It may sound like a bold claim, but in a small way this book changed my life for the better. Over the last year or so I’ve been trying to implement as much standardised CSS and XHTML code into my web development work as possible. This has been an enjoyable and enlightening experience that has… Continue reading Web Standards Solutions. The Markup and Style Handbook, Dan Cederholm
Best and Worst Places to Live in the UK
I managed two minutes of Channel 4s Best and Worst Places to Live in the UK before switching to the refuge of the Champions League. Middle class murmurings of chav culture have been gathering pace and acceptability over the past year. This program marks a point at which the prejudice seems to break free from… Continue reading Best and Worst Places to Live in the UK
Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
I’ve been listening to the quality sound of Martha Reeves and the Vandellas recently. Some of these tracks have to be amongst the best recordings ever made and it must have been fantastic to have been around when this stuff was released. The optimism involved in the way these records sound is almost overwhelming, as… Continue reading Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
Mr Blue Sky, a genuinely stomach churning experience
There are some songs that Virgin play incessantly, one of those is a track that I’ve hated for as long as I can remember. It’s called Mr Blue Sky and it’s by a band called ELO, you’ve probably had the misfortune of hearing it recently on Virgin, or in the past being played by twats… Continue reading Mr Blue Sky, a genuinely stomach churning experience
To this day it remains one of my fondest memories
For some reason the train had terminated at Woking and we had to change to get to London, it was a wet Friday evening in early November. We brought some warm lager from the newsagent outside and sat about waiting for a train, happily contemplating what we where going to do with the weekend. The… Continue reading To this day it remains one of my fondest memories
Blazers, medals and maroon berets
At 6:30 pm two men at London’s Victoria station were wearing blazers, medals and maroon berets. The Parachute Regiment, WW2. They had been manning their little stand collecting money since before 9:30 when I passed them on they way to work. Behind them are photos of men at war, smiling, exhausted and bloody. They are… Continue reading Blazers, medals and maroon berets
The NHS and negative nationalism
I have fractured my ankle, not seriously but enough for it to be in a cast for the next four weeks. And a great cast it is too, bright orange plastic set off with a smart little black bootie. Nice. The handiwork was carried out by a nurse at Kings College Hospital in Denmark Hill,… Continue reading The NHS and negative nationalism
The Bang–Bang Club, Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva
I spent most weekday evenings during the mid eighties glued to the Nine O’clock News and Panorama. The news seemed to be full of stories about miners and apartheid whilst Panorama, with its terrifying theme tune, tended to focus on nuclear war and apartheid. The last sentence forms the basis of my argument that the… Continue reading The Bang–Bang Club, Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva
Oasis at the City of Manchester Stadium
The Twenty 20 cricket on Friday night at Edgebaston was superb entertainment, loads of noise and action washed down with plenty of lager. Okay it’s cricket for people that don’t know about the sport, like me, but hugely enjoyable all the same. It was nice also to see so many dads there with their kids.… Continue reading Oasis at the City of Manchester Stadium
1968: The year that rocked the world, Mark Kurlansky
I like the way that this book sounds, an historical text rewritten as a story by a journalist who has the ability to make anything sound interesting. The research involved is penetrating in the way that it picks up on personal points from eye witness accounts, this leaves the reader with a genuine sense of… Continue reading 1968: The year that rocked the world, Mark Kurlansky