Thursday, 21 December 2017

this time of transformation

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twenty-seven word story about a philosophy undergraduate's rubbish shift at pizza express (with four hundred and sixty-eight words of notes)

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Philosophy student, waiting tables. “I’m observing – admiring – myself as a waiter. Bad faith, Sartre says. Merde , admiring my bad faith no...
Wednesday, 1 November 2017

twenty-seven word reviews of films seen during august, september and october

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The Raven  (1935, dir. Louis Friedlander, aka Lew Landers, starring Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff) - If your consultant’s other specialisms in...

twenty-seven word reviews of books read during august, september and october

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Nnedi Okrafor’s  Binti.  Some great aliens in YA novella about Himba  girl (Namibia) leaving home (in various senses) for offworld uni. A f...
Saturday, 7 October 2017

write up! speak up! sun 15th october

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I'll be doing two poems at Write Up! Speak Up! (a Wells Festival of Literature event) - the cormorant in South London one, and the Moby...
Saturday, 30 September 2017

twenty-seven words about helicopters and rainbows

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I’m noticing helicopters, rainbows lately. Helicopters salient because militarism, war; rainbows because Genesis 9:11-17  = God undertake...
Tuesday, 12 September 2017

david foster wallace: where i was when i heard

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If a public figure has been an inspiration to you, you’ll remember how and when you learned of their death, particularly if that death was ...
Friday, 1 September 2017

summer is over...

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...and we are not yet saved ( Jeremiah 8:20 ).
Tuesday, 25 July 2017

twenty-seven word reviews of films seen since April

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The Way Ahead (1945, dir. Carol Reed, starring David Niven, Stanley Holloway, William Hartnell).   Romanticised but open-ended portrait...

twenty-seven word reviews of books read since March

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Nnedi Okorafor’s Lagoon .  Liked incursion of Nigerian folktale into Lagos-set SF; wanted to like more; found ‘putdownable’; polyphonic,...

twenty-seven word review of a noticeboard outside where the home-care agency used to be; empty for a while, this unit's since been redeveloped as an antique shop called 'Presence of the Past'

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Walking past homecare office for years: glossy staff photos yellowing and faded.  Office closed, now – workers elderly, infirm themselv...

we need to judge widths all the time

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Wednesday, 12 April 2017

twenty-seven word reviews of 'Britain in Focus' exhibition (Science & Media Museum, Bradford; with BBC4) and of photography collections by featured artists

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Peter Mitchell, Mr and Mrs Hudson in Seacroft Green.  Leeds, 1974 .   update (July 2018): twitter conversation about Leeds, Peter Mitch...

twenty-seven word review of Martin's Parr's 'Boring Postcards' (London: Phaidon, 1999)

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Butlins, Filey; M6 motorway; Cross Gates Arndale Centre, Leeds. Boring’s a misnomer; these are 1950s/ early 1960s dreams of modernity an...
Saturday, 1 April 2017

twenty-seven word reviews of films watched during March 2017

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House of Mirth  (2000; dir. Terence Davies; starring Gillian Anderson)  - original novel’s probably good; film felt like a somewhat rou...
Wednesday, 1 March 2017

twenty-seven word reviews of books read during January and February 2017

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Ursula Le Guin’s Wizard of Earthsea .  “Not many girls,” say daughter. True – wizards are all boys, girls do housework. “Female author th...