I’m appalled to announce that the weird little book I’ve been wittering on about for ten years is now available for Pre-Order. It’s a travel guide to a “Hell for Artists”.

<Herzog Voice> Mucilaginous cubes of torment. Glistening colours, but of a preschool whose walls are daubed with despair. Why so acrid? How can a benevolent god so deform a thing of nature, the root crop, into this abysmal being? </Herzog Voice>

Right now, literary risk-taking is wholly outside of the Big-5 conglomerate model.

Look at these handsome patinaed pottery children.

Pathetically, horribly pleased by this monstrously kind review, and yes! to terrify writers back to their works was largely the reason I wrote the wretched thing, lest we all be trapped in a procrastinating hell of our own devising! #booktwt

Man in chicken suit, late 19th century.

[activates laptop camera]

A reminder that no serious historian, academic or anyone who has spent even minutes looking at Nazi Germany agrees with this. Hitler locked up the left, denounced the left. He was not a 'hardcore socialist.' The only people who say this are... Nazi sympathizers & the far right.

TERF raves about changing rooms, films random Marks and Spencer employee just doing his job. Replies are full of homophobia, but they definitely won’t come after the LGB once they’re done with the T because, uh, reasons

Reading James Baldwin and with every single sentence being like “oh yeah, I remember. he’s the best writer of all time. of course yes I’d forgotten yes yes”

The character of Rizzo in "Midnight Cowboy" (1969) is described in the novel as “a skinny, child-sized man of about twenty-one or twenty-two… a little blond runt,”. The all-American image Dustin Hoffman had after "The Graduate" (1967) and him not being considered a character actor cast doubts for John Schlesinger if Hoffman could pull of the limping, coughing and scruffy Rizzo. Jack Gelber had told the producer Jerome Hellman that he had seen Dustin Hoffman in an Off-Broadway play, 'Eh?' & thought the actor would be perfect for the role. Hellman was blown away after seeing the play & said to himself, “Oh sh!t, this guy was born to play ‘Ratso’ Rizzo.” When meeting with John Schlesinger and the producer, Hoffman took it to the next level so as to show that he would indeed be a good pick for the part—they were to meet on a Manhattan street corner and he showed up dressed in filthy rags. Schlesinger did not even notice the beggar who was asking people for change not even 10 feet away until Hoffman revealed himself and got the part. Mike Nichols tried to change Hoffman's mind about accepting the role, thinking his performance would imply taking a few steps backwards, instead of forwards: “Are you crazy? I made you a star. This is an ugly character. It’s a supporting part to Jon Voight. What are you doing? Why are you sabotaging?” But Hoffman stood his ground and it ended up being one of the best decisions he had ever made: “The truth was, I saw 'The Graduate' as a setback, because I was determined not to be a star.” Little did Hoffman know that he would become an even bigger star and also get his first Academy Award nomination, along with co-star Voight. (Source: "How John Schlesinger’s Homeless and Lonesome ‘Midnight Cowboy’ Rode His Way to the Top and Became the First and Only X-rated Movie to Win a Best Picture Oscar", Koraljka Suton, Cinephilia & Beyond, & IMDb) P.S: On this day, 57 years ago, "Midnight Cowboy" (1969) was released in the USA & Canada.

My first friend back from the kiln- super happy with this glaze

“…Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion… Women with the kind of walking that makes benches become men…”

Bit peeved about these robots rocking the boat and muddying the waters for those of us who use confusing metaphors the way an aardvark peels potatoes.

In a belated #TranslationDay nod, very fond of Antonina W. Bouis’ rollicking translation of Bulgakov’s “A Dog’s Heart” (@almabooks 2011):

Myles na gCopaleen BEHOLDING himself is high art.

As it’s the anniworsery of this nonsense, I have created a little free downloadable sample as a generalised punishment. It’s 3 levels of the hell flung up as a PDF on Bookfunnel. Download at whim! dl.bookfunnel.com/4jmf3hjokz

From the 11th century

In 15 min they decided this entire whale species was less important than money from oil drilling. 15 minutes. FIFTEEN MINUTES.

Early morning foggy Gdansk, Poland.