ramblin’ – Page 20 – EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS

The Cut Season 3 Episode 9

Ok, look, we know it’s a shitstorm out there. We offer no commentary apart from the obvious position: we stand with Ukraine. Otherwise, we’ll do what we always do—try to offer a quiet, silly place for a bit of a breather from, you know, *gestures at everything* this. Hope we can help.

This week—Lego birds, dive bars and DJ booths.

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

The Cut Season 3 Episode 8

Lots to talk about this week, so let’s crack on with it. In lieu of the usual strained folderol, here’s a quote, the meaning of which will become clearer as this week’s episode unfurls.

“Excellence in the great things is built upon excellence in the small.”
John Updike

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

The Cut Season 3 Episode 7

Plans are afoot. Savings, so carefully squirreled away in the quiet years behind us, are about to be counted out and handed over. Changes to Cut Central have been ordered and will be complete by the summer. We’ve been thinking about this work for over a decade. Now, suddenly, it’s really happening. Nothing for you to worry about, Readership. The smooth sailing of this operation will be unhindered by upcoming upheavals. But we’re excited in a gentle middle-class suburban way about the improvements. Let’s hope it’s a tiny precursor of better times ahead (although we appreciate the brass neck in allowing domestic building work at our gaff to stand as a metaphor for hope in the face of a wildly uncertain global future).

This week: quiet places, playing at government and an actual plug for actual Excuses And Half Truths product.

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

(The feature image was generated by WomboDream with the prompt ‘Further Excuses’. Another fun web toy to play with if you haven’t already.)

The Cut Season 3 Episode 6

A twelfth of the way through the year. Did you Veganuary? Dryanuary? Tryanuary? Or, like the Cut Crew, did you decide that the dark doldrums days of the new year are no time to be mucking about with fads you’ll start half-heartedly before abandoning two weeks in? We hope one habit you’ve kept up is your weekly fix of linkeration with us. If you enjoy it, why not tell a friend? That’s a resolution we can happily agree with.

This week: The Archies, the greatest film review ever and the Ninth Art Desk goes for a full takeover.

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

The Cut Season 3 Episode 5

It’s kind of difficult to try and sum up a week when everything is happening all at once and it’s only (checks watch) teatime on Thursday. Let us offer you a refuge from the madness. Fair warning, though, there’s a little bit of economics and politics in amongst the usual cruft and hoohah. We’ll try not to make a habit of it, honest.

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

The Cut Season 3 Episode 4

We’re over the hump of the month, and the day we no longer call Blue Monday is receding in our rear-view mirror. The first Wolf Moon of 2022 has howled across the sky. The Cadbury Creme Eggs and Valentine’s Day cards are in the shops. That new car smell is off the year now, y’all. Let’s dig in for the long run to springtime.

This week: a rocketgirl, the Residents and hey, we need to talk about Bruno.

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

The Cut Season 3 Episode 3

It’s cold and foggy here in Reading this morning. The damp low air brings a sense of quiet and mystery, as if there’s something waiting for us just out of sight. We feel strangely positive about things today—the Covid numbers are starting to drop, the ugly and entitled have had a kicking as their hubris is revealed and the world sees them for the monsters they truly are. The fog has lifted there, at least.

It’s a nice peaceful moment to settle in with a cup of tea and put the finishing polish on this week’s Cut. Enjoy with us a wild story about how an architect became a bargaining chip in the acquisition of his own archive, the crazy world of fake bourbon and how Mad Max Fury Road channels Shakespeare.

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

The Cut Season 3 Episode 2

Back to work, drones. You’ve had your fun, eaten and drunk your way through a skipful of vittles, slept in till noon, maybe had another nap in the afternoon in front of something on Netflix. Those days are over. Time to pull up the slack and get your noses back on the grindstone. The Prime Minister’s wallpaper bill won’t pay itself, you know.

Of course, we here at Cut Central know nothing of rest. Our ongoing mission to bring you juicy reads and tasty links is a twenty-four-seven operation. Sleep is for the weak. Let’s get to it.

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

The Cut Season 3 Premiere!

2021, done. That was a wild ride, right? All the fun of 2020 with an added layer of paranoia, existential dread and looming societal collapse. Who’d have thought we’d become so skilled at the fine art of the Latty Flow, plunging swabs down our throats and up our noses with as much grace and aplomb as such activities can allow?

But here we are in 2022, by the grace of an entirely arbitrary time-reckoning system. Reset count to zero, brush that dirt off your shoulder, face the sunrise. After much discussion amongst the many Desks, we have decided not to offer a review or best-of list for last year. Why should our tastes be any more interesting or relevant than yours? If you’d like to educate us in your favourite music, film, telly or perhaps even comic of the last twelve months, then please do. You know we love to hear from you.

We start 2022 with a positive mental attitude, an eye on the future and a drink in either paw. We hope you can do the same, Readership.

Now is the time. Here is the place. This is Season 3 of The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Christmas Finale!

So, here it is (at the time of writing this preamble, on Christmas Eve at the Anchor Inn on Henley On Thames, the Slade classic is indeed pumping on the stereo). A second weird Christmas for us all. All you can do is make the most of it and celebrate the little victories—we’re in a pub on December 24th which is an improvement on last year, for example. We hope you’re spending the day with the people you love in the way that you want. However it happens, we wish you merry brightness.

Our X-Day gift to you includes a couple of Christmassy horror stories, a chance to hang with Sarah Millican, the joys of Christmas Ai creatures and some Muppets.

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