iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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daryl "rupert pumpkin" b 🏳️‍⚧️ @hypercubexl.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

GDT's reddit AMA spitting fire www.reddit.com/r/movies/com...

reddit comment:

Hello! Did you intend the ending of Pan’s labyrinth to be real or in Ofelia’s mind?

Guillermo Del Toro's reply:

My interpretation, and it's exclusively mine, is that it's real.

Because there's two things. One is what people call “The Shining Question.” The Shining Question is, Who opens the door for Jack to get out of the fridge? And Ofelia is in an attic with a guard outside her door, and she draws the door with the magic chalk, and she shows up in the labyrinth. So, the only way she could have gone into the labyrinth is the magic chalk. And the flower is real at the end. The flower that blooms in the dead tree. And the reason I think it’s real is because—and this is why I'm in favor of the human factor in art—I think that art does transform the world. You know?

Think about it for a second. One of the goals, with all this movement, is to make you believe that art is vulgar. That art is nothing special, and anybody can do art. That is like me telling you that I'm faster at running than Usain Bolt but I “run” in my motorcycle. Well, that's not the same. That’s not the same at all.

Art is important, and they want you to believe it isn't. It's part of the idea of control. The goal is not to have artificial intelligence. The goal is to foster natural stupidity. The goal is to foster you not looking for answers, and to trust yourself entirely to an engine. Look at the way we are dipping our toes into these things. We are starting to ask the machine, Is this true? For now, there's a correlation between reality and what the answers of the machine are. For now. But soon, we won't even investigate further. We will be told it's true. And if the machine is in the hands of somebody who should not be trusted, then your reality has been completely and utterly fucked. Because your intelligence ends at the question. You don't seek the answer. It's given to you.

Q: You recently mentioned that AI creates 'semi-compelling screensavers' and that you'd 'rather die' than use it. As a filmmaker who relies heavily on practical effects and creature design, what do you think is the biggest thing lost when a computer generates an image instead of a human hand?

GDT:

The three quarters of the process that gave you the chance to think of the idea that people don't think about without that process. Meaning, AI can get you to the middle really fast, but there's a dialectic with the process that gets you to that top 10%. I'll give you an example with the Pale Man.

We sculpted it as an old man, with a face. And then I said, Let's take out the face. This happened because I saw a photo of a manta ray and the poster for Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm. That combination, which happened at two different times during a week or a month, are not permutations that are chemically part of an equation. They are alchemy. And then I said, Take out the face, and then I said, Let's put the eyes on the hands. This triangulation happens because I spent a month or two months living with the idea of this creature. And it's not linear.

AI is like a super-fast engine that makes semi-sentient permutations of things that are already done. Creation is things that have never been done. Coming to exist.

And the second thing is the loss of the apprenticeship that one has as an artist. You're never a master; you're always an apprentice. This is a kinship I have with, for example, Chris Nolan. When he showed me The Odyssey, there’s a scene when Matt Damon is floating in the stormy ocean and I asked him—because we were talking about practical effects, and how great it is and that we both always use a maquette or a model—and I asked him, How did you do it? He said, “We put him in a storm in the ocean.”

And you're gonna find that 30% of a great image occurs accidentally. You know, either a drop of water hits the lens, or the camera shakes. I remember when in 1993, '94, Jim…

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Being unable to resign in chess is a character defect I'm not talking about "tenaciously defending a bad position" etc, I'm talking about playing 50 moves with a bare king rather than risk showing any trace of humility or respect If this describes you: I regret you have not been raised correctly

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

After a decades-long flirtation, finally getting into grateful dead The thing that did it for me in the end was I listened to a grateful dead album

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Selling some more vinyl & CDs as part of the Edinburgh Record & CD Fair today (Saturday 18th) - The Wee Red Bar (ECA), 11am-3pm. Free entry - come and say hi and have a dig if you're about!

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Berserker 82-0 • no spins ☑️ • no Wilt ☑️ Time to retire, maybe get my life back

Picking order was:
1. Dantley, IND 70s
2. McGrady, ORL 00s
3. Robertson, SAC 60s
4. Barkley, PHX 90s
5. Hayes, HOU 60s

Pretty much pure RNG tbh - 5 no-brainer picks. Probably the quickest game I've played.
Going into 5th pick like "right, I've got both spins to hunt a killer centre-oh I got Hayes, yay"

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Aquarium Drunkard @aquariumdrunkard.com · 26/05/2026

Rest easy, Colossus

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Dr Panti Bliss-Cabrera @pantibliss.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Trans people have been around your whole life. You’ve been sharing bathrooms with them your whole life. They’ve been in your communities your whole life. They’ve even been playing sport your whole life. And you didn’t care *at all* till a few years ago when every right wing org decided you should

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Tyler Wilcox @tylerwilcox.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

I’ve known and loved this legendary team-up between Chan Marshall and Loren Mazzacane Connors forever — but never knew there was video. Somehow it’s even more transfixing. doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/8159645...

doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com

Doom & Gloom From The Tomb

Cat Power & Loren Mazzacane Connors - Tonic, New York City, October 7, 1999 Thanks to Jordan for alerting me to the recent upload of this classic, one-time-only (?) team-up — Chan Marshall and Loren.....

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Gonna be selling some records in Edinburgh tomorrow! Record Fair at The Wee Red Bar (ECA), 11am-3pm, Saturday 2nd May. Entry is free; come along and say hello!

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Have been getting into this recently: Steve Hiett's "Down on the Road by the Beach" (1983). Dreamy, floating, pretty, soothing, atmospheric surf guitar

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Nice article on the socialism - as well as the artistic process - behind Stereolab's "Dots and Loops". Vonnegut, Orwell, Steinbeck, Woody Guthrie & Pete Seeger could be said to create from a socialist perspective too. Who are some other great socialist artists? www.thegryphon.co.uk/2025/04/23/t...

thegryphon.co.uk

The Serene Socialism of Stereolab’s Dots and Loops - The Gryphon

Music and Clubs The Gryphon

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Love opening an old CD and finding an unexpected CDR I'd completely forgotten about in there along with it. These were the days; this is how we did it

An opened jewel CD case, displaying a generic Sony CD-R, on which has been written: "SMOG - A RIVER AIN'T TOO MUCH TO LOVE"

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Something I've believed since my early teens and which I still believe now is that guitar music can improve your life

CD box set: Bedhead 1992-1998 (Numero Group).

Bedhead were a Dallas, Texas slowcore band that made understated, warm, intricate guitar music which is still meaningful to some people

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Immaculate vibes here - give it a listen if you'd like to escape or even just feel a little better for a while

Well-loved LP cover: Blossom Dearie - Sings (Daffodil Records, US - 1973)

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Ben Phillips @benphillips76.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Check me out with the passive rook sac - so fancy

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Finally making my way around to The Durutti Column! Proper guitar magic here - my kind of thing. God bless artists and the people that support them. Once again that feeling that it's all there, just waiting for us to discover when we're ready

LP: The Durutti Column - The Return of the Durutti Column (Factory Records, UK - 1980)

This is the 2nd pressing in a lightweight, textured mostly black sleeve with a triptych of small painted landscapes.
The original pressing came in a literal sandpaper sleeve which was designed to be abrasive towards any adjacent objects!

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Going through my CDs - look at this little beauty

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Auschwitz Memorial @auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Auschwitz was at the end of a process. We must remember that it did not start from gas chambers. This hatred gradually developed: from ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder. Auschwitz took time.

A bird's-eye view of a former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp showing a wide dirt pathway flanked by parallel rows of barbed-wire fences. Groups of visitors walk along the path, surrounded by the remnants of brick structures and barracks, now reduced to foundations. Green grass contrasts with the somber history of the site, as the path leads toward a guard tower in the distance.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 25/01/2026

A reminder to the news media: “conflicting accounts” is what you say BEFORE the incontrovertible video evidence appears. After that, your job is to ask why one side is lying, not to repeat the lie and pretend no one knows the truth.

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Greg Olear @gregolear.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

One of the best things I’ve read in a while:

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Here's a nice Burns rendition: caught my ear on the radio when it came out 10+ years back - walks a fine line between jazz and folk, moodiness and melodrama. I always enjoy listening to it though, for the haunting beauty and stillness of it. And, of course, the Burns m.youtube.com/watch?v=5R_-...

m.youtube.com

Lassie Lie Near Me

YouTube video by June Tabor - Topic

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G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 24/01/2026

Reminder: All it would take to end the murder of American citizens by an untrained government goon squad is 16 Republicans in Congress voting with Dems to defund ICE (or 23 to impeach and remove Trump — 3 in House & 20 in Senate). That’s it. 23 Americans can vote for the public and end all of this.

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molly conger @socialistdogmom.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

they're executing moms and nurses in the street. they're using preschoolers as bait. they're stealing people's dads and grandmas and children. they're tear gassing babies. they're staking out schools. there is no remedy but abolition. any proposal that doesn't start there is an act of violence.

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Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

The UK government is proposing radical and punitive changes to settlement rules. This is settlement, not citizenship. The consultation is open until 12 February; please respond to it and oppose these evil proposals. Amnesty have a good guide: www.amnesty.org.uk/resources/gu...

amnesty.org.uk

Guidance for responding to 'A Fairer Pathway to Settlement' consultation

We are Amnesty International UK. We are ordinary people from across the world standing up for humanity and human rights.

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Channeled my inner Robby Müller on this one apparently More photos in the replies/thread now

Photograph of a sunset scene in Galveston, Tx.

Sky fades from blue to orange; palm trees and buildings are silhouetted and a car seems to surprisingly float among the otherwise unlit scenery

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

I visited Houston, Tx in October Sharing some photos from my trip because everyone famously enjoys seeing other people's holiday pictures

The first of 15 photos of various scenes in and around the Houston area.
Mostly different types of landscape, some urban - with roads, vehicles, buildings and businesses, often taken from inside of a moving car - and others showing the flora and natural scenery.
The photos are presented without a theme or with any specific editorial slant or intention - other than to give my impression of what the place was like and how I experienced it.

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boomkat.com @boomkat.com · 06/01/2026

[Ahmed] Giant Beauty Third edition otw ✨ boomkat.com/products/gia...

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Last couple of nights @cafeotodalston.bsky.social have been magic - what a cool place! Last night was David Murray Quartet; tonight was أحمد [Ahmed]. These shows will live long in my memory - glad I was able to make the trip.

David Murray onstage at Cafe OTO, London playing Tenor Sax.
Visible behind him is Luke Stewart (also of Irreversible Entanglements fame) playing upright bass

Chalkboard sign outside Cafe OTO for David Murray Quartet

Three members of أحمد [Ahmed] performing on a dimly lit stage at Cafe OTO:
Joel Grip (bass), Antonin Gerbal (drums), Seymour Wright (alto sax)

Chalkboard sign outside Cafe OTO for أحمد [Ahmed]

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Posted this before, but this one always kills me. So pretty and fun. I'm going to go and see David Murray in concert tomorrow night!!!

LP: Lucky Four by David Murray, Dave Burrell, Wilber Morris, Victor Lewis (Tutu Germany, 1989)

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

I messaged on the other place a year or two back about really wanting to read a good book on the UK jazz scene of the 60s & 70s - and here one is! 6 days left on the Kickstarter to get this re-printed - I just backed it - could make a good Christmas present?!? www.kickstarter.com/projects/lab...

kickstarter.com

Labyrinth: British Jazz on Record 1960 - 1975

A lavish, visual celebration of British jazz albums in the 1960s and early 1970s

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

I have a special interest in music that is beautiful, calm, spacious and also contains improvised elements and so seems almost to breathe by itself, be alive. I've been meaning to listen to this - Harold Budd's The Pavilion of Dreams - for years and thankfully I recently did. I think it's amazing!

LP: Harold Budd - The Pavilion of Dreams (Obscure UK, 1978)

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

Wake up babe, new arsenal bench just dropped

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Wow - just hearing this for the first time, having been unaware of Kevin Ayers. He was in Soft Machine, I now gather (& Robert Wyatt drums on this!) Very interesting songwriting and arrangements, sort of cheekily eccentric and often very pretty. I think it's great!

LP cover: Kevin Ayers - Joy of a Toy (Harvest, UK - originally released 1969; this is a 1974 repress)

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

Arsenal's bench today, in a squad which doesn't include Saka, Saliba, Havertz, Norgaard or Jesus. Definitely the most strength-in-depth in the Premier League this season IMO

Kepa, Dowman, Hincapié, Lewis-Skelly, Martinelli, Nwaneri, Rice, Trossard, White

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

English press have been running this headline every qualifier for ten years

"They won - but have turgid England regressed?"

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Status update: spinning away. I became obsessed with this for a few months in 2018. Top tunes 10/10 cover art A classic, in my opinion

LP: Eno / Cale - Wrong Way Up (Land Records, UK - 1990)

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Some evidence to suggest the gap between the premier league and championship is increasing, too

Data visualisation

Shows boxplots of the year-on-year change in ratio of goals scored to goals conceded for teams that have been changed division via promotion or relegation across the last 7 years.

The change in ratio is tending to increase each year, from an average of around 75% in 2019-2021, to around 100% in 2022-2024, before hitting almost 150% for teams in the most recently completed season.

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

New football season got me thinking about the difference in difficulty between the English Premier League and Championship. I took a look at how teams' ratios of goals scored to goals conceded changed between seasons over the last 10 years:

Data visualisation.
Title: "How much harder is the premier league than the championship?"
Horizontal x-axis: "A look at the change in teams' ratio of goals scored to goals conceded between seasons".

Body of the plot shows three frequency/density distributions ("bell curves", roughly, showing an aggregate view of where along the x-axis the data has tended to collect):

The "season after relegation" distribution shows a bi-modal (two-humped) distribution with the tallest peak at around +100%.

The "season after promotion" distribution shows a roughly Normal distribution with mean just below -100%.

The "same division as before" distribution is approximately Normal with mean 0%.

The caption reads: "Where a change of -100% is roughly equivalent to scoring 50% more goals than your opponents one season followed by 50% less than your opponents the next".

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Came across this by chance when it hit one of my eBay searches - free/spiritual jazz in the late-Coltrane vein from a UK group in the late 70s. A track from this featured on "A New Life", the Jazzman 2015 compilation of UK private press jazz, which may have shed a little light. Deserves more IMO

LP: Edge - Uneasy Peace (Chiltern Sound UK, 1978)

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

Hahahaha Avoided this for 25 years after Pitchfork gave it a 0.0 and whaddayaknow but it's actually pretty good The joke is on me, folks!

LP: sonic youth - nyc ghosts & flowers (Geffen US, 2000)

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Went to see Chris Cohen last night @thegladcafe.bsky.social - it was great! The album is pretty fab too

LP: Chris Cohen - Paint a Room (Hardly Art US, 2024)

Floating mysteriously in front of a painting

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

First spin of this Managed to pick up a sealed copy (2021 RSD reissue) in Orkney, of all places Shrinkwrap left on to own the libs!

LP: Bill Fay - Time of the Last Persecution (Deram UK, 2021 Record Store Day reissue - the first and thus far only official LP reissue of an album originally released in 1971)

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

They said it couldn't be done, but I've got my Octordle Rescue win rate up to 85%🎈 As far as I know I am the best in the world in the world at this game ...but then I only know two other people who play. Please show me how well I could be doing; boasting encouraged

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Went to sell some records today... The guy who buys the records wasn't in... ...came home with this 🥴

LP cover: Jackie McLean - It's Time! (Blue Note US, 1966 original)

It's one of designer Reid Miles' most iconic covers, with around 80% of the LP surface taken up by black exclamation points on a white background.

At the top, it lists the musicians who appear on the album:
Charles Tolliver, Herbie Hancock, Cecil McBee, Roy Haynes and Jackie McLean.

A picture of the label at the centre of the vinyl, showing the classic Blue Note design and several indicators of an original pressing: VAN GELDER stamp and Plastylite P ("ear") in the deadwax, "New York USA" address.

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Wee Rogue @wee-rogue.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

Yeah, this ripped. Exciting, fun, powerful and thought provoking. Can't believe I didn't get any pictures!

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