Continuing our series of aesthetic appreciations of sublime machines… No other nations built anything like them, until the Soviets released the Tupolev Tu-20 Bear nuclear bomber in 1955, 10 years after the end of the war (they also copied the B-29). Other nations had bombers in the WW2 and immediately prior ... Read More...
Month: May 2011
Tender is the Night (available for a penny here) opens on the French Riviera in 1919. Through the eyes of a young film actress called Rosemary – the ‘new cardboard paper doll’ the film world has cut ‘to pass before its empty harlot’s mind’- we observe the apparently charmed lives ... Read More...
My online research suggests that any review of Elif Batuman’s remarkable book The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People who Read Them must open with the reviewer musing on how to categorise it, before settling, uncomfortably, on ‘memoir’. And who am I to blow against the wind? Let’s start with Elif’s ... Read More...
The Dabbler reviews the new three-part documentary All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace (BBC2, 9pm Mondays). First, we really should get one thing straight: our Western economies are being held hostage by a financial oligarchy. If you don't believe me, read this and this (to take two separate and convincing ... Read More...
Discerning readers from across the globe are invited to join the exclusive society of excellent persons known as the LEAGUE OF DABBLERS. For the trifling sum of £30 per annum, you will be entitled to join the LEAGUE OF DABBLERS and will receive: A splendid, signed certificate - officially decreeing that you are ... Read More...
Bob Dylan turns 70 today and to mark the event, four Dabbler Dylanists pick a favourite song and explain why he matters. Happy Birthday Bob! Mahlerman -- Thunder on the Mountain ROBERT ALLEN ZIMMERMAN Born: Duluth, Minnesota: May 24th, 1941 Occupations: Musician, Dabbler My, he's as slippery as mercury, but of one thing there is little doubt: ... Read More...
DAISY, COMMON, or DAY’S EYE (Bellis perennis). These large white gawky-looking flowers are so universal in English pastures and meadows, that description is almost needless. They flower all the year, principally dotting the meadows in early May. . . Domestic cattle rarely touch this plant. Notwithstanding its beauty and its ... Read More...
Have we hit some sort of bottom in our series? Judge for yourself - delivered in prose of awesome sterility, the North Korean despot's commitment to lies is unwavering. Onwards! I didn't want to read Kim Jong-il's Our Socialism Centered On the Masses Shall Not Perish. I was more interested in On Film. ... Read More...
Last weekend Susan explored that old battleground of 'Classical' versus 'Pop' in the shadow of the Cambridge Union debate, the motion being that 'This House believes classical music is irrelevant to today's youth', with S Fry and a few friends batting for the heavy-mob, and DJ Kissy Sell Out bowling ... Read More...
I was planning to post something about the Chelsea Flower Show today, but then I attended the first ever Dabbler Summit… For those of you who weren’t able to be there yesterday, here are some photographs of the stylish venue – and here’s what you missed: 1) sofa.com’s hip and happening ... Read More...