Ian Malcolm

@ianmalcolm.bsky.social

1680 Followers 619 Following

Melbourne-based writer, editor and proofreader for books, publications and web. Game designer from Star Wars on NES to Need For Speed: Shift on iOS, with dozens of titles in between. Bass, uke and low whistle player. Unrepentant folkie.

Four movie poster images: The Comic Strip: A Retrospective, Bad News Tour, Snatch, and Rik Mayall: Lord of Misrule.
Aerial photo of bumper-to-bumper traffic going both ways along what looks like 19 or 20 lanes of congested "freeway" Text reads: bro just one more GPU bro, bro I swear just one more GPU and it'll fix the model bro
Mackenzie Crook (holding a shovel) and Toby Jones (head in a hole in the dirt) from Detectorists.
Swirling purple and yellow light patterns projected onto trees.
Steam train with neon light panels passes over an old wooden trestle bridge as it projects swirling patterns of white light onto the surrounding trees.
Narrow back street of the Melbourne suburb of Northcote. Street lights and the distant tail lights of a car glow through the mist that was definitely not there when I parked my car a couple of hours earlier.
Aerial photo of a De Havilland Vampire single-engine, twin boom fighter jet, with Royal Australian Air Force markings.
Foggy scene looking across a field. The sun looks almost more like the moon, surrounded by a fuzzy halo.
Cover of Iron Maiden’s self-titled debut album, featuring the first Derek Riggs illustration of Eddie the ‘Ead, standing in a night time city street scene.
Brunswick railway station at night, viewed from POV of someone standing between two sets of train tracks. The platforms either side are illuminated by yellowish lights, and no-one is visible. Not pictured: my partner saying, "You do know there's a train coming behind you, right?"
John Phillips and Rowan McKinnon of Not Drowning, Waving under purple stage lighting.
Four DVD boxes, for 'The Fisher King', 'The Mighty Boosh Live: Future Sailors Tour', 'The Man With Two Brains', and 'Rogue One'.
Vibrant retro-style graphic from TV show 'Saved by the Bell', with the phrase “The truth is out there" from 1993's 'The X-files' in large, colourful, wholly inappropriate letters instead of the show’s title.
Two DVDs ('The Plank' and S3 of 'Get Smart') and four books ('Bulldog Drummond', 'One of Our Thursday's is Missing,' 'The Road to Mars' and 'The Greedy Bastard Diary', laid out on a bedcover.
Elliot Gould with Grover from Sesame Street slightly behind him, arms draped around Gould’s neck in a way that comes across possibly a bit sexier than intended.
Title screen of Chips Challenge for the Atari Lynx running on Nintendo Switch.
Warbirds for the Atari Lynx, running in expanded screen mode on a Nintendo Switch 2, from the Atari 50 compilation cart. Proof that technology can still be grand at times.
Folded out cassette inlay for The Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden.
Promo image for Iron Maiden's 'Burning Ambition' documentary, with images of band mascot Eddie along with band members Steve Harris, Bruce Dickinson, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, Nicko McBrain and Janick Gers.
Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets performing at the Forum in Melbourne, 16 September 2023. Image shows band against a colourful psychedelic background.
Recent activity on my Letterboxd: the four films shows are ‘Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss’ (1970), ‘Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World’ (2003), ‘Wandering Ginza Butterfly: She-Cat Gambler’ (1972) and ‘Heart of Neon’ (2025).
Book cover titled, “Did I Just Argue With A Joke” (Part of a Bluesky Educational Series.)
Switch home screen showing various owned retro titles from the EGG CONSOLE range, including Ys, Xanadu, Ys II, and Wanderers from Ys, all PC 8801 versions.
Screen grab from Pokopia, where my Mareep (radiating love hearts to indicate happiness) is perched on a small stool in front of a table laden with knitting supplies and a lamp made from glowing mushrooms. Damn but I love this game.
Older style painted portrait painting of a young woman standing with slumped shoulders, holding a floral wreath, looking up at the sky with an expression best described as a mix of frustration and weary resignation. Text overlaid reads, "This too shall pass, but holy fuck."
My trusty black Nintendo DS Lite playing Professor Layton and the Curious Village. Top screen shows a mostly blue-white image of Professor Layton and Luke amongst random people about to board a train at a crowded station. Bottom screen shows the Professor Layton logo and the words, "To Be Continued..."
Cover of young adult sci-fi novel 'Thunder City' by Philip Reeve. Done in a sunset (or possibly dawn) palette, the illustration shows a Traction City (mobile predatory city on caterpillar tracks), airship and floating city, with two characters in the foreground, representing main character Tamzin Pook and a Revenant (dead human brought to life in semi-mechanical form) - about whom to say more would be a spoiler.
Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Dougal (from Magic Roundabout) and Graeme Garden, in a promo still from The Goodies.
The mighty Steve Harris (founder and bassist for Iron Maiden) playing his iconic West Ham United Fender bass at the Croxton Hotel in Thornbury, Melbourne, on 5 September 2024, with hard rock side-project British Lion, in front of about 500 people. This was the night before a two-night Iron Maiden run playing to 15,000 people each night. Definitely got closer at this one!
Commodore 64 screen with pale blue text on darker blue background. Header at top says "Inside the Barrow" then "Score: 0/0". After this is text for the game's copyright notice followed by the location's description.
Half-star review of The Princess Bride which reads: "As you wish?" No. I just wished the movie would end sooner.
Poster for 'The Three Musketeers: Dartagnan, with principal cast wielding swords and muskets in the manner one would expect.
Poster featuring two characters silhouetted against a large orange sun, one holding a blade over their head. Text reads "DUDE" on the first line, and "WHERE'S MY SANDWORM?" on the second.
Poster for Carry On Matron, with caricatures of the main cast within a white sheet carried by a stork.
Outer box sleeve for Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story physical Switch edition.
Heart Of Neon BluRay kickstarter goodies - BluRay sleeve with classic Steinar Lund art, the BluRay itself, remix album, shirt, Paul Docherty-signed signed HoN business card, postcards.
Promo poster for Iron Maiden's 'Run For Your Lives' 2026 tour. Image depicts band mascot Eddie reaching to grab the viewer whilst wielding an axe, while in the background there are visual representations of certain songs.
Small gecko in shaded of brown, cream and black against a tree trunk with rough bark. Not sure what species it is; looks a bit like a Marbled Gecko or an Eastern Tree Dtella from the photos I've seen, but not an expert!
Iron Maiden, from left to right: Adrian Smith, Janick Gers, Nicko McBrain, Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris and Dave Murray.
Alt text rating showing my score at 100% based on 32 posts with images. (Yes, I thought I'd posted more than that too...)
A wood cut showing a mercenary fighting skeletons, with the text "What are the four character classes?" at top and "Wrong answers only." at bottom.
Cover of 'How to Break a Dragon's Heart', the eighth book of 12 in the original "How to Train Your Dragon' series of children's books by Cressida Cowell, featuring a bright red comic-style illustration of a dragon.
Screenshot from Fallen London. Main text (accompanying a picture of part of an old-fashioned gun) reads "The brasswork on the gun almost seems to glint. Power rides your arm like a grappling snake."
Cover of the KLF's 'Chill Out' - my absolute favourite ambient album of all-time. Cover is a photo of some sheep in a green field, with drystone wall and wooden gate in the background. For anyone reading this, the tracks of this album are always in my most-played tracks on iTunes - I ripped my CD 20+ years ago and the playcount is in the thousands, cos for years it was the album I fell asleep to, and the album I woke up to.
Paperback edition of 'Thunder City' by Philip Reeve.
Hardcover edition of 'The KLF: Chaos, Magic, and the Band Who Burned a Million Pounds' by John Higgs. Pink hardcover book with yellow text and two photographs of sheep.
Black and white lino cut print of a weedy sea dragon, by Jon Kudelka.
Cover of paperback copy of 'The Management Style of the Supreme Beings (A Novel)' by Tom Holt.
A spoiler-free tally of progress in TR-49, just before the final author-book connection was made, leading to what I'm thinking of as the end-game.
Promo image for Castle in the Sky, showing the two main characters, Sheeta and Pazu, above Dola's pirate airship. Part of Laputa, the titular castle in the sky, can be seen at right.
A slice of a screen grab from Inkle's TR-49, which reads: Sources: 25 of 50 found. Titles: 34 found (24 confirmed)
Screen grab from TR-49 by Inkle, showing the vintage computer interface through which you interact with the game.
Stories progress for Fallen London: Advising the Loquacious Vocar 9 - Looking into Hell. An Agent of the Cheesmonger 1 Approaching the Gates of the Garden 2 Arachnologist 4 Archaeologist 1/5 - Novice
Stories progress for Fallen London. Title reads: A Fearsome duellist 6 - Revered, and underneath the description text is: You have proven your courage and skill by defeating opponents of quality.
Mario Kart World, with Cow hovering above their car.
Album cover for Iron Maiden's 'The Number of the Beast'.
Poster for Arsenic and Old Lace, with a smiling Cary Grant carrying a screaming Priscilla Lane over one shoulder.
Crown of thorns starfish underwater.
Theatre poster for 'The Swimmer', with monochrome distorted image of Burt Lancaster's face, with him embracing a woman, rendered in similar fashion, directly above.
Post-game screen for Pokémon Legends: Z-A that doesn't give anything away (unlike the cinema sequences and post-game that follows) since it's just the name of the game in white text on a gradated blue background.