Chemistry – well, technically chemistry is the study of matter. But I prefer to see it as the study of change. Now just think about this. Electrons, they change their energy levels. Molecules change their bonds. Elements, they combine and change into compounds. But that’s all of life, right? It’s just the constant, it’s theRead More
I remember # 10
286. I remember the Double Deckers 287. I remember Tiger Tim 288. I remember Zager and Evans (“in the year 2025, if man is still alive, if woman can survive…”). Remarkably they still gave human kind an outside chance of surviving up to 9595 289. I remember Lance Gibbs 290. I remember town carnivals withRead More
Plot me no plots
On Saturday I went to the new Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, part of the Shakespeare’s Globe complex on London’s south bank. The theatre is an approximation of what an indoor theatre of the Jacobean theatre would have looked like, based on idealised plans for a theatre that date from the 1660s and which were only discoveredRead More
Every picture tells a story
Just under thirty years ago I went to a tiny cinema, the name of which escapes me, somewhere off Piccadilly, London, to see a dramatised documentary about the Irish painter William Scott. It was directed by the painter’s son, James Scott (who had won an Academy Award in 1983 for the Graham Greene short filmRead More
Charlie’s debut
100 years ago, on 2 February 1914, the film Making a Living was released by the Keystone Film Company. It was a comedy, one reel long (1,000 feet, or around 10 minutes), directed by Henry Lehrman. The star was a British comedian, newly arrived in Hollywood, whose first film it was. The actor was CharlesRead More
To make strange things appear on a wall, very pretty
Back in July last year I had an idea. I had been interested for many years in eyewitness accounts of people’s experiences of cinema-going. I’d collected a lot of these while researching the early years of cinema in London, treasuring the special quality they had for making history come to life in all its untidy,Read More
A time for reflection
I’m back. This site has suffered an attack from the gremlins and went down for a week. It’s a strange life when your virtual identity disappears, even if I do have several other websites and web feeds to reassure other denizens of the virtual world that I still exist (virtually). It makes you think thatRead More
I remember # 9
256. I remember ‘It’s number one, it’s Top of the Pops!’ 257. I remember the heatwave of 1976, and how rain only started to fall soon after the unfortunate Denis Howell had been named as minister for drought 258. I remember the illustrated history books of R.J. Unstead 259. I remember when the 1970 WorldRead More
New ways, old ways
‘New ways of doing journalism‘ was the enticing title of a seminar held last night at City University in London. It brought together leading practitioners in the new modes of web-based news production whose success (social, and in some cases commercial) is challenging existing models and exciting a lot of people in he news world.Read More
So that was 2013 that was
Well, in 2013 I… Slept for 2,372 hours Sat down for 4,940 hours Walked, ran or otherwise moved about, or stood still, for 1,448 hours Ate 1,095 meals Drank 1,460 cups of decaff white Americanos Posted 3,118 tweets Sent 10,000 emails Read 18 books Wrote 274 blog posts Sent 350 texts Typed out 638,970 wordsRead More