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LONDON — It’s been hard not to think about Korea this week. But I have different things on my mind. Not the loss of a dictator. Not the worry that still has South Korean’s practicing evacuations like WWII Britain and Cold War America. I am thinking about Korea’s fertile business culture and the country’s uncanny ability to reinvent itself, rebuild and [...] LONDON — We’re crashing into Christmas. Like everyone else. Lurking in shop doorways on Dec 24th and thinking “I said I’d never do this again.” It’s been an odd and uncomfortable week amongst men in the UK though. The dominant pagan religion of football has seen people talking about “goodwill toward men”, but in reverse. What qualifies as “lacking goodwill” and what [...]
MY HOUSE — I am off for Christmas. Great place to be. Catching up on sleep. Meeting my kids again. Fighting a cold. And still word comes this weekend that a great character from my childhood has passed away. The Rev James Leo was the Dean of the American Cathedral in Paris when I was a teenager. His son [...] HYDE PARK CORNER — I had a run of texts from a politically obsessed British friend last week. “Have you heard the latest joke about Chris Christie?” I hadn’t. In fact I hadn’t even heard of Chris Christie. I was still catching up on the impossible rise and fall of Rick Perry (who I also hadn’t heard of a [...]
SURREY (I think) — I know I still speak with a nasal, uncouth sounding accent. I know I will never pass too easily for Bob Hoskins or Anthony Hopkins. But I am increasingly growing into my second citizenship. I have a fondness for pastel coloured trousers. And curry. An article on Britain in a recent Sunday Times brought me to tears. [...]
SW LONDON — “Is that what the kids are calling it these days?” That used to be my stock answer to things I didn’t understand. I thought of it as a knowing wink to the way that old people talk. But as my own age has been rising faster recently than East Coast temperatures, it has become less funny and more [...] FITZROVIA – Batman Syndrome* is when you have achieved all sorts of fame and fortune, and regular life holds no challenges, so you start to do anti-social, dangerous things. In the case of Bruce Wayne it’s putting you knickers outside you tights and fighting crime. In the cases of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dominique Strauss-Kahn [...] CROMWELL ROAD — There was a little girl with her dad on the bus today. She cried the whole trip. “I don’t like the teachers…! I don’t want to go…! I want my MOMMY…!!” That kind of crying that is so deep and, after a while, so filled with mucus that breathing is affected. The adults shifted uncomfortably. Because half [...] LONDON — It’s fair to say that people who are deeply suspicious of… everything… have had a banner week. The President of the United States of America released his birth certificate. Why? TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD — Or so says Andy Gill in today’s Independent review of new records. And what a week it is. A new Elbow album. A new REM one too. And a third from Noah and The Whale. All well reviewed. Any one of those would be good enough to [...] |
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