I. PANDEMIC

The People’s Pop Polls end this weekend after four years, three months, and something like 47 tournaments of almost 12,000 pop songs. They started in March 2020, a way of solving a very acute problem which turned into a way of so[…]

Shortly after this project began, I was lucky enough to watch Richard Ayoade and Black Francis perform “Hey” during Adam Buxton’s live podcast. It was an evening packed with hilarious AI-generated art, charming anecdotes and general ramblechat,[…]

Skip to the end: Old Clavdivs is now Current Clavdivs. He lies motionless, watched over by a haughty woman and her heavily rouged and lipsticked son – his fourth wife, Agrippinilla and his stepson, the Nero. Upon confirming that he is dead, nei[…]

This week’s flash-forward is just a few frames of Clavdivs, continuing to write into the night. The scene dissolves into a view of Messawina and her lover, the Greek actor Mnester, rolling around in a post-coital glow. She assesses the damage her v[…]

This week’s flash-forward is ultra short: just a few frames of Old Clavdivs in his study late at night, scowling at his crown of gold-plated laurel leaves. The previous episode’s concluding cheer long live the Emperor increases in volume as the s[…]

On paper, Some Need It Lonely should be exactly what I want in an ORL record. Personnel is broadly made up of Mars Volta musicians, plus Teri Gender Bender on most lead vocals. The fact that this line-up features a broad range of Volta drummers, from[…]

No flash-forward this week: instead, we see Clavdivs reading a letter in a modestly furnished room. Calpurnia, his flatmate and friend, wants him to read it aloud since epistles from Herod are always amusing. The letter is packed with concern-trollin[…]

Now, where were we? Ah yes – Rome was awash with purged blood and uncomfortable alliances. In this week’s opening flash-forward, Old Clavdivs is fiddling, with ink-stained fingers, the jade talisman that failed to keep Germanicus safe. Like P[…]

Back to our regularly scheduled usual flash-forward, with Old Clavdivs guzzling wine in his study while writing and occasionally scratching his wig with a stylus. The voiceover recaps have returned, although he does appear to be alone, but inconsiste[…]

No flash-forward this week – instead, we open with a jolly dinner party scene. Titus and Lollia have various honoured guests in attendance, and they’re all enjoying some post-scran belly dancing via a nice lady their hostess found in Antioch.[…]