cities
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Ai Wei Wei: “Making Sense” at The Design Museum, London
“Those who are alive, live on fully –don’t hope earth keeps a trace behind”– Ai Qing, 1980 Last night I caught the first half of “The French Dispatch”, one of Wes Anderson’s typically stylised, revealing guides to how wealthy east coast Americans perceive the rest of the world. We meet some amusing dealers, who attempt… Read more
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Where the past belongs
The weather was sunny but my mind was cloudy, and I decided to cycle into the past. I have quite mixed feelings about revisiting Nottingham, and specifically the area I grew up in. But I was up in town anyway to see some old friends and celebrate a child’s first birthday, and had some hours… Read more
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Some things I saw in Bristol
The promise of hills from drizzly Victoria Park, while walking the dog. A hot air balloon factory, guarded by a Batman / Stimpy amalgamation. An Intercity 125 on its way to Cardiff. And a Brutalist car park, though not the one threatened with demolition. Read more
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To Bristol by coach
“While you’re capturing the zeitgeist they’re widening the motorway.” – Half Man Half Biscuit [1] To Victoria, then, for the “Megabus” to Bristol. I don’t like coaches. The motion of them makes me sick, so I can’t read. And motorways are the worst way to see a country: endless, multi-laned scars paying no dues to… Read more
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This Machine Kills Wasps
In just under a month’s time, on 2nd February, This Machine Kills Wasps, a new, alternative music, comedy, and musical comedy night, will take place in Brighton, at the lovely Folklore Rooms. It‘s me. It’s my night. My first one in Brighton, a city where I own a bed, a bicycle, and between two and… Read more
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Walthamstow Wassail 2023
“Are you looking for the the wassail? Head up the lane until you find a shed with a light on”. We all need traditions and celebrations, to bind us to pasts real or imagined, and to remind of us the cyclical nature of time. The wassail is a folk tradition based on the important twin… Read more
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Portsmouth – Ryde ferry: gateway to the 1950s
I woke up early today, and so decided to get the hovercraft to the Isle of Wight. People have been holding me back from travelling by hovercraft for too long. It’s time I ignored the haters and lived my best life. I arrived at the hoverport to find it closed. Google had told me the… Read more
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The Last of the Great Indie Discos: an interview with Chris from Offbeat
Hidden away in the corner of Sheffield University’s student bar lies the Raynor Lounge, home of Offbeat, the ultimate indie disco. It has now been running for 25 years, founded as a splinter event from Warwick’s own indie society [1]. While The West Midland Offbeat is run as a generational oligarchy, passed from clique to… Read more
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Park Hill: Urban Splashback
In Sheffield for Offbeat, and with an hour to kill at the station, I climbed up through the snow to see how the redevelopment of Park Hill is going, eight and a half years since my last visit. Back in 2014, the privatised, brightly cladded section [1] was at the bottom of the hill, but… Read more
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