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It was grim back then (or was it?)

These days it isn’t unusual – when recounting to modern listeners nostalgic tales of the more bizarre and hair-shirted practices experienced by those of us who went to British boarding “public schools” [what might more properly be described as “private schools” anywhere else in the [...]

September 21, 2021 // 0 Comments

Music of the movies

Sky Arts have assembled their normal team of Neil Norman, Ian Nathan, Steven Armstrong and Dr Bonnie Greer to cast their expertise on the subject of film scores. These can define a movie. Zinnemann Take for example Bernard Herman’s score of Psycho or rather take it away from the famous stabbing [...]

September 18, 2021 // 0 Comments

My art week

Pending the return of my art courses next week, my art week concentrated more on two arts programmes on BBC4. The first was called Ego and was presented by Observer art critic Laura Cumming.  She featured the art of self/portraiture. She started with a 1500 self portrait by and of Albrecht Dürer [...]

September 17, 2021 // 0 Comments

Let battle commence

Padraig Harrington announced his team after Billy Horschel won the European flagship event, the BMW at Wentworth. In a perfect world he would have hoped that Bernd Weisberger would not have been an automatic qualifier and Shane Lowry would. The end result was that the Open winner of 2018 would be a [...]

September 13, 2021 // 0 Comments

US Ryder Cup team

US captain Steve Stricker has picked his team:- Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Xavier Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Tony Finau, Brooks Koepka, Bryson Dechambeau, Danny Berger, Jordan Spieth, Harris English, Patrick Cantlay. He has gone for PGA form over Ryder Cup experience as 6 of them are [...]

September 12, 2021 // 0 Comments

Hail Emma

A fact little commented on before or after this wonderful victory is the joy it has brought the nation. We always like a British champion winning on foreign soil: think Ken Buchanan, Justin Rose winning the US Open and, before him, Tony Jacklin and the British Lions. First the stats. Emma Raducanu [...]

September 12, 2021 // 0 Comments

My art week

Yesterday I went to the home of my art tutor for lunch. Although we have a common interest in art conversation with her and her husband, a jazz drummer who has played with many of the greats, is wide ranging. She likes to talk of high-end dining, travel and her family and always comes up with some [...]

September 11, 2021 // 0 Comments

Yet more plans adrift

For the second day of my friends’ visit I had decided to take them to Devil’s Dyke, a local beauty spot which John Constable painted and described as the grandest view on earth. It has commanding views over Sussex and beyond. Sadly there was a sea fret which created a pea souper that meant one [...]

September 10, 2021 // 0 Comments

And here (possibly) is one he made earlier

Most Rusters will be at least aware of the infamous Salvador Mundi, the subject of one of the art world’s all time greatest controversies, which – if legend is to be believed –  currently resides upon a massive super yacht owned by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin [...]

September 10, 2021 // 0 Comments

The treading of a dangerous line

One of the downsides of being a senior citizen – besides straightforward “invisibility” as far as other generations are concerned – is that often one can see “the bleedin’ obvious” when others cannot and yet nobody will believe or take any notice of you when you point out this benefit [...]

August 31, 2021 // 0 Comments

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