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Paul McGee

@paulmcgee.bsky.social
552 followers 655 following 3.3K posts

Semi-pro loudmouth. "My mind ain't so open that anything could crawl right in..."

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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 2h
I'll skip over the replies & comments that assume every English regional accent is an all-purpose variant of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins or Anthony La Paglia in Frasier, and simply say the list of movies that would benefit enormously from giving the antagonist a scouse accent is endless.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 19h
As should every one of us, especially against those who call it "beans and toast".
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Sight and Sound magazine @sightsoundmag.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Eva Marie Saint, 1924-2026 Among the last icons of the golden age of Hollywood, Saint was never quite a movie star in the conventional sense. The Oscar-winning actress leaves behind a career defined less by celebrity than by generosity, craft and an abiding faith in the ensemble
bfi.org.uk
Eva Marie Saint obituary: Oscar-winning star of On the Waterfront and North by Northwest
Among the last icons of the golden age of Hollywood, Saint was never quite a movie star in the conventional sense. The Oscar-winning actress, who has died aged 102, leaves behind a career defined less...
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Cracking album, that. All of those Mizell Brothers productions from the 1970s are rich pickings for your "ooh, I never knew that was a sample" playlist as well.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Name another 102-y-o who managed to look impossibly glamorous every time she was on screen in North By Northwest *and* was so good in her movie debut that she both won an Oscar and managed to get herself immortalised in a Lloyd Cole lyric. I'll wait. RIP, Eva Marie Saint.
A mid-50s head shot of the actress Eva Marie Saint, who has died aged 102.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Nice Miles choice.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
He was catching heat off that for years. He was just goofing off during a mic check, but when the audio got out people lost their minds. You didn't joke about shit like that back then.
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Count Draugula @artd.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
the abolitionist's dilemma
venn diagram
left
some people need their ass beat
right
punishment does not transform people
middle
me
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Craig Jenkins @craigsj.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
harlem's own www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8Hj...
youtube.com
Freddie Jackson - Rock Me Tonight (For Old Times Sake)
YouTube video by FreddieJacksonVEVO
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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Freddie Jackson, the RnB legend known for multiple hits, including “You Are My Lady,” has died. He was 70
Freddie Jackson, the RnB legend known for multiple hits, including “You Are My Lady,” has died. He was 70
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Yeah, there were a number of signs in s2 that it could be about to get very silly indeed, but after a couple of episodes of s3 I was like, "OK, I'm done here." Absolutely preposterous. I'm given to understand that the racial stereotyping of Mexicans in later seasons was even worse.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I thought about going in on Sons Of Anarchy, but I don't think "mid TV show rapidly squanders its potential and goes into the shitter thereafter" is really clearing the bar here, is it?
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
As you'd expect, quotes & replies are a repository for bitter grievances & deep-seated resentment towards popular, beloved and/or critically-acclaimed TV shows that shit the bed in spectacular fashion. All the worst, most infamous offenders are present and correct.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Sunak being the exception that proves the rule.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The bottomless mimosa of idiocy that is the modern Tory party, eh? About the only thing at which they've excelled during the last 15 years or so is identifying & installing a new party leader who's somehow an even bigger idiot than the previous one.
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Joshua Foust 🪖🎮 @joshuafoust.com · 05/10/2026
I’d suggest the genre of profile journalism has some shortcomings
The cover of Fortune Magazine that calls the convicted fraud Sam Bankman-Fried “the next warren buffet” because of his crypto-scamThe cover of Forbes, where Elizabeth Holmes holds a capsule of blood for a cover story extolling her genius, shortly before she was convicted for fraud and sentenced to a long prison sentence.A glossy photo spread extolling the glamour and taste of Asma al-Assad, weeks before her husband committed multiple war crimes and eventually had to flee to Russia to avoid being hacked apart by an enraged rob.
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I Scare You Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 04/10/2026
Louis CK’s buddy said that?!
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I'll happily defer to your superior research-fu. Besides, I tend to trust my memory less these days, although I do remember the reason I didn't go to the Pistols gig was because I'd been grounded. I didn't see the inside of Eric's again until the following February when the Stranglers played.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
How widely it had been publicised, I couldn't say. But I'd definitely heard about it more than a week in advance, and I wouldn't have exactly called myself plugged in at that age.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
FWIW, I went to that Runaways gig and had every intention of seeing the Pistols the Friday after because there were flyers for it all over the place. I was like, "What, I can see the Runaways this week and the Sex Pistols the next?" Suddenly, the stuff you'd read about in the NME was accessible.
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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Today, 8 years ago, my friend, Saudi Journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered.
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A.V. Deggar @avdeggar.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
For the avoidance of doubt, brown people coming forward to challenge their own nationality now is intended to normalise the idea and pave the way for white people to do the same later.
As I've said before, I'm not English.

I'm proud to be British. My family and ancestors have a link to Britain which spans centuries.

But in no way are we English. Yes, I was born in England, speak English and support the England football team. And indeed, I love England and the English people.

But to say I'm English is to take a 'laissez-faire, anything-goes' attitude to ethnicity, citizenship and identity. It also denies me my Asian heritage. The liberals (many of them in today's Conservative Party) take this cosmopolitan approach to Englishness. They're terrified of being called racist so they say that anyone, as long as they're born here, can be English.

I take the conservative approach. Englishness is an ethnicity. There have been English people for centuries and we need to recognise this more if we are to start taking a more muscular approach to citizenship and nationality. And no, it's not racist to say this.
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Ryan CrawCour @ryan.crawcour.social · 01/10/2026
BREAKING NEWS: Tensions between Thor and the Care Bears have escalated rapidly overnight.
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Ben McKennaaaargh @benmckenna.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I guess the question is what you like more, the reputation and integrity of the national sport and our greatest cultural export, or bag loads of moody petrodollars. It's a tough choice, it really is. www.theguardian.com/football/202...
theguardian.com
Andy Burnham admits to ‘concern’ if Manchester City lose their owners after guilty verdicts
The primer minister said: ‘City have been a huge partner in building modern Manchester,’ while the Independent Football Regulator said it is monitoring the case
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Today in Man City Are *Fucked* Fucked.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Whenever someone asks me if I want or need [x], I have to fight the urge to reply; "No, thanks - in the words of van Gogh, I've got one 'ere."
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"Six years ago", y'say? Anyone remember who was PM six years ago? Might it have been someone who'd often do unusually big favours for people with, er, questionable reputations if he thought there was a way to gain a political advantage, or some other reward, in exchange?
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
One of these days I'll let slip some of the things I've been told about Camilla Tominey and her apple-doesn't-fall-far-from-the-tree kids. See if she wants to do a fucking podcast about that...
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Bomani's a little like Tony Todd in The Rock; "I don't like soft-ass shit!" He dissed Luther on Twitter once, and I was like, what's up with that? He said something like, "It's just too smooth for me". His perspective reminds me of a few rock'n'rollers I know, although not in a conservative way.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
We're going to see the all-time winning margin record broken multiple times next season.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Tell you what, though; that Arbroath v Bon Accord record's fucking had it next season.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Oh, they're FUCKED fucked.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
City are fucked.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
For me it felt like the bar was getting raised every month in '92, and that's without even talking about joints like Deep Cover. But that particular period? It almost felt like every week.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
We thrashed every one of those albums, and I clearly remember Redman dropping last. Hit Squad were 🔥 that summer, and people were hyped for that album. I remember one of our regular customers bringing in a tape of Guerrillas In The Mist near closing time, so we locked up early and just dug in.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This is a great piece, man. I often say there's not enough talk about what a terrific year 1992 was for rap, and I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when that run of albums came out. I was working in a West London shoe store, and we played hip-hop over the system all day.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It's mad when it's something you already own. I once picked up Steve Howe's "Beginnings" album in an Oxfam haul, thinking there might be something on it, and promptly forgot about it. Then Tip sampled it on The Renaissance, and I didn't even know Dilla had got there first. youtu.be/01iKdj-NQrg?...
youtu.be
Steve Howe - Will O' The Wisp
YouTube video by nawtytoonice
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I swear, man, my respect for the Nuts fucking rocketed. The sheer dedication required to patiently listen through a mid-tier European fusion album in the hope of catching something, and *actually catching something*. My cap remains forever doffed to Psycho Les, JuJu and V.I.C.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
On the topic of The Beatnuts, I remember pulling a copy of Sister Slick by The Chris Hinze Combination from the £1 racks at Rat Records in Camberwell (RIP) in the late 90s. I got home and had it playing while I made a scran, and I literally yelled "WHAT THE FUCK...?" when it got to *that* part.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Just trying to be the change I want to see in the world.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
ID'ing super-obscure samples is something I still get a buzz from, especially the ones that take forever to source. Shook Ones Part II is obviously pretty high up on that list, along with Ice Cream and the DOOM sample he ripped from a smooth jazz station ID jingle (to keep it kind of on-topic).
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Anyway, that's enough of that for now.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Either way, he finally admitted that he'd ripped it from the VHS, which was something producers would do for movie dialogue all the time. Sampling a piece of music from VHS was pretty unorthodox, and yet fairly typical of DITC's methods; DITC does stand for Diggin' In The Crates, after all.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Now, IIRC this guy bumps into Show at a record fair in New York sometime later (might have been the Roosevelt, iykyk) and tells him, there's this discussion about the sample on the Hard To Kill intro and where you got it from. I don't remember if he said Show was amused, perplexed or irritated...
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
He chipped in and said he too had also wondered about this, and had personally asked Show what was up. Remember this was the 90s, when you couldn't just fucking Google everything, so producers would aggressively gatekeep their sample sources. Show repeatedly refused to be drawn.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Now, one subscriber in particular was pretty much the Yoda of that little community. He was a legit o.g., veteran of the block parties & park jams. What he didn't know about records wouldn't cover the head of a pin. Not only that, he also used to sell records to Show & the other DITC producers.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Except the soundtrack album for Pelham didn't get a physical release of any kind until 1996, four years after Show & AG's album. There was much confusion amongst subscribers of the list as to how Show had managed to sample a record that didn't exist at the time.
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
OK, so if you know the Runaway Slave album by Showbiz & AG, from 1992, you may know that the intro to Hard To Kill samples a cue from David Shire's soundtrack for The Taking Of Pelham 123 (great movie, great score btw). Nothing terribly unusual about that during the Wild West era of sampling...
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Man, you know what, I was talking about lists the other day, specifically a sample-geek list I used to subscribe to. What led me to it was a discussion elsewhere about how widespread sampling from VHS was BITD, and I remembered a story from the list relating to that very thing...
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Paul McGee @paulmcgee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
On the subject of tunes that sample the uptempo bit, this still fucking rips. From the days when Cajual ruled the world (or, perhaps more accurately, certain pockets of South London). www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiE7...
youtube.com
Johnny Fiasco – Funkies Funk 1
YouTube video by MyHouse Channel
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