Recently updated blogs

Now it is 30 years later, and you are still sending me books, just more expensive ones, and we both are in it together bc you put us there. While I am reading your old letters you write me new letters, again, which are like your old ones, mild-mannered, caring, yours; and I can see that you have forgiven me and I have forgiven you also, but my heart has …

One of the many bugbears I hold in restaurants is the generalisation that the food of India can be broken down to the same ten or so classics that define individual areas by small changes into the same onion sludge. Jalfrezi, a Bengal stir-fry of sorts is now achieved by chucking some onion and peppers into the curry sauce, whilst to make a Rogan Josh – a Persian dish hot …

Whilst watching this intermittently delightful Bollywood werewolf movie, I was under the impression that what I was witnessing here was a precursor to the definitive mode of masala horror film which the Ramsay Brothers would go on to perfect in their work through the ‘80s and early ‘90s. I’ve only subsequently realised however that, in making that assumption, my chronology was actually a bit off. In fact, the Ramsays’ first …

Participants in the second Big Brockwell Park Kite Flight in solidarity with the people of Gaza braved the rain in Brockwell Park yesterday.

I don’t know how long she’s been there when I spot her. A pointed muzzle. Massive, soft ears swiveling in the dusk. Slender legs perched on the rock wall. She’s close to the orchard, but leaving the shelter of the trees. The comet of her dark-tipped tail follows her to the lawn. We’re close, maybe twenty feet from each other. The dogs don’t like it one bit, growling and barking …

The Duke of Bridgewater, Longport, Staffordshire A three-storey Georgian redbrick pub situated close to a bridge over the Trent & Mersey Canal. It has been closed for over a decade and was damaged by fire earlier this year.

Tresor Records have two huge releases for us this month and next. The first is this new 12″ from London-based Tresor resident Imogen. Metanoia is 5-track (plus a digital bonus) EP that came out last Friday and it’s already been occupying my speakers a lot. I was a huge fan of her Voitax release in 2022 and on this one her artistry is blossoming. Metanoia was also the title of …

For this week’s post, and for the next couple of weeks, I am visiting an area of London that I have not touched before in the blog. This is the area covered by Silvertown and North Woolwich, along with the Royal Docks – the Royal Victoria, Royal Albert and King George V Docks, the largest and last docks built in London (although at the time in the County of Essex), …

https://www.bram.us/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/ssstwitter.com_1728373297963.mp4Recording of Paul’s demo Dissecting and reworking a very nice demo by Paul Noble. ~ Card Stack Demo Paul Noble created an AMAZING scroll-driven animations demo in which you can drag cards from a card stack. As he describes it: Card stack using scroll-driven animation w/ snapping. Just a few lines of JS, zero dependencies. Try it out (in Chrome) right here: See the Pen Scroll-driven animated card stack with …

Be careful what you wish for they say, and there’s no better illustration of that than in Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. This autumn, Scottish Opera revive Renaud Doucet and André Barbe’s colourful and characterful 2014 production of the comic masterpiece. Corpulent cat lover Don Pasquale (David Stout) runs his crumbling pensione with only his chain-smoking chambermaid (Frances Morrison-Allen), greasy cook (Steven Faughey) and decrepit porter (Jonathan Sedgwick) for company. With …

2024 Ok I’m still playing catch up. Many of these I read some months ago. I’m unsure in which order but I start off as usual with a re-reading of: Tender is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald Which I enjoyed more than ever and indeed am now convinced that this is his greatest novel. I loved the opening prose so much that I picked it up a few weeks later …

About those New York Times headlines Historians: He’s a fascist. Political scientists: He’s a fascist. His own aides: He’s a fascist. The NYT: He shows a wistful longing for a bygone era of global politics. That, in essence, is the issue with these headlines. Breaking my rule about linking to Substack because the NYT coverage of the election has been abysmal. In a just world it would mean the end …

One of my all-time favourite games is stardew valley. I don’t actually play a lot of games, partially because they trigger migraines and motion sickness for me, and partially because a combination of adhd and terrible motor-skills make me bad at playing them. However stardew valley was relatively simple as a 2D pixel art game with simple controls. It had a lot of depth, so it kept me occupied for …

Charlie MartelRecently, I’ve argued for a federal constitutional right to vote for president. No court has yet held that citizens have an independent federal constitutional right to vote for president. In fact, the Supreme Court has twice held that under the Constitution, states have such “plenary power” to choose presidential electors that they can exclude citizens from voting for president. The Supreme Court cases rejecting the citizens’ right to vote …

Our local library, the one within walking distance of the house, recently reopened after a two-year renovation. built sometime in the 1960’s, it was probably a marvel of its time: a one-story brick building with a full basement, sweeping skylights in the main shelving area, and a windowed front facade. As a preschooler, Finn spent hours in the kids section, which took up one whole side of the building; I’d …