10 Things We Hate About TV
Perhaps we ought to play outside? (photo by Julian Tysoe)
There might be more than 10…
Continue Reading →Stars in the Drug Show
Who can tell the honest score When no-one knows or can be sure That the ball in the net / an incomplete pass Or the bungled catch / upon the grass Weren’t planned? Should you work the mobile phone, With your team well in the zone Where Olympic pride / the bikes they ride Head for the lowlands, on a peptide Of flasks, all banned? We’re all ‘stars in the drug show’ now, We made it happen – we showed them how By greasing on our couches, betting And buying all they sold us, letting Them jab their engorged hand.
Continue Reading →The House of the Seven Gables
(by Nathaniel Hawthorne) As ghastly, creaky, redundant and tedious as the accursed House of the Seven Gables itself, this classic Hawthorne is still worth reading for the atmospheric, overboiled thrills and Hawthorne’s unfailing psychological perceptions. Old Clifford, a crazed cross between Boo Radley and Dr Manette, is released from prison at just the juncture when his sister, the frowning and gaunt (she is an old SPINSTER) Hepzibah sets up shop after much deliberation and the delightful, fresh (she is a young MAIDEN) Phoebe arrives unheralded. These three share the House of the Seven Gables, ancient and gloomy home of the Pyncheons, built on stolen land, with…
Continue Reading →All the President’s Men
(Dir. Alan J Pakula) (1976) Paranoia sometimes reflects the truth. The White House was obviously paranoid about everyone; the FBI was paranoid about the White House, and Carl Bernstein was paranoid about the New York Times. Lots of shoe leather gets worn out in this film and lots of dead ends and bum steers and waiting in dark parking stations finally pay off for Woodward & Bernstein of the Washington Post, in the scoop of the century. Redford, Hoffman, Robards, et al are superb and whilst the facts get a bit lost in the shuffle,…
Continue Reading →
