Whatever | Guilty pleasures They’re songs and books. What’s to feel guilty about? In May 1933, when the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund decided to collectively haul themselves out of bed before the Third Reich equivalent of Loose Women and organise a … Continue reading
Whatever | Militant atheism Please, Prof Dawkins, can I be a quiet, passive atheist? As a pacifist, and a coward, I’m really not looking for a fight. But argy bargy is brewing in the ideological playground, and rather than skulk … Continue reading
Whatever | Noughties indie When did the indie bands get so damn greedy? It was a standing joke among readers of what used to be called the music press in the mid-80s that Prefab Sprout would reissue the single When … Continue reading
Whatever | Animal racism Is the gun-toting “management” of the grey squirrel class war? This year I have mostly become obsessed by the Mitford sisters, those intrepid darlings of the decadent Vile Bodies era who dallied at both poles of … Continue reading
Whatever | US Election ’08 Barack Obama is redrawing the map of US politics. Can you imagine any of our lot doing the same? I did a double-take the Chuckle Brothers would have been proud of in the first week … Continue reading
Whatever | Festivals and work/life balance Why blanket media coverage of Glastonbury has puréed its spirit Thanks to extensive coverage in all BBC-hating national newspapers – ie. all national newspapers – we know that the Corporation dispatched “almost as many” … Continue reading
Whatever | 3D or not 3D Will Avatar take Hollywood to the next dimension, or are those glasses making us blind? Just before Christmas in 1952, United Artists released a functional African jungle adventure called Bwana Devil. The first feature … Continue reading
Whatever | In praise of print The printed word is so last century. But you’ll miss the airport novel and the boarding pass when they’re gone I am against the Kindle. There, I’ve said it. As lightweight and graphite-cool as … Continue reading
Whatever | Trying to choose a newspaper Hold the front page! Newspapers still matter! I think my newsagent hates me. I regularly pop into his shop, but it is not to buy a Boost or a Lotto scratchcard; rather, it … Continue reading
Whatever | Hero worship Heroes, princesses and saints: how do we escape the age of the overstatement? I don’t wish to blow my own trumpet, but I recently performed a heroic act. A woman dropped her suitcase on the London … Continue reading
Never Knowingly Underwhelmed 