@cobrunstrom.bsky.social
A big beast has departed. A giant. RIP Tom Stoppard
November 29, 2025 at 5:21 PM
A big beast has departed. A giant. RIP Tom Stoppard
Happy Birthday William Blake and John Bunyan. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2013/11/28/h...
Happy Birthday William Blake and John Bunyan.
Happy Birthday Mr Blake. I’ve belatedly realised that it’s also John Bunyan’s birthday also. He’s older. They’re actually buried together in the same cemetery. Yar…
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Happy Birthday William Blake and John Bunyan. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2013/11/28/h...
The Jane Austen Paper Trail. Episode Three. Considered conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/11/27/t...
The Jane Austen Paper Trail. Episode Three. Considered
This episode begins, appropriately enough, with a quote from Cowper – the section from The Task where he asserts that he’d rather be a slave than own one (not a choice that was ever foi…
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
November 27, 2025 at 9:23 AM
The Jane Austen Paper Trail. Episode Three. Considered conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/11/27/t...
"Here's looking at Parallelograms, Kid!" Reposting on the anniversary of Casablanca's first release. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/h...
“Here’s looking at Parallelograms, Kid!”
Everyone who’s seen this film (and that’s everyone) – notice anything strange about this poster? Look at the low billing awarded Claude Rains. It’s said that Paul Henreid insisted on equal billing …
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
November 26, 2025 at 6:23 PM
"Here's looking at Parallelograms, Kid!" Reposting on the anniversary of Casablanca's first release. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/h...
Happy Birthday William Cowper conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2016/11/26/h...
Happy Birthday William Cowper
Yes, on this day, in 1731, William Cowper was born. I don’t mark this anniversary often enough – which is strange given that I devoted years of my life to him. Alongside a friend of m…
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Happy Birthday William Cowper conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2016/11/26/h...
Reposting on the sad occasion of Jack Shepherd's death.
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2020/02/16/i...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2020/02/16/i...
“In Lambeth”: Something available on YouTube right now.
Every year I have to check the video links on my Moodle sites to see if the cool stuff I’m sending my students to look at is still there. Every year, something has been removed – for s…
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Reposting on the sad occasion of Jack Shepherd's death.
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2020/02/16/i...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2020/02/16/i...
The Jane Austen Paper Trail. Episode Two, applauded. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/11/25/t...
The Jane Austen Paper Trail. Episode Two, applauded.
This second podcast is wedded to Pride and Prejudice and also to interrogating the proposition that Jane Austen, despite all the practical difficulties, believed in romantic love on principle. Meg …
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:33 PM
The Jane Austen Paper Trail. Episode Two, applauded. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/11/25/t...
Search for Spock. Reflections on a transitional movie. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/s...
Search for Spock. Reflections on a transitional movie.
Here’s one I rewatched recently. Now this is not a self-contained narrative. You need to be aware of the events of Wrath of Khan for Star Trek III to make sense, and the conclusion to this fi…
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
November 24, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Search for Spock. Reflections on a transitional movie. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/s...
The Horror! The Horror! Re-reading Black Beauty as an adult. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2021/01/27/t...
The Horror! The Horror! Re-reading Black Beauty as an adult.
I found a tatty paperback edition of Black Beauty (1877) lying around the house, and so I sat down and read it again for the first time in decades just to see if it’s as traumatic as I rememb…
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
November 24, 2025 at 10:21 AM
The Horror! The Horror! Re-reading Black Beauty as an adult. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2021/01/27/t...
It's a great time of year for time twisting narratives.... on the Shandean origins of Doctor Who conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/i...
It’s a great time of year for time twisting narratives…. on the Shandean origins of Doctor Who
On November 23 1963, the very first episode of Doctor Who was screened. The two hundred and fiftieth birthday of time-distorting novelist Laurence Sterne. Almost. Not quite. Actually Laurence…
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
November 23, 2025 at 8:08 AM
It's a great time of year for time twisting narratives.... on the Shandean origins of Doctor Who conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/i...
"When I cannot sing my heart/ I can only speak my mind..." The White Album reviewed on its birthday. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2018/11/22/w...
“When I cannot sing my heart/ I can only speak my mind…” The White Album reviewed on its birthday.
I have a new contender for the title of breaker-up of The Beatles. How about Donovan? Nice guy I’m sure and a good friend to all, but also the person who introduced The Beatles to…
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
November 22, 2025 at 9:56 AM
"When I cannot sing my heart/ I can only speak my mind..." The White Album reviewed on its birthday. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2018/11/22/w...
The Jane Austen Paper Trail. Episode One. Recommended. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/11/21/t...
The Jane Austen Paper Trail. Episode One. Recommended.
The Conversation is sponsoring a sequence of Jane Austen themed podcasts called “The Jane Austen Paper Trail”. I’d feel inclined to listen in even if I didn’t know many of t…
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:22 PM
The Jane Austen Paper Trail. Episode One. Recommended. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/11/21/t...
Bonkers events in Perth confirm that Test Cricket is the best game in the history of the world ever.
November 21, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Bonkers events in Perth confirm that Test Cricket is the best game in the history of the world ever.
Timothy Evans would have been 101 years old today. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2024/11/20/t...
Timothy Evans would have been 101 years old today.
Of course, Timothy Evans only lived for twenty six of these hundred and one years. I remember being gruesomely fascinated by the 10 Rillington Place phenomenon as a youngster. I read Ludovic Kenned…
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Timothy Evans would have been 101 years old today. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2024/11/20/t...
Trump never hits bottom, does he? He always manages to excavate a deeper level. Many if not most politicians, when asked about Khashoggi's death, would mumble some diplomatic guff about the need to "move forward". It take a Trump to actually make time to insult the murder victim.
November 20, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Trump never hits bottom, does he? He always manages to excavate a deeper level. Many if not most politicians, when asked about Khashoggi's death, would mumble some diplomatic guff about the need to "move forward". It take a Trump to actually make time to insult the murder victim.
Actually 101.
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2014/11/19/t...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2014/11/19/t...
The First “Star” of Doctor Who would have been 100 years old today.
When I was a boy, I often used to imagine some of my science teachers engaged in life-threatening combat situations. Just never on the winning side. If my science teacher had been Ian Chesterton, …
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
November 19, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Actually 101.
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2014/11/19/t...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2014/11/19/t...
On the Happy Occasion of W.S. Gilbert's Birthday, I give you - Arya Stark's Little List. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2016/11/18/o...
On the Happy Occasion of W.S. Gilbert’s Birthday, I give you – Arya Stark’s Little List.
W.S. Gilbert was born, on this day, in 1836. Hooray hooray hooray. As it happens, I’ve lately been wondering (and I’m sure you have too) what would have happene…
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:30 AM
On the Happy Occasion of W.S. Gilbert's Birthday, I give you - Arya Stark's Little List. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2016/11/18/o...
Reposting now on the 45th anniversary of "Double Fantasy".
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2020/11/17/h...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2020/11/17/h...
Had Enough of Silly Love Songs? The Fortieth Anniversary of “Double Fantasy”.
No album has ever carried as much circumstantial baggage as Double Fantasy, released OTD in 1980. I still don’t know if it’s any good or not. A few years ago, I was visiting a Beatles e…
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
November 17, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Reposting now on the 45th anniversary of "Double Fantasy".
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2020/11/17/h...
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2020/11/17/h...
I'm hearing stories which suggest that the erotic revelation that Trump is most terrified of involves a completely legal and consensual intimate act involving adults.
November 17, 2025 at 7:52 PM
I'm hearing stories which suggest that the erotic revelation that Trump is most terrified of involves a completely legal and consensual intimate act involving adults.
Could have left it a bit later lads - made it a bit more exciting. IrelandvHumgary
November 16, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Could have left it a bit later lads - made it a bit more exciting. IrelandvHumgary
Unarranged reflections on House of Guinness conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/11/15/u...
Unarranged reflections on House of Guinness
We couldn’t binge this. I mean, we could not process more than one episode per evening. I think we both have some (but limited) tolerance for arrant nonsense. It is difficult for anyone who h…
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
November 15, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Unarranged reflections on House of Guinness conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/11/15/u...
Every year they struggle for fresh superlatives to describe Blackpool until it becomes a Tír na nÓg that confers immortality, perpetual youth, and the ability to fly. #Strictly
November 15, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Every year they struggle for fresh superlatives to describe Blackpool until it becomes a Tír na nÓg that confers immortality, perpetual youth, and the ability to fly. #Strictly
Too much power. Or too little. The Anniversary of the Coventry blitz. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2018/11/14/t...
Too much power. Or too little. The Anniversary of the Coventry blitz.
Much of the centre of Coventry disappeared on this day in 1940. Coventry is a smaller place than cities that suffered more devastating bombardment. Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Cologne, Tokyo, R…
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Too much power. Or too little. The Anniversary of the Coventry blitz. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2018/11/14/t...
Well this is quite the turn up #IrelandPortugal
November 13, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Well this is quite the turn up #IrelandPortugal