Next in this series of posts of my 2017 cultural highlights is music. This was the year in which sanity eventually overcame parsimony – I gave up on the mind-numbing adverts obligatory with a free Spotify account, and started paying for the service. It has been a marvellous year of discovery. What Spotify does, atRead More
Category: Reviews of the year
2017 – the year online
Once again, it is time for some reviews of the year. As with last year, and the year before that, I’m publishing a series of posts on what caught my eye, or ear, over 2017. To begin with, here’s a listing of some of the websites, databases and web services which I spotted during theRead More
2016 – a year of Shakespeare
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
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
A year online
Next up in these reviews of the year is my year online. Rather than review particular sites or name one as the best, here is a list of some of the sites I discovered and/or enjoyed in 2015 – some new, some not quite so new, all well worth exploring. In alphabetical order… BBC ShakespeareRead More
A year in film
After television and books, here’s my review of the year in film. As someone who only saw two new films in a cinema this year, it still feels a bit of a cheat to be talking about enjoying film in any other way, but aside from attending a film festival (just the one in 2015)Read More
A year in books
Next up in this series of reviews of 2015 and those of its cultural treasures that fell my way is reading. I’m always astonished by those sections in ‘quality’ newspapers in which the great, the good, and journalists tell you the best of what they have read during the year. They all seem to haveRead More
A year in television
It’s that time of the year when you feel compelled to sum up that year. Well, some feel so compelled, and the newspapers and web are full of people’s reviews of 2015 in art, literature, sport, news, whatever. So, setting aside the feeling that years are arbitrary concepts and that the idea of things beginningRead More