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Rob L

@roblavine.bsky.social
33 followers 16 following 131 posts

I write The AV Chamber: avchamber.substack.com. Too crazy for Boystown, not enough of a boy for Crazy Town

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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Few sporting spectacles are simultaneously as fun and as drama-filled as the NBA, which is about to start again. Here's a beginner guide to the rules, the quirks, the players and everything else to watch out for: avchamber.substack.com/p/18-a-begin...
avchamber.substack.com
#18: A Beginner’s Guide to why the NBA rules
Basketball is the sport that might be more exciting - and weirder than football. With the new NBA season three weeks away, this is what to watch out for and why you should give it a go.
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Six nights at Knebworth - Oasis are as big as they've ever been, and they may also be the most hated band in the country. Why is that? Plus: Glass Eel in the new band slot: avchamber.substack.com/p/17-how-did...
avchamber.substack.com
#17: How did Oasis become the most divisive band in Britain?
They used to be the band that united everyone, nowadays their legacy divides opinion while they shift more tickets than ever. Plus, Glass Eel in the New Band slot.
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The Twin Towers featured in over 1,000 films (and a few TV intros). This week's AV Chamber looks at the image of New York the world lost 25 years ago: avchamber.substack.com/p/16-a-hole-...
avchamber.substack.com
#16: A Hole in the Skyline – 9/11’s cultural impact a quarter of a century on
The destruction of the World Trade Center stole one of cinema’s most identifiable landmarks, New York is still dealing with the legacy of that today.
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I went to End of the Road over the weekend. Here's the rundown of who was iconic, who you have to see live and who had technical problems (also photos and videos you won't get on the big sites: avchamber.substack.com/p/15-the-goo...
avchamber.substack.com
#15: The good, the great and the strange at End of the Road
The UK’s perennial five-star music festival was at the top of its game this year. Here’s the kind of rundown you won’t get in newspapers or on message boards.
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
This week, we say goodbye to Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, two of the rare showbiz people with a 100% approval rating. There are lots of videos - I went for rare and weird: avchamber.substack.com/p/14-dolly-p...
avchamber.substack.com
#14: Dolly Parton and Tim Curry memorial week
There are very few public figures that aren’t polarising these days. Two of them, Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, died last week.
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Oh, FFS! Is there really nothing anyone can do to stop landlords screwing up Soho? www.londoncentric.media/p/prince-cha...
londoncentric.media
Prince Charles Cinema closure threat returns
Plus: Restaurants charging diners to pay the bill • Bring back the Woking 925 • Forest bike crime spree • TfL weight-loss advert loophole
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
RIP Tim Curry, who somehow managed to be the most memorable part of everything he was in for over two decades. Going to be write more about Dolly and him next week, in the meantime, this is my second favourite of his musical contributions to the world: m.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhA...
m.youtube.com
Tim Curry - Paradise Garage (4K) (extended HD audio)
YouTube video by LightN2Ashes
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The Grauniad's annual 5 star Green Man review, to be followed in two weeks by its annual 5 star End of the Road review: www.theguardian.com/music/2026/a...
theguardian.com
Green Man review – Wolf Alice, Shame and secret sets keep the Welsh festival’s flame burning
The traditional fire might be banned this year, but festivalgoers are treated by energetic performances by Wolf Alice, Tamikrest and Westside Cowboy
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
If you haven't already, I'd really reconmend checking out the Hurvin Anderson exhibition at the Tate Britain before it closes this weekend...
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Oh oh, football is starting up again! Forget the actual ball kicking, here's where to expect the fireworks off the pitch this season: avchamber.substack.com/p/12-the-av-...
avchamber.substack.com
#12: The AV Chamber’s non-traditional preview of the football season
Which players are most likely to fight? Which players are most likely to fuck? And who will look the most ridiculous doing it? It’s the AV Chamber’s pre-season football awards!
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
My mate, barmaid extraordinare Hazel, with her latest invention, the Paloma Bomb. It is legitimately 🤪😋 and you should ask her for one at the Queen's Head ASAP
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Good luck to my mate Count Binface today! Let's help the sentient bin take out the trash
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Just got back from the pub and there's an episode of The Avengers with Brian Blessed, Charlotte Rampling and Donald Sutherland in it 😮
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Do you need something cheap and fun to do in London before the summer's out? This week's AV Chamber has a guide to the best gallery lates, free gigs and free film festivals over the next month: avchamber.substack.com/p/11-the-av-...
avchamber.substack.com
#11: The AV Chamber’s summer staycation guide
We take a look at the best free and daytime cultural things to do in the city over the next month. Plus: checking out a couple of the more interesting emerging folk acts.
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Average Silicon Valley CEO mentality: m.youtube.com/watch?v=7rdp...
m.youtube.com
In Time Bandits, Evil Discusses the Importance of Computing
YouTube video by GlobalWahrman
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I don't think a bunch of films where people (mostly millennials) don't have sex and/or find it hugely problematic is going to be much of an antidote for the sex drought
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Late to the party but still, I've been reading comics since I was 13 and I've NEVER seen anything like Absolute Martian Manhunter.
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Droplets of water have begun falling from the sky in London. Confusing. Think I vaguely remember something like this happening in the past?
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
This looks horrible. I can't remember, was Ryan Murphy ever not a hack? And Easton Ellis was allowed near a set or script after The Canyons? The book sucked too by the way. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
theguardian.com
Sex, drugs and serial killers: inside Ryan Murphy and Bret Easton Ellis’s lurid TV thriller
The Shards brings the cocaine-addled teens of a 1980s prep school to life with a cast of newcomers and a heavy dose of sleaze
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Hazel Southwell @hazelsouthwell.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
right, ok, enough self-pity, I need to turn my shit pub around. it's in Stratford, it's got a (small) stage, there has to be someone who has something cool they want a space for queer-run, extremely diverse venue (we even let mumbling old white geezers in) what I'd call 'mostly accessible'
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
This week's AV Chamber: the two biggest films of the summer, one works and one doesn't quite. But which one? Also, shoegaze is definitively back! avchamber.substack.com/p/10-the-ody...
avchamber.substack.com
#10: The Odyssey, Spider-Man and what really makes a movie feel epic
This summer’s headline blockbusters are both stuffed with characters and action but only one truly wows. Maybe not the one you think. Plus: Shoegaze is back, baby!
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
This week in the AV Chamber: Penelope Keith and how To the Manor Born is primo British comfort TV: avchamber.substack.com/p/9-to-the-m...
avchamber.substack.com
#9: To the Manor Born and the lure of comfort TV
The late Penelope Keith headed up one of Britain’s all-time comfort television options, even if the genre in general is prone to small- c conservatism.
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Watching No Hard Feelings and it's such a bizarrely 2022 movie. Like a cinematic time capsule. A sex comedy with COVID-era online politics, a 70s rock soundtrack for some reason and a lead that looks like a haunted doll.
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Bad news, monster lovers. Looks like the Clayface movie is going to be gross weird instead of horny weird. youtu.be/W9bNA42dPgQ?...
youtu.be
Clayface | Official Trailer
YouTube video by Warner Bros. Pictures International
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
This week: Madonna roars back with...an MDMA album? Plus: an elegy for the World Cup. avchamber.substack.com/p/8-has-mado...
avchamber.substack.com
#8: Has Madonna just made one of music’s all-time drug albums?
Confessions II is a return to form and also the most ecstasy-coded album by a star in recent memory. Plus, the World Cup is over – what did we learn?
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Impromptu street party going on in London Bridge!
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Spain doing what they've done all tournament, strangling the life out of the other team. Can't remember the last time Argentina had the ball for 10 seconds at a time.
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
This Romesh ad has reminded me how much I hate almost everything on the BBC not related to football. I'm still going to pay the licence fee but they don't make it easy.
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
They would never had a show this camp for the Super Bowl. Just saying.
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
First entertaining third place match in World Cup history!
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
How do you get to be rated a 'top' manager and not know when or why to make substitutes?
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Did Tuchel play the Henry V speech to this lot before kick off?? Or were Kane and Bellingham just holding us back all the time?
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Really enjoying the last meaningful game in this World Cup, so far.
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
So, we're scapegoating Tuchel this time, right?
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Reaction in the bar to France losing is very Hank Scorpio. Don't think there was a single sad face.
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Brian Phillips @brianphillips.lol · 14/07/2026
VAR is such a badly conceived and implemented application of technology that I'm expecting it to have a trillion-dollar IPO
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
There was a shot of a small French kid in the crowd crying and every woman in the beer garden went AWWWW!!! simultaneously 🤣
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
What would your World Cup intro action be when your name comes up on the lineup? Gotta be a peace sign, right?
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Can't remember the last match this exciting as a neutral. Could be about to experience an all-timer
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Okay, HEAR ME OUT on this one: avchamber.substack.com/p/7-a-modest...
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Semi-finals let's GOOOOOO!!!!
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Imagine if every time England played, social media was flooded with teenagers seething and pointing to the U21s going: "But England already HAS a winning team!!!"
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
A karaoke night where everyone sings the same song all night and you have to pay £5 to get in - is this the worst night out imaginable for a venue you might actually want to go to? cubecinema.com/programme/ev...
cubecinema.com
Cube: One Song Karaoke: What's Up?
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
And people say immigrant communities can't integrate? Nothing more traditionally English than rioting after your team goes out of a tournament www.theguardian.com/football/202...
theguardian.com
Police officer hurt amid violent disorder in London after France beat Morocco
A police officer was hurt and several people were arrested after disorder in the Edgware Road area in the wake of France’s World Cup win against Morocco
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Ever heard of the tin pan alley-era soul crooner who became a radical protest singer, then a character in League of Legends? This might be the most interesting thing you read this week (and the playlist is great too): avchamber.substack.com/p/6-the-many...
avchamber.substack.com
#6: The Many Lives of Eugene McDaniels
Approaching the 15th anniversary of his death, this is the story of how a Tin Pan Alley-era pop star became one of America's most radical singers and helped voice the launch of modern video gaming.
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Hugo Sanchez, Frida Kahlo, Salma Hayek, Rey Mysterio, Speedy Gonzalez: your boys took a hell of a beating tonight!
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
General consensus at the table is that Anthony Gordon looks like a terminal illness case who's been allowed to tag along and Elliot Anderson looks like he should have a question mark over his head.
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Richard Kadrey @richardkadrey.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
"Do you think anyone is going to recognize us?" "Don't worry. We're wearing dark glasses." "You're right. We're practically invisible."
at a soccer game:
I like how everyone is wearing their whatever team's colors and these two are like...
That's great, but we're Depeche Mode.
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Not the worst Kane description I've ever heard
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Rob L @roblavine.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Harry Kane is the player Cristiano Ronaldo thinks he is.
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