iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Just listened to Steve Davis’s favourite album, Mekanïk Destruktïẁ Kommandöh, a French “rock opera concept album telling the story of a doomed Earth caught in endless war, and a prophet's prediction that sparks a large demonstration march by Earthlings to kill him.” Never again. 🇫🇷

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 15h

Amelia and the Housewives (2026). Nice to find other people who seemingly love the first Pipettes album as much as I.

Album cover. Floral tribute to DAD by a skip.

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

No fan of live albums and most definitely anti releases over two hours but this is a stonking stream. The best of Paul Weller by Paul Weller at his best. Superb.

Digital release. In The Shadow of the Sun - Paul Weller & Band Live and Very Direct (2026)

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Used audiobook for 50% of Rachel Stirling’s All About My Mother. It meant finished book in a week instead of two but doubt will repeat experience. Felt too passive.

Rachel Stirling pic inside book. Looking, not surprisingly, like her mother Dame Diana Rigg.

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

For 20 years my folks have kept two goldfish in a barrel in the garden. And only NOW have they had babies! Much excitement.

Two large elderly goldfish and two little uns

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Picado Fino/Fine Powder (1996). Argentinian film by Estaban Sabir very much a homage Jean-Luc Godard and Raoul Cortard, every shot looks like a photograph. Super stuff (despite title not really a druggy film). On the MUBI.

B&w image of man in glasses behind a newspaper alerting the population of forthcoming eclipse.

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Portrait of Nina Hamnett (1917) by Roger Fry. Love how contemporary this looks. Were more than a couple of Ninas walking around the Courtnald Gallery today, over a century later.

Roger Fry (1866-1934)
Portrait of Nina Hamnett
1917
Oil paint on canvas

The artist Nina Hamnett lived and painted in the bohemian art worlds of both London and Paris.

She had been part of the Omega Workshops for a number of years when Roger Fry made this bold portrait of her. He accentuates Hamnett's sharp, bobbed haircut and plain working clothes, features that would have marked her as a strikingly modern woman to contemporary viewers.

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Louis Theroux stuck an amazing pic of his dad Paul on the Insta the other day. Just found this one too. 🔥

Paul T at Clapham Junction station 1978 looking like a moneyed Jarvis Cocker.

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The Singer In My Band by This Is Lorelei (2026). Pure and simply a masterclass in the art of classic songwriting: Listened five times today already. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Black and white record sleeve. Photo of young beardy man holding an acoustic guitar from the base up. Looks like record would be pretty lo/fi so surprisingly crystal sounding.

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

“A couple of years earlier, as a band, we’d all had some coke in Amsterdam. I had liked it, though found it very moreish.” Kevin Rowland, Bless Me Father: A Life Story (2025)

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Hura izan zen izan zen astea Esa fue la semana que fue That Was The Week That Was

That Was The Week That Was

🎵 Various Artists - Las Vegas Grind Volume 7 (2018)

🎥 Le Boucher (1970, dir Claude Chabrol, starring Stéphane Audran and Jean Yanne)

🖼️ Work by Carla Filipe as part of Kooperatiba a joint exhibition with Taxio Arnanaz at Tabakalera, San Sebastián (her stuff was fantastic - exactly my taste - will post more soon)

🎵 The Cramps - Gravest Gravy (2026)

🎵 Various Artists - Greasy Mike’s All Night House Party (2026)

📷 Wonderful red residential building by Plaza Unamuno in Bilbao Old Town

📷 Art nouveau style facade to Bilbao-Concordia station

📷 Brutalist Torre de Atontxa building in Egia, San Sebastián. Completely at odds with rest of city landscape

🖼️ Empty Construction (2002) by Jorge Oteiza. Steel structure, San Sebastián

📷 Peahen feeding her four peachicks

🍺 Le Bukowski Bar, Donostia

📕 domus 1950-1959 (published by Taschen, 2023 a mighty mighty tome)

🖼️ Jasper Johns: Night Driver exhibition at Bilbao Guggenheim Museum (didn’t enjoy this as much expected)

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Last few weeks my turn-ups have been at an unsightly neither here nor there width and it’s bothered me no end. Today have remeded that and can’t tell ya what a weight it is lifted from my shoulders.

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Japanese Women Photographers: From 1950s to Now at the (always wonderful) Photographer’s Gallery, London. Lot of really great creative work but this truly exceptional. Elevator Girl House (1997) by Miwa Yanagi. 🇯🇵

“The department-store elevator attendants were ubiquitous in late twentieth-century Japan. Posing in elevators, mirror-filled rooms, narrow corridors, or corner windows, they convey an eerie sense of suffocation— even of a near-death experience. Through a fusion of photography, psychology, and theatre, YANAGI creates a no-woman's-land—an in-between space of personal exploration.”

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Happy retirement Adel Taarabt. Seen pretty much every QPR home game for 45 years and he’s the player I’ve most enjoyed watching. 🐐

Adel celebrates another goal at Loftus Road

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Mia Wilson at the Waiting Room, Stoke Newington last nite. One of the most gorgeous voices ever had the pleasure to be in a room with. If this were the 70s she’d be selling millions of records.

Californian Mia Wilson - long brown hair and bare feet - vocals and keyboard with band on stage in north London

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

The Courettes at the 100 Club last nite. Garage fuzz royalty.

Martin drums and hat, Flavia guitar and red dress in a sweaty 100 Club, London

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Pepi, Luci, Bom (1980). Pedro Almodovar’s cheapo punk debut includes a club scene with loads of Pebbles stuff playing including The Haunted’s 1-2-5. One of theeeeee greatest 45s ever. “Her name’s Mary Jayne and she lives down lane, alright!”

Three 1980 punky type ladies sitting on a club sofa

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Good on Paul Weller for doing this. Trying to help rebuild healthcare for innocent people and - judging by social media comments - flushing out more thickos from his audience. Win-win. ✊🏽 🇵🇸

Artists For Gaza fundraiser. 27 September. Scala.

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Don’t often swear on here but… this AI atrocity can fuck right off.

Supposedly a biography of Curtis Mayfield with a cover featuring an AI character based more on a John Lee Hooker generic blues guy than Mr Mayfield

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

The Graduate (1967). What d’ya reckon? I give Elaine and Ben two months max.

Katharine Ross and Dustin Hoffman back on the bus.

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Photos by my sis, too good to not share.

Five photos of a tabby practicing their athletic goalkeeping skills.

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

This debut album from Birds Flying Backwards is warm and wonderful. UK brew of Americana/alt-country with strong 70s vibes. Gig with Carson McHone on Tuesday at Shacklewell Arms, London promises to be an immense double bill.

Sunny college of band on cover of their eponymous album.

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

6 music, play indie forever.

Indie Club sketch from The Fast Show 1996 lampooning the lamest of lame “indie”

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Jean Shrimpton with kitten 📸 Duffy

Black and white of the Shrimp pulling curtain back from inside house/window with tabby kitty tucked under her left arm. October 1962 for Vogue

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Gosh, Budgie dug deep into self examination for this. Most certainly not yer standard music autobiography. Powerful stuff.

The Absence: Memoirs of a Banshee Drummer by Budgie. White Rabbit Books paperback

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Rattlesnakes by Lloyd Cole & the Commotions. Honestly never bought a better one.

CD of Rattlesnakes. “Contains 4 extra tracks”

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Trip Adviser Cat Café Warning: The cafe's delicious food, including standout pastries and vegetarian options, earns rave reviews, though some note occasional cat interference.

Louis Wain, The Bachelor’s Party, ca. 1939

Five cats drinking and smoking

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Shout out to Gideon Coe today sitting in for Cerys Matthews on The 6Music. Best three hours of mainstream radio I’ve heard for ages (i.e. taste aligned and presented with the minimum of fuss).

Kid sat atop some ancient listening device

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

The Womack Sisters (2026). I’m thinking (a) this is a cynical attempt to appeal to older folk familiar with the family name and (b) well, they’ve certainly achieved that goal.

Album cover. Black and white pic of three sisters in a sparsely furnished room.

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Mavis Staples at the Union Chapel last nite. We are so not worthy! 🙌🏽

Mavis on stage bringing joy, happiness, positivity and good vibrations. ❤️

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Getting me high brow culture fix at Tate Modern

Photo by Erwin Wurm from their
One Minute Sculptures, 1997/2005, project. Shows grey bearded balding man with pens, pencils, a stapler and film canisters stick in his face.

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Passing of the mod beat baton last nite at the ICA. Kai Slater of Chicago’s Sharp Pins meets two of his big influences: Paul Bevior (The Jetset) and Anthony Meynell (Squire)

Young Kai - looking bit like Johnny Thunders - between smiley Paul and Anthony. Sharp Pins have used old Jetset artwork and have covered Squire.

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

No birds - no birds The sky is swollen black No birds - no birds Holy mass of dead insect

Lyrics from Mausoleum by Manic Street Preachers

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I Shot Andy Warhol (1996). Been renewing my interest in Valerie Solanas, hadn’t seen this for 30 years - pretty good it is, scumbags.

Danish film poster for Mary Hannon’s film.

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Monkey @monkeypicks.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Warm book by a decent bloke about a brilliant band. Nice to read.

The Drums by Mike Joyce, he of The Smiths

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