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 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?

The Cut Season 2 Episode 11

Featured image by Joel Meyerowitz, Times Square, New York City, 1963. Via Flashbak.

We begin with a little housekeeping. Some of you will have noticed there was no drop yesterday. The inevitability of a skip day has been looming ever more since responsibilities other than The Cut (yes, we do have lives and engagements more pressing than the newsletter, distressing as that might sound) have jumped on our backs and starting nibbling at our earlobes.

So, thus and therefore, the executive decision has been made to shift The Cut’s drop point to Saturday morning. This gives our beleaguered staff a little more wiggle room to deliver on schedule and means you, our beloved Readership, can now read our compilation of curiosities in bed with a nice cup of tea. Everyone wins! Do join us in this brave new world of possibilities.

This week—Muppets! Creepy skunks! And yes, something about reading in bed.

Saturday is the time. Bed is the place. 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 8

We may, perhaps, finally, be on the verge of a beginning of an end. At least to this phase in The Situation. Vulnerable and aged members of The Cut Crew (yeah, ok, that describes most of us) have been given their microchips and are now beaming all our secrets to a server in Wuhan Province. Whatever gets us back in the pub soonest, right?

In this ep, how political cartoons have always been science-sceptic, all the radio on the planet and a childhood favourite goes prog.

AYE AND GAMORRAH. Here is the place. Now is the time. This is The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 7

It’s all feeling a bit liminal. Although the news improves around vaccination levels and dropping R rates, life still has the frozen quality of a holding pattern. The streets remain quiet, the shops mostly closed. The pubs… better not to think about that lest we dissolve into a puddle of regretful tears. But hey, as the great seer Steve Miller put it— ‘time keeps on tickin’, tickin’, tickin’, into the future’. Bring on the summer.

Today we check out the fun you can have with explosives, consider how a Mars colony might deal with a pandemic and consider the vexed question of American cheese.

Hey, you there! Now is the time, yeah? This is the place, right? What else could this be but The Cut‽

The Cut Season Two Episode 6

Cold. Damp. Miserable. At least it isn’t January any more, right? Look, we know it’s tough for all you G’s, but see it the way we do—it honestly can’t get any worse. Vaccinations are bombing along. Sunrise is starting to happen at a point after we stick our collective noses over the duvet. And it’s Friday! Come on y’all, upside down them frowns and put a little sugar on it.

This week—sex! Cheese (which is sex in dairy form)! Little Richard (the man who was sex and drugs and rock and roll)!

OY! TIME YES NOW PLACE HERE YES! COME AND GET YER CUT!