Podcasts, Radio, TV, Books, Cycling, Photography and More
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HBO Max and Paramount+: What It Might Mean For Sports
Today the deal was done, and Paramount took over Warner Bros. Discovery in a massive deal that has much of Hollywood quaking. There were some last minute wrinkles with a deal being struck a couple of weeks ago with a group of US Attorneys General, with the general view being that they folded and didn’t…
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A Very Murderous Christmas by Various
This anthology had been kicking around for a while, so over Christmas I finally got around to reading it. It’s a collection of short stories by various writers, all of which have been set around Christmas. Not all of them are tales of murder, and not all of them are by famous writers. Indeed, not…
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Ness by Robert McFarlane and Stanley Donwood
Orford Ness, on the Suffolk coast is a remarkable place. I first visited it as a child when we were spent a week of our summer holidays in Walberswick further up the coast. Since then I’ve visited a few times, always heading to the remote village of Orford and then getting the National Trust run…
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Scrublands by Chris Hammer
When I first saw Scrublands appear on bookshelves, I thought that perhaps it was the usual story of another publisher jumping on the bandwagon of Jane Harper’s very successful outback crime thrillers. But towards the end of 2019, as various readers and writers compiled their “best of” lists, Scrublands kept appearing. I’m so glad I…
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The Lost Man by Jane Harper
The Lost Man follows on the heels of Jane Harper’s two previous crime fiction novels set in the Australian outback – Force of Nature and The Dry. But unlike those two, this novel does not feature her detective Aaron Falk. The Lost Man’s setting feels even more remote and desolate than those previous titles. The…
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Times Radio?
Update 28 January: This is now confirmed as happening, so I’ve added an addendum below. It’s interesting to read the reports suggesting that News Corp is about to launch what has been described as “a new radio station designed to threaten Radio 4” or “a rival to Radio 4” this spring. According to the Telegraph…
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Experiments with Acrylic Ink and Water
The other day I was drinking a cup of tea in one of those cafés where they provide the hot water, tea bag and milk separately. I let the tea brew before stirring the milk in and was entranced by the smokey effect of the milk being stirred into the water. Then I went to…
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The Guest List by Lucy Foley
Lucy Foley follows up her very successful and popular whodunnit, The Hunting Party, with a new take on the closed-circle of suspects genre. Like her previous work, The Guest List is great fun. The setting this time is a remote Irish island, where online magazine editor Jules is getting married to TV outward-bound presenter Will…
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Is Spotify Really Bigger Than Apple Podcasts?
Two data points: A Morgan Stanley note for investors is reported to claim that Spotify is now the #1 podcast platform beating Apple. MIDiA Research publishes a blog based on their regularly published tracking report that says “Spotify AND Apple Lead Podcasts – It’s All Down to How You Measure It.” From these two reports…
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View From Waterloo Bridge
Taken just after sunset yesterday. A ten-second exposure, so the London Eye is turning and the “Starflyer” swing ride creates some nice lighting effects. Also nicely visible are a crescent moon and venus. Click through to Flickr for larger versions.
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Boxing Day Radio Times 2019
Nearly made it through everybody! Traditionally Boxing Day might have a really good drama, although both the main channels are showing (good) films instead. I’m not honestly sure that this year has been a bumper year for festive TV. There’s still Dracula to go of course, and ITV tends to keep its powder dry over…
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Christmas Day Radio Times 2019
Happy Christmas all! Here are my usual seasonal choices taken from the Radio Times. A particularly big day if you’re a Kylie fan it turns out. I realise we have Netflix (don’t waste your time with The Witcher), Amazon and iPlayer, but I suspect Strictly, Call the Midwives and Gavin & Stacey will be where…
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Christmas Eve Radio Times 2019
It’s that time of year again, when I dutifully annotate the pages of the Christmas Radio times, pretending that Netflix and Amazon Prime don’t really exist, and let you know my thoughts on what’s worth watching or listening to. This year the Radio Times was perfect bound for the first time – glued instead of…
Hadrian’s Wall
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