Isle of Mull in April
28
Apr
Approaching Oban on the ferry from Mull * * *
Category Archives: life
Two takes on one-upmanship
13
Apr
Pete ‘n Dud bemoan the beautiful and famous women they’ve had, who just won’t accept it’s over and time to move on … … while four self made Yorkshiremen sipping Chateau de Chassellat compete over who had it t’ardest when … Read More »
Red line on genocide
5
Apr
I don’t much like red lines and am suspicious of the motives of Leftists and Libertarians intent on drawing them all over the place: Wrong take on 9/11? … Syria? … Russia? … Covid-19? Dude, that’s you off my list … Read More »
An African hears Dylan for the first time
29
Mar
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 »
Aaron who?
29
Mar
Today is the holiest of the year for non-Orthodox Christians. Millions will pay tribute to a man they say was the Son of God, sent to earth in human form to preach and work miracles then go as foretold to … Read More »
Let the Sunshine in!
19
Mar
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 »
Generalising from personal experience
17
Mar
In a footnote to yesterday’s post, Yanis Varoufakis on China-US tensions, I wrote: My approval of Yanis is guarded and circumscribed but I was still dismayed to see him play to the gallery at Canberra with allusions – as if … Read More »
Barber’s Adagio for Vietnam
16
Mar
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 »
For Cod’s sake – stop this madness!
22
Feb
Yesterday I wrote of Ecuador’s bananas. The same day, the Daily Mail was warning Britons of further fallout from Putin’s totally unprovoked war on plucky Ukraine. A war which, as the above photographic proof clearly shows, Zelensky is winning hands … Read More »