This book is on a subject very close to my heart, and I can only hope my love of these plays come through. As well as my thoughts on them, of course. You may order it from contubernalesbooks.com/essay… , or from amzn.eu/d/bX9nj2t .

I agree, Scotland weren’t too impressive last night. But there are six more games to be played before the final, and we don’t want to peak too early! We have to pace ourselves!

Obviously, will be cheering on Scotland against Haiti tonight, but thereafter, I’ll be cheering on the “smaller sides” to give the big boys a bloody nose. (Metaphorically speaking, you understand.)

I wasn’t born in Scotland, do not have Scottish ancestry, and nor do I live there now. But I did grow up there, and I’m excited for the match tonight. Your formative years are … well, formative, aren’t they?

Continuing his mission to bring contemporary dazzle to the most seminal of repertoire, @mahanesfahani unleashes his turbo-charged harpsichord on 'The Complete Keyboard Concertos' of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Relaxing reading for summer? “Light in August”, I’d say. The clue’s in the title.

The problem with being modest about your attainments is no-one ever sees your modesty.

As a Dickensian who gets all too easily annoyed at facile and unthinking criticism of Dickens (of which there is far too much), this really is very good.

I walked all over the place looking for a World Cup wall chart, or, at least, some kind of magazine where I could write down the scores & keep track of what’s happening. No luck. Eventually I downloaded a free app on my iPad. O tempora! O mores!

Terrific film. The first of the Hammer horrors - the one that started it all. Pass the marmalade!

Still reading “The Golden Bowl”: a few pages at a time is about as much as my rusty old brain can take these days. Things are hotting up, though: Fanny Assingham (what a name!) has just had a fresh perception. And that’s about as much action as you can expect in late James! 😀

How the World leaders reacted to Jean Renoir's "La Grande Illusion" (1937) upon its release: After watching the movie, Joseph Goebbels called it "Cinematic Public Enemy No.1" and ordered the prints to be confiscated and destroyed, with Vichy French authorities banning the film in 1940. When the German Army marched into France in 1940, Goebbels ordered the film's prints and negative to be the first things seized by the Nazis. Benito Mussolini called it an "anti-heroic" film and banned the movie Italy. Paul-Henri Spaak, then foreign minister of Belgium, who was also the brother of the movie's co-writer Charles Spaak, banned the movie in Belgium. In France, the Vichy government labelled the movie "demoralizing" & banned it. Franklin D. Roosevelt, then US President who knew the social and political importance of the movie, supported it and declared, "All the democracies of the world must see this film". ("The Social Cinema of Jean Renoir", Christopher Faulkner, 1986) P.S: On this day, 89 years ago, "La Grande Illusion" (1937) premiered in Paris, France.

We now have the entire Wagner’s Ring Cycle on DVD, & have been watching it with my boy, act by act (while my Wagner-phobic wife is out of the house!) We watched 1st act of Götterdämmerung today, & reckon the world should be ending some time on Thursday, in time for the World Cup,

"You don't know whether it's sad or happy, because the mood lies beyond what we understand as sadness or happiness." @StevenIsserlis @houghhough @trevorw1953 @HewittJSB Sir Clifford Curzon, on Mozart and Schubert youtu.be/PSVS-zNrOQ8?si=Z8qk…

Hard to think of a more striking opening to a film.

The precious bit of film shows of Stan Laurel visiting his father, Arthur Jefferson, during the 1932 visit to England by Laurel and Hardy. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

Still life, peppermint bottle #artbots #cezanne

I was caught trying to steal a copy of “The Golden Bowl”. The judge has told me to expect a long sentence.

James recommended reading The Ambassadors a few pages at a time. I limited myself to a few sentences at a time, which sometimes amounted to the same thing.