Happy St. Scholastica Day! Let us never forget, the smallest actions can have the largest of consequences—in this case a row over the quality of the wine in an Oxford tavern led to three days of rioting, dozens dead and, eventually, the overweight influence we see of the university over the town. you never know where a sour goblet of sack could take you.
This week, Taylor, mascots and kids on keyboards. Who knows where we’ll be by the end of it all?
Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.
Rob is reading…
On The Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin. I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to get around to this extraordinary, elegaic, hallucinatory book. On the surface, it tells the story of a family of farmers surviving in the harsh environs of rural Wales. There’s so much more to the story than that. On The Black Hill makes me want to be a better writer while having to accept I will never be as good as Chatwin. He makes this stuff look effortless. It really, really isn’t.
Rob is watching…
the wheels go round and round.
Rob is listening…
to this rather splendid Tom Waits-adjacent playlist. It goes to show what a broad church he worships in. There’s room for everyone from the Bonzos to Diamanda Galas (doing gospel in her usual terrifyingly inimitable fashion) to Slim Gaillard and so on and so coooool, daddi-o.
Rob is eating…
Pizza. Yesterday was National Pizza Day, so the meal choice is a bit of a gimme. For my local Reading folks, I can strongly recommend ZeroDegrees or The Thirsty Bear in the town centre or, if you dare to cross to the north side, Papa Gees in Caversham (try the Sophia Loren if you’re in a carnivorous mood). Ooh, or The Last Crumb just up the hill. All three will do you excellent wood-fired leopard-spotted deliciousness.
Rob’s Low-Key Obsession Of The Week…
The Gregg Wallace thing. If you know, you know.
This first link from Mcsweeney’s Internet Tendency is offered as another of the wide-ranging set of reasons why I remain childless.
Further considerations on how being a writer means you have to be a brand. It’s all getting a little exhausting, if I’m being frank. JD Salinger never had to put up with this shit.
Some background on the Israeli/Palestine conflict which has been going on for a lot longer and with a lot more interference from the West than common knowledge would allow. I try to keep politics on the down-low in The Swipe, but this primer is balanced, non-judgemental and essential if you feel the urge to contribute to the discussion. Knowledge is power, right?
I refuse to use Adobe products for exactly the reasons outlined in this piece. So much software these days is only available under the same model. Great for the suppliers. Sucks for the end user. For those of you keen to point out that I use WordPress for Excuses And Half Truths and therefore pay tithe in hosting costs—yeah, I know. Sucks to be me too.
The language of the workplace has a way of sneaking into the general venacular. The way we converse is constantly changing, and I’m happy to dial some of the following terms into my everyday discourse. To general bewilderment, I’m sure but hey, I’ll feel cooler.
On the same subject, Untranslatable offers a deep rabbit-hole of opportunity to dig into and spice up your life with phrases from other languages. At this rate I’m going to be incomprehensible come the summer.
How do we perceive Taylor Swift in 2024? Record-breaking musical artist? Political force? Friend or traitor to the LGBTQI community? This short monograph, compiled by Celia Mattison, takes Tay-Tay’s lyrics as inspiration and provides a bracingly varied set of opinions. Points added for supplying a playlist to listen to as you read.
As a shy and retiring English bloke, the idea of sending back a dish at a restaurant fills me with dread and horror. I think I’ve done it once in my life, and the whole situation was utterly, cripplingly mortifying. It shouldn’t have to be that way, and I appreciate the helping hand extended by Bon Appetit to help out the next time I find a hair on my pizza…
OG blogger Pete Ashton has returned to active duty after several years walking the earth. I always enjoyed his writing, and his new work has much to recommend it. Here he is on how dressing as a mascot can be an incredibly liberating experience, as well as rendering you effectively invisible…
We all know by now how beneficial comics are as an educational tool. Not just as reading material, though. The organizational and creative skills gleaned from making your own funny books cannot be understated, as the New York public school system has recognised. More like this, please. Comics on the curriculum!
This week I’ve disappeared into a swirling maelstrom of Turkish psychedelia and pop, enjoying the sheer wildness of the music. Party tunes from another dimension that’s barely a ten-degree rotation from the one I know, Yuh Yuh by Selda Bağcan has soundtracked my activities for the past few days, putting a bounce in my step and a shake in my spine.
See you in seven, fellow travelers.
EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS 