Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 3hAh, James Blunt has a new album out November 6. Now it makes sense. #CelebrityTraitors 020
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Still warming my hands by the fire of Eric Schmitt’s epic gaffe. Though it won’t make a blind bit of difference to his profile, power or future behaviour: shame & mortification are strangers to these cretins. Along with expectations of professional conduct. 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The levels of dedication, inventiveness & furious creativity at work here are extraordinary. And the embedded video is a joy to watch (even if neither cats nor Lego appeal). www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...theguardian.com‘It’s frustrating to see immoral videos do so well’: how YouTube sensation Half-Asleep Chris sent a rollercoaster to space and made Bella the cat a starHis videos of cats, loopy contraptions and theme park rides round the heavens (and his back garden) have notched up a billion views. We meet Chris Burton in the suburban home where it all happens 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 30/09/2026All over great work from the entrants in this year’s Abbey Road music photography awards but I adore this pic of Warren Ellis (with Larry & Piglet) by Manuel Vazquez, a finalist in the portrait category. Those boots. With running shorts. #majordude 0152
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Horrifying, malevolent, thrilling, repellant & full of dark wonder: Much of Anish Kapoor’s show at the Hayward Gallery delivers a mighty visceral rush. (One room def warrants its warning.) These three pieces especially confounded me. If you’re in the mood for awe - go. 010
Reposted by Sharon O'ConnellDes @desdelboy.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Painting by Lucien Freud. ‘Factory in North London’ Oil on canvas, 1972. Size 71 x 71 cm. 426333
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 23/09/2026John Coltrane AND Springsteen? September 23, you spoil us. 122
Reposted by Sharon O'ConnellThe Cartoonists' Friend @thecartoonistsfrnd.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Gerald Scarfe (born 1936) who was published in Eagle at the age of 11, unleashed his aggressively grotesque caricatures in Private Eye from 1961. #GeraldScarfe 072
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 23/09/2026A practical & convincing piece on the wisdom of knowing when to throw in the towel. Also refreshingly un-woowoo. www.theguardian.com/wellness/202...theguardian.comWhy you should quit and not look back: ‘Saying yes to everything is saying no to what matters’In her new book, The Case For Quitting: The Surprising Benefits of Opting Out, Lindsay Crouse discusses the costs and traps of never giving up – and how she set herself free 021
Reposted by Sharon O'ConnellLuke Turner @luketurner.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Re last post, that's exactly who this moustache / mullet trend is reminding me of, couldn't quite place it before but yes, Har Mar Superstar and probably staff at Beyond Retro / Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes circa 2002 1211
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 21/09/2026The al fresco seafront coffee stop is blasting out polka. It’s 9am. 020
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 18/09/2026More armchair travel courtesy of Lidl. This weekend, Thailand… 042
Reposted by Sharon O'ConnellMichael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Happy birthday to Sylvia Plimack Mangold, one of the great artists of "looking at the overlooked," who turns 88 today (thread). First up: "Floor with Laundry #1," 1970 2378
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Hard relate. Experience = age = bad. Couple of months ago I got to quasi-interview Zoom-chat stage re a (part-time, remote) job for which I was well qualified. Look of shock on person’s face when I appeared was palpable. No less than if I’d had an extra eye where my nose should be. #shitisreal 010
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Need to cool your agitated jets? I recommend this gorgeous, languid exploration from Butterss/Raymonde/Lumsdaine (on bass/trumpet/drums), the title track from their album 'Beginningless', out Nov 13. youtu.be/V9V6JWp662I?...youtu.beAnna Butterss, John Raymond, and Ben Lumsdaine - "Beginningless" [Official Audio]YouTube video by Northern Spy Records 010
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Not the kind of clean sweep Ed Sheeran’s used to, it’s fair to say. 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Mood like the sky behind - instantly lifted. 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Electrician has just completed the installation of a new fire alarm system in our building. I made him coffee & during chitchat about our respective work he said, “oh, my daughter wants to be a music journalist”. I may have startled him with the vehemence of my warning. #ALLCAPS 020
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Punchy & highly entertaining piece on Donny's frenzied self-memorialising via his exceptionally vulgar taste. The triumphal arch especially is... #naziaf 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Both astonishing & enraging. This woman shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a senior management role in the social housing sector. The decision defiles the memory of all those who died & scorns those living through the trauma of survival. 031
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Sweden, today we need you to do the right thing. Not the right-wing thing. 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 12/09/2026This is an excellent (long) read, clear-eyed & thoroughly researched but also deeply personal (& as such, poignant), especially re the pathology of what is a very particular addiction. www.newstatesman.com/special-repo...newstatesman.comVinted BrainHow Britain lost its mind to online shopping addiction 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 11/09/2026This is unconscionable. Yes, it’s a highly emotive issue but we need a considered & wider conversation about what’s at stake. At the vote’s core sits the misguided belief that living, no matter how unendurable a life may be, is necessarily better than death. It’s a terrible condemnation to misery. 010
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Jesus wept. This fawning, fluffy, social-pages nonsense from CNN is a disgrace to the very word ‘news’ & the neutral reporting of same. Not to mention LACKING A SHRED OF DIGNITY. 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Here's a shift from Sam Gendel I did not see coming – into R&B haze, rap, glitch & degraded hyperpop, with heavily processed vocals. Not a saxophone in sight. First single from the album, out in November, is "Pattern Dance" and I am on board with it. youtu.be/JzZTPGPrkc4?...youtu.bePattern DanceYouTube video by Sam Gendel - Topic 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Insanely enjoyable show from Kurt Vile & his fine Violators last night. Generous, too, at 90 mins, pretty much non-stop. Aside from the guitar switching for both set list & busted string reasons - his was one busy tech. Checkout that rack (phwoar, etc). 020
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 07/09/2026It’s a particularly shit Monday morning, for some reason. Well, for myriad reasons, but life ambience feels even heavier than usual - not yet 11am & my mood is Vantablack. By now I should know better than to plough into the news first thing… 010
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Holy fuq. She’s Queen, of course, but £272.40 for a ticket to see Erykah Badu at the new Blue Note? And that doesn’t guarantee a seat - everyone will have to join the scrum when doors open. Put your hands together for dynamic pricing… 010
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Great to catch hardy perennials Pram last night. After… 30 years? Wonky chamber jazz, kosmische grooves & generally unsettling beauty, as expected, but either I’d forgotten the pastoral folk or it’s newly to the fore. Either way, a terrific set. Also: Stylophone! Trombone! Theremin! 130
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Rest in power, the extraordinary Gloria Steinem. 011
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 03/09/2026A world I had zero interest in until I started reading this: a fascinating piece on the history & development from early blogging days, relationships betw restaurant industry & content creators, ££ to be made or (mostly) not & some of the players happy to rate everything “the best” for free food. 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Everything about Susan TKK’s life & work is extraordinary. And superbly expounded on here. 011
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 02/09/2026The landscape & outlook are every bit as depressing & demoralising as we feared. And freelancers feel the sharpened edge of the exploitation stick most. As always. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...theguardian.comFreelancers are getting buried with ‘soulless’ AI slop cleanup: ‘It’s a shame we need to do it’As more companies turn to AI, they’re hiring freelancers to cleanup its mistakes rather than create original work 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Fascinated by these fast-food grotesques: from whose twisted imaginations do they spring? If you saw this (strikingly repulsive) one in an ‘altered state’ you’d run a mile, screaming. 010
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 01/09/2026On this day 10 years ago, apparently. An irresistible display of baked treats: Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 31/08/2026A good read on (dispiriting) new developments & shifts in the slop discourse, with a historical recap. Also, I learned who first used the term ‘canned music’, & when. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...newyorker.comWho’s Afraid of A.I. Music?When the rapper Fenix Flexin débuted a new accent on his single “Rubberz,” he stumbled into a century-old fight over musical fraudulence. 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Hopelessly inadequate pic to convey the might of Osaka’s Hibushibire: awesome, thrillingly heavy & EXTREMELY LOUD psychedelic rock in a set that included a truly epic interpretation of “Tomorrow Never Knows”. Playing like their lives depended on it. Man. 020
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Fascinatingly deep & wide profile of a remarkable artist… 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 30/08/2026This is a wonderful story & the warmth & fraternal love beaming out of that photo has brightened up my Sunday morning 100%. ‘That’s what saved me’: Darren Raymond and Mark Rylance on the prison drama workshop that brought them together www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/a...theguardian.com‘That’s what saved me’: Darren Raymond and Mark Rylance on the prison drama workshop that brought them togetherA masterclass led by the actor helped set Raymond on a new path. Now the head of a theatre company, he has coaxed his friend back to the stage for a show to encourage young people to fall in love with... 010
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Genuinely nauseous reading this. Just… [shudders] www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...theguardian.comVolunteers rescue man stuck on 10,000ft-high ledge in Sierra NevadaClimber, stuck on 6in ridge, had veered off treacherous path and ‘any fall would almost certainly be fatal’ 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 28/08/2026Australia is really nailing it atm in terms of the smart, funny, thoughtful tv series: Colin From Accounts, Sunny Nights & now, Dog Park. Two eps in & it’s a winner. Especially - though not only - if you’re a Dog Person. Unforced charm on a (chewed) stick… 120
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Oh, Dolly. This feels like a major loss. Such a larger-than-life spirit, it seemed as if she’d go on forever. A remarkable career & a monumental talent - how lucky we were to have her. Vale, m’am. 020
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Props to these brave souls for sharing. Aged 14, I took a pic of Mia Farrow w her perky elfin cut to local hairdressers, overlooking fact that I did not have MF’s face. “You look like a skinned rabbit,” said my mother when I got home. The memory will never die. www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026...theguardian.com‘It looked stunning on Joanna Lumley!’ 10 writers on their biggest hair disasterFrom bowl cuts to extreme mullets, punk dos to bad dye jobs, a terrible hairstyle can never be forgotten – even decades after it has grown out 010
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Totally entranced by “Uneasy”, new lift off the debut EP from duo Curbside Lambsear, out Sep 11. Def echoes of Caroline (Magdalena McLean serves), but also late-‘70s art punk, drone folk & abstract electronics. The good shit, iow. curbsidelambsear.bandcamp.com/album/put-ri...curbsidelambsear.bandcamp.comPut Rings On All My Fingers To Weigh Down My Hands, by Curbside Lambsear5 track album 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Excellent news: let’s hear it for beavers! #freeliving 040
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Whenever the reincarnated Veronica Lake stays the night, she insists on sleeping here… 020
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 22/08/2026I loved every head-spinning page of “The Amazing Adventures…” & this is a joy. 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Fascinating & quite brilliant. We’ll be needing much more of this far sooner than we realise. Then we’ll be moving underground ourselves (if you’ve read Tim Winton’s epic “Juice”, well…) 000
Sharon O'Connell @messyectomorph.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Today, a sweatshirt. Which feels bulky and… weird. #below20 041