Rob Tyers
@thexclaim6
Leeds. Project Manager. Band member. Ex-zine author. 📚 and records. Punk. Cinema. Old stones. The Long Sixties. Modernism. Weird fiction. Noir. JG Ballard. You get the idea…
Went to a beach sauna in Wales and swam in the sea between sessions Highly recommended
The walks around Machynlleth are great in hot weather. Nature’s air conditioning
There were also old school antique / junk shops that were essentially antiques themselves…
And a short walk away, the White Stones - a pair of large, ancient quartz boulders that have been here since at least 1500s and probably long before
Made it to Maen Llwyd (The Grey Stone), an ancient standing stone erected directly on a roundabout island at the center of a housing in Machynlleth Very Quatermass 🤌
He also dresses like this throughout, a reminder that the “colonial police force” look was once the height of fashion
Great stuff. Also enjoyed this incidental 1960 news snippet: “Have you ever felt there was something lacking in your life? Yesterday this void was filled for me. I tasted my first circular sausage.” “I am like the man who first took the middle out of a doughnut…I have done that for the sausage."
Went to the local festival and saw a 12 year old Freddie Mercury tribute
Also Daily Mail ran a story on very different findings showing mushy peas totally dominating the north. More right wing misinformation?
Deep cut Sopranos blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment - Carmella drawing her son AJ as a demonic entity
Love the book and the film’s in my top 5 easily. That scene in the hairdressers…
Binged the doc series ABANDONED (2026). Strong recommend. A mystery about why 3 kids were abandoned at a train station in the 1980s As much as anything it’s a celebration of the irrepressible investigative itch of everyday people Also nice to see Giles Tremlett in it. Love his book Ghosts of Spain
Am back on this Hearst book, and still enjoying it despite its mixed reputation As if to underline the Mad Seventies of it all, two of the gang (and Patty) reportedly watched a double feature of these films whilst on the run following the Mel’s Spotting Goods store shoot out…
2. In 1873 the main man Karl Marx came to Harrogate for 3 weeks for health cures. So he might have taken a crap in this very toilet. No blue plaque though, pfft Harrogate Baths rules so much btw. Highest recommendation 2/2
HISTORIC TOILET ALERT 🚽 Why is this Victorian toilet at Harrogate Baths so interesting? 1. Firstly, the fact it’s a surviving “crapper”, a classic case of nominative determinism. Plumber Thomas Crapper invented the ballcock and his toilets were everywhere, but the word predates him Secondly… 1/2
You’ve piqued my interest - got this recently and really should start reading it
Love this 1956 Georges Simenon photo An unusually unproductive year for the guy who wrote 400 novels (he published only one), prob because he’d just returned to Europe after a decade living in America and was relieved to be back doing what he loved - drinking and smoking in brasseries 🤌 #booksky
Also one of the things I love about this already is the fun formal experimentation, reflecting the influence cinema was having on the written word at the time - an influence that corresponds with developments in more overtly modernist works Here’s a great example from the first chapter…
Now reading - Little Caesar (1929) by W.R. Burnett I was blown away reading Burnett’s Asphalt Jungle (1949) earlier this year, so I can’t wait to dig into this one, his hugely influential debut Trying not to think about the film too much as I read it That No Exit cover design too 🤌 #booksky
Camorra (2018) Stumbled on this on Prime and glad I did. A fairly loose documentary essay of the worst years of Camorra’s influence over Naples, all told through fascinating archive footage with minimal narration. Very Adam Curtis, whether a conscious influence or not. 70 minutes too… 1/3 #filmsky
Hotel I’m staying in going for jazz age glamour decor, but coming off all Overlook