Round Blogworld Quiz #2: The Solution

Yesterday Nige posed the second Round Blogworld Quiz question, namely: Can you link a theologian and a political philosopher with a singer called Harry, a poetically named DCI, and Updike's doughty legumes? And the answer is…. Comic strips!. Well done to Adelephant, Worm and anyone else who got some or all of ... Read More...

Palm de Brass

I wasted about 100 minutes of my sleeping time the other night to watch an execrable film called Irina Palm.  It starred Marianne Faithfull and I enjoy her singing, but her idea of acting is to be catatonic with slow, vague reactions.  The screen play was dire - the story ... Read More...

The Dabbler’s Round Blogworld Quiz #2

Right, Dabblers, time to get your thinking caps on, as Nige sets another fiendish Round Blogworld Quiz (see the first one here and its solution here). Ripped off from Based on Radio 4's long-running Round Britain Quiz, the idea is to find the link between these cryptic clues. A point for each ... Read More...

Faux-tography: Shadow Catchers at the V&A

How do you make photos without a camera? Well, at the heart of Shadow Catchers – the V&A’s beautifully-presented show of camera-less photography – is a video in which the five featured artists explain how. They variously call their works ‘photograms’, ‘luminograms’ and ‘chemigrams’, but essentially the idea is to create images ... Read More...

Row Z – Poms and Convicts

As the Ashes get underway with the first Test in Brisbane, here are some selected quotes illustrating the rich history of Anglo-Aussie cricket relations... Us on them “The aim of English cricket, is in fact, mainly to beat Australians." Jim Laker in his autobiography, 1960 "The Australian temper is at bottom grim. It is ... Read More...

Key’s Cupboard : Chrononhotonthologos

For many years I believed that the most startling opening line in theatre was Pa Ubu's "Merdre!" in Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi. But no! What could better this: Aldiborontiphoscophornio! Where left you Chrononhotonthologos? These are the opening words of Henry Carey's Chrononhotonthologos, spoken by Rigdum-Funnidos. The play is not unlike Ubu Roi, in that the ... Read More...

A chance to get to know Ukridge by heart

Mahlerman is supplementing my belated musical education, dispensed via his remarkable Lazy Sunday Afternoon posts, by slipping in the odd piece on cinema. Last Sunday he included the opening scenes from the 1999 French film, Beau Travail. There's plenty here to pique one's interest - the theme of male jealousy, the ... Read More...