3rd August 2007 I have been attending a local Mystery reading group - the Erdington Crime Fiction Reading Group - at my local library for a few months now. This is partly as a result of Mark (my therapist/analyst) encouraging me to participate in more 'real-life' activities. It has been an enjoyable experience and has …
Month: January 2010
Xmas Stuff (OP)
21st December 2007 I am always ambivalent in my attitude to Xmas. For me personally, as probably for most depressives, it is a difficult time because it demands jollity, cheerfulness and increased social interaction. I am often ill at Xmas ; indeed one year was spent in hospital. I must have been bad because they …
Diary June 2007 (OP)
June 22nd 2007 Another diary blog, covering in haphazard form the past few months. I have in fact at various times during these months felt capable of blogging, if only at a rudimentary level, but have desisted because I have felt that any blog should reach a certain standard, and also because I felt I …
Net Life (OP)
28th June 2007 The serendipity of the past few weeks has been coming across a number of debates and discussions about blogging (well I have met a lot about depression and mental health too, but I am probably attuned to see these even where they don't exist!) and indeed 'net life' as a whole. These …
Marianne, Lucy Jordan and Lizzie Eustace (OP)
26th June 2007 A superb South Bank show documentary on Marianne Faithfull; film from a recent concert, and a couple of interviews, the main one being conducted by Bragg (not a favourite of mine, but I must admit this was a good, fairly self-effacing interview). All the main events were covered - the discovery, As …
Continue reading Marianne, Lucy Jordan and Lizzie Eustace (OP)
Dance – QU Chapter 1 (OP)
6th July 2007 I have decided to embark on an occasional blog charting the progress of a re-reading (the 10th? 20th?) of Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time. This is not intended as literary criticism, although there will no doubt be attempts at this, but more of an examination of my relationship with …
The end of Rome (OP)
30th July 2007 The second, and presumably last, series, of Rome came to its triumphant and stunning conclusion. I cannot really praise this brilliant series enough; for me it sets a benchmark for historical television series - and this is despite its lurid exploitation of sex and violence. It is interesting to examine though why …
Malcolm and Barbara, Linebaugh, Fallen Angel (OP)
13th August 2007 Last week we watched Paul Watkins' remarkable documentary 'Malcolm and Barbara', which recorded how Malcolm fell ill with and eventually died of dementia. Filmed over a number of years the documentary was at times almost unwatchable in its unsparing presentation of the reality of dementia. Sadly, the programme's message was obscured by an absurd media …
Continue reading Malcolm and Barbara, Linebaugh, Fallen Angel (OP)
Work, work, work (OP)
15th August 2007 Peter Linebaugh in The London Hanged (p14) writes... >>new morality became triumphant among the capitalist class at the end of the seventeenth century. Christopher Hill contrasted it with the religious attitudes prevailing earlier: 'Labour, the curse of fallen man, had become a religious duty, a means of glorifying God in our calling. …
The Threat to Liberty (OP)
19th November 2007 The Birmingham Book Festival was once a major event but in recent years it has declined into a pathetic populist charade, populated by the latest celebrity biographers, and aimed at boosting Waterstone's profits as far as one could tell. This year however, it returned with a serious and interesting programme. We would …
Moving Toyshop 