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ficooper.bsky.social
Pottery & curiosity, books & walks, ghosts & trees & old stones. Maybe even melodeons.
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What I want is a TV documentary channel entirely devoted to documentaries with no quick-cut montages of everything about to happen, which don't give a fuck about keeping my attention, presented by extremely knowledgeable people in a terrible mood who have no interest in trying to make me like them.

“What the government is proposing amounts to the insane idea that you can immiserate people out of their problems” - spot on @johnharris1969.bsky.social👇

In one of many ways Unbound have caused me stress over recent months they allowed (despite me taking my rights back) another version of this to go on Amazon and look like it had been published, with net galley reviews etc. It was NOT published. Ignore the one with the other cover. It doesn't exist.

I'm finding it hard to get my head around this being 40 years old!!! thequietus.com/opinion-and-...

Excellent news, pre-ordered! (I'm sure I've been on that beach).

Ugh. NO, NO IT WON'T.

Whenever I hear anyone promise that AI is going to save workers time I always think about how in-home appliances were promised as The Solution to domestic work for women, and email was supposed to be the more efficient alternative to other forms of communication.

I shall never hear a strange, creaky night-time noise in the garden ever again without thinking it's this...

I am now officially addicted to this "sodium silicate crackly colours on a pot" thing. Going bigger than a pinch pot today, with a super-speedy bit of coiling with fat coils and then easing the clay out. Managed it even in the stupid heat! #pottery #handbuilder

I don’t need to say anything about Katharine, she’s *been* a reactionary dullard, but I do think her presence is a really good example of how the british media infrastructure is actively engaged in warping people’s perspectives towards the far right.

Bluesky esoteric book challenge. A book per day (it's okay to skip days if you're really busy), in no particular order, until you've shared ALL of the best occult books in your personal library. No explanations, no reviews, just covers! #Books #Esoteric #OccultSky #esotericbookchallenge

OK I'm in! Must get this guide actually...

I have many pictures of "just before lights down" at the RSC. Today it was Hamlet - Hail to the Thief. WHAT AN EXPERIENCE (and the only time the Ghost has ever been properly scary in any Hamlet I've seen). Just amazing.

I'm super excited now, just set off for the evening show (I've heard there's a lot of dry ice used in this which I'm also looking forward to *too hot*)

Currently trapped in a room with a creaky fan, here's a portal from last Friday.

Farage and the far right in general come from a grievance culture. If you do what they want, even maximally – Brexit – they’ll move the goalposts and keep moaning. If you engage seriously with their concerns, they’ll find new ones. You will never satisfy them, because they don’t want to be satisfied

This comes from engagement work with teenage girls in a park in York. And you see all those things with two dots by them. Those make up 90%+ of what we currently provide for young people in public space. Whereas the things that girls want - they just aren't there. Let's do better.

How did even the Ordnance Survey miss those fjords off for all these years! 👀

Being part of the whole Unbound saga has not been fun; one consolation has been the support of the many other authors involved. And so, in that spirit, we've put together a list of some of the great books that now need publishers and agents. Please do share! open.substack.com/pub/therebou...

" I also believe that those of us who are older, whiter, safer from the threats of state violence do not have the moral ground to lecture the younger, browner and blacker, more directly impacted demographic on what they should and should not do." www.meditationsinanemergency.com/some-notes-o...

Thei are goinge to put AI yn a toastere and it will tell lyes about bread

Of course it does. How could it not?

It's a horrible experience to have a book whose popularity had been growing by word of mouth stopped in its tracks. Villager has been unavailable for a while but I'm so pleased to be able to say that my new publishers will be republishing it in a few months. tomcox.substack.com/p/the-villag...

Such a fantastic film! (just seen in the to set the recorder).

AI hallucinations ahoy. Holy crap 🤦‍♀️

Best one so far 🤣🤣

Ich remembir when what thei calle "disruption" was just called "beinge a jerk and causinge problems."

So carving a medieval motif into clay is an extremely time consuming way to make a fancy cane topper to stop people taking their eye out in the garden. And I have to do both sides. What was I thinking. 🤣 #potter #potterylife

Important piece by Helena Horton on Lodge Hill and its nightingales, a place that I wrote a chapter about in Irreplaceable because of its significance - together with the idiocy of biodiversity offsetting for such a unique and valuable wildlife site. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Really timely write up by @prsformusic.bsky.social's M Magazine about trans musicians. Honoured to be included in this lineup of gorgeous trans artists #Pride2025 www.prsformusic.com/m-magazine/f...

I can't even remember where this came from, but was tidying up my virtual desktop and found it again. And it's not just true on so many levels but basically why I do part of what I do.

Peers vote to defy government over copyright threat from AI

You and Yours is described as being "on your side in a world of scams, frauds and rip-offs" so I'm glad they've taken up this Unbound scandal (that's what it is) and reported further, outside of the social media bubble. Good to hear Peter White say at the end that they may well come back to it.

“Imagine flattening an irreplaceable grade I listed building like the Royal Albert Hall, replacing it with karaoke machines in various towns & then telling the public this is a ‘win-win’ for architecture & music” - brutally accurate analogy from @ruthtingay.bsky.social @wildjustice.bsky.social

This is what is so, so baffling. It's not like it was a normal publisher which has to raise the finances from within to produce and market a book. WE DID IT ALL FOR THEM. Us, and our readers. Yet they STILL didn't pay us.

This is HORRENDOUS.

Going to keep reposting this because it keeps making me laugh.