When untrained amateurs try to do it, we call it “pulling a face.” But when executed by professionals, it’s simply…acting, dear boy.

Apparently, the Irish Times‘s house seer John Waters believes the Intertube and bloggers are contributing factors in the Decline of West. Perhaps that explains why www.johnwaters.ie (featuring a fetching pic of Mr Waters in full-bearded “Iron John” mode) will forever be “coming soon”. But pace Waters’s opinion of the emptiness of bloggers’ “discourse,” can I [...]

No, not Heath Ledger. Rather “Doug Krantz, 27, a New York University student and Iraq war veteran,” who turned up outside the actor’s Manhattan home upon hearing of his death. His reason?”I have a sick fascination with morbid stuff.”

RTE’s website coverage of today’s turmoil in the world’s financial markets kicks off with the following, interest-deflating headline: “US economy already in recession – consultant.”Alas, the subheading “Oh no it isn’t! – another consultant” is nowhere to be seen.On a tangential note, Louis XVI famously wrote “rien” (“nothing”) as a journal entry for July 14, [...]

For a mid-week post, I was girding myself to produce an elevating squib on Alex Ross’s much-lauded history of 20th-century music, The Rest is Noise. However, having reached only page 90 so far, even I am reluctant to offer a nugget-sized synopsis of Ross’s argument. For more, stay tuned–unless you’re a follower of the Second [...]

Taking advantage of an extended Christmas/New Year’s vacation, I’ve been working my way through Tim Blanning’s “magisterial” (i.e. very long) The Pursuit of Glory, which covers developments in Europe in the century-and-a-half between the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 and the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815. Blanning’s approach might be described as dialectical, with [...]