confused of calcutta

Richard Feynman was a genius. He did many amazing things. One of the more unusual things he did in his life was to make gargantuan efforts to visit the Soviet republic of Tuva. Even more unusually, he failed to do this, held up by the politics and bureaucracy of the Cold War; papers permitting him [...]

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One of the principles I’m trying to stay with in this series is to ensure that whatever I recommend is generally available; while I want to share “long tail” choices rather than “hit culture” ones, there is no point my doing so unless you can borrow it or buy it.
Recommendation 5: (Book)
The Education of H*Y*M*A*N [...]

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Okay, time to move slightly further afield than is usual, even for me.
Recommendation 4: (film)
Electra Glide in Blue. Great movie, great soundtrack, great style. Every now and then, a movie comes along, and the critics say “that one’s going straight to video”. Well, when I saw this film, my immediate reaction was ‘this one’s [...]

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One of the things I’ve been trying to do with Old Man’s River is to stay away from the big hits, try and introduce people to stuff they wouldn’t have come across easily.
So, today:
Recommendation 3: (Album)
On The Road to Freedom. Alvin Lee and Mylon Lefevre and some very interesting sessions men.
When I was in [...]

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Following on from yesterday’s post, carrying on with the experiment:
Recommendation 2: (Film)
Dersu Uzala. I could pretend to be a high-falutin’ film critic and tell you all the reasons why Akira Kurosawa is such a fantastic film-maker, why Dersu is such a fantastic film, how many Oscars and Globes and Bears and Roses the film won, [...]

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From today, just as an experiment, I’m going to recommend something every day to you. It could be a book I’ve read, a film I’ve seen, a song I like, whatever. Be warned, this is a provisional post.
Why am I doing this? As I said, as an experiment. It came to me while I was [...]

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