Artworks ‘are coagulations of the time their creators spent making them. They offer us a particular quality of time’s passing, and ask for our time in response. But how much time? …’.[1] Truth-telling in spite of the academic conventions: a case study of how to do this in Joe Moshenska’s (2021) Making Darkness Light: The … More Artworks ‘are coagulations of the time their creators spent making them. They offer us a particular quality of time’s passing, and ask for our time in response. But how much time? …’. Truth-telling in spite of the academic conventions: a case study of how to do this in Joe Moshenska’s (2021) ‘Making Darkness Light: The Lives and Times of John Milton’

Watching Prince in Purple Rain – a blog. Paying a debt to a friend who introduced me to this artist. It simply amazes me that I have watched and enjoyed Purple Rain and even more so that I want to write about it. For this film is a long way from the status of an … More Watching Prince in ‘Purple Rain’ – a blog. Paying a debt to a friend who introduced me to this artist.

Watching Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland – a blog. It is quite usual I suppose when considering a film on mainstream cinema to make much of its cast, but despite the wonderful achievements of its professional actors – particularly Frances McDormand – in this case you feel you have to start with its non-professional cast. Modern-day nomadic … More Watching Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland – a blog.

Card text in jpegs. Full text typed below. As Christmases go, this takes the first prize Because at Blue Stone the hosts’ kindly eyes Look for each trick to increase our pleasure. Urgently careful, meticulously clever, Each guest feels themselves to be a true friend Soon after they enter until the end, That comes too … More Steve and Geoff wish A Happy Christmas to Blue Stone Cafe:

‘You … “as Virginia [Woolf] once told Stephen Spender, ”have to be broken by things before you can write about them”.  It was this, one suspects that T.S. Eliot meant when he told her “the young don’t take art or politics seriously enough”’.  Can reviews really help us to know the qualities that make a … More ‘You … “as Virginia [Woolf] once told Stephen Spender, ”have to be broken by things before you can write about them”.  Can reviews really help us to know the qualities that make a book readable and/or valuable: a case study using Will Loxley’s (2021) ‘Writing In The Dark: Bloomsbury, the Blitz and Horizon Magazine’

This blog is a postscript to an earlier one revisiting its errors in the light of Andrew McMillan’s new poem for Manchester Literary Festival. But it can be read without the earlier blog. @AMcMillanPoet Not long ago I quizzed some words in a short essay by Andrew McMillan, possibly my favourite poet. I did this, … More This blog is a postscript to an earlier one revisiting its errors in the light of Andrew McMillan’s new poem for Manchester Literary Festival. But it can be read without the earlier blog. @AMcMillanPoet

HITT Circuits once never did cause me pain, As from walking into gyms I’d abstain Passing their doors with over-hasty tread, Preferring instead to stay tuck’d in bed. Year on year till so large my body grew Covering wasting muscles with inches. Few Heartbeats were recorded, and no step-count Register’d. The only hill I’d mount … More HAPPY CHRISTMAS! Crook Community Leisure Centre (the gym)

Visiting Manchester – Highlights. Wednesday 8th to Saturday 11th December. It is enough to see a friend but to see him in a vibrant city full of light, however commercialised, good food and history was special. This blog won’t feature many pictures of Justin because he is notoriously camera-shy, but keen eyes might pick him … More Visiting Manchester

Can technology really ‘have you interacting with art in ways you never imagined’?[1] This blog reflects on the Van Gogh Alive Exhibition by Grande Exhibition seen at MediaCity, Manchester on Thursday 9th December 11 am, with reference to the Official Programme. Van Gogh has been used as appropriate material for exhibitions through reproductions, rather than … More Can technology really ‘have you interacting with art in ways you never imagined’? This blog reflects on the Van Gogh Alive Exhibition by Grande Exhibition seen at MediaCity, Manchester on Thursday 9th December 11 am, with reference to the Official Programme.

“If the paintings are palimpsests, the books are reliquaries, filled with asynchronous wonders. / … / … preferring to animate old revels by injecting them with a chaotic modern element”.[1]  How and why the art of Derek Jarman defies time as we think we know it to be and as we think we know it … More “If the paintings are palimpsests, the books are reliquaries, filled with asynchronous wonders … preferring to animate old revels by injecting them with a chaotic modern element”. How and why the art of Derek Jarman defies time as we think we know it to be and as we think we know it works. This blog reflects on Seán Kissane & Karim Rehmann-White (Eds.) ‘Derek Jarman: Protest’

This blog uses examples of artworks but is in fact really about how the confused mess of discourse surrounding how the meaning of pictures that focus their gaze upon men is named and/or interpreted. It refers also to the selection from the Nini-Treadwell photographic collection in that beautiful book of wanton over-naming and over-interpretation (which … More This blog is about how the confused mess of discourse surrounding HOW the meaning of pictures that focus their gaze upon men is named and/or interpreted. It refers to Paolo Maria Noseda, Hugh Nini & Neal Treadwell (2020) ‘Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love 1850s – 1950s’

“… every lapse from the imaginative into the idées reçues” of orthodoxy is disappointing”.[1]  Once upon a time there was a world where John Burnside’s statement about the nature of an artist’s writing set appropriate expectations for a reader. Has this time gone? This blog reflects on Burnside’s (2021) Aurochs and Auks: Essays on Mortality … More “… every lapse from the imaginative into the ‘idées reçues’ of orthodoxy is disappointing”. This blog reflects on Burnside’s (2021) ‘Aurochs and Auks: Essays on Mortality and Extinction’ Cornwall, Little Toller Books.