Last night I saw Bob Dylan. What an ordinary – yet still extraordinary – thing that is to say. When I first saw Dylan in 1978, at Earl’s Court, it was like the second coming, so utterly unlikely did it seem to most of us there that we were ever going to get a chanceRead More
Lucifer (2014), directed by the Belgian filmmaker Gust van den Berghe, is a remarkable work of art. Loosely based on the 1654 Dutch play of the same title by Joost van den Vondel, it tells of the visitation of the Devil to a present-day Mexican village, bringing sin and sorrow in his wake, leading toRead More
Could there be a better idea for a website than Six Degrees of Francis Bacon? Launched in beta form this week, the site is designed to demonstrate the social network of Britain over the period 1500-1700. Created by data miners and digital humanities scholars at Carnegie Mellon University and Georgetown University, the site uses dataRead More
346. I remember Tich and Quackers 347. I remember Jonah Barrington, squash champion (yes, there was once a time when squash champions were memorable) 348. I remember the chimpanzees’ tea parties at London Zoo 349. I remember Pearl & Dean 350. I remember that Sony Walkmans were introduced to us all through a Police popRead More
All we ever do is tell stories to one another. Back in 1999 Sight and Sound magazine published a plot summary for the Blair Witch Project, as it does for all films released theatrically in the UK. Such plot summaries give the plain details of the plot of the film, as a matter of record,Read More
It’s always fun to play that game where you choose the person from history that you would most like to meet. Of course it would be fascinating to meet Cleopatra, or Socrates, or Dante, but language problems would hamper the encounter. So then among the English-speaking I could pick from warriors, composers, thinkers and writersRead More
The opening sequence of Shooting Stars is a hesitant but nevertheless ambitious crane shot swooping over an active film studio. The location is the Stoll Film Company studios, Cricklewood, and through this opening vista the self-reflexive theme is introduced. This is a film about the process of making a film. It is constructed as aRead More
I’ve never been to Alaska. I don’t suppose I shall ever do so. However, one part of it has always seemed a bit special to me, and that is Mount McKinley. This is for two simple reasons – the first book I ever read to myself was a book on mountaineers, with stirring if simplyRead More
There was an article in Sounds magazine back in 1980, entitled ‘Let’s Hear It for Quiet Music’. Soft-sounding music of various kinds had long existed in the pop and rock world, with the 70s being full of confessional singer-songwriters hunched over their acoustic guitars, somehow managing to put their fingers to the chords through aRead More
Pristine books are rare in second-hand bookshops. Instead the books you find there each bears the marks of their past lives. Online second-hand stores grade their wares with descriptions such as ‘nearly new’, ‘good as new’, ‘used’ and ‘fair’, but though a fresh book is special, so is one that shows its age. It showsRead More