Category Archives: Uncategorized

This was <written in 2015>:”When I worked at the NME in the early 1990s, writers from leafy suburbs would affect proletarian tropes, trousers and vowels to ingratiate themselves with Oasis, New Order or Happy Mondays. Nowadays, adroit navigation of the wine list or the ski slope is probably a more useful way into a band’sContinueContinue reading “Pop will eat itself, using the correct cutlery”

In Britain, young employees lack basic literacy and numeracy: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57499286 In Britain, there is also a shorage of employees, and they want the (numerate, literate) over-50s back into employment: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62471260 Good luck with that, when the reality is that, all over the world, over-50s are well-nigh unemployable (sorry, “over-qualified” lol). It’s the discrimination that nobodyContinueContinue reading “Are you over-qualified, sorry 40 / 50?”

That headline is a thing of the past. From 1978, here’s Debbie Harry – to an average voice-call phobic millenial, the gist of this normal-in-its-era song will appear deranged: https://www.youtube.com/embed/uWhkbDMISl8 Interesting <article> on the RTÉ website about how millenials are afraid of voice-calls. However, in typical 21st century woke mode, instead of suggesting some basicContinueContinue reading “Gimme me a shout sometime”

Ireland is clarifying its rape laws, in particular, re the definition of consent. As you’d expect, this is being generally lauded. As if consent was all people need to have an ethical / satisfying sexual encounter. The classic left-wing / liberal view of sex is that pretty much any kind of sexual behaviour is acceptable,ContinueContinue reading “Why consent is not enough”

Interviewer, in 1981, asks bloke with polio what barriers and problems his condition created for him.Were it someone similar being interviewed today, there’d be an avalanche of self-important self-pity, a litany of micro-aggressions and a diatribe about able-bodied privilege. Listen to Ian: https://www.youtube.com/embed/U6Yw9fRxfU8?start=327

The Sanford Health website <notes that>: Children 5-8 years of age will often push blame to another person in order to avoid negative feelings and conflict. It is important to understand this behavior and what you can do to encourage your child’s self-responsibility. The page contains a few tips for managing such behaviour, but notesContinueContinue reading “Brexiters blame the French for Brexit (again)”

True to form, Russia is busy stealing and destroying Ukrainian grain. No surprises there. And we should all condemn the EU and NATO for forcing Russia to do this lol. This has grim implications for poorer parts of the world which depend heavily on such grain supplies. Yesterday however, after 2 months of negotiations, aContinueContinue reading “Negotiating with Russia is a liberal delusion”

I’ve often noted how, in previous eras, <pop music was tribal>. When you were into a band, the sound was always political. And you could also easily discern the politics in a haircut or a garment. At extreme levels, this is not too difficult, of course: Putin fan-boy At our local disco when I wasContinueContinue reading “Tribal”

At college, there was the modern library, all tight bookshelves, remorseless strip-lighting and cramped desks. Then there was the old library, in a red brick building with soaring, vaulted ceilings, coloured natural light through the stained glass windows, and vast desks with built-in reading lamps. Whenever I wanted to give my work a boost, IContinueContinue reading “A statement of social arrival”