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Archive for May, 2008

Republicans dead, says Clinton advisor

Posted in Listening, Reading, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

An American named Sidney Blumenthal has written a new book with a fun title. I for one fervently hope Republican America is dead and gone. But isn’t it more likely just playing dead in a zombie-kind of way? Lying quietly in a Bush-shaped-grave, about to jump out as soon as the Democrats stop fighting each [...]

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On epistaxis and what it tells us about dating

Posted in Going Out, tagged , , , on May 27, 2008 | 4 Comments »

I went on a date last week. Ok, ok, I wouldn’t normally blog about this but I’ve read a few pieces of relationship-commentary recently (why married men cheat, why cheating’s still not ok, why clever women fall for second-rate men) and it’s all very thought-provoking. In the spirit of Carrie Bradshaw I guess I could [...]

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Trailer of the Week: The Dark Knight

Posted in Watching, tagged , , , , , on May 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

A fortnight ago I moaned about Hollywood’s penchant for sequels. At the time I was feeling kind of frustrated with the phenomenon. That was until I saw the trailer for Christopher Nolan’s second Batman adaptation, The Dark Knight. In the last five months the film has gained a grim significance, not in anticipation of Nolan’s [...]

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Peep squeak

Posted in Watching, tagged , , , on May 19, 2008 | 3 Comments »

This is just a tip: the first episode of the new series of Peep Show is available FOR FREE on itunes. These things are usually for a limited time only so I’d download it asap (if you haven’t got itunes on your computer yet, you can install the latest version from here). Squirmily hilarious.

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The Waterhouse, Orsman Road

Posted in Going Out, tagged , , on May 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

I’ve been meaning to post about this for a-a-ages but got sidetracked. A new restaurant opened a few months ago on my side of town, called The Waterhouse. Under normal circumstances it would be the kind of place I could only afford to buy a starter at, but I was lucky enough to be taken [...]

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Trailer of the Week: Savage Grace, or Blindness

Posted in Watching, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 17, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Julianne Moore is one of my favourite actresses. She commits so entirely to her roles, isn’t afraid of acting ugly and seems to inhabit characters from the inside out, right from their beating hearts to the stretch of their skin. She has also starred in some unusually intelligent films. In Magnolia, The Hours and Far [...]

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Ready or not: Wyclef on Radio 2

Posted in Listening, tagged , , , , on May 12, 2008 | 1 Comment »

I don’t normally listen to Radio 2 but by chance I heard an amazing programme called “When Charles met Wyclef” on Saturday. You can listen again and I’d say do it, just as soon as you’ve got a chance. The format’s simple: Charles Hazlewood, one of the UK’s most exciting conductors and a force for [...]

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Trailer of the Week: Great Expectations

Posted in Thinking, Watching, tagged , , , , , , on May 11, 2008 | 1 Comment »

I can remember resting on my elbows in front of the television in my grandparents’ drawing-room when I was still quite young, and feeling keenly the terror of the poor, timorous Pip in the first minutes of this film, who is jumped on by an escaped convict while he lays flowers on his parents’ grave. [...]

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Bringing up Baby: the struggle for firsts in Hollywood

Posted in Watching, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 9, 2008 | 1 Comment »

This summer Harrison Ford returns in slightly more wrinkled form as Indiana Jones (& the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). What does the film have in common with upcoming releases Hellboy II, The Dark Knight, and the long-delayed second X-Files film? They’re all sequels. 2007 was even more of a bumper year, with, oh let’s [...]

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Alan Johnston

Posted in Listening, tagged , , , on May 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

I was lucky enough to hear this award-winning BBC journalist talk at City University last night. Soft-spoken and courteous, responding thoughtfully to the questions of City professor and ex-ITN chief Stewart Purvis, Johnston recounted the terrifying ordeal of his captivity in Gaza. What became most apparent was Johnston’s abiding generosity of spirit, whether in answering [...]

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Trailer of the Week

Posted in Watching, tagged , , , on May 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

It opens in the States in 11 days and counting, but weirdly, Prince Caspian won’t hit the UK until the 26th of June; just in time for those distributor-friendly summer holidays. My questions are: 1) Why is Caspian putting on a French/Spanish accent? 2) What’s with his pantene-advert hair? 3) Can Ben Barnes be even [...]

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Decline and Fall of the Labour Empire

Posted in Reading, Thinking, tagged , , , , , , , on May 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Boris has won. This is a dark day. My friend Kiran has a good pre-emptive piece on how we got here and what Gordon Brown needs to do next. On Comment is Free, Jonathan Freedland tells it like it is, poetically: “On a sunny Friday in May, by the glittering waters of the Thames, Tony [...]

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Watch this. Go on. You’ll like it.

Posted in Watching, tagged , , , on May 1, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Anyone who knows me knows I like Slate. A lot. I’d gladly devote my life to creating a version in Britain if I was five years more experienced and wasn’t starting a job in September. Anyway here they do their signature brainy witty thing. And we all get a bit smarter.

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