Culture Beat – “Mr Vain”
There is an argument, one I hope to elucidate in the following, that Culture Beat are exactly that. The rhythm of our Western Culture in 1993: the thud of the backing of this song is merely the underpinning […]

After a terrific performance from Northern Ireland and a lousy one from England, there were difficult decisions for national newspapers today on how jingoistic and England orientated they should be.
Daily Mail: Sack the Swede
Daily Star: Sack the Sw[…]

As befits as US sitcom showed by the BBC, it is almost impossible to see Arrested Development properly in the UK. (BBC4 handles it a bit better, but my TV does not handle BBC4 very well). All I knew about it was that I was startled by its speed, its […]

AIM: To determine whether pink wine is just red and white wine mixed together.
APPARATUS: Glasses. Pen. Paper. Sample of food scientists.
INGREDIENTS: One bottle each of cheap red, white and pink wine.
METHOD: A glassful of pink wine was poured, and […]

Music and Writing: interesting roundtable from 2003 where Mark Sinker sets a bunch of questions that assorted ILXish and other thinkers try and answer. I think he sent me the questions too, I know I didn’t answer them. Well worth a look.[…]

Some of you may remember my Top 100 singles of the 90s, which I ran on this site six years ago. They have been off the site for a long time now, because they’re not hugely representative of my tastes now. Occasionally I wonder what I should do […]

Tim Finney, from an ILM thread about reggaeton.
I often think about a post Josh Kortbein wrote on his blog about how he couldn’t remember the moment when he got used to house beat, but somehow it had quietly gone from seeming oppressive, rhythm[…]

Last night in the pub we realised that there has never been a good Robin Williams film. People professed to soft spots for The Fisher King, Aladdin and even Hook* but the general consensus was that Williams is the worst thing in these movies, and his[…]

You used to know where you were with Diet Drinks. They would usually come in white, or at least lighter versions of the full fat packaging and have the word DIET emblazoned on them. They were, in short, pretty easy to avoid. Now however things have c[…]

Those out last night could not help but be overwhelmed by one of my birthday presents: 2kg of Parmesan. I look forward into risottoing the hell out of that bastard…
But it was not the only food present I got. From Andrew Farrell was a small bar[…]