Bookworm – EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS

The Cut Season 2 Episode 15

Is it sensible to ignore a huge breaking news event, given that any response we give is liable to raise hackles?

Yes, Readership, we believe it is.

In this week’s ep, Britfunk and Prog bump up against a very large synthesiser. We look at the quiet still point of a noir classic and wonder just what the heck is up with Trump and Musk. And is Trump and Musk a fragrance brand we should look to market?

This time is adjacent to the place in which you will find The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 14

Happy Easter! We hope you’re finding the time and space to meet up with loved ones again in a responsible and socially distanced manner. It’s a strange time in which hope and dread become entangled—hope for a more normal future, dread of a sudden reversal. For now, we plan to enjoy the fresh air and company, feeling the kiss of the sun on our face as a substitute for the real thing.

This week—games you can fit on a business card, all manner of mayors and the importance of chairs in a well-loved science-fiction franchise.

Now is the here is the place is the time is The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 13

Doldrums. Holding pattern. Stuck in an unmoving queue. Days merge to weeks, weeks blur to months. Like a tanker on the Suez Canal, jammed in place, going nowhere. Sometimes, the closer you get to a sense of release, the more time slows. Zeno’s paradox, where you can never reach the finish line, however near it looms.

Anyway. Don’t mind us. We got all dreamy thinking about a quiet pint in a pub and the blues took hold. Once we get past Eggmas, things will look better. Hey, whaddya say we look at some links? This week, musical legends lost and found, a taxonomy of pasta shapes and the pub that came back from the dead.

Right here, right now, this is The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 10

+++BREAKING NEWS FROM THE ARTS DESK+++

As we hit the last lap on locking this week’s issue, news emerged regarding the graffitoe which appeared on the walls of Reading Gaol on Sunday evening. Following a week of fevered speculation, stencil-wrangler and prankster Banksy has confirmed they are to blame for the artwork. Many see the piece as a show of support from the influential street art collective for the ongoing campaign to turn the long-disused site into an arts hub. The references to Oscar Wilde’s stay are clear. We note with a smile that the work’s position, high up on a wall which is still government property, will dissuade the usual chancers, shysters and thieves which gather at the first sniff of easy profit from ‘buying’ it and denying access to a work of art which belongs to the people. As Reading locals and street art fans, we at The Cut are doubly delighted at this new addition to our already rich cultural heritage.

We now return you to our scheduled programming.

Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 9

How are we all feeling about the roadmap to the future? For a ‘data not dates’ release, there seem to be a lot of dates in there. It’s so hard. We’re all desperate to get some sense of normality back. Shunt the kids off to school, go to the shops, get a haircut, pop in somewhere for a cheeky pint. We have to take this in baby steps, we suppose. At least it’s light nearly till six now. That feels like progress of a sort.

Sigh.

A slightly truncated episode this week. The feeds have been cruel. Enjoy a load of control panels, an exploding head and Transformers rocking out.

Now is the time. Here is the place. Oh yes, this is The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 5

Hotchie motchie! Another wild ride of a week, eh? We feel as if we’ve been shoved headfirst into the bell of a euphonium which is being enthusiastically but tunelessly played by an elephant with really bad halitosis. If you too are getting the hardcore blasts of bad wind blues, then retreat to your safe, quiet space—here at The Cut we will firmly coddle your mollies.

This week we’ve got dragons, William Burroughs putting a coffee bar into a time warp and the story of how the Emperor got his Groove.

Now be the time. Here be the place. This be The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 4

The temptation to drop this episode yesterday, the 21st day of the 21st year of the 21st century, was very strong. But we believe in continuity, even in a week of momentous change. We like to hope as the sands shift under us, this weekly offering of Friday foolishness offers a foothold of stability on which to perch.

A packed programme ahead, featuring the greatest EVAR home cinema, boozy monks, and why you should never sneer at Mills and Boon.

YES TIME NOW. YES PLACE HERE.

This is The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 3

Dunno about you, Readership, but we are starting to get a bit bored with this whole living in interesting times bit. We’d rather read about history, not find ourselves living it. We assume you’re covered when it comes to the Trump thing and the Covid thing and the Brexit thing. That’s not why you’re here. You’re after some hot links to archive Soviet science fiction movies, or to read about the bars at the South Pole, or to check out the un-nerving return of Seinfeld, right? Well, you, our loves, have come to the right time and place.

This is The Cut, and we haven’t had our breakfast yet.

The Cut Season Two Episode One

We made it! Welcome to 2021, the year of hope after whatever the hell that shitshow we’ve just endured was. All is reset, we can begin again as if nothing had happened, secure in the knowledge that the world is now a better, brighter place…

Yeah, alright, maybe not. Nevertheless, here we are at the arbitrary start of a new unit of time measurement. Let’s at least start with a positive outlook, yeah?

We’ll have reports from our film, literature, food and music desks who all have a nod for their favourite thing of the year, as well as some more of the random nonsense you’ve come to tolerate over the last months. Shall we begin?

Now be the time. Here be the place. This are The Cut.

The Cut 💉 Issue 31

It’s beginning to look a lot like… oh, you get the idea. As we tumble headlong into the strangest festive season in decades, allow your pals at the Cut to issue perspective in the form of our usual brand of geek-forward linkery. The perfect antidote for those Zoom-party hangovers.

Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.