I watched again Powell and Pressburger’s classic wartime film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp a couple of weeks … More
Month: November 2008
Tom Paine on freedom
I found this quote from Tom Paine while visiting the Taking Liberties exhibition in London last weekend, from the days … More
What writers are good at
Mark Lawson had an interesting insight about writers and their strengths while writing about Michael Crichton after his recent death. … More
Herbie on Miles
In a review of the wildly overpriced (and largely unnecessary) “50th anniversary edition” of Kind of Blue, there’s a fabulous … More
Watching Leonard Cohen
There were several surprises in watching Leonard Cohen at the O2 this week. The first was the humour – apparently … More
If I had a hammer
I was listening to the Weavers’ original (1949) version of ‘If I had a hammer‘, written by Pete Seeger and … More
Obama and the Liberation Music Orchestra
One of the best US election night stories I’ve read is about Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, in Salon. The … More
The power of an idea
Suppose we think of the power of an idea as a ratio. The amount of an explanation that it explains … More