Chinese calligraphers write poems in water on stone slabs which evaporate before completion. A Cambodian fisherman, his extensive family long ago butchered by the Khmer Rouge, lights the candles on a bamboo model of his boat and bows in gratefulness that the Mekong river has accepted his sacrifice. In a village on the west ofRead More
To the Rose Playhouse in London, for some archaeology, history and performance. The Rose is one of the many London theatres from the Shakespearian age that we know of, but one of the few for which physical remains have been found. Such archaeological findings have been rare, through a combination of uncertainty of the exactRead More
There is a rocky islet with tall cliffs on either side, surrounded by unknown waters. Within are dark green cypress trees, as high as the cliffs that surround them. Rectangular passages have been carved into the rockface, while at the shore there is a white stone jetty with steps. A boat is sailing towards theRead More
The first time I queued to buy a ticket for a Bob Dylan concert it took fifteen hours; the last time I did so it took fifteen seconds. That first experience of queuing was in 1978. Out of the blue, or so it seemed, it was announced that Bob Dylan would be playing six concertsRead More
To lose one database is a misfortune; to lose four feels like a conspiracy. Recently three online databases and one audiovisual digital archive with underlying database, on each of which I worked for several years, have been removed from public access, either through policy or misfortune. Two disappeared from view a couple of years ago,Read More
In Citizen Kane (USA 1941) there is a key sequence in which newspaper baron Charles Foster Kane (played by Orson Welles) and his would-be opera singer wife Susan (played by Dorothy Comingore) are alone in a vast room in Xanadu, Kane’s mock castle home. Susan sits at a table, tackling a large wooden jigsaw puzzleRead More
It’s time for another day in Canterbury. Since taking up care of a senior person resident in the city there have been many days spent here. On the train down I am close to finishing Walter Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz, the classic science fiction novel that literary types allow themselves to read. Its storyRead More
One of the few sage pieces of advice that I have been able to offer to others is, when giving a talk, to make sure you know how many words get spoken in a minute. A 20-minute talk is going to be 3,000 words (assuming that you are reading from a script). It works, trustRead More
It is sad to hear of the recent death of Don Swift, former cataloguer at the National Film Archive, as the BFI National Archive was known in his time. Don was steady, wise, understanding and deeply knowledgeable (especially about mountaineering and cricket – his detailed shotlists of archival cricket films are masterpieces of description andRead More
Scrolling through a social media channel, as one does when the mind is at its idlest, I saw a familiar film clip, posted with the intention of making us happy. Certain clips have gained seemingly eternal traction online, recurring as some new person discovers them or someone reposts them because they know the clip willRead More