I have been quite busy over the last few weeks. We have been doing a bit of decorating to make it more likely we will be able to move – and so that it is more pleasant to live if we stay here. Before that I had to fill in the holes in the wall […]
Entries from August 31st, 2010
Crow Killer
August 24th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Life
This evening I watched the 1972 film Jeremiah Johnson that I recorded off the TV a couple of days ago. I had been on at some stupid time like 3am and turned out to be the deaf version – with a bloke in the corner of the screen signing.  I thought this might be a […]
Tags: Films
Union Atlantic
August 24th, 2010 · Comments Off on Union Atlantic · Life
I recently finished reading Union Atlantic, a debut novel by Adam Haslett – another book from Amazon’s Vine programme. I was a bit underwhelmed by it.
The rainbow kettle
August 24th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Life
I had a bit of a result with the Amazon Vine programme this month.  When I got the list of products to choose from, there was a kettle on there. I had recently noticed that our kettle was dribbling a bit, which annoyed me somewhat, but not enough to go out and get a new […]
False alarm
August 23rd, 2010 · Comments Off on False alarm · Life
When I saw the headline that started with “Archaos returns…’” I got all excited, and then read the rest: “…as exhibition celebrates revolutionary chainsaw wielding-circus“. I remember when Archaos came to London. It was a very punk rock circus (musical accompaniment was provided by the band Chihuahua) and very French. Not in the Stella Artois […]
Tags: Circus
Love bomb
August 23rd, 2010 · Comments Off on Love bomb · Life
President Ahmadinejad has unveiled Iran’s new weapon: a UAV which can carry 500 pounds of bomb and drop it 620 miles away. He says that ‘the key message is friendship’. So its a friendly 500-pound bomb?  He also said: This jet is a messenger of honour and human generosity and a saviour of mankind, before […]
Life imitating art?
August 20th, 2010 · Comments Off on Life imitating art? · Life
Sometimes it is nice when books come to life. Not if the book is by James Herbert though, and especially not if it is his first book, The Rats, which is the first thing I thought of when I read about the Bradford giant rodents. Incidentally, I love the fact that the Wikipedia page for […]
Tags: Books
The A level results
August 20th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Life
The annual ritual of observing how, if the newspaper photographs are to be believed, only girls do A levels, has been observed in the Skuds household again this year, but in a less detached manner since our girl was waiting for her results. The good news is that she got the results she needed to […]
Tags: Education
Legacies of British slavery
August 19th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Life, Politics
UCL are running some workshops about the legacy of slave ownership in Britain: Glasgow: 4th September Newcastle: 25th September Birmingham: 9th October Liverpool: 23rd October Bristol: 27th November See the UCL website for more info, or look at the flyer for the Glasgow event here.
Tags: Slavery
San Quentin I hate every inch of you
August 18th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Life, Music
This evening I watched the film of Johnny Cash playing at San Quentin prison. It is a remarkable film of a remarkable concert and a reminder of why Johnny Cash is the country singer that even people who don’t like country music can appreciate. At one point he sings a song called San Quentin I […]