Category Archives: Arts

Is £500,000 worth it for Dahl’s hut?

A shrine for Saint Roald and Saint Rowling (from today’s Guardian) Roald Dahl’s family is seeking £500,000 (US $790,300 at current rates) to transfer the hut in which the late author wrote some of his famous children’s novels to the … Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts | 1 Comment

What’s wrong with sleepovers, exactly?

I saw an article by Amy Chua, the Chinese-American academic, in which she proclaims herself a “tiger mother” and tells the world that Chinese mothers (or maybe she means mothers from a particular group of immigrant Chinese Americans, I’m not … Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts, Education | 13 Comments

Casualty and ME: turning reality on its head

I got a reply from someone at the BBC Complaints department, which (much like the response to my earlier complaint about male rape jokes) wasn’t so much an apology as a self-justification. It included this: Drama productions like ‘Casualty’ aren’t … Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts, M.E., Media | 3 Comments

The cute nurse and the abusive ME patient (updated)

After the Gilderdale story made headlines this past January (and the other coverage of assisted suicide and mercy killing that happened around the same time), I was expecting both stories to be featured in some British drama fairly soon, and … Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts, M.E. | Leave a comment

Rape is not funny. Yes, even when it’s George Michael. (updated)

A couple of hours ago I went downstairs to chat to my sis who is visiting with her little girl, and one of the new generation of comedy shows, Mock the Week, was on. They were talking about George Michael, … Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts, Crime, Gender, Media | Tagged | 15 Comments

Is the iPhone really a design classic?

London Design festival: Has British design lost its way? | Art and design | The Guardian There’s a feature in today’s Guardian about the Anti Design Festival, which starts this coming Saturday in London and is a response to what … Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Android, Arts | 1 Comment

Me on the Late Show: transcript

Yesterday (Saturday) morning, I got to speak on the Late Show with Joanne Good on BBC London (94.9FM). She was doing a feature on bad comedy, specifically an incident in which Frankie Boyle, a former panellist on the BBC TV … Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Appearances, Arts, Health, M.E. | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Ricky Gervais on ME, and other bad comedy

Yesterday I had a brief exchange of tweets with Organica, who told me of her enthusiasm for the British comedian, Ricky Gervais, best known for writing and starring in The Office, his stand-up shows, and most recently the critically very … Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts, Health, M.E. | Tagged , | 21 Comments

Polanski versus Gary Glitter

Yakoub Islam (on Facebook) linked this video, in which Chris Rock compares Roman Polanski to OJ Simpson: People are defending Roman Polanski because he made some good movies? Are you kidding me? He made some good movies thirty years ago, … Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts | Tagged | 3 Comments

Planning decisions are never democratic

There is a letter in today’s Guardian in response to the long saga of the intervention by the Prince of Wales in the planning dispute in Chelsea. The letter is from Georgine Thorburn of the “Chelsea Barracks Acton Group”, and … Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts, London life, New Malden, Politics | 2 Comments

England people not very nice

Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts | 7 Comments

When the medium is The Message

Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts | 5 Comments

Muslim review of “Jewel of Medina”

Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts | 6 Comments

Racism or just commercial sense?

Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts | 2 Comments

Intrusion as “art” or “journalism”

Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts, Media | 2 Comments

Reflections on “The Art of Integration”

Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts | 3 Comments

Rushdie’s knighthood and “courage”

Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts, Windbags | 9 Comments

BBC Radio – The British Mosque

Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts, Media | 4 Comments

Joe Queenan: the recurring white hope

Continue reading

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts | 3 Comments

Borat’s Kazakh is actually Hebrew

Continue reading

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

FacebookTwitterIdenti.caDeliciousDiggStumbleUponWordPressShare
Posted in Arts | 17 Comments