Category Archives: Culture

Issues related to culture and social issues

Nostalgia Vacations and Indoor Volcanoes

Posted on May 18, 2013 by

There was another report this week about the rise in the traditional British holiday. Part of this is down to economics – ever since the financial melt down of 2008 people have had less money to spend on overseas holidays … Continue reading →


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Posted in Culture, History, Humor, Lifestyle, Travel | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Training and Instinct

Posted on April 29, 2013 by
pookabridle_bvc

In the last Horseblog I talked about a particular stallion and his spring rituals. I’ve since been able to catch a short video of his space-claiming process, which I’ve posted here. It comes complete with roll-roll-roll and rearandpawtheAIR. Watching him … Continue reading →


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Posted in Animals, Community, Culture, horses | Tagged , | 13 Comments

Whatever Happened To … Whittling

Posted on April 20, 2013 by
International Kittens of Mystery

When I was at Junior School (ages 7-10 years) in the early sixties, every boy and, I suspect, many of the girls would take a knife to school. Not because Bournemouth was a hotbed of knife culture and we needed … Continue reading →


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Posted in Culture, Lifestyle | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Mapping creative influence

Posted on March 31, 2013 by

        How many of us of a similiar age shared key influences forming our tastes—and for that matter what can be considered key?   In the New York Review of Science Fiction, in 1991, editor and genre raconteur … Continue reading →


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Posted in Books and Reading, Culture, fantasy, regency, science fiction, space opera, Star Trek, Star Wars, television | Tagged , , , , , , | 30 Comments

Dance Ten, Looks Three

Posted on March 19, 2013 by

By Brenda Clough This weekend I went to the National Gallery in Washington DC to see Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design 1848-1900.  A thrilling and gorgeous exhibition, with much of the material on loan from the Tate Museum in London. … Continue reading →


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Posted in Art, Culture | Tagged | 10 Comments

Austerity Hits The Mafia

Posted on March 16, 2013 by

There have been worrying reports this week from Sicily about the hard times facing the Mafia. Even the crime families, it appears, are not immune from the ravages of Austerity that have beset Southern Europe this past year. First it … Continue reading →


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Posted in Culture, Humor, journalism, satire | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Reaching More Than One Audience

Posted on February 26, 2013 by

I sometimes joke that my work is fiction — “I make it all up” — but that isn’t true. All writers draw to some extent on our own experiences and environments, not to mention what we’ve studied, heard about from … Continue reading →


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Posted in Community, Culture, Faith and Religion, science fiction, steampunk, Writers on Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Stranger in a Strange Kitchen, 02: The Preservation of the Nation

Posted on February 15, 2013 by

Preserves, conserves. Jams and marmalades (anyone for onion marmalade? or oxtail marmalade?). Pickles and chutneys. Canning and bottling and smoking and drying and salting and and and. Every nation has its own methods and traditions, its own terminology – and, … Continue reading →


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Posted in Culture, Food and Cooking | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Writing: Identifying the Character Tics in “Lost”

Posted on February 13, 2013 by

So I’m working through six years of Lost, watching for dropped threads, plot twists, and red herrings, when it occurs to me that what made the show so engaging was the fantastic agglomeration of characters. Well, besides the hundreds of … Continue reading →


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Posted in Culture, science fiction, television, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

House of Cards: Netflix Does Shakespeare

Posted on February 6, 2013 by

Say what you will about Netflix’s new model for serving up an entire season in one fell swoop, it works for me. I watched the series over the weekend and sticking with it for the duration helped me discover its … Continue reading →


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Posted in Culture, Series, television | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments