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Articles by Martin Roberts

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About Martin Roberts

A former motoring journalist, Martin lists amongst his greatest achievements giving up smoking. Three times. He holds to the view that growing old is not for the faint-hearted. More Posts

Way to go, Bruce!

For my first selection – in an occasional series of great music live performances available to view on the internet – I have no hesitation in choosing Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) by American blue collar icon Bruce Springsteen, a song that appears on his 1973 second album The Wild, the Innocent, [...]

June 15, 2014 // 0 Comments

Not being there

You know how sometimes, quite by chance, you surprise yourself by suddenly contemplating one of the deep mysteries of existence? You know the sort of thing – why am I here? Where was I before I was born? If the Big Bang was the start of everything, what was happening before – something must [...]

June 12, 2014 // 0 Comments

Those were the days

I don’t know why or how, but I was reminded today of the famous roadside café scene from Five Easy Pieces (1970), directed by Bob Rafleson, one of Jack Nicholson’s early great movies. Looking at it again, one is reminded both by how good Jack was in those days – and indeed, how [...]

June 6, 2014 // 0 Comments

Depending upon your point of view …

In an interview featured the website of The Independent today (Tuesday 20th May) actress Gemma Arterton has expressed her reservations about the growing practice of broadcasting ‘live’ televised relays of theatrical performances, see here – GEMMA ARTERTON INTERVIEW I can understand [...]

May 20, 2014 // 0 Comments

Why has the world got it in for me?

Yesterday was simple in prospect. My car had developed an engine fault – at least that’s what my dashboard screen was telling me – so I had booked it into a dealer garage on the south coast at 8.00am to have the matter attended to and, whilst they were at it, give the old bus its 70,000 [...]

May 9, 2014 // 0 Comments

Making a choice about the past

An opportunity arose yesterday that has left me on the horns of a dilemma, as I shall now explain. I happen to possess two email addresses, the second set up a while back specifically as an intended ‘business’ version. Since then, as it happens, I have had precious little business to conduct [...]

April 21, 2014 // 0 Comments

Was it really that uncool?

At National Rust we’re hot upon observing what’s happening in modern life and how people ‘over a certain age’ react to it. In contrast, however, here’s a YouTube link to a fun video piece currently doing the rounds in which modern kids react to an iconic piece of [...]

April 16, 2014 // 0 Comments

A case of getting used to it?

At a few minutes past midnight, as this new variety of the institution became officially legal, the first same-sex marriage was duly conducted in Brighton, the south coast town where homosexuality has long been not just accepted but practically compulsory. I am not altogether supportive of this [...]

March 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Still bubbling …

Few things – not even politics – promote opinion and controversy like sport, which is half the reason it’s so central to modern culture and makes for such compelling viewing. Currently two leading sportsmen – one a soccer player, the other a cricketer – who may have departed [...]

February 12, 2014 // 0 Comments

Ditching the dispensible pilot

One of my favourite dinner party table tales concerns a distant relative who, in an important meeting with a group of European financiers, turned to his tax expert and asked for his view of an aspect of German tax law. Said gentleman respectfully declined to express one, saying that he didn’t [...]

February 5, 2014 // 0 Comments

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