Fourth and final among these reviews of the year is Shakespeare. 2016 was Shakespeare’s quatercentenary, apart from anything else a great opportunity to use that splendid word – and an annoyance of course when others try to correct it (there is no ‘r’ in quater- – look it up). Specifically, it was four hundred yearsRead More
Month: December 2016
2016 – a year’s television
Next up in these reviews of 2016 is television. Television as receivable in the UK is going through a purple patch, thanks largely to the box set phenomenon. There is as much trite tosh on conventional TV as ever there was, and I despair of supposedly informative history programmes which are little more than aRead More
2016 – a year’s reading
I read a good many books in 2016; I drank a good many cups of coffee while I was doing so. Sometimes other beverages, but mostly coffee. If you just want to see the books rather than read about them, you can go to my Flickr page, The book I’m reading the drink I’m drinking,Read More
2016 – a year online
It’s the time of year for reviewing the year. As with last year, I’m going to put up a short series of posts on some of the cultural things that distracted my attention from the news, if only for a while (not that I’m actually complaining about the news – for a news archivist theseRead More
I’m not there
‘I’m Not There‘ is the title of one of Bob Dylan’s most remarkable songs, mysterious in word and tune. It was recorded as part of his ‘Basement Tapes‘ sessions with The Band in 1967, but not released when the Basement Tapes album was published in 1975, presumably because of the unfinished state of the recording.Read More
I remember # 14
400. I remember tadpoles in a jar 401. I remember candy floss 402. I remember having a hyperlink explained to me for the first time, and thinking that this was quite interesting 403. I remember the music group Middle of the Road, who named themselves in age before irony existed 404. I remember Mick McManusRead More