20th Century
The History of Pop Music – 1979
Featured song: Pink Floyd – Another Brick In The Wall – Live This is a series of articles looking at pop music from 1955 when in my opinion proper pop music began up to 1999 [more…]
History
20th Century
The Wehrpass of Ferdinand Friedrich Karl Ruhmann
In WW2, a Wehrpass contained the personal and service information of a Wehrmacht volunteer or conscript and was used for identification and recording purposes. Issued when registered for military service, it was kept by the [more…]
20th Century
Fabulously Flamboyant Friday – TISWAS
Welcome back my friends, to the flamboyance that never ends, as Fabulously Flamboyant Friday glides effortlessly across the crease to deliver yet another groin-polished googly from the gasworks end of musical magnificence. Tonight we consider [more…]
20th Century
My dad and the Canadians
King Sausage Fingers opening the Canadian Parliament inspires me to write a few words about the Canucks. Charlie boy opening the Canadian Parliament as their head of state was a a powerful image and a [more…]
20th Century
Is there life on (somewhere other than) Mars?
Once upon a time we knew our place in the universe. The science was settled and the experts agreed. The Earth was at the centre of the universe and everything we could see in the [more…]
21st Century
Big Boys’ Rules
In yet another BBC documentary on the subject, a Panorama edition entitled Special Forces: I Saw War Crimes dropped on 12th May and investigated serious allegations against UK Special Forces, in particular the SAS and [more…]
20th Century
The History of Pop Music – 1978
Featured song: ELO – Mr Blue Sky This is a series of articles looking at pop music from 1955 when in my opinion proper pop music began up to 1999 when they stopped making it. [more…]
21st Century
Warfare – Snake style
Puffins that have their ears to the ground (or is it ears to the clouds?) will no doubt be aware of the excellent series of lectures by David Betz which very convincingly argues that we [more…]
20th Century
Beautiful Kashmir
Never travel to a country that’s a funny colour on the map, or worse still, described by different coloured diagonal lines. Disputed territory is not only the cartographer’s nightmare, but also that of the traveller. [more…]