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- November 16th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Chicken tagine with olives and pickled lemon
(Taken from The Momo Cookbook: A Gastronomic Journey Through North Africa by Mourad Mazouz)Ingredients1.5kg oven-ready chicken1 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon ground white pepper125g purple or green cracked…
- November 15th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
On the Origin of Species
150 years ago, Charles Darwin unveiled his theory of natural selection. Pages from his personal notebook dated July 1838 reveal his quandary over whether to marry his first cousin, Emma Wedgwood. In f…
- November 13th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Pictures at an Exhibition
I don’t know whether it’s because I know the orchestration of this work better than the piano original, or whether it’s that the orchestration genuinely brings out more colour in the music, but…
- November 12th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Breakfast Bars
This recipe courtesy of curvaceous yummy M.I.L.F. Nigella Lawson a.k.a. Queen of Gastroporn. It’s from her book/TV series Nigella Express. She writes:I am addicted to these, and so is everyone I giv…
- November 10th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
I’m Reading
Little Dorrit is a very wonderful book: Amy Dorrit herself is the only remotely convincing self-effacing female heroine in Dickens. Mrs Clennam is a variant of Miss Havisham and Great Aunt Ada Doom in…
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
If Alban Berg Had Lived
After the Anschluss, Alban Berg, whose music was considered “decadent” and “degenerate” by the Nazis, left for Great Britain. He became a British subject in 1946. By that time, he had complete…
- November 8th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
I’m Eating
Not being at work today I have had my old-fashioned lamb stew puttering away for an hour and a half now. Delicious whiffs issuing forth.Now, thoughts turn to Christmas. I am not a fan of turkey, I rec…
- November 7th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Etiquette
I don’t mind what people call me, whether I know them or not, except that when a shop assistant or someone in a bank or somewhere is being irritating in some other way, the form of address they’re…
- November 6th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
President Obama
Hallelujah, Obama is going to unite the world, he grew up in different countries, will soon be landing in Kenya with Air Force One and having a BBQ party with his relatives, the world will become one.…
- November 5th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
K.D. Lang Sings Hallelujah
One of the best performances I’ve seen her give and a great version of the song, very true to the original. If this doesn’t get to you, you’re fucking dead already.
- November 4th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
I Fucked Jonathan Ross’s Wife
I have not yet found the story to go with this headline.As this arrogant, juvenile shit begins his 12-week suspension imposed by the BBC, spare a thought for Andy Davies, his annoying cretinous sideki…
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Katherine Jenkins: Intelligent, Sexy, Talented?
It is Sunday afternoon, preferably before the war. The wife is already asleep in the armchair, and the children have been sent out for a nice long walk. You put your feet up on the sofa, settle your s…
- November 3rd, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Schubert
Why were Schubert's symphonies never performed during his lifetime, and why did the Unfinished languish in a drawer for 40 years? Blame Beethoven, says Misha Donat.Misha Donat looks at the fact that n…
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Skin, Homeopathy
I had a problem with dermographic urticaria, a.k.a. hives, a few years ago. Basically all my skin gets incredibly itchy for no apparent reason and if I scratch it, it comes up in spectacular ridges an…
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
The Italian Job
The Italian Job (the original version) is one of the most aggressively xenophobic films ever made. Do you remember when Michael Caine speaks these lines, after the mafia are threatening to kill him an…
- November 2nd, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
A New Coat
Question.I’ve got a meeting Monday that I’ll be turning up to slightly late (by prior arrangement) but this means I’ll be walking in with coat and bags. Now I need a new smart coat and because i…
- November 1st, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Blog Stats October 2008
Facts and figures courtesy of Google Analytics.Between 1 October and 30 October 2008, 3,207 absolute unique visitors paid 3,334 visits, resulting in a total of 3,868 pageviews. The best day was 6 Octo…
- October 30th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Gratuitous Georgina Baillie Pic
Aspiring actress Georgina Baillie, who goes by the stage-name Voluptua, was thrust into the limelight after Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross broadcast blunt phone calls made to her 78-year-old grandfat…
- October 28th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Liszt
I was going to say that I don’t think a great deal of talent goes to the grave unrecognized, but that is bollocks. A hell of a lot of brilliant talent goes to ashes without ever being recognized and…
- October 27th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Eating Out
Did you ever stumble across a dirt-cheap unprepossessing backstreet dive with no name that served you manna from heaven? Or was it as crap as you expected? When I was about 15, my parents and I went t…
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Retro Recipes No. 3
The morning comes to consciousnessOf faint stale smells of beerFrom the sawdust-trampled streetWith all its muddy feet that pressTo early coffee-stands.(T.S. Eliot, Preludes)1970s cooking is all the r…
- October 25th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
The Beatles: Idle Thoughts
In Britain, Beatlemania hardly abated. The switchboard at University College was jammed when Ringo had his tonsils out. Hourly bulletins were issued. Thousands of fans wrote asking for his old tonsils…
- October 24th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
How I (Don’t) Compose
A composer does not, of course, add bit by bit, as a child does in building with wooden blocks. He conceives an entire composition as a spontaneous vision.(Arnold Schoenberg, Fundamentals of Musical C…
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Manchester Blog Awards 2008
On Wednesday night, having spent the previous 24 hours maintaining a fairly high level of intoxication, I stumbled along to Matt & Phred’s Jazz Club, just a stone’s throw away from my apartmen…
- October 21st, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Sarah Palin/Tina Fey Quiz
Now that the dust has settled and the You Tubers have had time to post their crazy comments, I can safely say that Sarah Palin’s appearance on Saturday Night Live has hammered home the final nail in…
- October 20th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Mingus/Dolphy 1964
Since I was a kid I’ve liked the aura ’bout Mingus, that he wasn’t just a “jazz musician”, not even just a musician, a writer of lyrics and semi-autobiographical discourse. He didn’t suffe…
- October 19th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Slow Cookers
I have often thought of getting one of these, for not being possessed of a wife I think it would be rather nice to come home on cold winter evenings and open the door to an enticing smell and know a m…
- October 18th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Movements
What exactly is it that connects the movements of a symphony into a whole? How can you tell that two particular movements “belong” to the same symphony? There’s a lot written about how symphonie…
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Halibut, Hangover
I’m hungover today and feeling absolutely podged as well as crapulent. Out for dinner last night (again) at Malmaison. I still feel full. I might manage a Bloody Mary in a bit. I ordered seared Alas…
- October 17th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Paris Hilton Spam
I get a hundred spam e-mails a day, which I delete without opening them, but I obviously see the sender and subject headings. The other morning I had two in quick succession: “Paris Hilton Raped by…
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Panic
I have posted before about agoraphobia, vertigo and my problems with bridges and large interior spaces etc., and I’ve been having Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for it over the last several months. Wel…
- October 16th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Gay Modernists
I wouldn’t imagine anyone sensible would reach the utterly facile conclusion offered by Nadine Hubbs, in her book The Queer Composition of America’s Sound, where she basically goes almost as far a…
- October 15th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Bacon
We stood side by side behind the wall rather as if waiting for the start of some sporting event. A minute or two later he stirred himself into action. He reached inside his jacket or blouse and brough…
- October 14th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Piano (American) Music
I’m familiar with a wide range of 20th century piano music, but if I was asked whose or what was the most significant, I wouldn’t be able to answer. On the other hand, if I was asked which 20th ce…
- October 13th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Palin Abused Powers
Until the advent of Sarah “Abuse of Power” Palin, I hadn’t heard the term “Joe Sixpack”.That story doesn’t get any better (for her at least) the more you look into it. I love (am quite sca…
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise
I couldn’t make it to the BBC Proms last month, but I saw it twice in Paris at the end of 2004, the first time with my then girlfriend who sulked all the way through the first two of the three parts…
- October 12th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Readings, New Musicology
After reading the very enlightening article “Critics of Disenchantment” by Stephen Miles, defending some criticisms of “New Musicology” by Charles Rosen, I find myself faced with a certain cha…
- October 11th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Blood orange, poached rhubarb, honey and sheep’s milk yoghurt
This is a lovely, simple dish that can happily be eaten any time of day. I love anything that involves sheep’s milk – whether it’s a yoghurt or young cheese. Its flavour is clear, clean and tang…
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Stravinsky’s Threni
There is never any doubt, then, that one has arrived in Spain. There is a faint sound of drums, a smell of crude olive oil, and current of strong, leaking electricity.(Anthony Carson, A Train to Tarra…
- October 10th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Historically-Informed Performance
The performances must also be stylish; they must be illuminated by the fullest possible knowledge of the special points of phrasing, ornamentation and tempo that were associated with the music when it…
- October 9th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Cooking with testicles, tested
It’s hard to ignore the charm of a recipe that begins “wash penis clean and pat dry”. Fraser Lewry whips up a few treats from the Testicle Cookbook:“I’ve set next weekend aside to try Testic…
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Gratuitous Nigella Lawson Pic
Charles Saatchi has lost four stone by living on just nine eggs a day. Christ, his breath must stink. Now his wife, curvaceous yummy Queen of Gastroporn Nigella Lawson has revealed that she has recent…
- October 8th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
86 cats saved from 2-bedroom apartment
GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — A woman who had 86 cats living inside of Battlement Mesa apartment on Wednesday will not face any charges, according to the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office. All the c…
- October 7th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
10 Things About Me
I don’t mean to make a big dial out of sobriety. Of all the modes of human consciousness available to the modern consumer I consider it to be the most overrated.”(Michael Chabon, Wonder Boys)Blogs…
- October 6th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
O.J. Simpson
O.J. guilty or not? Once or twice? I have a gut feeling but unless you have sat through all the evidence it can only be an uninformed opinion. But there is a distinct reluctance on the part of US juri…
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Clarinet Vibrato
Certainly in the last few (or even not so few) decades vibrato on the orchestral clarinet in most countries has been basically a no-no. There have been a few exceptions – the late Jack Brymer sticks…
- October 5th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Eating Out
The microwave is the usually-cited without-which tool for the time-pressed kitchen survivor. But consider, rather, the pressure cooker.(Nigella Lawson, How to Eat)Last couple of days have involved eat…
- October 4th, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
Orange, Carrot & Kippers
I was deeply impressed by Morgan City’s pride in its own scabbiness.(Jonathan Raban, Old Glory)I’ve just spent the morning reading Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s columns in the Grauniad. I’m no…
- October 3rd, 2008
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radstainforth has posted a new entry on: Black Dogs
James MacMillan
Dawn had brought milky sunshine to the capital, but Rebus had known it wouldn’t last. The sky had been too hazy, blurred like a drunk’s good intentions.(Ian Rankin, A Question of Blood)Dismal teet…
