iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The mighty and awesome Bill Callahan, kicking off his European Tour in great style at Newcastle’s Wylam Brewery last night. Would have been worth it just to see Jim White play drums directly in front of me, or for the unexpected Jolene cover mashed into ‘Dolly Partition’.

020

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Got a problem with this corrosion?

000

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

My first ever attempt at the Times’ Picle. Proof that while I may be slightly adrift in time, I was definitely paying attention when I read The Rings of Saturn by #Sebald.

A black and white photo of Southwold, with a result showing a guess within 145 yards.

000

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Scenic Sunderland, doing two looks at once.

Meike’s lighthouse, Seaburn and Whitburn beyond.

111

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Another blink and you’ll miss it sale at Fitzcarraldo. (Or maybe it’s been running for ages and I just noticed it…)

010

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I believe this photo would be entitled “German student with deadly face card” nowadays.

Young Sebald looking moody while wearing a jacket and scarf.

020

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

A literary whodunnit in two parts…

A dog-chewed copy of The Knox Brothers by Penelope Fitzgerald

A young Golden Retriever, sitting on chewed pages from a book. One piece is hanging from her mouth. She does not look deterred.

030

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

The man who keeps you out of the room where it happens.

000

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

This reminds me that Hermione Lee’s biography of Anita Brookner is being published on the same day in September that Fitzcarraldo publish their latest Olga Tokarczuk translation. Which is some small consolation as I return home to vote and watch the world burn…

020

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

In another world, I always imagined I’d enjoy a @backlisted.bsky.social episode on Bryan Talbot’s Alice n Sunderland. I imagine this is the closest connection we’ll ever get.

The front cover of a book showing a cartoon Alice, the Lambton Worm, and a man on a theatre stage wearing a rabbit head.

011

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Post your favourite "Lord of the Rings" character(s). Wrong answers only.

Nicol Williamson is Not Gandalf. And Helen Mirren is very much Not Galadriel.

010

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

I imagine all @backlisted.bsky.social listeners had a book they wanted the show to cover, or could imagine discussing as a guest. Mine was Perec’s “W ou le souvenir d’enfance” which gets attention after the show has ended. Staying hidden / being discovered, fittingly. www.patreon.com/posts/154178...

patreon.com

Otherwise Unutterable Emotions | Backlisted

Get more from Backlisted on Patreon

021

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

I had a lipogrammatic gag, but I couldn’t say its punchlin.

000

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

I’ve been doing the late falling-asleep-with-the-puppy shift over the last few days, and it’s the most my 18-year old and I have ever communicated by text…

A series of short text messages checking if dad has fallen asleep with the dog, again.

000

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Next-level challenge for those actors everyone says could make people cry if they were just reading the phone book…

000

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

I worked in a call centre dealing with magazine subscriptions at one point in the 90s. Dame Thora Hird phoned up to say her copy of Yours hadn’t arrived. I sent her a replacement.

100

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

He’s making a list He’s checking it tweece He’s gonna write down everything that happens in the Place Saint-Sulpice Georges Perec is coming to town

000

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Still one of our favourite places: Roker Beach in Sunderland. Still not grim up north.

A dog and a bird in the distance over a beach with expressive clouds and a covering of seaweed.

Dog in the reflected blue of the sky beyond Roker pier.

010

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

Not feeling too sure about this 10-years-later sequel to Leonard and Hungry Paul, @ofmooseandmen.bsky.social

010

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Here’s why you should read Olga Tokarczuk’s “House of Day, House of Night” from @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social (Or, in keeping with the theme, here’s why you should read Antonia Lloyd-Jones’ book of that name…)

Like a Polish, literary Fake Plastic Trees…an extract from Olga Tokarczuk, photographed during a wobbly coach journey.

010

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

One of those great, strange, unsettling books that you’re still feeling years later. And wondering where your copy went, in my case. Looks like I’ll be buying my replacement copy of very soon…

010

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

Happy Erfurter Latrinensturzgedächtnistag to all those who mark it.

010

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

HeartsTV referring to Sunderland’s Enzo Le Fée as Le Pen is one of the great footballing name mistakes. Bit like that Thomas Hitlersperger who used to play for Villa…

000

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

At the risk of a very gentle spoiler: Leonard and Hungry Paul has revolutionised this teacher’s ability to send a succinct message to students - thanks, @ronanhession.bsky.social !

A message to students on Teams using Hungry Paul’s prize-winning phrase “You may wish to note the above”.

110

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Using food to show where I grew up.

120

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

See, even bears in Canada are curiously friendly.

000

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

I’m only five chapters in, because I keep pausing after every paragraph to wonder at another moment of gentle wisdom. Lovely book.

020

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Caught up with a lovely Backlisted episode. And a passing mention from Cyril Connolly of the role a Jewish orphan plays in Les Belles Images in setting SdB’s plot in motion reminds me of a *somewhat* niche question for the discerning literary pub quiz: (1/2)

171

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

When an untranslatable concept meets its human embodiment: the Danish word “hyggeonkel”, used to describe John Thaw in “Goodnight, Mister Tom” as a hygge-uncle. www.philm.dk/Movie/Detail...

philm.dk

Goodnight Mister Tom (1998) - Philm.dk

10-årige William plantes under 2. verdenskrig hos den vrisne enkemand Tom – og de to knytter bånd mod alle odds.

000

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

I’m not sure I’ve ever been predestined to buy a book as much as Vincenzo Latronico’s Perfection… @thebookerprizes.bsky.social

Epigraph from Georges Perec’s Les Choses.

010

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Not saying that people who misuse apostrophes are all actual nazis, but it would make for an interesting Venn diagram.

110

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

From this post, to relistening to the @backlisted.bsky.social episode on Return of the King, to the declaration “We should do an episode on The Warlock of Firetop Mountain”. Time to roll the dice!

021

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Advertising campaign of the year.

010

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Something very satisfying about matching sets of books - two favourites for #WorldBookDay

Four Anita Brookner novels with painted portraits of women on the cover

Eight volumes of Proust with matching Monet paintings of Rouen Cathedral in various lights and colours.

020

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Took my dog to see some of Sunderland’s new things being built and old things being knocked down. She decided they were definitely to be sniffed at.

Portrait of Golden Retriever in front of a building under construction.

Scaffolding covers the Culture House under construction; a large digital screen in front shows pink flowers.

A Golden Retriever pretends not to understand that the new footbridge will soon appear at the bottom of this path.

100

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Seems a good time to reshare an image from the time DakhaBrakha played in Sunderland…

The Ukrainian band DakhaBrakha on stage beneath a sign reading “Ukraine will win”.

000

Reposted by Mike Metcalf

Stop Funding Hate @stopfundinghate.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

*New* campaign action on Marks & Spencer - any help getting the first few signatures going would be greatly appreciated! actionstorm.org/petitions/ma... We're sharing this first on Bluesky as this is so much friendlier (and troll free, so far at least!) than any of the other platforms right now!

actionstorm.org

Sign the Petition

Marks & Spencer - stop advertising on GB News

18354183

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

If you see this post, quote with a bridge from your gallery.

Wearmouth Bridge and railway bridge, taken from the north bank of the Wear.

020

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Watching Mad Men again a few weeks ago, I was wondering where one of the characters got that creamy French cheese from that his dog seemed to love so much. Then I realised it must be the…

A dreadful pun that’s been in my head since I discovered this particular cheese: Ted Chaough’s chow-chow’s chaource source. Try saying that with a mouth full of cheese.

000

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

Having finally got round to reading Look At Me (thanks @backlisted.bsky.social), I’ve limited myself to just six more Anita Brookner books, courtesy of eBay. Almost feels like the covers are trying to tell their own story about disappointment: someone’s in for a bad time, and it’s probably everyone.

Six Anita Brooker books, all featuring portraits of a lone figure on the cover.

1191

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

20th December, 6 degrees, chasing stones into the sea. What Roker Beach was made for.

A dog on a beach in Roker in the morning. The sky is brightening and the lighthouse stands watch in the background.

010

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Admittedly, most of Wowee Zowee would be possible, but let’s go for Serpentine Pad. youtu.be/L2RPuR9MiNE?...

youtu.be

Serpentine Pad

YouTube video by Pavement - Topic

020

Mike Metcalf @mikemetcalf.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

My son was proud that he was in the top whatever % of listeners to Out Of Touch by Hall and Oates on Spotify one of these last few years. Felt like an entire new level of rejecting my music taste…

010