I’ve been reading a lot of recipes for Cassoulet lately and they are all completely different. I made mine with duck legs, haricot beans, salted belly pork, some spicy/smoky sausages and some lamb neck fillet. It tasted great, from what I re[…]

Here’s my vote for Lost in Translation as the A Hard Day’s Night for a younger generation. (Whether Bill Murray’s generation or Scarlett Johanssen’s generation is still up in the air.) Impressionistic, nearly plotless, both tr[…]

Clientele confusion. According to 6 Music, Laura Veirs’ ‘The Cloud Room’ will be the first single from her _Carbon Glacier_, an album whose purchase on the recommendation of various middlebrow publications for middle-aged men doubtl[…]

‘A Bible with a bit cut out! […] It don’t bind no more’n a ballad book.’
I flew back to Edinburgh from Brussels via Heathrow yesterday, and on the bus into town I realised that on the second flight I’d left the boo[…]

What would the people in Location! Location! Location! say of the House Of Sand And Fog. Well I think there would be some consternation regarding the rather dingy interior, and whether they would advocate the installation of a frankly out of place su[…]

Everybody Loves Raymond is one of those shows whose name begs for an obvious response: a bit like calling your single ‘Not Good Enough’ and sending it to Tanya Headon for a review. It’s currently running on Channel 4 at 8am, a time […]

A Tale Of Two Pubs: it was Isabel’s birthday on Friday so we went for a meal. This post isn’t about the meal, it’s about the two pubs which bookended the evening, both near Tooting Bec tube.
Isabel isn’t a big pubgoer so our l[…]

I HATE MUSICALS
1: The Sound Of Music
Three and a half hours long! There are pregnant women in labour who don?t suffer for that long. Now I am no fascist but I bet I am not the only person egging on Rolf and his Nazi chums when they hunt down the Aus[…]

Four To The Floor causes much consternation in my head. I like it. It is by Starsailor. I really thought I had exorcised the embarrassment of liking something by a lousy band. And more than liking Sing by Travis, the trouble stems from a forebrain kn[…]

Something’s Gotta Give is a romantic comedy. You can tell this because it starts with one of the most romantic songs ever written. Butterfly by Crazy Town.
Like the title of the film, this is a collection of half baked ideas looking for struct[…]