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By Radical Rhymes I’ve never wanted to be famous, it’s just not something that I’ve ever striven for. At least not consciously. Perhaps we are all trapped in a culture that is forever seeking celebrity though? Maybe there isn’t a way out of it at all? I watched a talent show a long time ago […]
Archive for the ‘COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES’ Category
Life Is Easy…
November 19th, 2021 
Bad Brad By Radical Rhymes I’ve never been that person who just sees the world as the only one possible. In sociological terms I’ve always largely rejected functionalism. In essence I’m a critical structuralist. We made this system, and it works for elites After a life of critique though, sometimes you’re struck by something so obvious, so […]
Waiting…
November 19th, 2021 Bad Brad By Radical Rhymes Like everyone I’ve spent long hours waiting around for things. As a young lad it actually hurt me to wait, I was active, energetic and hated being still. So, the queuing culture was agonising! Unfortunately, my sister had chronic rheumatoid arthritis which meant hours in hospitals, clinics and surgeries. The worst times […]
Art – Inside and Out
October 28th, 2021 Bad Brad By Radical Rhymes I never realized until very recently how much I love and need to create art. It isn’t for any other reason than that I feel I must. It’s a compulsion, and not one of the less healthy ones I’ve struggled with my entire life. I feel alive when I draw or paint, […]
Anti-climax…
October 23rd, 2021 Bad Brad By Radical Rhymes This is a topic I know a lot about, and I think we all do to greater or lesser degrees. It’s an occupational hazard in a consumer society. Every new purchase gives a little buzz which fades over time, necessitating another acquisition, and then another ad infinitum. It’s what capitalism feeds and […]
Loving Literature…
October 13th, 2021 Bad Brad By Radical Rhymes This is a subject I’ve written about previously but is something very close to my heart – getting kids to read. One of the most important vehicles for this is the subject matter. What should schools use to get young people to read? It seems to me that we refuse to consider […]
Denial…
October 7th, 2021 Bad Brad By Radical Rhymes I’m going to start this piece with a well-worn joke: name a river in Egypt… De-Nile. Okay, so it was probably very funny at the time it was coined, but now? Well-worn. Something that definitely isn’t funny is being diagnosed with a mental illness. For me it came later in my life, […]
Sport – Merit or Not?
October 4th, 2021 Bad Brad By Radical Rhymes I have come to accept that society is based on truths and fictions, and that some of the fictions are not easy to challenge. One that many people don’t like to acknowledge is that sport is not always about merit. It should be, shouldn’t it? After all, if you can run or […]
Posted in COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES, SPORTING NEWS 
Tags: Sport – Merit or Not? 
Comments Off on Sport – Merit or Not?Gardens of Conformity…
October 1st, 2021 Bad Brad By Radical Rhymes We have a garden, well two to be exact. At the front a very small terrace overrun by a Buddleia, at the back, a relatively small grassy area with a decrepit shed. Both are wild, both are neglected. We, you see, are not gardeners. It’s not fun for us, it’s a time […]
Posted in COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES Tags: Gardens of Conformity... Comments Off on Gardens of Conformity…Know Your Mind?
September 29th, 2021 Bad Brad By Radical Rhymes I had time to kill recently, waiting, sitting in a car waiting. Usually I would draw or read, but instead I decided to conduct an experiment – I wanted to explore my own mind through the lens of judgement. In essence, I wanted to investigate, through observation and measurement, whether I could […]
Coaching
September 21st, 2021 Bad Brad By Radical Rhymes I happen to be a reasonably well qualified cricket coach. My focus has been youth cricket at county and regional levels, and in my time, I have had some reasonable success. If I were to outline my strengths it would be towards the technical aspects of the game – I can read […]
You English Bastard!
July 28th, 2021 Bad Brad By Radical Rhymes Identity is such a complex thing, textured, variegated, layered. Like most kids at one time or another I have written out those layers in books or diaries. I consider myself to be: 1. Cornish 2. English 3.British 4. European 5. Terran Most of the time I don’t reflect on these aspects of […]
Celebrity Shows…
July 3rd, 2021 Bad Brad By Radical Rhymes I remember when game shows and reality shows featuring celebrities were few and far between – one of those was Celebrity Squares, hence the title of this piece (the meaning will become clear shortly). Game shows like Bullseye and the Generation Game involved ‘ordinary people’, by giving them the opportunity to appear […]
Posted in COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES, ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Tags: Celebrity Shows Comments Off on Celebrity Shows…Judgement In Art…
April 28th, 2021 Bad Brad By Radical Rhymes I’m reading a book at the moment about the relationship between Matisse and Picasso. It charts their rivalry, their friendship and how both dimensions shaped their art. One of the things that strikes me in the reading is the level they were working at. That their ideas and philosophies were actively moulding […]
Until It’s Inconvenient…
April 2nd, 2021 Bad Brad By Radical Rhymes Mental illness is becoming more widely recognized, and a number of high-profile cases and celebrity sufferers have really helped that process. In my own world, which is partly defined by cricket, Marcus Trescothick has been critical in raising awareness. I am eternally grateful that he allowed us into his world – that […]
Posted in COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES Tags: Until It's Inconvenient... Comments Off on Until It’s Inconvenient…Sssshhh, I Didn’t Always Love Vincent…
March 12th, 2021 Bad Brad By Radical Rhymes Anyone who knows anything about me will recognize my love for the work of Vincent van Gogh I often replicate his great paintings in my own style, just as much of what I write directly or indirectly speaks to his life and experiences. To me he is one of three artists – […]
Posted in COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES, ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Tags: I Didn’t Always Love Vincent…, Sssshhh Comments Off on Sssshhh, I Didn’t Always Love Vincent…Who On Earth Is Banksy?
March 2nd, 2021 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes Do you like what the street artist Banksy does? I absolutely love it. The art is beautiful and often incredibly powerful, it always carries a message, and while we may not want to learn from it, it is rare that we come away without being challenged by it When his or […]
Posted in COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES Tags: Who On Earth Is Banksy? Comments Off on Who On Earth Is Banksy?The Pit
February 3rd, 2021 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes I wish I could properly describe the pit. It’s a deep and dark place that almost completely consumes you. As a bipolar sufferer I have one foot always in the shadows, that’s just the way my life has been. I had some bad childhood experiences, despite the best efforts of my […]
Protection…
January 25th, 2021 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes I don’t know about you, but I have to take steps to protect myself at times from the negativity that constantly surrounds us. That can mean different things at different times. There is a macro level where, for a short time at least, I have to insulate myself from the news […]
The Struggle to Write…
January 18th, 2021 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes I remember Dorothy Parker saying that she hated writing but loved having written. That is a sentiment I absolutely concur with. What I’ve learned recently is just how little I actually enjoy writing. It’s not always been that way. At one time as a young academic I toiled away at keyboards […]
Posted in COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES Tags: The Struggle to Write Comments Off on The Struggle to Write…Covid-19: A Personal Account
January 4th, 2021 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes This is for the doubters, the deniers and those people still refusing to take the Covid virus seriously… It started with a terrible aching on the right side of my face, and a strange tingling at the back of my tongue – the kind I recall from my childhood after eating […]
Posted in COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES, POLITICAL COLUMNS, WORLD NEWS Tags: Covid-19: A Personal Account Comments Off on Covid-19: A Personal AccountRage…
December 10th, 2020 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes Stop the fighting and the grief, There’s something more in your belief. The drama and the pointless factions, They’ll leave you sore without retractions. Save your rage for something real, Injustice is a turning wheel.
Surprises…
December 8th, 2020 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes I saw something this week, a documentary about a lost musician of the 1970s, a genius, a man who should have been a worldwide phenomenon but who disappeared without a trace. Or at least that is the way it seemed. Searching for Sugar Man is the title. If you haven’t seen […]
The Wonders Of Art!
December 1st, 2020 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes I feel it necessary to just say something about how art influences me, affects me. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed by colour and light that it’s like being stuck with a cattle prod. They hit me like a wall of sensations I fear will genuinely crush me. I love to stare […]
Crete: An Evening to Remember
November 27th, 2020 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes When I was on the verge of turning twenty, I agreed – against my better judgement – to go on a ‘lad’s holiday’ with four of my friends. We were all part of the same cricket team and we’d just had a very successful season. For the third year in a […]
Posted in COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES Tags: Crete: An Evening to Remember Comments Off on Crete: An Evening to Remember
