Posts
The Grand Parent
Julian’s ‘madness’ – diagnosed at the time as a variant of paranoid schizophrenia – seemed to involve two modes of...
Gauntlet
Peter is unworldly. You see Peter you think ‘What happened there?’ or ‘What didn’t happen there?’ Did he grow up never...
Pleasant Enough
Given the clairvoyant accuracy of J. G. Ballard’s assertion in the 1990s that ‘The 21st century will be the century of...
Double Bubble
I'm not so interested in people's meals or holidays or pets but I do find Facebook a useful location for small-scale...
Plate
found an alley I hadn’t spotted before and heard sounds of jollity at the end of it. I walked...
This is What You Do, Boris
Some years ago I spent several months travelling in the USA. Often I got lost or couldn't find places and would ask...
Inner Life Option
I suppose one reason I'm not keen on Lydia Davis appending the word 'dream' to some of her very short stories is that...
Piano Dreams
One thing Lydia Davis does in her very short stories is to append, after some stories, in lower case italics, the word...
This is How
I really like this image. But the text I wrote for it, just after Christmas 2019, was not of a sufficiently high...
I saw Danny
I saw Danny coming back from his work which was in a morgue across the river. He said that at work a body had come in...
In Arms
When you have been breastfed by Brad Pitt you quickly come to realise that life will not be all hard or all soft. As...
You Got This
A Preface to You Got This The phrase ‘You Got This’ can be stressed in several ways, including ‘You Got This’ and ‘You...
Shorts in June
There are many reasons why I like the very short stories of Lydia Davis. The most workaday reason is that it is...
Fare
I went to this hippy fair in my home town not too far from here the other day. I had been there before a couple of...
It Has Always Been There
In a bed at night in a Paris hotel a few decades ago I could hear a couple of men talking in the corridor. I thought...
Street Peeve
A guy crosses the road causing a passing car to brake hard. The driver jumps out and dashes towards the guy, who is...
Not to be Continued
The first time I saw the black plastic lapel badges they had been pinned to two well groomed young men on the Tube....
Going Underground
Saturday: Piccadilly Line: en route to the Women's March. Passengers call out "Good Luck!" as six young protesters...
Punitive
On the radio DJ Zane Lowe was talking about a song and he made some comment or other then said 'No pun intended'. He...
Unplank & the Dog Eaters
There are so many reasons why I shouldn't do this. Every time I think about it I think of fresh reasons. The fact that...
Physics with Christ
I was gratified by the volume of feedback received after the recent post titled 'Plate'. I had not realised that my...
The Telltale Glass
In an earlier post about tennis on TV I wrote about how the sport, when televised live, is adulterated in order to...
Murder in the Dark
When I was a film student in the mid 60s I read a translation of Antonin Artaud's four page play 'A Spurt of Blood'...
Hey, Girlfriend!
In the cinema films are edited before they get to you. You can't do anything about it. But what would you do anyway?...
Storm Thorgerson 1944 – 2013
Storm Thorgerson, whom I had known since my early teens, died three weeks ago after a long struggle with cancer. Storm...
The Inner Argosy
The man next to me has a pint glass of water, a biro and an Argos catalogue. He is bent over the catalogue circling...
Down Roundabout Way: Part II
Poking around in my hard disk I came across an aborted piece on aborted pieces which reminded me that what goes around...
Cafe Society II
hile the nursery
Cafe Society I
The cafe, situated on a main road, gets its fair share of passing citizens not currently carrying coin. The manager...
Me Ree
I like a Knock Knock joke (Little old lady who? I didn't know you could yodel) but I have no time for riddles and...
Captain or Crew?
The Alice of Lewis Carroll's books would not be good company. She is pedantic, humourless, irritable and finds fools...
Alice in Shadowland
The main problem with Alice is the darkness. It's not as if this were a recently concocted and Freudianised 20th...
Overground
The marquees have been taken down and the grass can get its breath back after a month's coverage. The trestle tables...
Alice in Progress
The website (from 2011) mentioned below is extinct but some of its contents will be found in ensuing Strength Weekly...
The Show Must Go On
In the course of the curtain call for 'A Dog's Heart' - Simon McBurney's sellout ENO opera based on a Bulgakov novel -...
My Sweet Lord
Having muted the television in order to avoid contracting depression from a very popular programme, I couldn't help...
With Vacant Possession
When I was a kid I would routinely project myself into the places depicted in my illustrated books. Now my kids, in...
Details Details
It's important, I think, when you are in the publishing business, to open a piece in a catchy and compelling way,...
Commercial
22.10.2009
Fairy Liquidity
In her book 'Strange and Secret Peoples - Fairies and Victorian Consciousness' (1999) Carole G. Silver titles her last...
Riverine, Movish
Before posting on 'advertising characters' as promised below, I will report that the second season of my Peachy Coochy...
My Name is Product
Ardent readers of this publication will be familiar with the Editor's need to visit secondhand bookshops every 48...
They Live
Ever keen to provide material for Strength Weekly by having experiences the editor of this journal and his wife...
Stage & Screen 6
This is the final post in a series that begins below with 'Stage & Screen 1' In 'The Truman Show' (1998) Truman...
Stage & Screen 5
This post is part of a series. Please start reading at 'Stage & Screen 1' below. In his editorial introduction to...
Stage & Screen 4
This post is part of a series. Please start reading at 'Stage & Screen 1' below. In the 'Essays' section of...
Stage & Screen 3
This post is part of a series. Please start reading at 'Stage & Screen 1' below.Laing's radical psychology...
Stage & Screen 2
This post is part of a series. Please start reading at 'Stage & Screen 1' nearby. New ways of looking at the mad...
Stage & Screen 1
A man came up to my my friend Trevor in New York in the early 80s and handed him a sheaf of densely typed foolscap....
You Are My House Now
There's where I was born, still fairly recognisable. And there's where we moved to when I was about nine. And here's...
Getting into Pictures
It's a shock when you go to the pictures to see 'The Reader' because there, on the screen, albeit heavily disguised,...
What Was Said
Driving west along the M4 in the early 70s with Ian. He says "You're very close to that car in front." I say "Yeah."...
This Will Teach You
At a nearby table in the pub two women, one early twenties one early thirties,...
The Mind
The manager of Strength Weekly would like to apologise for the lack of posts over the last calendar month. This was...
After Christmas
Gardening Gloves by Celine Dion
TThe latest chapter in a a grimly unfolding drama is trailed in an article in The Guardian titled 'Too late? Why...
Captivated
In order to model human movement for incorporation into film animation Max Fleischer, in 1915, devised a system called...
Giant Peach
As a result of curating and presenting David Gale's Peachy Coochy Nites at ArtsAdmin's Toynbee Studios Bar throughout...
This Healing Life
My chair was about six feet from Anna Freud's couch. My first client, a 15 year old girl, came into the room. I...
Trying to Situate Syd
I gave a talk at 'The City Wakes' the other day. This is the week of events in tribute to Syd Barrett currently...
And Keep Your Hands in the Air
An email from Jordan McKenzie, live artist and interventionist: Well well well...it should have come as no surprise...
Why Are Our Teens Fainting?
We are driving through Holborn when a group of four or five young women, probably in their late teens, dashes across...
Bradford, Bingley & De Keersmaeker
Anna Teresa De Keersmaeker's 'Rosas' dance company is presenting, at Sadler's Wells in London, the 'Steve Reich...
Dys
Impressed, rising, I turn and study the emblem. Now that I have turned, the emblem is, effectively, upside down. I can...
The Next Big Thing
The animation in Pixar's 'Wall-E' is exceptional. The detail is more, rather than less, than the eye can absorb and...
In a Book
The Live Art Almanac is a collection of responses to some questions sent out by the editors a few months ago:What...
The City Wakes
is the title of a Cambridge-based festival celebrating, from October 22nd to November 1st, the pre-London years of Syd...
Natty Dread
Market day in Dreadlock City, (aka Orgiva, Southern Spain). Down from the hills and out of the tipis they are coming...
Strength Weekly goes to a hot place for a bit and leaves a site under reconstruction until September: the Essays,...
Becoming Trinity
In the newspaper it says 'Three charged with Kercher killing'. The headline refers, of course, to the three suspects...
I Can Ape
Doesn't time fly, readers? It seems only a year ago that I posted from the Orange Prize. That's because it was a year...
Flightsome
On the other hand, walking back along the crowded Embankment from the Globe Theatre towards Waterloo, minded to check...
Hooray
quotes in this post are taken from company websites Feels like ages since I last dissed Shakespeare. As ardent readers...
Tweaky
It said in the paper that among the cheating techniques used by the recently heavily fined game show broadcaster ITV...
Nerdly
The Guardian runs a piece about the rash of current imported US TV series featuring the adventures and misfortunes of...
We Can Can
Leake Street, round the back of Waterloo Station, Sunday after London votes for a clown to be Mayor. Thousands enter...
Wordly
Strength Weekly looks in upon itself and affects surprise at the uncharacteristically long interval between this...
Lots: Extract II
Another extract from a script that I lost for 24 years. To get the backstory on this publishing phenomenon please...
Lots: Extract I
This is an extract from a longlost then recently found script that I have been...
Lots: Episode 7
This post is in a series: please start at Episode 1 After a few months, not only did I stop fretting about my BBC...
Lots: Episode 6
This post is in a series: please start at Episode 1 I lifted another character from the stage version of 'Jean Pool':...
Lots: Episode 5
This post is in a series: please start at Episode 1 My agent was invariably cheerful. "Not to worry," he said, "We'll...
Lots: Episode 4
This post is in a series: please start at Episode 1 I wrote the script on my pale blue Olympia portable typewriter...
Lots: Episode 3
This post is in a series: please start at Episode 1 Let my imagination go. Uhuh. Roger was very likeable and I was...
Lots: Episode 2
This post is in a series: please start at Episode 1One of the most moving images that Strength Weekly - in an...
Lots: Episode I
I'm in the front room of Hilary's old house, which she is probably going to sell. All around the walls, on shelves, in...
Set Pieces
I shall carry the images to my grave. In one of the two shows I've written and directed for presentation at Wimbledon...
Scrap
Strength Weekly likes to think that its most persistent themes are of great national importance but the longer one...
Absentee Landlord
Seamus, an old friend and currently a part-time sailing teacher, writes, having read the 'Bob & Cate' post just...
Bob & Cate
Suppose you go to the pictures and Jude Law (pictured right), playing someone called Frank, says "I'll be back" and he...
The Jingling
Strength Weekly wishes all its readers the warmest and most relaxing Christmas that their personal belief systems will...
I, Healer
It's that time of year when I write two plays in four days and rehearse each one for eight hours. This is the annual...
Bummer
Climate change deniers are like those kids back in the playground who were obedient and conventional but routinely and...
But, anyhow
Barbara Campbell is an Australian artist who has been running the 1001 Nights Cast for, at the time of writing, 898...
Sub Urb
The World's Largest Driving Simulator (2007), built by Toyota (take a ride here). Like the little sweet cake that...
Meat Rays beef cont’d…
Further to my piece of the earlier instant, there are only two ways my sandwich could have infected Joe's sandwich....
Tat Tittle
How can straight men look at men's bodies in a way that is not gay but is gay? One solution is offered in David...
Football in Space
It had been two days. I had to get to a book shop lest my skin grew livid. I found myself passing a charity shop and...
Clubbable
A rolling billboard ad for British Airways Club Class bears the declaration 'A new kind of club - the entrance in...
But Can You Get It In Your Pocket?
On a drab, cold November day in south-east England there's nothing better than a tonic. Strength Weekly, as readers...
Boiling Molecules
In a small, warm, windowless room to one side of the lab three balances stood glistening on a bench. Each balance was...
On a Plate Near You
The previous post on meat confusionism reminded me of a wedding reception I attended in the days when vegetarianism...
For a Moment I was Meat
Freud was on a train in an overnight sleeper and stepped out into the corridor to enjoy a cigar. He returned to his...
Fusspots
Saw some fusspots today, in a café. The first fusspot said "I'd like an iced latte, please. And can you use milk...
The Young Entertainers
Now not everybody with Britney's background turns out like Britney but, even so, this should not deflect us from an...
The Completion
I like to read, me. If I don't do it daily I get a rash and if I don't go to a bookshop (usually a charity shop) every...
Let There Be Lite
Following the lamentable indulgence and gratuitous abandon of the previous post I feel it is necessary to compensate...
Chokey
While Strength Weekly has never aspired to the confessional the following intimate account contains a cautionary...
The Resemblance
On Channel 4 News, an interview with Philip Rosedale, founder and CEO of vast virtual metaverse 'Second Life'. He...
Flares
Some years ago GQ magazine sent me to Area 51 in Nevada and Roswell in New Mexico to check out the UFO thing. I was...
Yearning Part II: Keira & the Life of Pie
Keira, in the view of the blunt, should eat more pies. In 'Atonement', however, she reciprocates very well, in her...
Yearning At Both Ends
The over-rated 'Atonement' features a cumbersome episode on the beaches of Dunkirk. Had the episode been excised...
Behind the Pav
Newsnight: the closing credits: Pavarotti sings from 'Tosca' as images unfold of British soldiers in Iraq. Suddenly...
Back to Work
I asked an osteopath friend what had been the most significant developments in his 25 year career as a respected...
Matt & Tom
Watching the largely entertaining "The Bourne Ultimatum", in which Matt Damon starts running over the credits and...
Another thing Andrew told me
Andrew also told me about his job teaching in a special school one summer in the early 60s. The school was buried deep...
Cheeky Monkey
I've been cutting things out of newspapers and magazines for some decades. When my friend Seamus insisted that I...
Just for a moment I thought…
Whitstable in Kent is about a 90 mins drive from London. It's quite pleasant. There are working fishing boats in the...
The Queens Are Dead
Entering Cement Town from the Noise Town road, we spot a circus tent pitched up near the docks. Two camels are...
Alphabetty
A speed-reading woman has read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (608 pages) in 47 mins and 1 second. Well done,...
False Economy
The new bionic hand is impressive. The £8,500 prosthetic, unveiled today by British inventors, is extremely versatile:...
Toy Boys
The Guardian Media 100 is a list (published July 9, 2007) of the most influential media figures in Britain. At the top...
Kid Pluck
I'm in a sunny park with 20 minutes to spare. A local primary school is holding its Sports Day a hundred yards (make...
Paris – No Details Available
While Paris was in jail she told Barbara Walters, in a phone call, that 'I have become more spiritual. God has given...
Work Experience
In 'Stop-Time', an autobiography by Frank Conroy that I am enjoying, the young Frank spends a few weeks on the streets...
Pat & Viola
Jaye looks at Charlotte's desk and giggles. "What's funny?" I ask. "Charlotte keeps her desk very tidy," she says....
Masquetry
There are two main types of shop in Venice. One sells glass, the other masks. The latter comprise both straight copies...
Fizzingly
The Orange Prize is held in the wholly refurbished Royal Festival Hall this year. The atmosphere is bubbly and the...
So Fast They Named It Once
On the Tube, an ad for Rennie Dual Action Tablets - they alleviate heartburn and indigestion. The slogan accompanying...
Bunfight at Doge City
The streets are rammed. Passage through the alleys is gruelling - so many tourists are gazing into shop windows that...
Starlight
As a lifelong non-combatant in the field of competitive sports - I blame the contempt-inducing secondary school...
Peak Viewing
A photograph in this morning's Independent depicts the powerless Prime Minister, Tony Blair, standing beside President...
Thermo Flask
The steam room is well designed. It's long with wraparound banquettes and a glass door. A guy in there holds up a blue...
Why Do Men Walk Funny?
Look at these guys in the street: why do they walk so funny? It seems to be a new thing: men under the age of 25...
Into the Fray
A guy in Bar Italia is wearing an unusual jacket. It is new but all its edges are frayed instead of hemmed. The jacket...