I wz sat next to the designer (a very old friend) and behind the adaptor-translator, who i had just that evening met and liked, so my response to the African-politics reading of Mother Courage at the Hackney Empire is far more tied into friendships t[…]

Giggling happily at the horrible violence
No, not Kill Bill, but Home Alone!! Tarantino wd employ John Candy if he could and HE WOULD BE RIGHT! (Baffled non UK-ers note: this xmas movie was shown as a Bank Holiday TV Movie yesterday…)[…]

when i hear the phrase ‘dumbing down’ i reach 4 my gum…
I can’t quite make up my mind abt Nick Knowles’s Historyonics, a BBC TV series for kids (?judging by the timeslot?), which retells historical events in a form whi[…]

… PAINTS A THOUSAND ERS … The writing in Girl with a Pearl Earring was so awful – and Scarlett Johanson’s word-swallowing mumble so unremitting – that Dr Vick and I began speculating if it wasn’t a ploy of some ki[…]

On the Achievement of No Spoilers: I’m quite pleased with myself that last night, when I finally viewed Kill Bill I, I had not read a SINGLE THING about it more discursive than a billboard. Unfortunately I now suddenly realise this means anythi[…]

Lost in Translation (2nd bite): I kind of wish it had been set in space w. baffling aliens not tokyo in merely tokyan tokyans, cz you kept ending up thinking that the reason they are bored and lonely etc is they have no imagination jeez if *i* wz in […]

J’ck’ss >:0 :'(
The Independent has a little story I can’t find on the net – poss cz I don’t speak good Norwegian: ‘A 19-year-old man dressed a comic book character was killed when he was hit by a car in what app[…]

Entertaining to read Simon fessing up to not getting Kid Creole etc back in the day. One of the persistent curiosities of anglo-critical response to non-anglo music is the eternal threshold problem of the erm ‘Latin Tinge‘: Brit jazzbos a[…]

“Trainspotting” used as metaphor for trainspotting shockah!
I don’t know if it won any actual real awards, but The Station Agent is/was a shoo-in for the Ghost World Memorial ‘Indiest Film in the History of Indie’ Cup. […]

DEAD MAN’S CHESS: (Three Questions abt Treasure Island pt 3)
#3 (and LAST): Why did the pirates not win?
Basically Treasure Island is an argument about the nature of authority: at sea*, this zone of lawless democracy, sovereignty is his who c[…]