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Arts

Preview of Modern British at Christie’s

Yesterday I attended a preview of an auction of Modern British art held by Christies. All the big names were there – L.S Lowry, Stanley Spencer, Ben Nicholson, Walter Sickert, Graham Sutherland – though their representative work was not of their highest quality. One of the factors in [...]

November 19, 2019 // 0 Comments

Robert Mitchum and Winds of War

The recent reference in Bernadette’s (Angell) negative review of World on Fire to Winds of War prompted me to acquire the 6 DVDs of the series and revisit the career of Robert Mitchum, one of my favourites of the leading Hollywood actors. Robert Mitchum was certainly not yer normal Hollywood [...]

November 17, 2019 // 0 Comments

World On Fire/ Winds of War

The last episode of World on Fire was a dreadful piece of TV drama. The series lost all credibility as on one hand it was painstaking in its period detail – but on the other, because of BBC diversity policy, a significant number of parts were unrealistically created and cast to provide ethnic [...]

November 12, 2019 // 0 Comments

2 1/2 sporting documentaries

Whilst grateful to Neil Rosen for his in-flight recommendation of Lost in Translation I was drawn to that section of movies on the plane titled “sports documentaries” and watched two and a half of those. The first was The Edge – the story behind the Revival of England cricket in 2007 [...]

November 10, 2019 // 0 Comments

Lost in Translation

The Rusters asked me to recommend an in-flight movie from the menu and I chose one of my favourite films set in Tokyo – Lost in Translation. It is the first film directed by Sofia Coppola and featured memorable performances by Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray. Bill Murray born in Chicago [...]

November 7, 2019 // 0 Comments

Japanese disaster – viewed from the sofa

So that’s it, then. Another World Cup – rugby’s this time – and “our boys” fall at the Final hurdle again. Global supremacy and immortality oh so near and yet also so far. But that’s how it should be, isn’t it? Wonder, vindication, elation and glory for one finalist – [...]

November 3, 2019 // 0 Comments

The lady has a point …

For the most part in the social circles I inhabit the subject of gender equality occasionally arises but causes debate less often. Credit where it is due – in more senses than one – for last summer’s revelatory Lyon & Turnbull exhibition Bright Souls: The Forgotten Story of [...]

November 1, 2019 // 0 Comments

When common sense goes AWOL

Yes, I am a male correspondent in his late sixties and therefore – despite any pretensions to being sympathetic to the cause of female emancipation I may claim from time to time – no doubt have the fairly rudimentary attitude towards feminism and women generally that as man of my generation [...]

October 31, 2019 // 0 Comments

I think I’m turning Japanese … [Not?]*

(Note: * above is a reference to the worldwide single hit Turning Japanese by The Vapors, taken off their 1980 album New Clear Days). Despite our Rust delegation out in Japan continuing to set new standards of reporting excellence, overnight I spotted a piece in the British media suggesting that [...]

October 30, 2019 // 0 Comments

Elisir D’Amore/ Glyndebourne on tour

After the road crash that was Rigoletto my faith in Glyndebourne was restored last night by its production of Donizetti’s comic opera Elisir d’Amore. It was respectful of the text of the story, had a good set and the singing was excellent, especially the South Korean tenor Sehoon Moon as [...]

October 23, 2019 // 0 Comments

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