I sincerely hope I’m wrong when I say that the passing of Kiwi composer, arranger and conductor Terry Gray went unnoticed in our news media. I only found out last month that Terry died in 2011. As a kid of the 1970s and a teenager of the 1980s, Terry’s music was a big part […]
Read More… from In memoriam, Terry Gray, British-born New Zealand composer, 1940–2011
I’m fascinated by the 1970½ Ford Falcon for a number of reasons. The first is the obvious one: rarity. This car was built for only half a model year, from January to August 1970. If you think it looks like a contemporary Torino, you’re right: it’s basically a very stripped-down Torino. Yet you could spec it […]
‘Anarchy, acts of terror, crimes against the public. To combat it I’ve got special men: experts from the army, the police, from every service. These are the professionals.’ Forty years ago, ITV began airing one of the UK’s most iconic TV series. There’s more at Dave Matthews’ The Authorised Guide to the Professionals, […]
Brexit was an interesting campaign to watch, and there’s not too much I can add that hasn’t been stated already. I saw some incredibly fake arguments from Brexit supporters, including one graphic drawing a parallel between the assassinations of Anna Lindh in 2003 and Jo Cox MP, saying how the murder of the former led […]
Read More… from Brexit reminds us that we need to take a lead in making globalization fairer
Those great, shared cultural experiences. I’m sure some of you remember how ground-breaking it was in 1977 to see this film. Sure, we’d seen the actors in parts before, on TV, in some smaller films, but this one propelled them into greater stardom. The memorable tunes. One of the greatest cinematic antagonists. The fact we […]
Star Wars is in my feed in a big way. To get up to speed on the film series, I had to start with the memorable theme by John Williams. Thanks, Bill and Paul. And who better to describe the plot than someone else in the science-fiction world, Doctor Who? Seriously though, I […]
The below ran in Lucire today, though it is equally suited to the readers of this blog. RIT Massimo Vignelli, who passed away on May 27, was a hero of mine. When receiving the news shortly before it hit the media in a big way, from our mutual friend Stanley Moss, this title’s travel editor […]
A small tribute to actor Lewis Collins on his passing earlier this week (originally published in Lucire Men). 1. The cars The Triumph Dolomite Sprint Lewis Collins’ character, William Andrew Philip Bodie (he was a ‘regal-looking baby’) had in The Professionals had more power than Doyle’s TR7. And his Capris were far cooler. So cool […]
Read More… from A tribute to Lewis Collins: the top five reasons he was awesome
As a child growing up in Wellington, there were a few TV series that shaped my beliefs about being grown-up in the occident. The first I’ve written about before: The Persuaders, which is in part where this blog gets its name. I’ve probably mentioned Return of the Saint elsewhere, not to mention the plethora of […]
Read More… from I wanted to grow up and be the Dean Martin version of Matt Helm
A while back, I came across Benjamin J. Heckendorn (a.k.a. Ben Heck) and his Commodore 64 laptop. This is a quite a fascinating machine, considering the actual “portable” 64 Executive was a heavy beast that could kill if hurled at you. While Ben took the 64’s odd colour, keyboard and 64C’s motherboard, his is structured […]
Read More… from And now, Ben Heck makes an ‘Atari’ Xbox 360 ‘1977 edition’