Slightly different shaped buttons
I just encountered - thanks, Vickie - an article I somehow missed in the Guardian's Occam's Corner series, Why I'm feeling so crabby about cancer conspiracy theories. It'd be worth reading just for one...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On not going back
In November 2011 I wrote a post - On going back - that explored a circumstance where returning to places and people of my childhood - always an experience to be approached with caution - had worked...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bayan time (18) - Mysteries
Panic time, more like! I've signed up to play in the band for a local production of The Mysteries, Tony Harrison's adaptation of the mediaeval mystery plays - rather strange retellings of Biblical...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Strange and wonderful propaganda
A spot of anecdote / folklore that was new to me:Strange and wonderful news from Exeter: giving an account of the dreadful apparitions that was seen by Mr. Jacob Seley of Exeter on Monday, September...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Robot & Frank
publicity still from official siteA minor recommendation: Robot & Frank, a 2012 independent film directed by Jake Schreier, currently on at the Exeter Picture House.The central character is "Frank"...
View Article"Make of thee a city"
I guess most settlements have their historical myths, and Topsham is no different. I've been meaning for a while to check out the origins of a verse about Topsham that regularly crops up in the kind of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Faust (2011)
Johannes Zeiler (left) as Faust; Anton Adasinsky (right) as MauriciusAnother film recommendation: we just borrowed the video of Faust, Alexander Sokurov's 2011 film adaptation of the Faust legend....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Spring for a day
On Saturday, Clare and I took one of our regular walks around Exmouth, and along the beach to Orcombe Point and back - around four miles - taking in the newly-developed Jurassic Coast Gateway site -...
View ArticleSong recollections
I have a strong tendency to misrecollections, and even mondegreens, about songs heard in childhood, and a few such songs came up in conversation this evening. I thought I'd check them out.Case 1:Fly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Exeter Fountain Project and other public art
Passing through Exeter today, we saw Simon Ruscoe's temporary sculpture installation Only Hope Remains on the central square of Princesshay. It's part of a series - seven steel figures struggling to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Exmouth Museum - small but perfectly formed
Pardon the lack of posts lately. It's nothing sinister; I've just been massively busy practising for next week's The Mysteries production (see left sidebar). But last week I took myself out for the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Enchanted April
The rather heavy-handed Miramax trailerWe were just re-watching the 1991 film Enchanted April, which is very worth seeing.The story concerns a group of four women who rent an Italian coastal castle,...
View ArticleJun Togawa sings Pachelbel
戸川純 "蛹化の女"by GO-GO-STALINA year back - see Guernica - Kaigenrei - I mentioned the avant-garde/retro Japanese group Guernica. Good to see there are other fans: MetaFilter just had a post - Say you love...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Passing English - and James Redding Ware
Clare just bought a copy - the modern HardPress reprint - of James Redding Ware's Passing English of the Victorian Era: A Dictionary of Heterodox English, Slang and Phrase.It's extremely interesting...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Isle of Wight - James Redding Ware
A brief elaboration on one of the books mentioned in the previous post, Passing English - and James Redding Ware:Ware's The Isle of Wight (London: Provost, 1871, Internet Archive ID Internet Archive ID...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Green dentistry
A bit of a proofreading gaffe in our local paper, the Express & Echo, in this story about advances in dentistry (online here). I hope the person concerned is being chastised.It's not just a geeky...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Old Sailor - procrastinatory fog
I generally can't stand AA Milne. The pathetically lame Christopher Robin. Winnie the Pooh, and Pooh sticks (infantile scatological names made acceptable by sticking an extra letter on the end, at the...
View ArticleHow do you do/moo?
Further to Song recollections (April 10th), I just tracked down a musical memory.In 1972 or so, when I was still at school, I went on a week-long geological excursion of Devon and Cornwall, sponsored...
View ArticleThe Linhay on the Downs
I just put on the Devon History Society blog a brief post on Weston Plats (a rehash of Dunscombe: Spring is in the air) and in the process was Googling "linhay" - a Westcountry word now most often...
View ArticleThe Dreadnoughts
More YouTube serendipity: while listening to the Dropkick Murphys (see, previously, Celtpunk!) I just ran into another band so far unknown to me, The Dreadnoughts.They're a Canadian folk-punk band who...
View Article