Feeling the Baroque and Roll of the Classical Drama and Leigh Bowery over two days in London.

January 29, 2025

Now hubby Geoff is so unexpectedly well so soon, I am off comprehensive culture -seeking in London again on the 26th-27th February. It’s a return that promises to make me feel the Baroque and Roll of the Classical Drama and Leigh Bowery over two days. Hubby Geoff now so well he is finding fault with … More Feeling the Baroque and Roll of the Classical Drama and Leigh Bowery over two days in London.

I have always avoided this WordPress prompt question because the word ‘sport’ feels a source of great discomfort to me. Why might that be so?

January 27, 2025

I have always avoided this WordPress prompt question because the word ‘sport’ feels a source of great discomfort to me. Why might that be so? The occasion of ‘sport’, even a too frequent use of the word, does cause me discomfort and I have no explanation of this beyond that I felt as a young … More I have always avoided this WordPress prompt question because the word ‘sport’ feels a source of great discomfort to me. Why might that be so?

The limits of ‘Feeling the Fear and Doing It Anyway’ can be felt standing at a cliff-edge!

January 26, 2025

Susan Jeffers’s book, Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway: How to Turn Your Fear and Indecision into Confidence and Action, is by now a kind of holy text of popular psychology, used not only, as it was intended, at first at least, to address anxiety that locks people into extremely limited lives but to … More The limits of ‘Feeling the Fear and Doing It Anyway’ can be felt standing at a cliff-edge!

The art of cooking might after all be another defensive response to ‘raw’ truth.

January 24, 2025

G.K. Chesterton wrote What’s Wrong with the World’ in 1910 and I have, I have to admit, never read it but I did search out a context for the quotation that is a little wider and here it is: “Nobody says, “This washerwoman rips up the left leg of my pyjamas; now if there is … More The art of cooking might after all be another defensive response to ‘raw’ truth.

In the self-published memoir-cum-novel ‘poof: a curriculum vitae’, James, the narrator, generalises on the background human condition assumed in the work. He says, for instance: ‘Despair over our own existences certainly makes us bury obvious truths. Masochistic for meaning, we give ourselves over to existing powers so easily’.  At another point, James says: ‘Now I have become a master of fieldwork psychology’. Yet we cannot know the full context in which  that naming of a role has meaning. This blog tries to read this analytic novel’s study of the lives of masters and slaves, and a world where power seems all there is in relationships, in a way that makes sense to me.

January 23, 2025

In the self-published memoir-cum-novel poof: a curriculum vitae, James, the narrator, generalises on the background human condition assumed in the work. He says, for instance:  ‘Despair over our own existences certainly makes us bury obvious truths. Masochistic for meaning, we give ourselves over to existing powers so easily’.[1]  At one point, James says: ‘Now I … More In the self-published memoir-cum-novel ‘poof: a curriculum vitae’, James, the narrator, generalises on the background human condition assumed in the work. He says, for instance: ‘Despair over our own existences certainly makes us bury obvious truths. Masochistic for meaning, we give ourselves over to existing powers so easily’.  At another point, James says: ‘Now I have become a master of fieldwork psychology’. Yet we cannot know the full context in which  that naming of a role has meaning. This blog tries to read this analytic novel’s study of the lives of masters and slaves, and a world where power seems all there is in relationships, in a way that makes sense to me.

“They say retirement’s a time for leisure / But not necessarily for pleasure”.

January 22, 2025

They say retirement’s a time for leisureBut not necessarily for pleasure. The little iambic couplet I composed, with obligatory soft and feminine rhymes (don’t blame me though for the sexist nomenclature of the discourse of poetic technique where double rhymes are named both feminine and weak), for this sad blog is meant to look at … More “They say retirement’s a time for leisure / But not necessarily for pleasure”.

Leslie, the Rent Boy, offers five things to his new punter, Herbert.

January 21, 2025

In the 1964 comedy,Rattle of a Simple Man, a Northerner (in 1964 a synonym for a simpleton to the London elite) goes to visit a prostitute because of a bet he has with his mates (down in London to watch a football match) who think he he is impotent with fear. He spends the night … More Leslie, the Rent Boy, offers five things to his new punter, Herbert.

‘Gladiator II’ is a turkey – not least because it goes to great lengths to avoid being a queer turkey!! The inheritance of heroic Roman Republican virtue, aptitude for bearing a sword, and heteronormativity in Ridley’s Rome.

January 20, 2025

‘Gladiator II’ is a turkey – not least because it goes to great lengths to avoid being a queer turkey!! The inheritance of heroic Roman Republican virtue, aptitude for bearing a sword, and heteronormativity in Ridley’s Rome. Posted on January 20, 2025 by stevendouglasblog Weighed down with excess swordplay in the best cine-poster for Gladiator II , Paul Mescal’s … More ‘Gladiator II’ is a turkey – not least because it goes to great lengths to avoid being a queer turkey!! The inheritance of heroic Roman Republican virtue, aptitude for bearing a sword, and heteronormativity in Ridley’s Rome.

Why offer me a dream of doing what might be better never done.

January 19, 2025

The idea of winning the lottery – or winning the pools as was the norm when when I was a child and before the advent of a state lottery in the UK – may have appealed once as an means of evoking impossible resolutions to real problems – real or relative poverty, economic insecurity and … More Why offer me a dream of doing what might be better never done.