Good Friday Reading S13E14

Friday Reading is a weekly series of recommended reads from the Guardian’s Martin Belam, covering journalism, media and technology, and other interesting nerdy things he found on the internet this week. It is now in its thirteenth season. Sign up here.

Just a quick one today as it is Easter

Ron wants to be sure that you didn’t miss this week’s Guardian Thursday quiz: Old fakes, third place and very strange particles – take the Thursday quiz

“The list of police officers’ routine abuses of power over children and young people, particularly young Black people, is a long one. Stop and searches, higher arrest rates and heavier sentencing, the use of Scorpion drivers who are trained to collide with young people on mopeds, regular altercations and restraint that can leave lifelong injuries, and sometimes kill. Strip search is part of this picture. It is another tool through which police officers intimidate, terrorise and degrade Black people in the UK. It happens to adults, and recently was the source of a £6,000 payout and apology to an academic. It also routinely happens to children.”

“Child Q’s case is not an isolated incident. That’s why we’re campaigning to end strip searches” – The 4Front Project, gal-dem

England’s train companies have joined together to offer up to 1 million journeys at up to half-price on selected Advance and off-peak train tickets. It starts on 19 April, if that’s your thing. More details here.

The Mary Rose exhibition is easily the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen in a museum in the UK, and I do like this joking blog post on five reasons it definitely didn’t sink, despite them being raised as theories.

“Nobody at the time mentions an iceberg being involved, or comments on how odd it is to see a large lump of ice off the coast of southern England at the height of summer.”

“Five ‘theories’ about why the Mary Rose sank (and why they’re rubbish)”

See also: the best theories for why it did sink.

I love this tale from Penny Griffiths Morgan of visiting an old burned out church and experiencing something rather strange: Churches and challenging stories

“Whilst I am not religious, and so go into them to see the amazing architecture and absorb the history, I still try to be as respectful as I can to those people who have gone there to worship, it seems that not all people are that considerate though.”

Brix Smith-Start has got a new band where she’s co-written the stuff with Youth and put together some indie mega-stars to play it. Here’s a review of their first gig.

Speaking of Youth, I am a huge Killing Joke fan, and Geordie Walker is probably my favourite guitarist to watch live. Now Jaz Coleman has always been a bit out there with his beliefs but during lockdown he was getting all a bit too much, so I decided, along with a few other artists I’ve really loved who have gone a bit conspiracy 101, to cut Killing Joke out of my set of bands I habitually go and see live and download new albums etc etc. Except they’ve got a new track Total and honestly it is so good, if you’d told me it was a rediscovered off-cut from between 1985 and 1989 I would not have disbelieved you. Hmmmmm.

Main Dans La Main by Elli & Jacno is the slice of vintage 80’s French synthpop you didn’t know you were missing – cracking video with it.

I make 80s-sounding electronic music about ghosts as m-orchestra, and you can find it on Bandcamp, Spotify, and all good electronic streaming services.

I’ve got a new 7-track 21 minute mini-LP out now called Care/Harm. There’s a song about a magic candle made of human fat, and one about a spirit waiting to drown you. There’s one about a werewulfe, and one about a man who has slipped back in time, and there’s even *gasp* a bit of me singing on it …

I recently played some of the songs from it live on Facebook – you can watch that here.