Funfare for the Common Man

I put on deodorant yesterday. For the first time in 34 days. Now, that I’ve got your attention, let’s get cracking. By this point, we’re all starting to crack – or crack up – if we haven’t already. No matter what your state or condition during the lockdown, it’s bound to be affecting you in one way or another. Have you reached your breaking point yet? In this post, a couple of brief stories about anger management and fatherhood; a couple of pretty shitty links to share, along with some ‘acquired taste’ comedy; and a ‘panic at the supermarket’ article that is much more uplifting and enlightening than you think. (if you’re looking for some of the best kind of panic, you could do worse than listen to this: the best type of panic )   All this, plus I rekindle my inner music journalist by sharing a ‘get through the pandemic’ chill-out playlist and wax nostalgic about the good old days of mix tapes and my teenage years. Not to sound too flippant about this, bec...

I thought I’d take a break from my ‘Reflections on Reading’ to take a nostalgic trip down memory lane. I’m a bit of a sucker for yearly milestones. I probably spend far too much time having maudlin moments, reflecting on the past, asking myself what I was doing at this point 5 years ago…or 10 years ago…or 20 years ago. I get it from my mother and I blame her entirely for this. As a kid, my mother would often say ‘this time last week we were…’ or ‘this time 25 years ago I was in the midst of intense labour with you’. I do this with historical events as well. When 2014 kicked off, I started diving into WWI-related books. Last month marked 50 years (April 1968) since 2001: A Space Odyssey, so I of course went and re-watched that. No doubt that if I’m still alive and kicking in 2066 I’ll be commemorating a millennium since the Battle of Hastings by reading recently de-classified material. Regular, devoted readers dating back to when this blog started in 2009 will be fully aware o...