Ingredients
Methods of consumption
Greatest Hits…
...Although none of these were ever Number 1s in Azerbaijan, Japan or on college radio.
* On visiting countries that have been the subject of airstrikes by allies of your home country
* Why it's important for The Beatles to make their songs available digitally
* A visit to Peleliu, home of some fascinating WW2 relics and origin of the phrase 'thousand yard stare'
* Five ways to beat writer's block and get words going
* On Holbein and Shakespeare
* The 2011 BHAG, trying to cycle 2,011 miles in 12 monthsFrom which department?
This is the past
Category Archives: Thought For The Day
Red lights and rushing
The people who can’t stop at red lights aren’t happy – they don’t have the psychological resources to be themselves, so they’re infected with this anxiety, this, “I’ve got to get going.” – Patrick Field, in Bella Bathurst’s The Bicycle … Continue reading
We all romanticize our youth
INTERVIEWER What about Joseph Conrad? MITCHELL His story “Youth” has this beautiful passage about your first landfall in Asia and how it haunts you for the rest of your life—everything is downhill afterward. There’s something of that in the end … Continue reading
Where you come from, where you go
I went to New York last week, mostly for work, but I had two free days at the end to explore the city. I took, as always, a Lonely Planet guidebook, but most of the time I built a list of … Continue reading
Posted in In My Life, Thought For The Day, Web
Tagged advertising, instagram, new york
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The end of the 60s is now
Brian Eno, giving his prediction for 2009/the future in general, focusses not on a scientific, technological, political or economic breakthrough, but essentially, the end of optimism as being the default of the west. Unlike Bono’s blethering mass of words in … Continue reading
Memoir in six words
The Guardian is running a competition asking for six word memoirs to promote a new book, called ‘One Life, Six Words, What’s Yours?‘. This is my entry and you can see a selection on their site.
Posted in Books and reading, Thought For The Day
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43 was a pillock, 44 looks like he’ll be a lot better
I was with an American friend last night, and even at 11pm she didn’t dare believe it was going to happen. It did though, it really did. Writers with a firmer grasp on the issues, the times and the rhetoric … Continue reading
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My Favourite Piece of Travel Writing
My favourite piece of travel writing is short and to the point, but it questions everything about ‘here’ and calls to mind perfectly the change of ‘there’ that is its lure. It is a description of people in an airport, … Continue reading
Posted in Books and reading, Creativity, Thought For The Day, Travel
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The nicest piece of technology I have used all week
I have a lovely Macbook Pro laptop, a decent camera, dual-core work PC and an iPod, but the nicest piece of technology I have used all week is this: a drinks bottle. I picked it up on the way to … Continue reading
Posted in Tech, Thought For The Day
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On the Todo list: Japanese Human Tetris
The Jesteress, the most expert YouTuber I know, just sent me this link to an exerpt from a Japanese TV game show, where contestants play “human tetris”. They’re the last block and must complete the game by fitting into the … Continue reading
Posted in Japanorama, Thought For The Day
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The importance of real things being nice things
In a previous post on bloggers vs mainstream media, I wrote that: “When information is free and virtual, it’s important for real things to be nice things, to be good quality things, to be a guaranteed brilliant use of the … Continue reading
Posted in On Journalism and Media, Thought For The Day
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