iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Wishing my wonderful, clever, stylish and very funny husband, John, a very happy sixitieth birthday! May you have very many happy returns, and many more of years of love and sparkling laughter together! With all my love, as ever, Jx 🥂

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Finally viewed the 178m CALIGULA: THE ULTIMATE CUT (It, 1976). It’s notably short on elegantly biting dialogue but heavy on anachronistic spectacle: a dry run for Danilo Donati’s designs on FLASH GORDON (1980)…? I was surprised to note the recurrence of outré #Roman #Egyptomania throughout the film.

Poster for the 2023 total recut of Tinto Brass’ CALIGULA.

A colossal statue of a hawk-headed Egyptian deity in a temple pool, in which a very unhappy Claudius (Giancarlo Badessi) splashes disconsolately.

The two main stars rehearse a play relating to the murder of Osiris, standing either side of images representing Osiris (sic) and Isis. The backdrop is painted with sparse papyrus thicket on either side of a closeup of Tutankhamun’s funerary mask. The front of the stage is adorned with a winged solar disk in gold, while the performers are flanked by appropriately garbed ‘blind’ harpists.

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Saddened to learn of the passing of Terence Stamp (1938-2025). Always a consummate and engaging performer, with a distinctly mercurial streak, he could be dashing, witty, touching, and deeply, deeply unsettling. His career was littered with memorable, and often iconic, cinematic highlights. Vale!

Terence Stamp as the title character in BILLY BUDD. (UK, Peter Ustinov, 1962).

Terence Stamp as Willie Garvin in MODESTY BLAISE (UK, Joseph Losey, 1966).

Terence Stamp as Bernadette in THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT (Aus, Stephan Elliott, 1994).

Terence Stamp as The Silver-haired Gentleman in LAST NIGHT IN SOHO, (UK, Edgar Wright, 2021) his final feature film appearance.

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Wishing my many Italian and Romanist friends, a very happy Ferragosto, and remembering the ancient Feriae Augusti through the exquisite 12.8 cm Blacas Cameo, carved in multilayered sardonynx. The gold diadem is a Renaissance addition. Displayed in the British Museum. #Classics #Rome #Reception

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

These blurbs don’t write themselves…! 😉

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

Fifty years ago today Richard O’Brien’s transgressive horror/SF musical comedy, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (Jim Sharman) was unleashed upon a largely unsuspecting British public at the Rialto Theatre in London’s West End. It wasn’t a hit…but went on to become a major and much-beloved cult film. 🫦

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Offering solidarity and all best wishes to friends and colleagues working across the US museums sector at this parlous time.

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

On 12 August 30 BC, Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator, rather than submit to Rome, in the person of Octavian, ended her life through the bite of an Egyptian cobra. This act, immortalised in the later writings of Plutarch and Shakespeare, continues to resonate in popular culture. #Egyptology #Reception

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Seventy-five years ago, today, Billy Wilder’s mordantly witty slice of Hollywood Gothic, SUNSET BOULEVARD, premiered at the world’s largest indoor theatre: New York’s famed Radio City Music Hall. It remains a luminous, elegant, captivating, and completely extraordinary masterpiece of cinema.

Crowds queuing along the street, outside the Radio City Music Hall, screening SUNSET BOULEVARD.

Publicity shot of Gloria Swanson between William Holden and Erich von Stroheim, all in evening dress.

Billy Wilder - centre - directs Gloria Swanson during her scene with director Cecil B DeMille: Hollywood royalty!

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Our mutual friend is doing very well and we’re hoping to pay her a visit later in the year…!

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Absolutely, although to me, he’ll always be Marcus Agrippa…

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

On the anniversary of her birth, remembering my funny, clever, sparkling, and beautiful mother, Jean (1937-1988). Much loved and dearly missed, Jx

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

Wishing the magnificent Wanda Ventham a very happy ninetieth birthday: one of the most elegantly glamorous stars of British film and television during the 1960s and 1970s, with a career encompassing Hammer, Carry On, THE PRISONER, THE AVENGERS, THE LOTUS EATERS, and DOCTOR WHO, across three decades.

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

Congratulations; happy anniversary!

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

It was a glorious building, inside and out.

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

Shocked and saddened to learn of the devastating fire, yesterday evening, at the pyramidal, B-listed , St Mungo’s Church in Cumbernauld. Designed by Alan Reiach in 1963, the iconic structure would appear to be beyond repair. #Egyptomania

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

On 1 August 30 BC, Octavian entered the great Ptolemaic metropolis of Alexandria for his final reckoning with #Cleopatra and Marc Antony, but, having fallen upon his own sword, Antony left the final Queen of Egypt to face her fate alone. It was the beginning of the end…! #Egypt #Rome

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

That might’ve been very interesting casting…!

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

On the one hundred and fortieth anniversary of her birth, remembering the iconic Theda Bara (1885-1955). Said to have been born within the shadow of the Sphinx, she was cinema’s original vamp and Hollywood’s first Cleopatra, starring in J Gordon Edwards,’ sadly lost, epic from 1917. #Egyptomania

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

Yes, just a fragment of a larger box, possibly for toiletries.

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

Splendid! Sorry I won’t be there for it. I fondly remember seeing it on its initial release; it’s an extraordinary film!

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

An interesting one, which I don’t think I’ve encountered before…

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

Wishing the magnificent Helen Mirren a very happy birthday! Always an extraordinary performer, she has been an elegant, intelligent, and wonderfully dangerous Cleopatra across the decades. #Shakespeare #Egyptomania #Classics #Reception

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

Do let me know how it transpires…

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

I’ve just read that it’s not terribly resistant to liquids - not ideal for kitchens or bathrooms - so, possibly not ideal.

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

I think a lot would depend upon the state of the parquet.

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Isn’t it, essentially, clafoutis?

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

I had a thoroughly delightful evening at @bankofengland.bsky.social Museum, lecturing on Imperial cultural influences in Roman Britain: a packed lecture theatre with aircon, interesting questions, and lovely comments from my audience! Many thanks to the ever-fabulous Dr Monica Walker and her team!

The Aldborough She-Wolf with Romulus and Remus, now on display in the Leeds County Museum.

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

In the ancient Egyptian calendar, today - the third epagomenal day - is the birthday of the powerful but complex deity Setẖ. Whilst dangerously unpredictable, he is also the defender of Rē during the darkest hours of his nightly journey. Setẖ’s unique iconography dates from at least 4000 BC.

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Happy Bastille Day! Wishing my many French - and Francophile - friends and colleagues throughout the world, Bonne Fête Nationale! Liberté, égalité, fraternité!

The writer, in black tie, on rue Vieille du Temple.

The writer in front of the Eiffel Tower.

The writer in front of the Opera Garnier.

Ramesses II Luxor obelisk in the centre of place de la Concorde.

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Before I depart the great metropolis for rather cooler climes, there’s time, next Thursday, for one last public lecture, and it’s a wonderfully appropriate one to go out on, at a new venue for me: the Bank of England Museum! Details and abstract appear below… www.bankofengland.co.uk/museum/whats...

Text of advertisement for the writer’s forthcoming lecture:

About the talk - NOT the Edge of Empire: Imperial Culture in Britain The British Isles are traditionally considered the final, north-westerly gasp of the Roman Empire but culturally, they were no less distant from the city of Rome than any other province. This talk considers the cosmopolitan nature of life in Roman Britain, from the people who travelled such vast distances to colonise the province, through to the worship of Egyptian deities on the banks of the Thames, and onto the Roman progress into Scotland, far beyond the traditional barrier created by the Antonine Wall. Britain may have been cold, wet, and unforgiving but it was, nevertheless, a vital addition to the imperial cultural milieu.

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Exhausting for all! Sending birthday wishes.

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John J Johnston @johnjjohnston.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Congratulations! ♥️♥️➕🔷🥂

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