Word has it that London’s discordant vote in the Brexit referendum–roughly, it voted to ‘Remain’ while the rest of England voted ‘Leave’–has provoked some head-scratching among many pondering its future place in the United Kingdom: There are a number of ways London might distance itself from Brexit, “short of building a moat around the city,”Continue reading “A Modest Proposal For The Post-Brexit Partition Of England”
Tag Archives: England
Brexit, Shmexit: Schadenfreude And How The Old Eat The Young
Old habits die hard. I like watching England lose: in soccer and in cricket mainly, but I’ll admit to cheering for Napoleon too. (I morbidly continue to study the Battle of Waterloo, hoping again and again that that damn fool Grouchy will show up.) English self-destructiveness–think David Beckham during the 1998 World Cup, and theContinue reading “Brexit, Shmexit: Schadenfreude And How The Old Eat The Young”
A Professional Businessman, Not a Professional Pakistani
Hanif Kureishi and Stephen Frears‘ My Beautiful Laundrette makes most of its viewers laugh a lot. My personal favorite of its many rib-ticklingly subversive moments came–as it seemingly did for many others–when the gay street punk Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis) helps the Pakistani Nasser Ali (Saeed Jaffrey) evict black West Indian tenants from his slummish property,Continue reading “A Professional Businessman, Not a Professional Pakistani”
(Coded) Messages in Bottles
As part of his continuing series on free speech in Asia, Timothy Garton Ash turns his attention to Burma–the land of military juntas and Aung San Suu Kyi–and points us to some deft work to get around its censors’ pen: Thirteen years ago, editors of tiny magazines in dim, cramped offices showed me examples ofContinue reading “(Coded) Messages in Bottles”
56-Up: Checking In With ‘Old Friends’
Roger Ebert once referred to Michael Apted‘s Up series as the ‘noblest project in cinema history.’ In writing his review of 56-Up–the latest installment in the story of the Fab Fourteen–Ebert disowned those words as ‘hyperbole’ but its easy to see why he might have thought so. It is as straightforward–and as complicated–a film project as could be:Continue reading “56-Up: Checking In With ‘Old Friends’”
Samir Chopra 