Captain Beefheart (far right) and the long-suffering Magic Band, back in 1969. A creative visionary died this week. Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart) (born January 15, 1941 at 4.25pm) was a legendary avant-garde musician and performer and a damn fine painter. In both his chosen [...]
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Profiles of celebrities, writers, artists and more. Articles on nations and corporations as characters.
Korea: Toxic Sibling Rivalry
Poster for the 2004 Korean blockbuster, The Brotherhood of War. So South Korea is a successful, entrepreneurial (if rather corrupt) Leo Sun and North Korea is an angst-ridden, self-hating Virgo. Sibling rivalry is rarely this toxic. The two countries were born just a few weeks apart on the 15 [...]
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Aung San Suu Kyi: Embodying the People’s Dream
Steel Orchid. She stands, tiny and fragile behind the iron fence, then graciously she accepts the gift of a flower and puts it in her hair. The people of Burma are cursed to have such terrible governance, but blessed with such a leader. Aung San Suu Kyi is indomitable, indefatigable, brave, [...]
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Shrinking Britain
Cometh the hour, cometh the man. George Osborne is going to be one of the most hated public figures of our time. But he can take it This afternoon George Osborne, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, gave the most important speech of his life – and maybe ours. Is this a full [...]
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Heavenly grrrl power!
Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Brazil. Is the mother goddess giving a helping hand? In Brazil, Dilma Rousseff; in Australia Julia Gillard, who’s next? Are sisters finally doing it for themselves? Here’s what I think happened in the heavens that might give us a clue. On the [...]
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A Fairytale Ending for Milibands
Once upon a time there was a miller who had three sons. When he died his oldest son took the mill, his middle son took the donkey, and that left the youngest son with nothing but the cat. Well, we know who got the better deal in the end. Puss-in-boots helps the youngest son to […]
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The Subtle Knife
Whenever I go past the alley of trees in this picture, I think of how somewhere between them may be the Sunderland Avenue, North Oxford, Summer 2010.gateway to a parallel Oxford. In His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman‘s fantasy trilogy, Will Parry, the boy hero, creates an invisible [...]
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The generation that won’t shut up
Gustave Doré’s Red Riding Hood. Usually, conversational gambits at the school gates go something like this: “How is Ermyntrude settling in?” “Isn’t the traffic awful?” “A bit nippy this morning eh?” Not the most thrilling set of references. So [...]
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Rob Hand in Oxford
This little chap is a guardian of the chapel at Exeter College When it comes to casting the film Rob Hand: Astrologer and Scholar, the first person they’ll call is surely Philip Seymour Hoffman. You may have seen him in Capote or The Talented Mr Ripley. He already has the voice just [...]
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A Special Relationship – but do they understand each other?
She’s just not that interested. How do you tell that to someone? It’s tricky – especially if you’re reading someone’s chart and you can tell by the look in his eyes and the still way in which he’s holding himself, that this is really important – and [...]
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