There are two things that are either generally known about the Shaggs, or can at least be easily ascertained by doing a google search of them and avoiding the ones that deal with misspellings of a common British term for having sexual intercourse: one, that Tom Cruise is rumoured to have bought the rights to […]
Archives for August 2014
My vision of what the Clacton by-election will be like
Douglas Carswell, MP for Clacton, resigned from the Conservative Party yesterday to join UKIP. He also said he will be resigning his seat, thus forcing a by-election. I’ve had a vision for how I think the whole thing will play out, so here goes. A date is set for November 6th. First item of business […]
All the rumours are true: the Better Together PPB that is horrifically crap
I’m not a rabid Scottish nationalist by any means. In fact, on balance I’d rather Scotland stayed in the Union, mostly because I fear for the chaos that might ensue, in all parts of what was the United Kingdom, in independence’s wake. So I do not offer the following critique for political reasons, but […]
I’m just going to say it: I really like John Bercow
The Speaker of the House of Commons seems to fill lots of people in Westminster with outright bile these days; they call him arrogant and in extremis say that the Rt Hon Bercow is trying to start some sort of revolution from the inside. His list of enemies is growing all the time, particularly with […]
Angels and Demons at play: Saturn’s best pianist, Sun Ra
Jazz musicians have a reputation for being weird, outré, strange. Thelonious Monk’s middle name was Sphere; Miles Davis was so infamously difficult to interview because of his tendency to ramble that journos dubbed him the Prince of Darkness. But in the deviation from the norm sweepstakes, the grand prize must go to Sun Ra. Born […]
Assclown McGee: The glamorous world of independent filmmaking
I have been involved in the making of a few indie flicks in my time, both in front of and behind the camera, most of them understandably not available on Netflicks at present. People ask me if I ever miss the world of film. I always say, emphatically, no. Here’s a taste of why that […]
The Cougar
When I was in my late teens, during a memorably awful summer, I had a friend named Todd. Actually, most of the male kids in my class at that point were called Todd; it’s a Canadian thing, don’t ask. I got him a job at the warehouse where I was already employed. I hated the […]
Clegg: The Movie – why are Channel 4 making this exactly?
It was announced yesterday that Channel 4 are to produce a one-off, feature length programme to be entitled Coalition, centred on the events surrounding and shortly after the 2010 general election, with Nick Clegg as the main character. There has been plenty of debate around who would portray the Deputy Prime Minister, ranging from the […]
Pay to Cum: Washington’s greatest punk band, Bad Brains
My two year old daughter is going through a Hot Rats phase. In other words, she wants to incessantly listen to Frank Zappa’s 1969 magnum opus. It’s my fault, obviously; I was the one who introduced it into her life. In the same way that I’ve introduced most things of a pop cultural nature to […]
Pricing up the Cornish holiday
I spent last week in Cornwall on holidays and loved it. I have to admit upfront to having a bit of a thing for the place. Partly it’s the country’s independent mindedness (literally – it has far more non-party affiliated councillors than any other part of England), partly its extremity (geographically, I mean), and also […]