We are very nearly at the end of another year and, indeed, another decade. What better time, then, to look back and take stock. With a big space telescope, like the Hubble, we can see billions of years into the past ... but I don't have that kind of chronological mirror so let's just return…Read more Midnight’s Mirror
indie
Love & Hate
When it comes to human emotions there can be no greater contrast than that between love and hate. And I guess that goes for cartoon characters, too. Bugs Bunny loves all the other characters he meets, even the ones that hate him - especially the ones that hate him, in fact, because they lead to…Read more Love & Hate
Easy Targets
The Crotchety Wanderer stepped into yet more uncharted territory recently. This time it was a website called The Progressive Aspect. An album review in the News section had caught my eye. The album was called Black Bead Eye, which was an interesting title, and it was by How Far to Hitchin, an outfit I'd not heard…Read more Easy Targets
Then Again
Crotchety Man has just returned from a one-week holiday in Cornwall, a county in the far south west corner of England. The map app on the household Mac says it's about a 5 hour drive from here but the journey home took twice as long. That was partly because we chose the slower, leafier A-roads…Read more Then Again
Mathematics
In 1972 the American meteorologist Edward Lorenz was to give a talk at the 139th meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. As Lorenz had failed to provide a title for his talk, one of the organisers of the meeting concocted this attention grabbing headline: Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings…Read more Mathematics
Nothing Arrived
"What would you like for your birthday, Poppy?", they asked. I knew immediately what I wanted. "A puppy like Jane's", I said, excitedly. Mummy smiled sadly at me and said that she didn't think that would be possible. But she turned to Daddy and he said we'd have to see. He had said that when…Read more Nothing Arrived
Exits
My Release Radar playlist on Spotify was rubbish this week. It gave me: a cathedral choir that didn't chime with my mood; mediocre songs best hidden in the middle of a long album; remixes that belong on the cutting room floor; tedious ambient tracks; and some unpleasantly grating noises. The few good tracks were by artists I've…Read more Exits
Fractured and Dazed
We apologise for the late running of the 3/3/19 Track of the Week service. This was due to a collision between an elderly pedestrian and a cyclist in central London at about 8:30 pm on Friday night. The pedestrian was 89 year old Crotchety Man senior, who had to spend a few days in hospital…Read more Fractured and Dazed
Narrow Margins
In 1637 Pierre de Fermat, a French lawyer and mathematician, scribbled a short note in the margin of his copy of Arithmetica, a 3rd century AD treatise by the Greek mathematician, Diophantus. He wrote that he had found a marvellous proof of the following statement: an + bn = cn has no solution for any…Read more Narrow Margins
Spiral Cities
Facebook sucks. Early in the morning of Thursday, 8th November I checked my news feed. Among a few useful, but unexciting, notifications there was one by Fyfe Dangerfield announcing that he would be interviewed live on the RadMac show on BBC 6 Music 'tomorrow' afternoon. That was worth a diary entry and the Crotchety Ears…Read more Spiral Cities
Crotchety Man 