Among that dwindling proportion of steel city posts I deem non-political, two are dedicated to Bob Dylan. In a 2019 response to an ad hominem attack by Germaine Greer, Bob Dylan – one killer of a poet, I began: When … Read More »
A case can be made for saying Jennifer Warnes, the man’s backing vocalist from the beginning, almost singlehandedly revived the flagging career of a rock-poet already – in 1987 – in his 50s but whose greatest work lay still ahead. … Read More »
Samuel Barber’s adagio for strings featured in Oliver Stone’s 1986 film, Platoon, set in what Westerners refer to as the Vietnam War, and Vietnamese of my age and above call – with no quarrel from me – America’s War of … Read More »
Chalk and cheese. Lee Camp talks to Chris Hedges about the few comedians who really do call out the crimes of power – and the many who play at it. * * *
It’s not easy taking on a corporate body better funded and more powerful than yourself. In its small way my nine year battle with Sheffield Hallam University testifies to that. Many aspects of this week’s ITV offering, Mr Bates v … Read More »
Hear Eric Dolphy’s tribute to Monk. From his 1964 album, Out to Lunch, Hat and Beard was an early steel city tune for the day . A fine piece of writing on an undisputed giant of jazz appeared in CounterPunch … Read More »
I’m not in the Socialist Equality Party, hosts of WSWS, and while I respect that entity, have a few bones of contention with its worldview. But if you think Trotskyist groups necessarily reductive in their approach to the arts, think … Read More »
Whether viewed in two dimensions or three, Titanic abounds in clichés. That’s what love stories do. All the good ones anyway; the ones that do what it says on the tin. Think West Side Side Story, aka Romeo and Juliet. … Read More »
Too much to ask, even of a best mate? Tony Curran and Martin Compston in Mayflies I should declare a personal interest. As one taken into care early in life – which is to say, as one who knows what it is … Read More »
… body without mind is brutish; mind without body… is a running away from our double being … Richard Hoggart, Introduction to the 2nd Edition, 1961 Lady Chatterley’s Lover is the last novel by English author D. H. Lawrence, first … Read More »