Why we can all be more Loki
From excavated Nordic temples to the forces that drive our own lives, ambitions and relationships, things are never what they seem with the shapeshifter god. And that’s a very good thing. There’s a riddle that nags away at specialists in Norse myth. In ancient Norse culture, each God or goddess had a cult, a temple,…
Unleash the fandom: How a new breed of high-concept indie bands are pointing to a more sustainable future away from digital megamalls
With Elon Musk turning Twitter into 4Chan, Google full of hallucinated bullshit AI, Zuckerberg’s Metaverse folly and the sense that in building our homes on them, we’re investing in somethng that’s not just more temporary, but potentially more predatory than we had hoped, the world is falling out of love with platforms. So what can…
Pneumonia art: Combining my own lung X-rays and delirium diaries with Midjourney AI
I’ve had pneumonia again. Odd thing about it – and maybe why so many people die of it each year without seeking timely help – is how it creeps up. As it does, it can be painful, and at the same time make you floaty & detached. It’s… quite moreish. A bit like nitrogen narcosis,…
Traitors, prejudice and the bullshit-industrial complex
And so here it is. On the train of the globally syndicated TV show The Traitors, as grimace follows fart, comes a wave of think pieces about “how to spot a liar” or “what guilty people look like”. It’s as if we learned nothing from the Nicola Bulley case, during which the world’s spectators got…
‘We Are All Targets is published 10th January in the US/Canada – pre-order now
My new non-fiction book, We Are All Targets: How Renegade Hackers Invented Cyber War And Unleashed An Age Of Global Chaos is published by Hachette US on January 10th in the US and Canada, and March 14th by Silvertail in the UK and elsewhere.
Secret sisters: Was David Bowie’s ‘The Bewlay Brothers’ inspired by Christina Rossetti’s ‘Goblin Market’?
A theory. Go with me here. Step out of yourself. Just for one day. There was always something that fascinated and bugged me about Bowie’s ‘The Bewlay Brothers’. It’s the oddest thing on Hunky Dory by a mile, and that’s saying something. Chris O’Leary and Nicholas Pegg have both written beautifully about it,…
My new paperback ‘The Last Goodbye’ is out February 2016
The Last Goodbye: A History of the world In Resignations is available at all good bookstores from 6th February 2016. A new, updated and expanded ‘reboot’ of F**k You & Goodbye for the mass market, The Last Goodbye brings the tale of human history’s most misunderstood driver bang up to date with revealing…
‘Outlaws Inc’ film gets one of Hollywood’s hottest directors
Disney/Act of Valor helmer Scott Waugh has signed up to direct the Hollywood feature film of my first international book, Outlaws Inc. Incredibly exciting news in Deadline magazine, as it’s been announced that the director of last year’s sleeper Navy SEAL hit Act of Valor, Scott Waugh, is to direct. The team…
Doors of the mind: Ghosts and thresholds in Bowie, Dickens, and the Generation Game
I’ve never been able to pass a door in an ancient wall without wondering what’s behind it. I know the truth is overwhelmingly likely to be mundane, but my subconscious mind can’t help picking out the details: the old ivy growth across it; the absence of any mechanism on the outside; the permanent silence…
Camus, Wim Wenders and a philosophy of table football
About to throw this broken table football game out, I took one last look – this time, from the players’ point of view. Everything can look confused, urgent, overwhelming and dramatic if you get sucked in too close to the action. Existentialist writer and philosopher Albert Camus once said, “Everything I know about…