Oliver Arditi

Blog archive

  • Worlds and authorities

    Worlds and authorities

    I was spurred by the recent BBC TV adaptation of Northern Lights to re-read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, mainly because I couldn’t remember enough of the plot to grasp how they’d changed it, but also because when I read it before (aloud, to Spawn at bedtimes), it had been a very pleasant experience. Read more

  • None of this matters

    None of this matters

    The Big Lebowski is such a legendary movie that it’s almost embarrassing to admit this is the first time I’ve watched it. It possesses all the accoutrements proper to a cult film: sold-out repertory screenings, enthusiasts quoting large contiguous chunks of dialogue at each other, multiple regular fan conventions, and a central character who has Read more

  • Luminous possibilities

    Luminous possibilities

    Cwtch is a long-distance collaboration which concluded last year, between Paul Foster, a Welsh electronic music producer, and Marie Craven, an Australian singer and lyricist. Pixiegraf is the album which started it all, back in 2008. Originally conceived as a release under the rubric of Dementio 13 (Foster’s main project), featuring vocals by Craven (usually Read more

  • A book to sort you out apiece

    A book to sort you out apiece

    A viral disease is sweeping the world, killing indiscriminately. Well, nearly. Its fatal impact is concentrated in a particular minority, one that many in society seem to regard as expendable, as less valuable than the average. At least in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it’s socially unacceptable to vilify older people openly, or to characterise their Read more

  • A play on the screen

    A play on the screen

    I think of Shallow Grave as a film I know, but on reflection I think I saw it once, on TV, within a couple of years of its original release. It’s Danny Boyles’s first feature, Ewan McGregor’s cinematic debut, and an early milestone in the careers of Christopher Eccleston and Kerry Fox. It caused a Read more

  • For Pete’s sake!

    For Pete’s sake!

    In 1983 or 1984, I had a good look around Charles Jencks’s Thematic House, then recently completed. It is now the only Grade I listed building in the Ladbroke Conservation Area in Kensington, owing to its unique importance as an early example of Postmodern architecture. I was given a thorough and discursive tour by Jencks, Read more