Category Archives: Art

The Band of Möbius

December 7, 2015Art, Composed Music, Edinburgh, Nerd Bait, Pop MusicBilly Bragg, Drake, Duke Special, Nerd Bait, Orbital, Steve Reichricky

Anyone who’s ever subscribed to the Apoplexy Newsletter, read this blog, or met me, will be unsurprised to read that The Fabulous Beth and I went to see Billy Bragg play Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall last week. And those sorts of people will probably also find it predictable that Billy brought along a quirky support act, made an obscure and humorous reference to Craig Gannon in his stage banter, and was playing in the aftermath of the United Kingdom’s (sic) decision to open a new campaign of war.

Not Tim Minchin. I know, he probably gets that a lot. — Quirky support act

I was particularly taken by Duke Special – for it is he – because he has ridiculous/awesome hair, had covered half of the merch table with an eclectic range of different types of art, and he sang a song called Last Night I Nearly Died. (That’s enough rule of three – Ed.)

Hey! Last night about three years ago, I nearly died!

But that wasn’t all that went on last week…

Continue reading The Band of Möbius →

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Reflektor Reduks

September 28, 2015Art, Brooklyn, Death, Edinburgh, Movies, Pop MusicArcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Orpheus and Eurydice, The Reflektor Tapesricky

[Long-Suffering Girlfriend of the Blog Beth and I went to see Kahlil Joseph and Arcade Fire’s The Reflektor Tapes this past weekend. So, today seemed like a good day to repost some reflektions on the album Reflektor and… other stuff.]

And it just got spacier from there — Weirdly, the entire movie theatre lobby was an Italian restaurant

One of the many rubbish things about having a massive haemorrhagic stroke is that the ever-present factor of fatigue, and the whole brain lesions thing, militate against a quick return to the traditional, full-time workforce. Continue reading Reflektor Reduks →

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Killer Lines

May 25, 2015Art, Classical Music, Comics, Referendum, StrokeJames Rhodes, Stephen Colbert, Wonder Womanricky

As followers of the apoplectic.me Tiny Letter will be aware, the University of Edinburgh’s Creative Writers had their second reading night of the year just over a week ago. I co-hosted with my co-host, the handsome and talented Mr Jacques Tsiantar.

For this event, we only had three minutes for each of our individual slots. That’s about 600 words, which isn’t a lot. But fortunately, the first 600 or so words of my stroke-y memoir of extreme survival stop at a real doozie of a line.

Jacques and Ricky on the Road to Rio — ‘And the Scotsman says to the Englishman, “My left arm feels funny!”‘

Continue reading Killer Lines →

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The Beguiled Mind

December 15, 2014Art, Edinburgh, Mindfulness, ReviewsChristopher Orr, Talbot Rice Gallery, The Beguiled Eyericky

On Saturday, I was walking past George Heriot’s School on Lauriston Place again. This time, with Longsufferinggirlfriendoftheblogbeth. We carried on behind the back of the National Museum of Scotland, and the dome of the Old College seemed to both hang directly and vastly above us, and stubbornly remain blocks away.

It was neither, of course. The dome was at the far end of the quad as usual, as we approached the Old College from the south-west.

"Let's put down some grass. I don't think we need to worry about the class of '96 playing fitba any more." — So, not this angle, then.

[Click here to get an extra dose of apoplexy every week.] Continue reading The Beguiled Mind →

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The Bonfire

October 13, 2014Art, Classical Music, Mindfulness, Nerd Bait, Pop MusicArt Of Noise, Immanuel KantKant, Nerd Bait, Paul Morley, The Bonfirericky

So. I’ve got an admission to make….

This stroke survivor is in a band.

RRRAAAAWWWWKKKKKK!!! — Oi! You’ve spelled “ROMANTIC PASTORAL STROKE” wrong!!

I think Nerd Bait was first described on here as a “Six-Legged Collaborative Creative Collective”, and that is about the size of it. But that appellation was also a reflexively defensive way not to say “band”.

Yes, we’re an odd kind of modern, transatlantic, virtual iteration of a band, but that’s no excuse. The Dave Matthews Band is a pile of shit, and they’ve got “Band” IN THEIR NAME.

[Scroll down for the new Nerd Bait track, The Bonfire — apoplectic.me gives it FIVE STARS!!!] Continue reading The Bonfire →

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Aceeid!

September 1, 2014Art, Books, Fiction, Mindfulnessacid house, relativity, sci-firicky

Just before sitting down to write this post, I ingested a cocktail of diphenhydramine, guaifenesin and levomenthol.

But you do have to take a lot of speed to counteract the drowsiness — It’s not as exciting as it sounds

[If it’s excitement you want, sign up for the apoplectic.me tiny letter distribution here.]

Yeah, the inside of my skull feels dry, but it’s not that exciting. I don’t think the cough syrup will trigger any incredible insights for the blog.

As it happens, I’ve never taken any psychedelic drugs, notwithstanding the convincing argument for their controlled use in the essay opening Ian MacDonald’s Beatles book, Revolution In The Head. Continue reading Aceeid! →

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The Case Of The Peculiar Details

July 7, 2014Art, Books, Brooklyn, Edinburgh, Mindfulness, Poetry, Relationships, Travelricky

My recent trip to Brooklyn wasn’t all the insides of courtrooms and the outsides of container terminals, oh no.

Wait till he grows a beard — Sean Connery’s let himself go…

One day, Mrs Friendoftheblogpaul — who knows a good walk when she sees one — suggested we take a wander through Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Continue reading The Case Of The Peculiar Details →

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When In Rome, Kill Me

June 23, 2014Art, Mindfulness, Pop Music, StrokeCud, Epicureanism, Stoicismricky

In 1991, (the) Pixies didn’t need much in the way of a light show to back up their short, shouty songs of biblical retribution and science fiction. A klieg light would flood a giant white sheet, which would dramatically drop to reveal a knitter, a magician, an occasional computer programmer, and a sweaty bloke in a plaid shirt unleashing fire and brimstone in the form of the opening bars of Rock Song.

OK, I lied. That's clearly Debaser — Pixies at the SECC, 1991

Continue reading When In Rome, Kill Me →

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The New Normal

June 15, 2014Art, Design, Stroke, Travelricky

As I walk across the tarmac, Copenhagen Airport’s Terminal 3 stretches before me and away from me. As its location requires, it’s the height of good taste in modern design, all low-slung glass and steel. Inside, it looks like an airport in a world capital of design should — like a 23rd century version of Monet’s Gare Saint-Lazare.

Monet was all steampunk, though — Monet was more steampunk

Continue reading The New Normal →

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Stag’s Leap

June 9, 2014Art, Books, Poetryricky

The story of my stroke is the story of the characters in my life: nurses and doctors; friends and lovers; and everyone who has wandered through the past twenty months….

Cos she features heavily — There’s no “Little Miss Irreverent”?! C’mon, now.

In the wake of Jeremy Paxman’s recent call for a poetic inquisition — a call for quantification and measurement and exclusion from a white, male member of the establishment — I was surprised by his premise that the citizens of the British Isles are increasingly rejecting poetry. Continue reading Stag’s Leap →

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Apoplectic Me

the scribblings of a bloke who had a stroke…

Category Archives: Art

The Band of Möbius

Reflektor Reduks

Killer Lines

The Beguiled Mind

The Bonfire

Aceeid!

The Case Of The Peculiar Details

When In Rome, Kill Me

The New Normal

Stag’s Leap