iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

13yo asked to listen to The Beatles in the car today, after learning about them at school. His favourite from the Essentials playlist? Lady Madonna. Interesting with no “influencing” where the taste goes…

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Watching The Shawshank Redemption for the first time in a while. Cannot BELIEVE that the whole Brooks thing has happened, and there's new books for the library and it's not quite halfway through yet. Amazing how perception of a film squashes and stretches your memory.

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't." Pondering this line. I wonder if its stickiness is partly down to it being a simile with neither 'like' or 'as'. You could have 'unlike', but then you wouldn't get the essential 'don't' at the end. Is it an anti-simile?

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

@lissakevans.bsky.social This was a holiday reread. I know this isn’t the funniest or most dramatic moment, but heavens above, this paragraph! You’re smashing it to the boundary over and over 😘👌

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I know you, I love you, I understood what you meant, but I have to tell you ‘longditude’ is not a word. I don’t want to leave you swinging in the wind like that. I mean, where does that ‘d’ even come from? No judgement, but just — 🤷‍♂️

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Using some Ronseal paint today, which, famously, “does what it says on the tin”, only I can’t help noting the tin is in fact plastic, so I don’t know where I stand, legally.

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Reposted by James Hannah.

George Morley @georgeisediting.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Permit a retired person a moment's boasting. So very pleased that my lovely former author @susannahstapleton.bsky.social won the non-fiction dagger last night & I was there to see her do so! #ThatDarkSpring is a perfect summer read too. So off you go ...

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Played the 13yo something yesterday that he has now declared his new favourite podcast, and he hopes there’s more of it we can listen to.

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Reposted by James Hannah.

T'Other Simon @tothersimon.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

On a recent Adam Buxton podcast, he recommended a book called The Big Midweek, written by Steve Hanley - detailing his time as a member of The Fall. I'm about 2 hours from the end of the audiobook (read by Stewart Lee) and, honestly, I just don't want it to end.

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Heyyy! Bluesky has group chats now! *looks at number of people who have ever once interacted with a single solitary Bluesky post of mine* Never miiiind!

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Look at the balance of this sentence. Every word weighted so beautifully; a deft punch saved for the end, but the merest hint throughout of a bottle of wine in a sentence about the catastrophic absence of wine.

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Watching John Mulaney's bit "There's a HORSE LOOSE in the HOSPITAL", and my wife breezily said she'd once worked with someone who'd been called upon to deal with a horse being loose in a hospital. This was, to say the least, unexpected. Further reading: youtube.com/watch?v=JhkZMxgPxXU&themeRefresh=1

youtube.com

There's a Horse In The Hospital | John Mulaney | Netflix Is A Joke

YouTube video by Netflix Is A Joke

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Lyric of the day: “They weren’t burning witches, it was women on those fires.” Katherine Priddy, ‘Matches’ youtu.be/3hw604WrlzI?...

youtu.be

Katherine Priddy - Matches (Official Video)

YouTube video by Katherine Priddy

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

#AtoZofTunes Rose's Turn (Imelda Staunton) My first exposure to Gypsy was in the movie Airplane!, where the real Ethel Merman has to be restrained from singing 'Everything's Coming Up Roses'. Great joke, until you realise the real thing is madder. Staunton is incredible. youtu.be/0F28IYnEqKY?...

youtu.be

Rose's Turn_Gypsy - Gypsy_2015 London Cast

YouTube video by PT MUSIC

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

#AtoZofTunes Rollecoaster Ride (Belle & Sebastian) I want to make a video for this song, with someone lip-syncing on a rollercoaster, completely sanguine while everyone around them is screaming, using hi-speed cameras for slow playback. Hit me up if you can make this happen. youtu.be/BTfzPxph5xY?...

youtu.be

Belle and Sebastian - The Rollercoaster Ride

YouTube video by Jeepster Recordings

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

The Last Kings Of Hollywood, about Lucas, Scorsese, Spielberg, etc. brings home that what these innovators brought us — Jaws, Star Wars, etc — were the reconstructed remains of what they set out to do. This lends them a vitality that’s lost when new generations come along and intentionally mimic it.

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Kurt Cobain, Ian Brown, Angelica Skyler and Yours Truly 🥳

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

My boy is not asking any of his pals (boys or girls) if they want to hang out in town today, just in case they get laughed at for being together on Valentine’s Day. And THAT, let me remind you, is the degree of self-policing of an early teen. I have advised him to Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway.

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

I’m 90% reluctant to attempt to pass on cultural relics to the younger generation, but I indulged in showing my boy, 38 years to the day since my dad allowed me to stay up past midnight to watch it, 12 Angry Men. It went well!

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

It's rubbish that Kirsty MacColl has been gone a quarter of a century. But check out this joyous tune to brighten you up, where she affectionately says of her boyfriend "he's appalling, it's true". Give me that. #KirstyMacColl

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

We have this morning recorded the 11th instance since 2020 of my mum asking for a cappuccino and being served with a cup of tea. "I even said 'with chocolate sprinkles'!"

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

I’ve been waiting for this level of insight from Madness for decades. For many complex reasons they get very self-conscious when reflecting in any chin-scratchy way about their tunes. But no one better than @sodajerker.bsky.social to tease out Suggs’s love of reading, history and chord inversions…

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Reposted by James Hannah.

Sodajerker @sodajerker.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

EPISODE 306 // Madness frontman Suggs talks about their new Hit Parade compilation, balancing joy and pathos in songwriting, and serendipitous creative moments. Platforms: linktr.ee/sodajerker Direct: www.sodajerker.com/episode-306-... Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/3bT...

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Advent calendar torn open. All contents eaten. No we don’t have a dog.

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

“The bigger the mistake, the harder it is to see”: discuss.

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Reading Middlemarch for the first time. I am enjoying it. I like the very peceptive observations about internal motivations between Celia and Dorothea. What do any of you Middlemarch heads like about it? (This is not engagement bait, unless it’s of the doomed betrothal kind)

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Just laughed out loud at Terry Jones's summation of Monty Python: "We never really stopped being friends, but I'm not sure we ever *started* being friends..." (from Robert Ross's affectionate biography 'Seriously Silly: The Life of Terry Jones')

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Grand Designs opening and closing interview shots, an occasional project.

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

The bathroom’s free! Unlike the country under the Thatcherite junta…

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

My first festival. Look at those bands. I didn’t even set foot in the comedy tent, which would today blow my head off.

Festival line-up poster for the 1991 Reading Festival

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

I have read both Ben Elton’s and Nigel Planer’s memoirs back-to-back, and they both mention being inspired in the 1970s by the music of, among others, Nick Drake, and while not impossible, that is also the lie I would tell.

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Reposted by James Hannah.

Bex Luther @superbreeze.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Guy Fawkes' signature before and after hearing Paul Shane's You've lost that loving feeling on Pebble Mill at One

A picture of Guy Fawkes' signature before and after being tortured after the Gunpowder Plot

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

#AtoZofTunes Roam (B52s) Putting this in to annoy B52s gatekeepers. I'm fortunate enough to bloody love this tune and album, as well as all the previous ones, all the way back to Planet Claire, and all the way forth to Keep This Party Going. Some of it's shite, but NOT MUCH. youtu.be/iNwC0sp-uA4?...

youtu.be

The B-52's - Roam (Official Music Video)

YouTube video by RHINO

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

Two lessons from today: (a) obey distance recommendations on seed packets (b) don’t leave picking, peeling and chopping the veg until the last minute.

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

Realised just now that the Literary Review’s ‘Bad Sex in Fiction’ award has quietly gone away. (Five years ago). The joke got old, maybe.

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Coffee time research: I have just discovered my great great great grandmother was named Hannah Hannah. (If you're now thinking '🎶Batmaaaan', have a word with yourself.)

A family tree entry for a married couple: William Hannah and Hannah Newby, who will have been known as Hannah Hannah

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

Shuddering at Oliver Hardy’s This Is Your Life… “I remember him as a very brave boy. He went into the Oconee river to save his brother Sam from drowning. He pulled him out and he gave him artificial respiration but it was too late, he’d been in the water too long.” “Thank you, Mrs Althea Horne!”

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

Coffee time research. If we accept no pain = no gain and we cancel out the negatives, it should be: pain = gain But I contend that is NOT TRUE. They are selling us on a negative. Similarly: If you don’t show me yours = I won’t show you mine. NOT TRUE. 🍤

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

“Jason Epstein at Random House has produced a telephone-directory sized tome, that makes 49,000 books available — a personalised bookstore that gives you backlist as well as current. By the mid-90s, computer owners will be able to buy everything from their home offices…” —Tina Brown diary, Jan 1990

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

My wife just said “how come we run out of paracetamol so quickly?” and I said “because the parrots eat them all” and she did not find it at all funny, because she, perforce, had a really bad headache, and that joke is not all it’s cracked up to be.

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Paul McCartney’s life must, on a bad day, feel like he’s Charon, just waiting for someone to come and relieve him of the oar.

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

I wonder if we will start to have AI forecasts, like “And we’ve got a strong front of cancer research sweeping over from the west, slowing as it runs into the anti-vax front west of the Pennines. Still some power outages after last week’s storm of 4k Miffy meme creation, so do wrap up warm…”

media.tenor.com

a weatherman says " dont worry " on the screen

ALT: a weatherman says " dont worry " on the screen

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Reposted by James Hannah.

Jeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Famously, between the first and the second act of Waiting for Godot, the only difference in the stage set is that a previously bare tree ‘has four or five leaves’. So what’s the main note to self I found in this copy which seems to have belonged to a stage manager called Nigel...?

Faber paperback edition of Waiting for Godot with STAGE MANAGER'S COPY / NIGEL written on the cover in pencil

End of Act 1 of Waiting for Godot: beneath 'CURTAIN' someone has written the capitalised words, in pencil, 'INTERMISSION / DO LEAVES'

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James Hannah. @jameshannah.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

I prefer to think of the news not as ‘relentless’, but ‘relent-free’.

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