I’m a bit hooked on the series Jonathan Meades has been doing on brutalism, even though I can’t really say I enjoy it. It is compelling but almost impossible to make any sense of. For a show about a particular school of architecture it is very short on hard facts about that architecture or the […]
Entries from February 27th, 2014
Brutalism at the Beeb
February 27th, 2014 · Comments Off on Brutalism at the Beeb · Life
Tags: Architecture·TV
Civil war in Crawley
February 25th, 2014 · Comments Off on Civil war in Crawley · Politics
I see that the local Tories are continuing to lay into each other in the local press. This time it is all about a spat between current Tory Duncan Crow and his erstwhile colleague Karl Williamson who defected to UKIP. It really is like watching a football game between Argentina and Germany (or between Spurs […]
Arctic Monkeys at the BRITs
February 19th, 2014 · 2 Comments · Life, Music
This is not really about the Arctic Monkeys or even about the BRITs. It is more about a grumpy old man’s grumbling about, well about being grumpy and old mainly. I watched a bit of the BRITs tonight, and that in itself is saying something because I did only watch it for a while and […]
Tags: Nostalgia
West Sussex unitary authority?
February 19th, 2014 · 1 Comment · Politics
There has been a bit of discussion about whether West Sussex county council and the various district and borough councils should be replaced with a unitary authority. The current round of debate started when the UKIP group on the county council raised the matter and the Lib Dems decided to support it. While I agree […]
Harry Brown
February 16th, 2014 · Comments Off on Harry Brown · Life
I have been working my way through Netflix while I am on the six-month free trial that comes with Virgin Media. The selection on Netflix comes in for a lot of criticism because it is not a place where you will find loads of recent blockbusters (about the only film on there that is both […]
Delicate sound of thunder
February 12th, 2014 · Comments Off on Delicate sound of thunder · Music, Technology
This evening I watched the first half of Pink Floyd’s Delicate Sound of Thunder concert film that was broadcast on BBC Four over the weekend, which gave me a chance to indulge in at least a triple dose of nostalgia. The concert footage was from their 1987-89 tour, filmed during August during the US leg […]
Tags: Nostalgia
A few thoughts about the tube strikes
February 12th, 2014 · 1 Comment · Life, Politics
Having spent six years working for one of London Underground’s contractors and, before that, six years working for London Underground itself I am somewhat familiar with the tube, even if I have not used it much in the last ten years. The current dispute is mainly about Boris Johnson’s plans to cut the numbers of […]
Tags: London·Trade Unions·Transport
Some thoughts about flooding
February 11th, 2014 · 1 Comment · Life, Politics
I’ve always had a sort of morbid fascination with floods. Wherever I have lived I have always found myself at some point trying to mentally work out contours and relative heights to reassure myself that I am on high enough ground to not be likely to have my house flooded. I can remember even as […]
Near Field Communication: an idiot’s guide
February 10th, 2014 · Comments Off on Near Field Communication: an idiot’s guide · Technology
By which I mean a guide written by an idiot of course.
Tags: Gadgets·Networking·Reviews
My emails
February 9th, 2014 · Comments Off on My emails · Life, Technology
Huge apologies to anybody who has tried to contact me by e-mail on the old Skuds@blueyonder address in the last four or five (or maybe more) months. I didn’t read your e-mails. Here’s the thing. I decided to use my gmail more because it was dead easy to set up on my tablet and phone. […]
Tags: Doh!
