Why the weird dry gulch years of movie trailers? — a general observation here. Trailers in the 1930s through 1950s/60s seem to be a classic mishmash of screen projections (“A CAST OF THOUSANDS! LIONS EATING EXTRAS!”), random colla[…]

London Bridge thankfully not fallen down, news at eleven — I have always loved bridges, partially due to an upbringing near one of the most elegantly lovely examples of same yet created, the gorgeous and skyline defining San Diego-Coronado Bay […]

FT Top 100 Films
41: BLACK NARCISSUS
Antony Easton says:
It’s a back lot dream of religious exoticism, its about the nature of desire, its about power and control in relation to sex, its about viewing the divine temporally instead of celestiall[…]

BOOKS I COULDN’T FINISH:
1: The Fortress OF Solitude – Jonathon Lethem
Sometimes life is too short to read a book you have lost interest in. Sometimes you complete it anyway because you have already invested too much time into it. I&#8217[…]

I HATE MUSIC LYRIC WATCH 21: Brian McFadden
“Sit with my family, drink some English tea
Then I raise my finger and watch football on TV”
Never mind that Brian bellows “football on TV” as if he is the prophet Jeremiah having a […]

How do you turn a good film into a franchise? The Bourne Identity was a surprise hit back in 2002, a surprise possibly because the first time it was filmed it flopped. But some assured direction from Doug Liman and some excellent casting was coupled […]

The correct use of tomatoes
Begins tomorrow, Bunol, Spain. You haven’t lived until you’ve been hit in the face from point blank range with a ripe tomato.[…]

Olympic Avoidance LogI did remarkably well at the weekend, only managing to see bits and bobs via the news. Apparently winning a couple of medals because other people were disqualified is more important than any other world event. Not watching any ev[…]

I picked up a cook book, Recipes From Scotland in a second hand bookshop a year or so again. Mainly because it looked genuinely old and I was interested in the wonders that could be kept within its tartan bound cover. The wonders, one must say, gener[…]

Thanks to all the people who replied to the ‘stats help wanted’ post – I have enough data to work with now, and can get to work on the exciting graphs and charts. Though first indications are that they won’t be all THAT exciti[…]