Life's about experiences. These are mine.
Now that I have retired (well almost) I have more time to explore interests that previously were off-limits due to a lack of time. One of those is photography. In the past, I have had a variety of cameras from simple point and shoots to 35mm SLRs to cameraphones, but as the saying goes “The …
My annual round-up of the year just gone (you can read the previous year’s reports here). This year I was interested to see how the fact that now I am pretty much fully retired would have had an impact on some of these stats. For a start, I feel that I have listened to less …
Over the last year or so I have been getting into the films of Wes Anderson, the film director with a very distinct style. His films often have a very large cast, the same individuals appear repeatedly (Bill Murry and Owen Wilson for example) and they have a very distinct visual aesthetic. They often make …
Continue reading “Accidently Wes Anderson Exhibition, London”
Musicals – they’re only for women and gay men or so they say. Given that I’m quite partial to musicals I’m not sure what that says about me. I’ve seen quite a few over the years. Some such as Amélie we’ve been to see a few times. Some I’ve fallen asleep during (Wicked I’m looking …
I fancied a trip out this morning but didn’t want to go too far so a museum at the local university, within walking distance, seemed to be an ideal choice. I’d done the Cole Museum of Zoology at the university last year and so today I thought I would try out the Ure Museum of …
Continue reading “Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology, Reading University”
I was in town with some time to kill so I thought that I would visit the new exhibition at the Reading Museum – In the Company of Monsters. Reading Museum is a lovely place both inside and out. Housed within the Waterhouse designed Town Hall the museum has an interesting and diverse collection of …
Continue reading “In the Company of Monsters, Reading Museum”
During lockdown one of the things that many took great delight in was Toyah & Robert Fripp’s weekly videos where they would cover another artist’s song in their own style. What made these so watchable wasn’t so much that Toyah barely dressed for the videos (although that obviously helped) but that Fripp would wear make-up …
Continue reading “Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch, Basingstoke 2023”
I have always been a big Genesis fan and Gabriel-era Genesis in particular. I was too young to see Genesis in concert with Gabriel as the front man so seeing him live has always been on my bucket list. To be fair I had seen him play in 2007 but this was at a festival …
Continue reading “Peter Gabriel, O2 Arena, 20th June 2023 – Don’t Look Down”
I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast two concerts that I have been to recently – American pop rockers The Band CAMINO and British aging rockers Mike + the Mechanics. The Band CAMINO, O2 Institute, Birmingham The Band CAMINO have been around long enough to release an EP and their eponymous debut …
Continue reading “The Band CAMINO vs. Mike + the Mechanics, May 2023”
My annual round-up of the year just gone (you can read 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021‘s reports). This was very much a transitional year as I moved from working part time to retirement at the end of August. I haven’t fully retired yet as I am still doing some consultancy but my daily rhythm has …