Archive for October, 2023
A review of the new blockbuster movie “Killers Of The Flower Moon”
October 31st, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Such is my admiration for them that I would see any film directed by Martin Scorsese or starring Robert De Niro or Leonardo DiCaprio, so I am never going to miss a work like this that combines the talent of all three. A few statistics: this is Scorsese’s 26th feature, it is the ninth film […]
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How long can you stand on one leg? How often should you try?
October 31st, 2023 by Roger Darlington
In the last few weeks, three different friends have advocated to me the health benefits of standing on one leg, especially if one is a senior citizen. So I’ve decided to give it a go. A couple of my friends do it while brushing their teeth. I don’t know how they manage this. I do […]
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A review of the 1973 classic film “Mean Streets”
October 28th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Somehow, in spite of my lifelong love of the movies, I managed to miss this classic film for half a century, but then I saw a 50th anniversary showing at the British Film Institute. It was only the third feature from director Martin Scorsese – who, in this case originated the story and co-wrote the […]
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Word of the day: kilonova
October 26th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
I’m endlessly fascinated by the size and complexity of the known universe. We seem to know so little and are regularly discovering new objects. So I know about the type of object called a supernova. But today is the first time that I’ve heard of a kilovova. A kilonova (also called a macronova) is a […]
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What is the origin of the knickerbocker glory?
October 25th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just returned from a break in Edinburgh and, on the first night, I enjoyed a knickerbocker glory at a local Italian restaurant. This set me thinking about the origin of the dessert, so I looked it up on Wikipedia which states: “A knickerbocker glory is a layered ice cream sundae that is served in […]
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A review of the philosophy book “How To Be Good” by John Harris (2016)
October 24th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
I don’t read books about philosophy very often because I find them too abstract and removed from the real world, but this book was given me by the author (Emeritus Professor of Bioethics at the University of Manchester), it is commendably short (less than 200 pages), and the title intrigued me. It is a thoughtful […]
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Why did Scotland join with England in 1707?
October 22nd, 2023 by Roger Darlington
I sometimes wonder how well the peoples of the United Kingdom understand how that union was brought about and I really recommend the new BBC television series “Union” written and presented by David Olusoga. I am in Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital, for a few days. Today I went on a walking tour that I postponed from […]
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A review of the classic Indian film “Pather Panchali”
October 19th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
The story of the little Bengali boy Apu started as the first of three bestselling novels by Bhibuti Bashan Bannerjee and became the first of three films by acclaimed Indian director Satyajit Ray: “Pather Panchali” (“Little Song Of The Road”) in 1955, “Aparajito” (“The Unvanquished”) in 1956, and “Apur Sansar” (“The World Of Apu”) in […]
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A review of “Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin
October 18th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
I was attracted to this novel by its intriguing title, its wonderful cover, and the awareness that it has become a global bestseller. The title is a reference both to the possibility of infinite rebirth offered by video games and to the soliloquy about the meaninglessness of life in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”. Spanning two and a […]
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A review of the bizarre new movie “Poor Things”
October 15th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
I confess that I struggled with the last work from director Yorgos Lanthimos, the 2018 film “The Favourite”, as I found the treatment of historic British characters just too off-beat and his whole style just too dislocated. But I warmed much more to “Poor Things”. Aurally, visually and narratively, this is an unsettling film but […]
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