Sporting Trophies and what they say about the organisations that commissioned them – An occasional series
Number 1 – The FIFA World Cup

Sporting trophies don’t appear to have figured much in the way of criticism; like much of sport[…]

There was some bloke who recently wrote a book about television programmes. Not my idea of fun, but a much more respectable job than writing about pop music in the positive. However as part of this tome he decided to subject himself to a comparative […]

The Aberdeen Angus Steak House I have always been assured is some sort of money laundering operation. Think about it. They have well over twenty restaurants in prime locations in central London. To your tax inspector in Bradford or East Kilbride this[…]

You’re not from round ‘ere: I’m delighted to see FT’s sports coverage kick off with a fine article by Dave Boyle. He’s right to be sick of the jeering insistence on authenticity which runs through so much football cultur[…]

Belleville Rendez-vous starts with a crackly black and white TV showing an animated dance number by the charatcers the Belleville Triplets: an homage to all those Merry Melodies and Silly Symphonies which cluttered up the cartoon times of my youth. I[…]

Last week I went to The Oval to watch the first day of the last test between England and South Africa. Now a lot of people, and I mean a lot of people (if you consider the populations of any non-commonwealth country and lots of them too) do not under[…]

Continuity, Fandom and Pop
Anyone with more than a passing interest in the geekier elements of mass culture – superhero comic books or genre TV, for instance – will be aware of the idea of continuity. (more…)[…]

I have been involved with an organisation called Exeter City Supporters’ Trust. It’s a group of fans of our little club set up a few years ago with the aim of representing us to the board of the club, amongst other things, and aspiring to[…]

HORNBLOWER! Marvellous stuff. No series has ever been more
a) NOBLE
b) HEROIC
c) ridiculous
as the adventures of Captain Horatio Hornblower and crew of able Seamen. Even now as I type, the plucky ENGLISH hurrah are getting boats to sail offshore int[…]

Yoko Ono-Cut Piece
Yoko Ono doing the cut piece (she sat on stage, people cut her robes off) in 1961 was scary shit, this was before the second wave really begun, and the fears of violence against women were not discussed very loudly.
That’s […]