X&HTeam-mates – EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS

The Swipe Volume 1 Chapter 1

New year, new start. If you’re expecting the usual Saturday hit of The Cut—well, things have changed a bit. The Excuses And Half Truths newsletter is now The Swipe, a more personal take on the week. It’s an incremental shift rather than a complete restart, but I hope you like the tweaks.

You still get your links. You still get your song. You also get an overview of what I’ve been enjoying this week. I’ll try to keep it positive. Recommendations rather than warnings. You don’t need me grumbling at you while you’re easing into the weekend.

Lots to see and do. Let’s get it started.

Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 33

This week was, to be frank, a struggle. The demands of the day gig were more intense than ever, pushing up against the other parts of our lives with increasing insistence. We had trouble getting links for the issue in the face of an stream of negativity and all-round ugliness.

And yet. On Wednesday a joint meetup between the staff of The Cut and our pals at Reading Writers, the first face-to-face gathering in eighteen months, was a balm and a boozy joy. At the last minute, we found our quota of linkertainment… with a little help from our friends. And here we are, early on a Saturday morning, glue and scissors in hand, patching together the issue you’re reading now. Life may get in the way, but it will also find a way.

A comics-heavy episode this week. Suck it up, it’s good for you.

Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 28

Well yes so football, apparently. Any excuse to throw beer in the air instead of down your neck which seems to be the more logical place for it to go. For those of you who enjoy such diversions, have a jolly nice time and we hope you get the result you want. As for The Cut… business as usual.

This week, that business includes the race to document the Titanic before it vanishes, an extremely horrible book and the pitfalls of translating English nonsense verse into Chinese.

Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 27

We understand there to be a sporting fixture scheduled for this evening which will garner the attention of a significant portion of the British public. Here at The Cut, we remain mildly uninterested in the whole rigmarole, although we obviously wish the national team the very best of luck. We’re waiting for the Olympics, frankly. At least there’s a bit of variety.

This week, join us in the joys of accidental connections, the delight of queer beer and bounce with us to a wild reinvention of a classic slab of metal.

Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 20

Happy birthday to us! We’re having cake and pop. You’re having… well, much the same as ever, in a slightly extended form to mark our fifty-second episode in style. If you’ve stuck with us this long—thank you. Your patience and tolerance for our nonsense is appreciated. Sadly, things are unlikely to get any better, although we may attempt a tuck, nip and polish to enliven your reading experience. Or we may just clatter along in our ad-hoc ramshackle fashion until something drops off. It’ll be a ride, either way.

In our slap-up feed this week, we’re serving up no-knead bread, OKi Dogs and the juicy tale of the greatest thriller that never was.

Now is the birthday. Here is the cake. This is The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 8

We may, perhaps, finally, be on the verge of a beginning of an end. At least to this phase in The Situation. Vulnerable and aged members of The Cut Crew (yeah, ok, that describes most of us) have been given their microchips and are now beaming all our secrets to a server in Wuhan Province. Whatever gets us back in the pub soonest, right?

In this ep, how political cartoons have always been science-sceptic, all the radio on the planet and a childhood favourite goes prog.

AYE AND GAMORRAH. Here is the place. Now is the time. This is The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 7

It’s all feeling a bit liminal. Although the news improves around vaccination levels and dropping R rates, life still has the frozen quality of a holding pattern. The streets remain quiet, the shops mostly closed. The pubs… better not to think about that lest we dissolve into a puddle of regretful tears. But hey, as the great seer Steve Miller put it— ‘time keeps on tickin’, tickin’, tickin’, into the future’. Bring on the summer.

Today we check out the fun you can have with explosives, consider how a Mars colony might deal with a pandemic and consider the vexed question of American cheese.

Hey, you there! Now is the time, yeah? This is the place, right? What else could this be but The Cut‽

The Cut Season Two Episode 6

Cold. Damp. Miserable. At least it isn’t January any more, right? Look, we know it’s tough for all you G’s, but see it the way we do—it honestly can’t get any worse. Vaccinations are bombing along. Sunrise is starting to happen at a point after we stick our collective noses over the duvet. And it’s Friday! Come on y’all, upside down them frowns and put a little sugar on it.

This week—sex! Cheese (which is sex in dairy form)! Little Richard (the man who was sex and drugs and rock and roll)!

OY! TIME YES NOW PLACE HERE YES! COME AND GET YER CUT!

The Cut Season 2 Episode 2

(image courtesy of our pal and X&HTeam-mate Dominic Wade – more of his work available to view here.)

Right, who had a third UK lockdown, calls for a second Trump impeachment and shots fired in the Capitol Building on their Apocalypse Bingo card? Us neither. Nice to see 2021 is off to a slow and gentle start, eh? Allow us to ease you into the first proper weekend of the new year with our mix of effervescent nerdery. You’ll feel both smarter, cooler and more refreshed. That’s our promise to you or your moneys back.

Lo! This am place. Now am time. This am The Cut.

The Cut ⛸️ Issue 30

And we hit December. Or December hits us. The Year That Never Ends seems finally, inexorably, to be coming to a close and a vaccine is flying in to bring back a hot dose of normality. Pints and scotch eggs all round, we think.

In this week’s issue, we break down the creation of a couple of iconic movie scenes, take a turn around food and music in two different Georgias, listen to the sound of cities during a pandemic, and enjoy a potter round the garden in comics form.

Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.