'The Librarians' is inspiring and depressing, in unequal measure

I’ve been wanting the opportunity to see The Librarians since reading about it on social media a few months ago. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that it was screening on iPlayer as part of the BBC’s Storyville strand.

I think it’s probably not a surprise to anyone to learn that right-wing populists are on the ascent, but it’s still incredibly scary to see the effects of that. This feature-length documentary follows the struggles faced by librarians in the face of aggressive campaigns of intimidation and abuse. A pseudo-grassroots book-banning campaign to remove LGBTQ+ books, books about race and books about fascism from library shelves becomes incredibly ugly when seen up close. The amount of intimidation and hatred faced by these librarians - librarians, for god’s sake - is incredibly depressing.

It’s amazing to see what they endure. It is utterly unsurprising to discover that the campaign run against them is calculated, co-ordinated and run by a millionaire who is slightly to the right of the kaiser. School boards, it seems, have become the latest target of the right’s strategy to consolidate power. It makes me wonder how progressive politics can ever effectively counter such an organised and calculated approach. You have to believe it’s possible. You have to.

Watch ‘Storyville: The Librarians’ on BBC iPlayer

Don't Buy Anything for Prime Day

As much for myself as much as anybody else, a little reminder not to be tempted to buy things from Amazon, particularly not on the gluttonous carnival of ‘Prime Day’.

I’ve really reduced my usage of Amazon over the years, but still find myself looking at the listings when big ‘bargains’ present themselves. I still have a Kindle, but I’m trying not to buy any new books from Amazon, partially because I want to read more physical books but also because the company appears to be run by bloodsucking ghouls who feed on human misery. But that’s just conjecture. I’m trying to find other ebook vendors, although getting them onto a locked down device is an issue to be sorted out.

In case you need reasons as to why shopping at Amazon is bad, I reluctantly recommend this Guardian article by Corey Doctorow. Honestly, I find a lot of Doctorow’s articles seem to boil down to Me and my friends used to be able to do whatever we want and we should go back to that, without ever addressing issues like how artists get paid for their work online. But whatever. The article does a good job of going through the numerous ways Amazon screws over vendors, customers and workers.

Irregular Choice to close

Sad to hear that bonkers shoes and accessories shop Irregular Choice is closing down. My wife wore a pair of their shoes at our wedding and their shops were always worth having a look around. I mean, just look at this amazing Flash handbag:

They’re having a closing down sale, but there’s not much left, so have a rummage ASAP.

Irregular Choice

I do love a penalty shootout

It’s such a stupidly pure way of settling a match. I would say that perhaps all games should be settled this way, but it wouldn’t be the same if the participants weren’t physically exhausted and their nerves utterly shredded.

Congratulations to the England women’s team. Commiserations to Spain’s. Football can be cruel.

A Real American

Hulk Hogan died. He was, to say the least, a unique figure in popular culture. A balding, handlebar-moustached, bemuscled hot dog of a man. Wrestler, actor, union buster, fantasist of Baron Munchausen-level proportions, racist, MAGA spokesperson and a lot more besides. He seemed to spend his later years ‘living his gimmick’, which lead to the slightly surreal conversation when deposed as his ‘real’ self, Terry Bollea, where he attempted to explain to a befuddled lawyer that Hulk Hogan had a big dick, but Terry Bollea didn’t.

To those of us in the UK who first became aware of him in the 1990s Sky Sports WWF boom, he was brash, kind of appalling, but also sort of amazing. A mass of contradictions. Someone who clearly took steroids, but told kids to say their prayers and eat their vitamins. Like a lot of fairly cunty people, he did a lot of work for charity, but talk to anyone in the business and you’ll hear tales of him screwing people over left right and centre. Perhaps it’s no surprise that he ended up as a Trumper, as his version of the USA always seemed to be a star-spangled hamburger box. He was loud, he was brash, he was strong and heroic, but nonsensical and a cheat and weirdly petty.

In short, to us at the time, the song was right. He was a real American.