Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady has a wealth of marvellous dialogue. Some of it is hilarious, some poignant and some painful; it is consistently well imagined, realistic and crafted with care. On Isabel’s first encounter with her white whale, Gilbert Osmond, the gentleman makes a bold claim. This is his first major offensive attack (ch. [...]
Archive for February, 2012
A woman’s natural mission is…
Posted in Literature on February 26, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Smoked Beers: Yeastie Boys Rex Attitude
Posted in Beer, tagged New Zealand, Smoked Beers, Yeastie Boys on February 23, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
As I pulled the Yeastie Boys Rex Attitude from the fridge I have to admit to a certain hesitancy… Exterior (of bottle): Double-headed (mirror) image of a green T-Rex Interior: Promises drinking experience akin to consuming ashtray full of cig butts Premature conclusion of this individual: Horrible gimmick Nevertheless, the unspoken respect of the [...]
Pauline Kael
Posted in Culture, Film, tagged film criticism, George Lucas, Nick Gauci, Pauline Kael on February 17, 2012 | 2 Comments »
The first girl I was ever gaga for went by the name of Pauline; we met when I was in my late teens. I had never met anyone quite like her before. She was a writer and I was a mathematics undergrad. Pauline was an intriguing lady – tiny (under five feet tall), opinionated to a fault, [...]
Noah Baumbach: “Kicking and Screaming” (1995)
Posted in Film, tagged 1990s, American cinema, Noah Baumbach on February 14, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Kicking and Screaming is a movie from New York filmmaker Noah Baumbach, best known for his writing work on Wes Anderson pictures (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Fantastic Mr Fox). Major critical success came with his fourth work – the poignant and wise The Squid and the Whale (2005). Kicking, his debut feature, has many of [...]
The mysteries of John 18
Posted in Theology on February 13, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The account given by the apostle John of Jesus’ arrest presents a number of intriguing features. Throughout his biography, Jesus speaks in singular ways; he is frequently both oblique and insistent (sometimes in stark contrast with the Synoptic accounts). Without the grand narrative given in John’s prologue, it would almost be appropriate to characterise the [...]
Words I tend to use far too often in conversation
Posted in Uncategorized on February 11, 2012 | 1 Comment »
absurd pejorative masochist fetish frivolous dysfunctional
Film as homage: “Hugo” and “The Artist” (2011)
Posted in Film, tagged American cinema, new films on February 10, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Two films released last year focus their gaze squarely on the silent era of cinema and remind us of how charmingly beautiful those days were. One is a child fantasy (Hugo), the other a genre defying work spanning comedy, drama and romance (The Artist). The directors of both, Scorsese and Hazanavicius, are enamoured with the [...]
Headless Horseman
Posted in Film, Popular Music on February 9, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
I got hit hard, I’m on the ground, And if you swing again I’ll duck & I wish you best of luck, you deserve yourself, And I return from my trip to hell… As a headless horseman. Oh what I lost, I went back to get my stuff, and it was tangled up and tough, [...]
Brewdog Rip Tide and “The Stout”
Posted in Beer on February 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Scottish brewer Brewdog know how to create brilliant and exciting high alcohol beers. Their ‘post-modern’ version of the stout is one not to be missed. I’ve sampled a few bottles of it recently and found it a difficult beer to fault. Rather than follow the well-worn path paved by such old classics as Guiness and [...]
Thinking on spy movies: “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” (2011)
Posted in Film, tagged British cinema, new films, spy movies, Tomas Alfredson on February 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
My friend Ryan came along with me last night to catch the new adaptation of John le Carre’s classic novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Swede Tomas Alfredson directed it and this, his fifth movie, follows his brilliantly unsettling child-vampire epic from 2008, Let the Right one in. The same accomplished and austere tone is exercised [...]
