“It’s all based on this fuckin’ crap idea that everything turned amazing in ’76 when a bunch of cunts who couldn’t play started twatting around in New York. That means nothing to me. I don’t care”, Christian Madden of Anglo-American band The Earlies declares, in what could well be a musical manifesto. “I’m not worried […]
Slight of frame and grey of hair, Paul Page stands still while Dublin furiously rushes hither and dither. His arms are folded to a city that is far removed from a place he called home as a child of the ’80s, where street football occupied all the hours that the sun shone. Outside is the […]
Canning house is the name given to one of the magnificent white buildings situated in London’s stately Belgrave Square. Behind the large windows, through which one can discern majestic ceilings with sumptuous chandeliers, the Hispanic spirit of the city lies hidden. The library, which houses one of the best collections of Spanish literature in London, […]
Professor Rocco Buttiglione, Italian parliamentarian (currently Minister for Culture in Berlusconi's outgoing government), hit the global headlines in October 2004 when his proposed candidature for the position of European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security was blocked after M.E.P's objected to his conservative, catholic views on homosexuality and abortion. In an interview with Three […]
Poland seems to have settled into a rather strange electoral pattern: every time a general election is held the incumbent party is not just defeated, but virtually annihilated. So it was in 2001, when the post-communist SLD wiped the floor with the AWS (a conglomerate of post-Solidarity parties) which then ceased to exist. And so […]
“For three and a half decades, the world’s media trained its attention on the terrorist ‘war’ raging in Ireland’s north-east six counties. Behind a screen of gunsmoke and fire, beyond the macho men in the woolen masks toting their rifles and laying their bombs, stands another narrative, a hidden Ireland.” [Colours: Ireland – From Bombs […]
While browsing through a 1902 copy of Przegląd Techniczny in my library the other day I came across an advertisement for the “My Lord Coupe,” a five-seater electrical car. Although it had a range of 80 kilometres there was one big drawback: charging the batteries took “a good four hours.”
Capote is not exactly the preposterous but coherent blockbuster full of wisecracks that I was looking for after the arthouse film festival but it was still a welcome change. Long pauses there were, but motivated. And yes, Capote does tell stories about his childhood but it’s because he’s speaking to someone else about childhood. The […]
After a two-week season of foreign, art house films I’m looking forward to watching a few dumb American blockbusters. There were some good films at the festival but arty films have their cliches too. The long, long… long… silences… The monologic dialogues… The violence. The love of the grotesque. The silent mental collapse of strait-laced […]