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richardjamesfoster.bsky.social
Artist, author & culture writer. History & art buff. The Museum of Photocopies. Quietus. Write about music, NL, & my family history. #MDANT. My 2nd book, The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club is now out. All stuff here. https://linktr.ee/richardfoster
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Falling off an amp whilst in a telletubby costume on stage

submitted 10 hours ago • 1 comment

What's the stupidest way you've hurt yourself? Oh I'm so glad you asked! I knocked myself out with a frozen bag of omelettes.

submitted 1 day ago • 584 comments

The unbelievable condescension we’re already seeing today towards working class people- suggesting they don’t travel to Europe or their kids might not want to go to university and study in Europe- is quite something to behold.

submitted 1 day ago • 185 comments

My last Mythbusting book tour show in the NW will be at Hoghton Tower (Lancs) on 4 June at 7pm. There haven't been many shows in this part of the world so its a rare chance to catch me rattling on about the folklore of ancient buildings in Lancashire... www.hoghtontower.co.uk/special-even...

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

"Waiting for peace — and if not peace, then death": Life in frontline Novopavlivka, just 7 km from the front 📹: Suspilne

submitted 3 days ago • 16 comments

Sir Edward Grey, 1916: "If the world cannot organise against war, if war must go on, then nations can protect themselves henceforth only by using whatever destructive agencies they can invent, till the resources and inventions of science end by destroying the humanity that they were meant to serve"

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Oh Lord, on this day save me from the Dread Angel of Opinion…

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Nigel Farage says he would tear up the Starmer reset deal for a UK-EU closer relationship after Brexit - NB, and the Sunak and the Johnson deals with the EU - and claims he could negotiate a better, harder Brexit with looser UK/EU ties www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...

submitted 3 days ago • 41 comments

I need this cat !

submitted 3 days ago • 165 comments

The US is to start discussions on withdrawing troops from Europe later this year, the US NATO ambassador tells Reuters. That’s the start of the end of the Cold War alliance. Europe is on its own and needs to act accordingly.

submitted 3 days ago • 81 comments

Ha! The text is a robotic pile of shit!

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

The French declared war on Nazi Germany as a matter of choice - a matter of principle - which I don’t recall either the United States nor the Soviet Union doing.

submitted 4 days ago • 2 comments

this is a bit of an adjacent point but I do think "small talk" should be thought of as a skill, and something that becomes more enjoyable once you've practiced it a bit; reckon few people just love it from the off, there's got to be some effort at the start but it then becomes genuinely rewarding

submitted 4 days ago • 55 comments

What a pleasure to dig into the loamy magic of Shirley Collins' debut album, Sweet England, for @thequietus.com, to think about long lives contracting, seasons speeding past in time-lapse, revisiting songs, and young women's voices raising others in sacred sound. thequietus.com/quietus-revi...

submitted 4 days ago • 2 comments

More of this. Are there more examples of cult artist furniture?

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Social media

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Planning is underway for the 2026 European Curlew Fieldworkers Workshop, which we are excited to announce will be held at Lancaster University, 6th - 8th February 2026! 👏 More details will follow soon, so stay tuned.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Sharing so you can block it

submitted 5 days ago • 124 comments

I’m not adding Alt Text to this one, if that’s alright…

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Picking up my award for UK Public Library Project Of the Year shortly for my work with indie presses and promoting marginalised voices. Five ton cash prize, already halved that with the lass i manage, gonna spend my share on a tattoo 😎

submitted 5 days ago • 45 comments

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submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

One thing people forget about the Rivers of Blood speech is that Ted Heath removed Enoch Powell from his Cabinet the next day. Keir Starmer remains prime minister and has senior Labour figures falling over themselves to defend his racism. This government now is far more right wing than Ted Heath

submitted 7 days ago • 9 comments

The great Pat McCabe on the bumps and realities of the publishing world. Patrick McCabe: ‘This whole idea of making money out of novels started in the 1980s with Martin Amis and Ian McEwan’ www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

submitted 6 days ago • 2 comments

Am pleased to announce that this October I’ll be commencing a PhD: Practises Make Places: Artists’ Responses to ‘Prehistoric’ Monuments. Co-supervised by Dr Seren Griffiths @manmetuni.bsky.social & Dr Jen Wexler @englishheritage.bsky.social & funded by NWCDTP. Can’t wait to get cracking 🙂

submitted 7 days ago • 37 comments

Russia is now bombarding Odesa with ballistic missiles. Remember, European leadership pledged that if Russia did not agree to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire by yesterday, they would hit Russia with super new sanctions. Yet, here we are…

submitted 7 days ago • 18 comments

Murphy: "He's going to these 3 countries for a simple reason: These are the 3 countries that are willing to pay him. Traditionally a president might go first to Canada or one of our European allies, but those countries aren't willing to write Trump a check."

submitted 7 days ago • 163 comments

Released on this day in 1982: Sulk #TheAssociates youtu.be/VEWjGswYvYI?...

submitted 6 days ago • 3 comments

I was delighted to have helped in a humdrum way with this toffe beeld by @coldwarsteve.bsky.social

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

The number of journalist in this piece who draw the line at “letting AI do the writing” but are fine with “letting AI do the thinking” makes me want to walk into the ocean. This is how you lose your edge — and the war on our industry as executives try to replace us.

submitted 6 days ago • 19 comments

the only line you need to read from this article is a quote from the great @tristanl.ee

submitted 6 days ago • 15 comments

Happy 40th birthday to New Order's Low Life, released on this day in 1985. Here’s my cassette copy, which is a thing of beauty

submitted 7 days ago • 18 comments

I remember Newcastle looking like this in the mid 70s

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Some here know 1914-18 & especially (civilian) cultures of remembrance & literature is a pet subject of mine. I’m TEARING THROUGH THIS BOOK. Superbly written (not always the case with such histories) it is surely now a standard text? Brilliant! @pikegrey1418.bsky.social / @alexchurchill.bsky.social

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

75 YEARS OLD TODAY 🎂 Happy 75th Birthday to Stevie Wonder

submitted 7 days ago • 27 comments

Stevie Wonder Visiting A Children's School For The Blind In London, 1970. Photographer Terry O'Neill. youtu.be/JI6zfrA3-CA?...

submitted 7 days ago • 9 comments

I wrote about AC/DC for @thequietus.com and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. If I don’t win a Pulitzer for it, I’m quitting music criticism and starting a band. Check it out, rockers. thequietus.com/opinion-and-...

submitted 8 days ago • 10 comments

Hello @pikegrey1418.bsky.social wondered if you knew of this one? Sure you do.

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment