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History

Farewell to one of the best

When it comes to having had personal acquaintance with the world’s Great and Good my historical record is relatively modest. Those that judge these things may hold that there are several degrees of qualifying ‘acquaintance’ but today I am concentrating upon just two – on the one hand, those [...]

September 25, 2020 // 0 Comments

The Truth about Franco/PBS

This PBS documentary on General Franco was thorough enough but you could see it was not made by Ken Burns as it was not nearly as even-handed as his work. The two experts most used were Franco’s biographer Paul Preston, who is resolutely anti-Franco, and the distinguished writer historian Anthony [...]

September 6, 2020 // 0 Comments

The day I finally got “The Boss”

This is another in my occasional series of musical items I have either discovered or returned to in the period since the Covid-19 pandemic began its tiresome journey around the world. Bruce Springsteen needs no introduction – he’s one of the USA’s all-time biggest musical icons and I’m not [...]

August 31, 2020 // 0 Comments

I stand corrected

I am grateful to a reader and friend for pointing out an error. In a recent piece I said that Winston Churchill was not a movie buff. In fact he loved the cinema and converted the dining room at Chartwell to a private cinema. His favourite film was Lady Hamilton starring Laurence Olivier and [...]

August 27, 2020 // 0 Comments

Just saying …

When you add the many tributaries that flow with the river of the Black Lives Matter campaign it seems to me – who must declare an interest because I write as a white British old age pensioner – that it all gets terribly confusing, especially since I’m both heartily in favour of ‘equality [...]

August 25, 2020 // 0 Comments

A brief return to an earlier subject

Somewhat to the surprise of the Rust‘s editor (he told me) but also as it happens myself, I have been receiving a steady flow of feedback since I began my occasional series on off-beat musical items I have come across whilst surfing the internet since the UK Covid-19 lockdown occurred – [...]

August 20, 2020 // 0 Comments

Unchartered territory

Regular readers will have to bear with me but – for those newer visitors attracted to this organ by its ever-growing global audience but perhaps unfamiliar with its origins and viewpoint(s) – I should explain that one of our founding principles is that we endeavour to provide a different, not [...]

August 16, 2020 // 0 Comments

The legend of Brian Wilson – and perhaps what might have been

Another in my series referencing music and musicians – mostly from eras that Rusters generally will be familiar with and/or recall with affection – with assistance from videos or other items that I’ve found online since the Covid-19 crisis hit the world. It could be argued that the culture of [...]

August 13, 2020 // 0 Comments

The Plot Against America

I promise you this is the last review you will have to read of HBO’s Plot Against America but the editor asked me to put it in a historical context. I have to start with the observation that this was not a documentary but a drama based on the fiction of Philip Roth. This said, a number of [...]

July 30, 2020 // 0 Comments

A moment in time

Like I suspect many Rusters I have spent of the period since the 2020 coronavirus era hit the UK continuing to do that which I did before, viz. tootling around on the internet in search of entertainment and/or enlightenment. This is the first of an occasional series on music-related items that [...]

July 15, 2020 // 0 Comments

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