There is a world of difference between a bookshop and a bookstore. Here’s why Americans do bookselling better and why I still mourn the long-lost playground of Borders… I’ve always preferred books from the USA. By this, I mean not only American literature but also American book design. Maybe this is down to novelty, or […]
The lost adult playground of Borders bookstore Read More »
I’m part of a large group and we’re filing into a dining hall for a meal. The place has been decorated in modest psuedo-Nordic style. It feels like a tasteful restaurant in a museum or art gallery. The dining hall is just about able to contain three extremely long wooden banquet tables. There are benches
Dream Diary: Secret Elvis Costello gig and Jesus biography Read More »
Gilbert Arenas is virtually unknown in the UK, where only the most famous and marketable NBA players enjoy any name recognition. In 2021, the Guardian described him as a ‘clownish Steph Curry antecedent turned podcast host.’ I wouldn’t have any idea who Arenas was, but for encountering a strange and memorable magazine profile in 2006:
The Mid-Noughties Ghost of Gilbert Arenas Read More »
“Always Be Closing.” If there’s a scene everyone remembers from Glengarry Glen Ross, it’s undoubtedly the one where Blake (Alec Baldwin) briefly materialises to terrorise the jaded salesman of Premiere Properties. For my money, this is not the most unsettling scene in James Foley’s 1992 movie. There is a moment that I’m reminded of much
Glengarry Glen Ross: the rules come from downtown Read More »
Sundays were the reason I fell in love with Peanuts. During my formative years, it was always Sunday in Charlie Brown’s world. My initial impression of Peanuts wasn’t formed by encountering the daily strip in the newspaper or by catching a rare UK showing of a Peanuts TV special. It wasn’t even shaped by the
Peanuts on Sunday: Snoopy’s adventures in liminal space Read More »
We had prepared for the arrival of our first child in all the usual ways. We’d converted the spare bedroom to a nursery, picked out the perfect co-sleeper crib, and stocked up on pristine white babygrows. With my wife deep into the third trimester, there was just one time-honoured task outstanding. We still had to
How to match your unborn child with the perfect Snoopy book Read More »
Peanuts, Charles M. Schulz’s daily comic, ended on February 13, 2000 after 50 years of publication and approximately 18,000 strips. It was an incredible feat of creativity, but did the author manage to ‘stick the landing’? Today that phrase has become commonplace to assess whether a successful and long-running story concluded in a satisfying manner.
Requiem for the Round-headed Kid: how ‘Peanuts’ ended Read More »
I’ve visited impressive galleries of all sizes over the years. But none of those collections – not the National Gallery, not the Louvre nor MoMA – delivered an experience as unique and memorable as the gallery I visited in late December 1999. This collection wasn’t open to the general public. It no longer exists. It
The $88M masterpiece and the private penthouse gallery Read More »
Sam Shepard often seemed more of an American myth than a man. His short, surreal prose pieces both unpack and undermine that frontier persona… “He’s like a Sam Shepard character.” This, somewhat recursively, is how I first heard Sam Shepard described. I knew nothing of his work until I heard theatre critic Mel Gussow explain
Sam Shepard road trip: Super Cowboys and Strange Motels Read More »
The 1968 debates between Gore Vidal and Willam F Buckley have already been litigated in print and documented on film. What can be learned from bringing Best of Enemies to the stage? It’s said that politics makes for strange bedfellows. Best of Enemies, currently showing at the Young Vic, proves that it can make for
‘Best of Enemies’ stages a Buckley-Vidal rematch Read More »
