One of my favourite Dire Straits songs (of many) is "industrial disease" - for its cynicism, its jauntiness and the immortal lyric "sociologists invent words that mean industrial disease". Today on Bluesky I found myself advocating for a reboot of industrial disease with the words "additional degrees". Well, here we are... Industrial diseaseAdditional degreesNow, warning... Continue Reading →
All’s Well That Ends Well (Bard to the Bone #08)
Year written: any time between 1598 and 1608!! Plot in a paragraph: Helen wants to marry Bertram, and cures a king to force matters to a head. Bertram flees to the wars, and is then tricked into consummating the marriage with Helen. And they’re all going to live happily ever after? Probably not… Things that... Continue Reading →
Measure for Measure (Bard to the Bone #07)
Year written: 1603-4 Context of the writing (Shakespeare’s career, political events it was responding to): xx Plot in a paragraph: The Good Duke goes on a trip, leaving Vienna in the hands of his deputy Angeo, who has a stick up his ass about “fornication”. A guy called Claudio is condemned to death for impregnating... Continue Reading →
King John (Bard to the Bone #06)
The good news is that I have in fact been continuing with the Shakespeare stuff, the "remedial accumulation of cultural capital"). I just, for various reasons, haven't been putting up posts. So, over the next few days, you will get Measure for Measure, All's Well That Ends Well, Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like... Continue Reading →
Pericles – Bad Romance (Bard to the Bone #05)
Number 5 in my "bard to the bone" project. Year written: 1608 Context of the writing (Shakespeare’s career, political events it was responding to): The theatres were closed (Plague) and there was a “colourful” guy who had written a novel on Pericles. Bill wrote Acts 3 to 5 Plot in a paragraph: Pericles, a pince,... Continue Reading →
Moorhens, habits, podcasts and King Lear
The moorhens continue to fascinate. Many of the "smudges" (what the wife and I call the babies, all black fluff and sphericality) seem not to have made it to adolescence - "nature red in tooth and claw" and all that). I am back in the habit of morning yomps (weighted jacket full of coins and... Continue Reading →
Incumbent tactics: copyright as news suppression, BBC editorial choices…
Sometimes a Bluesky feed (and yes, I am as at risk of falling into the scrolletariat as anyone else) offers up a bleak perspective on the way we live now, and what we are invited to see, and NOT to see. I had never thought of the way the police might play music not just... Continue Reading →
The Lay’Em Out Brigade
Just saw this footage of an Australian journalist reporting from Los Angeles getting shot in the calf by a rubber bullet. https://bsky.app/profile/luckytran.com/post/3lr5amqrwlc2j It puts me in mind of various things, including Jack London's novel The Iron Heel. ALSO, this poem below, which I learned about via Shakers and Movers, an astonishing song by Midnight Oil.... Continue Reading →
Cymbeline = imbecile-y (Bard to the Bone #04)
Yes, Cymbeline is an anagram of Imbecile-y. You can call it anagrammatical determinism if you like…. The play: Cymbeline Year written: 1609 or so Context of the writing (Shakespeare’s career, political events it was responding to): srsly, who cares? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymbeline Plot in a paragraph: I’d need more than a paragraph. It’s a mess. Cymbeline is... Continue Reading →
Timon of Athens: Bard to the Bone #03
Third of the plays in my “Bard to the Bone” effort at familiarising myself with the rest of the 38 plays (I have good familiarity with three or four, so-so with some others, little with some and, er, zilch, with about half). Year written: 1606 Context of the writing (Shakespeare’s career, political events it was... Continue Reading →
