Month: May 2016

Peaky Bloomers

Peaky Blinders is a BBC crime drama series set in Birmingham immediately after World War I. It must be good – it’s on its third series. I’ve not seen it (maybe a good box set for the winter) but Dr Henry Sanford has.

In Memoriam

This is a verse from Tennyson’s In Memoriam A.H.H. Who trusted God was love indeed And love Creation’s final law Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw With ravine, shriek’d against his creed I haven’t entirely unraveled what it means. Poetry can be tricky to interpret but perhaps it’s relevant to the recent installation of… Continue reading In Memoriam

Bomb Sight

I recently came across this website: www.bombsight.org. It maps where the bombs fell in the Blitz. My street had one hit. It also has accounts of those dark days in diaries, letters and memoirs.

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Categorised as History

Long Walks

I don’t have anything by Richard Long (above) but he often comes to mind. First because I was given a large well-illustrated catalogue for his exhibition at Tate Britain in 2009. Secondly, because I went to and was greatly impressed by the exhibition and thirdly because he works in a way unlike any other artist… Continue reading Long Walks

SRO

This is an LP I bought in the 1960s. SRO signifies Standing Room Only, a reference to Herb Alpert’s popularity. My taste in music has evolved since then. It wasn’t until I was in my mid-fifties that I began to enjoy Wagner.

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Categorised as Music

From Wodehouse to Wittgenstein

Anthony Quinton presented Round Britain Quiz but the rest of the time was a philosopher based in Oxford: fellow of All Souls, fellow of New College and president of Trinity College.

The Go-Between

What’s up, after reading this remarkable post i am too cheerful to share my experience here with mates This is the sort of spam that arrives. It is atypical only in that usually it’s a desire to share my stuff with their mates, if they have any, and the World Wide Web. A reader has… Continue reading The Go-Between

Piano Concerto

The opening chords of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 are instantly recognisable; you can listen to the whole piece at the end of this post. The reaction it evoked when it was first played may come as a surprise to you.

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Categorised as Music