Mat Bradshaw / is on Nostr

Don't trust everything a little bird (X) tells you

Pronouns: He/Him/That Idiot

LGBTQ+, Black Lives Matter, Disability and Neurodivergent ally

Like: Laughs, Music, Literature, Art, Cinema, Nature and Beauty in all forms

Dislike: Intolerance, Discrimination and general Fuckwittery. Be nice or begone

Please add #AltText i.e.descriptive descriptions, to your pictures for visually impaired and all people. No description, no boost from me

Profile picture: A Polaroid photo of me, a small bird, whispering into the ear of a once devestatingly handsome man who made bad hair choices, about 25 years ago. Being a Blue Tit, I'm probably dead now. I may have been dead at the time.
Header: Black and white photo of a now destroyed piece of emulsion slogan graffiti on a wall in Kings Cross (London, UK). It reads "Rave is Best". I'm sure there's a story behind it but the criminal responsible has never been identified.

Last Notes

2024-07-09 17:00:04

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So sorry to hear this Kim. That beautiful little face. 💔

2024-07-09 13:21:27

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Me too. I listen on repeat, never just once.

2024-07-08 23:28:54

For no other reason than this being an incredible, visceral song about being a human person with feelings I'm putting this out there.
The first verse in particular, about clouds, really resonates. I've been above the clouds, travelling to far flung places, excited, on an adventure, but I've also sat beneath clouds ruining an occasion (I'm British so it's normal).
The whole song is a masterpiece so reminding you of it if you already know it:
Joni Mitchell - Both sides now
https://youtu.be/Pbn6a0AFfnM?si=zRCCF1cjYpSiehuv

2024-07-05 15:24:49

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Did you read my post all the way through? I politely asked you not to do this but you couldn't help yourself so...
Fuck right off you sanctimonious cunt.

2024-07-05 11:33:19

It's only just sinking in, even though I was up late watching the results of the election come in.
I just went in to see my eldest, who voted for the first time yesterday, and I said "we got those cunts out".
In my head it was going to come out as a "yes, get in!", like my team had scored a goal. But actually, as I said it, my voice wobbled a bit, and I felt like I was welling up with tears. It honestly felt more like a realisation of a trauma than a victory. Something I've felt before in different circumstances.
So glad they're gone. The years and years of hatred and revulsion, day in, day out, has weighed heavily on me, probably more so than I even realised.
Please don't reply with "well actually Labour are terrible too" or any political hot takes. This is about the removal of a cancer that has eaten away the country and people I once loved.
Today is a good day.

2024-06-27 00:56:51

TL:DR Mat listened to vinyl records as a kid, likes music, buys (cough) a few vinyl records.
I'm a lifelong vinyl record lover. There are arguments for and against the format, not interested in that debate here so if you're thinking of replying with audiophile pros or cons, that's not what this post is about, so please don't.
As a child, 6/7 years old (late 1970's), I'd wake up early, as kids do. I'd go downstairs and play my parents records on their turntable. As long as it wasn't loud enough to wake them they didn't care. It was a stacked record player, meaning the spindle in the middle was long and you could pre-load about 5 records on it. It had a mechanism that would reset the arm, release the next disc in the stack and place the needle at the start of each disc automatically after the last one finished. Pure Magic.
(Note, fucking terrible way to treat vinyl records, rubbing up against each other piled up when playing)
My folks weren't particularly musically adventurous, 60s hangovers and 70s/80s popular records. The Stones, Beatles, Kinks, sat alongside ABBA and Cliff Richard. I played and loved it all at that age. Those mornings, on my own, in control of the "technology", are still some of the happiest times of my life. The mixture of freedom and a glimpse into worlds I could never imagine, like nothing I was taught elsewhere and didn't really understand, but were intoxicating and intriguing because of the music surrounding them.
At age 8 I inherited that record player and had it in my bedroom. My first record was Adam and the Ants, Stand and Deliver. I have always had a record player in my room (laterly, my home) since 1981. Every new place I've ever moved into, the stereo is the 2nd thing that gets plugged in/set up. It's become a ritual (the first is the kettle, because, I'm British/Tea).
I've stuck with the format through thick and thin. During the 90s it was mainly dance music, most other releases were CD for a good while so I didn't buy them. It's expensive now because it's trendy, retro, hipster or whatever. Charity shops try and sell fucked up copies for £40 because on Discogs (eBay for vinyl) that's it's top price for mint condition copies. Record store day has poisoned the well, records getting pressed that sell as ornaments or investments, delaying or preventing artists putting out music to people who will actually play the fucking things and enjoy them.
I'll wrap up now, but I could go on (endlessly because although I think I'm not a vinyl bore, clearly I am). Personally I think the sound is better. Yes it can/will degrade. Pops, clicks and crackles. There is a sense of time and wear that comes with the imperfections. Worn because it is so precious and well loved, it is an artifact of me and my history, my love for this particular record.
Lastly, back to the magic. That a plastic disc, with a single groove with tiny bumps and indents on its surface that can accurately recreate, with amazing clarity, the sound of an orchestra, or any other recorded sound you can imagine, is still as mind blowing to me as it was as a small child.
You're free to go now, if you made it all the way to the bottom x
#Vinyl #VinylRecords

2024-06-25 00:09:16

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We've all done right?
Right?

2024-06-24 23:26:55

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Anyone with a surname I can't pronounce properly is eligible 😂

2024-06-24 23:03:10

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Lol. No, though they say I should when I retire.
I just do it for my Polish team when they come to London as local hospitality. It's usually quite a big deal for them getting a paid trip to London and I like to give them an interesting tour rather than all the tourist stuff.

2024-06-24 22:54:56

So tonight I did a walking tour of central London for a couple of my team over from Poland. I've gained a certain level of notoriety because folks always go home telling everyone about my leftfield sightseeing and pub trips when they come over.
Brutalist architecture, 400 year old pubs, rooftop bars overlooking famous landmarks, famous vistas and snaking routes through cobbled backstreets etc.
I outdid myself tonight. One stop was one of my favourite pubs in Soho, the French (The French House). One of my party was a 24 year old girl, a real sweetheart. So we're in the tiny bar and over her shoulder I spot one of the cast of the TV show Heart stopper. I know she loves the show so I ask her to swap places with me. I motion, subtly behind me, and she nearly dropped her drink.
I'm claiming I arranged it rather than just a lucky encounter.

2024-06-09 17:46:29

You lot are a lovely bunch and you make me smile every day.
Big up yourselves and have a lovely Sunday Fedifolk ❤️

2024-05-20 22:41:38

Favourite books by authors I've read all or many books by, off the top of my head
The Trial - Franz Kafka
Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov
As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Wolf Hall trilogy - Hilary Mantel
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
The Wind up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
This is Memorial Device - David Keenan
The Gallows Pole - Benjamin Myers
Lanny - Max Porter
What are yours?