Earlier this year, the market research organization, Ipsos, conducted a poll to find “The World’s Favourite City”. Somewhat unsurprisingly, New York came in as the highest rate destination amongst the 18,000 “global citizens” polled. I was fortunate enough to have travelled to New York a few years ago and although I am very much in…
A Binge in 1990’s Video Gaming
Here is my utterly biased list of the games that represent the cream of the crop as far as overlooked 1990’s games are concerned. CYBERNATOR (1992 SNES) Released Masaya as part of a series of futuristic robotic war games during the 1990’s, Cybernator was an addictive post apocalyptic, run-and-gun platformer. In the game, two warring governments fight…
North Acton Tube Wisdom
Each morning, the staff at North Acton Tube Station in West London are kind enough to provide rail travellers with snippets of wisdom via their notice board. To be honest, they don’t need to do this but that they do is kinda heart warming. Here are some of their notices to help you looking toward…
Wicker Park Street Art
A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to spend some time in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Known as being somewhat of a bohemian and artistic (hipster) hangout, the area contains some fantastic street-art. Here are a few pieces that I found particularly noteworthy.
Travel Fatigue
The exact logistical requirements of a journey from my flat in London to my parents house in Ireland include a 2 hour bus ride, a 55 minute express train, an hour long flight (taken on a budget airline), a 30 minute airport bus transfer service followed by a three hour cross country train and finally…
The Religious Uses of Adobe Creative Suite
While I have absolutely no inclination to align myself with the ideologies of this particular Christian cult, I have to give them credit for some innovative graphic design skills. This ditty was handed to me while passing through Ealing Broadway Tube Station on my way home from work. Nice job Junction 316.
Literature, Icebergs and Movies
The members of the Pure Cinema Movement of the early 20th century understood film and literature as two irreconcilably differing artistic forms. On the contrary, I’ve always thought that beyond cosmetic details the two actually keep to very similar conventions. If you have ever attended a creative writing course then I’m sure that you’ll be familiar with the…
Siegfried Sassoon, Hopelessness and Iraq
Snooping around the charity shops of West London a week past, I spied a copy of Siegfried Sassoon’s fictionalized autobiography, Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, on sale for £1. The discovery of such a volume came as a revelation as although I had been aware of and enjoyed Sassoon’s poetic work (along with Wilfred Owen)…
A Poem
Every now and then I get the very peculiar urge to write poetry. Most of what I write is generally rather light and pithy. I harbor no surreptitious notions of ever being a poet proper. So, without further adieu. Here is a little poem for you. It’s called An Irish Camping Poem. An Irish Camping Poem. A…
Addicted to Cha Siu Bao
Although I’m absolutely positive that many of the ingredients found in Yang Guang Supermarket’s – other Asian supermarkets are available – steamed buns have no business being in the human body, they are my current absolute, sell-your-own-shoes-to-buy-one, addiction. If you ever find yourself in London’s Asian district, I suggest finding their modest stall and giving…
George and Syria
An exercise I’ve been recently conducting involves typing “what would George Orwell have to say about…” followed by any random topic into Google. People, it seems, cannot resist attributing opinions on topics such as the Iraq war, ipods, contact lenses and diet cola to a man who has been dead for well over sixty years….
A Film Review That I Wrote A While Back
In March 2008, Variety magazine reported that Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller had approached Disney with intentions to develop a script for a new Muppets movie project1. The combination of Segel and Soller, backing from Jim Henson Studios and a $45 million budget assured the project a heavy market impact. Upon its release in 2012,…
A Supposedly Fun Thing I Should Never Have Done in the First Place
On any a Sun holiday it is a near certainty that you will – at some point or other – be confronted with awful music, unsatisfactory food stuffs, overpriced drinks and intolerable people. With proper care, some solid preparation and a certain amount of luck, these annoyances can be somewhat avoided. In the case of…
A Distracting Ramble Through Nowhere in Particular
Much of what goes by the name of pleasure is simply an effort to destroy consciousness – George Orwell, 1946. I recently saw a youtube video of a 2003 interview with the late David Foster Wallace in which the writer expressed concern with what he regarded as a decline in the willingness of Americans to…
I Hate Inspirational Facebook Quotes
The Facebook news feed was introduced to provide users with a constantly updating list of stories from their social network. I am sure, however, that your news feed – much like my own – functions as little more than a digital cavalcade of triviality, solipsism, credulity and occasional outright stupidity. Always patronizing and invariably trite,…