KNONK

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Currently reading

01 Jan 2096

Haverscroft - S.A. Harris
Young family move into haunted house that is clearly haunted and refuse to leave.
The Cat who Saved Books - Sosuke Natsukawa
Talking cat takes young shut-in on Ghibli adventures that teach us about the power of books.
Less - Andrew Sean Greer
Hapless writing embarks on a world tour to avoid the wedding of his ex-boyfriend.

Zine news

22 Mar 2026

insurrectionary materials called ‘zines,’

In the US, having antifa zines can now get you arrested, charged and tried: Anti antifa trial Texas.
So that's what freedom of speach is worth now in the US. They used to be so big on it.

In lighter news, here are some choose your own adventure zines you can read online: jctm

And another cool indie site while I'm at it: Awesome in Progress has colouring pages of cryptids on holiday. What more do you people want?!

Want to make a multi-page zine, don’t have a long arm stapler? Here’s a neat trick on how to use a normal office stapler to bind zines. Lord Tiny Hat has made an infographic and printable.

Stag Dance

Torrey Peters

16 Mar 2026

So I picked this up because of how much I loved Detransition, Baby! It’s a collection of shorter stories, written over a ten year span, all of them centring trans female characters. As always with a collection, I liked some more than others. The central story, Stag Dance, is quite long and set in the old west and I just didn’t really connect with that one.

The first story jumps back and forth to different times before and after the trans apocalypse, and ends so abruptly that I initially thought the second story was a flashback inside the first. That's my bad though. They are good stories, quite violent, with boldly drawn contrasts.

For example, the last story is about a young cross dresser/cam boy/trans woman who gets involved with two people on a trip to Vegas: an overbearing trans woman who declares herself her big sister and envisions the two of them bra shopping, and a married man with a cross dressing secret who plays on her daddy fantasies.

I think out of the four I liked this story best, but it feels so heavy-handed, the choice the main character has to make, and the two characters she chooses between. These stories seem to lack the nuance and complexity of Detransition, Baby! Maybe that's because they are short stories.

I look forward to reading what Torrey Peters writes next.

Counter protest against Bristol Patriots

7 March 2026

07 Mar 2026

So we went to the counter demo to shout “fascist scum, off our streets” at, well, at some fascist scum who were on our streets and it was a very lively protest. Ah-ha-ha!

Most of the protests I’ve been to are just a lot of standing around, listening to some talks, maybe a slow march. This was quite a different story. The official numbers from the BBC are that there were 40 Bristol Patriots outnumbered by about 200 counter protestors. I’ve seen estimates up to 500. Initially, the police had us on opposite sides of the Cenotaph, while a line of police vans (including from the wider area) lined the marching route. They tried to march down to Castle Park along the centre side of Primark and Cabot Circus, but the mass of counter protesters blocked them at every junction and eventually they had to turn back.

At one point I managed to get ahead of the march, but there were very few of us there and I got scared staring down the mounted police so I ended up just flattening myself against the wall until the march had passed and I could join my own side again. I’m sorry, I’m not very brave!

I was trying hard to stay out of the scrums because I’m scared of fighting, but then we got kettled and the police charged the crowd with horses to pack people in more tightly and I was right by the cordon anyway.

That kettle was a mess, though. We were just outside Cabot at that point so lots of shoppers and bystanders had joined the crowd or were just checking out to see what was going on.

There was a short, black woman nearby the cordon where we were standing, and she was shouting that she was scared, that she was not OK, that she didn’t feel safe as a black woman (packed tight in a crowd of people surrounded by police, go figure). Eventually, the white protesters around her told the police to let her go as she was having a panic attack, and they finally let her out.

Kettling is such BS. They pinned us down while the “patriots” turned around and walked back to the cenotaph. After being held for a while, the crowd outside the kettle (protesters and bystanders) started chanting “let them out” and there was a break in the cordon, after which we could flow out.

We grabbed a late lunch at that point and hung around a while as the counter protesters were still singing and hanging around. I met people who had been pepper sprayed and batonned. The general air was victorious, but I went home feeling thoroughly intimidated.

...

Since Saturday, I’ve been watching footage from the protest, including the video (Bristol Post) where Ryan Ferguson shouts “Heil Hitler” and makes the salute at some Jewish counter protesters. I saw him through the line of police vans at the front of the march, throwing his fist like a fake Nazi salute. I couldn’t hear what he was shouting because we were all holding up a “fascist scum, off our streets” chant the whole way. Rumour is he was arrested.

Barb Wire

1996

06 Mar 2026

So me and some of KNONK’s younger members went to this Pam Anderson appreciation night. I would link to the organisers but I actually can’t find them or even remember what the night was called. It was kind of an accident we were there.

The night featured some burlesque (which was great) a silly game involving a kid’s bike (they couldn’t get a motorcycle into the venue) and a showing of the 1996 action flop Barb Wire with Pamela Anderson.

The audience participation elements (making vroom vroom noises whenever the motorcycle appears, etc.) were kind of lost on me, but I thought it was interesting to rewatch this in light of Ms Anderson’s knock-out comeback with The Last Showgirl in 2024. Clearly, the woman can act, or she can now.

So Barb Wire was not a success in the nineties, and I’m certainly not here to argue that it is “good”. It is not “good”, but it’s also not so bad that it’s unwatchable. It’s a plot-light, boob-heavy trashy action flic based on a comic book that plays very much like a trashy action flic based on a comic book.

The titular Barb is a badass. That’s it. That the one note she gets. She glowers and kills a guy with her shoe and she’s emotionally unaffected by the story. She has a bar in the last free city in a post-apocalyptic America ruled by fascists. She moonlights as an assassin/bounty hunter who gets close to her targets by posing as a sex-worker. She loses the bar. It hardly matters.

The action finale involves a fork lift picking her up with her motorcycle, which is then picked up by a crane, and they brawl it out on this floating fork lift platform. Is there a video game? Also her boobs are in it. A lot.

I don’t know what to tell you, man! Is it worth watching? No. Did I have a good night? Yes. Recommended if you like:

Ocean's 11

2001

05 Mar 2026

Ocean’s 11 was in the “hat” (it’s a tub actually) for Pigeon’s Lucky Dip DVD night, and it was actually the first time I’d seen it. I will contrast my expectations of this quite famous film with my actual experience, and then we’ll see where we get to.

So my knowledge of the Ocean’s series was actually quite limited. They’re heist films where a bunch of guys led by George Clooney and Brad Pitt rob a casino. The last film was all women, so that’s nice. That’s all I really knew. Here’s what I expect from a heist film. First, you need to set up the challenge: there are guards here, we need a code for this door, what have you. Then, there is a Cunning PlanTM to deal with these challenges. In the execution of the plan, stuff goes wrong (plan < contact with the enemy) but the heisters pull it over to their side and win in the end. That’s the formula.

Ocean’s 11 deviates from this traditional pattern in two important ways. One, we are not told the plan. We don’t even find out what they’re doing as they are doing it, we are hoodwinked along with the casino owner (Andy Garcia, easily the sexiest in this sexiest man line-up). Which is fine, the cleverness of the plan makes for a good surprise when it is revealed, but it does mean you spend much of the film without any clue as to what’s going on, and whether they are winning or losing. So, upsides and downsides to that decision.

More importantly, the film-makers just don’t play fair. Just to pick on one detail: what would you do if you found a stranger’s burner phone in your pocket? “Answer when it rings” is not top of my list, let me tell you. But the whole plot hinges on that phone call going exactly the way they want.

There’s many of these “but wait a minute” fridge-thought moments that you don’t spot at the time because you’re not clued in to what the plan is, but that leave you feeling robbed when it’s over. A little bit of plot immunity for the heroes is forgivable, but these guys get away with bloody murder. Also, the “winner gets the girl” plot is so last millennium, guys. Do better.

I guess people love Ocean’s not so much for the tight plotting as for the joy of watching a bunch of shiny movie stars swanning it up in Vegas and trading witty dialogue. It does deliver on that. Well done, gentlemen.
*polite applause*

Less

Andrew Sean Greer

25 Feb 2026

Delightful. Less is a funny and poetic book about a Arthur Less, a minor American novelist who can’t face either being at the wedding of his ex boyfriend, or staying home for it, so he accepts all the invitations to conferences, teaching positions, interviews, travel writing opportunities and trips he normally refuses and sets off on a journey around the world.
What follows is a series of mishaps and indignities (not least of which is his fiftieth birthday) as well as unlikely hook-ups and encounters with friends and exes. We learn things about the nature of time, and memory, and love. The helpless resignation with which our hero Less meets his misfortune and the loving, yet mocking omniscient narrator give the book a sweet atmosphere, and keep it from being too nostalgic or sappy.
I enjoyed it a lot.

Recommended for:

  1. romantics
  2. gays
  3. vicarious travel enthusiasts

Won Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2018

Something's Gotta Give

2004

21 Feb 2026

I know it's not a new observation to say that romantic comedies are heteronormative propaganda. But some of the narrative choices in Something's Gotta Give were so out there, and so infuriating, that I'm going to take it as a case study.

Jack Nicholson plays a 63 year old dating a much younger Amanda Peet. They try to have a sexy weekend at her mom's beachhouse, but uh-oh, mom is there too. Jack has a heart attack trying to fuck his gf, and the handsome young doctor (Keanu Reeves) insists that he doesn't go far from the hospital to recover.
The only solutions is obviously for him to stay at the beachhouse with mom (Diane Keaton), who hates him and is a complete stranger, but who nonetheless takes care of him. Mom, who is a divorced playwright whose uptightness is signalled by her wearing signature white turtlenecks and is going through a multi-year dry spot, finds herself with not one, but two possible lovers: her daughter's older beau (they break up, it's cool) and his doctor.
She falls in love with Jack, who has made clear he is not monogamous, but sees him in a restaurant with a new young woman and freaks out. They break up. She cries for weeks while writing her play, which is based on her adventures with Jack.
With Jack out of the picture, doctor Keanu makes his move and they date for six months, culminating in a romantic birthday getaway in Paris, where he means to propose marriage. But wait, here's Jack. He has been on an apology tour of his former girlfriends to learn about himself, and has flown all the way to Paris to speak to Diane, the final one. In a move of unforgivable boorishness, he joins the love birds for dinner (there's a ring box on the table when they inexplicably ask him to stay) so he can hash out his situation with his one-time fling.
They say goodbye but Diane chases him in a taxi so they can declare their love for each other in Paris while it snows, and they end up together.

So what's my problem? Diane Keaton is funny. Nicholson gets to be both charming, lovable cad (sorta, if you're into that sort of thing) and slapstick comedian. But here's what it teaches us — or, not even teaches so much as assumes we already agree:

  1. Sex means penis goes in vagina. The movie puts a really weird emphasis on the fact that the younger woman and the older dude have not yet had sex. We see them making out, her in her underwear straddling him, but they have never had sex. It's mentioned twice. And the fact that he has some erectile dysfunction is, like, a major plot point, because, you know, you can't have sex without an erection.
  2. Once you have sex, everything changes. At one point Jack says a man and woman can't be friends once they've had sex, and although maybe that's just his retrogressive take, I'd argue the movie agrees. It's very important that he hasn't fucked his younger girlfriend because that makes it OK for him to fuck the mom. And become her partner. And the family can all have dinner together and it's definitely not weird. Because they never had sex, you see, so it's all good.
  3. Monogamy is the same thing as commitment. It's almost a throwaway comment, but Diane, the mom, explains the relationship between Jack and her daughter by saying she isn't capable of commitment either.
    And just in case you thought that maybe it's OK for a 20-something woman to play the field a bit and do her own thing, we later learn that she's unable to allow a man to get close because she's afraid to get hurt and it all goes back to her parents' divorce. It's not just her character. It's damage. Luckily, a heart-to-heart with her mother help her overcome that damage. Because...
  4. Even strong independent women just want to be a wife and a mother. Before the six month break, we saw her freaking out because her dad was getting remarried to a younger woman and she felt like he was replacing her. o_O
    Her and mom have some words. When she pops back up six months later, she has some Dilbert looking guy who is now her husband, and she's pregnant. Don't worry, she's fine now! And her ex-boyfriend gets to play funny grandpa to her baby when it arrives! Happy family!
  5. Love is Enough. So this is the big one. Jack has never been successfully monogamous in his 63 years, and Diane clearly needs monogamy to feel like their relationship is valid. Their lifestyles have nothing in common. We have no idea how they might spend their time together, but they both felt something special that one week they were together (him recuperating from a heart-attack and clearly not his usual self), so they should be together and it makes perfect sense for her to pick him over her 6 month boyfriend, who is patient, understanding, professionally accomplished, respectful and supportive.
    What the fuck!?

I wonder if there's a version of the script where puckish, insufferable Jack wakes Diane up from her post-menopausal sex freeze, which sets her head reeling but ultimately means she's open to the love and respect of a younger doctor, and those two get together and it fucking makes sense.
But of course, that would not be the Hollywood ending. Because Keanu is only 36, we can't give him a future where he misses out on being a dad. That's what life is all about. Age-gap relationships are funny and scandalous, not serious romantic options.

Fuck this film, and a fuck you to Nancy Meyers, who wrote, directed and produced it.

KNONK BADGER

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Stag Dance

Torrey Peters

16 Mar 2026

So I picked this up because of how much I loved Detransition, Baby! It’s a collection of shorter stories, written over a ten year span, all of them centring trans female characters. As always with a collection, I liked some more than others. The central story, Stag Dance, is quite long and set in the old west and I just didn’t really connect with that one.

The first story jumps back and forth to different times before and after the trans apocalypse, and ends so abruptly that I initially thought the second story was a flashback inside the first. That's my bad though. They are good stories, quite violent, with boldly drawn contrasts.

For example, the last story is about a young cross dresser/cam boy/trans woman who gets involved with two people on a trip to Vegas: an overbearing trans woman who declares herself her big sister and envisions the two of them bra shopping, and a married man with a cross dressing secret who plays on her daddy fantasies.

I think out of the four I liked this story best, but it feels so heavy-handed, the choice the main character has to make, and the two characters she chooses between. These stories seem to lack the nuance and complexity of Detransition, Baby! Maybe that's because they are short stories.

I look forward to reading what Torrey Peters writes next.

Ocean's 11

2001

05 Mar 2026

Ocean’s 11 was in the “hat” (it’s a tub actually) for Pigeon’s Lucky Dip DVD night, and it was actually the first time I’d seen it. I will contrast my expectations of this quite famous film with my actual experience, and then we’ll see where we get to.

So my knowledge of the Ocean’s series was actually quite limited. They’re heist films where a bunch of guys led by George Clooney and Brad Pitt rob a casino. The last film was all women, so that’s nice. That’s all I really knew. Here’s what I expect from a heist film. First, you need to set up the challenge: there are guards here, we need a code for this door, what have you. Then, there is a Cunning PlanTM to deal with these challenges. In the execution of the plan, stuff goes wrong (plan < contact with the enemy) but the heisters pull it over to their side and win in the end. That’s the formula.

Ocean’s 11 deviates from this traditional pattern in two important ways. One, we are not told the plan. We don’t even find out what they’re doing as they are doing it, we are hoodwinked along with the casino owner (Andy Garcia, easily the sexiest in this sexiest man line-up). Which is fine, the cleverness of the plan makes for a good surprise when it is revealed, but it does mean you spend much of the film without any clue as to what’s going on, and whether they are winning or losing. So, upsides and downsides to that decision.

More importantly, the film-makers just don’t play fair. Just to pick on one detail: what would you do if you found a stranger’s burner phone in your pocket? “Answer when it rings” is not top of my list, let me tell you. But the whole plot hinges on that phone call going exactly the way they want.

There’s many of these “but wait a minute” fridge-thought moments that you don’t spot at the time because you’re not clued in to what the plan is, but that leave you feeling robbed when it’s over. A little bit of plot immunity for the heroes is forgivable, but these guys get away with bloody murder. Also, the “winner gets the girl” plot is so last millennium, guys. Do better.

I guess people love Ocean’s not so much for the tight plotting as for the joy of watching a bunch of shiny movie stars swanning it up in Vegas and trading witty dialogue. It does deliver on that. Well done, gentlemen.
*polite applause*

Less

Andrew Sean Greer

25 Feb 2026

Delightful. Less is a funny and poetic book about a Arthur Less, a minor American novelist who can’t face either being at the wedding of his ex boyfriend, or staying home for it, so he accepts all the invitations to conferences, teaching positions, interviews, travel writing opportunities and trips he normally refuses and sets off on a journey around the world.
What follows is a series of mishaps and indignities (not least of which is his fiftieth birthday) as well as unlikely hook-ups and encounters with friends and exes. We learn things about the nature of time, and memory, and love. The helpless resignation with which our hero Less meets his misfortune and the loving, yet mocking omniscient narrator give the book a sweet atmosphere, and keep it from being too nostalgic or sappy.
I enjoyed it a lot.

Recommended for:

  1. romantics
  2. gays
  3. vicarious travel enthusiasts

Won Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2018

Calendar Girls

2003

30 Jan 2026

Pleasant but silly film about middle aged women raising money for charity with a nude calendar. The jokes are mild, the drama is forced, and the whole thing would have been a yawn-fest except for Helen Mirren. I just love her.

Bad Behaviour

Mary Gaitskill

05 Jun 2025

I was strongly recommended this and after trying to read it I didn’t want to ask why.
If I’m going to read a book with this much sadomasochistic sex, I’d like it if anyone was actually enjoying themselves.

Recommended if you like:

  1. Bad sex
  2. Human misery
  3. ???

Detransition, Baby!

Torrey Peters

26 Mar 2025

One of my top reads of 2025. The story is about a complex family trying to form: a detransitioned trans woman gets his boss pregnant and is asking his ex (a transwoman) to join them and be the second mother to the baby.
Most of the book is actually the character’s back stories, how they got to be who they are and why this crazy premise actually makes a kind of sense, maybe. It’s very queer, it’s funny and sad and hopeful without sanding down the rough edges.
I don’t identify as trans but reading this felt like a window into trans female experiences that an educational text just couldn't ever offer. And I value it deeply for that.

Recommended if you like:

  1. Queer drama
  2. Trans rights

This is Pleasure

Mary Gaitskill

15 Mar 2025

Ooh, #metoo fiction with some nuance and room for interpretation? In this timeline? My goodness.
This is a novella about a Bad Man that asks: but how bad? Where is the line and when did he cross it?
Reading other reviews I can see they are all over the place. From sympathy for the Bad Man character to full throw-away-the-key condemnation. I think it’s a good book, it’s well written and I feel like I’m better for having read it.

Recommended if you like:

  1. Complexity and nuance
  2. Short books

KNONK BADGER

Invalid Date

Fox

A fox holding a sign to say Trans Rights: Human Rights

Hi everyone, I'm Fox, I have a room in Redland, I'm a student, and I love Bristol and everything it has to offer. I love to dress up and have fun, and although Pride is my favourite protest, I'm also here to stand for democracy and the planet and women's rights and all the other things we need to protest about because we have a cunch of bunts for our governments. *shakes fist*

I really love zines and the DIY movement, I love drag, I'm really proud of this little website, and I bloody love KNONK collective! I have two of my zines up on the website so far, they are not in print right now because full colour printing is expensive but you can read them right here! Click on the titles to read the full zine.

I kissed a girl and I liked it

Thoughts from a bad bisexual

Am I REALLY bisexual? Am I doing it wrong? Why is everyone so angry at someone who seems to be perhaps a bit like me?

Beauty Beyond the Binary

The style and fashion magazine for non-human beings

My super artsy collage zine. Fashion tips from mushrooms, thoughts on being "pretty" and the ultimate guide on how to be masc in a toxic way.

My posts (scroll down):
Counter protest against Bristol Patriots
My Life as a Courgette
The Cat who saved Books
What a Drag! Another open mic?

Counter protest against Bristol Patriots

7 March 2026

07 Mar 2026

So we went to the counter demo to shout “fascist scum, off our streets” at, well, at some fascist scum who were on our streets and it was a very lively protest. Ah-ha-ha!

Most of the protests I’ve been to are just a lot of standing around, listening to some talks, maybe a slow march. This was quite a different story. The official numbers from the BBC are that there were 40 Bristol Patriots outnumbered by about 200 counter protestors. I’ve seen estimates up to 500. Initially, the police had us on opposite sides of the Cenotaph, while a line of police vans (including from the wider area) lined the marching route. They tried to march down to Castle Park along the centre side of Primark and Cabot Circus, but the mass of counter protesters blocked them at every junction and eventually they had to turn back.

At one point I managed to get ahead of the march, but there were very few of us there and I got scared staring down the mounted police so I ended up just flattening myself against the wall until the march had passed and I could join my own side again. I’m sorry, I’m not very brave!

I was trying hard to stay out of the scrums because I’m scared of fighting, but then we got kettled and the police charged the crowd with horses to pack people in more tightly and I was right by the cordon anyway.

That kettle was a mess, though. We were just outside Cabot at that point so lots of shoppers and bystanders had joined the crowd or were just checking out to see what was going on.

There was a short, black woman nearby the cordon where we were standing, and she was shouting that she was scared, that she was not OK, that she didn’t feel safe as a black woman (packed tight in a crowd of people surrounded by police, go figure). Eventually, the white protesters around her told the police to let her go as she was having a panic attack, and they finally let her out.

Kettling is such BS. They pinned us down while the “patriots” turned around and walked back to the cenotaph. After being held for a while, the crowd outside the kettle (protesters and bystanders) started chanting “let them out” and there was a break in the cordon, after which we could flow out.

We grabbed a late lunch at that point and hung around a while as the counter protesters were still singing and hanging around. I met people who had been pepper sprayed and batonned. The general air was victorious, but I went home feeling thoroughly intimidated.

...

Since Saturday, I’ve been watching footage from the protest, including the video (Bristol Post) where Ryan Ferguson shouts “Heil Hitler” and makes the salute at some Jewish counter protesters. I saw him through the line of police vans at the front of the march, throwing his fist like a fake Nazi salute. I couldn’t hear what he was shouting because we were all holding up a “fascist scum, off our streets” chant the whole way. Rumour is he was arrested.

My Life as a Courgette

2016

07 Feb 2026

A cute French claymation that looks like a kid's film and is rated PG, but holy crap is it dark.
The DVD case blithely notes that the main character goes to an orphanage after his parents die. It doesn't mention that his mother is a severe alcoholic who threatens to beat him and dies after he acidentally causes her to fall down the stairs. And he is but one of the seven-or-so severely traumatised 8-10 year olds that form the heart of this charming, colourful film.
Is it a French thing?
I'm not against challenging themes in kid's entertainment though, and it treats the kids and their strange behaviours with respect and a gentle hand. The characters are all multi-dimensional, even while made of clay. There's a bully, who turns out not to be all that bad, but also doesn't stop bullying just because they had a good talk. There's a girl with PTSD from unspecified parental abuse, whose mood can be read by how much hair covers up the scar on her face. And a girl who ended up in state care after her mother was deported to an African country, who rushes out the door with a "maman?" whenever a car approaches, but then when her mother does show up, she doesn't go with her.
And, perhaps most surprisingly, we are trusted with these subtle characterisations, trusted to connect the dots and understand what's going on with these kids. Is that a French thing?Because I like it.
Beautiful, slightly haunting.

Recommended if you like:

  • Mature kids stuff
  • stop-motion animation
  • hopeful stories with damaged characters

The Cat who saved Books

Sōsuke Natsukawa

01 Feb 2026

Why do I keep picking up these Japanese books about cats, and books, and slightly magical, quirky characters? I don't think I enjoy them.
This is a book trying to be a Ghibly film where a bookish boy gets whisked away to a magical world of books where he has to verbally spar with people who mistreat books, but... it's not good?
There's a section in the book that makes fun of publishers that just throw out any old rubbish that fits a trend and is easy to read, such that the earth is literally covered with all these cheap, discarded books and I don't mean to be a dick to Mr Natsukawa, but I think this is one of those?
Not for me.

What a Drag! Another open mic?

Café Kino

28 Jan 2026

House of Boussé is a trans-forward drag house and they have an open mic in Café Kino that is strange, wonderful, inscrutable, delightful. It feels a little bit culty but like, in a good way.
Drag can be a funny thing to try to define. The open mic is for any short form performance art by trans+ artists. I’ve seen comedy, music, horror, historical, and genre-defining what-is-its on What a Drag’s small stage and personally, I’m ready for more.

Last Wednesday of the month, check at: What a Drag! (IG)
Café Kino is at:

108 Stokes Croft, Bristol BS1 3RU England

Accessibility note: the performance is in the basement down some steep steps.

Recommended if you like:

  1. Drag
  2. Trans rights AND trans wrongs
  3. In-jokes

KNONK BADGER

Invalid Date

Badger

A badger holding a sign to say Live in Hope

Hi, I'm Badger, I live in Montpelier, near the station. I'm a scorpio, I grow my own herbs, I like making things and I'm gender fluid (any pronouns).
I made a little collage zine that you can find in some of the little community libraries around my neighbourhood, and you can also read it here. It's about being in love with someone who is bad for you.

Choose Horror and Hysteria

Besides that, I've written some bits about media I consume and events I enjoy. Thanks for visiting my page.

Haverscroft
Cut & Paste Collage Club
The Haunting of Alma Fielding

Haverscroft

S A Harris

29 Jan 2026

This one was available through BorrowBox, which is an e-book library that often has long waiting times for popular books, so you end up reading just whatever looks interesting while you're waiting.
Haverscroft is a haunted house tale about a woman who is recovering from a mental health crisis and is dragged out to the sticks by her unforgivable jerk of a husband to a large country house-and-estate with their two adorable children. He promptly disappears back to the city for work, leaving her and the kids in the obviously haunted house.
A key question in any haunted house tale is this: why don't they just move out? Some variations on the theme handle this better than others. The reason here is, "This house gives me the creeps, but I have to prove to my husband (and his mother) that I'm not crazy anymore, so I'll just close the door to the ghost's room and hope we'll be ok." That works... up to a point.
The point where it stops working? One night, the chimney which has been producing creepy knocking noises the whole time falls down tearing a massive hole in the roof. Does she leave? No, they put up a tarp.

Hey, crazy lady! You have a perfectly rational reason here to leave the house for literally anywhere else. You cannot heat the place. God knows when the next bit of roof is going to collapse in. Your children aren't safe. Tell your asshole husband he is crazy if he expects you to stay in that rickety, depressing old deathtrap. Why are you there?

LEAVE!

Everything after that is a bunch of nonsense I didn't like it.
Recommended if you like:
  • Mediocre ghost stories
  • Confusing endings

Cut & Paste Collage Club

PRSC

14 Jan 2026

Second Wednesday of the month, check it’s on at: PRSC Events
PRSC "The Space" 17-25 Jamaica Street, BS2 8JP Bristol, UK

I’ve been to PRSCs Collage Club twice, and I’ve had a good time twice. They provide boxes of magazines, newspaper, assorted printed stuff and you can do what you want with them.
This time, I made some mini zine pages. I was planning to make a zine about how Instagram is eating your brain and you should leave, but decided against that at the last minute. With no plan whatsoever, I just cut interesting words out of magazine pages for a while, and made ransom note poetry.
It turned into a zine after all. The vibe at Cut & Paste collage club is chill, you can talk to people or just do your own thing, and it’s on for long enough to really get stuck in, or to drop in for part of it and do something small.

Recommended if you like:

  • Collage
  • Untutored art workshops
  • Zines

The Haunting of Alma Fielding

Kate Summerscale

08 Jan 2026

Exhaustively (exhaustingly) detailed review of a paranormal investigation from interbellum London. Weird book, it draws you in with all these seemingly supernatural happenings, and all the while you're like, "But she's faking, right? This is clearly fake?!" I guess I won't spoil it. It's from a real life report of an actual haunting.

Recommended if you like:

  1. Interbellum London,
  2. Spooky stuff,
  3. Real life ghost stories.

KNONK Movies 2025

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Movies I watched in 2025

At the start of this year, I decided I wanted to change my media consumption: watch some movies, read some books, engage with some significant cultural texts instead of frittering through an endless stream of short video "content".
My mission was partly successful: I watched 30 movies, which is well over 2 a month, but not close to 1 a week. Some were recent, some very much not. I joined the cinema streamer MUBI for a bit and enjoyed what they had to offer, but cancelled after a while because the rent is too damn high. I recommend them though.
Here is my personal awards list for the movies I saw this year.

Best film nominees:

(they all win)

Altered still from The Last Showgirl

The Last Showgirl

The Last Showgirl holds two contradictory views at the same time, and invites us not to judge.

It’s very good. It’s Pamela Anderson (!) playing a Vegas Showgirl who has sacrificed her relationship with her daughter, and to some degree, her whole life, to be a dancer in this traditional Vegas Showgirl show. It felt like a bit of a double feature with The Substance, which is much angrier, but is also about an aging female star chewed up and spat out by show business. The Substance has a lot of rage about the cruelty of that, and that’s valid. The Last Showgirl has something more fragile and poignant to say.

Her daughter at one point calls it a “stupid nudie show”, but to Anderson’s character it’s much more than that. Others may think the show is a tawdry thing, the outdated leftovers of another era. But to her, it’s a show with history, it’s something sophisticated and French. Being on stage makes her feel beautiful and that’s important to her, even if she also doubts herself and her life choices at times.

The film manages to hold both points of view: it is both a stupid nudie show and a thing of beauty and power.

And what it said to me, personally, is that whatever your thing is that’s so important to you now may turn out to be a stupid nudie show, or it may turn out to be the Real Thing, and it’s probably both and all you can do is try your best.

It’s a very moving film and I love it.

Winner, despite fierce competition: Older actress comeback of the year

Babygirl

I've seen some mixed reviews for this one but they're all wrong: this is a flawless piece. Amazing work by Nicole Kidman.

The first time we see the intern outside of his office gear, in the hotel room in his white T-shirt and standard issue bro chain, I was like, girl, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Antonio is a reasonable man, he'll understand...

Winner: Panty-dropper of the year

I Watched the TV Glow

A recommendation handed down to us by a trans-masc drag queen from the stage, this was a quiet gem of a movie.

It's about how much you loved and lived for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and also how you're living the wrong fucking life but it's not too late. There is still time.

Winner: Best mental breakdown

The Holdovers

Watched this during the interfestum, just before the end of the year. It's a wonderful, quiet piece about three troubled souls left over in their boarding school during the Christmas period.

It feels really old-school, nothing wild happens, it's just these characters and their normal/remarkable situations. Mary's quiet dignity in the face of grief was beautiful, and made me cry.

Winner: Most touching

Other highlights:

Altered still from The Substance

The Substance

Absolute madness, love and rage. Demi Moore is SO SEXY. Enjoyed it a lot.

Winner: Bloodiest

Holy Motors

This is a really weird one, it's French. The main character is and actor working out of a limousine. He transforms himself into different characters with make up, prosthetics, costumes and wigs, and gets out of the car to play his character in (what looks like) real life. So we get a series of emotionally intense scenes, some funny, some violent, some strange or scary, with the only connection being the actor.

The film doesn’t explain what the heck is going on, who this man is, how he came to do this work or what any of it means. It’s not about figuring out the mystery, it’s about going along for the ride. I had the feeling at one point that this is a kind of afterlife for our main character, but that doesn't seem to be a common take. Maybe it’s about acting, maybe it’s about identity. I don’t know, and I don’t need to know. It was funny and wild and dark and very compelling. I don’t regret a single minute I spent watching it, thinking about it, and trying to explain it to my partner. Hard recommend.

The actor playing all the different characters is played by Denis Lavant. Don’t think I’ve seen him before but he’s fantastic. And if you’re of a sensitive bent, you’ll want this teeny tiny spoiler: Eva Mendez (the model) is OK. She doesn’t get hurt, don’t worry. Also Kylie Minogue is in it. IKR?!

My favourite part was this musical intermezzo. You won’t need the context for this, because there isn’t any. Just enjoy it.

Winner: most surreal

Paris is Burning

Remarkable that this exists at all. Heartbreaking. Funny. Fabulous. If you haven't seen it, seek it out. And if you are part of a bunch of people doing something unusual that really matters to them and that nobody else understands: maybe make a documentary about it. You never know.

Winner: historical artefact of the year

Sinners

OMG, film of the year, am I right? I don't really follow the awards much but I'm going to assume that this wins/won big. Favourite bit: the old man in the car talking about how he lost his friend, and then singing to keep from crying.

Winner: Best Soundtrack

Tangerine

Found this on Mubi: two trans sex workers set out to have a word with the cheating bastard boyfriend of one of them. The insane, marriage wrecking, druggy chaos that follows is bracing, but their friendship is a sad and beautiful anchor.

Winner: Low-budget Knock-out

Metropolis

Absolutely horrifying scenes in the flooding lower city aside, this was pretty cool. Let's all agree it's not remembered for the story, which was incoherent, and enjoy the iconic costumes and visuals.

Winner: Most Actingest Acting

Horror Section

I had this notion that it would be cool to revisit some of the classic horror movies I wasn't allowed to watch or that scared my pants off when I was young: slasher stuff from late 1980s - 1990s. We didn't get very far, but I watched quite a few horrors nonetheless.

Nosferatu

Fantastic. Loved the atmospheric shots, the shadow play, the sexual subtext (does it count as sub-?). I did have a moment, when he fist approached the tomb, of wondering if I could really be expected to take this seriously post What We Do in the Shadows, but I got over myself and enjoyed it.

"I am nothing but an appetite."

Winner: spookiest

The VVitch

Also great. I was solidly on the Eggers train until we watched The Lighthouse. Love the period-accurate language, the use of colour, everything involving Anya Taylor-Joy.

Winner: most historically accurate

Frankenstein

Fun, lovely costumes and set design, interesting sort-of-twist for the ending. Ultimately a very familiar story, luckily both Frankenstein and the creature were mighty tasty.

Winner: best production design

Child's Play

Our foray into the classic slasher genre kind of began and ended here, because we didn't really enjoy it. Child's Play scared me s-less when I first saw it, now it was mostly kind of a annoying. Chucky is not a formidable opponent. I vividly remembered the scene where mom finds out there's no batteries in the doll, but it barely rased my pulse in 2025. Funny how we change. It features cute rats though, and regains a point for that.

Winner: silliest

Weapons

I dunno I liked it I guess but I felt like we finished a completely different movie than we started. Not complaining because the tension in the first act was actually a bit much for me and it relaxed a bit after the reveal. Loved the different character perspectives.

Winner: best twist

Hate section

Some I didn't enjoy.

The Lighthouse

Ew.

A friend of mine really loved it, and I respect that, but ew. Apptly Pattinson said it was "100% a comedy" and I can kind of see that? There are some very funny bits, but the oppressive atmosphere and violence and drinking/self-poisoning of it all just made it so I barely dared to laugh at it.

This bit made me giggle in the shower the next morning though: "Fine, have it your way. I like your cooking!"

Winner: Most shit-faced. No, literally.

Cats

The creepy cg one, yes. OK, so this was a hate-watch basically, we watched a cool video essay on why this film fails from a musical perspective, and we wanted to see it in all its horrible glory.

And yes, truly amazing. Why? Why did you make that?

Winner: worst musical/comedy

Queer

Didn't expect to hate this one. It's well made, good lead actor, and the subject matter is relevant to my interests, at least at first blush. But I turned it off midway.

Turns out that no, I would not like to watch Daniel Craig lounging around Mexico City, drinking, smoking and being miserable. Maybe I should have given it longer. The trailer made it look really good. The trailer makes me want to give it another shot, to be honest. But yea, I turned it off. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Winner: booziest

Interstellar

Oh boy. I've got some notes on this one.

I think I may have put it on by accident, mistaking it for a completely different deep space movie. Man, this made me ranty. The world-building is sketchy: it's the future, and it's an agrarian society where "everyone" is a farmer, but the farms are huge monoculture megafarms with corn supposedly suffering from drought and blight even though they look green as hell. Who is eating all that corn if everybody is farmers?

This is worse when we come back 20 years later and the monoculture megafarms are still supposedly failing, with the same crop looking just as green. Hey, guys? If blight is a big issue for the crop you're growing, do you think it might help to grow more than one crop?!

And, yeah, the space stuff doesn't make any sense either, evil Matt Damon didn't convince, the emotional notes sound flat... ugh.

Winner: worst science

The Fountain

We watched this in a small cinema for our friend's birthday. It's another sci-fi one about a man obsessed with curing death. He's on a dealine because his wife is dying. The enjoyment we got from this was afterwards, as we picked holes in the plot together and yelled at Wolverine, who was too busy trying to defeat death to spend time with his wife.

She's DYING! All she wants is ten minutes of your time! BE with her you absolute FAILURE of a MAN!

Cool visuals though.

Winner: most disappointing main character

The Hypnosis

Found this through Mubi. It's a European film about a couple who are trying to pitch their start-up but she has been released from her need to conform to social norms by a hypnosis session. More cringe than comedy. I feel like I didn't get it.

Winner: most cringe

Also:

After Yang

Haunting piece about memory, identity, and AI companions.

Elvis

Dragged Elvis up from laughable cliché into the sex symbol he really was. Gorgeous. Fun.

Reality+

Short from the maker of The Substance, covering some of the same themes. A little less gory.

Lucky Grandma

Hilarious, loved this so much. A grandmother wins and loses big at the casino, and gets in trouble with local gangs. Another remarkable performance by an experienced actress, they just kept on coming this year.

Her

Romance between man and AI assistant. Sweet and strange.

The Importance of Being Earnest

We saw an adaptation with Dame Judi Dench out of frustration that we missed the stage performance with Ncuti Gatwa. Entertaining enough but could have done with more Ncuti.

La la land

Eh.

Poor Things

Yeeeeeees!

Wallace and Gromit: Vengence most Fowl

Local heroes Wallace and Gromit do it again. Funny jokes, silly slapstick, and even tied into the theme of the year: AI. I loved the canal boat chase especially.

Mickey 17

Loved this too, made me want to watch more of Robert Pattinson's forays into the weird and wonderful. And then we saw The Lighthouse and went: that's enough Robert Pattinson now!

KNONK Beauty beyond the binary

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Beauty Beyond the Binary

By Fox

The cover features a composite face with pale eyes, a mustache, long hair and lipstick as the main feature. the magazine is called #Beauty: beyond the binary". The articles listed are:

Street report: What IS beauty?
Beauty products for the Soul
Help! I'm literally a cave troll!
Toxic Masculinity
The style and fashion magazine for non-human beings.

This page features a collage in brown and pinks, featuring ice cream, giant lipsticked lips and a pink shoe.

Street Report

This month, we scoured town and country for the wildest, most fashionable and fabulous individuals we could find. Here are their thoughts on beauty, fashion, and the meaning of life.

A white dog on a white sofa declares: "Simplicity is my guiding light."
A seal says: "I hate it when people talk about 'getting into shape'. I have a shape! It's a round shape. Round is a shape."
A bumblebee muses: "Beauty is a point of view. I see different colours, different kinds of beauty. And I'm sure you see things I don't, too. The best thing we can all do is to open up to all kinds of beauty, and we wil start seeing it more and more."
Images on this page also include a games controller, a freestanding, teal bath and a rusting old tank in a field.

A pink cultivated poppy says: "People tell me I'm beautiful all the time. It's a bit odd to me. I'm actually really self-conscious about how tall I am."
The background shows a woman in the window of a burning building. A fire person climbs a ladder towards her.
A potato speaks out: "It's not always easy to have the best complexion or the best skin. But I have my own stuff going on. I have good texture. Besides, who has time for a facial every day?"
An old delapidated building adds: "Beauty becomes a more delicate, balanced thing as you age. Less effortless. Although, of course, it was never effortless. That was just another illusion."

A dog with a shiny coat looks at the viewer: "Of course I care, everybody cares. Sure, I don't wear make up, and my clothes are pretty everyday, but I still have an opinion on what looks good. I know what I look like. It's on purpose."
An ostrich chick in a field says: "I feel like it's fashionable, almost, to be insecure. I'm like, fuck that. I have nice legs. Yeah, I said it."
A pig, covered in mud: "Who are you to say who's ugly? Don't you know that the judgement you heap on others is the same judgement waiting for you when you look in the mirror?"

Wild Life

A hedgehog looks into a puddle at her reflection. "To me, fashion is not just about expression. It's about me understanding myself. Selfies are my field reports."
A badger looks straight in the camera: "I love dramatic eye make up. I love to experiment, to be bold. To me, make up isn't feminine at all. This is war paint."

This page and the next feature a collage rainbow of food with fancy cocktails in the foreground.
Who are you...

being beautiful to?

Ransom note poetry reading: To find myself (...to seek)
between "I'm a girl warrior" and "feminine King"
This unpredictable/different/horrifying beauty
Is reflected by my best/own face.

Collage with an owl, a chap in a three-piece, a grinning man in a huge wig, shoes, a perfume bottle, men wearing hats.
My style is intuitive: plenty of teabags.
"I'm quietly confident and want to be taken seriously"
If someone has a knife, ditch the apologies.

Look of the Month

Our look of the month is an instant classic. These Oyster Mushrooms combine pleasing, predictable texture with sweeping drama and chiaroscuro. Neither animal nor plant, they follow their own rules. A great look for night time gatherings and grand entrances.

Dear #Beauty!

Dear #Beauty,

So I'm, like, literally a cave troll. Normal make up tips just make me look like a cave troll in lipstick — ridiculous.
I want to be pretty so bad! Is there anything I can do?

xo—Grendel the Swamp Thing

Dear Grendel,

If "pretty" to you is a picture, is a specific way to look, you are all out of luck.
Your face will never look like the digital paintings on the cover of Vogue.
But this perception of "pretty" is incorrect. Pretty is not a picture, pretty is an expression.
Fashion is a language you can use to say how you feel, who you are, how you see yourself, how you hope to be treated, the things you dream of and how you like your coffee — or your lovers.
Whatever the shape of your canvas, when you paint with the colours of prettiness, your intention will shine through.
And the right people will have the eyes to see it. Don't be afraid. Claim the prettiness that is your birthright.

x — Beauty

Toxic Masculinity

Get the look!

Toxic masculinity is the talk of the town, but there's a lot of misunderstanding around the term. Let our experts set you straight on how to wear it the right way.
"The traits traditionally associated with masculinity are often perfectly good traits for any human to have. Self-sufficiency, emotional mastery, strength, stoic endurance, ambition, courage... None of these traits are toxic in and of themselves, so you'll have to push it to get the desired effect."
Images on this collaged page include a sleazy Aardman character with roses, a chicken the size of a building and a viking hefting an axe.

"Toxicity is all about being anti-social. Go overboard. Take charge when no one needs you to. Display your masculine strength in delicate social situations. Combine your competitive nature with needless aggression to get one up on everyone around you. Go big or go home."

"If we're talking about toxic masculinity, we're talking about violence. Being violent in word and deed is exciting, and you can get away with a lot if you pick your targets appropriately. Read the room. What are the targets of hate for this particular crowd?"

Images on this page include a rhinoceros with huge horns, a pirate under a palm tree, a teletubby, a videogame power bar and the muzzle of a machine gun.

"Egalitarians don't like to admit this, but any group of humans has a hierarchy. Every social situation can be a dick-measuring contest if you make it so. You can compete on anything — knowledge about obscure subjects, number of countries you've travelled to, pints you can drink, creative insults... even your woke-ness and political correctness can be point scoring cards in the universal game of besting everyone."
Images on this page include a male scientist looking at chemistry equipment, a circuit board schematic and riot police.

Images include: a man looking serious, a lizard, a stag, a rusted tank pointing at nothing.

"Paranoia is the key to that toxic look. Are you on top? Is anyone disrespecting you, or something you care about? Are you the centre of attention? Can the see you sweat? Attack, attack, attack."

A collage page featuring stacked soap, a burger, the king from a chess game, a man's arm, a woman's legs and lips, a black tulip.

On this page we have an eye, more disembodied lips, a woman balancing on a champagne bottle and a huge cut gem. Cut out letters spell:
Fashion is a language. You are entitled to the entire vocabulary.

Beauty Products for the Soul

Compassion
Always take care of the basics. Use this oil based compassion to keep your spirit sensitive to the suffering of others.
Generosity
This delicately scented spray allows you to gift others with what you have in abundence, as well as allow them to have their abundence without envying them.
Kindness
Make your smile genuine and your well-wishing heart-felt with this bold pink lipstick.
Patience
The fullness of time will reveal what really matters. Hold on to your temper with this lush beeswax plumper.
Celebration
Let the joy of others lift you, and vice versa. Celebrate with this party in a package.
Tolerance
Embrace diversity and variety of people and opinions. Comes in a smooth black carry case.

continued...

Forebearance
The ability to bear discomfort. This face mask will help you keep yourself together when you most need it.
Forgiveness
Let go of slights and disappointments with this gentle scrub, and reveal the natural love underneath.
Joy
Activate the motor of your heart with this beautiful oil. Let joy reveal itself.
Sobriety
It's not just for drunks anymore! People and emotions can be addictive and intoxicating. Shave down to what's real.
Trust
Brought to you in beautiful packaging, this cream helps you to open up a wounded heart and trust again.
Honesty
Use the truth wisely with yourself and others. Sometimes it hurts, but it always cleanses confusion.
Boundaries
Not all of you is for everyone. Hold on to yourself with this sunscreen for the soul.
Connection
Fill up your well with this hydrating spray. Connect with an other for a deep, heart-quenching evening.

This page features a fish wearing a green hat, a make up palette and Helen Mirren looking grey and glorious while a garing eye looks at the camera.
"I often think of that evening as the first time I hated myself"

This page features models wearing clothes and walking runways juxtaposed with kitchen products. Snippets of fashion commentary don't quite add up to meaning.
fashion... first class... designers... tailoring and the most... only fascinate her but... native hand craft... playful collection. New, innovative, futuristing materials mixing them into nearly science fiction outfits... Their agenda contans a section for women's... international style... self-confident... outfits from business into...

A composite figure with a dog's head against a blue, IT-themed background waves at us. A mouth smiles.

Printed in Bristol October 2018
now hosted on KNONK.UK

Also available: I kissed a Girl and I liked it: Thoughts from a Bad Bisexual
Defiant for Life: Recovering from Sexual Violence

KNONK Defiant for Life

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Scarred Defiant for Life

recovering from sexual violence

By Deer

This is a zine about surviving sexual violence. We often talk a lot about the immediate trauma and not so much about how, with the years, it can be something that stays with you without defining you. It’s part of our histories for so many of us, and it remains difficult to talk about. So although I wrote this in 2018 and I don’t fully agree with everything I said in it, I humbly offer it, unedited, in its entirety in the hopes it is of use.

There are some “content notes” on the second page.

I will be adding descriptions of the images and reprduce the text below the pages for if you're struggling with small lettering or using a screen reader, but that's not ready yet.

.

Scarred Defiant for Life

You will not always feel this way.

KNONK Thoughts from a Bad Bisexual

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I Kissed a Girl and I Liked it

Thoughts of a bad bisexual

By Fox

I Kissed a Girl and I liked it: Thoughts from a Bad Bisexual.
In the background: "Attention whore" | "on the fence" | "slut" | "poser" | "indiscriminate" | "trendy" | "unicorn" | "phase" | "anything that moves" | "fake" | "dirty"

I am not a "negative" stereotype.

Girls

You may have heard the news; the bis aren't doing so well.

  • We have more mood disorders such as depression, as well as anxiety disorders.
  • We have higher rates of hypertension, poor health, smoking and risky drinking.
  • We are far more likely to feel suicidal than heterosexuals, gay men, and lesbian women.
  • We're less likely to be out, and more likely to experience discrimination from our friends.

So that sucks, and that's enough reason to spill some ink on the subject, I suppose. But the real drive behind the zine you're holding wasn't dry stats, but rage, because of course. I got angry about the backlash to [a] pop song by Rita Ora (not an artist I previously had an opinion on) because that song spoke to something in me. And it got apnned as homophobic, biphobic and harmful to the LGBT+ community.
Rita Ora and friends rap and sing about being "50/50" and not hiding it, kush loving, drinking wine and kissing girls. The lyrics were described as "obviously problematic". Lesbian pop star Hayley Kiyoko said:

[...] Every so often there come certain songs with messaging that is just downright tone-deaf, which does more harm than good for the LGBTQ+ community. A song like this just fuels the male gaze while marginalizing the idea of women loving women. [...] I don't need to drink wine to kiss girls; I've loved women my entire life. This type of message is dangerous because it completely belittles and invalidates the very pure feelings of an entire community.

Internet comments on the lyrics were even more scathing.

What are you talking about? An Anthem for bisexuality?! This song is only about sexualizing women, that has nothing to do with love and sexual orientation. The lyrics are disgusting, but I'm not surprised. They come from people who see themselves only as nothing more than a body. It's ashaming that women see other women this way. "A kitten"?! What is wrong with you people?! This is just like a sexist man sees a girl like a sexual toy. A girl is more than that. This song makes me sick.
54 upvotes


On behalf of my fellow bisexuals, I'm rejecting this as our "anthem".

Editor's note: you can still read all about this 8 year old controversy by searching for the lyrics to Rita Ora - Girls.

Dude??? Straight girls are so wtf... "red wine, I wanna kiss girls" omfg someone stop straight girls pls
+57 upvotes

Great more poeple sexualising bisexuality.

This song is trash.

I hope I speak for everyone when I say this song is not a real bisexual anthem. I'm bi and this really annoys me. Stop turning an orientation into a fetish. We're real people

Apparently, Rita Ora, who clarified the song reflects her own experiences with women, is not a real person. And her feelings don't count as "very pure". And singing a song about partying, hooking up and sex - that's most songs in this genre - is "disgusting" and has nothing to do with love and sexual orientation.
It seems that for a bisexual woman, it's not enough to come out by recording a hit song about the same things other pop starts sing about, you have to be pure, make sure you don't sexualise yourself, and that you don't "feed the male gaze" (it's a ravenous beast, you guys). It's not good enough to just be out there, visible and honest about your love of wine, kush and loving ladies.
You see, if you want to be out and bi, you have to make sure you're a good bisexual: monogamous, relationship oriented, with pure and good feelings, not disgusting sexy ones, and be secure in your identity without phasing and wavering and also be clean and sober and don't ever cheat or fuck up. Basically, be perfect.
Because otherwise you're just feeding the "negative" stereotypes of bisexuals, and that means it's also your fault that society doesn't have time for bisexuals.
The noise about Girls has come and gone as I write this, and I may be the only one still upset about it. But it made me think, and write, a bunch of stuff that turned into this zine.
Bi websites and organisations are often very concerned with stereotypes, so concerned that they risk alienating the many bisexuals who happen to meet (some of) those stereotypes. In this zine, I'm dreaming of a better way, where we embrace our stereotypes and the people that represent them, instead of hiding the freaks at the back.

Thank you for reading.

In botany, a bisexual flower is any flower with both stamen and pistil. Those flowers are also known as "perfect".

A definition

A lot of people seem to think of bisexuality as being "in between" het- and homosexuality. Hence "OK, but do you lean more this way or the other?"

I prefer to think of it as both. Both hetero and homo, perhaps at different times, perhaps in different ways, but the potential is there, always.

And that means that, much like a gay person who is single and not looking is still gay, a bi person in a relationship with someone of a gender is still bi.

Heterosexual
attracted to people of other genders than oneself..
Homosexual
attracted to people of similar genders as oneself.
Bisexual
both is good.

Phase

Many sites and pamphlets on the pleasures and discontents of bisexuality list "it's a phase" as one of the harmful myths and stereotypes people have about bisexuality.
It supports bi erasure and the denial of bisexuality as a "valid" sexual orientation, because it allows biphobes to dismiss any real life evidence of bisexuals existing in the world by saying - oh, you'll grow out of it.
On the other hand, for some people, bisexuality is a phase. Or was a phase for them, when they were figuring themselves out. Awkward, but true.
For some folks, sexuality is clear cut - they know who they are and what they want and it doesn't change or confuse them. For many of us, it's not that simple, and we may try on a few different labels before settling, or continue to reinvent ourselves throughout our lives.
There's nothing wrong with that. This isn't a problem.
The problem is not so much that bisexuality is a phase (for some) but that people use this to dismiss us, deny the importance of our experience and refuse to take us seriously.
Just because something is temporary doesn't mean it's not important. Brad Pitt's marriages are just a phase, we took them seriously enough, as a culture.

I was strongly attracted to gay men, but smart enough to realise that was not gonna work. Androgyny excited me, in men as well as women. In the late nineties, I didn't have the vocabulary to describe what I was, or what I was after, but I figured the local gay/lesbian scene probably had something to offer.

I was shy though. It may have been my third time in a bar of any kind, ever. I spoke to a guy who told me how great the place was on the weekend, when it was heaving with people, which sounded like hell. I let a girl buy me a drink, but the conversation was awkward and I didn't know how I felt about her. I felt like a fake. I got scared and went home.

In my HEART
are diamonds OF
sweet/ perfect WANT./ desire

BUT lost In the rough VIEWS
of the world/ So STRONG
against ME AND YOU

Don't you just hate it when girls make out just to get attention from guys?

No actually.

I like doing that. It's hot to be watched. It's hot to know a watcher is getting hot watching you get hot because they're watching. It's a hotness loop!

Sure, this is the only bisexuality that gets any media airtime, and that's a problem, but let's take a moment to remember bi women aren't the reason for that problem. That's not our fault.

And let's remember that if some douchebro gets overexcited when you say you're bi, or gives you a creepy "ooh, can I watch" vibe when you're just trying to have a drink with your girlfriend, that douche is being a douche.

Men being over-entitled and thinking female queer sexuality is all about them is a men problem. Not a "fake" bi, slut-sexual problem. We're just trying to live life right, just like you.

So next time you meet one of these dudes, just set that dude of fire and walk away.

But does that mean we have to reject as "invalid" any queer female sexuality or sensuality just because a guy is getting a boner out of it?

Yes, you are bi/queer enough. This page is available as a pay what you want printable poster on Buy me a Coffee

Sluts are: Beautiful, Amazing, Generous, Wonderful, Flexible, Natural, Sexy People. Let us Celebrate.

Labels

There's a much wider variety of labels available today than when I was a queerling, at around the turn of the millennium.
I didn't give much thought to the difference between bi and pansexual back then, and I didn't know any other options. I questioned my gender identity, but was unaware of nonbinary people (not that they didn't exist, but I didn't find them). I furtively shopped in the men's section, and wore my hair short.
Asexuality and aromanticism were not on my radar either, even though I do think they would have appealed to me strongly at one point in my life. Instead, I identified as a virgin (privately, with just my online friends).
Some say that labels are limits - just a way to box yourself in, and that letting go of labels altogether allows you to embrace all opportunities. Others counter that the right label can help you understand yourself better and find others just like you. "Once I found that I was _____, it all fell into place and I was much less lonely," that sort of thing. That sure sounds swell, but if that's how labels work I guess I still haven't found the right one.
What if everyone around you seems happy with their labels, but you still haven't got a clue? What if you find your label at long last, and then find there are like two other people in the world who identify that way, and no one you talk to has any idea what you're on about?

What if you have loudly and proudly embraced a label only to find it no longer fits? To "recant" would prove your haters right, but in the meantime you feel more and more uncomfortable. Sometimes labels are limiting.
For me, as I continued to exist and learn more about myself, my labels shifted.
It turns out I'm not asexual. (Also not a virgin. Also virginity is some patriarchal bullshit, but it was a comfort to me at one time and I don't resent my former self for embracing it. I was going through some shit.)
It turns out my attraction to women is not the same as my attraction to men, but that doesn't mean it isn't real. It feels different. It also feels right.
And although I do not identify as trans, I was right in thinking my gender was a non-straightforward thing.
Labels have their upsides and downsides. Questioning whether you are ________ enough to be _______ is almost certianly a waste of time. Externalising that kind of doubt and running around telling other people they're not ________ enough to be _________ is a waste of time, and also a dick move.
It's good to accept that labels may change, for yourself and for others. Remember always that there are different ways to be ________ and that you have things in common with people outside of your label, too. Hold your labels lightly.

10 Wonderful Beautiful Amazing stereotypes about Bisexuals, and how they can fix the world for everyone

  1. We are ambiguous and fluid, neither one thing nor another. Embracing our fluidity and ambiguity will help break down barriers and black-and-white, us-versus-them thinking. Maybe it would be good for everyone to be just a little less sure about who they are and whom they might love or desire.
  2. We are unlikely to be successfully monogamous. You know what? Men, women, gay, straight, nerd, jock, everybody cheats. Embracing the fact that monogamy is difficult sometimes, and that it is only one option among many, will help people find the relationship structure that works best for them. Chilling out even a tiny bit about minor infidelities can save marriages and make all of us more honest.
  3. We are sex-crazy sluts who will hump anything that doesn't run away fast enough. Embracing this stereotype will help end slut-shaming, sex-shaming and the ridiculous double standard. It may also get people running, which is good for their health.
  4. We are a fad or fashion trend. Yep. We are in fact a fashion trend. I kind of mind-virus, spreading faster than the latest African American slang. Soon, everyone will be bisexual and queer equality will wash across the globe, unstoppable, unhindered, as inescapable as a vapid summer bop. The world will find itself humming bisexually while brushing their teeth, unaware, already infected.
  5. We're just having a phase. We might be having a phase, and settle into a different sexuality later in life. This is of course true for everyone. Heterosexuality was a phase for many of us, after all. And anyone might find themselves falling for someone they never expected, at any point in life. Embracing the beauty and truth of our phases will make those moments less traumatic for everyone.
  1. We are just doing it for the attention. Yes! Oh my goodness, pay attention to us! Bi erasure and bi invisibility are real, and so pervasive, we sometimes forget about ourselves. Let's hear it for attention, for loudness, for in-your-face bi-ness, pan-ness, queer-ness everywhere and anywhere.
  2. A bixesual in a relationship with a person who has a gender is just, like, gay or straight now. Invisibility is our curse, but also our superpower. Invisibility allows us to infiltrate monosexual spaces, observe their strange mating habits, report back to bi HQ and further our plans to queer the planet. We are ninja spies, hiding out in ordinary-looing relationships until BAM! It's too late. You're one of us now.
  3. Bisexuals are great for threesomes. You know what? We are. But there are good threesomes and shitty threesomes, and I've been in both kinds. If we embrace our special position as unicorns, providors of and experts in threesomes, we're in a position to teach the world a lot about how to have good threeway sex.
  4. Bisexuals are, like, dirty. You'll catch something. Talking about STIs is a minefield, yo. Being able to say, so yeah, I'm bi, and these are the ways I take care of my sexual health, can be a positive way to have that conversation, even if it was prejudice that made it happen. All sexually active people take risks. Let's embrace the risks we choose to take. If we are smarter, beter educated and more outspoken about these things than average, we'll make everybody safer and smarter.
  5. "Real" bisexuals are super rare, or non-existent. Like unicorns. You ever seen someone pick a fight with a unicorn? Hell no. Rare, beautiful, magical, anyone who sees a bisexual in real life should stop, breathless for a moment, stunned by the blessed sight before them. Maybe genuflect a little. Couldn't hurt.

Two things I'm willing to assume:

  1. Anyone who identifies as queer or LGBT+ probably has a reason for doing so.
  2. Push comes to shove, they will defend their LGBT siblings and are therefore valuable members of the community

Gatekeeping is bullshit.

Happy pride everyone. Stay Strong.

Just some writings and visual art on the subject of bisexuality from a female queer person with some gender fluidity.

Hope it makes you think
talk
question
smile

Produced for pride 2018. Printed in Bristol. Now hosted on KNONK.

KNONK Choose Horror and Hysteria

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Badger's profile picture

Choose Horror and Hysteria

a romantic horror zine

By Badger

.

reject comfort. CHOOSE horror and hysteria

TERRIFIED NUDE traveller, FIND the world in A body
she promises violence AND sacrifice

She haunts you
She has it in for you
She wants you
She will give you everything
And leave you

nothing

STRIP CLUB energy
One long Obsession
horny, DIRTY feels

Her scent pulsating
Race your own heart

Close your eyes against her body
She unravels you
As you sink deeper

with HUGE anxiety
For the undoing of reality
18

When she's not there
She's everywhee
Not just living in your head
She's remodeling the place

How can you trust anything now?

Choose obsession
Choose madness
Choose horror and hysteria

"Choose Horror and Hysteria" A romantic horror zine by KNONK. Copyright KNONK.UK 2026/01

KNONK Goat

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Goat

A goat holding a sign to say Queer Rights

Hey, I'm the Goat. I live in Clifton, and I've been on the streets demonstrating since the days of Act Up, when I was just an angry kid.

I'm a bit older now and I have a nice house, but that doesn't mean I'm no longer angry. You know, it's really striking to me how the current "debate" about trans people is really just a copy-paste job of all the same lies they used to tell about us homosexuals. They've swapped some of the terms around but when you scratch the surface, it's just "Save the Children" all over again, as if you'll stop kids from turning out queer (whether that's trans or gay) by not talking about it.

I'm very disappointed that so many of my "respectable" neighbours are falling for the same tricks again, and beyond angry that our government has brought back Section 28 for trans people.

I just want to say, if you're trans and this shit is getting to you, please hang in there. The tide will turn, the bastards will not get us down. You are part of this movement and you better believe that I'm going to fight for your rights, just like people like you have always stood up for mine.

But anyway, that's enough of me being a grumpy old man. The young-uns asked me to contribute some film and book reviews, so you can find those here.
I'll see you on the streets!

Murder Most Fab
Hairspray
Bury your Gays

Murder Most Fab

Julian Clarey

20 Jan 2026

finished

Delightful, camp murder comedy about a young man on his way to super stardom who just keeps getting put into situations where he unfortunately has to murder other men. Woe is he.
The character is a lot more sympathetic than I would have guessed from the premise, he's more of a lovable idiot than a magnificent bastard. It's sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, but the story is saved from nihilism by the character's enduring love for a YA summer romance.
Best read of the year so far. (Yes, it's mid January, but still.)

Recommended if you like:

  1. That Gay Shit,
  2. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,
  3. Whore with a Heart of Gold.

Hairspray

2007

19 Jan 2026

watched

Fun watch! Some cool songs, mood-elevating dance scenes, and some real stars in “what are you doing here?” parts, who actually pull it all together.
We have Christopher Walken as a joke-shop owner dad, Michelle Pfeiffer as the evil (former beauty) queen and, yeah, John Travolta in drag?
If you search for “Travolta Hairspray” google suggests asking why’d he do it? And I guess that was sort of my question. He’s a weird pick, for sure. And it’s for sure a brave move for him. But the really surprising bit is that he kinda knocks it out of the park!? Kinda!?
My favourite scene was her and Christopher Walken singing about how much they love each other even though they’re a pair of old farts. Actually touching, but then I’m an old fart.
The Guardian had a two star review, proving once and for all they’re a bunch of fuddy-duddies who hate fun.

Recommended if you like:

  1. That gay shit (in that it's very camp, there’s no gay characters)
  2. Audio-visual Caffeine
  3. Children’s book level civil rights stories

Bury your Gays

Chuck Tingle

24 Oct 2025

finished

I was new to Chuck Tingle, who also has a very sexy(?) fiction podcast where his erotic stories are read by the people of Welcome to Nightvale (get that where-ever you get your podcasts). He’s good. I liked it. Blazed through it on a roadtrip.
Bury your Gays is a very enjoyable, madcap Hollywood horror about the future of entertainment in the age of AI, being out, artistic integrity and the ghosts of the past. Well plotted, great cast, satisfying ending. No notes.

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event review

Counter protest against Bristol Patriots

7 March 2026

07 Mar 2026

So we went to the counter demo to shout “fascist scum, off our streets” at, well, at some fascist scum who were on our streets and it was a very lively protest. Ah-ha-ha!

Most of the protests I’ve been to are just a lot of standing around, listening to some talks, maybe a slow march. This was quite a different story. The official numbers from the BBC are that there were 40 Bristol Patriots outnumbered by about 200 counter protestors. I’ve seen estimates up to 500. Initially, the police had us on opposite sides of the Cenotaph, while a line of police vans (including from the wider area) lined the marching route. They tried to march down to Castle Park along the centre side of Primark and Cabot Circus, but the mass of counter protesters blocked them at every junction and eventually they had to turn back.

At one point I managed to get ahead of the march, but there were very few of us there and I got scared staring down the mounted police so I ended up just flattening myself against the wall until the march had passed and I could join my own side again. I’m sorry, I’m not very brave!

I was trying hard to stay out of the scrums because I’m scared of fighting, but then we got kettled and the police charged the crowd with horses to pack people in more tightly and I was right by the cordon anyway.

That kettle was a mess, though. We were just outside Cabot at that point so lots of shoppers and bystanders had joined the crowd or were just checking out to see what was going on.

There was a short, black woman nearby the cordon where we were standing, and she was shouting that she was scared, that she was not OK, that she didn’t feel safe as a black woman (packed tight in a crowd of people surrounded by police, go figure). Eventually, the white protesters around her told the police to let her go as she was having a panic attack, and they finally let her out.

Kettling is such BS. They pinned us down while the “patriots” turned around and walked back to the cenotaph. After being held for a while, the crowd outside the kettle (protesters and bystanders) started chanting “let them out” and there was a break in the cordon, after which we could flow out.

We grabbed a late lunch at that point and hung around a while as the counter protesters were still singing and hanging around. I met people who had been pepper sprayed and batonned. The general air was victorious, but I went home feeling thoroughly intimidated.

...

Since Saturday, I’ve been watching footage from the protest, including the video (Bristol Post) where Ryan Ferguson shouts “Heil Hitler” and makes the salute at some Jewish counter protesters. I saw him through the line of police vans at the front of the march, throwing his fist like a fake Nazi salute. I couldn’t hear what he was shouting because we were all holding up a “fascist scum, off our streets” chant the whole way. Rumour is he was arrested.

What a Drag! Another open mic?

Café Kino

28 Jan 2026

House of Boussé is a trans-forward drag house and they have an open mic in Café Kino that is strange, wonderful, inscrutable, delightful. It feels a little bit culty but like, in a good way.
Drag can be a funny thing to try to define. The open mic is for any short form performance art by trans+ artists. I’ve seen comedy, music, horror, historical, and genre-defining what-is-its on What a Drag’s small stage and personally, I’m ready for more.

Last Wednesday of the month, check at: What a Drag! (IG)
Café Kino is at:

108 Stokes Croft, Bristol BS1 3RU England

Accessibility note: the performance is in the basement down some steep steps.

Recommended if you like:

  1. Drag
  2. Trans rights AND trans wrongs
  3. In-jokes

Cut & Paste Collage Club

PRSC

14 Jan 2026

Second Wednesday of the month, check it’s on at: PRSC Events
PRSC "The Space" 17-25 Jamaica Street, BS2 8JP Bristol, UK

I’ve been to PRSCs Collage Club twice, and I’ve had a good time twice. They provide boxes of magazines, newspaper, assorted printed stuff and you can do what you want with them.
This time, I made some mini zine pages. I was planning to make a zine about how Instagram is eating your brain and you should leave, but decided against that at the last minute. With no plan whatsoever, I just cut interesting words out of magazine pages for a while, and made ransom note poetry.
It turned into a zine after all. The vibe at Cut & Paste collage club is chill, you can talk to people or just do your own thing, and it’s on for long enough to really get stuck in, or to drop in for part of it and do something small.

Recommended if you like:

  • Collage
  • Untutored art workshops
  • Zines

KNONK

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Welcome. We are KNONK, a Bristol-based creative collective.

This website was created to hold some of the things we make and thoughts we write. We get together for different events, including zine making, a book club and Lucky Dip DVD night.

Rat, our webmaster, fails to update every week but we still appreciate his work. You can follow us on Neocities: KNONK

Anti-Authoritarian Action Corner

A pigeon holds a sign that says Protest is Democracy.

Open AI, owner of ChatGPT, is now besties with Trump and providing technology to the American ICE. Boycotts are picking up steam.
Cancel your membership, stop using the free version, stop feeding this hell machine. Link below has more information on why a boycott can work, and what alternatives are available.

QuitGPT.org

KNONK members

Goat

Goat

Goat is a community organiser and queer rights activist with years of experience. Read his book and film reviews. Deer

Deer

Our darling deer is a painter, a writer, and our resident agony aunt. Badger

Badger

Our spooky non-binary witchy friend, who makes zines with us and brings the best home-made dips. Fox

Fox

Our youngest member is an enthusiastic crafter, writer and collage artist.

Printable zines

Mini zine you can print and assemble yourself.

2026-01: Month Review (pdf) A mini zine to help you review your month and make plans for the next one.

Movies 2025

Pigeon wrote up a detailed review of 2025 in terms of the films he watched, loved, hated. Check it out.

A doe holds a sign that says You can Always do Something. A goat holds a sign that says Queer Rights.

KNONK NOtes

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Tags

Here are all the short posts, organised by tag.

My Life as a Courgette

2016

07 Feb 2026

A cute French claymation that looks like a kid's film and is rated PG, but holy crap is it dark.
The DVD case blithely notes that the main character goes to an orphanage after his parents die. It doesn't mention that his mother is a severe alcoholic who threatens to beat him and dies after he acidentally causes her to fall down the stairs. And he is but one of the seven-or-so severely traumatised 8-10 year olds that form the heart of this charming, colourful film.
Is it a French thing?
I'm not against challenging themes in kid's entertainment though, and it treats the kids and their strange behaviours with respect and a gentle hand. The characters are all multi-dimensional, even while made of clay. There's a bully, who turns out not to be all that bad, but also doesn't stop bullying just because they had a good talk. There's a girl with PTSD from unspecified parental abuse, whose mood can be read by how much hair covers up the scar on her face. And a girl who ended up in state care after her mother was deported to an African country, who rushes out the door with a "maman?" whenever a car approaches, but then when her mother does show up, she doesn't go with her.
And, perhaps most surprisingly, we are trusted with these subtle characterisations, trusted to connect the dots and understand what's going on with these kids. Is that a French thing?Because I like it.
Beautiful, slightly haunting.

Recommended if you like:

The Cat who saved Books

Sōsuke Natsukawa

01 Feb 2026

Why do I keep picking up these Japanese books about cats, and books, and slightly magical, quirky characters? I don't think I enjoy them.
This is a book trying to be a Ghibly film where a bookish boy gets whisked away to a magical world of books where he has to verbally spar with people who mistreat books, but... it's not good?
There's a section in the book that makes fun of publishers that just throw out any old rubbish that fits a trend and is easy to read, such that the earth is literally covered with all these cheap, discarded books and I don't mean to be a dick to Mr Natsukawa, but I think this is one of those?
Not for me.

Calendar Girls

2003

30 Jan 2026

Pleasant but silly film about middle aged women raising money for charity with a nude calendar. The jokes are mild, the drama is forced, and the whole thing would have been a yawn-fest except for Helen Mirren. I just love her.

Haverscroft

S A Harris

29 Jan 2026

This one was available through BorrowBox, which is an e-book library that often has long waiting times for popular books, so you end up reading just whatever looks interesting while you're waiting.
Haverscroft is a haunted house tale about a woman who is recovering from a mental health crisis and is dragged out to the sticks by her unforgivable jerk of a husband to a large country house-and-estate with their two adorable children. He promptly disappears back to the city for work, leaving her and the kids in the obviously haunted house.
A key question in any haunted house tale is this: why don't they just move out? Some variations on the theme handle this better than others. The reason here is, "This house gives me the creeps, but I have to prove to my husband (and his mother) that I'm not crazy anymore, so I'll just close the door to the ghost's room and hope we'll be ok." That works... up to a point.
The point where it stops working? One night, the chimney which has been producing creepy knocking noises the whole time falls down tearing a massive hole in the roof. Does she leave? No, they put up a tarp.

Hey, crazy lady! You have a perfectly rational reason here to leave the house for literally anywhere else. You cannot heat the place. God knows when the next bit of roof is going to collapse in. Your children aren't safe. Tell your asshole husband he is crazy if he expects you to stay in that rickety, depressing old deathtrap. Why are you there?

LEAVE!

Everything after that is a bunch of nonsense I didn't like it.
Recommended if you like:

What a Drag! Another open mic?

Café Kino

28 Jan 2026

House of Boussé is a trans-forward drag house and they have an open mic in Café Kino that is strange, wonderful, inscrutable, delightful. It feels a little bit culty but like, in a good way.
Drag can be a funny thing to try to define. The open mic is for any short form performance art by trans+ artists. I’ve seen comedy, music, horror, historical, and genre-defining what-is-its on What a Drag’s small stage and personally, I’m ready for more.

Last Wednesday of the month, check at: What a Drag! (IG)
Café Kino is at:

108 Stokes Croft, Bristol BS1 3RU England

Accessibility note: the performance is in the basement down some steep steps.

Recommended if you like:

  1. Drag
  2. Trans rights AND trans wrongs
  3. In-jokes

About Schmidt

2002

25 Jan 2026

Boomer retires, loses wife, starts to unravel. With Jack Nickolson. Honestly, I was worried I would not like this one. An old white guy, comfortably middle class, can’t take care of himself, can’t stop himself from insulting and disappointing those around him. It’s tough to make a guy like that likeable.
So why does it work?

I read some writing advice once to the effect that your characters don’t have to be good at what they’re doing, but they have to give it what they got. A businessman trying to survive a plane crash in the desert even though he has 0 wilderness experience? Compelling. A teenager who can’t get out of a tight spot because, oops, she left her phone at home? Unacceptable!
We understand the kind of man Schmidt is from the first few scenes. He works a boring corporate job, his wife has looked after him since he left home, he represses his emotions in the name of rationality. Yes, he messes everything up, but it’s because he really doesn’t have the basic life skills to keep his house tidy or feed himself, and he doesn’t have the emotional management and communication skills to navigate the conflicts he gets into. He’s never had to learn that stuff, but he is giving it the best he’s got.
And if that means loading up a supermarket trolley with frozen pizzas because that’s the only thing he knows how to cook, then he will do that with gusto. If the only way he can express his feelings about his future son-in-law is through explaining his dream about aliens, he’s going to give that his best shot.
And I think that’s why we forgive him, even when he messes things up again and again. His character would normally be the obstacle in someone else’s story. He’s a side character turned main character, and somehow it works.
The box was all about how funny it is, and it is, but the humour arises out of the absurdity, with occasional splashes of slapstick. The pace is slow. The frustration high. We both enjoyed it.

Recommended if you like:

Murder Most Fab

Julian Clarey

20 Jan 2026

finished

Delightful, camp murder comedy about a young man on his way to super stardom who just keeps getting put into situations where he unfortunately has to murder other men. Woe is he.
The character is a lot more sympathetic than I would have guessed from the premise, he's more of a lovable idiot than a magnificent bastard. It's sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, but the story is saved from nihilism by the character's enduring love for a YA summer romance.
Best read of the year so far. (Yes, it's mid January, but still.)

Recommended if you like:

  1. That Gay Shit,
  2. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,
  3. Whore with a Heart of Gold.

Hairspray

2007

19 Jan 2026

watched

Fun watch! Some cool songs, mood-elevating dance scenes, and some real stars in “what are you doing here?” parts, who actually pull it all together.
We have Christopher Walken as a joke-shop owner dad, Michelle Pfeiffer as the evil (former beauty) queen and, yeah, John Travolta in drag?
If you search for “Travolta Hairspray” google suggests asking why’d he do it? And I guess that was sort of my question. He’s a weird pick, for sure. And it’s for sure a brave move for him. But the really surprising bit is that he kinda knocks it out of the park!? Kinda!?
My favourite scene was her and Christopher Walken singing about how much they love each other even though they’re a pair of old farts. Actually touching, but then I’m an old fart.
The Guardian had a two star review, proving once and for all they’re a bunch of fuddy-duddies who hate fun.

Recommended if you like:

  1. That gay shit (in that it's very camp, there’s no gay characters)
  2. Audio-visual Caffeine
  3. Children’s book level civil rights stories

Cut & Paste Collage Club

PRSC

14 Jan 2026

Second Wednesday of the month, check it’s on at: PRSC Events
PRSC "The Space" 17-25 Jamaica Street, BS2 8JP Bristol, UK

I’ve been to PRSCs Collage Club twice, and I’ve had a good time twice. They provide boxes of magazines, newspaper, assorted printed stuff and you can do what you want with them.
This time, I made some mini zine pages. I was planning to make a zine about how Instagram is eating your brain and you should leave, but decided against that at the last minute. With no plan whatsoever, I just cut interesting words out of magazine pages for a while, and made ransom note poetry.
It turned into a zine after all. The vibe at Cut & Paste collage club is chill, you can talk to people or just do your own thing, and it’s on for long enough to really get stuck in, or to drop in for part of it and do something small.

Recommended if you like:

A Home of One's Own: Why the Housing Crisis Matters

Hashi Mohamed

13 Jan 2026

finished

I wanted to dig a little deeper into some of the issues I care about. Rather than watching hypey 20 minute videos on Youtube, why don't I get a book out about e.g. the housing crisis in the UK? So I did that.
Mohamed's writing is clear and damning: political failures across the board have created this crisis and let it fester. This isn't about Thatcher (although it's also about Thatcher), it's about a system that has failed at every opportunity to plan for the future. A Home of One's Own is a fairly quick read, but it touches on the major forces contributing to the lack of affordable, quality housing: the selling of council housing, nimbyism, foreign investment, a planning system that's not fit for purpose. Ultimately, it's conflicts of interest that keep this crisis unsolved: the powerful own houses, and benefit from the fact that others do not.
It deepened my understanding, although it's light on solutions or, you know, hope.
Everything needs to change. Political will is in short supply.
Gift this book to your parents or grandparents who don't understand.

Zine links

08 Jan 2026

Bumblechub has a bunch of minizines on their site, both printable and screen-read versions, about stamps, drinks, fat mermaids, and other wonderful things.

Wait, did I not tell you about Ford is not online’s Neocities? Check out their top tier zine about hiccup cures, and then check out the rest.

For the Love of the Game is a personal zine. The first issue is about sleeping badly and housing insecurity and it's wonderful. You can read and download for free at the link.

If you're into zines, you may be interested in this Collectible card game where you make your own cards, and then collect and trade by beating your opponent.

The Haunting of Alma Fielding

Kate Summerscale

08 Jan 2026

Exhaustively (exhaustingly) detailed review of a paranormal investigation from interbellum London. Weird book, it draws you in with all these seemingly supernatural happenings, and all the while you're like, "But she's faking, right? This is clearly fake?!" I guess I won't spoil it. It's from a real life report of an actual haunting.

Recommended if you like:

  1. Interbellum London,
  2. Spooky stuff,
  3. Real life ghost stories.

Indie web links

03 Jan 2026

Down here are links to other independent websites. Some of these are bookmarks to myself.

Paul Robert Lloyd wrote a Beginner's Guide to the Indie Web.

James has a List of ideas for a personal website.

Let's revisit melonland that seems like a cool place.

The Northman

2017

02 Jan 2026

watched

Toxic masculinity, the movie. Our hero is hanging out with a bunch of war criminals when Bjork reminds him he's supposed to avenge his father.
He does, by sneaking around the hall killing men at night, like a ghost. This is the kind of stuff that made Grendel the bad guy, but I think we're still supposed to root for him?
No "be or not to be" for this guy, he's here for his vengeance and he'll do anything to get it. What a waste. The witchy stuff was cool, the gore and violence got a bit much.
Not for me.

Recommended if you like:

  1. Witchy
  2. Gore
  3. Deconstructed heroic tales

Bury your Gays

Chuck Tingle

24 Oct 2025

finished

I was new to Chuck Tingle, who also has a very sexy(?) fiction podcast where his erotic stories are read by the people of Welcome to Nightvale (get that where-ever you get your podcasts). He’s good. I liked it. Blazed through it on a roadtrip.
Bury your Gays is a very enjoyable, madcap Hollywood horror about the future of entertainment in the age of AI, being out, artistic integrity and the ghosts of the past. Well plotted, great cast, satisfying ending. No notes.

Bad Behaviour

Mary Gaitskill

05 Jun 2025

I was strongly recommended this and after trying to read it I didn’t want to ask why.
If I’m going to read a book with this much sadomasochistic sex, I’d like it if anyone was actually enjoying themselves.

Recommended if you like:

  1. Bad sex
  2. Human misery
  3. ???

Detransition, Baby!

Torrey Peters

26 Mar 2025

One of my top reads of 2025. The story is about a complex family trying to form: a detransitioned trans woman gets his boss pregnant and is asking his ex (a transwoman) to join them and be the second mother to the baby.
Most of the book is actually the character’s back stories, how they got to be who they are and why this crazy premise actually makes a kind of sense, maybe. It’s very queer, it’s funny and sad and hopeful without sanding down the rough edges.
I don’t identify as trans but reading this felt like a window into trans female experiences that an educational text just couldn't ever offer. And I value it deeply for that.

Recommended if you like:

  1. Queer drama
  2. Trans rights

This is Pleasure

Mary Gaitskill

15 Mar 2025

Ooh, #metoo fiction with some nuance and room for interpretation? In this timeline? My goodness.
This is a novella about a Bad Man that asks: but how bad? Where is the line and when did he cross it?
Reading other reviews I can see they are all over the place. From sympathy for the Bad Man character to full throw-away-the-key condemnation. I think it’s a good book, it’s well written and I feel like I’m better for having read it.

Recommended if you like:

  1. Complexity and nuance
  2. Short books