naoisedolan.bsky.social's newsletter six weeks ago and I'm still thinking about it. Because yes, obviously this is true! Of course it is! Why had I never thought this!

I’m still continuing with the Al Jazeera lemmas project on Anki, too, but that kind of thing can only ever be supplementary; [highlight begins] I don’t think it’s efficient to spend too much time on spaced repetition apps when a language is already a spaced repetition system unto itself. [highlight ends] A better one than Anki, too. Anki will show you the word for ‘wrench’ as often as the word for ‘boy’ if you input both cards. Continual exposure to the language will organically teach you the most important ones first, and will keep embedding them more deeply than the lower-frequency ones.

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Apr 9

Hello! Are you someone in London who's interested in weird playful experiments and commercially implausible games? I've written up some of the stuff happening as part of this year's London Games Festival that I think you should check out buttondown.com/holly/archiv...

The flyer for the London Games Festival: an illustration of a kind-of weird mecha made of various London landmarks, looming over the London skyline while some humans frolic, blue sky behind, title reading "LONDON GAMES FESTIVAL 13 April - 19 April 2026"

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Apr 8

Did someone tell the book promo bots about negging

Email screenshot; the subject line reads “you gave her 203 husbands… and still no one’s choosing your book”

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Apr 8

gelatoooo

A perfect cat sits in the sunlight, he is orange and quite round

Now he is under some white blossom, pensive, perhaps thinking about AE Housman

Now he is jumping in an immaculate dive from a raised flower bed; he is magnificent

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Apr 3

Got my copy of @manderleypress.bsky.social’s repub of Helene Hanff’s 1962 “Underfoot in Show Business”, which I really really recommend if you’re interested in a memoir of someone failing to become a playwright in the 40s and 50s, definitely holds up to a reread now

Photo of hardback of “underfoot in show business” by Helene Hanff’s, sitting on a yellow piece of tissue paper

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Apr 1

Also, here is the mascot of the Tasmanian Devils AFL team, whose design process was - it seems - steered by the legal requirement to look as little as possible like the Warner Bros. character Taz www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/m...

a human-sized tasmanian devil (probably, a person in a costume) stands on two legs, knees bloodied, body hanging with tassels, vast teeth, thick whiskers, he looks like someone in a raven costume wearing a bear costume head but the mouth has been hit with a magnifying ray

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Apr 1

Apparently it's International Tasmanian Devil Day! Sure, why not! Here's a Tasmanian Devil we met at Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary last month.

an enclosure in a wildlife sanctuary, gum trees and blue-grey sky in the background. A large tree has a copper ring around it about a metre and a half off the ground, and a sign reading PLEASE DON'T TOUCH US, WE BITE! By the base of the tree, a small black furious creature about the size of a cat, at least 50% of whose head comprises a large open mouth and long teeth

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Mar 31

oooh I currently have Hunter's "Puffin Book of Magic" and it's mostly very charming

cover of "The Puffin Book of Magic" by Norman Hunter; there's an illustration on the front featuring a witch, wizard, giant bird?????, rabbit?cards? cat, star, moon, just generally Magic Tricks Vibes

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Mar 29

also dropped by "Library" at Arthouse Lewisham, work by artists using books in different ways - this is half of Ruth Beale's "LIKE GODS". The books in it are basically all old sci-fi novels and god; SO many that I read as a fourteen-year-old and had totally forgotten until now

grey stone building with a sign saying LIBRARY and an a-board pointing in, saying "Gallery - Free Admission"

bookshelves in the shape of the letters L I K E, filled with paperback books

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Mar 29

and accidentally came across an exhibition of stuff found by mudlarkers - "are you interested in a free exhibition about mudlarking", someone in a tabard asked me, and I'd shaken my head politely and walked on to the next building before I caught up with what she'd said and realised I definitely was

green card with labels reading "Navel buttons", "hand etched buttons" etc, loads of buttons and pins and hooks sitting on it

black fabric with maybe 30-40 handmade nails on them, and a little label saying "Have a look at these ship's nails - what do you notice?"

a shell filled with white clay marbles, decorated with thin painted lines

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Mar 29

and popped through St Dunstans-in-the-East, which remains everything you'd want from a tiny park in a ruined church

stone wall, greening in places, with empty windows in the shape of fancy church stained-glass windows; vine growing over the front, bare trees visible through the windows, spire, grey sky

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Mar 29

also went to the disassembly of @abipalmer.bsky.social's wonderful Crip Casino; now I have a piece of it at home that I am contractually obliged to bring back if Abi ever demands it

glass-fronted building labelled SET with a big cardboard hand-painted sign reading EVERYTHING MUST GO over the door

the carcass of a poker machine, all plastic and empty bits and cables

piece of paper headed "DEATH OF A CASINO - ACQUISITION PROCESS" stuck to a wall, explaining how people can take a piece of the disassembled casino home

Holly Gramazio@hollygramazio· Mar 29

London games/arts people - Arcade at Hypha Studios near Warren Street station is definitely worth popping into if you're in the area before it closes 18 April, it's really charming hyphastudios.com/arcade/