Author: Oli
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Both sides of the street
Songs can be many things. In written literature there are names for them, but songs, we seem to think, are all first and foremost songs. They can be collections of images, the sort of things we call poems when they’re printed. They can be short narratives, stories as they are…
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Mind blown, thinking changed
In The Dawn of everything I found a great deal of food for my confirmation bias. This is often a problem for me when I’m reading popular science writing, since my prejudices frequently seem to be in line with the results of statistical research, and the theorisations of researchers. When…
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An unforgetting shout
I’m not very familiar with the music of Kevin Martin, also known as The Bug, despite his prolific output, and his reputation as one of the most interesting electronic music producers around (collaborations with the likes of Napalm Death’s Justin Broadrick and general avant-garde legend John Zorn). However, if Fire…
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Old new reboots
I was late coming to Tomb Raider (of course) because I had to wait for it to come out on the Mac. I’m talking about the first game, in which the protagonist (one of few videogame protagonists to be as or more famous than the franchise they come from) was…
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Get it while you can
Vanguard Street Art is an exhibition charting the development of street art in Bristol from the 1980s, when American hip-hop culture landed there, up to… well, I don’t know when, as I haven’t actually seen the show. What I have done is listen to the accompanying album, which I heard…
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Visual worlds
Among the games that I’ve played while catching up on the last few decades of big-budget productions, Horizon: Zero Dawn stands out for its combination of compelling gameplay, an appealing player character, and beautiful visual world-building. I’ve played other games with better voice-acting, better side-quests, more convincing settlements, better writing,…
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Representing
This third and final part of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Science In The Capital series maintains the very consistent tone established in its predecessors. It is a low-key account of the onset of ecological crisis, and of the responses made by a group of scientists, science policy wonks, and politicians, largely…
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Fancy comfort
It was quiet when we went for lunch at The Peacock in Chelsworth, on a friend’s recommendation. However, I definitely got the impression that even if it had been crowded we would have received the same friendly, attentive and relaxed service. The Peacock is kind of fancy, inasmuch as it…
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Have you heard the news?
Since the 1940s, when big bands were last big business, few of them have had any longevity. The orchestras of global stars like Count Basie, Duke Ellington or Glen Miller continued to perform (and in those cases still exist today, long after the deaths of their founders), but today they…
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Eating the world
Not many of us, I suspect, think of the British Empire much in terms of food. I certainly didn’t, before reading Lizzie Collingham’s book, The Hungry Empire. I mean, I was certainly aware of the economic importance of sugar and tea, and the horrific human cost of producing the former…
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What would it be like?
This beautiful and moving short comic by Xulia Vicente (published by Shortbox, natch) is allegorical and speculative in equal measure. Since childhood, its protagonist Olivia has been able to see a female knight named Sierra, with a detachable head. Nobody else can see Sierra, but she is far more real…
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A shotgun blast of flawed brilliance
Seveneves is Neal Stephenson in his pomp. This book combines all his most splendid qualities as a writer: his febrile inventiveness, his meticulous technical research, his appealing and idiosyncratic characters, his fabulously convoluted plotting, and his exemplary pacing of event and revelation. It’s a gripping a thriller, an intellectual riot,…
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Simply present
Having taken a total break from playing music at the onset of the pandemic, I’ve been gradually coming back to it, starting with the ukulele, and more recently picking up a bass again. I’ve found myself enjoying the total absence of any demands, in terms of gigs to play or…
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Plausibly grim
I found my way to the Snowpiercer comics by way of Bong Joon-Ho’s excellent 2013 movie, but they are legendary in their own right. These pioneering adult bandes dessinées, despite their fanciful science-fiction setting, are distinguished by a gritty and low-key style that was rarely found in comics in 1982…
Oliver Arditi 