The daughter of a friend, 13 years old, was talking to me about history at the weekend. She has been studying the inter-war years and the rise of German fascism. She told me that she had made herself unpopular in an discussion with her friends afterwards because (she said something like) she had not found …
Monthly archives: February 2012
it’s certainly not essex
David Essex is appearing in a show at the Lyceum, Sheffield. I’ve not seen it and pretty sure I won’t. I assume it has some cheery dance scenes, young performers, period music and reflective voice of Now Old David. The poster announces that the show is “direct from London’s West End” which means what? That …
super 8 (2011)
Set in 1979, the film Super 8 can be read as an allegory of the American civil rights movement. The allegory is caught up in the web of a small time psychological drama. I am concerned at the way film offers grief and anger at slavery and racism as a subset of internal psychological issues.
being normal
For the past few months I’ve been accompanying a young man, originally from Zimbabwe, to the Borders Agency office in Vulcan House, near the river Don in Sheffield. It is an area that was redeveloped over the past ten years with a host of residential flats and offices being built with river frontage. It has …
southwold sheds
I visited Southwold, near my ex-parents-in-law last weekend. As I drove into the coastal area of northern Suffolk from the west I noticed two things: the appearance of Union Jacks in a couple of places and the presence in practically every village I passed of an independent butcher. The town itself is on the sea …
the consumer is the consumed
I was talking to a friend yesterday evening and he mentioned that Facebook was for sale, or was it being floated, not sure. Impressed buy the high valuation he had heard reported we discussed how Facebook made money. He spoke about the value of information relating to the likes and dislikes of the members of …