Tales of cyber-neurosis
March 29, 2026 Leave a comment
So, how did the San Francisco Giants, my pick for the 2026 World Series, fare in their opening home stand? Swept 3-0 by the Yankees you say? Out-scored 13-1? Failed to register a run in the opening two games of a season for the first time in franchise history? Hmm…
Still plenty of games to go I guess…
March 24, 2026 Leave a comment
I was beginning to worry that, with the Oscars past, I was going to have to start watching the news again, but luckily baseball season starts later this week, just in time to provide another welcome distraction.
In the opening game my adopted team San Francisco take on the New York Yankees, so there might be some early indication of whether their 2026 campaign will be more inspiring than last year’s ultimately disappointing mediocrity. Before my pre-season optimism is inevitably deflated I’ll hazard another sporting prediction; Giants for the World Series.
March 16, 2026 Leave a comment
So, four out of seven of my Oscar tips turned out to be on the money, which I think isn’t too shabby. Of the three I missed, two involved films that I haven’t seen yet, and the other was the wrong actor in the correct movie (and I’d argue that it was the Academy voters who erred; Sean Penn may have had a bigger role, but Benicio del Toro gave the story its moral compass).
March 14, 2026 Leave a comment
A last-minute forecast this year; a movie-viewing spree this week has allowed me to belatedly catch up with most of the nominated films, so my tips are at least semi-informed.
As you can see One Battle After Another was my favourite movie of the year, probably because I can identify with Leonardo DiCaprio’s bewildered ex-radical. I did consider The Secret Agent for Best Picture, but I think it’s got a better chance of picking up the International award.
Of the other front-runners, I found Hamnet a bit dull and emotionally manipulative, and Sinners was entertaining, but disjointed, though they were elevated by the performances of Jessie Buckley and Michael B Jordan respectively. Marty Supreme was impressive, but fatally undermined for me by a protagonist who was just too much of an unlikeable asshole to root for. Sentimental Value looks like the sort of film that I would enjoy, and perhaps it would have featured more in my list if I had been organised enough to see it by now.
I’m tempted to stay up late to live-blog the ceremony tomorrow, but I have to go to work the next day, so I’ll probably skip it and come back with an update on Monday.
March 8, 2026 Leave a comment
We’ve marked International Women’s Day a few times in the past, though the last occasion was, shamefully, nearly a decade ago. Each of those posts has struck a broadly optimistic tone, celebrating the resilience of our female comrades in their struggle for equality, but acknowledging the distance still to travel.
I’m finding it hard to maintain a positive outlook this year though. Whatever hope was generated by the signs of a resurgence of progressive politics locally has been all but buried by the outbreak of open-ended war in the Middle East. What’s particularly dispiriting is that the conflict doesn’t even seem to be the result of calculated Realpolitik, which would be bad enough, but rather to be driven by Donald Trump’s desire to project his own brand of toxic masculinity across the globe, which in turn is presumably an unconscious attempt to expunge his shame at dodging the Vietnam draft. It seems extraordinary that an advanced nation like the US can be drawn into such an obviously dangerous course of action by the whims of one unstable man, but apparently that’s where we are. Of course there are other actors in this situation who have their own agendas and motivations, but none of these seem to be particularly well thought out either, so it is very difficult to see how this could play out as anything other than a tragedy.
If you ask me, the Matriarchy can’t come soon enough…
February 9, 2026 Leave a comment
Seattle’s triumph in Super Bowl LX, along with Philadelphia’s victory in the same competition last year, has made me think that in future I should follow an avian theme when making US sports predictions.
For the NBA Championship we’re looking at the Atlanta Hawks or the New Orleans Pelicans, currently ranked 9th in the East and 14th in the West respectively, so perhaps not.
In the NHL there are the Anaheim Ducks and the Pittsburgh Penguins, both of whom are going pretty well this season, and either might be worth a wager for the Stanley Cup.
Most promising though is the MLB; we have the Baltimore Orioles, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Toronto Blue Jays. The first two were nowhere last year, but of course the Jays came within a couple of outs of winning the World Series, so they must be a pretty good bet for this season too.
February 7, 2026 Leave a comment
Since neither of the teams I tipped for the final have made it to Santa Clara, I need to come up with a new forecast, so I’m going with Seattle.
The less said about my AFCON prediction the better…
January 10, 2026 Leave a comment
Since politics is too hard, I’ll stick to the safer ground of predicting the outcome of major sporting events.
First up, with the playoffs starting today, Super Bowl LX. I think Denver will get through to the final, where they will lose to whoever wins the San Francisco-Philadelphia game tomorrow; my money in that contest is on the 49ers.
The Africa Cup of Nations is coming to a climax too; my tip for the final next weekend is Ivory Coast.
December 30, 2025 Leave a comment
It’s not been a vintage year on the cultural front; I have just about kept up a steady pace of consumption, but my appetite for seeking out novel experience is definitely not what it was. That said, there were some highlights I feel are worth noting; they are listed below.
Television
For various reasons I have completely given up on watching TV in recent times, but I made one exception this year; an old favourite, Twin Peaks. Inspired by the sad news of the passing of David Lynch in January I acquired the box set of all three seasons, and proceeded to view it in a properly nostalgic style; one episode at a time, at more or less weekly intervals. I threw in Fire Walk with Me after finishing season two, then left a gap (though not 25 years) before starting season three, which I haven’t quite completed yet, though I should wrap it up sometime next month. I hadn’t revisited Twin Peaks since it originally aired, so I was a little worried that it might not be as good as I remembered, but I’m glad to report that it did not disappoint in any way, retaining its capacity to intrigue and shock in equal measure. Even if I had caught some other shows this year I’m pretty sure that none of them would have topped Lynch’s beguiling masterpiece.
Film
I did quite well with cinema-going in the first half of the year, then fell off a bit after the summer; I’ll have to catch up ahead of the Oscars. Of the movies I saw this year I particularly liked Nickel Boys, A Real Pain, A Complete Unknown, The Phoenician Scheme, and Die My Love. For my favourite I’m oscillating between One Battle After Another and Nouvelle Vague, with the latter just winning out.
Books
I didn’t get through much new fiction this year; far too much of my reading time was taken up by staying current with the news, though I can’t say much of that left me feeling particularly informed. Of the books I did read the most memorable were Death Valley by Melissa Broder, The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits, and my favourite, the dreamlike and unsettling An Earthquake Is a Shaking of the Surface of the Earth by Anna Moschovakis.
Music
I bought a respectable number of new records this year; here are my top five:
I didn’t see much live music, but the shows I caught were pretty good; the best was courtesy of the reliably energetic Beach Bunny.
Come back tomorrow for our review of the year in blogging…
November 15, 2025 Leave a comment
Long-time readers may recall that back in 2009 I was moved to pen a piece defending the editorial integrity of the British Broadcasting Corporation, who stood accused of the dastardly crime of being overly negative about Second Life.
The recent controversy concerning their reporting of the events of January 2021 has been rather more significant of course, so it’s been gratifying to see that, after an initial wobble, they are standing up for press freedom by essentially telling Donald Trump to go fuck himself, even if they have expressed it a little more politely.
Second Life Shrink 