America
Film review: Sunset Boulevard
Billy Wilder was born in Austria in 1906 , but became a screenwriter in the late 1920s when living in Berlin. Appalled & concerned about the rise of the Nazi Party, he moved to Paris [more…]
Literature
20th Century
Money, Corruption and Power: The Stolen Elections of Lyndon Johnson – Part 1
“I do understand power, whatever else may be said about me. I know where to look for it, and how to use it.” – Lyndon Johnson [The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Volume 3: Master [more…]
Arts
Blotto or Blotter?
Since the Spring of 2020, we’ve all had to forego certain things that were dearer to us than others. I particularly miss live debates and political rallies. The last event I attended was the Brexit [more…]
Arts
Confessions of a campsite courier, Part 1
Background For some of you, the title of this piece has probably resurrected memories of certain quality films from the 1970’s. Here, however, I have used the word “confessions” mainly for alliterative purposes. Not that [more…]
America
Check the Edges, Bite the Middle
Part way between Del Mar (Where the Surf Meets the Turf), Reno (The Biggest Little City in the World), and weird Portland, lies the San Francisco Bay area of Northern California. San Francisco itself is [more…]
Fiction
War Crimes Chapter 35 – Angela and Moira’s Stories
Chapter 35 – Angela and Moira’s Stories She was asleep when her phone started ringing, her mobile that very few people knew her number. Angela groaned and fumbled for her glasses and then the phone [more…]
Animals
Larry’s Diary, Week Sixty Eight
Monday Good Morning everyone, my usual weather report is that is dull and grey in London this morning, but not too cold. I took a quick trip out before breakfast and it was a bit [more…]
Arts
The Swaling, Part Thirty
The Diplomatic Corp are jammed into the reception rooms at the British High Commissioner’s residence at Eden Hall. The weather is against us. Not only is there a swaling wind (from the crop burnings in [more…]
Authoritarianism
Panem Et Circenses: Part I
Steve walks wearily to his recently rented sofa from Amazon Global and noisily flops down on it with a heavy sigh. Amazon Global’s airborne package guarded by their fleet of lightly armed defence drones, dropped [more…]