Build-a-bear identities: the quest of finding home for the third-culture kid
“So where are you from?” Fresh-faced in a foreign country, the question pops up as frequently as you might imagine. Likewise, a definite answer usually follows. “I’m from [insert country here].” However, for the people who identify as a “third-culture kid” an answer would necessarily n
THROUGH THE ARCHIVES #2: Hassan the Kebab Man
“Hassan is such an icon. Situated in a prime vending position on Broad Street this man purveys everything an inebriated/stressed/starving member of the community could wish for, without having to venture into the grubby details of our country’s licensing laws.” An old article by Mi
Cyril Connolly and Horizon Magazine
Back in September, I was browsing The Last Bookshop on Walton Street when I came across a sun-damaged stack of Horizon magazines. The covers were simplistic; only the colour of the logo changed with each issue between brilliant greens, blues, pinks and purples. The economical design seemed
Short Poems
Amongst the sprawling fragments of prose and poetry which make up William Carlos Williams’ Spring and All (1923) lies the following: so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens Everything about the presentation of these lines is u
12/10/17: The ISIS Presents Live Wire
★ ✩ ✮ ✯ ✰ ☆ ⋆★ ✩ ✮ ✯ ✰ ☆ ⋆★ ✩ ✮ ✯ ✰ ☆ ⋆ WE’RE BACK ! Thursday 1st week we’re kicking off with Live Wire. Get yourselves down to Cellar (God bless its sweaty soul) to bust a groove with freaks and funk lovers alike. Our compadres over at […]
Restless Modernity: How sleeplessness reflects the peculiarities of contemporary life
“We live as we dream — alone…”—Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Attempting to characterise any period of history by one quality or sensation is, at best, a good way to cause an argument: at worst, a lazy oversimplification. Is the zeitgeist of a given era something that is generated
A Voice in the Storm
I’m on the black list over there, all of my books are banned… But I must always be faithful to the truth and to myself, no matter where I am. Stranded thousands of miles away from her family, her friends and her countrymen, the Syrian poet Maram al-Masri draws her strength from an unwavering
Gay men don’t get to be angry
In a gorgeous essay for Lenny released in June 2016, actress and comedian Casey Wilson quoted something her father used to say after one of his outbursts of rage. “Men have anger.” So do women, Wilson explains. And so do gay men, I’d add. This year, I had a rough summer, and read Wilson
On this day: The Joshua Tree
It’s a puzzle, liking U2. They make it so easy, and yet they make it so hard. From their post-punk 80’s through their post-modern 90’s to their post-post-modern 00’s and beyond, they’ve bombarded an impressionable world with suitably impressionistic music, music whose core concern often se