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Wednesday, 6 August 2014

An old fart asks: Is Israel’s ‘shock and awe’ so much more morally reprehensible than that of George Dubya and Tony Blair? Discuss and digress. And beware anti-semitism: it hasn’t died, you know

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It strikes me as sadly ironic that as Western Europe commemorates the several million of soldiers and civilians who lost their lives in Worl...
Tuesday, 5 August 2014

Join me and Say No To Brits In Shorts! And a hearty hello once again to readers (or just a reader?) in Ukraine and Turkey. What is it that brings you back again and again?

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I have taken it into my head to do something worthwhile for a change, and once you have read this blog, I’m sure you’ll agree that what I ho...
Sunday, 3 August 2014

Songs without words Part I (but thankfully no pretentious post-modern Mahleriana, but exactly what it says on the tin: songs without words)

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These tracks will not play in Opera. I don’t know why, but they won’t. And please turn up your bass. These tracks need it. As the title, a...
Wednesday, 30 July 2014

Something of a ramble, I’m afraid, and perhaps of little interest to anyone. I might even scrub it at some point, so read it while you can. And this odd ‘let’s biff the Ruskies’ – do our politicians actually think? Er, no, I really don’t believe they do

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The problem, for me at least, running a blog such as this which, increasingly but oddly, is attracting comparatively more readers, is that i...
Saturday, 26 July 2014

Why are so many Ukrainians and Russians interested in Francois Hollande’s shagging? And is La Gayet about to make an honest man of him? Then there’s John O’Hara, who can write the pants of many a modern novelist and (for what seems like the umpteenth time) I plug MY novel. Go on, bloody buy it, I’ve got a cigar habit to keep up

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The statistics on for this blog provided by Google (for free, which makes me rather ashamed of my perpetual griping about Google’s highhande...
Thursday, 24 July 2014

Lay off Israel (and beware those who think in primary colours)

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I might come out of my comfort zone here and upset a lot of people, but listening once again to a report on the trouble in Gaza, I’ve decide...
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Wednesday, 23 July 2014

Several concerts, several good meals and two deaths (RIP Marjorie Deschaux née Hirst and Paul Rogers)

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Not yet scribbled anything about my break - ongoing, I don’t fly off until the day after tomorrow - break in South-West France to accompany ...
Saturday, 19 July 2014

RIP John Dawson Winter III. The heroin finally got to you, but then you were 70, so I suppose you win on points

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NB These soundfiles won’t play in Opera, but Firefox, Safari and Chrome are fine and maybe other browsers. But not in Opera, I’m afraid. T...
Friday, 11 July 2014

In which I come clean: you want a mobile phone? I’ll give you a mobile phone (any colour, any make, any century). And as for laptops . . . Meanwhile, our government copies up with a novel way of making a fat fool of itself and solving the obesity crisis

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Well, the inevitable just had to happen and, of course, it has happened, though I am glad to report (as, undoubtedly, you are glad to hear) ...
Monday, 7 July 2014

To be as brief as possible: huge official investigation into paedophilia among Britain’s Great and Good. Don’t hold your breath

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The big news here in Britain is that the government is launching several investigations into child abuse by folk ‘at the highest level’, inc...