Found an awesome piece of seventies reportage on the BBC today that captures Dubai shortly after the first discovery of oil deposits under its sands. Possibly more amusing if you remember Jamie Farr’s ‘Sheik’ from the Cannonball Run. If nothing else, it’s a sobering reminder how quickly Dubai has boomed from being a ‘tiny sheikdom in the Persian Gulf’ (how quaint!) to being the gaudiest, glitziest and showiest centre… >> continued

Just. Awesome.

If you’re around my age (*cough* – 35 – *cough*) then you can’t have grown up not knowing about Alex Higgins. When snooker was at its most popular in the 80s and its stars were household names, his was the name that dominated the headlines. Some say that the rise and fall of snooker is more… >> continued | 4 Comments

Welcome to Cleckhuddersfax

Across the river and halfway up the field that sloped up some hundred-odd vertical feet towards the road, the woman picked the sheep up under her arm and strode on another few dozen paces. Resting herself for a moment on her knees, she suddenly and startlingly started raining blows down on the… >> continued | 4 Comments

If you faced the Leeds Corn Exchange and turned to your right, then at the top of the little row of shops that is known as The Calls, you would see Vinyl Tap. If you went through the door, under the awful signage (yes, it contained a stylised image of… a tap!) you found yourself in a little room maybe 20ft by 20ft square. On each side of the room… >> continued | 2 Comments

Well at fucking last we have some proper, proper snow. Seriously, I’ve been waiting for this since 1981 – which is still the kind of mental benchmark I. Here’s some observations.

• It is snowing, but you can still drive more than 8mph.
  Honda Civics look like a visitation from the future (or a large Nike) but among their owners are an alarming ly high proportion of utter, utter