Martin McCallion
I’m Martin McCallion. I’m a writer and a software developer. From October 2020 through to September 2021 I was studying for a Masters in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London.
I graduated in May 2022. I’ve been back in software development since February 2022. I’d love to make my living by writing, but that’s a hard path.
Still, the novel continues. See my /now page for my-up-to-date status.
Today’s Posts
No posts yet today. See my blog for the latest.
Various Things
Life Writing
- Out, and Into Town
- A Note I’d Like to Send Back Through Time
- Boosted
-
Not So Quiet
Some thoughts on the end of garden silence.
- Two Weeks
- That Summer Feeling
- Pastieland and Getting Sick
- Astral Zen
- A Year Passes Like Nothing
- Stop Your Glasses Steaming Up by Sticking the Top of Your Mask to Your Face Using Micropore Tape
- People Still Aren’t Getting It
- You Are Your Thoughts (I Think)
- Homemade Rolls
- Repairability Is Good
- Mask Society
- The Last Bike Ride
- Wear a Mask! And Celebrate Your Immune System
- Venturing Out: A Status Report from Hackney
- The End of Newspaper Delivery
- Two Wheels Good
- New Job Obtained
- Job Changing
- Chile Trip, Part 3: Valparaíso, City of Colour
- Italian Coffee is the Best
- Chile Trip, Part 2: Santiago, Street Art, and More
- Chile Trip Part 1: There and Back
- Imperial Adventures
- Trekking
- New Job
- Spout Rolla
- Looking Back and Forward
- Saved Life
- It’s Not Tomorrow if You Haven’t Gone to Sleep yet
- The Origin of the Bitface
- Recent Events
- Pokémon Gone
- Suzi Q, where are you?
- Why Devilgate?
- I phone, you phone
- Exciting times
- What Exactly Does it Mean to Book a Train Ticket, Anyway?
- A New Low For Cattle Class
- Heat, streets and beats
- Eye Contact, or: Pay Attention to the Web Behind the Curtain.
Writing more generally
Blogging about blogging, because why not?
-
Starting the Year (and a Brief Look Back)
Welcoming in the new year, and a quick look at last year’s stats
-
Blog Stats 2020
Posts in 2020
- How to Make Sure You See My Posts
- Returning Blogs
- 2019 in Bloggery
- The Year Turns Again
Some thoughts about films
- We’re No Angels, 1955 - ★★½
- Pitch Perfect, 2012 - ★★★½
- The Beatles: Get Back, 2021 - ★★★★★
- Nomadland, 2020 - ★★★½
- Don’t Look Up, 2021 - ★★★½
- Lost at Christmas, 2020 - ★★★
- Mary Poppins Returns, 2018 - ★★★½
- Spider-Man: No Way Home, 2021 - ★★★★
- The French Dispatch, 2021 - ★★★★
- No Country for Old Men, 2007 - ★★½
- The Matrix Revolutions, 2003 - ★★★½
- The Manchurian Candidate, 1962 - ★★★
- The Matrix Reloaded, 2003 - ★★★½
- Passport to Pimlico, 1949 - ★★★★
- Black Widow, 2021 - ★★★★
- Friends: The Reunion, 2021 - ★★★
- Can’t Get You Out of My Head, 2021
- Sisters with Transistors, 2020 - ★★★★
- Ocean’s Eight, 2018 - ★★★½
- Emma., 2020 - ★★★
- This Is England, 2006 - ★★★★
- Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, 2020 - ★★★★
- Good Vibrations, 2012 - ★★★★
- Palm Springs, 2020 - ★★★★½
- Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle, 1987 - ★★★½
- Alphaville, 1965 - ★★★
- I’m Thinking of Ending Things, 2020 - ★★½
- The Mystery of Henri Pick, 2019 - ★★★★
- Education, 2020 - ★★★½
- The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediatheque, 1993 - ★★½
- Pretend It’s a City, 2021 - ★★★½
- Rocks, 2019 - ★★★★
- Red, White and Blue, 2020 - ★★★★
- Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese, 2019 - ★★★★½
- Official Secrets, 2019 - ★★★★
- Lovers Rock, 2020 - ★★★½
- Mangrove, 2020 - ★★★★
- Rebecca, 2020 - ★★★
- The Personal History of David Copperfield, 2019 - ★★★½
- Walker, 1987 - ★★★½
- Arrival, 2016 - ★★★★ (contains spoilers)
- When Harry Met Sally…, 1989 - ★★★★
- Misbehaviour, 2020 - ★★★½
- Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, 1988 - ★★★
- Sunset Boulevard, 1950 - ★★★½
- Howl’s Moving Castle, 2004 - ★★★★½
- Erin Brockovich, 2000 - ★★★★
- The Big Short, 2015 - ★★½
- Crazy Rich Asians, 2018 - ★★★½
- Bajrangi Bhaijaan, 2015 - ★★★★★
- Booksmart, 2019 - ★★★½
- Late Night, 2019 - ★★★
- Parasite, 2019 - ★★★★½
- Fighting with My Family, 2019 - ★★★½
- The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2014 - ★★★
- The Cabin in the Woods, 2011 - ★★★★★ (contains spoilers)
- Springsteen On Broadway, 2018 - ★★★★
- Jojo Rabbit, 2019 - ★★★½
- Little Women, 2019 - ★★★★
- Brazil, 1985 - ★★★★★
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, 2019 - ★★★½
- Knives Out, 2019 - ★★★½
- Interstellar, 2014 - ★★★★½
- The Favourite, 2018 - ★★★
- I, Daniel Blake, 2016 - ★★★★★
- 8 Women, 2002 - ★★★
- For Sama, 2019 - ★★★★★
- Otherhood, 2019 - ★★★½
- Inglourious Basterds, 2009 - ★★★★
- Downton Abbey, 2019 - ★★★★
- Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, 2004 - ★★★½
- Isle of Dogs, 2018 - ★★★★
- On Blade Runner 2049
And also TV
-
Get Back to Christmas
Watching the first part of Peter Jackson’s ‘Get Back’ on Disney+
-
The Origin of Angels?
On the current series of Doctor Who
- Our Last, Best, Hope for TV?
- Rusty’s Return
- Who’s Next?
- Not Killing It
- On Devs
- Tate and Tennant Killing It
- Who’s Who?
- Space bat angel dragons hatch in their own way
Language: the stuff of thought
-
A Song Needs Words
The truth about what a song is.
- Rational? Twitter, Micro.blog and Social Engagement
- The Kickstarter Corporate Communication Conundrum
- Nuts to Dough
- So, Entitled
- Little, Feat…
- Pivoting Around Words
- “Ping” Pong
- Optics
- Criticality Escalation
- Andy’s unpunctuated ambiguity
- Here’s Tae Us
Music: the stuff of life
-
Cold Winter Morning
On the death of Meat Loaf
- Pour One Out for Joe
-
Songs and Singles
Sometimes a song needs to stand alone to stand out.
- Jonathan Richman and the Handwritten Interview
- Mark E Smith (Co-)Wrote a Screenplay
- Colliding Names
- Peel Sessions
- The Beat(les) Generation is Slipping Away
- No More…
- International Clash Day
- Come Gather Round, People
Books: also the stuff of life
- The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M Banks (Books 2022, 19)
- The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick (Books 2022, 18)
- Interzone Issue 292/293 Edited by Andy Cox (Books 2022, 17)
- The Computer Connection by Alfred Bester (Books 2022, 16)
- The Islanders by Christopher Priest (Books 2022, 15)
- Still Life by Val McDermid (Books 2022, 14)
- A Theatre for Dreamers by Polly Samson (Books 2022, 13)
- Software and Wetware by Rudy Rucker (Books 2022, 11 and 12)
- Ubik by Philip K Dick (Books 2022, 10)
-
Bloody Ebooks!
Reading an ebook can make you miss bits.
- Inverted World by Christopher Priest (Books 2022, 9)
- The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox (Books 2022, 8)
- Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan (Books 2022, 7)
- The Schrödinger’s Cat Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson (Books 2022, 4–6)
- The Kids by Hannah Lowe (Books 2022, 3)
-
Raw Spirit: In Search of the Perfect Dram by Iain Banks (Books 2022, 2)
Rereading the great Mr Banks’s whisky book/travelogue/memoir
- The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (Books 2022, 1)
- Beyond the Hallowed Sky by Ken MacLeod (Books 2021, 28)
- Planetfall by Emma Newman (Books 2021, 27)
- Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots (Books 2021, 26)
- Comet Weather by Liz Williams (Books 2021, 25)
- The Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones (Books 2021, 24)
- The Caledonian Gambit by Dan Moren (Books 2021, 23)
-
Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson (Books 2021, 22)
I reach the end of the Sprawl Trilogy
- Count Zero by William Gibson (Books 2021, 21)
- Neuromancer by William Gibson (Books 2021, 20)
- Lanark: A Life in 4 Books by Alasdair Gray (Books 2021, 19)
- An American Story by Christopher Priest (Books 2021, 18)
- Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge (Books 2021, 17)
- Big Planet by Jack Vance (Books 2021, 16)
- Whit by Iain Banks (Books 2021, 15)
- London Centric: Tales of Future London, Edited by Ian Whates (Books 2021, 14)
- Diary of a Film by Niven Govinden (Books 2021, 12)
- Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch (Books 2021, 9)
- The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson (Books 2021, 8)
- Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith (Books 2021, 7)
- Bernard and the Cloth Monkey by Judith Bryan (Books 2021, 6)
- Heartburn by Nora Ephron (Books 2021, 5)
- North Star
- On Giving Up On a Book
- Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo (Books 2021, 2)
- The Monsters We Deserve by Marcus Sedgwick (Books 2020, 30)
- Xstabeth by David Keenan (Books 2020, 29)
- The Towers The Fields The Transmitters by David Keenan (Books 2020, 27)
- Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail 72 by Hunter S Thompson (Books 2020, 26)
- When the Going Gets WEIRD
- Orlando by Virginia Woolf (Books 2020, 22)
- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (Books 2020, 21)
- Annabel Scheme and the Adventure of the New Golden Gate by Robin Sloan (Books 2020, 20)
- The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison (Books 2020, 19)
- Surface Detail by Iain M Banks (Books 2020, 18)
- The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and Heart of Empire by Bryan Talbot (Books 2020, 16 & 17)
- This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (Books 2020, 15)
- Friday by Robert A Heinlein (Books 2020, 14)
- Assignment in Eternity vols 1 & 2 by Robert A Heinlein (Books 2020, 12 & 13)
- The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert A Heinlein (Books 2020, 11)
- Beyond This Horizon by Robert A Heinlein (Books 2020, 10)
- Glasgow Fairytale by Alastair D McIver (Books 2020, 9)
- Boiling a Frog by Christoper Brookmyre (Books 2020, 8)
- Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (Books 2020, 7)
- Ayoade On Top by Richard Ayoade (Books 2020, 6)
- The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (Books 2020, 5)
- The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa (Books 2020, 2)
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Tempest by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill (Books 2019, 24)
- The Steep Approach to Garbadale, by Iain Banks (Books 2019, 23)
- The Seventh Function of Language, by Laurent Binet, Translated by Sam Taylor (Books 2019, 14)
- The Beats: a Very Short Introduction (Books 2019, 4)
- England’s Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock, by Jon Savage (Books 2019, 3)
- We Are The Clash by Mark Andersen and Ralph Heibutzki (Books 2019, 2)
- Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer (Books 2018, 1)
- Jerusalem by Alan Moore (Books 2017, 5)
- Universal Harvester by John Darnielle (Books 2017, 4)
- BSFA Awards 2016 by Various (Books 2017, 3)
- Publishers and Sinners
- A Song of Stone by Iain Banks (Books 2017, 2)
- The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost (Books 2017, 1)
- Complicity and The Business by Iain Banks (Books 2016 16 & 17)
- Screwjack by Hunter S Thompson (Books 2016, 15)
- Never Mind the Bollocks: Women Rewrite Rock by Amy Raphael (Books 2016, 14)
- The Sandman: Overture by Neil Gaiman and others (Books 2016, 12)
- Normal by Warren Ellis (Books 2016, 11)
- Sally Heathcote, Suffragette by Mary M Talbot, Kate Charlesworth and Bryan Talbot (Books 2016, 10)
- All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (Books 2016, 9)
- Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? by Paul Cornell (Books 2016, 7
- The Fractal Prince by Hannu Rajaniemi (Books 2016, 6)
- Patience by Daniel Clowes (Books 2016, 5)
- A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (Books 2016, 4)
- The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, by Philip K Dick (Books 2016, 2)
- Three Moments of an Explosion: Stories, by China Miéville (Books 2016, 1)
- Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith (Books 2015, 9)
- The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, Translated by Ken Liu (Books 2015, 8)
- Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel (Books 2015, 7)
- Mind of My Mind by Octavia E Butler (Books 2015, 6)
- Wild Seed by Octavia E Butler (books, 2015, 5)
- Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal (Books 2015, 4)
- Emotionally Weird by Kate Atkinson (books 2015, 3)
- The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North (Books 2015, 2)
- The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (Books 2015, 1)
- Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys. by Viv Albertine (Books 2014, 20)
- The Schrödinger’s Cat trilogy, by Robert Anton Wilson (Books 2014, 19)
- Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey (Books 2014, 18)
- The Illuminatus! trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson (Books 2014, 17)
- The Circle by Dave Eggers (Books 2014, 16)
- Sir Gawain and the Green Night translated by Bernard O’Donoghue (Books 2014, 15)
- Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale: the Final Chapter by Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook (Books 2014, 14)
- Dotter of her Father’s Eyes by Mary M Talbot and Bryan Talbot (Books 2014, 12)
- The Severed Streets by Paul Cornell (Books 2014, 8)
- The State of Me, by Nasim Marie Jafry (Books 2014, 4)
- The First Three Books of the Year
- The Summer of Rereading, 3: More Culture
- The Summer of Rereading, 2: A Culture of Marvel and Miracles
- The Summer of Rereading 1: The Magus, by John Fowles
- The Third-Person Sanctimonious
- Moxyland, by Lauren Beukes
- Summer Reading 2010
- Next-Door to a Sequel
- Masks of the Illuminati, by Robert Anton Wilson (Books 2008, 21)
- Snow by Orhan Pamuk (Books 2008, 20)
- The System of the World, by Neal Stephenson (books 2008, 19)
- Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson (Books 2008, 18)
- Transmetropolitan: Back on the Street, by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson (Books 2008, 17)
- Adverbs, by Daniel Handler (Books 2008, 16)
- American Flagg episodes 1-30 (and special 1), by Howard Chaykin and others (Books 2008, 15)
- Halting State, by Charles Stross (Books 2008, 13)
- Lazarus Churchyard: The Final Cut, by Warren Ellis and D’Israeli (Books 2008, 14)
- Veniss Underground, by Jeff Vandermeer (Books 2008, 12)
- ThiGMOO, by Eugene Byrne (Books 2008, 11)
- A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket (Books, 2008, 10)
- A Dream of Wessex, by Christopher Priest (Books 2008, 9)
- The Space Machine, by Christopher Priest (Books 2008, 8)
- Newton’s Wake: A Space Opera, by Ken MacLeod (books 2008, 7)
- Identity and letdown in The Raw Shark Texts, by Steven Hall (books 2008, 6)
- The Einstein Intersection, by Samuel R Delany (Books 2008, 5)
- British Summer Time, by Paul Cornell (Books 2008, 4)
- Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi (Books 2008, 3)
- The Hidden Family, by Charles Stross (Books 2008, 2)
- Matter, by Iain M Banks (Books 2008, 1)
- Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis (Books 2007, 7)
- The Scar, by China Miéville (Books 2007, 6)
- The Prestige, by Christopher Priest (Books 2007, 5)
- The Steep Approach to Garbadale, by Iain Banks (Books 2007, 4)
- Ink, by Hal Duncan (Books 2007, 3)
- We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver (Books 2007, 2)
- Redemption Song: the Definitive Biography of Joe Strummer, by Chris Salewicz (Books 2007, 1)
- The Last of the 2006 “Book Notes” Posts
- Book Notes 25: The Family Trade, by Charles Stross
- Book Notes 24: Variable Star, by Robert A Heinlein and Spider Robinson
- Book Notes 23: Quicksilver, by Neal Stephenson
- Book Notes 22: The Sandman: The Dream Hunters, by Neil Gaiman and Yoshika Amano
- Book Notes 20: The Complete Ballad of Halo Jones by Alan Moore and Ian Gibson
- Book Notes 19: Tom Strong’s Terrific Tales, by Alan Moore, Steve Moore, and others
- Book Notes 18: Radio Free Albemuth, by Philip K Dick
- Book Notes 17: Vellum, by Hal Duncan
- Book Notes 16: The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle, by Catherine Webb
- Book Notes 15: Appleseed, by John Clute
- Book Notes 14: Viriconium, by M John Harrison
- Book Notes 13: Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, by JK Rowling
- Book Notes 12: The Last Temptation, by Neil Gaiman and Michael Zulli
- Book Notes 11: The Originals, by Dave Gibbons
- Book Notes 10: Skizz, by Alan Moore and Jim Baikie
- Book notes 9: Redemolished, by Alfred Bester
- Book notes 8: The Complete DR and Quinch, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
- Book Notes 7: Nova Scotia, edited by Neil Williamson and Andrew J Wilson
- Book Notes 6: Saturday by Ian McEwan
- Book Notes 5: Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
- Book Notes 4: American Gods by Neil Gaiman
- Book Notes 2: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
- Book Notes 1: A Dance to the Music of Time vol 1, by Anthony Powell
Politics: the stuff of… making things happen?
- Propaganda and Suffering
- A Dead Cat in Downing Street
- No Project, Plenty of Fear
-
Four Years Gone
About Brexit and Trump and the legacy of the past four years.
-
Endings
Thoughts about the end of 2020, Brexit, Covid
- Rees-Mogg and the New Depths
- How Johnson’s Lawbreaking Plans Will Harm the UK
- If the Prime Minister’s a Junkie, the Public Has a Right to Know
- A Reply From the Masks Petition
- The Cold War Never Ended
- Tell Them to Tell Us to Wear a Mask
- What Must Be Said
- How Iceland Beat the Coronavirus
- ‘We Have No Idea How Many of the Deaths Attributed to Covid-19 Really Were Due to the Disease’
- Lying Sack
- This Is No Time to Unlock
- You Choose
- So Many Black Pixels…
- Stupid Fawning Lapdog Government Apes the US Again
- I Wrote to my MP
- Memories of 2003
- Awra Best, Scotland
- Election Tweets ‘n’ Stuff
Technology
-
Adventures in Mac Repairs
How I got a free screen repair and a free battery replacement into the bargain.
-
First Line of Defence?
Thoughts on Dave Winer’s thoughts about Facebook.
- Multiple Points
- Single Points
- It’s Never Good When a Useful Site Gets Bought
- OffMail
- They Don’t Call it ‘Fastmail’ for Nothing
- Wheeling the Reinvention
- HEY, Ho, Let’s Not Go
- Tip: How to Snooze iPhone Alarms Using Hardware Buttons
- Beware of Email Apps Storing Passwords
- Great New Phone; All the Wrong Reasons
- Tip: using Pandoc to create truly standalone HTML files
Notes about the site itself
- This Site Now Has a Dark Theme
-
Star Ratings
Thinking about what I mean when I give a star rating.
- Hit Me Up in the Comments
-
After the Money’s Gone
Nothing to to with the Talking Heads song the title alludes to, but musing on death and the destiny of websites.
-
Performing Pages
Some thoughts on getting emails from the Google Search Console Team and my best-performing pages.
- Site Update
- Static Leads to Static
- Website Changes
Links
Here are some links to my CV/Résumé and Social Media:
- My Social Media Accounts:
- Career: