The Wee Man objects to my musical taste. Fair enough. If your three-year-old is waxing lyrical about Arab Strap’s marvellous return, he’s got problems. But not as many as he’s got in store for you.
So, when I’m listening to 6Music/something from 1991/Britain’s slide into fascism*, the demands from the back seat begin.
“80s MUSIC!!!”
The Wee Man, 2021
[Check out the reliably disappointing Apoplexy Tiny Letter]
Continue reading Disappointment
Happy RLS Day! Robert Louis Stevenson is 168 today.
He really doesn’t though, does he? Look at the light in those wee eyes! To look at him, you wouldn’t believe that he would be dead by the end of the next year.
[For more personal and whimsical reflections, check out the Apoplexy Tiny Letter.] Continue reading Treasure Islands
I don’t write about football here very often.
But, bear with me…
[Or get some alternate whimsy and alternative tunes here.] Continue reading Fergie Time
Ikutaro Kakehashi died on Saturday at the age of 87. A check check of the Interwebz doesn’t reveal the cause of his death, and he was Japanese – but he has to get a Great British Strokes-shaped post.
Y’see, this…
[For more repetitive beats, check out the Apoplexy Tiny Letter.] Continue reading Everybody Needs a 303
The Brexit referendum could have been an invigorating exercise in participatory democracy, addressing important issues about subsidiarity, regulation, and the like. Instead, it was presented as a discussion of a post-Brexit wishlist in which dues no longer payable to the EU could be spent on [insert cause of your choice].
But now, the reformed Vote Leave, called Change Britain, have dropped their pre-referendum pledge of a £350m-a-week spending bonanza for the NHS.
Don’t worry – this post is actually about awesome ska legend Prince Buster… Continue reading Madness
Hello, and welcome to apoplectic.me’s occasional round-up of strokes in the news. It’s been quite a week….
I saw #TheRevenant. Leo drags a useless leg around for ages, while grunting incomprehensibly. Aah, memories. #stroke pic.twitter.com/VKK1qYNnWC
— Ricky Brown (@ricky_ballboy) February 15, 2016
[More stroke blog inanity and whimsy here.] Continue reading Digesta Plaga #8
On 2 May 2015, Princess Waynetta Diana Alexandra Windsor was delivered unto the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and a grateful nation. While the birth was being announced on Twitter, the journos who needed to stand in front of a thing were gathered to await the announcement of the annunciation on an easel on the forecourt of Buckingham Palace.
In a kind of Bizarro Spiderman moment, said journos were already concerned about the effects the terrible pressures of privilege without responsibility might have on young Waynetta.
Want to keep up with all the latest #RoyalBaby news?
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Continue reading Great British Strokes #8
I’ve decided to include this post in the “Great British Strokes” section of the site. I had it in my head that – given his transatlantic aspect – Robert McCrum might not be, or define himself as, British. Maybe he doesn’t. His resumé does put one somewhat in mind of that of Bill Bryson, who seems very confused about all that stuff.
Longsufferinggirlfriendoftheblogbeth mentioned the other day that it’s been over a year since we’ve had a Digesta Plaga/Stroke Digest. And with uncanny timing, here’s the latest round-up of all the stroke news that’s fit to print. Get to the end, and we’ve got strokebots!
[For an extra portion of apoplexy each week, please sign up for my Tiny Letter distributions here. Thanks!] Continue reading Digesta Plaga #7
One of the first things you’ll notice strolling around Edinburgh is the collection of private schools that seem to have dropped out of context and out of the sky. Pudgily gothic Fettes. The ersatz Red Square on the Thames of Stewart’s-Melville.
Last week, I was wandering along Lauriston Place, heading in a roundabout sort of way towards Cockburn Street to see if the t-shirt shop had replenished its stock of John and Yokos. Heading east along the street, I was distracted from George Heriot’s School looming from an Edinburghian distance by the sounds of Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review on BBC Radio Five Live.
[The apoplectic.me Tiny Letter distribution usually riffs off in a different direction from the week’s post. Check it out here.]
Continue reading Hello to Jason Isaacs!