Small Men

I watched some old films. They were all about guys who didn’t add up to much and had gotten quite bitter and cynical about it all. The Small World Of Sammy Lee (1962) gives us 24 hours in the life of sad, sleazy Sammy, MC at a Soho strip club, having to crack the funnies […]

Dizzy Daleks

The new animated version of The Evil Of The Daleks is finally available. As far as I’m concerned Doctor Who is no less worth commenting on than The Dark, The Tomorrow War or the various horror films that have already been on this blog. In any case, this story was broadcast in 1967, so if […]

Is Your Journey Really Necessary?

On Friday I first heard about the panic buying of petrol. I was at the office that day, and the final bus ride up from West Norwood was very slow due to the congestion of cars around the one petrol station available. This morning we were up and away early as we had a journey […]

Platinum Poetry

I read Voices Of Brooklyn, an anthology edited by Sol Yurick and published by the American Library Association in 1973. I read a hardback copy that had been withdrawn from Nevada State Library in Carson City, Nevada. According to the lending ticket still in the inside cover, the last time the volume was loaned out […]

Rehabilitation

I watched The Work, the 2017 documentary about the group therapy sessions run at Folsom Prison amongst long-term prisoners. The notes with the disc release make clear that this was a long project, taking up ten years of preparation before the filming could properly begin. Rob began to speak to the prison shot-callers of the […]

Sein Und Zeit

I recently finished watching all 3 seasons of the German sci-fi series whose title is translated as The Dark. It is all available on Netflix, and I was watching with the option to hear it all overdubbed by American actors, with subtitles whenever the viewer was expected to understand text in the scene (including “POLIZEI”). […]

Imperial Measures

I went to the South London Gallery. First I saw the exhibition of work by Rita Keegan. In Gallery 1 at the old Fire Station, is a large work bringing together several previous projects. There are 3 video displays replaying her old films Trophies Of Empire (1992), Rites Of Passage (1991), Outfit (1999) and a […]

Orbital

I watched The Wonderful: Stories From The Space Station. This gives the human interest stories around the International Space Station. We start with the back story of the Space Race, and President Kennedy’s offer for US/Soviet collaboration on a mission to the Moon. It is implied this was a serious initiative that vanished after its […]

Ceramic Ono

I went to the office today. As far as I can see, mask-wearing on public transport varies according to the time of day, presumably tracking the different kinds of jobs people are travelling to. Bus passengers in the early hours will be covered, but later on the schoolchildren don’t bother and there are some smarter-dressed […]

Death At One’s Elbow

I watched the film Dreams Of A Life. Made in 2011, this dramatises the case of Joyce Carol Vincent, whose skeletal remains were discovered in her flat in London in 2006, and it was determined that she’d died in December 2003. The film reconstructs as much of her life and death as could be discovered. […]