Man Of Aran
31 March 2009 // Film/TV //Music
The good people of British Sea Power have put a new soundtrack to the 1934 film “Man Of Aran”. It’s out as a CD and DVD next month through Rough Trade. The band are doing a couple of gigs with screenings (Brighton 18/4 and London BFI 23/4). Can’t wait to see the full thing.
Some More Precious Dreams to Bank
by Chris Yates Forget the money, what you need to save for the future are dreams, dreams that will earn plenty of interest for the leaner times ahead. Who knows what will happen; maybe we’ll get a much longer even colder winter than this last one, maybe the price of maggots will go up to [...]
Letter from Arcadia
Land Army Goalposts ja the march waggon rolls out on all four winds, jays on the gate and primroses blink open to raise their yellow hosanahs. can’t match your river exploits this month. long fishless waits in the cold; late winter tasks which have no words, more living out of buckets than ever till hibernaton [...]
An Appreciation of Tweed
by Ben Myers; Sometimes it’s just a case of seeing things with fresh eyes. Just over a year ago, quite out of the blue, I was suddenly gripped by an overwhelming urge – or maybe compulsion is a better word – to bedeck myself in tweed. I know. I was surprised too. But these compulsions [...]
The Waltz
by Mick Bolton; I played piano on this track on Dexys (Midnight Runners) 1985 album ‘Don’t Stand Me Down‘ and it’s been a pleasure to play it again for the first time since then. Even without the words it’s a very emotional piece of music and I hope I have been able to do it [...]
Wild Thing(s)
26 March 2009 // Books //Film/TV
Not sure what your childhood reading constisted of, but it sure looks like – after Watchmen – I’m due a double whammy of pivotal books being brought to the big screen this year. Very worth checking this, the trailer for the long delayed Spike Jonze screen adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are. [...]
At The End Of The World
There’s a piece that caught my eye on The Guardian website about the Dengle Peninsula in Essex, inspiration for both War Of The Worlds and The Birds. Click here to read. It’s interesting to see how Essex is being reclaimed, now portrayed as a sparse, otherworldly landscape less than an hour from London – a [...]
Blog.
Last week began with a visit from the Richardson’s. John & Sue came up to London to take a look at the cafe in Foyles, on Charing Cross Road, the venue we have chosen for an exhibition of the art and illustration that is a big part of our forthcoming book (‘Caught By The River; [...]
Across England in a Punt
22 March 2009 // Books //On Water
Nicholas Lezard on Tom Fort’s journey down the River Trent (from yesterday’s Guardian); I had, ever since reading his The Book of Eels, known Tom Fort had a thing about rivers; so it seems logical that he has come to write this. And rivers are amazing: bringers of life, their sources sometimes mysterious, their journeys [...]
The Woodbine Challenge
JB, The Woodbine Challenge 1973 Morning. Chanced upon this – fantastic stuff. I’ve already rung my old dear to get her to search the garage for my green Daiwa visor from 1979. I think Padworth won’t know what’s hit it if bowl up in June rocking ‘the vintage look’ – I may even grow a [...]
Caught by the River