People carry in their hearts an inconsolable longing for something and they are never quite sure what it is. Most people’s lives go on as if they have no choice because they have no choice. Choice is the province of the privileged and daring. Most of us are neither. We have jobs, families, fears and responsibilities. […]
Monthly Archives: March 2022
Bob Dylan Has Something To Say
Some critics say Bob Dylan does not have a great vocal range. Others complain that his arrangements are more discordant than one hundred drummers whose hands are a-blazing. They miss the point. Bob Dylan has something to say. When the mise en scène is a perfect Ming vase of stage sets, props, costumes, lighting and production, you […]
Liars Rule the World
Boris Johnson is a liar. Donald Trump is a liar; famous for lying. Vladimir Putin is a liar. Liars rule the world. Johnson is one of those liars who lies even when it is not necessary to do so. He lies because lies gush from him like water from the cistern when you pull the […]
Orpheus and Eurydice in the Underworld
The secret of a great love story is that the lovers are drawn together like magnets, then torn apart by circumstances. Or, as the Greeks would say: Fate. Orpheus and Eurydice were meant for each other, but had to go through Hell to be together. Orpheus is a musician and poet, the John Lennon of […]
There is such a thing as society
When Margaret Thatcher said there is no such thing as society, she was expressing the libertarian view that we are in the jungle and it is every man for himself. What is a libertarian? And why is it always so dangerous? Wikipedia: ‘Libertarians seek to maximise autonomy and political freedom, and minimise the state; emphasising free […]
Ed Sheeran Revives Masters of War
As the death planes drop bombs on the hospitals of Ukraine and the young people’s blood flows out of their bodies and is buried in the mud, Ed Sheeran’s new recording of Masters of War is a prayer for peace and a homage to Bob Dylan’s original written sixty years ago in 1962. Like Dylan, Sheeran […]
Nothing Means Anything
If nothing means anything, what’s the point – in anything? Love, hope, dreams, desire, satisfaction, having babies – existence? This was the conundrum Albert Camus wrestled with after the mass slaughter of the Second World War when Europe lay in ruins and the future carried a sell by date. Post-war writers rejected the notion of […]
Boris Johnson and the Lord of Siberia
On the 19th of November 2020, the Lord of Siberia, Evgeny Alexandrovich Lebedev, the son of a former KGB officer, took his seat in the House of Lords as a crossbench peer. Like all those unelected lords, ladies, earls and dukes, he will for the rest of his life be able to voice his opinion […]