tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64113758062186117362012-01-15T09:50:32.391Z~Following trails of mental breadcrumbs~Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.comBlogger611100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-5438155054544766142012-01-15T02:33:00.006Z2012-01-15T09:50:32.400Z

Hearing Terry Wogan on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs last week reminded me that he’s actually a rather nice man, but I had always loathed him…until I ended up sitting beside him at dinner. I hasten to add that it wasn’t the two of us on a romantic evening out. There were loads of other people there, including Arsenal/Leeds footballer David O’Leary and a saint--Bob Geldof, whose outfit made

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-64271149364905471362012-01-11T00:32:00.004Z2012-01-11T13:59:18.544Z

(I thought this had been posted on New Year’s Eve, but somehow it wasn’t….and it’s another meander through my memories, a leftover Christmas decoration, so enter at your peril….)If I don’t take down the holly wreath on my door before midnight, does that scupper my lottery win?I really need a lottery win now as I’m in dire straits, though I realise I only have a marginally greater chance of

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-91852027103124071352011-12-26T22:44:00.010Z2011-12-27T00:12:22.127Z

This will be a meandering little blog about a meandering little walk I had in Piccadilly the other day. It’s been quite a sorrowful Christmastime, but just that little wander managed to lift my spirits. I love London, and I love how, even though I’ve lived here for over 20 years, I still come across undiscovered pockets and new surprises that make me smile, particularly because parts are always

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-78767909981251129962011-12-04T01:13:00.002Z2011-12-04T01:28:47.069Z

One of the many things I thought I would do after being made redundant was to keep up this blog better, writing regularly, as well as update my website on music reviews and the like (I have photos and notes of dozens of concerts I’ve never written up that might be worth a re-visit, most recently The Bible reunion, Neil Finn’s PaJaMa Club live UK debut, Johnny Mathis, and many others).

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-19111813002354116122011-11-20T00:42:00.013Z2011-11-20T03:35:53.757Z

The South Bank Centre never ceases to amaze me with all it offers, and much for free. I used to simply rush to concerts there and run for my train just afterwards, never fully appreciating everything the Centre has to offer. Recently, I’ve learned that it’s a welcoming all-round arts centre, not just a concert venue, where people can go at any time of day to seek refuge from the cold and rain,

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-88659238076730606452011-11-20T00:17:00.003Z2011-11-20T02:19:17.135Z

Before I left the Tea and Coffee Festival at the South Bank Centre, laden with goodies and loads of new teas to try, I popped into the Royal Festival Hall for a moment and accidentally stumbled upon the World Press Photo Exhibition, also free. There were numerous images that many might find disturbing, including several of corpses, a Kenyan woman whose (underwear-covered) crotch was bleeding

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-43142670798815723812011-07-17T14:04:00.008+01:002011-07-17T21:53:02.574+01:00

Last night was the premier UK gig of Neil Finn’s new project, PaJaMa Club, which you technically could call an ‘indie band’ whose other Members comprise his wife Sharon (hence the ‘pa’ and ‘ma’ reference—which wouldn’t work with the British spelling of jimjams) on bass, Sean Donnelly (also known as SJD, a solo performer and Don McGlashan collaborator) on keyboards and guitar, and Alana Skyring (

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-46764209252307253202011-05-03T00:08:00.007+01:002011-05-03T00:29:25.954+01:00

Although I usually make full use of all that London has to offer in terms of fine music and theatre, Saturday was to be my last concert, as there is no more space on the credit cards and I am highly likely to be told on Friday that I’ll be made redundant, which will see me bankrupt and homeless by the end of the year. So it was an important concert to me, not just because of that and the need for

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-43240764549309727102011-05-02T17:20:00.025+01:002011-05-02T20:56:55.269+01:00

I wasn’t remotely interested in the Royal Wedding, and even less so because of all the ridiculous hype in the media beforehand, telling us how fascinated we were about who might have designed the dress and whether there had been a rehearsal. But I watched the event, and I watched it wearing jeans with my Grandmother’s pearls. I think she would have loved to have seen it, but tragically she died

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-15859213542841533032010-11-11T19:40:00.017Z2010-11-11T22:13:48.459Z

I had the absolute joy of experiencing an Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark concert on Sunday (7 November 2010) at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, something the 16-year-old me would have killed for in 1982 in the States when MTV first brought these amazing ‘new’ artists to my attention. I struggled to the concert on a Sunday (ie The Day of Sleeping Transport) excited but feeling that I should

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-49200344229736871082010-10-25T01:42:00.007+01:002010-10-25T13:03:03.075+01:00

I intend to write a full review of tonight's Neil Finn concert at the Jazz Cafe and post it to my About Last Night website, but for now, I thought I would post here the email to other Finn fans that I composed on my phone on the way home. I'll clarify and/or correct anything in the morning!......................Well, as I missed my train by two minutes as I was foolishly yet understandably too

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-7151314510128877402010-10-03T01:44:00.005+01:002010-10-03T01:53:58.651+01:00

Sometimes, when Spring comes around, I feel a bit self-conscious and exposed once I’ve shed my winter coat. It seems to take a bit of adjustment in travelling to and from work, including the long walk to the station, the train journey into town, and then the walk to the office, in whatever outfit I’m wearing without the comfort of the cover of my coat.And I don’t wear particularly remarkable

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-46160881761700986752010-10-02T23:43:00.013+01:002010-10-03T00:49:19.162+01:00

During the Pope’s recent brief visit to London, I managed to see him. I didn’t touch him or anything, and it certainly wasn’t an audience with him or an encounter where he greeted me with glee. I just watched as his fantastic popemobile passed by. Was it a moving experience? Not really. Not at all. It was kinda neat though.I am not Catholic, and whilst I respect the comfort that their faith gives

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-40624981911608059752010-09-04T23:08:00.017+01:002010-09-05T00:57:29.127+01:00

A while ago I went into town to photograph some of the elephant sculptures in the Elephant Parade, which was in aid of the conservation of Asian elephants, as I wanted to catch them in their ‘natural habitat’, ie the various places they’d been placed across London before they were lined up together as a giant herd on the lawn of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. I’ll post those photos later, but I made

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-53807983080609125742010-08-09T02:42:00.010+01:002010-08-30T03:59:14.124+01:00

This is probably unwise to do in the wee hours of the morn with no sleep, but I'm back from a remarkable Tim Finn gig at London's Scala in King's Cross, which I very nearly didn't go to, an insane near-tragedy. I will post my formal review with photographs to my AboutLastNight site [actually, I've now done so; see the Tim Finn page], but I meanwhile sent out an email with the setlist and some

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-4826298379546769312010-06-11T00:34:00.003+01:002010-06-11T07:15:32.986+01:00

Although the days are long gone of my arriving home from a concert at 1am and immediately writing a play-by-play account of it and uploading that with my photographs to my website (http://aboutlastnight.org.uk/index.html ) before going to bed, I do hope to write up the detailed reviews of the Crowded House concerts I delighted in seeing at the Hammersmith Apollo this week in the next few days.

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-23981973546769560232010-05-24T01:56:00.006+01:002010-06-05T17:38:50.441+01:00

On Friday, I tried to swing past the Barbican Centre for one more visit to see those remarkable zebra finches imitate Jimi Hendrix, but I was foiled.I’m referring to the Céleste Boursier-Mougenot exhibition, where a flock of zebra finches live in an exhibition space furnished with several electric guitars and bass guitars placed flat, perpendicular with the floor, on stands and plugged into

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-31214717594908704532010-02-25T15:35:00.009Z2010-02-27T02:13:39.172Z

If you live or work in the City of London, be sure to visit Finsbury Circus this week. It will be your last chance to see it in its original state, and your last chance to enjoy it at all for at least seven years, as it will become a building site for Crossrail from 1 March.Finsbury Circus is the oldest and largest open space in the City. A short distance between Moorgate and Liverpool Street

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-32058674132126029852010-02-10T18:15:00.002Z2010-02-15T01:44:35.649Z

The other weekend, for the first time in my life, I dialled 999 (the English equivalent of 911). I did so amidst the campaigns just launched about not troubling the emergency services for minor things as too many people do, and the news stories that the emergency services could not keep up with calls because of the relatively heavy snow that had been draped over the land for a week or so.

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-72503638474708011672009-12-14T00:31:00.005Z2009-12-14T00:55:40.915Z

Several times today and over the next fortnight, the channel Movies24+ is showing a film called The Christmas Card, which has made me delve a bit into my past and look up some old acquaintances—in the modern way without actually contacting them, but instead doing a Google search. The Christmas Card is a pleasant enough, indeed warmly likeable Hallmark-style television film about a family-less

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-65116337226700348032009-10-31T18:57:00.003Z2009-10-31T19:04:03.383Z

Okay, I’m rubbish again. I’ve updated neither my website nor blog for ages. That’s because every waking moment, I am struggling to meet work deadlines, apart from the few events I’ve attended for the sole purpose of ensuring I have at least two hours now and then when I’m not working. Plus, you really shouldn't just live in London and not live in London; there's so much going on. I have in mind

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-3231601537556847132009-09-26T18:53:00.004+01:002009-09-26T19:25:51.597+01:00

I’m always being told to slow down; I rush around madly and people can never keep up, and even when I’m standing still, I seem to encourage people to suggest that I should calm down when I actually feel quite chilled, other than perhaps some frustration at the listener’s inability to keep my pace and his or her misinterpretation of my mood. I’ve noticed that people I’ve been talking to more often

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-70360550927222695392009-09-26T18:47:00.002+01:002009-09-26T18:53:42.464+01:00

I've been a bad blogger. I've neglected my website and totally neglected my blog, which is a shame because I've had so many millions of things that I've intended to blog about (although I always doubt that anyone is reading so it shrinks down the priority list sometimes). Some things I jotted down a few thoughts about, planning to post something that evening, but work has dominated everything.

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-35258151803401438402009-05-25T03:12:00.006+01:002009-05-25T12:08:10.389+01:00

Tomorrow I should have the pleasure of seeing Boo Hewerdine, Heidi Talbot, John McCusker and Eddi Reader in concert at the South Bank. To celebrate and stoke up the mood, I’ve drawn up a playlist on Spotify with some selections from those artists as well as a few related to them in some way, such as Brian Kennedy, Declan O’Rourke, Martha Wainwright and her pater, Loudon Wainwright III, Jools

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-18869970593792847082009-04-19T23:27:00.008+01:002009-04-26T20:59:01.702+01:00

The final episode of Orangutan Diary will be shown on BBC2 today at 5.30pm and shows highlights from the past series. Even if you can’t tune in or view the episodes online, I would suggest you get the wonderful DVD of the whole second series. Not only are the baby orang-utans adorable (and disconcertingly like human babies, even laughing when tickled) even to those unsuspecting folks who would

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-34677531762143022562009-04-13T20:05:00.002+01:002009-04-13T20:12:03.263+01:00

Well, I’ve tried to celebrate Easter in English style again, but I can’t help thinking back with fond nostalgia to how we celebrate it in America, and I think that comes up trumps.I love it here in London but I do think that children would surely enjoy a visit from the Easter Bunny more than what seems to be such a serene holiday here. Although I do acknowledge one perk in having such a long

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-18877100353689911622009-04-13T18:58:00.003+01:002009-04-13T19:30:55.738+01:00

Having seen the King of Starbucks, Howard Schulz, recently promoting on BBC Breakfast Starbucks’ Via Ready Brew, its new instant coffee, I was reminded that I meant to blog about bumping into Schulz’ head UK honcho in FebruaryThat is, during an excursion to Starbucks for my addictive elixir, I ended up meeting the MD of Starbucks UK. Either that or he was just one of those weirdo

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-11568663576276978762009-04-01T15:12:00.001+01:002009-04-01T15:21:34.918+01:00

I’m not normally the clumsy, make-a-fool of myself type, and certainly not at work, but then when rushing to a meeting the other day, I certainly messed up with a bang. Or rather not a bang but a shrill alarm sound.I had about a half hour between meetings but about 40 minutes worth of urgent work to do between them, and also had to go out foraging for a salad to scoff, whilst dealing with the

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-71079576661303064042009-02-16T06:49:00.002Z2009-02-16T06:51:46.631Z

Typically, I've many things that I've wanted to post but have been totally tied up with work (and involuntary sleep). For now, I'll just add my frustrated, uh, two-pennith worth about the plans for banks that have been bailed out by the taxpayer to award millions in bonuses to its employees....Bankers taking bonuses amidst the current economic devastation, particularly from bailed-out banks like

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-50985432035499168752009-01-10T02:07:00.003Z2009-01-10T02:30:20.584Z

I was speaking with an acquaintance on Wednesday as he thanked me for sending a congrats note about his MBE in the New Year’s Honours, something which I’ll waffle about in my next entry probably (eg what it was like going to the Palace for his induction when my ex- got an MBE himself), and said acquaintance, who lives at a respectable central London address, complained about the residence of Tony

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-70726841387414054222009-01-06T15:44:00.002Z2009-04-11T22:58:41.508+01:00

I have loads to mention but have had no time recently, so for now I will just refer to a good cause.....Please do not just throw out your Christmas cards, or even put them in your Council's wastepaper recycling scheme. The Woodland Trust always runs a special Christmas card recycling scheme this time of year, and your cards will end up doing much more good if you recycle them that way.Just take

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-50038005442236760282008-12-30T16:26:00.001Z2008-12-30T16:26:31.344Z

Very late on Christmas night, I realised that the sliced roast chicken I use to bribe my cats to take their tablets had just passed its sell-by date, so I decided to go put it out near the back garden for any passing foxes to enjoy.  I was surprised, when I opened my front door, to find that someone had partly pushed through my letterbox a small gift-wrapped present—bigger than a jewellery box

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-45819305919665137182008-12-26T20:46:00.008Z2009-04-11T22:55:17.149+01:00

I've intended for weeks to post something about recommended Christmas music, as I have a shocking number of CDs and now downloaded Christmas classics and new, alternative songs, but December and Christmas just seemed to appear suddenly after October (and I would have included Loudon Wainwright III's song Suddenly It's Christmas). Even though here in England, you have Boxing Day and celebrate the

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-11699849552461158742008-12-24T13:28:00.003Z2009-04-11T22:59:18.806+01:00

I thought I would randomly (and hurriedly) witter about a few last minute gift suggestions that might be of use to someone or other.First, the Sony E-book Reader…..I’d had my eye on it for over a year, and it was the e-book reader of choice in all the reviews (particularly as the Amazon Kindle initially had no hopes of being released in the UK, and even though it might be in 2009, the Sony

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-50336372933229922512008-12-05T18:49:00.004Z2008-12-05T19:34:23.981Z

While I’m definitely not a fan of Strictly Come Dancing (!!)—though I did see a bit of the American version because 82-year-old firecracker Cloris Leachman was a contestant (and can kick her legs higher than I can and I’m half her age, plus she was tremendously entertaining)—and I’m sick to death of this format and wish the Beeb would employ some screenwriters for a change--I was amused by the

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-49144569465315757322008-11-06T05:03:00.010Z2009-04-11T23:06:40.346+01:00

The US presidential election results are good news in the sense that I feel proud that my country could elect a black president a mere 40 years after the horrid civil rights injustices in the 1960s. I must admit I thought it would be much longer before it could happen as there are still so many people in the States who find the thought absolutely unpalatable.Unlike here in the UK, people in the

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-59667657246903888782008-10-13T04:13:00.012+01:002009-04-26T20:11:56.716+01:00

I recently attended a dinner at Broadgate Tower, the new 35-storey British Land development at 201 Bishopsgate that was only recently completed and isn’t actually opened yet. It was an interesting concept, although it did involve the guests clambering over a moat-like pit to reach the pavement by the building, then traipsing through passages amongst the endless hoarding, loud footsteps echoing

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-84266251922754023662008-10-10T00:25:00.006+01:002009-04-11T22:59:44.949+01:00

Sorry for the long break owing to sadness, a quick trip to the States, over a month of debilitating illness, then returning to my old ways of working all the time, but with the new post-illness twist of falling asleep as soon as I get home, as though I’m 93. I have during this period scribbled down a couple things most days that I wanted to get off my chest on the blog, but never managed to put

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-17739132669856273952008-06-13T07:26:00.010+01:002009-04-11T23:05:52.954+01:00

It is with nearly unbearable sadness that I must announce the passing of my most precious Darryl, who has brought me endless cheer and looked after me beautifully well over the past 19 years.Darryl, who was born in my bedroom in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1989, died on 2 June in my lounge in London, England, at the human equivalent age of 93. He was a Pewter Persian, born to my Blue Persian

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-58700257146698846722008-05-12T07:13:00.001+01:002008-05-12T07:24:50.374+01:00

Today is Mother’s Day in the States. As I didn’t have the many reminders that the card shops thrust upon you nearer the time, since Mother’s Day in England is in March, I’m worried I didn’t post my card in time, so I will ring my mother in the States as well. I’m just waiting for her to return to her home, as she spent the weekend with her own mother in Pennsylvania, and is now miles above the

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-47500650589143922592008-05-07T07:10:00.006+01:002009-04-26T20:10:55.091+01:00

As a Londoner, I try to take advantage of many of the wonderful cultural things on offer, particularly the one-off opportunities, such as seeing the triple bill some years ago of Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Chuck Berry, or seeing Simon and Garfunkel in Hyde Park, or even the Chinese Terracotta Army in the British Museum’s First Emperor exhibition.Unfortunately, I had to forgo such an

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-35316759458829654912008-05-05T23:47:00.006+01:002009-04-26T20:10:08.012+01:00

I’ve been a failure as a blogger and must rectify that and many other things. I seem to have become a lifeless person, a female dull boy. I have a place full of fun things to do and play with, projects to delve into, a head full of things to write, but I just don’t have a spare second to do anything, no me time. Is this because I have 30 children? No, thank God. That’s the mystery; apart from an

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-34970901899248512932008-02-25T00:31:00.004Z2008-02-25T01:58:01.792Z

Having upgraded my MP3 player and finding myself with twice as much space than before, I’ve recently spent way too much time loading up the more obscure albums and compilations that didn’t make the ‘first cut’ of my previous player, which still had a significant capacity. As time went on and my compulsive CD buying continued, I had to prune more and more songs from the Creative Zen so that I

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-25328869416183718522008-01-17T21:32:00.000Z2008-01-17T22:26:44.058Z

I am not following the Diana, Princess of Wales, inquest closely because I, unlike Mohammed Fayed, understand that even famous people can die in car crashes (see James Dean, Harry Chapin, Eddie Cochran, Albert Camus, Margaret Mitchell, Jayne Mansfield, Isadora Duncan, General George S Patton, Jackson Pollock, Bessie Smith,, Lisa Lopes, to name a few). Indeed, there is even a precedent for

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-70187144983636406852008-01-10T07:29:00.000Z2008-01-18T11:52:12.334Z

If you’re near the South Bank in London this week, or if you are looking for an unusual gift of jewellery, it would be worth popping into the Dazzle exhibition at the National Theatre, but you must hurry as it ends on Saturday, 12 January. I believe it will open in Glasgow in April.I meant to go last year but missed it, but yesterday managed to get there at lunchtime and found my mother’s

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-60648059652979645372007-12-24T18:05:00.002Z2009-04-26T20:09:20.441+01:00

As an animal lover, I was surprised and enormously cheered to find a lovely fox curled up asleep in the middle of my urban garden at lunchtime on Saturday…and unfortunately, this delight led to a bit of embarrassment on the train this morning. I didn’t accidentally take the fox to work with me—nothing like that.On Saturday, I had just come back from the vets (got all my shots!) and felt somewhat

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-79708786286331112132007-12-21T13:37:00.001Z2009-04-11T22:57:14.955+01:00

Typically, my best intentions to say lots have been scuppered by work commitments, but I should improve soon. For now, I thought I'd pass on part of an e-mail that nearly amused me from good ol' Virgin Media, formerly ntl, now "the UK's first quadplay provider" of digital TV , broadband, phone and mobile services. You would think that would mean they knew a bit about communications.My Virgin

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-52998950501967359032007-12-08T13:03:00.001Z2009-04-11T22:56:40.629+01:00

Sorry for the lack of posts but I’m so often snowed under by work….I hope to post something shortly but in the interim, I shall do something boring, just let you know what my MP3 player played me (in random play mode) yesterday on the train. It was in an agreeable, peaceful mood, and led me to reminisce about my brief encounters with Pete Townshend and Bobby McFerrin (they weren't together).1.

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-50655991025507363202007-11-30T20:56:00.001Z2009-04-11T22:55:48.326+01:00

I meant to post this Wednesday but work pressures intervened….I found myself this lunchtime at the lovely RSA building just off the Strand, sitting in a muralled 250-year-old room with a small group of mostly older, eccentric academics facing a desk behind which Jon Snow, the hugely respectable Channel 4 newsreader, faced back, killing a few minutes until the subject of the “In Conversation with”

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-55594256235514554412007-11-30T20:41:00.001Z2009-04-11T22:56:09.155+01:00

Despite spending decades carefully constructing mixed tapes, CDs and minidiscs in order to introduce friends to new music, I find that I happily passed control to my Creative Zen Vision M and have still been unable to take it off random play. The once or twice when I sorted a playlist so I could better get to know my new albums, which are otherwise completely lost amongst the nearly 7700 tracks,

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-39575355690930538912007-11-28T16:52:00.001Z2009-04-11T23:06:58.194+01:00

A neighbour has put their Christmas lights up already. It seems so early. As Loudon says (in my post below), Suddenly It’s Christmas. Though, to be fair, we Americans think of the Friday after Thanksgiving as officially heralding in the Christmas season, and that was last Friday, so I suppose everything is in order even here in the UK.Maybe what worries me is that these lights are not lovely,

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-33976086342182718942007-11-24T19:53:00.001Z2009-04-11T23:08:01.578+01:00

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate it. I’m an American in London who has no family in this country, and the holiday is all about travelling to spend the four-day weekend with your family. Everyone has much the equivalent of a Christmas dinner on Thanksgiving, the fourth Thursday of November, and then they watch the Macy’s parade of giant floating Shrek (and the like) balloons or

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-2752141164610017872007-11-24T18:55:00.001Z2009-04-11T23:08:29.163+01:00

I recently had the joy of experiencing a hospital as an outpatient, pleased that I only had to worry about problems with my feet, which would involve no embarrassing stripping or awkward exposure. It didn’t occur to me that I should be a lot more worried since we tend to depend on our feet a fair bit to get around, particularly if, like me, you live in a city, don’t have a car, and walking

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-89449473878722547882007-11-23T14:52:00.001Z2009-04-11T23:04:12.579+01:00

My post below on the engrossing Panorama programme on Alan Johnston was written shortly after it aired, but the day job seeps into nights and weekends so much that I rarely have time to post my (long and rambling) thoughts. One thing the apparently incredibly decent Alan mentioned in that interview and others he has been giving was that the night he was taken hostage in Gaza, the kidnappers'

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-24047943434579498002007-11-23T04:37:00.001Z2009-04-11T23:03:12.889+01:00

[I meant to post this yonks ago…]Imagine beginning your day with root canal surgery. Surely you would think the day could only improve from there. But not so for Alan Johnston, the BBC correspondent based in Gaza, the only western journalist living in the dangerous Gaza Strip, who on 12 March this year was due to return home 16 days later after a three-year stint. Alan left the calmer grounds of

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-45315531604080145112007-11-23T01:34:00.001Z2009-04-11T23:04:43.248+01:00

When tuning dutifully into the Lord Mayor’s Show this year for a moment, as my work in the Square Mile makes me feel I should at least momentarily glance at the parade, I was appalled to hear the BBC presenter ask viewers to text in comments for their friends who were participating in the show, so the texts could run feed-style across the bottom of the screen. Seriously, is there no end to this

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-50035713074120960922007-11-22T23:03:00.000Z2007-11-26T22:14:05.074Z

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the repeats of the early series of the original British television version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? being shown on Dave, formerly known as UKG2. (Renamed, I suppose, to be blokier as the channel has Top Gear on loop. Maybe all channels could change to names of men you’d come across in a pub, and we’d be saying, ‘Did you see that Attenborough special last night on

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-3182946043136774592007-11-22T22:26:00.001Z2009-04-26T20:17:31.448+01:00

Despite the myriad complaints I have about ntl/VirginMedia, and how I wish that rather than spend a fortune on Uma Thurman’s attempts to lure innocent young men blindly to their Dark Side, they’d put that money into providing even a modicum of customer service, I can applaud them for one thing: recently giving us DivaTV. It almost makes up for the channels that we’ve lost. DivaTV (Ch 192)

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-21560876969429379232007-11-19T18:01:00.000Z2008-01-18T19:19:09.253Z

I accidentally recently half-watched the programme on Barry Manilow (Barry Alan Pincus) on the Biography Channel, and was interested to learn how he got started. I suppose I had heard that he originally wrote advertising jingles, and the programme said that, in order to keep the audience’s attention in his early shows as an unknown, he would perform a medley of the famous jingles he’d written and

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-71121337957221648282007-11-17T19:36:00.001Z2009-04-11T23:05:23.758+01:00

I’ve been watching old episodes (the only type) of the LWT comedy series Doctor in the House. I have a soft spot for this series as it was one of the few English programmes I could see when I was growing up in the States, shown usually near midnight on the little watched public broadcast channel, PBS. That was in the early 80s and even then, this 70s programme looked severely dated, perhaps

Brain Tracerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05441537319439268497noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6411375806218611736.post-64991115433917574252007-09-30T17:07:00.001+01:002009-04-26T20:18:27.893+01:00

September has brought a sadness for the loss of more than just the summer; I feel as though I have lost a pet. I should think in more positive terms as though it was taken to live on a farm where there’s more room for it to run around—or fly around—and live happily ever after, or so I hope. What pet? A pigeon. Not one of those fancy ones, the poodles of the pigeon world, nor a homing one. No,

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