writing – Page 28 – EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS

The Cut Season 2 Episode 23

Aaaah, what’s happened to the sky? It is a strange blue colour, not at all like the familiar flat grey. And why is some of it on fire? It is so warm! We feel the urge to shed some of our many layers of heavy woolen clothing and go cavorting in the fields. Time to air our flabby palps—Sumer is ybloody here!

In this week’s episode, tea and beer and cocktails because why not tis the season. Now is the time, outside in the sunshine is the place. This is The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 21

It fell to Liam Gallagher to sum up the mood of the British public in one succinct tweet.

PUB
— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) May 17, 2021

Exactly. Have you been in-out yet (as opposed to out-out—frankly we find it hard to enjoy a beer while shivering under canvas)? How was it? A bit odd and creepy or a shining, joyous moment pointing the way to a new and brighter future? At the time of writing we have yet to indulge, although a lunchtime session is in the mix. It could well get emotional.

This week, we get a bit noir-y, take a look at a very literal Cold War and ponder the mechanics and logistics behind a one-shot movie.

Pub is the place. Opening time it is. This is The Cut.

How It Started/How It’s Going

This week marks the first anniversary of The Cut. That might not seem like much when put against, for example, The Guardian who celebrate 200 years this month. It’s a big milestone for me, though, as it’s the longest sustained and consistent run of publishment on this blog since—well, ever.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 19

By the time this episode drops, the Cut Crew will be on retreat, comfortably snugged into a big cottage by the sea, somewhere far from Reading. It will be a time of healing, a chance to regain perspective, a moment to reflect and re-energise as the world swings into whatever it’s deciding to call normal this week. We hope, Readership, you’re able to find your own path through the woods and out into the sunshine.

In this episode—purple Smurfs, Duke Ellington’s tips on creativity and the costumes of Ferris Bueller.

If (time) = NOW and (place) = HERE then (this) = … anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

The Cut Season 2 Episode 18

Welcome to the fiftieth episode of The Cut! Begun as an exercise in sanity-preservation in the height of lockdown, we’re pleased to have kept the momentum going, sending our patent-pending brew of links and commentary without pause to our literally dozens of readers for all this time. Of course this means there’s an even bigger milestone looming up on the horizon in a couple of weeks…

This week, we ask important tongue-related questions, introduce you to The Witch of King’s Cross and sing a song for the man who took the loneliest flight of all.

Time check! Now! Location check! Here! This is The Cut!

The Cut Season 2 Episode 17

There are a few pots of seedlings on a warm, sunny windowsill at Cut Command. Tomatoes and a couple of kinds of chilies. Normally, the gardeneers in the office would simply buy plants to pot out in our little patch of ground out past the back door. This year they decided to try and grow from seed. The progress has been slow, a little worrying when we come in to find the plants have gone floppy for no good reason. But it’s such a nice feeling to see that dot of green on the surface of a pot appear, reach out and stretch into a new life, a new kind of potential.

That’s a metaphor for something, probably.

This week, how you can’t walk away from a memory on the internet (even when it didn’t happen), the trouble with vinyl and a real blast from the past.

See now this right here now, this is The Cut.

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 12

This week marks a grim anniversary–a year since the UK first went into lockdown. It’s been a bumpy twelve months, to put it mildly. We’ll touch on this briefly in the course of the episode, as well as offering up a couple of links on the ongoing conversation about listening to and offering safe spaces for half the population of the godsdamn planet.

Plus a fun online toy to play with, the seventieth birthday of a famous ten-year old and a very important food and drink pairing guide.

Is this the time? Is now the place? Is this The Cut?