I’m watching Shane MacGowan’s funeral on YouTube, and loving how it seems totally chaotic. Like a Pogues gig. ‘Nick’s going to lead us in “A Rainy Night in Soho”,’ says the priest. ‘Oh, no, this is live, and Nick’s been delayed.’

Nick Cave, that is.

Pity the sound is complete mince.

To a first approximation it takes me all day to bake the Christmas cake. To be fair, I had to go out and get unsalted butter, and 4½ hours of that was just letting it be in the oven. But here it is now, cooling on the rack.

Speaking of letting it be, it must be about time to watch Get Back again.

Wordle 890 2/6*

⬛🟨⬛⬛🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Extreme rarity of Wordle in 2!

BBC 6 Music DJ: ‘We’ve set up a deck in the studio so we can play you some vinyl directly, instead of having to digitise it.’ Then he has to run across the room to where the turntable is.

The sound you hear is not the turntable spinning, but John Peel doing so in his grave.

🔗 BLACK DOG, Gazelle Twin – WARREN ELLIS LTD

Hell of a record. It’s like immersing yourself in a haunting. Depression, anxiety and ghosts – which, to me, are probably all the same thing anyway. The Halloween release was clever, but I suspect that if you played this loud at midnight you’d clear a room pretty fast.

Experimental post using the “Publish Quote” Shortcut from @jarrod. As to the music, it’s OK, but I’ll need to give it another listen.

A screenshot of an email asking for 'a Python' for a role

Think I might refer this recruitment company to London Zoo, given their requirements.

Ceremonial Doom Bar with the new Strike & Ellacott novel. 📚

Hazel O’Connor trending on Twitter. Mainly because of people saying ‘I saw Hazel O’Connor was trending and feared the worst, but it’s fine.’

Looks like someone asked for ’80s songs with the best sax', and ‘Will You’ fits. Thought Gerry Rafferty should be there, but ‘Baker Street’ was 1978.

Tried Siri’s new slightly more conversational mode in iOS 17. Said ‘Siri, pause’ while a podcast was playing out loud, and it did. Said ‘Thank you,’ and it said, ‘You’re welcome,’ which is nice.

Still no Scottish voice, though.

This is a good piece about the different ways we communicate:

Are you a writer or a talker?

That is, when you need to think about something, do you generally reach for something to write with, or look for someone to talk to?

I’m definitely a writer, and I know how it feels to explain something in careful detail, in a document, an email, or just an instant message, and have someone reply with, ‘Maybe a quick call to talk about it?’

This helps me to realise that I shouldn’t get infuriated at them. They just have a different communication style.

H/T to Colin Devroe.