On 21 February 1996, the former Regent Polytechnic Theatre at the University of Westminster hosted a film show. It recreated the first exhibition of projected films for a paying audience in the UK, at the same venue, 100 years before. It was entirely appropriate that the projectionist on that centenary day, operating a Lumière Cinématographe,Read More
A new year and new sights needed. On a beautiful cold day I went to two commercial galleries London to see two small shows that I thought might reveal a connection. Firstly to the Michael Werner Gallery in Upper Brook Street to see Don Van Vliet, ‘One Hand Standing’. The artist’s name is one thatRead More
Last among my short series of posts reviewing highlights from the year is a post of highlights. While music, reading and images were constants, everything else was bitty. The following gathers up a few standout things seen or experienced during 2023, for the memory. My favourite film of the year was the choice of manyRead More
For the third in this short series of reviews of 2023 we have images. Below is a selection of favourite photographs of mine from across the year. All have links to higher resolution copies on my Flickr pages. My favourite photograph of the year is at the top.
Next in my reviews of the cultural year past is reading. It was, as ever, a diverse year, in which I invariably had three or four books on the go at the same time (smaller books to be carried with me, weightier ones to be consumed at home). Given the number of them, I amRead More
Another year, another soundtrack. The first in this site’s regular summings-up of the cultural year from my perspective is music. Spotify’s annual account of your listening statistics informs me that I listened to 3,427 songs lasting 20,271 minutes in total (or fourteen days), representing 1,416 artist performing across sixty-three genres, headed by folk, avant-garde jazzRead More
There is something particularly fascinating, and chilling, about lost cities. Lost civilisations, where hundreds of thousands of people once shared a common culture over many years and have left little or nothing, are too awful a thought to contemplate, but lost cities we can understand. Macchu Picchu, Pompeii, Karakorum, Carthage, Mycenae, Babylon – they tellRead More
To Amsterdam for a few days, and at last a visit to the Rijksmuseum, one of the world’s leading art galleries, physically or online. For years now I have been familiar with the collection through its digital presences, not just the usual line-up of great works to be found on the standard web sources, butRead More
Let’s go to Australia. We have family in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. We’ll visit the three cities in turn, one week each. We’ll take notes and photographs to document our memories. We’ve been to Sydney and Brisbane, so let’s fly on to Melbourne. You’ll like Melbourne, so said everyone. So we did. There is nothingRead More
Let’s go to Australia. We have family in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. We’ll visit the three cities in turn, one week each. We’ll take notes and photographs to document our memories. Having started with Sydney, let’s fly on to Brisbane. Nothing is more disorienting than to arrive in the middle of an unknown city. EveryoneRead More