During the 2010 X-Factor the outstanding performer was a 16 year old from Malvern called Cher Lloyd. She brought modernity, originality and zest, as well as a fine singing voice; it was her modernity, in the form of rapping, which was new for the X-Factor (and which made it certain she would not win - …
Author: nick2209
Anarcho-socialist, Birmingham City Women supporter, lover of Americana/Country, Byron fan, atheist - and clinical depressive, which should be unrelated to foregoing although you have to wonder!
Those Magnificent Ambersons
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) is in some ways the cinematic equivalent of Byron's diaries. Of course the analogy is not too exact, as not all of the film was consigned to the flames, and we do have a remaining movie which might be described as a semi-masterpiece. But what the film would be like had Welles been …
Early October Miscellany (2010)
I have decided to start posting my Miscellanies as and when they are of sufficient length, rather than waiting to the end of the month; the latter practice has resulted in some absurdly long entries. A very interesting article by John Sutherland in The Times on October 2nd. Formerly I would merely have directed readers …
Reeves on Mill: Chapter 9
In Chapter 9 Reeves is mainly concerned with the Principles of Political Economy (1848), Mill's relationship with Harriet, and the delineation of Mill's shifting position with regard to socialism. Principles of Political Economy gives a classical laissez-faire account of the economics of production, largely based on the work of David Ricardo (although Mill dedicated it privately to …
A Terrible Habit of Art
The touring National Theatre production of The Habit of Art (2009) by Alan Bennett was a massive disappointment. The play takes as its subject a meeting between Auden and Britten at the former's Oxford residence in 1972. This is a subject which fascinates me, partly for the personal reason that I went to the same school …
September Miscellany (2010)
September has been a very good month. A score of 7.07 on the Depression Scale which is the second highest ever and by far the best September. This may be partly because I am now marking more generously. It may also be partly because there is always something of a positive reaction when I emerge …
Fifty Years Since Kennedy v Nixon
Apparently it is 50 years since the first televised Presidential debate in the US. A brilliant account of the contemporary impact of this was given on the Trollope 19thC Studies list and the author gave his permission for me to reproduce it here....... "The first televised debate between U.S. presidential candidates -- Nixon and Kennedy -- occurred …
Crabbe – Tale 12:’Squire Thomas
'Squire Thomas (or The Precipitate Choice) is one of the Tales in which Crabbe's sometimes bleak view of humanity is revealed in its fullest extent. Every single character in this Tale is deeply unpleasant. It is this kind of Tale, and its underlying world-view, which earned Crabbe a (semi-deserved) reputation as one whose view of …
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) is not an easy film. By that I mean to imply both that it is painful to watch as a result of the emotional intensity which it generates, and also that it is not easy to interpret. But let me start with a description. The film is shot …
Unbridled Romanticism
In Chapter 5 of The Roots of Romanticism Isaiah Berlin considers what he terms 'the final eruption of unbridled romanticism'. Berlin says that Friedrich Schlegel, himself a part of the movement, named three vital components of this movement: Fichte's philosophy, the French Revolution, and Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister. Fichte's philosophy The innovation which Fichte and …
Moving Toyshop 