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Reading the serialized versions of Red Harvest and The Dain Curse, having read the novels ~15 years ago. Serialized RH is fantastic, perhaps even better than the book. TDC was the only Hammett I’ve ever disliked. I’m half way through the serialized one now and it’s… just as bad, possibly worse.

My battered copy of The Big Book of the Continental Op. I’ve generally been preferring the wonderful Standard Ebooks collection of the short stories on my Kobo, but the serialized novels are unique to this collection.

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I have absolutely no idea how this will work on the stage, but I'm definitely intrigued. The book had the strongest sense of place of anything I've ever read. I dreamed about it for weeks, and that just doesn't happen to me.

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Reading noir novels recently, I came across the insult "four-flusher". This is fun, as historically it relates to cheating in poker (falsely declaring a hand as a flush by only showing four cards and hiding the fifth), but in the present era it makes someone sound like a stubborn, unflushable turd.

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

With Mega Man done and dusted, I needed a new-to-me game. Opted for a cult favourite from early in the PSX’s life, Jumping Flash! This isn’t an FPS, but effectively a first-person platformer (famously hard to pull off) with light shooting elements. It’s fast, fun and the jumping feels great.

My trusty MMS2 with PSX SNAC adapter, with a multitap plugged in (to enable use of a real memory card) and a charcoal black original PSX controller. Centre of frame is a freshly minted NFC card for loading Jumping Flash.

A photo of the screen on the first level, demonstrating the famous jump mechanic, which pivots your view down on a double-jump so you can use your feet and your shadow to work out where you’re going to land.

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Just finished Mega Man 1 NES via MiSTer. I think this might be the first NES game I’ve ever completed TBH, as I barely touched the console in my youth. The MMS2 with SNAC cart and dogbone NES controller was perfect, and I’ve finally got the graphics settings where I want them for my boggo 1080p TV.

The final screen of Mega Man 1, where Mega Man reveals his true form as an Astro Boy knock-off, complete with plastic hair.

A zoomed in photo of the screen, to capture the graphics filters. 5x integer scale, 30/70 adaptive scanlines, 60% sharp horizontal interpolation, Trinitron shadow mask.

My trusty MMS2, with the NES SNAC cart in the slot. I’ve plugged a Four Score into it, just to act as an extension cable for the comically short controller cable on my dogbone AV Famicom controller. Behind the SNAC cart you can just see the NFC card I’ve been using to boot the game, in its slot.

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Delaney King (She/Her/Whomst) @delaneyking.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Vibe coding? Oh you mean technical-debtmaxxing?

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

This week’s new arrival. Ambient is not my thing, as a rule, but as a Foxx fan I’ve always been curious about Cathedral Oceans. When this copy of the fairly rare complete set (vols. 1-3) turned up on an eBay saved search for a keen price, I pounced. It’s very good! Yet to watch the DVD. #cdFriday

The Complete Cathedral Oceans by John Foxx. It comes in a mini-book format with 3CD, a DVD, a lot of Foxx’s excellent artwork (very similar to his work as Dennis Leigh on the Arden Shakespeare covers), and an extract from The Quiet Man, his collection of stories.

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Anon Opin @anonopin.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

If you use the self-service checkouts in shops, you should get the staff discount

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

My favourite Waits album some days. Kicks off the Anti era by blending the grizzle of Island with the romance/melancholy of Asylum, with a spadeful of spirituality stirred in Take It With Me tears you to bits, then Come On Up To The House gives you a blanket and a hot toddy. Peerless. #cdFriday

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Al Kennedy @alkennedy.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

RIP Ski Sunday. In tribute, Dave Bulmer will now sing the theme song:

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Nick Pettigrew @nick-pettigrew.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Early Tom Waits song: All the ladies in this bar Are like rhinestone-shaped goodbyes I miss my baby Late Tom Waits somg: Crank up the hog alarm and swig that gasoline We're gonna set fire to Panama with a goose fat machine

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

My day’s listening at the end of this weary #CDFriday, roughly in order. Can’t beat the Velvets’ finest as a nightcap.

Six albums on CD:

• John Mayall - Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (AKA the Beano album). Sundazed mono reissue.
• R.E.M. - Automatic For The People, with pristine yellow tray.
• La Düsseldorf - La Düsseldorf
• Jarvis Cocker - The Jarvis Cocker Record
• Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz To Come. Old Steve Innocenzi mastering.
• The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground. Valentin mix, 1996 remaster.

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

It was either 1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours by Green Day, or the (crappy) Joe Gastwirt remaster of Are You Experienced? with the alternative cover art. My first player was a Marantz CD-47 from Richer Sounds. It’s long dead, but I still use the Mission 760iSE speakers from that first hi-fi rig!

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

A fun one for #cdFriday - the new Pokémon game, Pokopia is set in a post-apocalyptic world abandoned by humans due to climate change. The game is full of music CDs, and this historic document found in game reveals they had a revival due to massive increases in server fees making streaming unviable.

We all know that everyone's beloved music streaming services are being forced to shut down one by one due to the steep rise of server fees all over the world.

While music lovers are still mourning the loss of these streaming services, it isn't all bad news in the world of music! It's our pleasure to share a little about a
technological blast from the past-compact discs (CDs)!

CDs are cool little gadgets used by our great-great-grandparents to listen to all their favorite music. Each CD can hold a little over 10 songs, making it easy to find a new favorite and listen to it over and over again!

And that's not all!

Each CD is a one-time purchase, which means that there's no need for a subscription fee—no matter how many times you listen!

Poké Mart is working hard to create a solid lineup of CDs for music lovers to choose from. We hope to be THE destination for all those who want music in their life – now and forever.

An image from the game showing CDs being played in a Rotom-based stereo.

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Slightly concerned that the BBC's guidelines on safe eclipse viewing violate their own religious impartiality rules.

The BBC's charmingly demented diagram of how to watch the eclipse through a colander, with the mini-eclipse projections replaced with multiple projections of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I have been reading a lot of Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op stories lately, and slowly came to realise that Bob Hoskins as Eddie Valiant is a pretty perfect match for the description of the Op himself - short and a little overweight. Wonder if this is sheer coincidence, or by design?

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Junior Senior were innovative and fantastic, and deserve the same kind of justified respect that the B-52s have (belatedly) received.

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Spent most of #cdFriday driving back from the family holiday, but I did spin this recent car boot pickup when I got home. A late (circa ‘97?) pressing of the original CD mastering, a very nice sounding disc.

A CD copy of Paul Simon’s eponymous debut* solo album.

* Yes, I know The Paul Simon Songbook is arguably his solo debut, but narratively, this is.

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Employees hate him! CFO shows how you can increase your EBITDA with one weird trick* (It’s shitty, below-inflation, flat annual pay increases, of course)

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

The Everly Brothers Pixies Crowded House Supergrass Some very good albums in there, no true greats.

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Bruce Levenstein @brucelevenstein.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

But they were, all of them, deceived, for another Proclaimer was made.

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

This is legitimately hilarious. “I see…”

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lilastromech (Mischa) @mischajaye.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

The cooling system was installed by the village AC technician, Thermodynamix 😊

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Got me a movie, I want you to know.

My lunchtime salad, tomatoes, lettuce and eyeballs. No, wait, mozzarella pearls.

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Rob Manuel @robmanuel.b3ta.com · 23/06/2026

I always find it instructive to replace the words "bond markets" with "spiders"

Labour MP: Spiders ‘will have to fall into line’ with Burnham agenda

etc etc etc

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Adam Farrer @adamjfarrer.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Come on, Gland.

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#2 Galactus Apologist ✨ @tainkirrahe.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

cucumbers simultaneously taste of nothing whilst also forcing everything they touch to taste of cucumber, and cucumber tastes both awful and nothing at the same time somehow

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Netherlands mascot says hand gesture was “involuntary, subconscious twitch”

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

I see @savebutterflies.bsky.social have declared it #mothmonday, so here’s a Hummingbird Hawk Moth who came to visit my Yorkshire garden this evening.

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

This week’s new arrivals, oddly all with a magenta kick. The Pepper was a lucky pre-dentist charity shop find. The other two are from eBay. The Ultravox! is a replacement for my existing disc, a UK PDO rapidly turning the colour of a smoker’s teeth. This one is a nice safe French PDMC. #cdFriday

There albums on CD:

• Art Pepper - The Return of Art Pepper
• Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Junk Culture
• Ultravox! - Ha! Ha! Ha!

All the covers feature vivid magneta.

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Right, it’s time to play FF6 again. I beat it back on ZSNES in the late 90s when half the sounds didn’t work properly, and haven’t played it since. MiSTer and a proper SNES pad this time, and this patch. I loved the same team’s FFIV Namingway Edition, a sweet spot between character and “accuracy”.

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

I wonder if freshly-minted ghosts look different, now that most people use fitted sheets.

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

I want a high-budget period cosy crime series starring Rob Brydon as Joseph Haydn, solving murders in Hungary, Vienna, Paris and London alongside his musical endeavours. Presented non-chronologically with clever make-up work to jump around his long career.

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Jane Wisbey @janewisbey.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

My first bee orchid! On Rodborough Common, Gloucestershire, this afternoon. #OrchidChallenge #WildflowerHour

Close-up bee orchid, on grassland, looking very bee-like!

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Dan Douglas @dandouglas.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

just wanted to read a kids’ menu online and look at all this fucking shit lmao

A menu open in Adobe Acrobat on an iPhone with the screen covered in prompts and buttons to generate AI summaries and sign in and download apps

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Don’t make me tap the badge.

Cobb from Monkey Island, original EGA portrait by Steve Purcell, with his badge crudely edited to read “ASK ME ABOUT MiSTer”

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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 28/01/2026

every time i see a white guy in their fifties radicalized by the twitter algorithm into racism and extremism i think about how it's a total failure of the youtube algorithm to instead radicalize him into home brewing, elaborate A/V setups, or DIY solar

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

It has been a very Sonny day. I don’t normally do binges like this, but puns aside, it seemed to fit the weather somehow, so I just kept going. Goodbye to a great player. The left-hand side was the morning’s listening - Rollins as leader. The right hand side was the afternoon - Rollins as sideman.

Four albums with Sonny Rollins as leader.

• Saxophone Colossus
• Way Out West
• Newk’s Time
• The Bridge

Four albums with Sonny Rollins as a sideman.

• Thelonious Monk/Sonny Rollins
• Clifford Brown & Max Roach at Basin Street
• Miles Davis - Bags’ Groove
• Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners

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Alex Holland @alexlotl.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Finished the Nausicaä manga last night. For the unfamiliar, this ran from ‘82-‘94 (with breaks), and is entirely written and drawn by Hayao Miyazaki. It goes greatly beyond the scope of the film. It’s very good! The influence of Dune looms large, but it’s *very* Miyazaki, mostly his darker side.

A 4-book box set of the Nausicaä manga, in front of some woodchip wallpaper, held by a pasty white arm wearing a Seiko diver.

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😈™ @cooltimesonline.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Went to an anti AI datacentre protest march today and a friend of mine got a picture that summed it all up

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