Here’s something I prepared earlier, and never finalized. It was drafted over three years ago in January 2020, the 25th anniversary of my first visit to the USA. I offer it here as a record of that first trip, to the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. There are over 1,300 words in this… Continue reading Sundance 1995
Earlier this month, in this piece, I reflected on the recent fortunes of Leeds United and Arsenal in the FA Cup, the world’s oldest national football competition. Leeds (the team that I have followed since childhood) had not won a game in the competition since 2017. During that time Arsenal (the team that my wife… Continue reading Further reflections on the FA Cup, Leeds United and Arsenal
During the Christmas holidays, prompted by nothing in particular, I was thinking of three productions of “Richard II” that I have seen here in London over the last 20 years, and the actors who played the title role. The first production, at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2003, starred Mark Rylance. The second, in 2005, featured Kevin… Continue reading 11 Oscar winners on the London stage, and one in Stratford-on-Avon
Take a look at these two beauties, a pair of rotary telephones that we had stored away for many years. They were out of sight but have recently been brought back into the open. The one on the right is the phone that we used throughout my childhood. I don’t remember any earlier ones, so… Continue reading Rotary Telephones
The Album Charts here in the UK are not what they used to be. This page on the Official Chart Company website, “All The Number 1 Albums”, lists every chart-topping album going back to the first official chart in 1956. It shows how things have changed in the intervening decades. In the early years there… Continue reading The Album Charts are not what they used to be
For the first time since 2017 Leeds United FC are still in the FA Cup after playing their Third Round fixture. As regular readers of this Blog might know, I have followed the team since childhood, and have posted previously about their exit at this stage of the competition. The most recent of these pieces,… Continue reading Third Round Reflections
The postman always rings twice. Over the last 18 months or so I have posted occasional reports about the state of our car, which was due to turn 15 later this year. There was a 13-week stretch waiting for parts in the summer of 2021. We had a loan car with its new car smell… Continue reading Bad Timing Belt
An earlier piece on this Blog (“Double A Sides at #1”) reflected on changes in how the UK charts are compiled. The Double A Sided single played a big part in chart history. In recent years, with the figures based mainly on digital downloads and streaming, Double A Sides have rarely featured in the Top… Continue reading 15 questions about Double A Sided #1s
To some extent this Blog acts like a diary. It’s not a diary that’s updated every day, but the date of each post is relevant. Sometimes I “back-fill” pieces days, or even months, after the event. I am doing it now, posting this piece for Christmas Day 2022 several weeks into 2023. I do the… Continue reading Here we go again (Covid Round 2), and diaries
Sawdust and black pudding. No, not a new dietary regime, but the subjects of a couple of stories that my father told me. There are stories that we heard and repeated often as a family. Not just things that happened to us, which we had our own memories of, but things we had been told… Continue reading Sawdust and Black Pudding
The Compartments 