Steve_Bamlett_blog

Examining coolly and dispassionately a narrative that Fiona Campbell of BBC Three said was without ‘malice’, and was in fact in her view an example of the mainly Black comedians on the show Famalam ‘poking fun at all stereotypes’, Obioma Ugoala says, with all kinds of evidence and witness to back him up, that myths … More This blog looks at a popular version of an old trope of racist cultures in Obioma Ugoala (2022) ‘The Problem With My Normal Penis: Myths of Race, Sex and Masculinity’.

“I built a stoa leading to the heart Of my dream palace, where I hung the heads Of lovers fooled by words”. Verse satisfied The rhythm of the loss he felt. Meanwhile The hole where once care lived, burnt red and raw, As if with Lightborn’s rod, cooled leather-hard. Edward, the second he knew this, … More Beware Edward the second you see him: a fictive man of taste. A little story!

‘Homosociality – or even homoeroticism – is the conscious as well as the unconscious underpinning of the almost unbearable build-up of visual and psychic tension. … How is it played out …?’[1] The queer vision in the black hole at the centre of Tom de Freston’s narrative work (2023) in Wreck: A Story of Art … More The queer vision at the centre of Tom de Freston’s work (2023) ‘Wreck: A Story of Art and Survival’.

Not seeing ‘the Maidenhead angle’ on stories about the refugees of war and oppression. Is One Life a film relevant to today or a prompt to easy emotion about events without current context? I saw this film with Geoff at the Durham Odeon, Monday 1st January 2024, 11.30 a.m. Geoff and  I saw this film … More Not seeing ‘the Maidenhead angle’ on stories about the refugees of war and oppression. Is ‘One Life’ a film relevant to today or a prompt to easy emotion about events without current context? I saw this film with Geoff at the Durham Odeon, Monday 1st January 2024, 11.30 a.m.

In a society where, as Guy Crashnitz in Gary Indiana’s Rent Boy (the crooked medic who sells stolen internal human body organs for a nice fortune) says ‘the global criminals, the ones gouging out billions here there and everywhere, not only never go to jail but in fact run the government from behind the scenes, … More A blog on Gary Indiana’s ‘Rent Boy’. In a society run by a ‘gang’ whose purpose is ‘to perpetuate itself and its ownership of everything’, then being a ‘penis for sale’ may teach you about the rule of power and money over human desire and self-worth.

Frank Ormsby a Northern Irish poet who has Parkinson’s Disease, experiences, like others with the same diagnosis, presences near to him that are usually ‘silent and unthreatening’. He writes about them in his poem Side Effects 1, thus for example: “… Who is that girl / I sense at my shoulder?”[1] This is a blog … More Frank Ormsby a Northern Irish poet who has Parkinson’s Disease, experiences, like others with the same diagnosis, presences near to him that are usually ‘silent and unthreatening’, like, for example: “… Who is that girl / I sense at my shoulder?”[1] Ben Alderson-Day (2023) ‘Presence: The strange science and true stories of the unseen other’.