Jon Arnold

@jonarnold.bsky.social

1636 Followers 1092 Following

Black Archives, Strangers in Space, Hamster Book Clubber mainly. Former Westeros charcoal. Too old, too Welsh, too bad.

A screenshot of the Squaredle word game. A five by four grid of letters with a score above it indicating the player has found 31 out of 76 words. Above the grid is the outline of a red circle with a diagonal bar across it next to the word macra, indicating that there are no such thing as Macra.
Mo Salah raises his arms in the air in a triumphant pose with the headline ‘Salah’s Panenka helps Egypt edge Australia in shootout.’ That headline is written by a numpty who has no clue about what a Panenka actually is and thereby casts doubt on their football knowledge .
The cover of Doctor Who: The Secret Life of Monsters by Justin Richards. On a textured red background Peter Capaldi reaches out towards the reader, framed in a Gallifreyan hieroglyph. In the corners, clockwise from top left: a Cyberman, an Ice WarriorX a Weeping Angel and a Dalek.
Text from the BBC liveblog Scotland face Brazil in Miami in final group game Avoiding defeat would likely seal first ever last-32 place - narrow loss could also prove enough to advance
The RTD2 era title sequence with the words ‘Come on Rose, we’ve got work to do’ superimposed.
A picture of the Super Furry Supamarket pop-up superstore in Cardiff’s St David’s Shopping Centre
A cartoon of a man who’s taken ballsmaxxing to the extreme: he’s carrying them in front of him in a wheelbarrow, which has a squeaky wheel. Yes! It’s Viz cartoon hero Buster Gonsd and his unfeasibly large testicles.
A television screen showing a blue police box against a swirling red background. Superimposed over it are the words ROSE by Russell T Davies.
The twelfth Doctor Who, in his probably sonic sunglasses, strikes a pose on stage.
Another headline mocking the sheer oddness and so-far-to-the-right-he’s-fallen-off-the-edge-of-Norfolk views of Heath: ‘Margaret Thatcher is the ultimate weapon of the Britain-hating metropolitan elite’
A mock headline playfully satirising the frankly strange and unhinged Telegraph columnist Allister Heath. It reads ‘The Great Betrayal: How R.E.M. became the religion of the metropolitan elite.’
The twelfth Doctor Who shares a happy/sad moment with River Song in a restaurant overlooking the Singing Towers of Darillium in The Husbands of River Song.
The first Doctor, played by the splendid actor William Hartnell, addresses the camera and wishes the viewer a happy Christmas.
A screenshot of the first 21 of my 50 Honourable Mentions for the #TheTwen2ie5 challenge with their year of release. I Disagree - Poppy (2019) Midnight Sky - Miley Cyrus (2020) Burn/Build - Miyamoto is Black Enough (2020) Energy - Pa Salieu ft Maharishi (2020) XS - Rina Sawayama (2020) Ooh La La - Run the Jewels ft Greg Nice & DJ Premier (2020) Wildfires - Sault (2020) The Art of Losing - The Anchoress (2021) abcdefu- Gayle (2021) Point and Kill - Little Simz & Obongjayar (2021) Breakfast on Mars - Luttrell (2021) Bounce - Rema (2021) Fucking Wizardry - Self Esteem (2021) Chaise Longue - Wet Leg (2021) Ngifuna Wena - DJ Yessonia x Boohle (2022) Debra - Jockstrap (2022) I’m a Moth!! - Lia Lia (2022) Doomscroller - Metric (2022) Escapism - RAYE & 070 Shake (2022) Space Man - Sam Ryder (2022) Personality Disorder - Suede (2022)
On a television screen, over an image of a moon and stars a caption reads ‘THE WEB PLANET’ Life gets no better than this.
A poster with a line of seven rainbow coloured cartoon silhouettes with headphones on and holding a flaming staff. A QR code is on the stomach area of every figure.
A diamond icon with a silhouette of Tom Baker’s fourth Doctor above the words Chapter Three, Enter the Afrobeat
A white lurcher, a Saluki/labrador cross, standing on a sunny patch of grass. She has white fur, floppy ears and looks stupidly happy. Her name was Juno and she was magnificent.
Neil Tennant in front of Chris Lowe’s keyboard rig, both lit dramatically from behind. They’re the Pet Shop Boys.
Slightly off centre head and shoulders of Chris Lowe (striped shirt, hat, sunglasses, truculent) and Neil Tennant (suit, tie, arched eyebrow). Below them the album title: Pet Shop Boys Discography and subtitle The Complete Singles Collection.
A man in a black baseball cap and t-shirt combo stood at the wheels of steel, happily DJing away. Behind him, his name in a stylised font: Dave Pearce. Kicking the night off with Right Here Right Now.
The Doctor as played by Sylvester McCoy dances with a robot personification of Death in front of a sentient chapel on the moon while a child astronaut watches on and the Earth rises behind it all. Cover of the Doctor Who New Adventure Timewyrm: Revelation by Paul Cornell
The film posters for Superman (a man in blue spandex and a flowing red cape looking upwards) , Species (a naked blonde woman in a sitting position with spikes coming out of her spine, her left hand a claw and her lower body circuits) Venom: Let There Be Carnage (two creatures, one red, one black) with prehensile tongues and distended jaws facing each other) and Jaws (a big old shark swimming up from the depths with its eyes firmly on an unsuspecting swimmer above).
The stage at Wembley Stadium, currently empty and awaiting the arrival of Dua Lipa. Tour advertising in full effect.
Virgil van Dijk, the captain of Liverpool Football Club, stands in front of the playing and coaching squad, and lifts the Premier League trophy above his head.
Four Doctor Who books and three magazines, one of which has the Rani on its cover and the other Susan. In the middle of these is a notice which reads: Doctor Who Apparently the Earth is due to end on Saturday the 24th of May.* Will the Doctor save the day? (and the planet??) Will he get Belinda home? And more importantly does anyone remember the Rani??? Lots more Doctor Who books and magazines inside ** * if you are reading this after the 24th it probably didn’t happen. ** Unless we’ve sold some of them, in which case… a few more Doctor Who books and magazines inside.
The cover for the hardback version of Toby Hadoke’s book about the making of The Quatermass Experiment. An old 1950s tv, a box with a screen and two knobs at the bottom shows the title card of the series while behind it the tentacled Lovecraftian horror that Victor Carroon became lurks. God it’s gorgeous.
Charles Penrose, aka The Laughing Policeman. He sports a magnificent, bushy moustache.
A shadow of the head of a dog captioned ‘With Juno’.
The first page of the comic strip The Fantastic Adventures of Adam Ant, showing the titular pop star lost and wandering around a mystical landscape. Text at the top describes him as the ‘hero of a thousand ages’. This understands the Adam Ant phenomenon in a more eloquent and accurate way than any critic.
A tv screen showing the words ROSE by Russell T Davies over the TARDIS spinning through the time vortex.
The deluxe cover of The Wicked + The Divine: The Covers Version. Cloth cover with author credits for McKelvie, Wilson and Gillen. In the middle of the cover a circle of twelve logos representing the gods runs like a clock around the book’s title. The book is a collection of the covers from the series. It’s a very, very sexy artefact indeed, inside and out.
Posters for the films A Complete Unknown, Hamlet (2009, David Tennant as the lead), The Brutalist and Lost Highway. Last four films I watched and logged on Letterboxd.
Sunlight pouring through open blinds, behind the caption “Once More With Feeling”.
Film posters for Blue Velvet, blur: To The End, I Saw the TV Glow and Captain America: Brave New World. Last four films watched and logged on Letterboxd.
Superman stands over the fallen form of Lex Luthor, saying ‘you could have saved the world years ago if it mattered to you, Luthor’. Any parallels I might seem to be making to Musk are entirely intentional.
A man in a red jacket points as a model of a large snake passes by. It’s a bit like an old Doctor Who episode, honest.
My profile picture and account name above a blue box that tells me my BlueSky-Score is 9.5 and that I’m a trendsetter. Don’t ask me, I have no idea…
Hideyo Amamoto as the evil Dr. Who in King Kong Escapes
Recent activity tab from Letterboxd: posters for the films Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (a young Elizabeth Taylor in lingerie perched invitingly on a bed), Emilia Perez, Anora (Mikey Madison looking back invitingly over her exposed shoulder) and A Real Pain (Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg staring quizzically at something just above the camera).
The Curious Orange, a potentially cannibalistic sentient fruit, wearing a mask similar to that worn by Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. From the semi-legendary Sunday morning show This Morning With Richard Not Judy
Peter Buck of R.E.M. standing against a painted background of shiny happy people and looking thoroughly pissed off.
The Thing from the Fantastic Four, an extremely musclebound character with skin made entirely of rocks, strikes a pose on the dancefloor in a white suit. Yes, there is a mirrorball.
William Hartnell raising a glass to the viewer to wish them a Happy Christmas, cos Doctor Who’s a postmodern geezer.
Avon, a man dressed in black, stands over a body, surrounded by troopers also in black pointing guns at him. Last shot from the Blake’s 7 episode Blake.
Lis Sladen’s autobiography, where she discusses Tom Baker’s ‘do I have the right’ speech. Tom refuses to shoot the scene and calls for a rewrite.
A TV screen with a close up of a police box and the caption ‘An Unearthly Child’.
Sylvester McCoy, the seventh and best Doctor, walks away from a circus tent as a big explosion starts behind him.
A pair of hands holds up a glowing bottle. Image is superimposed over a Middle Eastern city. Cover to Your Wish Is My Command by Deena Mohamed
Me, sat at a cafe on the banks of the Nile holding a glass of wine. Sensibly for a holiday in Egypt, dressed all in black. What a numpty.
Head and shoulders image of Judge Dredd, a lawman in a helmet and with big ridiculous shoulderpads and a big ridiculous badge, staring menacingly at the observer. He really, really doesn’t like people watching vintage telly in the wrong aspect ratio, and rightly so.
A giant inflatable yellow teddy bear with a spotted bandage over its left eye menacing visitors to Cardiff city centre.
Panel 1: A courtroom. Shot of Sideshow Bob, a yellow cartoon character with big red hair exposes a tattoo saying ‘Die Bart, Die.’ He says ‘No. that’s German for ‘The Bart, the.’ Panel 2: Wider shot of courtroom, a cheerful looking woman turns to a colleague and says ‘No one who speaks German could be an evil man’
The band Bob Vylan in front of a backdrop bearing their name.
The cover of The Uncanny X-Men issue 212. Wolverine, his uniform tattered and torn, stands claws out ready to face an opponent. The background is streaks of blood against a black backdrop. The tagline reads: Wolverine vs. Sabertooth — Round 1!
The Ludovico technique from A Clockwork Orange, which forces the victim to witness everything without being able to look away or respond.
A page with six panels: each one depicts a man and a woman in a DJ booth facing the reader. Panel 1: The man says “No one is dancing. It’s 10.50 and no one is dancing. This cannot stand. Nay - this must not stand’ The woman replies ‘Is it time?’ Panel 2 The man says ‘It’s time. Do it.’ Woman ducks down to fetch a record. Panel 3 The man says ‘Play the Blondie.’ Woman has protective goggles and gloves on. Panel 4: Man and woman lit brightly, as if by an atomic flash. Panel 5: Man looks on while woman holds up a record glowing with energy. Panel 6: Woman puts record on. Man says ‘don’t worry, we’ve done the right thing.’
A hardback copy of the Alan Moore novel The Great When.
The band Matt Bianco react to intrepid hero Simon Roberts calling a Saturday morning kids show to tell them they’re a bunch of wankers.
The orchestra pit at the Royal Albert Hall as seen from the choir stalls. And a TARDIS.