Friends of Dorothy Julian and Sandy speaking palare with Kenneth Horne on Round the Horne.
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What stood out was the magical notion that the mere pronunciation of words in a ritual manner could effect a change in the character of material objects. — Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic
Alice felt dreadfully puzzled. The Hatter’s remark seemed to have no sort of meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English. — Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland (more…)
The consequences of 74 years of “cultural enrichment” in the UK.
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At the start of the millennium in the United Kingdom, an accusation of racism in the workplace might have led to a few cold shoulders in the office. Now, it is more likely you will be clearing out your desk, possibly with a police officer in attendance prior to your arrest. (more…)
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Host Nick Jeelvy put together The Best Year Ever extravaganza on The Writer’s Bloc last weekend, where audience favorites Fullmoon Ancestry, Jim Goad, Mark Gullick, Richard Houck, Greg Johnson, Gaddius Maximus, James J. O’Meara, Kathryn S., Thomas Steuben, Karl Thorburn, and the Z Man recounted their successes and the lessons they learned in 2021, and it is now available for download and online listening. (more…)
You can buy Mark Gullick’s Bestest Boys here.
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Bestest Boys is Mark Gullick’s first novel, released in 2015. If you’ve ever spent any time in London, the book is a must-read. It’s clearly written with the city’s grit, history, and culture in mind. The protagonist, Mickey Glasspool, and his drinking gang seem to be the personification of the English metropolis.
Mickey is a London bar manager in his 40s. He’s a functioning alcoholic, and descriptions of his morning hangover cure of Tom Collins at 6 AM will make you want to vomit. (more…)
“Know thyself”
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Psychoanalysis is learned, first of all, from a study of one’s self, through the study of one’s own personality. — Freud, Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (more…)
J. K. Rowling, who earned praise for getting herself cancelled this year by refusing to back down from her normal views on genitalia and gender.
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We can be heroes just for one day. — David Bowie
Hans, are we the baddies? — Mitchell and Webb sketch featuring Nazi soldiers
As European and Commonwealth countries act like faithful servants to the autocratic global coup currently taking place, my own home country of England has fallen into step like a good foot-soldier. The government, nominally Conservative but actually a sort of Green Socialist elite oligarchy, has gone full Bezmenov, contradicting itself on a daily basis about COVID and preventing its people from seeing dying loved ones while it parties maskless indoors. (more…)
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Host Greg Johnson was joined by learned Counter-Currents writers Stephen Paul Foster, Mark Gullick, James J. O’Meara, and Kathryn S. on the last installment of Counter-Currents Radio to share their lists of five essential books every educated person needs to read — plus, of course, answer YOUR QUESTIONS — and it is now available for download and online listening.
Topics discussed include:
00:05:00 Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War (more…)
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“The White Witch? Who is she?”
“Why, it is she that has got all Narnia under her thumb. It’s she that makes it always winter. Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!”
— C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Students of the subject are well aware that the tradition of ancient pre-Christian rites and ceremonies lingered on in the East long after they had been banished by the more practical genius of the West.
— Jessie Weston, From Ritual to Romance (more…)
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Every Cretan is a liar. I am from Crete. — attributed to Epimenedes
Tell me lies.
Tell me sweet little lies.
— Fleetwood Mac (more…)
You can buy Mark Gullick’s Cherub Valley here.
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Before it was overshadowed by social media, click-bait, and online shopping, the internet provided the dawn of the twenty-first century with limitless potential. It’s worth noting that there was a dark side to it as well, and Mark Gullick’s Cherub Valley shows its readers the creepy underbelly of the “invisible world of information.”
The novel takes the genre of techno-dystopia to a whole new level and leads the reader down a rabbit hole they’d surely avoid in the real world. It’s descriptive without being dense with terminology, which is a common flub of science fiction and cyberpunk writers. (more…)
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“Hey, Ma! Look at my shoes! Aren’t they great?”
“Oh my God! You look like a gangster.”
— Goodfellas
Gangster movies, like war films and Westerns, are not simply a part of the American cinematic tradition, but a component in the collective psyche of its people. The well-dressed gentleman rogue who sees violence as a necessary part of business, and business as essentially a family or quasi-familial operation, is iconic. Crime, business, and family (or surrogate family) are intertwined. (more…)
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The Game was not mere practice and mere recreation; it became a form of concentrated self-awareness for intellectuals. — Herman Hesse, The Glass Bead Game
Do you want to play a game? — catchphrase from the Saw film franchise
As the Western media continues to mesmerize the majority of the public much as a mongoose entrances a cobra, one of its finely-honed techniques is to distract by use of a repeated phrase or word invested with importance. (more…)