Tom Ewing

Tom Ewing

@tomewing.bsky.social

Music, comics, assorted grousing, he/him. CURRENT THINGS are Discourse 2000, a 2000AD blog and Popular, about the UK’s No 1 hits. I also waste my time (and maybe yours!) with @peoples-pop-polls.bsky.social https://freakytrigger.co.uk

5.7K followers708 following29.8K posts

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Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

Round 1 ends and the 1989 party concludes, get yer votes in before you're all distracted by TOTP

Peoples Pop Polls: BLACK POP 1986-1989@peoples-pop-polls.bsky.social

This time I know it's for POLLS - it's the final Round 1 day in #BPHM8689 BLACK POP HISTORY 1986-1989 With the last 5 sets of 1989 bangers to vote on and bonus docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

docs.google.com#BPHM8986 Black Pop History 1989 Day 3Welcome to BLACK POP HISTORY MONTH 1986-1989! It's 1989! This is our annual poll where we take four years of Black music and find the greatest track - who will unseat reigning champion "The Message...

Tom Ewing reposted

Bruno Dies
@brunodias.dev

Replying to @brunodias.dev

I don't know that there is a template or a "secret sauce" or a clear-cut lesson to take from this. But if there is one it's the idea of treating social media as the hostile territory that it is, of actually acting like you are a participant in propaganda warfare and not like a consumer.

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

#ProjectBossBaby tragically collapsed and died with that post and yet mysteriously now lives on with LA DOUBLE VIE DE VERONIQUE (1991). My thoughts -

Tom Ewing@tomewing.bsky.social

#ProjectBossBaby blows the mission in LA FEMME NIKITA (1990) in which a lot of ravioli is bought and a lot of sauce is spilled. My thoughts -

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Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

A couple of comparisons, one obvious: watching this after David Lynch’s later dual identity narratives made me constantly feel Veronique was creepier than it actually was, though the movie is also not actually avoiding creepiness, lingering looks at vaguely off things, etc

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

And one more tenuous: the weird children’s books and puppet theatre stuff (even more so than the doubling) reminded me of MONSTER, yet another bit of creepiness steering my response. A haunting TWO TIMES TWO BOSS BABIES

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

#ProjectBossBaby tragically collapsed and died with that post and yet mysteriously now lives on with LA DOUBLE VIE DE VERONIQUE (1991). My thoughts -

Tom Ewing@tomewing.bsky.social

#ProjectBossBaby blows the mission in LA FEMME NIKITA (1990) in which a lot of ravioli is bought and a lot of sauce is spilled. My thoughts -

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

The way the camera follows Irène Jacob around in this is disarmingly intimate, a real close up hug-the-actor effect that works to make the film feel like a dream or fairytale rather than kind of annoying (which it could easily be)

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

When it lingers on reflections or landscapes or colours it’s also just a really beautiful experience which helps me sink into it and not think too much about whatever it’s saying about coincidence and narrative and connections

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

Everyone with access to a Cray-2 in 1985 would have wanted to use it for Posting if they had only known

Tao Neuendorffer@taonf.bsky.social

Cray-2 was the fastest computer ever built as of 1985, processing at 1.9 gigaflops, or 1.9 billion floating point operations per second (FLOPS) iPhone 17 processes at ~2,073 gigaflops, or 2 trillion FLOPS Cray-2 weighed >5,500 pounds, while the iPhone 17 weighs 6.24 ounces— >14,000 times lighter

bgr.comHow Does An '80s Supercomputer Compare To A Modern iPhone? - BGRCompared to the Cray-2, which was the pinnacle of supercomputing in 1985, an iPhone 17 delivers orders of magnitude more processing power.
Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

I’m sorry to be such an unbelievable mark for megacorporations but McDonalds “here are our global menu items for you in the UK” has got me hook line and sinker, you mean to tell me Spain has something called the McExtreme?? And I can buy this slightly saltier Big Mac for pounds sterling??

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

I spent a night in the Earls Room and survived! I was not visited by the Earl unless it was him doing “Save Your Kisses For Me” at karaoke in the bar downstairs

Tom Ewing@tomewing.bsky.social

What lurks within THE EARLS ROOM

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

The last time I had a hotel room with a name was Istanbul in 2013 when a taxi driver scammed my manager out of €100 by claiming there was a terrorist attack in the city centre so he had to drive around till it was safe, his way of doing this was going “Bomba! Bomba!“ and making an explosion noise

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

I got randomly upgraded to The Sultan’s Suite which was ridiculously plush, there was an unfinished game of chess with marble pieces on one of the tables as if to indicate that the Sultan had just popped out to deal with palace affairs

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

I’m in The North again dealing with this, I get to see my brother which is lovely but not under the greatest of circs

Tom Ewing@tomewing.bsky.social

The last couple of weeks I have definitely been Going Through It with family stuff (elderly parents dept), thank you all for your silly posts, they lighten the load!

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

Finished this - only seen it as an adult but the final episode must have been a real headfuck for the kids, proper “Of course I am not the first Severian” stuff. Surprised at the romantic chemistry between Gareth Thomas and the museum owner too

Tom Ewing@tomewing.bsky.social

Watching CHILDREN OF THE STONES, Iain Cuthbertson is so good in this. I thought “god I’ve seen him in loads of things” and no it’s just total banger performances in this and one of my favourite Doctor Whos

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

I finished this and concluded that indie music was great when I was 16 and then, by some remarkable and little understood process, became not great at some point after I was 16

Tom Ewing@tomewing.bsky.social

Listening to this Festive 50 when I was 16 was "What an incredible world of music has opened up to me" and listening when I'm 53 is "wait HOW many Inspiral Carpets songs?"

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

Nostalgia is always a delicate balance of “I was genuinely lucky to be young when this was happening” and “You can’t say my Wire Mommy* isn’t real” *”Convenience” by Bob

Tom Ewing reposted

David_j_roth
@davidjroth.bsky.social

Convening a focus group of 30 people who have no idea what's going on and no expertise on basically any topic and just turning them loose. "Fuck me up," I tell them. "Just give me all the dumbest stuff you've got."

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

Combination of SAD and needing a work soundtrack has led to me listening to a Festive Fifty playlist from when I was 16 and remembering how Morrissey sang "There are some bad people on the rise" BUT MAYBE he sand "on the right" and there were *multiple* NME news stories about this

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Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

I'm having a bit of an "I hear you're a shoegazer now father" moment with stuff like The Pale Saints and The Telescopes tracks on this - is it just another case of a proto-genre being more interesting than the actual genre?

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

Combination of SAD and needing a work soundtrack has led to me listening to a Festive Fifty playlist from when I was 16 and remembering how Morrissey sang "There are some bad people on the rise" BUT MAYBE he sand "on the right" and there were *multiple* NME news stories about this

View full thread
Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

De La Soul - "Eye Know" and Spacemen 3 - "Hypnotized" - I remember this stretch as particularly mind-expanding, of course both place lower than "Ouija Board, Ouija Board", Peel teaching me a valuable lesson about lists

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

Technique is the 1989 album I have listened to most often for sure and yet could I have told you which one was "Vanishing Point" before it started playing? I could not

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

I know it's not been all one way traffic on this but access to media from around the world now is just unbelievable compared to the 80s and 90s, discoveries every day if you want them. I am pro-friction in a lot of ways but being able to set our own level of friction is such a gift

Michael Druker 🇨🇦@mdruker.app

Social media loves talking about how everything is getting worse. But what’s something that you’ve seen get _better_ in your lifetime?

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

Combination of SAD and needing a work soundtrack has led to me listening to a Festive Fifty playlist from when I was 16 and remembering how Morrissey sang "There are some bad people on the rise" BUT MAYBE he sand "on the right" and there were *multiple* NME news stories about this

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

Listening to this Festive 50 when I was 16 was "What an incredible world of music has opened up to me" and listening when I'm 53 is "wait HOW many Inspiral Carpets songs?"

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

The Black Pop poll has managed to drive the Professor Of Rock out of my YouTube recommends but Rick Beato is made of sterner stuff

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

If you take away the rap, the combo Silver Bullet hits on here - massive breakbeats and a load of samples from a recent cool film - is basically rave music for the next 2-3 years (I can't think of any previous hip-hop tracks that were so built around "you know that great film you just saw?")

Peoples Pop Polls: BLACK POP 1986-1989@peoples-pop-polls.bsky.social

#BPHM8689 GROUP B30 1 SILVER BULLET! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw9G... 2 MODEL 500! www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRVb... 3 KYM MAZELLE! www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRK0... 4 COOKIE CREW! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu8w... Vote! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

You hear something like Shut Up And Dance from yesterday's polls and imagine it dawning rapidly on people that the MC is not actually the load-bearing element (especially as ones like Silver Bullet who could handle this speed and ferocity of beats are not exactly common)

Tom Ewing reposted

Andrew Kersley
@andrewkersley.bsky.social

One detail I can't get over from this @the-londoner.bsky.social story is that this is the actual blurb of a real book by a big-time BookTok author, who quite recently was given a huge Netflix deal.

The Londoner@the-londoner.bsky.social

RARE27, planned for next summer at London's Olympia, was meant to be the "Met Gala of the book community". Then over a few days, it fell apart. We pieced together what happened. 🔗 the-londoner.co.uk/london-roman...

the-londoner.co.ukHow London’s most anticipated romance convention fell apartRARE27 was meant to be the ‘Met Gala of the book community’. Over a few days of online backlash, it imploded
Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

Did not realise that Truth Coming Out Of Her Well was an entire subgenre of paintings, an excellent opportunity to contemplate the chastening effects of honesty while also looking at an angry naked lady

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Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

Genuinely can’t remember, sorry cinephiles. I know where it would have been - Saturday matinee at the Thorndike Theatre Leatherhead which doubled as a cinema for the kids, probably in 78 or 79. But whatever it was it instilled in me a lifelong broad apathy about the movies!

Mark Thompson@markreckons.bsky.social

First film you saw at the cinema. The real first one, not the pretend one you tell people! Mine: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980, Wigan. We were near the front and I can still remember how massive the AT-ATs looked, looming over us out of the snow :) Film, year, where, and whatever stuck with you.

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

The first film I can remember seeing there was SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS which is definitely boring enough to fit the bill but I’m pretty sure I remember it because it was unusually dull. Best matinee film = one of the Harryhausen Sinbads with the skellingtons

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

I actually find it hard to believe that never in his storied career has Sir Cliff had a go at reggae, you have to have led a charmed life to get through the late 70s and early 80s without some ill considered stab at it

Tom Ewing
@tomewing.bsky.social

“How did you get into tabletop RPGs?” I asked for a copy of DUNGEON! the boardgame for Christmas based on the ads that ran in comics and my gran bought me the D&D Basic Set by accident

Danie Were@danacea.bsky.social

"How did you get into tabletop role-playing games?" 1988. I was 19, at Uni, and knew about D&D tho' had never played. My then BF ran a one-shot for he and I, then introduced me to his gaming group. I statted a cleric, who later got reincarnated a minotaur, then an Irda for a DragonLance campaign.