Les Kellett
The Wrestling Channel is a welcome addition to my Sky line-up. To be honest, most of it is Japanese shows with Japanese commentary or third-rate WWE knock-off stuff, not all bad, often fast and lively, but I think what little genuine star[…]

I’ll Take You There by Joyce Carol Oates
This is, according to the listing in the front of this book, Oates’s 86th book in less than 40 years – and since it’s from way back in 2002, she’s probably passed 90 by now. There[…]

Private Life Of A Masterpiece
I was delighted to see that this BBC2 show on April 17th was to focus on the Hokusai print generally known as The Great Wave: it’s among my favourite works by one of my favourite artists, but also because I have a […]

Outlaws by George V. Higgins
I’ve read negative reviews at times of books that seem to swing into entirely different directions towards the end, as if it’s a failure of the book, but it’s something I like. Aristotle’s unities […]

The Feast Of The Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
(I need to add a note that I wrote this before seeing Mark’s item on Lincoln and Burr below – I’ve read both and should really have thought to mention them in this.)
This is a compelling a[…]

Andrew Vachss – Safe House
One of the things I like about Richard Stark’s Parker novels is the sense of a man taking care, an expert in his craft; also the sense of a world more or less coexisting with the one I know of which I am complet[…]

And your prize is…
Many hoary old cliches (on that subject, is there much else that gets called ‘hoary’?) have some sort of basis in sense or fact, but one that I saw for about the thousandth time in XXX tonight seems to entirely la[…]

Best TV acting ever
I’ve been saying for years that my favourite ever performance in a continuing series on TV is Andre Braugher as Frank Pembleton in Homicide: Life On The Streets. I hadn’t seen it in ages, then I recently learnt that th[…]

Lazio vs Roma on Eurosport
The website that brings you the news as it happens: tonight’s big Serie A derby, Lazio-Roma, has been stopped for around 20 minutes now. The fans insisted by chanting, so the players stopped two minutes into the secon[…]

my brain is injured
(sort of inspired by Tim’s entry below about back passes)
It originated in a sensible idea. To speed up play and cut out long stoppages, players would be carried off the field of play to be treated, unless there was some ris[…]