Oliver Arditi

Blog archive

  • Eyes the same size as her stomach

    Eyes the same size as her stomach

    Luchie (as illustrator and cartoonist Lucie Bryon likes to call herself) was apparently blessed with extremely large eyes as a child. In pictures of herself as an adult, she has extremely large glasses. Although she writes in convincing idiomatic English, she is a Francophone, and this may be why the expression ‘eyes larger than your Read more

  • Crashing out

    Crashing out

    We’ve been watching a lot of Coen Brothers films of late, which display so much love for the Golden Age of Hollywood that we’ve started to revisit some of those old movies ourselves. Of course Spouse and I remember them from their endless TV re-runs from the 1960s to the 1980s, but it’s amazing how Read more

  • Brash beauty

    Brash beauty

    I knew nothing about Julian Lage before beginning to listen to this album, on the recommendation of James Beaudreau (an excellent but little-known musician whose music you should definitely seek out). In fact, I listened to Love Hurts a fair bit before I found out anything about its author, so let’s start there. It’s a Read more

  • An essay in unreality

    An essay in unreality

    People like to ascribe meanings to Coen Brothers films. I mean, they must mean something, right? They’re so tricksy and complex, full of so many layers, that surely Joel and Ethan must be getting at something. When an interviewer asked them, in respect of The Hudsucker Proxy, whether they’d intended to address certain themes, Joel Read more

  • Words and music by Cory Barlog

    Words and music by Cory Barlog

    Having come late to the garden of gaming delights, I’m dropping in on some series at the end of a very considerable history, quite oblivious to its presence in the creative and design decisions that made the game I’m playing. The Assassin’s Creed series is one I got in on early—Assassin’s Creed II had a Read more

  • Rapid charm

    Rapid charm

    ‘Oh no, the lizard! The lizard’ I was heard to shout when I first watched Bringing Up Baby—in fact I can remember shouting it. I was three years old. I remember, in no particular order, the ‘lizard’ (in fact a leopard), the collapse of the brontosaurus skeleton, the dog running off with the bone, and Read more