Professor Maria Janion, a distinguished Polish scholar, is eighty this Christmas and, Poland being a country which — though it publishes interviews in Playboy with Boris Szyc (pronounced “shits”) where he gets to say rude words a lot — still takes scholarship seriously, this week’s Polityka has a tribute to her. Of the tribute-payers, only […]
Basking in a soft green glow Ireland, for the Italian media, exists t o provide occasional weekend-supplement travel articles. The island is remote (yet easily reachable by low-cost airlines, they stress), and populated by young creative types guzzling guinness. It is also, reassuringly, a Catholic country. Given that Ireland is rarely in the news here, […]
The recent political sex-scandal here has brought the primitives crawling out of the woodwork. We have been reminded of such pearls of wisdom from the Polish political classes as “how can you rape a prostitute?” (In fairness to Poland’s backwoodsmen, no one has quite equalled Putin’s congratulating of the Israeli president.) But such primitivism is […]
The TV news, inexplicably, chose not to run with footage of General Augusto Pinochet proudly standing on his balcony (God, how fascists lover their balconies) beside ‘Santo Subito‘ Pope John Paul II back in 1987. “Why bring up the late-great Pope when discussing the death of Pinochet? cries the devil’s advocate from stage left. “After […]
A spectre is haunting the Web–the spectre of the comeback. The off-hand comment and the casual dismissal will be noted, and, if erroneous or slipshod, you will sooner or later be brought to book. For example, several weeks ago, I made a fairly niggling criticism of Claire Messud’s novel, The Emperor’s Children, on the basis […]
The Grauniad and the Torygraph both feature stories about the Rt Rev Tom Butler, the Bishop of Southwark, who apparently became rather tired and emotional after attending a Christmas drinks function at the Irish Embassy in London. According to eye witnesses, the bishop was afterwards found in the back seat of someone else’s Mercedes, chucking […]
From The Brown Daily Herald:The audience at Production Workshop’s “The Flies,” which is slated to run from Dec. 8 through Dec. 11, will feature an element perhaps more appropriate for the hit NBC show “Fear Factor.” As they gather to watch Jean-Paul Sartre’s 1943 adaptation of the Greek drama “The Oresteia,” audience members will be […]
In a misjudged effort to hear some “analysis” of Budget 2007, I tuned in last night to Vincent “Vincenzo” Browne’s show, broadcast at 10PM on RTE Radio One. What a shambles… The guests, especially the array of political hacks, were bad enough as they squabbled over percentages like trainspotters disputing a locomotive’s serial number. But […]
Back from a very enjoyable, and predictably pricey weekend in London. As dutiful bourgeois, Moira and I shelled out for a bit of the Great Wen’s cultural attractions, in the form of the Vel�zquez exhibition running in the National Gallery and Trevor Nun’s “musical theatre” adaptation of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. I am glad […]