Nick Gibbins

Rainbow Kiss

Last night, , and I went to the Royal Court Theatre to see Rainbow Kiss by Simon Farquhar. Simon and I have known each other for slightly over twenty years (we went to the same secondary school), and he was an usher at our wedding. He mentioned a couple of months ago that his first full-length stage play was going to be appearing at the Royal Court this spring (he’s previously had a couple of plays on Radio 4: Candy Floss Kisses, and Elevenses with Twiggy), but we managed to faff around until the first reviews started appearing in the… Read More »Rainbow Kiss

Wikipedia Birthday Meme

Go to Wikipedia. Type in your birth date (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List two important birthdays and one interesting death. Events 1912 – The frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men are found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. 1927 – Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin with undisputed control of the Soviet Union. 1990 – Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web. Births 1929 – Grace Kelly, Princess Grace of Monaco, American actress 1934 – Charles Manson, American cult leader… Read More »Wikipedia Birthday Meme

All professors are equal, but some are more equal than others

There’s nothing quite so likely to give me indigestion at lunchtime than reading about the latest antics of certain vice chancellors in the Times Higher. Today’s edition has a beaut of a story: David VandeLinde, the VC of Warwick University (and formerly VC of Bath University, which is where I know of him from) is introducing US-style academic titles at Warwick. All 850 academic staff at Warwick University will from next year be able to call themselves “professor” following a decision to adopt the US system of academic titles. Warwick is the first UK university to break away from hundreds… Read More »All professors are equal, but some are more equal than others

This Vicious Cabaret

I’ve been looking forward to the release of V for Vendetta with some trepidation since I first heard that an adaptation was seriously in the offing (see my previous posts). and I went to see it last night; I’m hoping that she will also post her views on the film, because unlike myself she hasn’t read the comic and has a different (and more positive) take on the film. Without spoilers, what are my feelings on the success of the film? Is it a bad film? No. Is it a good adaptation? Sadly, also no. It isn’t a disaster, but… Read More »This Vicious Cabaret

A for Andromeda

Given that the 1961 original was lost in one of the great BBC tape purges of the 1970s (to make way for Match of the Day, no doubt), it’s unsurprising that I’ve never seen A for Andromeda. Rather more embarrassingly, I’ve not read any of Fred Hoyle’s novels. and I watched the live remake of The Quatermass Experiment that BBC Four showed last year; I enjoyed it, but I didn’t think that the plot had dated especially well, and the pacing required of a live production with outside broadcasts felt artificial. I’ve just seen BBC Four’s remake of A for… Read More »A for Andromeda

Milosevic is dead

The BBC is reporting that Milosevic has been found dead in his cell at the Hague. While I can express no remorse at the fact that he’s dead, I would rather it had been after he had been found guilty. To put it simply, he got away.

We have shelves!

64.25 metres of shelving to be precise. Now all we need to do is move around some of the existing shelves to fit all of our oversized books (mainly ‘s photography books and my gaming stuff) and unpack the remaining boxes. But before that, a poll!

David Irving changes his mind

Does this make him a Revisionist Revisionist? Short Shameful Confession: I’ve heard him speak in person – he gave a talk to the Historical Society at my school entitled “Hitler: Man of Peace”, mainly because he was an old boy of the school. Nasty bit of work nonetheless. On the plus side, some enterprising soul had amended all of the posters advertising the event to add the phrase “All he wanted was a piece of Poland, France, the Netherlands…”