The BBC has a report on a man who has gone into business to sell virtual goods that exist only in the Internet gaming community of Ultima Online. As the sneering became deafening, this Slashdot comment rose above the whine to make a telling point: You could call this social criticism(Score:5, Funny) by panurge (573432) […]
Read MoreAt last someone is making interesting points in the opinion pages of The Guardian about Iraq and the debate over wars of intervention. Thanks to Wiqqi for the link to this article which he suggests should be read alongside the latest from Iraqi ‘Blogger Salam Pax in the same newspaper. (I disagree with that suggestion, […]
Read MoreNot surprisingly, my flurry of postings in the small hours contained lots of typos. I think they’re all fixed now. Thanks to Casual Savant for spotting a couple—but not all of them, smartypants.
Read MoreI don’t think I’ve ever woken up to so many PooterGeek comments. If you haven’t visited it lately you might be shocked by the stack of messages from lusty schoolgirls, demanding to see their hero in the buff at the “Naked H**** P*****” entry. Every Blogger in Christendom has linked to this, but you might […]
Read MoreMonths ago, when it was on general release, Hind told me that I would enjoy Dirty Pretty Things. A friend of Sonya’s had recommended the movie to her too. So the two of us watched it on DVD yesterday afternoon. It’s an excellent, low-budget drama/thriller about the lives of refugees in contemporary London; a little […]
Read MoreMy first photographic commission: everybody enjoyed an amazingly hot, steamy, dazzling evening of “Afro Cubism”, dancing at Club Afrika to Martin’s band last night. Half the Campus seemed to be there, and, once again, his posse had somehow managed to gather together all the brown people in Cambridge in one room. Sadly these were probably […]
Read MoreIt’s a bit parochial, this one, but who cares? I now have a mandate to please myself 😉 . This morning Allan Brigham, Britain’s only celebrity road sweeper, emailed me John O’Farrell‘s latest piece for The Guardian. There are two youth tribes that dominate the City of Cambridge. Fortunately they have complimentary seasons. In Winter, […]
Read MoreThank you, PooterGeek readers, for your response to yesterday’s ‘Blog entry. I’m genuinely touched. I think we can call it three votes for this page to continue its tradition of cranky, queenie, venting. Four, if I count the off-board response which simply quoted Judith’s post, punctuated with the repeated incantation “exactly“. Ironically I have a […]
Read MoreYesterday evening I had an interesting debate with Wiqqi. He made some valid criticisms of PooterGeek. He feels that this ‘Blog is “incredibly camp”. Guilty as charged, m’lud. He says that, instead of gentle dissection of my opponents’ views, I tend to go for “intellectual bludgeoning”. It’s a fair cop, guv’nor. He also thinks I […]
Read MoreJudith sent me a link yesterday and I rewarded her with an email rant implying that she was being over-sensitive. (I was so ranty that I spelt “brilliant” with one ‘l’ and attached a random possessive apostrophe to “Conservatives”; pretty serious stuff by my standards.) I suppose it shows that I am ready to argue […]
Read MoreCrikey. PooterGeek generated some controversy with my work colleagues today. You devote whole posts to attacking Robbie Williams and Oasis and the kids stay silent. Link to an analytical Marxist at a redbrick university or disrespec’ Wittgenstein in passing and they’re bursting into your office demanding satisfaction. The point that I was making about Wittgenstein […]
Read MoreI keep recommending ‘Blog entries from Oliver Kamm—another Leftie with principles—to my friends. Coincidentally, today in another excellent entry, he links to Norman Geras’s ‘Blog, as I did yesterday. How many times do we have to explain it to you, you bigoted, anti-American pinheads? Update: There is a problem with the link above. I think […]
Read MoreNick recommended this piece by Edward Said to me. I must admit that he did so with serious qualification: “It is tainted by intellectual snobbery, but my more fundamental objection is its failure to address or even mention ethics and the need to recognise absolute wrongs in the face of cultural relativism.” . Nick was […]
Read MoreRead the article quick, Sonya, because, goodness me, there’s a queue to give Edward Said a good kicking. Here’s a thwack from Norman Geras, Leftie lecturer at Manchester University, and a thump from Brad de Long, economist at Berkeley.
Read MoreYesterday evening, driving back from Marlborough, I listened to Robbie Williams’ last night at Knebworth, live on Radio 1. As I passed the venue itself I reflected that a third of a million Brits schlepping out to some old pile to listen to the King of Pastiche Rock was the lowest point in UK popular […]
Read MoreAren’t these heartbreakingly beautiful?
Read MoreToday I managed to double the time the AA reckons it takes to get from Cambridge to Marlborough. At least when I got there the warm, kind and generous Miller family and lots of friends were waiting for me. Pictures to follow.
Read MoreI’m listening to Radio 4’s classic serial—and they do mean “classic“: it’s an adaptation of Suetonius’s Lives of the Caesars. I browse over to the Radio 4 Website to get some details on the programme and my mouth gapes as I read the following: “…was Caligula the eval [sic] man history has painted him?”
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