Caldwell
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The Cinema of My Becoming
It feels almost quaint now, being asked for your three favourite films - a question from another age, when culture still arrived in tidy, nameable...
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One last riddle for the week (I promise)
I first saw L’appartement at the cinema in 1996. For the film to work, the protagonist needs to radiate charisma, and I suppose, given its success,...
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The outline
Some dreams never arrive, and yet they leave a trace - the clean-edged hollow of what might have been. We speak of emptiness as if it’s nothing, but...
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It ain’t where you’re from, it’s where you’re at
We tell ourselves we want change. We stare across the divide at that other life - greener, cleaner, fuller, freer - and we feel the ground beneath us...
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Riddles
In 1984, Nick Kershaw’s The Riddle was in the charts - a mysterious, catchy song full of apparently profound but entirely nonsensical lyrics. It...
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The media thrives on hate. I
Posted on Sun, 03 Nov 2024
The media thrives on hate. I see more and more people switching off the news, not owning a TV, not buying papers. I got very depressed last year, mostly to do with all the terrors in the Middle East but not limited to just that. I had a friend...
Read full commentPosted in I HATE YOU!
I'm sure if there is a God She or He will understand.
Posted on Sun, 03 Nov 2024
Surely this God would practise what they preach and offer compassion, and love and turn the other cheek regardless of whatever sins may have been committed. Surely that's the point. No one is born evil and we are all a result of our environment....
Read full commentPosted in I HATE YOU!
I love me a clootie dumpling.
Posted on Sat, 02 Nov 2024
I love me a clootie dumpling.
Read full commentPosted in Breast, not Beast
Thank you for your high
Posted on Mon, 28 Oct 2024
Thank you for your high praise.
I was actually drawing on Andrew Marvell's style. Crossed with a question from Steven Wright "Ok, so what's the speed of dark?". He has some good leftfield oneliners that leave you thinking such as "Why isn’...
Read full commentPosted in The Speed Of Dark // Eclipse
Woman of the hour
Posted on Thu, 24 Oct 2024
I watched a 2023 film the other night called Woman of the Hour set in 70s LA. Though it's about a serial killer targeting women, it's actually a study on outdated attitudes towards women in general and unfortunately, there is evidence that these...
Read full commentPosted in You picked the wrong time to ask.
A stark and painful image of
Posted on Thu, 24 Oct 2024
A stark and painful image of womanhood. You capture the cyclical nature of violence, loss, and survival with visceral language—“hollow-eyed blossoms of rape,” “orphans, widowers,” and the repeated “begetting” convey a history of suffering passed...
Read full commentPosted in You picked the wrong time to ask.
Wonderful. Seamus Heaney's
Posted on Mon, 21 Oct 2024
Wonderful. Seamus Heaney's earthy textures, but sparser and more sensual and questioning. "through truffled scurf" and "saltmist warped the wood" are just fantastic.
There's a songwriter I used to listen to called Joanna Newsom who had a...
Read full commentPosted in Figurehead
Yes, fireworks were a key
Posted on Tue, 24 Sep 2024
Yes, fireworks were a key highlight for me too. And running around with sparklers but so scared of that hot metal. I was a '70s kid so a bit later - we had indoor fireworks too as a pre-show before the big ones outside. My dad more than anyone...
Read full commentPosted in Tom All Alone (2)
Your poem reminds me of
Posted on Wed, 25 Sep 2024
Your poem reminds me of something.
There was a German advert featuring a Mr W for a wind energy company called Epuron. I don't know if you've seen it. It's easy to track down on YouTube.
He is large, awkward and looks like a mime...
Read full commentPosted in Visible signs of the invisible
Good old Mrs Cooper.
Posted on Sat, 21 Sep 2024
Good old Mrs Cooper. Entertaining kids without even trying.
Read full commentPosted in Tom All Alone (1)
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