Just in

World Affairs

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

It’s all going to pot

In this age of the internet and social media; Donald Trump; “fake news”; widespread global distrust of all politicians and media outlets of every kind; endemic double-dealing, skulduggery and corrupt practices of the elite/Establishment/realpolitik power-brokers everywhere; the [...]

August 4, 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

It could get worse again before it gets better

Having taken part in a number of conversations about the progress of the coronavirus pandemic over the last few days, I can say this for a fact: the more one learns about both ‘the science’ and the various ways in which governments around the world have been – and are – dealing with it, [...]

July 23, 2020 // 0 Comments

What’s going on

There’s little doubt that, besides forcing you to face up to the fact that time is passing – I always shock myself in replying whenever someone asks me what my kids are up to these days and how old they are – and, without necessarily meaning to add fuel to the fire, the generations coming [...]

July 22, 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

Coming to a sports stadium near you soon …

Yesterday’s announcement of the decision by American Football team the Washington Redskins to bow to the lunatic fringe of “woke” campaigners fighting to impose their views upon the world by dropping their ‘insulting’ second name could have widespread implications. Today – as part of [...]

July 14, 2020 // 0 Comments

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever”

Yesterday, John Keats’ poem Endymion came to mind yesterday as I concluded Alice Mansfield’s thoroughly absorbing Rust post on Courbet’s The Origins Of The World [10th July] and thereafter spent many hours contemplating the ideas and issues that it brought to focus. One of the features of [...]

July 11, 2020 // 0 Comments

What’s in a name? Plenty … er, obviously

It’s stating the obvious to mention it, but in a 21st Century dominated as it is in cultural and campaigning circles by themes of equality, diversity, LGBT [and is it Q? – in any event, the acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning rights], anti-colonialist and [...]

July 8, 2020 // 0 Comments

There’s nowt so queer as folk

Over the course of the UK’s lockdown from which we are now gradually emerging – I’ve no doubt in common with many Rusters and indeed other people of intelligence and a degree of artistic or creative sensibility – I experienced a wide range of different reactions and moods, some of [...]

July 4, 2020 // 0 Comments

1 102 103 104 105 106 150