ShazzaP

The look and feel of La Fronde is a hybrid — modern European typeface meets off-kilter colors/textures inspired by the '90s Riot Grrrl zine era and my time covering the D.C. punk scene while I was a features writer for WaPo.

James Tolkan, 'Back to the Future' and 'Top Gun' Actor, Dies at 94 hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-n…

The Gondry and Minogue dream team 🔥

Olivier Gondry on the making of Kylie Minogue’s ‘Come Into My World’ --> We revisit this making of article in light of the new fun Margot Robbie CHANEL ad directed by Michel Gondry. beforesandafters.com/2026/03/24/oli…

Here’s @HybrideVFX’s VFX breakdown for season 2 of ‘Andor’. Including significant environment work on Ghorman. Watch in full at @beforesmag: beforesandafters.com/2026/03/26/her…

I can no longer hold my tongue seeing the utter lies being spread about Britain, our history of migration, and how this country was built into what it is today. For those so deeply buried in fake news, manufactured outrage and billionaire‑funded propaganda, I’m going to lay out the truth – and exactly why you’re being fed all this poison. Britain was never a sealed white island. From Roman times there were African soldiers stationed on Hadrian’s Wall and living in British towns, people from across the empire walking these roads nearly 2,000 years ago. Through the Middle Ages and Tudor England you still find Black people in the records – sailors, craftsmen, servants, musicians – even Black musicians at the royal court and Africans being baptised, marrying and being buried in English parishes like anyone else. This isn’t some modern experiment; it’s older than half the castles people visit on their bank‑holiday tours. As Britain went out into the world, the world came here. Sailors and traders from India, Yemen and beyond were arriving in British ports from the 1600s. Some of those men were practising a new faith to most Britons at the time, praying quietly in boarding houses near the docks while they worked brutal shifts in the engine rooms of British ships. Over the centuries, more people from North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia passed through and settled, bringing their languages, foods and beliefs into port cities that were far more mixed than today’s nostalgia merchants like to admit. After two world wars, the truth is simple: this country asked the Commonwealth to come and rebuild it. People from the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia didn’t sneak in; they were recruited. They came to drive buses and trains, staff the NHS, work in mills and foundries, clean offices, run corner shops, open takeaways and small businesses, and yes, build prayer spaces and community centres alongside churches and temples in the neighbourhoods everyone now pretends were always “traditional” and “unchanged”. They did the work that kept Britain going while being told to go home, refused housing, and treated as permanent outsiders. And what have they been paid back with? Scandals where people who’ve lived, worked and paid taxes here for decades get told they don’t belong. Policies designed to make life so hostile that some give up and leave. A media that uses their names, accents, clothes or places of worship as props in endless scare stories. The message is always the same: you might toil for this country, but you will never fully be of it. So when you hear that “Britain was white until recently” or that the country has been “overrun”, understand that you don’t arrive at that belief by accident. You get there because your history has been deliberately ripped out and replaced with a comforting myth: that “real” Britain is white, homogenous, and constantly under siege from people who look, speak or pray differently. Now look at when this myth has been turned up to max volume. Wages frozen. Housing a sick joke. Energy and food prices out of control. Public services hacked to pieces. At the same time, the number of people hoarding unimaginable wealth at the top has exploded. Funny, isn’t it, how every front page is about boats and “swarms” and “our culture”, and almost never about the landlords, hedge funds, private equity and offshore trusts quietly buying up your city and your future. That’s because this isn’t just prejudice; it’s a strategy. If you’re sitting on a mountain of wealth, the last thing you want is ordinary people – of every colour and background – realising they have the same problems and the same enemy. Much safer if the factory worker is furious at the new family down the road. Much safer if the person who can’t see a doctor blames the nurse with an accent instead of the minister who cut the funding. Much safer if a man who can’t afford his rent spends his rage on the woman in a headscarf at the bus stop instead of the billionaire who owns half his city. Racist rhetoric, religious dog‑whistling, all of it, exists to break solidarity. It turns neighbours into enemies and stops people seeing that Black, brown and white working‑class communities have far more in common with each other than any of them will ever have with the people flying in on private jets. It keeps you so busy policing skin colour, passports and prayer mats that you never get round to asking why your kids can’t afford a home, why your parents can’t get a hospital bed, why you’re working harder and standing still. The real story of Britain is this: a crossroads, not a fortress. Africans on Hadrian’s Wall. Black people in Tudor courts and city streets. Sailors, traders and workers from South Asia, the Middle East and beyond in the ports. Caribbean, African and Asian workers rebuilding the country after the war, staffing surgeries and hospitals, driving cabs, running shops, cooking food, teaching kids. Today’s multi‑ethnic, multi‑faith working class is not a glitch; it is Britain. It built this place and it keeps it running. If you’re genuinely angry about what’s happening to this country, good. You should be. But aim it where it belongs. Britain was never pure, never untouched, never “theirs” to take back. The people ruining your standard of living are not the ones risking their lives to get here, or the ones whose names you struggle to pronounce. They’re the ones buying politicians, owning media outlets, writing the story of this country so you never learn your own – and never realise who is standing beside you.

The best morning commutes are the ones when there’s a dog in your carriage 🐕❤️

Bravo @TimothyTaylors 🍻🐕

@WeirdBristol TFW you can’t remember what you had for tea yesterday but you can remember the theme tune to one of your fave 70s tv shows. Absolutely loved Shoestring as a kid!

A 1979 episode of the Bristol-based BBC drama series “Shoestring” (series 1, episode 2: Knock for Knock) featured a daring car chase across Bristol, culminating in a spectacular sequence on Vale Street (the steepest residential street in England) 1/2

COMPETITION! Want to win this 7” picture disc? I’m giving one away (only 5 of these in the world). Simply like and retweet this post. Winner announced at the weekend. #DavidBowie ‘Candidate alt’ b/w ‘Sweet Head’. Diamond Dogs & Ziggy outtakes.

Released #onthisday in 1992 RIDE ● Leave Them All Behind Live on The Word

@AimPublicity Fantastic selection of films! 🍿 🔥

The festivities might be over but feast your eyes on these beauties from Second Sight Films 
We’re celebrating the start of 2026 with a giveaway – Like, Follow & Comment for a chance to #win 🎇  Winners picked at random on 7 January good luck! #LuckyDip *UK Only*

Following the controversy over the edited Trump speech, the BBC has been lambasted for its negative and biased portrayal of the leader of a prominent right-wing government… An Evening with Private Eye 2025, out now on YouTube.

Losing the room in Clacton EXCLUSIVE: Nigel Farage pockets £140k from up to 2,000 Cameo videos as constituents 'furious' mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/n…

Just arrived in Cologne to visit the Christmas markets. Jumped in a taxi at the airport and was expecting to hear some traditional German seasonal music… Mel Smith and @kimwilde singing Rocking Around The Christmas Tree comes on the radio 🎄🤶 ❤️ #merrychristmas #80s

@waelgenga @monstroso There was a Greek one in Stockwell that did the same with Demis Roussos Forever And Ever. I must have listened to it about 100 times one night.

@monstroso Yes, but with the exception of the Italian restaurant that used to play 'Lovin' you' by Minnie Ripperton. On repeat.

Dear restaurants, I am perfectly capable of enjoying a meal without the constant irritation of over amplified music.

Vinyl Adventures is a fantastic record fair we’ve been doing for 10 years or so. It’s been a while so Vinyl Adventures will be part of The Merch Market - ace secondhand vinyl hosted by some of our fave collectors

The Merch Market London Sunday January 11th ⭐ Live sets ⭐ On stage interviews ⭐ Stalls ⭐ Exclusives and Rarities ⭐ Bands ⭐ Labels ⭐ Books ⭐ Authors ⭐ 5,000 people came to our Manchester event Supported by Help Us Help Bands so entry is FREE, stalls are FREE

Absolutely devastated to hear of the passing of Mani. It’s hard to overstate what a massive impact the Roses had on my formative years and beyond. I could talk about it for hours, but this isn’t the time or place. Rest in peace Mani.