Armando Iannucci in Milton’s Heaven and Hell
“We’ve noticed it doesn’t rhyme.”
After spending 3 years trying to write a thesis on Paradise Lost, Iannucci is a great foil for Milton, dissecting the poet’s works with interesting interviews with people faced with similar issues. Iannucci is basically the best English teacher in the world, enthusing about topics unknown, travelling around London and England, [...]
Japanese TV
(a repost from my weblog)
When travelling, I spend a bit too much time just watching the TV – I love seeing all the different programmes, formats and adverts, even if I can’t understand them. As well as the cavalcade of youtube clips, you can watch some stations online – there’s an app called Livestation that [...]
Arena: Cool
A masterful Arena, exploring cool jazz – but rather than taking the normal route of talking heads, here the music tells the story, with occasional narration, on-screen quotes from the musicians, clips from all sorts of places, even a brief Allen Ginsberg reading. There’s also wonderful original incidental music by George Taylor. Worth watching, even [...]
Touring Britain – The Classic Motorist’s Way
“It is the eye and the heart that are the surest guides”
It seems Heathcotes have a thing for travel guides. I’ve been known to eulogise, and namesake-but-no-relation David Heathcote presents this series taking old travel guides as a starting point for a journey, in this programme the Shell travel guides from the 30s to the [...]
Explore: Sex and Religion in Manila
The Explore series has been a bit random, sometimes feeling a bit too much like the original Rough Guide TV series from the 80s. But I’ve found the programmes about Manila fascinating: I spent a few days in one part of Metro Manila a few years ago, and the amazing contrasts between the tiny rich [...]
