• Throwback Friday #37 Rome, February (2017)

    Inevitably, given the monochromatic weather and newly-announced ‘lock-down 3’, I find myself preoccupied with memories of different sights and warmer climes.

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  • Phil Cooper / Painting Chimera #11

    Sometimes I have an idea about what a character in Chimera Book 1 might sound like, or look like. Then I hear Dan’s narration and suddenly the voice he gives to characters is how they will then sound in my head for ever more, it’s like they really only could sound like that. The characters…

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  • Chimera Book 1 / Chapter 15 – Whirlitzer

    Dim the lights, get comfy, it’s time for the next instalment of Kyp Finnegan’s continuing adventures in Chimera, the realm of lost things…

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  • After the heightened atmosphere of our last kick-about, and the rich food of the festive season now largely behind us, Leger’s simpler fare was a welcome offering. Leger’s still life was brought to the attention of the Kick-Abouters by artist, Gary Thorne; well, Leger can keep his roast beef. I’d rather get my hands on…

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  • It’s my forty-sixth birthday today. Forty-six! Blimey. To mark the occasion, my old pal, Phill Hosking, dropped by the house today with a card – and inside the card, Phill’s portrait-come-caricature of yours truly – grey of beard, generous-of-nose and cosy-looking in my new yellow Christmas scarf. What a nice surprise – thank you, Phill!

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  • Throwback Friday #36 Choosing Kryptonite (2003)

    Sometimes when a relationship ends, it doesn’t, and round and round you go together in interminable circles. This song was written in a time of circles, resolutions going broken and broken again.

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  • Oxney Bottom (2020)

    Oxney Bottom (2020)

    There I was, snuggled in bed, too tired to read, but reading anyway, beginning another collection of weird tales from the collections of the British library. Entitled Weird Woods – Tales From The Haunted Forests Of Britain, I was just a few words into John Miller’s introduction when I sat up in bed, suddenly wide…

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  • Film: Getting Lost In Fields – Anthology 2020

    On the cusp of the new year, I wanted to avoid any further musings on 2020 as they might relate to the pandemic, not least because I suspect the ‘new year’ is going to feel a lot like the old one – at least for a while. Instead, I’ve gathered together all seven ‘Lost In…

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  • Phil Cooper / Painting Chimera #10

    “As usual, I’m spoiled for choice with subject matter in Chapter 14, there is SO much going on, and quite a few new characters appearing who would be great fun to illustrate. In the end, though, I couldn’t resist painting a skull with his brains showing so Doctor Ossifer it is this week. I’ve added…

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  • MFT #10 ‘Andante quasi lento e contabile’ – from A Carol Symphony by Victor Hely-Hutchinson (1927)

    Andante quasi lento e contabile, the third movement from Victor Hely-Hutchinson’s A Carol Symphony, is one of my favourite things. Here’s why.

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