not sport | Wait until next year

October 23, 2013

Brahms at the Barbican

I begin with a health warning. I am no classical music expert. There is every possibility that I will use the wrong terminology, or the right terminology in the wrong way. I might try to make it sound accessible by relating it to other forms of music and in doing so sound a bit daft. I might even manage to ignore the music and just waffle on about everything else around the music. But anyway, last night I went to a classical music concert at the Barbican from the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra playing some works from Brahms, and in brief, it was amazing. Read the rest of this entry »

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October 14, 2013

Farewell Herald Tribune

Today saw the publication of the last ever edition of the International Herald Tribune. The newspaper has been in print for 126 years. It is not going out of business, it is being renamed the International New York Times, to reflect its current owners. And as those owners are keen to stress, the paper has been renamed several times across its history, it was the Paris Herald, the Paris Herald Tribune, then the International Herald Tribune. Read the rest of this entry »

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Video | October 11, 2013

Weekend

October 9, 2013

Split personalities

I remember as a kid being on holiday and going to some sort of country fête-type thing. On one of the stalls was this guy with a CB radio. I was fascinated by the idea that from this one box this guy could communicate with people from around the world. He asked me to name a country and said he’d try to find someone to talk to from there. I said Tristan da Cunha, and he unsurprisingly couldn’t find anyone. I wasn’t a smart arse, I promise. I just liked Tristan da Cunha for some reason. And I liked the idea of speaking to other people over the radio. I liked the handles they used, the anonymity and the freedom.
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