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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 […]
Archive for the ‘COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES’ Category
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 […]
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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 RememberRingside Report Review of the Video Game Inside – Gaming News
November 21st, 2020 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes One of my secret pleasures is video gaming. I truly love video games, even though I was a late arrival to the hobby. My first real experience came through the generosity of a friend. I was a young lecturer just starting out in academia and had come across an external examiner […]
Posted in COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES, ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Tags: Ringside Report Review of the Video Game Inside - Gaming News Comments Off on Ringside Report Review of the Video Game Inside – Gaming NewsThe Gaze Of the Other…
November 17th, 2020 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes I remember reading, a long time ago, The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith. I don’t recall it in great detail, it was for an assignment for an essay I was writing, or maybe it was even my final project, which was about freedom. What I do remember is the […]
Posted in COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES Tags: The Gaze Of the Other... Comments Off on The Gaze Of the Other…Holes in My Saturdays
November 12th, 2020 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes Holes. Black holes. I’ve just finished a book by AG Riddle, a trilogy, which talks about the space time impact of black holes, amongst other things, and it opened a passageway, a vehicle for understanding. Not just about the workings of the universe (albeit a fictional work) but about my own […]
Posted in COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES Tags: Holes in my Saturdays Comments Off on Holes in My SaturdaysWhere Were You?
November 11th, 2020 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes I wanted to reflect on those moments where people might ask you: ‘Where were you when?’ The focus will mainly be on political or world events, even though my life has largely been dominated by sporting occasions. It would be a bit dull, I figured, to recount a series of ‘I […]
The Art of the Insult?
November 3rd, 2020 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes I’ve been on Twitter for a little while now, and one of the things I’ve noticed is the careless, casual rudeness that can rear its ugly head. Complete strangers with no prior knowledge of the recipient will launch the most disgusting and uncalled for attacks, seemingly without a moment’s thought. I […]
Posted in COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES Tags: The Art of the Insult? Comments Off on The Art of the Insult?Wrestling the Inner Darkness!
October 23rd, 2020 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes Wrestling. That’s how I would describe my inner existence. It’s a constant struggle against despair and self-destruction. And it’s a battle fought across minutes not hours or days or longer. The mood swings can be literally instantaneous. Following an upsurge of good feelings or even joy, the downswing can be immediate, […]
Posted in COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES Tags: Wrestling the Inner Darkness! Comments Off on Wrestling the Inner Darkness!Subjectivity and Art
October 21st, 2020 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes Too frequently I hear people say things like: ‘That’s not very good.’ Or, something far worse when confronted by a piece of art. This usually means that it doesn’t look exactly like it’s subject, or maybe it doesn’t resemble anything recognisable at all. But such judgements imply that there us an […]
Mirrors…
October 11th, 2020 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes We are surrounded by mirrors, aren’t we? Both literally and figuratively. We see reflections of ourselves everywhere. In books, movies, in the way people behave and interact around us. Sometimes it’s not so much an actual reflection, but an aspiration. An act that we wish we’d been responsible for, or a […]
Meanings
October 9th, 2020 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes I want to talk about meanings in this article and the plasticity of meanings. The way in which we CAN choose to alter or control meanings to make our lives better or perhaps merely more tolerable. I won’t be arguing that we have absolute control of this of course, because that […]
First Impressions Aren’t Always Impressive
October 6th, 2020 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes I am not going to question centuries of common-sense knowledge and dismiss the importance of first impressions, but I do want to illustrate how misleading they can be. Of course, there are times when your first sense of another person is exactly right. I recall the first time I saw Donald […]
Posted in COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES Tags: First Impressions Aren’t Always Impressive Comments Off on First Impressions Aren’t Always ImpressiveThe Meaning of Human Value
October 5th, 2020 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes What makes us valuable as people? From a societal perspective my feeling is that it’s our economic value, our productivity, what we can contribute. How else can we make sense of concepts like the ‘demographic time bomb’, where people living longer is a problem? For centuries we, as a species, have […]
Posted in COLUMNS BY RADICAL RHYMES Tags: The Meaning of Human Value Comments Off on The Meaning of Human ValueThat Friend…
October 1st, 2020 Bad Brad [AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes We all have difficult friends, don’t we? They come in all shapes and sizes, as do the difficulties they present for us. Being an ex-academic the temptation is always to categorise, to create typologies. So, not to disappoint here’s an off-the-cuff beginning: • The socially unaware friend – that person who […]
Cricket Commentary – The Fear of Silence!
[AdSense-A] By Radical Rhymes I’ve been watching the Indian Premier League over the past few weeks and one of the things I’ve noticed is the commentary. It is constant, unrelenting, it covers every single second of every game. If I didn’t know better, I would blame the twenty overs format. It lends itself to mania, […]