asides Blog

One line thoughts of the day.

Award shortlists or end-of-year polls are valuable if they end up highlighting something interesting or quirky that might otherwise have slipped beneath the radar. If all they do is validate a predictable consensus, what exactly is the point?

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Tim Hall | Comments Off

How come they trust us to decide on Britain’s future in the EU when they can’t even trust us to name a boat?

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Tim Hall | 2 Comments

If everyone adopts the tactic of ostracising The Bad People rather than the far more difficult task of discrediting bad ideas, it’s not surprising that the culture wars become so toxic. It will inevitably devolved into witch-hunts and guilt-by-association. Getting somebody from your outgroup banned from a confererence or fired from their job may seem like a satisfying short-term victory, but does that really contribute towards making the world a better place?

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Tim Hall | 1 Comment

Perhaps Donald Trump is an AI chatbot that’s gone rogue, and they can’t work out how to turn him off?

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Tim Hall | Comments Off

Batman vs. Superman is being panned by the critics, who make it sound like it’s the tipping point where big-budget superhero films fall out of critical and public favour. What’s its rock equivalent? Yes’ “Tales from Topographic Oceans” (Self-indulgent creative overreach), ELP’s “Love Beach” (Dying gasp of a spent creative force) or Metallica and Lou Reed’s “Lulu” (Ill-conceived collaboration done for largely cynical reasons)?  Over to you…

Posted on March 23, 2016 by Tim Hall | 4 Comments

Much of what I said in response to the Paris attacks in November here and here are as relevent now as they were four months ago. There is little more I can add.

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Tim Hall | Comments Off

Does this year’s Glastonbury main stage headliners of Muse, Coldplay and Adele represent the most corporate and beige lineup imaginable? I know Muse are a great live band, but they’re a very “safe” choice and have played Glastonbury many times. Nothing remotely out of Glastonbury’s comfort zone like Metallica or Kanye West this year.

Posted on March 19, 2016 by Tim Hall | 2 Comments

Iain Duncan-Smith trying to stick the knife into George Osborne is a bit like Albert Speer at Nuremberg. It won’t wash; Speer still got sent down for 20 years.

Posted on March 18, 2016 by Tim Hall | Comments Off

If there had been social media during the “Punk Wars” would people even not born in 1977 still be repeating 30 year old false media narratives?

Posted on March 17, 2016 by Tim Hall | 1 Comment

Now Playing: Also Eden, [REDACTED]. Bits of this record, especially “Chronoligic” remind me of Twelfth Night. Things seem to have gone rather quiet from the Also Eden camp of late.

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Tim Hall | Comments Off